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

humberklog wrote: »

They have the same system in Decathlon, you just throw it in a knida bin and it goes bing!

Aye. See two posts above. Only had the pleasure of Decathlon once, last summer. Completely forgot. It's still mad though.

BonnieSituation wrote: »

In a similar vein, I remember being blown away when shopping in UNIQLO in Tokyo. They just throw your purchases into a tray. No scanning, nothing.

And then you have shops that only take cash and all the price tags are handwritten.

Evade wrote: »

And then you have shops that only take cash and all the price tags are handwritten.

Right?

It's such a mental gaff.

Samsgirl

humberklog wrote: »

They have the same system in Decathlon, you just throw it in a knida bin and it goes bing!

The self service kiosks in public libraries use rfid too. I was part of a team to tag over 20,000 items when i worked at a branch where this was being introduced.

Samsgirl wrote: »

The self service kiosks in public libraries use rfid too. I was part of a team to tag over 20,000 items when i worked at a branch where this was being introduced.

This goes to show how long its been since I was in a library that wasn't in Bolton St or Maynooth!

Lucy8080

The "Abbey Road" album, by The Beatles, was released closer to WW1 than today.

Lucy8080

Deleted User wrote: »

Eamonn bulfin,the man who raised the irish republic flag over the GPO in 1916 was born in argentina and deported back after being arrested

I'm of the impression that it was Gearoid O'Sullivan who was given that honour. He was the youngest I.R.B. Officer in the G.P.O. (25).

Captain_Crash

Lucy8080 wrote: »

The "Abbey Road" album, by The Beatles, was released closer to WW1 than today.

Makes time seem so fast. Reminds me that the movie Apollo 13 was released closer to the actual Apollo 13 mission than today

Lucy8080 wrote: »

The "Abbey Road" album, by The Beatles, was released closer to WW1 than today.

In a similar vein, the B-52 bomber, still in service today, was introduced closer to the Wright Brothers' first flight than today.

thesandeman

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Aye they do indeed now that you mention it.

It only works in places where they control all the stock.

Dunnes (for non-grocery) and Penneys for example rather than Arnotts and Brown Thomas.

What happens if you change your mind and take it out again?

[Deleted User]

thesandeman wrote: »

What happens if you change your mind and take it out again?

Unless you wipe it down with disinfectant you'll get a lot of dirty looks.

Adyx

Skylinehead wrote: »

In a similar vein, the B-52 bomber, still in service today, was introduced closer to the Wright Brothers' first flight than today.

And is due to stay in service for about another 50 years.

Captain_Crash

Adyx wrote: »

And is due to stay in service for about another 50 years.

Same can be said about the KC-135 now that I think of it! It’s a Boeing 707 with makeup and has been in play since 1961 and there are no plans on retirement yet!

Captain_Crash wrote: »

Same can be said about the KC-135 now that I think of it! It’s a Boeing 707 with makeup and has been in play since 1961 and there are no plans on retirement yet!

Among other 707-based planes like all their AWACS ones. Then there's the Russians with those extremely loud Bears.

Capt'n Midnight

Skylinehead wrote: »

Among other 707-based planes like all their AWACS ones. Then there's the Russians with those extremely loud Bears.

So loud they can be picked up by sonar. Also the least stealthy aircraft if you exclude AWACS actively transmitting.

Both effects because of lots of large counter rotating propellers. Very inefficient as the blades have to be turned way past the optimum angle to the airflow because otherwise they'd be fully supersonic*. It only works because they use stupid amounts of power to beat the atmosphere into submission.

Like the B52 and the Chinese Xian H-6 which is based on the Russian Tu-16 it's a 1950's design that can fly to the middle of nowhere and launch radar sneaky long range cruise missiles which could arrive from any direction. All are still on the front line.

The UK burnt through the Vulcan's flight hours during the Falklands war. Interestingly enough they were practically invisible to radar at some angles.

The C130 Heracles cargo plane is also of a similar age.

For helicopters Chinooks started a little later in 1961 than the Mil Mi-8 Hip

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

For helicopters Chinooks started a little later in 1961 than the Mil Mi-8 Hip

The UH-1 first flew 65 years ago and is still going strong.

cdeb

Lenin apparently spoke English with an Irish accent. There's no direct evidence (eg recordings) of it any more, but here's a brief article on it -

https://comeheretome.com/2012/02/03/vladimir-lenin-and-the-rathmines-accent/

Capt'n Midnight

Evade wrote: »

The UH-1 first flew 65 years ago and is still going strong.

Which reminds me that the U-2 spy plane was largely based on the F104 Starfighter, with slightly longer wings. 31 m vs 6.36 m

Both the U2 and C130 Heracles can operate on an aircraft carrier other than the minor issue of taking up way too much parking space.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Which reminds me that the U-2 spy plane was largely based on the F104 Starfighter, with slightly longer wings. 31 m vs 6.36 m

Ah the F-104, or the Widowmaker.

Both the U2 and C130 Heracles can operate on an aircraft carrier other than the minor issue of taking up way too much parking space.

Pff, they're just mimicking the B-25.

