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I bet you didnt know that

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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,458 ✭✭✭valoren


    Was at Titanic in Belfast at the weekend and saw a letter written by John Simpson from onboard which was posted while in Cobh. I looked it up, wondering how much something like that is worth. It was valued at $45,000. Curious, I looked to see what the most valuable letter ever at auction was and turns out it was a personal letter from Francis Crick to his 12 year old son describing DNA shortly after it's discovery.

    https://voices.nationalgeographic.org/2013/04/11/francis-cricks-letter-to-son-describing-dna-auctioned/

    Auction price including fees was $6,000,000


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    There is a $2 American bill. Most Americans don't know about it. As there's only so many in circulation.

    Green day singer Billy Joe Armstrong was called 2 dollar bill in school, apparently because he used to sell pre rolled joints for 2 dollars a pop.

    Could be an urban myth - but it's a good story, so that'll do me!


  • Registered Users Posts: 969 ✭✭✭Greybottle


    Rapper 50 cent took the name as a sign that he wished to "change" from his old drug dealing past and start a new life. This was after he was arrested and sentence to boot camp aged 19 in 1994.

    He was shot 9 times in 2000 by a gunman who was also Mike Tyson's bodyguard, he signed his first major record deal whilst recovering in hospital. He subsequently bought Tyson's old home when Tyson filed for bankruptcy but lost it s few years later when he himself filed for bankruptcy.

    He was at one time reported to be worth near to $200 million, but after recovering from bankruptcy is today worth a mere $25 million.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,733 ✭✭✭Duckworth_Luas


    Bertillon measurements was a system to help identify criminal repeaters based on 11 bodily measurements along with the color of their eyes, hair, and skin as well as including a standardised photograph. It was widely used throughout the world until eventually superseded by fingerprinting.

    In 1903 a Will West was incarcerated at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas.

    article-1392418-0C55CE6900000578-450_634x377.jpg

    The clerk responsible for admitting him was surprised, as he was sure the man was already a prisoner in the maximum security facility.

    Looking through his records he found that he had processed a William West just two years previously. Yet this was impossible, West was already doing a life sentence for murder.

    article-1392418-0C55CE6E00000578-700_634x381.jpg

    He took Will West's Bertillon measurements and remarkably they matched exactly with those of William West.

    He showed the prisoner the photograph who replied, "That’s my picture, but I don’t know where you got it, for I know I've never been here before".

    It turns out that two men with the same name, of the same height and physical dimensions, who looked almost identical to each other were both imprisoned at the same correctional facility.

    The clerk, a Robert McClaughry, would later learn of Scotland Yard's use of fingerprinting to identity recidivists.

    Inspired by the West case, and the possibility that using Bertillon measurements could lead to miscarriages of justice, he popularised the use of fingerprints in the USA.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    They don't look that alike.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 969 ✭✭✭Greybottle


    They don't look that alike.

    Ehhhhh.... They look very very alike. Same prison jacket, pose and haircut helps but they have a lot of similarities from the front.

    Crazy coincidence that they have the same name and were in the same prison at the same time.


  • Registered Users Posts: 33,184 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Surely those 2 had the same mother or father, or both.


  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 76,596 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    Or it's just a case of doppelgänger, and maybe their voices were entirely different. Or something.


  • Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

    Seriously. :(


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,949 ✭✭✭✭IvyTheTerrible


    Candie wrote: »
    Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words.

    Seriously. :(

    That's even more unfair than "phonetically" not being spelled phonetically.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    This one has probably been done before: there is a planet in the solar system whose year is longer than its day.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,181 ✭✭✭Lady Haywire


    This one has probably been done before: there is a planet in the solar system whose year is longer than its day.

    I think you mean day longer than year. 'Cause Earth. :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 369 ✭✭Ineedaname


    This one has probably been done before: there is a planet in the solar system whose year is longer than its day.

