I bet you didn't know that this thread would have a part 2

Paddy Cow · 02-11-2019 01:04AM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

The last trial in the UK under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 took place in 1944. the accused was found guilty and sentenced to 9 months in prison.
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Helen-Duncan-Scotlands-last-witch/

That's actually insane. When I first read your post I thought you said the last witch trial took place in 1735 which wouldn't be remarkable but 1944? They were clutching at straws there. War time paranoia and any reason to lock her up.

New Home · 03-11-2019 03:49PM

mzungu · 03-11-2019 06:12PM

The Holy Roman Empire still existed when the US was founded.

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to declare their independence from Great Britain and create the United States of America. It was not until three decades later that the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, abdicated his throne in 1806, following a military defeat by the French under Napoleon Bonaparte.

Redneck Reject · 03-11-2019 06:14PM

New Home wrote: »

That was sad to learn, to be honest.

blastman · 05-11-2019 11:30AM

The guitarist Link Wray, who is credited with inventing fuzz guitar after punching a hole in a speaker to give him a distorted sound, had a number 16 hit in the U.S. in 1958 with a song called Rumble. Several radio stations banned the song on the grounds that it encouraged juvenile delinquency, an impressive feat for a song with no lyrics!

blastman · 05-11-2019 11:44AM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Speaking of planets the planets in the solar system do not orbit the sun. they orbit the center of mass of all the objects in the solar system which just happens to the be very close to the sun. this point is called the barycenter

Think this might have been mentioned before, but the barycenter for the sun and Jupiter is a point above the sun's surface...

mikhail · 05-11-2019 02:38PM

Redneck Reject wrote: »

That was sad to learn, to be honest.

Well, you might be heartened to learn the police told the librarian to cop on.

“And the police officer said, ‘You know, why don’t you just give the kid the books?’

“And my mother said, ‘He’ll take good care of them.'”

So, the librarian reluctantly handed over the books. And then, Carl says, “my mother said, ‘What do you say?'”

And Ron answered, “Thank you, ma’am.”

https://www.truthorfiction.com/is-a-once-segregated-library-now-named-after-black-astronaut-ronald-mcnair/

ohnonotgmail · 06-11-2019 10:59AM

mzungu wrote: »

The Holy Roman Empire still existed when the US was founded.

In 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to declare their independence from Great Britain and create the United States of America. It was not until three decades later that the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, abdicated his throne in 1806, following a military defeat by the French under Napoleon Bonaparte.

.

The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

- Voltaire

LostinBlanch · 06-11-2019 05:49PM

The US military had plans to drop the 2nd atomic bomb on Japans ancient capital Kyoto, but the secretary of war ordered them to choose another city due to its cultural importance. But they kept on putting it on the list until he went directly to President Truman and got them to choose another city instead. They chose Kokura but due to bad (or good) cloud cover they diverted to Nagasaki.

But in early June 1945, Secretary of War Henry Stimson ordered Kyoto to be removed from the target list. He argued that it was of cultural importance and that it was not a military target.

"The military didn't want it removed so it kept putting Kyoto back on the list until late July but Stimson went directly to President Truman . . . After holding a discussion with the President, Mr Stimson wrote in his diary on 24 July 1945 that "he was particularly emphatic in agreeing with my suggestion that if elimination was not done, the bitterness which would be caused by such a wanton act might make it impossible during the long post-war period to reconcile the Japanese to us in that area rather than to the Russians".

Capt'n Midnight · 06-11-2019 08:11PM

Had the atomic bomb scientists listened to General Groves they would have run the test reactor for longer and discovered xenon poisoning before the first large scale reactors to produce plutonium were built.

The first reactor went on line on September 26th 1944. And shut down a few hours later. Had the engineers trusted the scientists then they wouldn't have added extra tubes to the design. Even so it wasn't December 28th day that the reactors finally came fully on line.

Also using uranium in an implosion bomb was more efficient than in a gun type. So the US could have made six bombs instead of two. And had them by May 4th 1945.

IMHO Kure would have been one of the first targets given it had an aircraft factory and shipyard and naval base. The US Navy's bombing of the Kure naval base in July '45 that sank an aircraft carrier and three battleship and five cruisers representing most of Japan's remaining capital ships would have likely been a nuke from the Air Force.

As Curtis LeMay of the USAF later said "The Soviets are our adversary. Our enemy is the Navy."
—

Squall Leonhart · 08-11-2019 11:04PM

Redfoo and Sky Blu of LMFAO, with hits "Party Rock Anthem" (everyday I'm shufflin') and "Sexy And I Know It" are an uncle and nephew musical duo.

