I bet you didnt know that

Capt'n Midnight · 24-02-2018 10:46pm

The Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden (over near Lichtenstein) only gave the vote to women in 1991.

mzungu · 24-02-2018 11:58pm

The world’s deepest point in the oceans is the Challenger Deep which is found within the Marianas Trench.

The Marianas Trench is a depression (deep cracks) in the floor of the western Pacific Ocean. Marianas Trench is formed (as other ocean trenches) as a result of the oceanic plate being pushed against a continental plate whereby causing the oceanic plate to pushed downward making deep fissure. Its location is east of the Mariana Islands and is 1,554 miles long and averages 44 miles wide (see diagrams below). The Marianas Trench depth is 36,200 feet (11,033 m or 11.03 km).

Marianas Trench is far (miles) beyond the reaches of sunlight where it can no longer penetrate the ocean. The seas’ pressures at this depth is unimaginable. It is 8 tons per square inch or 16,000 pounds on every square inch. At this depth it also has very cold temperatures along with darkness. Imagine an underwater depth that is higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France which is 1,052 ft (321m) or the Empire State building in New York, US which is 1,472 ft (449). It could take 5.4 Empire State Buildings in order to reach the bottom of the deepest ocean – the Mariana Trench. Better yet, the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest (29,141 feet), would be covered by over 1.25 miles of water.

mzungu · 25-02-2018 12:01am

Pompeii's plumbing was ahead of its time.

Residents of ancient Pompeii could go upstairs to pee. Though the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 destroyed many second stories, pipes left behind reveal traces of fecal matter, and the occasional upstairs toilet still remains in the ruins.

StupidLikeAFox · 25-02-2018 3:10am

Billy Sherring was a man of Irish descent who won an Olympic medal for Canada in 1906. He was selected to represent Canada but wasnt given any money to do it. So he raised some money then bet it on a horse which gave him enough money to head over to Athens. When he got there he got a job on the railways for a month before the race to keep himself going. His prize for winning the gold medal was a live lamb and a statue.

He wore a big shamrock on his chest when he was racing and this is said to inspire the current panathinaikos football club logo

Full story: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Sherring

StupidLikeAFox · 25-02-2018 3:31am

1906 was a good one for the Irish. Peter O'Conor won a gold medal in the Hop Skip and Jump. In protest at being lumped in with the British team, he climbed the flag pole and hoisted an Irish flag in place of the union jack.

Martin Sheridan, representing the US earned the most points of any athlete at the games. He was presented with a ceremonial javelin which is on display in a pub in his home town of Bohola in Mayo according to wikipedia

25-02-2018 5:44am

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Billy Sherring was a man of Irish descent who won an Olympic medal for Canada in 1906. He was selected to represent Canada but wasnt given any money to do it. So he raised some money then bet it on a horse which gave him enough money to head over to Athens. When he got there he got a job on the railways for a month before the race to keep himself going. His prize for winning the gold medal was a live lamb and a statue.

He wore a big shamrock on his chest when he was racing and this is said to inspire the current panathinaikos football club logo

Full story: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Sherring

That's mad. My brother was in Greece for a few months and went to one of their matches with a local guy. He told me about some shamrock thing but didn't know the full story so I just showed him this.

quickbeam · 25-02-2018 9:31am

I didn't even know there was an Olympic Games in 1906. I thought it was only in years divisible by 4 (1904, 1908, etc).

The 1906 Intercalated Games or 1906 Olympic Games was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated in Athens, Greece. They were at the time considered to be Olympic Games and were referred to as the "Second International Olympic Games in Athens" by the International Olympic Committee. Whilst medals were distributed to the participants during these games, the medals are not officially recognized by the IOC today and are not displayed with the collection of Olympic medals at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Kinda sad really that it's not recognised any more.

CruelCoin · 25-02-2018 11:00am

mzungu wrote: »

The Marianas Trench is a depression (deep cracks) in the floor of the western Pacific Ocean. Marianas Trench is formed (as other ocean trenches) as a result of the oceanic plate being pushed against a continental plate whereby causing the oceanic plate to pushed downward making deep fissure. Its location is east of the Mariana Islands and is 1,554 miles long and averages 44 miles wide (see diagrams below). The Marianas Trench depth is 36,200 feet (11,033 m or 11.03 km).

I read somewhere that if you dropped a bowling ball into the water above the trench, it would take 3 hours to hit the bottom.

Came from one of those kiddy earth science books

mzungu · 25-02-2018 10:33pm

prim_3.jpg?itok=4L8KW_SH&resize=1100x619

Mantis shrimp are only about 4 inches (10 cm) long but they can pack quite a punch. They use their armored claws to strike at speeds of 74 feet per second (23 m/s), delivering blows with 200 pounds (91 kg) of force behind them.