160927194931-doolittle-raid-b-25-mitchell-uss-hornet-1942-exlarge-169.jpg

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Both the U2 and C130 Heracles can operate on an aircraft carrier other than the minor issue of taking up way too much parking space.

It's possible to have a modified C-130 take off from a soccer field, landing it there is a littler trickier.

There's a variant F-15 (STOL/MTD) that's capable of taking off at less than 70km/h.

Evade wrote: »

It's possible to have a modified C-130 take off from a soccer field, landing it there is a littler trickier.

There's a variant F-15 (STOL/MTD) that's capable of taking off at less than 70km/h.

Yeah the Antarctic variants have skis and rockets (under the wings here) for short takeoffs.

Lockheed_LC-130H_Hercules_%28L-382%29%2C_USA_-_Air_Force_AN0633004.jpg

Lockheed_LC-130H_Hercules_%28L-382%29%2C_USA_-_Air_Force_AN0633004.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSFjhWw4DNo

Skylinehead wrote: »

Yeah the Antarctic variants have skis and rockets (under the wings here) for short takeoffs.

That's short but the one I was thinking of is shorter. They were built to land in a soccer field near the US Embassy in Iran during the revolution and take off from it again. It had 30 of those rockets, 8 for braking, 8 so it didn't fall out of the sky during braking, and the rest were for take off.

Here's a very cool video

Explanation for the end of the video

the crash is the result of firing all the braking rockets before landing. It's supposed to go top brakes, vertical rockets, land, then the rest of the brakes.

KevRossi

Spite fence is an overly tall fence, structure in the nature of a fence, or a row of trees, bushes, or hedges, constructed or planted between adjacent properties by by someone who wishes to annoy a neighbor, or who wishes to completely obstruct the view between lots.

One of the most famous was built by Charles Crocker in San Francisco in the 1870's. He attempted to by a house and land from Nicholas Yung who had been living in the area for a few years at a time when there were no other residents there. The hill was famous for its views over San Francisco Bay and Crocker wanted a whole block to build his house on it. Yung refused to sell as he deemed the price too low.

To spite him, Crocker built his mansion and a 40 ft fence around Yung's house, almost blocking out the light entirely. The argument dragged on for years, Yung refused to sell, eventually moved out, but kept the house to spite Crocker.

Yung died in 1880, but his widow Roslina refused to sell. Crocker died in 1888 but Yung's wife still refused to sell to bring an end to the feud. Roslina eventually died in 1902 and her children agreed to sell the property to Crocker's children to end the feud and to allow them to complete the mansion. The fence was torn down in 1905.

Not the end of the story, though. In 1906 the San Francisco Earthquake destroyed Crocker's house. Grace Cathedral, the largest in SF now stands on the site.

Crockers mansion under construction at the back of the photo, to the right of it you can see the 40 ft fence around Yung's house.

The house when finished around 1905.

The house after the earthquake in 1906.

The approximate location of Yung's house. Behind this is the cathedral, which also featured in a couple of Dirty Harry films.

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7924347,-122.4136592,3a,75y,181.35h,109.23t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svQ0uif5ZMtgK6eH3CToVOg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

KevRossi

Ireland's largest folly is actually a spite fence in Belvedere House near Mullingar.

http://www.belvedere-house.ie/Explore/Belvedere,Follies/

The Jealous Wall
The Jealous Wall was built c. 1760 as a result of a quarrel between Robert Rochfort and another brother George, the owner of nearby Rochfort House (subsequently re-named Tudenham House), now, alas a melancholy ruin. The Wall was built between the two houses as an artificial ruin of an abbey so as to exclude from Robert’s view the sight of his brother’s residence of which he was jealous. It is believed that the Earl went to enormous expense in constructing the ruin, to the extent of hiring the services of a celebrated Italian Architect Barrodotte to superintend its erection.

The Wall is in the form of a large gothic ruin built in stone with a central wall, Three pointed windows high up, and five smaller round headed windows above them. Two square wings project at either end of the wall which stands some 20 metres high.

The Jealous Wall still stands today, and is said to be the largest purposely built ruin of its kind in Ireland

Capt'n Midnight

The designers of the spacesuits for landing on the moon went to the New York Metropolitan Museum to see if there was a precedent. They were referred to the Tower of London,

The space suits used on the Moon by NASA were in part based on the tournament armour made for Henry VIII to use at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

Gloomtastic!

Marino Crescent in Clontarf, is Dublin's only Georgian crescent. It was built as a spite wall to block Lord Charlemont's view of the sea.

Bram Stoker lived in No. 15 at one time.

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

its_steve116

Turtles can breathe through their behinds.

its_steve116 wrote: »

Turtles can breathe through their behinds.

You were reading RTÉ today weren't ya?

https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2021/0515/1221831-animals-oxygen-study/

joujoujou

Some Eurozone countries still allow using pre-euro stamps! :eek:

Recent ebay purchase came from France with quite a big amount of stamps affixed:

Quick research and the green one is quite recent, worth 1 Euro, while blue ones were issued in early nineties, worth 3.2 French Francs each. 1 Euro equals 6.55957 FRF. Postage paid - 3.9 EUR.

Some shops in France still give their customers receipts with both FRF and EUR on them. Same applies to utility bills.