what I have learned today.

[Mr Larrington]

About the Panama Canal “mules”.

Up until 1973 shipping on the Danube had to be hauled upstream through the Sip Channel of the Iron Gates Gorge by a powerful locomotive.  The perfidious BRITISH attempted to block this section of the river in 1940 to stop Romanian oil from reaching the gentlemen of the Third Reich by sinking ships in it; although the beastly Nazis managed to thwart this operation we did at least manage to destroy the locomotive and the embankment on which it ran by ramming it at forty knots with an ASL launch packed with explosives.  Hurrah!

[Tim Hall]

The circular ornate bit in the middle of a shield is also a boss.

Thus we get this definition, although I get confused as to which type it applies to:

Boss, noun; decorative knob.

[T42]

That during the Vietnam war US forces would occasionally drop packs of ammunition of the calibres the Viet Cong were using, in which one round in maybe 100 was jimmied to blow up in the chamber, injuring and sometimes killing the user and bystanders.  The idea was to make the VC who found them think their weapons unreliable.

[TheLurker]

Boss, noun; decorative knob.

Syn.  Manager, Project Manager, Chief Executive Officer.

[rogerzilla]

Bobby Farrell from Boney M died on the same date and in the same city as Ra- Ra- Rasputin.

[Pingu]

Shift-F10 brings up the proper context menu in Win11 File Explorer.

[T42]

It's just the receptors at the bottom of your retina that cancel melatonin, so if you get up at night to go to the cludge don't look up.

[PeteB99]

That Samuel Beckett stipulated that Waiting for Godot can only be performed by male actors

[Cudzoziemiec]

That in Tanzania, if someone is injured in, say, a car crash, they're not allowed to go straight to hospital. First they have to go to the police station and get a form. This is partly to do with fighting crime and partly also to protect the lives of drivers (having hit a pedestrian, they are likely to be lynched).

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/oped/pf3-forms-should-be-at-hospitals-to-save-lives-2547322

[Salvatore]

That in extemely cold (for BRITAIN)  conditions, UPVC doors can contract enough that they can't be locked. I actually suspected this last week, but had it confirmed today on that internet they have now.

[Mr Larrington]

Hmmmm.  Wonder if that was why I couldn’t lock one of the doors at Fort Larrington at Christmas.

[Cudzoziemiec]

That the European Broadcasting Union was actually set up in 1950 as competition to the already existing Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision, which had been based in Brussels since 1946. The OIRT then moved its HQ to Prague and became in effect "TV for socialists". And (this bit I knew already though) there was the Intervision Song Festival, the Eurovision for the People, which still lives on in Sopot (Polish seaside resort). (Sopot Festival is a topic in itself, but somewhere else.)

[Canardly]

That the Mrs had a relative that was a national HW boxing champion in the day.

[rafletcher]

That Fru Grains exist(ed).

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

That in extemely cold (for BRITAIN)  conditions, UPVC doors can contract enough that they can't be locked. I actually suspected this last week, but had it confirmed today on that internet they have now.

The same problem occurs in extreme heat.  It is possible to carry out adjustments and I have forgotten exactly how, but it can't be very difficult if I managed it. No welding or angle-grinders were involved.

[Mr Larrington]

The misbehaving door at Fort Larrington is lockable again without any maintenance – percussive or otherwise – required.

[chrisbainbridge]

Our door closed easily again and I now know why!

[T42]

Prevaricate comes from the Latin for to walk with splayed legs.  Ain't that nice?

"A good whack in the goolies and he prevaricated."

[cygnet]

That even gridded drain grills (as opposed to diagonal ones) have a traffic direction.

Noticed courtesy of one having been replaced perpendicularly.

[T42]

Weatherbagel FITA.

From 31st March 2023, the underlying weather feed, Dark Sky, will cease to function as a result of being purchased by Apple. Due to this WeatherBagel will shut down for the foreseeable future.

I've sadly not had enough time to develop a new version of the site using alternative data feeds, and life just gets more complicated each day so I can't see my schedule freeing up any time soon.

I hope everyone found the site useful in avoiding those unwanted showers!

- Alvaro

Thanks, Apple, true to the Jobs spirit as ever. I hope your goldfish die.

[pcolbeck]

That the AIM9M Sidewinder air to air missile is stabilized by the gyroscopic effect of little windmills mounted on each tail fin. These are know as "rollerons".

This guy has got hold of one tail fin of a Sidewinder and spins the rolleron up with compressed air:

https://youtu.be/y1kUzjdkxG8

[Cudzoziemiec]

That ovalised tubes go back to at least 1928:

In 1928 Evans patented a frame with ovalised top, down and seat tubes, the Evans Oval. He claimed that the oval tubes increased lateral rigidity 18% or offered a greater vertical resilience. These frames were made in very small numbers in the 1930s – unlike many of the other frame designs (curly Hetchins, Baines gate) it was not obvious on first sight so did not attract buyers who wanted something different.

https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/classic_builders/evans-f-w/

[IanDG]

Thanks to @Black Sheep (and fb) I now know that Vince Neil is vocals with Motley Crue (it could have been yesterday or the day before).

[Auntie Helen]

My chap tells me that men cannot pee and poop at the same time.

This is a skill that women have.

[Jurek]

My chap tells me that men cannot pee and poop at the same time.

This is a skill that women have.

It is a craft which men have largely failed to embrace.