what I have learned today.

[rogerzilla]

Rory Kinnear, whose name I always hear as Roy, is in fact Roy Kinnear's son.

[sam]

Stalin purged his own parrot.  He got infuriated with the bird imitating his crude hawking and spitting and whacked it on the head with his pipe.  He also once plucked a live bird to make a political point.

Einstein told jokes, reportedly bad ones, to his parrot after deciding it was depressed. There are some not bad ones here.

[T42]

Stalin purged his own parrot.  He got infuriated with the bird imitating his crude hawking and spitting and whacked it on the head with his pipe.  He also once plucked a live bird to make a political point.

Einstein told jokes, reportedly bad ones, to his parrot after deciding it was depressed. There are some not bad ones here.

Giving a 75-year-old man a parrot that can outlive him by 50 years, that's a good joke.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

That Robert Watson-Watt, to save time and money, synchronised Britain’s ‘chain home’ radar stations using the national grid.

This meant that German surveillance operations, trying to find evidence of British radar, thought that the signals they picked up were nothing more than interference from power transmission lines. They concluded that Britain did not have radar and made little effort to destroy the large radar towers all along the coast.

[Ham]

I offer up Ray Bradbury's _The Parrot Who Met Papa_ for people's amusement and edification, if you were not aware of this short story.

[Kim]

That Robert Watson-Watt, to save time and money, synchronised Britain’s ‘chain home’ radar stations using the national grid.

TIL that that the National Grid pre-dated the war.  I always thought it was a post-war phenomenon, like ring mains and BS1363 connectors.

Apparently the night shift illicitly connected all the regional grids in 1937, and it became official the following year.

[Giraffe]

That Robert Watson-Watt, to save time and money, synchronised Britain’s ‘chain home’ radar stations using the national grid.

A former colleague was in a radar tower when the CO came in with an old man and showed all the (then) modern gear to him.
young chap asked my colleague what an old codger knew about radar - a few words and youngster went rather red.

[Basil]

That
A. Meccano still exists.
And
B. The last factory producing it (in Calais) is due to close next year.

[T42]

Aw.  I probably have a few bits of my 1950s set knocking around.  I was always in so much of a hurry to build something that I never tightened the bolts properly, and my dad gave me a bollocking every time.

[De Sisti]

That if you press the power button on a Samsung mobile for too long it autodials 112 which is the same as 999.
Was trying to reboot the phone whilst talking to someone and did this by accident.

12/8 time signature is similar to 4/4 time signature.It's extremely difficult for me to play a score when there are multiple quaver and crotchet rests included.  

[rogerzilla]

The little girl in the infamous Kevin Carter vulture photo was in fact a boy, and died of a fever 14 years after it was taken.

[rafletcher]

That “once” is Scots for weird. But not, I suspect, much used for the last 100 years.

ETA Edited as per JennyB’s comment. 

[JennyB]

That “ocun” is Scots for weird. But not, I suspect, much used for the last 100 years.

Are you sure you don't mean 'Unco'? I hae used that mysel, no verra affen.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

That “once” is Scots for weird. But not, I suspect, much used for the last 100 years.

ETA Edited as per JennyB’s comment. 

 

Ye canna fecht the machine.

[T42]

That “once” is Scots for weird. But not, I suspect, much used for the last 100 years.

C.f. singular.

[Thing2]

Itzhak Perlman played the solo violin part on the Schindler's list soundtrack. Big name soloists aren't normally found doing that sort of thing, and John Williams actually asked him to play it before he'd finished the composition.

[Peter]

I imagine there would be a certain resonance.

[Efrogwr]

That Vivian Stanshall invented a fictional character called Mrs E.

[Mr Larrington]

Today I are learning that turtle doves is mostly braahn.

[T42]

Schrödinger had a dog.

[Ham]

Schrödinger had a dog.

Of course he did, it was a boxer

[Auntie Helen]

Ordering envelopes at work. The normal ones where you fold A3 paper into three. They are known in the UK as DL.

Discovered in Germany they aren’t called DL but DIN Lang.

About two weeks later I realised that our DL is the short form of DIN Lang 

Also noticeable in Germany you have to call the paper DIN A4, not just A4. They are justifiably proud of their Deutsches Institut für Normung.

[T42]

They even have a DIN standard for English¹.


1. Lie. Possibly.

[Clare]

They even have a DIN standard for English¹.

They certainly do in Portsmouth.

[T42]

They even have a DIN standard for English¹.

They certainly do in Portsmouth.

Dunno about Pompey, but a French chum of mine went to school in Hastings for a year. When he said now it came out neo.