what I have learned today.

[Kim]

^ This is why leftpondian "PC LOAD LETTER" paper sizes are silly.

[Ian H]

^ This is why leftpondian "PC LOAD LETTER" paper sizes are silly.

Are you saying they should wear the fools cap?

[Canardly]

They could turn over a new leaf?

[Pedaldog.]

Somebody Page the doorman, ask hi to bring various coats!

[Bledlow]

Just how much work can be involved in flattening the sole of a cheap plane.  And just how soft (badly-tempered or just plain un-) the blades can be. Shall have a go at that with the blow-torch and a bowl of water.

Get thee to a car boot sale and buy old planes form the 60s and before. Flat as a flat thing and super hard blades.

A Glocester Meteor or Vickers Viscount?

Vickers VC10? English Electric Lightning? SAAB Draken?

[T42]

^ This is why leftpondian "PC LOAD LETTER" paper sizes are silly.

Aye well, they still use "gotten" a century or so after we planed it down a bit.

My father was an old-school draughtsman - to him, "new technology" meant a pencil with a collet and replaceable leads - and he spoke of using double elephant back before WW2.

[Bledlow]

Teachers in Japanese state schools can be transferred from school to school, town to country, etc. by the education authority. Some education authorities state in their policies that they take account of the family circumstances of teachers when making decisions on transfers, but others are ominously silent.

Among the stated objectives of compulsory transfers are ensuring that all schools have a good 'faculty structure' (e.g. age & sex mix, experience, qualifications) & all the suitably qualified teachers they need, & giving teachers a wide range of experience. Spending a teaching career at one school looks unlikely. Some policies explicitly say that teachers are forced to transfer if they've been in one place too long.

[I'm proofreading the English translation of an education ministry document]

[mrcharly-YHT]

There exist such things as 'Time Crystals' and these are perpetual motion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_crystal

Hand me my sonic screwdriver

[Cudzoziemiec]

That the South-West England region in the European Parliament includes Gibraltar.

[Gattopardo]

You can not see the moon detritus Moon lander base, moon rover flat etc) from earth with mirror telescope.  You would need a mirror 50 times the size of the mirror used on the hubble

[fuzzy]

That Project HARP was an experiment using a big gun to launch projectiles into space. Their record stood at a 110 mile straight up shot of a 400lb projectile

[Ashaman42]

You think that's mental just look up Project Orion next.

[pcolbeck]

In France you can tell how old a donkey is from its name. There names start with a letter based on the year in which they were born like UK car registrations. So one year all the names start with A the next B etc. Must get difficult when its  Z or U year.

[T42]

That goes for all pedigree animals, I believe - certainly for dogs.  Our two have names beginning with E, for 2009: Erasmus and Ezra, although Erasmus only answers to Raz.

[hatler]

And race horses.

[hatler]

And (also in France) it used to be that a child's first name had to be that of a saint.

[citoyen]

I knew about the saints names in France but despite my catholic upbringing I never knew there was a Saint Kevin until I worked in a French secondary school in the early 90s, a time when Kevin was a bizarrely popular boys name in France - apparently after Costner rather than the saint though.

Didn't know about the animal names thing until today though.

[Jurek]

And (also in France) it used to be that a child's first name had to be that of a saint.

That used to be the case with Polish names as well.

[Cudzoziemiec]

And (also in France) it used to be that a child's first name had to be that of a saint.

That used to be the case with Polish names as well.

Nie sądzę... It still is common for parents to name children after the saint's day they happen to be born on, or one that's close in the calendar, but you don't have to. There is a law that names must fit the child's gender, not be liable to ridicule and be spelled according to Polish orthography (so Kevin is out, at least in theory).

[Kim]

That robot jockeys are a thing, and it's just as well:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_jockey

[T42]

That robot jockeys are a thing, and it's just as well:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_jockey

Wiki: "The robots are remote controlled by operators being driven alongside the race track in SUVs."

Probably more fun to watch than the camels.

[Torslanda]

...that sleeping on an air mattress can be sub-optimal when there are are cats in the house.

And

Gaffer tape can be deployed as an emergency patch - provided you remove the flock surface.

Don't ask . . .

[spesh]

...that Fred, the last ship's cat in the Royal Navy, once received a disciplinary notice for "disgraceful behaviour" at a fish market.

Source: https://twitter.com/mgdever/status/844159251853574148

[Bledlow]

That Project HARP was an experiment using a big gun to launch projectiles into space. Their record stood at a 110 mile straight up shot of a 400lb projectile

That's where Gerald Bull worked, until the money went away. When it was dropped, he went into designing shells & guns for sale (to Israel, South Africa, China, Iraq - he wasn't fussy, as long as they paid), to finance his work on guns for launching things into space, & ended up designing the Iraqi super-guns, which is probably why he was murdered. His shell designs are used by all major armies & navies nowadays.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That Thanksgiving Day is illegal. Well, not exactly. In 1859 the aldermen of Washington, DC voted 7 to 5 to ban it on the grounds that it promoted 'drunkenness and disorder' and, worse, had been established by 'New England people.' Damn Yankees!