I bet you didnt know that

VW 1

There's a lot of salt to be taken when doing the tour, but the building, grounds and general area is beautiful. I love what they are doing with using the cash generated to help the restoration.

When i was a young'un holidaying there the house was in complete disrepair and had been subjected to vandalism, roof fallen partially in too. Its great to see that whole corner of the south east buzzing due to smart tourism strategies.

Paddy Cow

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

I presume they didn't have a say in it

I imagine the idea was to prevent them making another floor like it so the one in Loftus Hall would be unique. Someone asked the guide "would that be sore?" on one of the tours.

It's not true. You can't just go around chopping the hands off people. Plus it makes no sense. Just because these two guys couldn't lay anymore floors, it doesn't mean than some other guys couldn't lay the exact same thing.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Paddy Cow wrote: »

It's not true. You can't just go around chopping the hands off people. Plus it makes no sense. Just because these two guys couldn't lay anymore floors, it doesn't mean than some other guys couldn't lay the exact same thing.

If you chopped some ones hands off in 1870 you would go to jail. Obviously the tour being a ghost tour they are going to emphasise the worst.

humberklog

NewbridgeIR wrote: »

The mosaic floor in the entrance hall at the foot of the staircase took years to complete. To ensure the creators never made another, they had their hands chopped off.

That sounds like an Irish twist on an older myth.

An older myth is that Ivan the Terrible had the eyes of the architect of St. Basil's Cathedral gouged out so he'd never create anything as beautiful again in his lifetime.
However the architect is known to have assisted in the design of many other cathedral's and assorted buildings after St. Basil's completion but even in his lifetime the legend persisted.

ArnoldJRimmer

There's a similar story for the Astronomical Clock of Prague. The clockmaker was allegedly blinded so that he could not repeat his work in another town. However he took his revenge by removing a vital component of the clock, rendering it useless for close to a century

When doing a walking tour of Prague in 2004, I heard a different version where he threw 'a spanner in the works,' which was apparently the origin of the phrase, but can't see anything online to back that up

https://www.mysteriumtours.com/astronomical-clock-orloj-prague/

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Just cause I'm scrolling through channels and see Titanic is on again, might interest some to know that the main staircase on the Titanic has a twin. It was made for a building in the Vatican City but rejected, and resides now in Loftus Hall in Co. Wexford. A terrifying building mostly unhaunted.

I've never been to Loftus Hall and I'm not a million miles away.

But on mansions in Co.Wexford.
Castleboro House was supposed to be the finest in the land surpassing Powerscourt in Co.Wicklow.
It was burned down during the civil war.
There's a story locally that one of gardeners on the way home from work met his brother and a group on their way to fire the house and he knew there'd be no need to turn up for work the next day.

https://youtu.be/oiWUTNEtBlA

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

I've never been to Loftus Hall and I'm not a million miles away.

But on mansions in Co.Wexford.
Castleboro House was supposed to be the finest in the land surpassing Powerscourt in Co.Wicklow.
It was burned down during the civil war.
There's a story locally that one of gardeners on the way home from work met his brother and a group on their way to fire the house and he knew there'd be no need to turn up for work the next day.

https://youtu.be/oiWUTNEtBlA

I used to work at Boro Hill and the odd time we took ride outs past this place! Funny enough as a fellow yellow belly I was well into my 30s and a long time gone from the county before I ever went to Loftus Hall too. Was closed from the late 90s to relatively recently anyway.

castletownman

Speaking of the Titanic, it struck the iceberg before midnight on April 14th, but didn't sink till the early hours of April 15th. In 1865, Abe Lincoln was shot just after 10PM on April 14th, and finally died early the following morning, April 15th.

A third tragic event to occur on the date is the Hillsborough Disaster.

I cannot think of so many historical occurances on the same day.

cdeb

castletownman wrote: »

Speaking of the Titanic, it struck the iceberg before midnight on April 14th, but didn't sink till the early hours of April 15th. In 1865, Abe Lincoln was shot just after 10PM on April 14th, and finally died early the following morning, April 15th.

A third tragic event to occur on the date is the Hillsborough Disaster.

I cannot think of so many historical occurances on the same day.

Are you suggesting that there are no more than 730 other historical occurrences ever? (365 x 2, including 29th Feb)

NewbridgeIR

Belsen concentration camp liberated 15/04/1945
US launch airstrikes on Libya 15/04/1986

peasant

castletownman wrote: »

I cannot think of so many historical occurances on the same day.

