I bet you didnt know that

Ipso

As long as you're not talking about Zimbabwean cents.

Ted_YNWA

If I have no money to give my opinion, does that make be cents-less?

New Home

Ipso wrote: »

As long as you're not talking about Zimbabwean cents.

Do Turkish Lira have cents or pennies, or something else? Or nothing at all?

Ted_YNWA

New Home wrote: »

Do Turkish Lira have cents or pennies, or something else? Or nothing at all?

Kurus is the equivalent in Turkey

Capt'n Midnight

gozunda wrote: »

Polytetrafluoroethylene is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene otherwise known as Teflon ....

It's first big use was during the Manhatten Project to build the bomb.

Uranium is a very dense metal. A litre of it would weigh 19.1Kg

But you can turn it into a gas using fluorine*. But it's a nasty gas. Heavy, radioactive and corrosive. So lots of PTFE was used for seals.



*Pro tip : if you are working with industrial quantities of fluorine the only Personal Protection Equipment you'll ever need is a good pair of runners.

standardg60

mzungu wrote: »

Private First class Kinshichi Kozuka of the Japanese Imperial Army was shot and killed during a guerilla attack in the Philippines in 1972. A case could be made that he was the last fatality of WW2 as he believed the war was still ongoing.

Kozuka, along with Private Yūichi Akatsu, Corporal Shōichi Shimada, and 2nd Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, absconded to the Lubang Island jungles in the Philippines in early 1945 after US and Philippine Commonwealth forces had landed to recapture the island from the Japanese.

Even though they saw leaflets in October 1945 announcing the end of war, they figured they were traps to try lure them out so they ended up staying put. All four of the Japanese soldiers continued to hide in the jungles for years after it.

In 1949, Akatsu decided to leave his three companions and subsequently surrendered to Filipino forces in 1950. In 1954, Shimada was shot and killed by a search party looking for the group.

Kozuka and Onoda carried out guerilla attacks and acts of sabotage for two decades more. At this point they still believed the war was ongoing, even though leaflets and letters from family members were dropped from aircraft's urging them to surrender. This only seemed to strengthen their belief that it was all a ruse to lure them out into the open.

On October 19, 1972 Kozuka and Onoda had set fire to piles of rice gathered by local farmers. This was to be their last guerilla attack carried out together. Local police responded, firing two shots that killed Kozuka. Onoda fled in to the jungles again, and it wasn't until 1974 that he finally surrendered.

On January 17, 2014 Hiroo Onoda died in Japan.

Onoda only surrendered after his original commanding officer returned and ordered him to do so!

Referred to by Paul Weller in his song 'hung up'.

Capt'n Midnight

In Ireland WWII was called The Emergency as a state of emergency was declared on 2nd September 1939, the day after Germany invaded Poland.

The state of emergency was rescinded on 1st September 1976.

But only because of the Emergency Powers Act 1976 which was to focus on The Troubles instead. Long story short, the President referred it to the Supreme Court and had to resign over it. And the 1976 Act was itself rescinded in February 1995.

Emergency over.

New Home

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

In Ireland WWII was called The Emergency as a state of emergency was declared on 2nd September 1939, the day after Germany invaded Poland.

The state of emergency was rescinded on 1st September 1976.

But only because of the Emergency Powers Act 1976 which was to focus on The Troubles instead. Long story short, the President referred it to the Supreme Court and had to resign over it. And the 1976 Act was itself rescinded in February 1995.

Emergency over.

So, what you're saying is, as soon as the Emergency was over, the Troubles started. Typical.

Capt'n Midnight

New Home wrote: »

So, what you're saying is, as soon as the Emergency was over, the Troubles started. Typical.

No. As soon as The Troubles started they rebranded the on-going emergency.


Up North they had the Special Powers Act 1922until 1973.

In April, 1963, when the South African minister of justice, Belthazar Johannes Vorster (1915-1983) was introducing some new apartheid laws (The Coercion Bill) he publicly stated that he “would be willing to exchange all the legislation of this sort for one clause of the Northern Ireland Special Powers Act”

IvyTheTerrific

Speaking of inventions, Michael Nesmith's (member of The Monkees) mother invented correction fluid (she was a typist).
I'll leave it up to you to decide who contributed more to society!

Water John

It was a consequence of referring the Act to the Supreme Court. Donegan Minister for Defence called him, a thundering disgrace or maybe more choice language, whilst under the influence. He refused to apologise and was not forced to do so by Taoiseach Cosgrave. The President felt he had not option in order to uphold the position of President but to resign.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

In the 1770s an English optician called Edward Nairne reached for some bread crumbs to erase some pencil marks (as we still did in my youth) and picked up a piece of rubber by mistake. Discovering how effective rubber was as an eraser, he became the first maker and seller of erasers.

