I bet you didnt know that

BrokenArrows · 20-09-2017 8:13am

BBDBB wrote: »

A very different type of war. The method of guerrilla style tactics of the VietCong meant there wasn't a central location to target for a nuclear strike.

Ya they were essentially just carpet bombing forests because they didnt know exactly where the enemy was.
A bit pointless in sending in a nuke when there might only be a handful of the enemy in the area.

Chancer3001 · 20-09-2017 8:19am

Why though ? Would nuking a forest not be cheaper than napalm agent orange and carpet bombing along with sending in ground troops?

Also there are many large cities in Vietnam too. Why not hit those ?

Chancer3001 · 20-09-2017 8:32am

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/worst-idea-ever-dropping-nuclear-bombs-during-the-vietnam-13668

Just googled that actually

They did a study on whether or not they should and decided it wasn't worth potential retribution for the potential gains

BrokenArrows · 20-09-2017 8:38am

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Why though ? Would nuking a forest not be cheaper than napalm agent orange and carpet bombing along with sending in ground troops?

Also there are many large cities in Vietnam too. Why not hit those ?

It might be financially cheaper but the strategic costs were decided to be too high.

The US were very cautious about making nukes commonplace.

If they started dropping them in vietnam its more likely that in future wars nukes would be used against the US too.

Realt Dearg Sec · 20-09-2017 2:02pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Why though ? Would nuking a forest not be cheaper than napalm agent orange and carpet bombing along with sending in ground troops?

Also there are many large cities in Vietnam too. Why not hit those ?

It would almost guarantee a nuclear response from the Soviets or China or both. A nuke on Saigon would have been much more damaging to America than anything they would have gained bombing some forest (ignoring that the VC were dotted out there among many people with whom the us was allied and were supposed to be fighting for), setting aside the severe reputational damage it would have done to them on an international stage, which was already considerable at that point anyway.

That said I would recommend people read up on the Korean war, and America's strategy during it. They literally bombed the North into the ground, to the point where they ran out of targets and began bombing dams and the like, a blatant war crime, killing untold numbers. Just in case people are curious as to why the crazy regime there is able to stoke such paranoia and military fanaticism in response to a perceived American threat.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 20-09-2017 2:47pm

General McArthur wanted to use nuclear weapons against China in the Korean War. When Truman refused to do so, McArthur publicly criticized him and was sacked as a result.

EDIT: Apparently the whole situation is more complicated than I had thought. There are myriad reasons McArthur was sacked.It is definitely true though, that he publicly criticized Truman and was keen to spread the war to China. Truman and many other generals felt he had to go and he was removed from command. Most Americans supported him over the president.

20-09-2017 7:08pm

Until very recently it was thought that tonsilectomies and appendectomies reduced fertility in women. The tonsil link was unclear and it was thought that scar tissue may have played a part with appendix surgery.

Last year, Dundee University studied 15 years worth of medical records of 530,000 women from all over the UK, and the findings were the opposite of what was previously thought.

Pregnancy rates of women missing either tonsils OR appendix were 54% and 53% respectively. Pregnancy rates in women missing both were 59%. In rest of the population sample, the pregnancy rate was just under 44% - an astounding difference of 15% with both surgeries. The link is being investigated, with biological and lifestyle factors being explored.

Do you get more tummy infections that can either be mistaken for appendicitis, or might lead to an inflamed appendix being spotted, and pick up tonsilitis when you're out kissing and sexing more and are more exposed to infection? If so, then the higher rate can be explained behaviourally.

Or does the presence of inflamed tonsils and/or appendix lead to low levels of inflammation throughout the body leading to a burden that inhibits conception?
It'll be interesting to find out.

Capt'n Midnight · 20-09-2017 7:58pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Why though ? Would nuking a forest not be cheaper than napalm agent orange and carpet bombing along with sending in ground troops?

They used air dropped heat sensors in 'nam. When a warm blooded thing passed it would signal for an air strike. No monkeys or large animals in those areas after a while.