Their real names are Stefan Gordy and Skyler Gordy, are also the son and grandson of Berry Gordy - the founder of Motown Records

Capt'n Midnight · 09-11-2019 11:02PM

Solar physicists estimate that the solar surface noise would be approximately 100dB by the time it reaches Earth.

Enough to cause hearing damage within a few hours.

mzungu · 10-11-2019 12:10AM

Nintendo was founded in 1889. Although back in those days it was a card game company.

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Buford T. Justice XIX · 10-11-2019 12:35PM

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American freighter plying its trade in the Great Lakes by ferrying lumber and iron ore and other commodities between ports on the Great Lakes.

On the 10th November 1975, the boat and its entire crew of 29 was sunk during a very heavy storm and no bodies were recovered. Its sinking lead to improved safety measures on boats on the Great Lakes.

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

Gordon Lightfoot wrote a song about it, The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, after reading an article about the sinking in Newsweek.

Buford T. Justice XIX · 10-11-2019 12:51PM

I meant to include this explanation as well:o

Squall Leonhart · 10-11-2019 02:55PM

My favourite song by Gordon Lightfoot. Had the privilege of hearing him playing in the Bord Gais Theatre a couple of years back, he performed this one.

johndaman66 · 10-11-2019 11:53PM

I have to say that song sounds like a very close rip off of I wish I was back home in Derry.

FrancieBrady · 10-11-2019 11:57PM

johndaman66 wrote: »

I have to say that song sounds like a very close rip off of I wish I was back home in Derry.

*

Christy Moore wrote:

I was playing in Derry and staying with The Barrett Family. After my gig we were gathered in Chamberlain St having a banter and drinking tea when a bit of singing broke out. A lad, just home from The Blocks, sang these verses and subsequently wrote out the words for me. At the time the name Bobby Sands was not known to the world as it is today. The following night I played in Bellaghy where the same process took place when I stayed with Scullion. Later on he “sang” McIlhatton for me and told me it had been written by Bobby Sands with whom he had shared a cell while “On the Blanket”. The name was becoming known to me.
He used the air of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald from Gordon Lightfoot, an air which I suspect has earlier origins. My version of Bobby’s song is shorter than the original.

ohnonotgmail · 11-11-2019 03:11PM

Cats can receive a blood transfusion from a dog but only once. They have no natural antibodies to canine blood but develop them after the first tranfusion.

11-11-2019 09:23PM

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Cats can receive a blood transfusion from a dog but only once. They have no natural antibodies to canine blood but develop them after the first tranfusion.

That's nuts. Never heard that before!

Chancer3001 · 14-11-2019 09:44PM

Cleopatra lived closer to the iphone than the building of the pyramids.

Broccoli doesnt exist in the wild. We bred it for human consumption.

sbsquarepants · 15-11-2019 10:03AM

The hills mechanism was predicted by Jack Hills 30 odd years ago, to explain how stars might be ejected from galaxy centres at super high speed, after narrowly avoiding become dinner for a black hole, kind of like a stone from a sling shot.

Recently the first actually sighting of such a star was made coming from the Sagittarius A black hole at the centre of the milky way - the escaped star is travelling at 17,000 km / second!

Such is the size of the milky way however, that even though this lucky star started his high speed escape some 5 million years ago, he has still only covered approx 5% of the distance to the intergalactic border.

Squall Leonhart · 15-11-2019 10:27AM

The word is overused, and used inappropriately at times, but... space is awesome. Just awesome.

KevRossi · 15-11-2019 11:02AM

Was watching the news in Spain this morning and the word ‘Nevada’ came up on the ticker during the weather forecast.

It’s Spanish for ‘snowfall’.

You learn something new every day.

Chancer3001 · 15-11-2019 01:48PM

Squall Leonhart wrote: »

The word is overused, and used inappropriately at times, but... space is awesome. Just awesome.

Theres a church in ireland with a plaque outside reading " this is an awful place"

As in inspiring awe

quickbeam · 15-11-2019 05:18PM

Yep. Awful = full of awe.

It's only relatively recently the wording came to mean something different.

Chancer3001 · 15-11-2019 09:06PM

A famous john wayne story is the director asked him to do a scene again "with more awe" where he says "truly this man is the son of god". More awe john...

So he redid it and went "awwwwwwwwww this man truly is the son of god"

(May be an urban legend)

quickbeam · 15-11-2019 09:08PM

Buford T. Justice XIX · 15-11-2019 09:16PM

Going back a wee bit more here:pac:

normanoffside · 15-11-2019 09:21PM

KevRossi wrote: »

Was watching the news in Spain this morning and the word ‘Nevada’ came up on the ticker during the weather forecast.

It’s Spanish for ‘snowfall’.

You learn something new every day.

It also means 'covered in snow' hence the ski slopes of Sierra Nevada near Granada

I bet you didn't know that this thread would have a part 2

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