    Venus. In fact it's rotation is so slow if you were on the surface you could counteract it by running against it.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,921 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    That's even more unfair than "phonetically" not been spelled phonetically.
    But not as unfair as the spelling of dyslexia for dyslexics


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,708 ✭✭✭Curly Judge


    I think you mean day longer than year. 'Cause Earth. :pac:

    Well done lady...you spotted my deliberate mistake.:o:o:o


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    Roman emperors didn't give a thumbs up to spare a gladiator's life. the thumb was held in the palm and covered with the fingers.

    In Sparta all newborn baby boys were left outside naked for a night to see if they were tough enough to survive. If a mother cried when her baby died she was flogged in public.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,056 ✭✭✭secondrowgal


    In Australia sausages are made of beef. They are muck. You have been warned.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,342 ✭✭✭seagull


    But not as unfair as the spelling of dyslexia for dyslexics

    How about lisp?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,910 ✭✭✭begbysback


    Snotty wrote: »
    A good read, not sure how much is true :


    They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor"

    But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low

    The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

    Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ...... . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting Married.

    Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"

    Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

    There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

    The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.

    In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

    Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

    Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

    Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

    England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

    https://www.littlethings.com/customs-from-a-simpler-time-vas/

    Dear god - when was a pulse invented?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    In Australia sausages are made of beef. They are muck. You have been warned.

    Guess what? You can buy beef sausages here and have been able to do so for a hundred years or more. They are still awful though.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,378 ✭✭✭Duffy the Vampire Slayer


    I never saw beef sausages until I went on holidays to Wales as a kid. My family told me we wouldn't try them as they are awful.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,364 ✭✭✭✭Professor Moriarty


    Under Brehon law, a man who didn't have sex with his wife due to disinterest was subject to a fine.


  • Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    In ancient Greece it was considered healthier to exercise in the nude, and men in particular were encouraged to attend organized exercise sessions. Gymnasium is roughly translated as 'naked exercise school'.

    Ancient Greece also gave us the Brazen Bull - an instrument of torture and death like no other. Invented by Perillos of Athens at the behest of Phalaris of Sicily, it comprised of a hollow bronze bull complete with acoustic devices. A person condemned to death would be locked inside the hollow bull and a fire lit underneath, and the screams of agony would be converted into something akin to the mellow bellow of a bull lowing as they cooked to death within.

    The inventor was asked to climb inside to demonstate these acoustics, the door was slammed shut and he was given a taste of his own torture. Before he died, he was taken out and thrown off a cliff. Some people are just really ungrateful. :(


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    Under Brehon law, a man who didn't have sex with his wife due to disinterest was subject to a fine.
    Like a reverse prostitute, you pay them for NOT having sex :pac:


  • Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I never saw beef sausages until I went on holidays to Wales as a kid. My family told me we wouldn't try them as they are awful.

    I had them in the ME, in an 'English Pub' within a hotel. The food was supposed to be bangers and mash but it didn't click with me in time that the bangers were unlikely to be pork given the location. They were dreadful. :(


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,820 ✭✭✭FanadMan


    Candie wrote: »
    I had them in the ME, in an 'English Pub' within a hotel. The food was supposed to be bangers and mash but it didn't click with me in time that the bangers were unlikely to be pork given the location. They were dreadful. :(

    My local butcher makes them and they are beautiful. All his homemade sausages and burgers are sooo nice.


  • Posts: 26,052 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    FanadMan wrote: »
    My local butcher makes them and they are beautiful. All his homemade sausages and burgers are sooo nice.

    Beef ones? I'll have to give them a second chance so. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    Don't fall for it.

    I bet he's the butcher.

    They taste like shít!


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,820 ✭✭✭FanadMan


    Don't fall for it.

    I bet he's the butcher.

    They taste like shít!

    If I was the butcher they WOULD taste like shít :D


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,325 ✭✭✭Bandana boy


    Beef Sausages are very very different from pork Sausages but can be very tasty in their own right,
    For a start I would roast in an oven or grill rather than Fry , Lidl or Aldi do a Beef and Black pepper sausage that is pretty decent.


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