Also there are many large cities in Vietnam too. Why not hit those ?

That would be a war crime.

A WWII B-17 would be doing well to carry eight 500lb bombs on longer bombing missions. And some bombing raids during WII did more damage than the atomic bombings.

In Vietnam B-52's were dropping up to one hundred and eight of those bombs, each. Three B52's as used in Arc Light could devastate an area the length of O'Connell Street and about 500m wide.

Later during the war the US did try strategic bombing of oil depots. Problem was that North Vietnam had already dispersed a lot of fuel into 50 gallon drums so it wasn't very effective.

Wibbs · 22-09-2017 10:27pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

In Vietnam B-52's were dropping up to one hundred and eight of those bombs, each. Three B52's as used in Arc Light could devastate an area the length of O'Connell Street and about 500m wide.

An American relative of mine was an engineer on B-52's in that period. He told me they would fly for hours and hours(IIRC from Hawaii?), get over the target in North Vietnam and drop their bomb load and the crew would look back to watch the bursts of detonation in their wake. They weren't particularly anxious over the target I gather, as their group usually flew too high for NVA SAM missiles to be much of a threat. Mad. He made it sound like a long transatlantic flight, more a pain in the arse. The guy has more degrees than a thermometer(and a doctorate) and is very bright, but dumb as a fcuking rock when it comes to introspection. To the degree that when I noted this, he agreed and didn't get uptight and said that's what made him a good military man.

In Type face news....

The script on the CocaCola Bottle was based on a script Spensorian(sp?) used in the US in the late 19th century for business and other professional correspondence. The guys starting the company thought it would lend a certain gravitas to their product. Others thought similarly at the time. The only other one still around and was used for the same gravitas reason is the Ford logo script.

Still on the Ford theme... Leaving the whole Nazi anti Semitic thang aside for the moment.... Henry Ford's father and grandfather were Corkonians and Henry was very proud of his origins. He visited Cork a few times and even tried to buy the old family farm, but couldn't, but did buy the fireplace, which he then installed in his house in the States. The estate the house sat on was called Fairlane, named after a street in Cork that had connections to his family(and a Ford car model later on, one which tried to kill my oulfella back in the 1950's in Africa. A story for another day...). He also set up the Ford company of Ireland, the first ground up Ford plant outside of the US which was originally a separate entity(and producing cars until the 70's IIRC?), later brought into the fold. For an extremely hard nosed business type Ford had a couple of weak spots and Cork was one. Well as we Dubs will tell you Cork Langers look after their own.

On the Cork theme and oddly and slightly ironically enough considering Henry's predilections, Cork was the first recorded town in Europe to elect a Jewish lad as Mayor. Back in the 1500's I believe. And in another connection; after the "Limerick Pogrom"(though compared to actual hideous pogroms elsewhere, barely merited the name), many Limerick Jews fled and a load headed to Cork to catch the boat to the New World. As one did at the time. which given the general exodus no doubt a few of the locals were like "take a number lads". The welcome and support of the Corkonians was such that a large percentage thought "feck this New World sh1te, we'll go and stay here" and they did and then a few years on(60's?) the Corkonians only went and voted in yet another local Jewish lad as mayor of the place. To be fair they had previous.

Not to be beaten by Cork we Dubs voted another local Jewish lad into the same office. So there. Langers. :pac:

New Home · 23-09-2017 2:50pm

https://twitter.com/Botanygeek/status/883063105999253504

Are Am Eye · 23-09-2017 2:58pm

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Ya they were essentially just carpet bombing forests because they didnt know exactly where the enemy was.
A bit pointless in sending in a nuke when there might only be a handful of the enemy in the area.

They were often targeting known bases, positions and supply lines. Unknown to them John Anthony Walker had given the Russians decryption codes for their communications and the Russians, listening in, were passing attack information in detail to their Viet Cong buddies who were able to begin moving sh1t even before the aircraft took off.