Try the 9th of November for size:

1918 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic.
1923 – In Munich, Germany, police and government troops crush the Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria. The failed coup is the work of the Nazis.
1938 – The Nazi German diplomat Ernst vom Rath dies from gunshot wounds by Herschel Grynszpan, an act which the Nazis used as an excuse to instigate the 1938 national pogrom, also known as Kristallnacht.
1989 – Cold War: Fall of the Berlin Wall: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel to West Berlin.

and leaving the German Schicksalstag

2016 – Donald Trump is declared the winner of the US Presidential Election.

cdeb

You could do that for any day though. For example, today -

1066 - Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England. (Pretty big event in history in fairness)
1914 - Ford Motor Co introduce an 8-hour day and a minimum wage of $5/day. Hugely significant even in this day and age.
1968 - Start of the Prague Spring
1970 - A 7.1 magnitude earthquake in China killed around 15,000 people, and injured many more
1976 - The Kingsmill massacre
2018 - Idiot Sinn Féin TD puts loaf of Kingsmill on his head; thinks he's funny

its_steve116

Two different dance music groups called Alibi released covers of "Sexual Healing" in 1997...

...and 2007.

Capt'n Midnight

2 to the power of 82,589,933 , minus 1 is a prime number.

It's 24,862,048 digits long.

Capt'n Midnight

Did you ever need a million random digits ?

This set has been in use since 1955 and is the standard reference everyone uses. So you have precisely the same rigidly defined doubt and uncertainty that has been industry standard for over half a century.


A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates. The Rand Corporation.

Paddy Cow

humberklog wrote: »

That sounds like an Irish twist on an older myth.

An older myth is that Ivan the Terrible had the eyes of the architect of St. Basil's Cathedral gouged out so he'd never create anything as beautiful again in his lifetime.
However the architect is known to have assisted in the design of many other cathedral's and assorted buildings after St. Basil's completion but even in his lifetime the legend persisted.

Another one that they can't decide if true or not is the Brazen Bull, a brutal torture device.

According to legends the brazen bull was designed in the form and size of an actual bull and had an acoustic apparatus that converted screams into the sound of a bull. The condemned were locked inside the device, and a fire was set under it, heating the metal until the person inside was roasted to death. Some modern scholars question if the brazen bull ever really existed, attributing reports of the invention to early propaganda.

Stories allege after finishing construction on the execution device, Perillos said to Phalaris: "His screams will come to you through the pipes as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowings." Perillos believed he would receive a reward for his invention. Instead, Phalaris, who was disgusted by these words, ordered its horn sound system to be tested by Perillos himself, tricking him into getting in the bull. When Perillos entered, he was immediately locked in and the fire was set, so that Phalaris could hear the sound of his screams. Before Perillos could die, Phalaris opened the door and took him away. After freeing him from the bull, Phalaris is then said to have taken Perillos to the top of a hill and thrown him off, killing him. Phalaris himself is claimed to have been killed in the brazen bull when he was overthrown by Telemachus, the ancestor of Theron.

StupidLikeAFox

If I ever invent a torture device I think I'll build in a secret escape hatch

Buford T. Justice XIX

Today is Christmas day in the Julian calendar seeing as the Julian calendar runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar


So Happy Christmas one and all.:)

ohnonotgmail

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Today is Christmas day in the Julian calendar seeing as the Julian calendar runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar


So Happy Christmas one and all.:)

Thanks to the julian calendar the russian team arrived 12 days late to the 1908 london olympics because russia was still using the julian calendar and everybody else had switched to the gregorian.

its_steve116

Elvis was only 22 when he bought Graceland.

loyatemu

its_steve116 wrote: »

If the 26 counties were still in the UK, Dublin would be the fourth-largest city proper, after Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow.

returning to this, if we're only talking about city council areas, Sheffield is also bigger than Dublin (577k vs 554k)

coylemj

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Thanks to the julian calendar the russian team arrived 12 days late to the 1908 london olympics because russia was still using the julian calendar and everybody else had switched to the gregorian.

The Julian Calendar was 12 days behind the Gregorian Calendar during the 19th century, the gap widened to 13 days at the beginning of the 20th century because the Julian Calendar observed 1900 as a leap year while the Gregorian Calendar did not.

So in 1908, the gap was 13 days and this will apply until the year 2100 which will not be a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar at which point the gap will increase to 14 days.

ohnonotgmail

coylemj wrote: »

The Julian Calendar was 12 days behind the Gregorian Calendar during the 19th century, the gap widened to 13 days at the beginning of the 20th century because the Julian Calendar observed 1900 as a leap year while the Gregorian Calendar did not.

