what I have learned today.

[T42]

There is a restaurant in Hong Kong called Ho Lee Fook.

[spesh]

There is a restaurant in Hong Kong called Ho Lee Fook.

Warren Zevon, via ouija board: "They had better have a big dish of beef chow mein on the menu."

[T42]

There is a restaurant in Hong Kong called Ho Lee Fook.

Warren Zevon, via ouija board: "They had better have a big dish of beef chow mein on the menu."

Dining with Queen Anne (deceased)?

TBH, I'd never heard of Zevon until your posted that.

[Tim Hall]

Ob. cyling: Astana rider Fabio Aru should always be pronounced "Arooooo, werewolves of London." Trufax.

[Salvatore]

More cycling: While reading articles in the Spanish press about recent cycling goings-on, where the subjects of crashes, which governing body is to blame, and hospital bulletins all intersect, I learned that the Spanish for intensive care is Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos, or in its abbreviated form, UCI.

[Cudzoziemiec]

On Tuesday I learned the word propinquity, which is obviously related to proximity but I had trouble making sense of in context, which was to do with a trade-off between propinquity and housing density. On Wednesday I mentioned this to someone, who said they didn't really know it but had also just come across it, in a completely different context. Which was quite propinquitous.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Correction: it was propinquity and space. This graphic (but removed from context).

[The Family Cyclist]

Not today but remembered and worth sharing. If you kinda pump the toilet brush into the pan kinda like some smutty milk churn charad you can push the water out so spraying home made limescale cleaner on works better

[rogerzilla]

And let soil.pipe smells into your bathroom!

I've been learning to play the riff from Whole Lotta Rosie.  It's not a very difficult one.

[The Family Cyclist]

And let soil.pipe smells into your bathroom

Nope, there's still some water just not as much so easier to apply cleaner

[CAMRAMan]

That a molar pregnancy isn't that uncommon. It's either a sperm fertilising a barren egg, or two sperms fertilising the same egg, causing the placenta to mutate. I think. Helly?

[rogerzilla]

Do you get a baby growing in your mouth?

[Kim]

Do you get a baby growing in your mouth?

No, but you can probably get arrested if it happens in the wrong parts of USAnia.

[rogerzilla]

The god Priapus' sacrificial animal was the ass.

Those Romans certainly had a sense of humour.

[ElyDave]

Four seconds would imply a larger supply of ammunition than most aircraft could carry. It also implies that the gun used is more resistant to heat damage than most!

The A-10 is a much heavier aircraft than the Hunter - roughly twice the mass (11,000kg vs 23,000kg). Also the 20mm rounds of the Vulcan cannon are considerably lighter (about 100g) than the Aden's (270g). The muzzle velocity is greater (1000m/s vs 800 or so) and the rate of fire is slightly higher (6000rpm vs 5200 rpm), but these aren't enough of a factor to make the A-10's reaction to firing the gun anything like that of the Hunter!

As a young "space cadet" we were at the Holbeach range and watching an A10 doing repeated passes firing that gun and visibly slowing on each occasion.  I've never seen a Hunter firing.

BTW - if you were in the RAF aroudn the time of the Hunter, it's very possible you could have bumped into my dad at some point.  There are photos for example of him sitting on the wing of a Hunter in Oman.  He did about 27 years in all, leaving as a Chief Tech at Brize Norton on MSS

[Cudzoziemiec]

That Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia from 1889 to 1913, used an electric chair as his imperial throne. He had been told that these were used for executing criminals in America and, rather than just killing prisoners, it first made their eyes pop out, their head smoke, their guts sizzle. He ordered a pair. Menelik claimed descent from the Biblical Solomon, but lacked his wisdom, because when the electric chairs arrived many months later, a condemned convict was strapped into one for a demonstration of killing by electricity and... nothing happened. Menelik was a moderniser, but there was no electricity generation in his kingdom. So he used them as his imperial thrones.

However, I read this in a book by Tahir Shah, who seems to be from the Chatwin-Kapuscinski school of travel writing, where the story telling is at least as important as the facts.

[T42]

The word callow, meaning young and inexperienced, comes from the Anglo-Saxon calu, meaning bald.  Presumably WRT chins rather than heads.

[Mr Larrington]

Chinny reckon.

[citoyen]

Whitechapel is the only station where the Overground is underground and the Underground is overground. Wombling free, no doubt.

I suppose it depends on how you define "underground" but it's certainly true that the Overground line passes under the District/H&C line at Whitechapel and I can't think of another station where that is the case.

[Basil]

Not to leave wheels turned out after parallel parking.  Bloke here did that and his car was scraped by a drunk driver.
With no out turned wheel it would have scratches and a wing mirror. With the out turned wheel taking full impact, a write off.

[Jurek]

Whitechapel is the only station where the Overground is underground and the Underground is overground. Wombling free, no doubt.

I suppose it depends on how you define "underground" but it's certainly true that the Overground line passes under the District/H&C line at Whitechapel and I can't think of another station where that is the case.

That's proper pub quiz gold. 

[ElyDave]

Not to leave wheels turned out after parallel parking.  Bloke here did that and his car was scraped by a drunk driver.
With no out turned wheel it would have scratches and a wing mirror. With the out turned wheel taking full impact, a write off.

On an 'ill, I was taught that you should do so, such that handbrake failure would have the car roll into the kerb

[grams]

I suppose it depends on how you define "underground" but it's certainly true that the Overground line passes under the District/H&C line at Whitechapel and I can't think of another station where that is the case.

The Metropolitan underground line passes over the top of South Hampstead overground station.

(And crosses back in the vicinity of Northwick Park)

[jsabine]

Not to leave wheels turned out after parallel parking.  Bloke here did that and his car was scraped by a drunk driver.
With no out turned wheel it would have scratches and a wing mirror. With the out turned wheel taking full impact, a write off.

On an 'ill, I was taught that you should do so, such that handbrake failure would have the car roll into the kerb

Legal requirement to do so in certain parts of the US I believe (SF?) - you can be ticketed if the wheels are seen to be straight.

(Historic cause for consternation among owners of Citroen CXen, I believe, where the Diravi power steering would straighten the wheels up without you asking.)

[citoyen]

The Metropolitan underground line passes over the top of South Hampstead overground station.

There's no Metropolitan line station there though. And both lines are above ground.