The US were officially at any rate assisting the South Vietnamese against an insurgency. So who were they to nuke? The country they were assisting? North Vietnam? Russia?

New Home · 23-09-2017 3:08pm

On the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary page you can select a date to find our what words were added to the dictionary on that specific year. Pretty cool, isn't it?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-by-first-known-date

New Home · 23-09-2017 4:24pm

https://twitter.com/Botanygeek/status/911548724933009410

New Home · 23-09-2017 4:47pm

https://twitter.com/Botanygeek/status/911178667174359040

tomwaterford · 24-09-2017 12:19am

If you search elgooG on Google it'll bring you to a backwards google page

If you search tilt....it'll bring you to a slopes google page

Purple Mountain · 24-09-2017 1:51am

tomwaterford wrote: »

If you search elgooG on Google it'll bring you to a backwards google page

If you search tilt....it'll bring you to a slopes google page

Were you drunk when you discovered this?!!

FanadMan · 24-09-2017 4:00am

Purple Mountain wrote: »

Were you drunk when you discovered this?!!

Think there's actually quite a few of these

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

Noo · 24-09-2017 6:37am

Not mine, but here you go....

"What's the big deal about railroad tracks?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.

Why was that gauge used?
Well, because that's the way they built them in England, and English engineers designed the first US railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the wagon tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

So, why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that same wheel spacing.

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break more often on some of the old, long distance roads in England . You see, that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England ) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.

And what about the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match or run the risk of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder 'What horse's ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses. (Two horses' asses.)

Now, the twist to the story:

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass."

IvyTheTerrible · 24-09-2017 7:13am

"What have the Romans ever done for us?", indeed!

Greybottle · 24-09-2017 7:16am

^ Great story. Heard that years ago, probably when I was in Pompeii. But wasn't aware of the Shuttle connection.

If you go to Pompeii and other places with intact Roman roads you can clearly see the wagon ruts you mention.

Fr_Dougal · 24-09-2017 8:19am

"Jaysus" is also an Indonesian word. It means laughing at a joke that is unfunny or poorly told.

NewbridgeIR · 24-09-2017 8:31am

It's 2017 and you still can't get the single edits of The Police's Walking On The Moon and Message In A Bottle on CD. All compilations use the longer album versions including one of their own called Every Breath You Take: The Singles.

steddyeddy · 24-09-2017 3:02pm

Ethylene, this simple molecule H2C=CH2 is what makes fruit ripen. A carbon bonded double bonded to another carbon, each with two hydrogen.

Wibbs · 24-09-2017 3:58pm

Further to the Roman track and horse's arses...

black-valley-killarney-national-park-county-kerry-ireland-boreen-in-EYC56H.jpg

Ye olde boreen. Only before the advent of the car and traffic was horsedrawn, roads didn't have a grass strip up the middle, because that's where the horses walked and wore the track. So that image of a bygone olde road is anything but, it's actually evidence of the coming of the motorcar.

The word boreen itself obviously a derivation of bothar, literally a "cow path", with "een" attached for the diminutive version.

Oh and roman chariots were right hand drive as both vehicles and people stayed on the left side of the thoroughfare. Left hand drive came later. Other than the literature we can see the evidence for this on roads leading to Roman quarries. The ruts are deepest on the left side on the way out of the quarry as the carts were much heavier being fully laden. The first written down example of this rule of the road came later(1100's? Medieval anyway) when the Vatican decreed that pilgrims and all other traffic should keep to the left.

cdeb · 24-09-2017 5:12pm

I think Napoleon was instrumental in making foreigners drive on the wrong side of the road too. Driving on the left enabled you defend yourself with a weapon in your right if required...but Napoleon was left-handed, so ordered traffic to change.

bonzodog2 · 24-09-2017 5:19pm

steddyeddy wrote: »

Ethylene, this simple molecule H2C=CH2 is what makes fruit ripen. A carbon bonded double bonded to another carbon, each with two hydrogen.

