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

Capt'n Midnight · 15-11-2019 10:56pm

Would you like a jelly baby ?

KevRossi · 16-11-2019 2:24pm

The relocation of the headquarters building of Indiana Bell Telephone Company in Indianapolis remains one of the most fascinating moves in the history of structure relocation.

The headquarters of Indiana Bell, a subsidiary of AT&T serving the US state of Indiana, was housed inside an 8-story, 11,000-ton building built in 1907. In 1929, the phone company decided they needed a larger building, but they couldn’t just demolish the old building because it was providing an essential service to the city. The building was also inconveniently located on the site where they wanted the larger structure. In the end it was decided that the old building will be moved to the back of the plot to make room for the new building.

The massive undertaking began on October 1930. Over the next four weeks, the massive steel and brick building was shifted inch by inch 16 meters south, rotated 90 degrees, and then shifted again by 30 meters west. The work was done with such precision that the building continued to operate during the entire duration of the move. All utility cables and pipes serving the building, including thousand of telephone cables, electric cables, gas pipes, sewer and water pipes had to be lengthened and made flexible to provide continuous service during the move. A movable wooden sidewalk allowed employees and the public to enter and leave the building at any time while the move was in progress. The company did not lose a single day of work nor interrupt their service during the entire period.

Incredibly most of the power needed to move the building was provided by hand-operated jacks while a steam engine also some support. Each time the jacks were pumped, the house moved 3/8th of an inch.

The building stood for 33 years at its new location, until it was demolished in order to make room for the expansion of the new headquarters building.

Photos here, if you’re interested then Google Moving Churches in Bucharest.

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/10/an-incredible-move-indiana-bell.html?m=1

ohnonotgmail · 16-11-2019 8:37pm

The last emperor of china ended his life as a gardener

DEFTLEFTHAND · 16-11-2019 9:11pm

Englishman Arthur John Priest worked as a stoker for the White Star Line in the 1910s.

In 1911 he was working on the RMS Olympic when she collided with the HMS Hawke and was holed below the waterline, flooding two of her watertight compartments.

In April 1912 he was part of the crew of the Titanic on its fateful maiden voyage.

In 1916 he was aboard the Britannic when it struck a mine off the Greek isles and sank.

In 1917 he'd cheat death once again by surviving the sinking of the hospital ship 'Donegal' in the English Channel.

A nurse by the name of Violet Jessop has the same story. She was working aboard all 3 White Star Line ships at the time of their incidents and survived to tell the tale.

Paddy Cow · 16-11-2019 9:25pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

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

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

Probably not a surprise on this thread but carrots were originally purple. They were engineered to be orange.

mzungu · 16-11-2019 11:02pm

A neutron star is not much bigger than a small city (15km radius) and has a mass of about 1.4 times the mass of the sun. A teaspoon of neutron star material would weigh about 10 million tons.

Ted_YNWA · 17-11-2019 12:15am

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Englishman Arthur John Priest worked as a stoker for the White Star Line in the 1910s.

In 1911 he was working on the RMS Olympic when she collided with the HMS Hawke and was holed below the waterline, flooding two of her watertight compartments.

In April 1912 he was part of the crew of the Titanic on its fateful maiden voyage.

In 1916 he was aboard the Britannic when it struck a mine off the Greek isles and sank.

In 1917 he'd cheat death once again by surviving the sinking of the hospital ship 'Donegal' in the English Channel.

A nurse by the name of Violet Jessop has the same story. She was working aboard all 3 White Star Line ships at the time of their incidents and survived to tell the tale.

He must has been the inspiration for Unvle Albert in Only Fools & Horaes

LostinBlanch · 19-11-2019 1:48pm

Up until 1987 no TV was broadcast in Iceland on Thursdays. This was done as a way of keeping one day a week only for socialising. As a result many Icelanders joke that they were conceived on a Thursday.

Ash.J.Williams · 19-11-2019 3:33pm

All time rock n roll classic "tutti Frutti" by little Richard was originally about anal sex until it was realised they had a big hit on their hands!!

Whapbopaloobop awopbamboo!

Tutti Frutti, good booty
If it don't fit, don't force it
You can grease it, make it easy

sbsquarepants · 19-11-2019 5:05pm

Another random black hole fact i just stumbled across on twitter. The largest known black hole has a mass of 20billion suns and dwarfs our solar system:eek:

https://twitter.com/ZonePhysics/status/1196724279276134400?s=08

Capt'n Midnight · 19-11-2019 7:52pm

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Up until 1987 no TV was broadcast in Iceland on Thursdays. This was done as a way of keeping one day a week only for socialising. As a result many Icelanders joke that they were conceived on a Thursday.

Back in the day in South Efrika telly was in English and Afrikaans on alternate days

English on Mon, Wed, Fri

At the start it was from 5 or 5:30 until late evening.

AFAIK there was no broadcasting on Sunday.

Ipso · 19-11-2019 7:57pm

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Another random black hole fact i just stumbled across on twitter. The largest known black hole has a mass of 20billion suns and dwarfs our solar system:eek:

https://twitter.com/ZonePhysics/status/1196724279276134400?s=08

Hmm. A post described as "another black hole fact" posted after a post about anal sex.

Realt Dearg Sec · 19-11-2019 10:03pm

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

All time rock n roll classic "tutti Frutti" by little Richard was originally about anal sex

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Another random black hole fact i just stumbled across...