Interestingly, they are capable of cracking glass tanks very easily, hence you won't find them in many aquariums. On the off chance you do find one in an aquarium, it will be kept behind shatterproof acrylic glass and will be the sole occupant of that tank (in case it decides to pick a fight with other residents).

New Home · 25-02-2018 10:38pm

I remember reading (probably here) that when they strike their speed is such that it makes the water boil around them.

mzungu · 25-02-2018 10:46pm

New Home wrote: »

I remember reading (probably here) that when they strike their speed is such that it makes the water boil around them.

Not surprised, it has the power of a .22 bullet

Be great to see them in a fight, it would be natures own Street Fighter 2!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 25-02-2018 10:47pm

CruelCoin wrote: »

I read somewhere that if you dropped a bowling ball into the water above the trench, it would take 3 hours to hit the bottom.

Came from one of those kiddy earth science books

It would never reach the bottom, as it would be crushed by the pressure half way down.

Capt'n Midnight · 25-02-2018 11:18pm

mzungu wrote: »

Mantis shrimp are only about 4 inches (10 cm) long but they can pack quite a punch.

They have amazing eyes.

from http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

Down in Oz fishermen call them thumb splitters.

BBDBB · 25-02-2018 11:31pm

mzungu wrote: »

Pompeii's plumbing was ahead of its time.

Residents of ancient Pompeii could go upstairs to pee. Though the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 destroyed many second stories, pipes left behind reveal traces of fecal matter, and the occasional upstairs toilet still remains in the ruins.

I don't blame em! See how you feel with a volcano erupting down the road

Capt'n Midnight · 25-02-2018 11:34pm

mzungu wrote: »

and will be the sole occupant of that tank (in case it decides to pick a fight with other residents).

There was an aquarium where they found dead sharks in the morning.

Eventually using cameras they found out what was going on.

An relatively small octopus was killing the sharks. It would hid in crevices and when the shark was swimming past it would grab the sharks tail and hang on for dear life, with a few tentacles holding on to the crevice. Shark couldn't bite it because it couldn't turn around because of the rocks and stuff , shark couldn't breath because there was no water flowing past it's gills.

Greybottle · 25-02-2018 11:49pm

Kris Kristofferson played rugby for Oxford University. He was also a Captain in the Air Force.

The piano section of Layla was written by Rita Coolidge, not Eric Clapton. It was stolen off her by her then boyfriend Jim Gordon, who was Derek and the Dominos drummer.

She wrote a song called "Time" using the Layla melody and her sister Priscilla Jones recorded it with Booker T.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IJPLcwHOes

mzungu · 26-02-2018 12:02am

Greybottle wrote: »

The piano section of Layla was written by Rita Coolidge, not Eric Clapton. It was stolen off her by her then boyfriend Jim Gordon, who was Derek and the Dominos drummer.

She wrote a song called "Time" using the Layla melody and her sister Priscilla Jones recorded it with Booker T.

Jim Gordon suffered from schizophrenia and murdered his mother (after hearing voices telling him to do it) during an episode in 1983. On July 10, 1984, Gordon was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison. He was first eligible for parole in 1992, but parole has been denied several times. At a 2005 hearing, he claimed his mother was still alive. In 2014, he declined to attend his hearing and was denied parole until at least 2018. A Los Angeles deputy district attorney stated at the hearing that he was still "seriously psychologically incapacitated" and "a danger when he is not taking his medication". As of 2018, he is serving his sentence at the California Medical Facility, a medical and psychiatric prison in Vacaville, California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Gordon_(musician)

manonboard · 26-02-2018 12:48am

Nabber wrote: »

LIfe

All DNA required to build the 6.5billion people on earth would roughly be the size of a pea.

The odds of life are 10 to the 40,000th power.
To give that number some meaning. .

This doesn't make sense to me. Isn't the odds of life.. 1.. Since it does exist and our sample size is 1 universe. Nothing could ever be different than now since things pretty conditions led to now.

Also isn't the universe 13 billion years old. Not 30?

Are Am Eye · 26-02-2018 12:54am

manonboard wrote: »

This doesn't make sense to me. Isn't the odds of life.. 1.. Since it does exist and our sample size is 1 universe. Nothing could ever be different than now since things pretty conditions led to now.

Also isn't the universe 13 billion years old. Not 30?

Dead right. Since we haven't observed the emergence of life from its building blocks either on the lab or in the "environment" then the only known case is our own. And that's if Zeus didn't create us with his trident of ragnarok.

Capt'n Midnight · 26-02-2018 1:09am

Howard Hughes built the H-1 racer to break the speed record.

On 13 September 1935 it set a new record of 354.4 mph (567.12 km/h)

At the time, the world seaplane speed record was 440.7 mph (709.2 km/h), set by an Italian Macchi M.C.72 in October 1934. And seaplanes have to carry big floats which cause a lot of drag.

You see the H1 which was a landplane. So it breaking the speed record was like someone winning the 100m but taking longer than the previous record for the 110m hurdles.