Capt'n Midnight

Everyone in Chefchaouen knows about Guernica.
In Guernica no one has ever heard of Chefchaouen .
- Sven Lindqvist A History Of Bombing.


In 1925, long before Guernica, Chefchaouen suffered a similar fate. The Spanish relied on French and Americans flyers for this.


Chefchaouen is the very pretty blue city in Morocco.

Capt'n Midnight

New Home wrote: »

You can BET that most people DIDN'T KNOW THAT, Capt'n. (Hint hint, nudge nudge)

If I must,


USB keys are Very Easy to trace.

On most versions of windows you just need to type the following on a command prompt
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Then open device manager, View, Show Hidden Devices and you'll see all the USB keys ever plugged into your computer, and their serial numbers.


BTW in North Korea most computers use Red Star OS which is a customised version of Linux that phones home a lot. So working out who shared a USB key is probably just a database query.

Capt'n Midnight

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

In the 1770s an English optician called Edward Nairne ...

Should have gone to Specsavers :pac:

Capt'n Midnight

IvyTheTerrific wrote: »

Speaking of inventions, Michael Nesmith's (member of The Monkees) mother invented correction fluid (she was a typist).
I'll leave it up to you to decide who contributed more to society!

In the early days of wordprocessors ...

Did you know, you can scrape Tippex off a monitor.

Carry

IvyTheTerrific wrote: »

Speaking of inventions, Michael Nesmith's (member of The Monkees) mother invented correction fluid (she was a typist).
I'll leave it up to you to decide who contributed more to society!

You mean Tipp-Ex? Gosh, I remember the times I've had trouble to get that stuff off my laptop screen...

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I actually do remember the times when I was happy that that fluid existed - typing my thesis on a cheap typewriter and the paper was thick of that white stuff. But it did indeed contribute a lot to society, because here I am with a degree

And I loved the Monkees (Daydream Believer, oh the memories...)

Sadly thanks to your piece of knowledge I'll always have Tipp-Ex on my mind when I hear an old Monkees song...

Edit: The Midnight was faster with that tired joke.

Peatys

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Never mind a crow, I've seen a person do it with a pill from a night club floor:eek:

Homeless guy comes into a bar and asks for a fork.
Bartender gives him one and off he goes.

2 mins later, another homeless guy comes into a bar and asks for a fork.
Bartender gives him one and off he goes.

2 mins later, another homeless guy comes into a bar and asks for a fork.
Bartender gives him one and off he goes.

2 mins later, another homeless guy comes into a bar..
Bartender says, 'let me guess, you want a fork?'

'No, a straw', says the homeless guy. 'Someone got sick outside and all the good bits are gone'.

mzungu

This one is a case of life imitating art. An obscure folk singer, Jim Sullivan, released an album called U.F.O. in 1969 in which the lyrical themes involved leaving ones family and being abducted by aliens in the desert. In 1975, Sullivan vanished without trace in New Mexico. His car was found abandoned at a remote ranch, hit car contained money, papers, guitar, clothes, and a box of unsold records. A decomposed body resembling Sullivan was later found in a remote area several miles away, but was determined not to be his.

Naturally, visitors from outer space were not the most likely culprits, and it does not appear that he was murdered either. The most likely to be true theory is that he got lost and disorientated in the desert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DeAvcscc3Y

Duckworth_Luas

In January 1913 a political exile, by the name of Stavros Papadopoulos, arrived in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Papadopoulos was not the traveller’s real name, having been born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, but known to friends as Koba.

The reason for his journey was to meet a Russian intellectual who was the editor of a radical newspaper. The two men did not appear to have had an amicable relationship.

Also living in the area at the time was a prospective artist who, unlike the previous two was a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, he was struggling economically and living in a doss-house.

Another recent arrival was a Croatian metalworker named Josip Broz, who would land a job testing cars for Austro-Daimler.

Unlike all these nobodies, the capital of the Habsburg Empire also played host to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

All five are said to have frequented the Café Central, with both the Russian newspaperman and the down on his luck artist being regulars

Despite being the most established of the quintet in 1913, Freud would eventually be eclipsed by the other four.

The newspaper man was Leon Trotsky, living in exile and having his Pravda newspapers smuggled into the Russian Empire.

The mysterious individual travelling incognito would become better known as Stalin. Eventually, he would have Trotsky assassinated.

Stalin also clashed with the Croatian Josip Broz who would become better known as Tito, founder of both Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement, keeping the multi-ethnic country out of Stalin’s sphere of influence.

Stalin was most associated with the struggling artist, who was obviously none other than Adolf Hitler.

It is unknown if any of the five were ever in Café Central simultaneously. However, a nearby palace was home to Archduke Franz Ferdinand whose assassination would lead to World War 1, an event that would have a huge impact on the previously mentioned quintet's lives.

