I bet you didnt know that

sbsquarepants

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

There is a big crack on Canaries island, and if island splits and falls into the sea, the resulting tsunami will travel west at approx 500 mile per hour and wipe out New York, with the wave traveling inland for 10 miles.... They will have 20 min warning that it's coming.

Don't worry Donald will stand on the shore and command the wave to retreat back from whence it came, be grand.

The largest (as in tallest) tsunami ever witnessed was in 1958 in a remote Alaskan bay, Lituya Bay, an earthquake triggered a huge rockfall and half a mountain + a huge chunk of a glacier slid into the mouth of the bay.
The water being trapped on 3 sides and had only 1 way to go, up - the resulting wave rose to over a half a kilometre in height and absolutely devastated the whole area.
It's an extremely remote area so no one was killed, but remarkably there were 2 witnesses, a father and son just happened to be out in the bay fishing at the time and their tiny little boat rode the wave, both father and son survived without a scratch (although I suspect there may have been some soiling issues!)

MonkieSocks

^^^^^^^

New Home

For certain types of scans people have to ingest or are injected with a medical contrast medium which increases the visibility of blood vessels and other parts of the body, like the gastrointestinal tract. These contrast agents are both very expensive and can cause very serious side effects. Over the last few years, it's been discovered that pineapple juice (and blueberry juice), when ingested, has the exact same effect as the contrast in terms of making parts of the gastrointestinal area more visible (this juice can't be used for, let's say, scans to the brain).

It was found to have "superparamagnetic" properties which cancel out the "hyper-intensity of the white signal of the duodenal gastric juice", among other things (or something to that effect).

Just one hospital went from spending €14,000 a year for the medium to about €400 for the juice.

mzungu

Before becoming pope, Pius II wrote a popular erotic book, The Tale of Two Lovers.

thesandeman

President John Tyler, America's 10th president, who was born in 1790 still has two living grandchildren.

valoren

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Dont have exact figures, but from memory....

They thought freak waves used to occur once in a hundred years, and then they used a satellite to watch an area of ocean (near Antarctica iirr) for a week and they saw 10. They are a lot more common than we think. A freak wave (used to be called a tidal wave in years gone by) is near that is 4 times higher than the average wave in its vicinity. So it might not be huge.

Cant get clear answer, but i don't think a rogue/tidal/freak wave is same as a tsunami. A wave is usually water moving up and down (on imaginary Y axis). It hardly moves forward at all. But a tsunami wave does move forward, and this is where its destructive force comes from. Imagine the whole sea , from top to bottom, moved forward a few feet, because an island fell into it. It pushes the water in front of it and it keeps going. It might only be inches tall. But when it reaches shallower water, the entire column of water (that was inches high on top of a couple of hundred feet of water) now reaches the beach, and wants to stay at same height / volume.... so the wave builds height, keeps gong forward, and doesn't stop.

There is a big crack on Canaries island, and if island splits and falls into the sea, the resulting tsunami will travel west at approx 500 mile per hour and wipe out New York, with the wave traveling inland for 10 miles.... They will have 20 min warning that it's coming.

The Draupner Wave was the first instrumentally recorded proof of the existence of rogue waves. A downward pointing laser sensor on the Draupner platform in the North Sea captured it's peak crest as 18.5 metres on New Years Day 1995.

Snotty

thesandeman wrote: »

President John Tyler, America's 10th president, who was born in 1790 still has two living grandchildren.

Wow, grandfather had the father at 79 and father had the living son at 75. At 79 I'd just be happy to get it up once in awhile!!

cdeb

I like that no matter how many times I hear that factoid, it still turns out to be true

Wossack

On that subject;

Jeanne Louise Calment, a 90 year old widow with no heirs, agreed to will her apartment to lawyer André-François Raffray. Raffray and Calment made a deal in 1965, which saw him pay her 2500 francs a month until her death.

Raffray was 47 years old at the time, and likely thought he was onto a great deal.

Fast forward 30 years, and he was still paying... Raffray died of cancer on Christmas day, 1995 at the age of 77.

At that stage, he had paid more then 900k francs - approximately double the apartments value. Raffrays estate continued to make payments, until Calments death 2 years later. Jeanne Louise Calment died in 1997 at the ripe old age of 122

sbsquarepants

I love that lawyer story!:D

Wossack

One of my fav's - I may not have done it justice

valoren

In 1987, Aviva France offered to a very small and select group of wealthy clients a life insurance contract with a twist. A clause was inserted called 'known price arbitrage'.

They offered a contract that allowed the purchaser to buy into any investment fund of his choosing, on Friday, but at the previous Friday’s prices effectively allowing the holder to invest their money with perfect hindsight. For example, if the Asian market rose, the investor was able to instruct the insurance company to move their money into Asian investments at the price before the rise, realizing an instant and certain capital gain that the insurance company must cover.

Developing technology and instant pricing in markets, made Aviva realize their own assets were at significant risk. Max Hervé George's father had signed up for it initially but wisely refused to sell. His father instigated legal action in 2002 to protect his contract, when Max came of age in 2007, he was party to this litigation and continues to battle Aviva through the courts.