Many will know this, but take away a H from each side and you have acetylene, with a triple bond, used for gas welding/cutting and once for lighting (HC=CH ).You can make it by adding Calcium Carbide to water.

Greybottle · 24-09-2017 5:49pm

cdeb wrote: »

I think Napoleon was instrumental in making foreigners drive on the wrong side of the road too. Driving on the left enabled you defend yourself with a weapon in your right if required...but Napoleon was left-handed, so ordered traffic to change.

The way I heard it is this :

In France a 6 or 8 ox wagon was the biggest and heaviest wagon that existed. The juggernauts of their day. The drivers used to sit on the rear left ox as it was easier to steer them, most people being right handed.

If two of these wagons came face to face on the road then they would pass each other using the right hand side of the road as sitting on the left gave them a better idea of how close they were passing each other.

The wagoneers came to stay on the right and other traffic being more flexible would nip across the road briefly to pass them out.

In the years before Napoleon these wagons became very popular in the army to transport materials and heavy weapons. The unwritten rule of large military convoys driving on the right became fixed around the time of Napoleon.

The reason for this was that the messengers on fast horses started to train their horses to stay to the right. Along with this, ordinary people could get their horses and oxen to stay to the right to stop accidents and obstructions.

Napoleon used this new law wherever he went. It had the military advantage that any of his captured horses or oxen would be useless to the enemy. Any horses or oxen that the French captured were eaten.

So the only countries that he never really took over were the British Empire and Swedish Empire and they presisted with LHD, Sweden giving it up in the 1950's or thereabouts.

Any other countries attached to Europe that he didn't invade eventually took on RHD for practical reasons.

That's the version I heard, happy to be corrected.

Greybottle · 24-09-2017 6:03pm

Wibbs wrote: »

Further to the Roman track and horse's arses...

Ye olde boreen. Only before the advent of the car and traffic was horsedrawn, roads didn't have a grass strip up the middle, because that's where the horses walked and wore the track. So that image of a bygone olde road is anything but, it's actually evidence of the coming of the motorcar.

The word boreen itself obviously a derivation of bothar, literally a "cow path", with "een" attached for the diminutive version.

.

And if you're ever on a boreen with a grassy centre that suddenly stops for a bit you can nearly be sure there's a dairy farmer nearby.

The cows being moved from field to milking shed twice a day will trample the grass down.

If the bushes and grass on either side of the road is short then there's definitely dairy going on. The cow likes a nibble on the fresher grass on the side of the road.

Up until the change in law in the 1980's a motorist was responsible for any damage to livestock that they hit. It was very common to see cattle and sheep grazing on the side of the road or the 'long acre ' as we used to call it.
Often attended to by a wiry ould wan wearing 3 coats

Different times.

Capt'n Midnight · 24-09-2017 8:41pm

Noo wrote: »

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature, of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system, was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass."

The rail transportable segments were the reason for the Challenger disaster.

Had the steel booster been refurbished at the coast then there'd have been no need for segments or O rings between them.

Russian rockets have the same size limitations as they are transported by train. In the case of Proton it's the fuel tanks that are strapped to the side.

Capt'n Midnight · 24-09-2017 8:51pm

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Many will know this, but take away a H from each side and you have acetylene, with a triple bond, used for gas welding/cutting and once for lighting (HC=CH ).You can make it by adding Calcium Carbide to water.

And you can make Calcium Carbide by heating Lime and Coke* in an electric arc furnace.

Which was one of the main uses of the electricity produced by the power station at Niagra falls.

So all those acetylene lamps were electric , from a certain viewpoint.

If you compress acetylene in the presence of a catalyst you can make benzene. Or as some students did you can add a thousand times too much catalyst and end up with a shiny metallic plastic that conducts electricity :cool:

*Of course that's Lime as in limestone, coke as in coal, not a slice of lime in cola.

I bet you didnt know that

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