So in 1908, the gap was 13 days and this will apply until the year 2100 which will not be a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar at which point the gap will increase to 14 days.

perhaps they planned to arrive a day early?

its_steve116

The largest dump truck in the world is produced in Belarus. BelAZ-75710 weighs 360 tons, the height of its wheels is 4 meters, and if someone wants to buy such a car, it will cost you about $10 million!

Ipso

coylemj wrote: »

The Julian Calendar was 12 days behind the Gregorian Calendar during the 19th century, the gap widened to 13 days at the beginning of the 20th century because the Julian Calendar observed 1900 as a leap year while the Gregorian Calendar did not.

So in 1908, the gap was 13 days and this will apply until the year 2100 which will not be a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar at which point the gap will increase to 14 days.

Is it true that the names September, October, November and December are holdovers from back in the day when they were the seventh, eight, ninth and tenth month?

New Home

Yes.

Realt Dearg Sec

Ipso wrote: »

coylemj wrote: »

The Julian Calendar was 12 days behind the Gregorian Calendar during the 19th century, the gap widened to 13 days at the beginning of the 20th century because the Julian Calendar observed 1900 as a leap year while the Gregorian Calendar did not.

So in 1908, the gap was 13 days and this will apply until the year 2100 which will not be a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar at which point the gap will increase to 14 days.

Is it true that the names September, October, November and December are holdovers from back in the day when they were the seventh, eight, ninth and tenth month?

Yeah, and Julius and Augustus each got a new month named after them. Try to guess which months!

Wibbs

New Home wrote: »

Yes.

Kinda. The Roman calendar originally had ten rather than twelve months. Typical Roman mindset, tame nature, ignore the lunar calendar and enforce decimal months.

Originally it would have been March(after the god Mars), April(another god(dess), May(ditto), June(and again), Quintilus(sp), Sextilus(sp), September, October, November, December. Which gives us ten months. Seems like they got bored of naming months after gods and went basic.

This didn't really work too well and over time it got very messy as the years passed, with December ending up in early summer kinda thing. So they added two extra months, January and February copying the Greeks on this. Previously the Roman calendar started in March. Indeed it continued to do so even with the extra months(which they put in at the end of the year) until Julius or Augustus moved the new year to the start of January.

Edit and as RD points out Julius and Augustus got in on the act when they "became gods". Julius in a rather stabby fashion.

Capt'n Midnight

Today is the 29th day of the 4th month of 2011 in Ethiopia.

Happy Christmas !

Knex*

I don't know a whole pile about maps, but I do find this fascinating to look at. It is Abraham Ortelius map of Europe from around 1595.

The map experts in the thread may be able add more context!



Map making was particularly challenging at the time, due to the challenges with identifying longitude when at sea, which is why I guess even well known countries are a little skewed.

From Wiki:

Determining latitude was relatively easy in that it could be found from the altitude of the sun at noon (i.e. at its highest point) with the aid of a table giving the sun's declination for the day, or from many stars at night. For longitude, early ocean navigators had to rely on dead reckoning. This was inaccurate on long voyages out of sight of land and these voyages sometimes ended in tragedy as a result.

Dead reckoning is when you start at a location you already know the longitude of and then estimate how far you have likely gone based on things like average speeds. Super rough work.

Various governments at the time had huge rewards for anyone that could find a way to fix longitude accurately, as it was a massive issue. Voyages often took a roundabout route to get to their destination as a result, instead relying on the knowledge of latitude, which led to longer voyage times and issues with rations and so on.

Wiki describes this process as such, "They would sail to the latitude of their destination, turn toward their destination and follow a line of constant latitude. This was known as running down a westing".

However, there is a direct relationship between time and longitude that allows navigators to work out their exact location. If you knew the precise time, you could map your longitude. However, in 1595 an accurate time piece that would remain trustworthy throughout such a voyage was not yet attainable.

This presented problems up until the 1800s as it's pretty damn hard to make a mechanical clock that accurate without using pendulums which wont work on an unstable platform like a boat at sea. Eventually they got clocks that while they would gain say a second a day for example, they gained a second a day consistently. So you could keep a record and make the necessary adjustments whenever you needed to know the time.

Nowadays you can get quartz clocks or watches that only deviate by 5 or 10 seconds a year. Or even watches that automatically sync themselves to radio signals coming from atomic clocks, if you are in range of the signal. And we're talking for like $100.