In September 2014, the French Supreme court, the Cour de Cassation, ruled in favor of the George family, determining that the life insurance contracts, as drafted with the "known price" clause, are legally binding under French law. Nevertheless, George is still in court against Aviva, having won on the principle of the legality of the contracts, he now needs to have his prejudice recognized and valued in a second ongoing battle.

....to be continued.

Greybottle

There will be no Full Moon in February. At least not in our time zone. This phenomena happens about once every 20 years. It can only happen in February and always means that January and March will automatically have two Full Moons. The nearest Full Moons this year in Ireland will be January 31st and March 2nd.

The Full Moon on January 31st will be nr. 1176. This number is derived from a conference held in 1923 when it was decided to pick an arbitrary date to start numbering lunar cycles.

The Jewish calendar calculates their Full Moons from October 7th 3761 BC, so they are on nr. 72410.
the Islamic calendar started on June 16th 621, so they are on nr. 18214.

Realt Dearg Sec

Valoren that sounds really interesting but you'll need to break it down into simpler terms for some of the eejits here (ie: for me). First question I have is why Aviva would put such a clause in in the forest place? Second, I'm not sure what you meant about how developing technology made them realise their assets were at risk. I mean, if you basically tell someone the lottery numbers every week and promise to pay out on it, you don't need technology to tell you you're going to be screwed. What am I missing here? And on what grounds could Aviva refuse to pay out on a contract they drew up themselves?

valoren

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Valoren that sounds really interesting but you'll need to break it down into simpler terms for some of the eejits here (ie: for me). First question I have is why Aviva would put such a clause in in the forest place? Second, I'm not sure what you meant about how developing technology made them realise their assets were at risk. I mean, if you basically tell someone the lottery numbers every week and promise to pay out on it, you don't need technology to tell you you're going to be screwed. What am I missing here? And on what grounds could Aviva refuse to pay out on a contract they drew up themselves?

As far as I know it was for a very few select people. We're talking very wealthy people whom they used this clause as a sweetener presumably to keep them and their millions on the books and I can only imagine the sales person stood to make a handsome commission while also having the authority to process the policy. L'Abeille Vie was the original insurer, they changed to Aviva years later.

In terms of technology, the idea was that the policy holder was entitled to the published price which was only made known on the Friday for a range of funds. I guess they anticipated the people offered the policy to be rather passive in terms of investing, that they'd be buy and hold types, and they would be diversified across a range of markets. As prices for the funds were published each Friday, clients were allowed to switch funds at those prices anytime before the next price was published, even if markets moved in the meantime. You'd need to own space on a trading floor presumably in the 80's to see what the prices were doing. Prices for funds were actually published very infrequently.

A numerical example would be as follows. A client has $1mn in his account with his insurer. Under the Fixed Price Arbitrage type of insurance contract, the client has the right to purchase funds sold by his insurer at last week's prices. The client has the golden advantage of hindsight. As each week passes, the client would purchase funds that had done well for that particular week; a judgement that will always be correct. Over the course of many years, the client would be able to compound his capital by an ungodly rate, as long as the insurance contract remains legally binging on the insurer. And in the case of Max-Hervé George, it was.

Having a computer wasn't the norm in the mid-80's and of course no one had internet with Google Finance with instant prices either. The investor was entirely dependent on the published prices on the Friday. These market usually moved slowly enough. Up 0.0085% and the like. A fraction of a percent here and there didn't seem important. If the markets were down they were ok. The stupidity of it is that even in a bear market, some markets go up some weeks.

L'Abeille Vie (now Aviva) never foresaw the tech advances in market data which became available to the public (including those entitled to the contract policy having such access) to have perfect hindsight allowing them to completely maximize this advantage. In effect, they would be able to personally monitor over the course of the following week which fund prices were performing or not performing and be completely prepared each week to invest in those 'slow' moving markets to the tune of 68% return per annum on average. From there the power of compounding takes hold and with it the power to take down Aviva. That's my take on it.

Any underwriter worth their salt would see immediately how the clause could be exploited with or without instant price access. All in all it was a complete own goal by them. They soon saw that the policy clause was being exploited and bought out at expense those who had signed up. But not the George's who've been fighting them, and profiting from them, through court since Aviva realized they'd screwed up royally in what is called 'the worst contract in history'.

During the period between 1997 and 2007, Max-Hervé George's contract realized a 68.6% exponential rate of return, annualized. Extrapolating this figure, the value of his contract would be €1.26bn by 2020, and a staggering €234.2bn by 2030.

Realt Dearg Sec

Wow, that's amazing actually. Cool post.

danmanw8

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

Rats and Horses can't vomit.

That's why you have to make sure there's no poisonous plants growing where horses graze, they will die if they eat poison

As of 10/01/18, all of the original lineup of Motorhead have passed.

Capt'n Midnight

In December 2004 a giant tortoise was washed ashore on the coast of east Africa, probably having been carried off the shore of Aldabra atoll, 740 km away. She floated over and had lots of barnacles.