Realt Dearg Sec

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

In January 1913 a political exile, by the name of Stavros Papadopoulos, arrived in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Papadopoulos was not the traveller’s real name, having been born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, but known to friends as Koba.

The reason for his journey was to meet a Russian intellectual who was the editor of a radical newspaper. The two men did not appear to have had an amicable relationship.

Also living in the area at the time was a prospective artist who, unlike the previous two was a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, he was struggling economically and living in a doss-house.

Another recent arrival was a Croatian metalworker named Josip Broz, who would land a job testing cars for Austro-Daimler.

Unlike all these nobodies, the capital of the Habsburg Empire also played host to Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

All five are said to have frequented the Café Central, with both the Russian newspaperman and the down on his luck artist being regulars

Despite being the most established of the quintet in 1913, Freud would eventually be eclipsed by the other four.

The newspaper man was Leon Trotsky, living in exile and having his Pravda newspapers smuggled into the Russian Empire.

The mysterious individual travelling incognito would become better known as Stalin. Eventually, he would have Trotsky assassinated.

Stalin also clashed with the Croatian Josip Broz who would become better known as Tito, founder of both Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement, keeping the multi-ethnic country out of Stalin’s sphere of influence.

Stalin was most associated with the struggling artist, who was obviously none other than Adolf Hitler.

It is unknown if any of the five were ever in Café Central simultaneously. However, a nearby palace was home to Archduke Franz Ferdinand whose assassination would lead to World War 1, an event that would have a huge impact on the previously mentioned quintet's lives.

That's cool, funnily enough a few years later the Cafe Odeon in Zurich was the regular haunt of both James Joyce and VI Lenin. Joyce had left Trieste as he faced internment as a British subject (his brother Stanislaus spent the war in an internment camp), while Lenin was in exile from Russia, planning the revolution. There is no record that they ever met, although both were there almost every night, and Joyce was at the time an avowed socialist.

Edit: Incidentally two other regulars there were Mussolini and Albert Einstein. The former has an obvious look with Lenin as one of historys great monsters.

Einstein has a link to Joyce, too: aside from being the greatest figures in their respective fields in the twentieth century, Einstein was also a signatory to a letter calling for a lifting of the ban on Ulysses in the United States.

New Home

New Home

the purple tin

I found out recently that Freud was a major league cocaine addict.

voz es

The original vacuum cleaner the Hoover was designed in and originally called Vancouver, how ever due to a letter count of 6 on import dockets for household goods into USA the name was shortened.

I lied about all that, true story

gozunda

One for the calendar ...

The next planetary apocalypse has been predicted for the 9th of June 2019. Ronald Weinland of the "The Church of God Preparing for the Kingdom of God" has previously predicted the world would end in 2011, 2012, and then 2013. His latest prediction is that Jesus will return in June 2019.

There has already been two planetary apocolyses predicted for this year alone:

Christian conspiracy theorist - Mathieu Jean-Marc Joseph Rodrigue based his prediction on the Book of Revelation after performing a series of complex calculations by combining 666 with the number 42 and concluding that the date June 24 2018 signified the end

Another soothsayer - David Meade claimed that April 23 2018 marked the start date of the apocalypse. He predicted that a mythological planetary system known as Planet X or Nibiru was to appear in the sky on that day.

He claimed it would pass the Earth in October, thereby causing the start of the Rapture with huge volcanoes and volcanic eruptions due to its gravitational force. His predictions were based on planetary alignments and again the Book of Revelation.

Funnily enough neither prediction appears to have came to fruition ...

Kat1170

If they and others after them keep up the guessing game eventually one of them will be proved correct

mzungu

There are more people living in Bangladesh than in Russia.

Official estimates show the population for Russia comes in at roughly 142,423,773 million people, whereas Bangladesh estimates show 168,957,745 million people.

The data also indicates that Russia's population has been declining since the mid 1990s and can be attributed to declining fertility rates. Interestingly, the fertility rate in Bangladesh has lowered over the years, but not to the extent that it dropped below an overall growth rate.

Water John

In Bangladesh they had women in the community urging and teaching women to use contraception to decrease the size of families. This was key to lifting the country out of dire poverty.

JRant

Water John wrote: »

In Bangladesh they had women in the community urging and teaching women to use contraception to decrease the size of families. This was key to lifting the country out of dire poverty.

Indeed, contraception has done more for women in those parts of the world than pretty much any other initiative. It's also a reason why Mother Theresa was such an awful piece of work as she actively campaigned against the poorest of society in those regions from using contraception because it was against official church dogma and she believed suffering and poverty we're things to be admired. Of course she would travel first class but still managed to pull the wool over a lot of people's eyes.