Even in 1929 seaplanes were faster than the H1 at 357.7 mph ( 575.5 Kmh) for an ancestor of the Spitfire. And six years was a long time in aircraft development back then.

And yes I have seen this film https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_of_the_Few and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aviator_(2004_film) but I prefer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocketeer_(film) to the later

Capt'n Midnight · 26-02-2018 1:25am

Are Am Eye wrote: »

And that's if Zeus didn't create us with his trident of ragnarok.

Konrad Zuse invented the modern computer. And the Matrix.

By the 1930's our technology had advanced enough to develop working computers. Konrad developed one independently of what was happening in the UK and UK.

Like many patented technologies the computer was inevitable once we advanced beyond Babbage era limitations.

Oldtree · 26-02-2018 1:34am

Some time ago I did a college project on the capping used to seal off landfill sites, how that capping should be planted up and the impact of tree roots on the capping over time.

I discovered some Poplar roots had been found at depths of 35 meters and Oak at 22 meters, and so they could easily have breeched and penetrated the capping layer, making them unsuitable for this purpose.

Are Am Eye · 26-02-2018 1:36am

Well Konrad seems quite pleased with himself but did he make a game of pong with c++ when he was thirteen. Nor has he kicked the fcuk out of the hydro jet circuit.

decky1 · 26-02-2018 1:48am

A ducks 'Quack' has no echo.

has that been here already,? too many to look through.

decky1 · 26-02-2018 1:50am

if a mouses nose can fit in a hole he'll be able to get his body in through it.

decky1 · 26-02-2018 1:54am

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

I had some pet mice when I was young. They weren't very good at staying alive.

Ah it's hard to beat them Bee Gee's when it comes to singing those high notes.:eek:;)

dxhound2005 · 26-02-2018 2:00am

decky1 wrote: »

A ducks 'Quack' has no echo.
has that been here already,? too many to look through.

You can use "Search this Thread" at the top of the page. It hasn't been here already.

https://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/duckecho.asp

Fourier · 26-02-2018 2:14am

Beethoven9th wrote: »

As far as we know, the "entire universe" is infinite in size

Forgive me if this seems corrective, the "current truth" is often locked away in academic journals in technical language most can't read.

The observable universe has a radius of 46.5 billion light years.

Current observational evidence reveals that whatever the total size of the full universe, it is at least 1000 times larger, i.e. 47 trillion light years.

To describe this a bit better, there have been, in the last century, hundreds of different cosmological theories. By the 1960s those not based on General Relativity seemed very unlikely and the discovery of certain patterns in supernova light in the 1990s revealed that those without a cosmological constant* are incorrect.

By now, in 2018 the constraints are strong enough that only a few theories remain. The lowest size in the theories remaining is the 47 trillion lyrs I gave above.

However the two most likely cases are actually:
(i) Total Universe is infinite
(ii) Ratio of total to observable is roughly the difference between the Sun and a proton.

I think many of us would regard (ii) as effectively infinite!

Note, when I say total universe here I don't mean all that exists. I mean the spacetime continuum we reside in. Who knows how many others there are.

In January this year we got pretty strong evidence that our universe has only four dimensions (three space and one time) from a long term study of neutron stars. So talk of 11 or so dimensions is false for our universe (again to say nothing of possible others).

*dark energy in popular terms, although this gives the mistaken impression of there being extra "energy" that is invisible, rather than it being more about empty space having a gravitational force.

Mantis shrimp eyes stuff

Just to add to the appreciation of the mantis shrimp, it's eyes can see the difference between photons spinning up, down or in a superposition of the two. Hence not only does it see more colours, it sees three versions of each colour, including distinguishing between the quantum version and the two classical versions of the colour.

pleas advice · 26-02-2018 2:32am

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Mantis Shrimp ... eyes... light... rainbows... Octopi... slaughter... Death... Darkness...

The plural octopi is hypercorrect*, coming from the mistaken notion that the -us in octopūs is a Latin second declension ending. The plural octopodes follows the Ancient Greek plural, ὀκτώποδες (oktṓpodes). The plural octopii is based on an incorrect attempt to pluralise the word based on an incorrect assumption of its origin, and is rare and widely considered to be nonstandard.

Sources differ on which plurals are acceptable: Fowler's Modern English Usage asserts that “the only acceptable plural in English is octopuses”, while Merriam-Webster and other dictionaries accept octopi as a plural form. The Oxford English Dictionary lists octopuses, octopi, and octopodes (the order reflecting decreasing frequency of use), stating that the last form is rare.

* hypercorrect
Adjective
(grammar) incorrect because of a mistaken idea of standard usage

theres a little factoid for you...

factoid
noun
an item of unreliable information that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact.

CruelCoin · 26-02-2018 9:36am

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

It would never reach the bottom, as it would be crushed by the pressure half way down.

A bowling ball?

Cooool

I bet you didnt know that

Comments