DOI: 10.1080/00222930601058290
Pic https://i.imgur.com/1EzaZ9e.jpg

Duckworth_Luas

Everyone is probably familiar with the Spanish lollipop brand Chupa Chups.

However, it wasn't always as successful and nearly failed in it's first years of operation.

The creator, Catalan confectioner Enric Bernat, was explaining his fears to an acquaintance over coffee. The friend took his newspaper and there and then sketched out the now iconic Chupa Chups logo. He instructed Bernat that the logo should be at the top of the lollipop, not the side, so children could see it in full.

The lollipops were put in special display cases, so the logo was pointing towards the customer. People of a certain age will probably remember when confectionary was kept behind the counter in grocery stores. In an innovative move the Chupa Chups display case was placed on the counter, next to the cash register, easily reachable by children and their precious pocket money.



It bacame a huge international success. Today they sell about 4 billion units per year in 150 different countries.

Bernat's friend was none other then surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.

Kat1170

There is a small community of Amish living in Waterford.

I only found out recently that Chupa Chups was Spanish and it more or less means "Suck suck".

wildlifeboy

chupa cajones

Knex*

Little late to the Flag Party, but this is a very interesting, and somewhat humourous talk on the subject of flag design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnv5iKB2hl4

Not quite a "bet you didn't know" post, but I'm sure some people will enjoy it.

tomwaterford

Kat1170 wrote: »

There is a small community of Amish living in Waterford.

Theres actually two!!

They've set up second place in the mountains up in rathgormack...near enough relatives of mine

loyatemu

valoren wrote: »

As far as I know it was for a very few select people. We're talking very wealthy people whom they used this clause as a sweetener presumably to keep them and their millions on the books and I can only imagine the sales person stood to make a handsome commission while also having the authority to process the policy. L'Abeille Vie was the original insurer, they changed to Aviva years later.

In terms of technology, the idea was that the policy holder was entitled to the published price which was only made known on the Friday for a range of funds. I guess they anticipated the people offered the policy to be rather passive in terms of investing, that they'd be buy and hold types, and they would be diversified across a range of markets. As prices for the funds were published each Friday, clients were allowed to switch funds at those prices anytime before the next price was published, even if markets moved in the meantime. You'd need to own space on a trading floor presumably in the 80's to see what the prices were doing. Prices for funds were actually published very infrequently.

A numerical example would be as follows. A client has $1mn in his account with his insurer. Under the Fixed Price Arbitrage type of insurance contract, the client has the right to purchase funds sold by his insurer at last week's prices. The client has the golden advantage of hindsight. As each week passes, the client would purchase funds that had done well for that particular week; a judgement that will always be correct. Over the course of many years, the client would be able to compound his capital by an ungodly rate, as long as the insurance contract remains legally binging on the insurer. And in the case of Max-Hervé George, it was.

Having a computer wasn't the norm in the mid-80's and of course no one had internet with Google Finance with instant prices either. The investor was entirely dependent on the published prices on the Friday. These market usually moved slowly enough. Up 0.0085% and the like. A fraction of a percent here and there didn't seem important. If the markets were down they were ok. The stupidity of it is that even in a bear market, some markets go up some weeks.

L'Abeille Vie (now Aviva) never foresaw the tech advances in market data which became available to the public (including those entitled to the contract policy having such access) to have perfect hindsight allowing them to completely maximize this advantage. In effect, they would be able to personally monitor over the course of the following week which fund prices were performing or not performing and be completely prepared each week to invest in those 'slow' moving markets to the tune of 68% return per annum on average. From there the power of compounding takes hold and with it the power to take down Aviva. That's my take on it.

Any underwriter worth their salt would see immediately how the clause could be exploited with or without instant price access. All in all it was a complete own goal by them. They soon saw that the policy clause was being exploited and bought out at expense those who had signed up. But not the George's who've been fighting them, and profiting from them, through court since Aviva realized they'd screwed up royally in what is called 'the worst contract in history'.

During the period between 1997 and 2007, Max-Hervé George's contract realized a 68.6% exponential rate of return, annualized. Extrapolating this figure, the value of his contract would be €1.26bn by 2020, and a staggering €234.2bn by 2030.

the article I read on this suggested the Georges could end up owning Aviva if all their lawsuits are successful and the contract is upheld. It has the potential to destroy the company but they've been downplaying this risk over the years.

donegaLroad

Bram Stokers mother was from Ballyshannon, county Donegal. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and her grandmother was also from Ballyshannon.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Does Ireland have Bon Bon Bum lollipops? My girlfriend was shocked to see them for sale in Spain a year ago and we later discovered that they are the fourth most sold brand of lollipops in the world. She had always assumed that, like most Colombian made sweets, they were only available here.

DEFTLEFTHAND

donegaLroad wrote: »

Bram Stokers mother was from Ballyshannon, county Donegal. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and her grandmother was also from Ballyshannon.

Rory Gallagher also born there.

Lot of history for a relatively small place.

donegaLroad

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Rory Gallagher also born there.

Lot of history for a relatively small place.

Lucas Graham's dad was also from Ballyshannon, and Tony Blair's mother too.