Ipso wrote: »

Hmm. A post described as "another black hole fact" posted after a post about anal sex.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that

Capt'n Midnight · 19-11-2019 10:19pm

Aimo Koivunen, the first documented case of a soldier overdosing on methamphetamine during combat

reap-a-rat · 20-11-2019 9:54pm

Learned from Masterchef: Brazil has the largest population of Japanese people outside of Japan. 2.1 million!

KevRossi · 20-11-2019 11:11pm

The sea otter has a pouch of skin under each front leg, where the otter stores collected food to bring to the surface. and also holds a rock. This rock is unique to the otter, it is used to break open shellfish and clams and sometimes used as a toy to play with. The overwhlming majority of them keep the rock in the left 'pocket'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7bvq0VEnYA

LostinBlanch · 21-11-2019 11:51pm

And two sea otters will sleep holding hands/flippers so they don’t float apart while sleeping.

LostinBlanch · 21-11-2019 11:57pm

During prohibition in the US, Congress had its own “official bootlegger”

Politicians passing laws for the public but not for themselves. Thank God that’s changed.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bootlegging-room-in-the-cannon-house-office-building

secondrowgal · 22-11-2019 4:14pm

I didn’t know this but loadsa money in the UK isn’t “legal tender”:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/what-is-legal-tender

Gloomtastic! · 22-11-2019 5:19pm

secondrowgal wrote: »

I didn’t know this but loadsa money in the UK isn’t “legal tender”:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/what-is-legal-tender

“ What’s classed as legal tender varies throughout the UK. In England and Wales, it’s Royal Mint coins and Bank of England notes. In Scotland and Northern Ireland it’s only Royal Mint coins and not banknotes.”

So those dodgy bank notes up North are not legal tender?

ohnonotgmail · 22-11-2019 5:24pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

“ What’s classed as legal tender varies throughout the UK. In England and Wales, it’s Royal Mint coins and Bank of England notes. In Scotland and Northern Ireland it’s only Royal Mint coins and not banknotes.”

So those dodgy bank notes up North are not legal tender?

within the narrow meaning of legal tender they are not. so if you owed somebody in north money and you offered to pay in northern ireland bank notes they are not obliged to accept them.

Realt Dearg Sec · 22-11-2019 7:20pm

I'm not sure if this is related to the above, but I have on a few occasions tried to pay for things in England using NI banknotes and they've been refused, same with Isle of Man notes. It's like the English ones are the only ones everyone seems to accept and otherwise it seems to be optional. Never could understand why they would have a system as cumbersome and pointless as that: either make them all legal tender across the board, or stop issuing notes that are only useful on a tiny island in the middle of the Irish sea or whatever.

ohnonotgmail · 22-11-2019 8:24pm

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

I'm not sure if this is related to the above, but I have on a few occasions tried to pay for things in England using NI banknotes and they've been refused, same with Isle of Man notes. It's like the English ones are the only ones everyone seems to accept and otherwise it seems to be optional. Never could understand why they would have a system as cumbersome and pointless as that: either make them all legal tender across the board, or stop issuing notes that are only useful on a tiny island in the middle of the Irish sea or whatever.

if you are just buying something in a shop then they dont even have to accept Bank of England notes. Legal tender only refers to payments for debts. If you are buying something in a shop no debt exists. the reticence to take NI and even scottish notes is due to people just not being used to seeing them so they cant really be certain they are genuine.

Capt'n Midnight · 22-11-2019 9:49pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

So those dodgy bank notes up North are not legal tender?

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/129D1/production/_109014267_tenpoundspaper_pa.jpg

Read the writing - Ulster Bank promise to pay the bearer on demand .. at Ulster Bank Head Office. Which is perfectly fine. When are you in their head office.

And then there's Danske Bank , a Danish bank license to print money up north. Because Brexit means taking back control or somesuch reason.

And Channel Islands money too.

All of which are freely convertible to English sterlings at most banks in Engerland.

mzungu · 22-11-2019 10:29pm

"Home Alone" was released closer to the moon landing than it was to today.

It was released in 1990, 21 years from the first moon landing in 1969. It's been 29 years since the movie came out.

Ipso · 22-11-2019 11:00pm

mzungu wrote: »

"Home Alone" was released closer to the moon landing than it was to today.

It was released in 1990, 21 years from the first moon landing in 1969. It's been 29 years since the movie came out.

Stop reminding me that I'm old.

ohnonotgmail · 22-11-2019 11:04pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/129D1/production/_109014267_tenpoundspaper_pa.jpg

Read the writing - Ulster Bank promise to pay the bearer on demand .. at Ulster Bank Head Office. Which is perfectly fine. When are you in their head office.

And then there's Danske Bank , a Danish bank license to print money up north. Because Brexit means taking back control or somesuch reason.

And Channel Islands money too.

All of which are freely convertible to English sterlings at most banks in Engerland.

danske bank were previously northern bank and have a UK banking licence

KevRossi · 23-11-2019 12:43am

Put a can of Coke and a can of Diet Coke into water... Diet Coke floats, regular Coke sinks.

Why? Regular Coke is far denser due to the higher sugar content in it.

Widdershins · 29-11-2019 4:49am

An estimated that half of the number of people who ever lived have been killed by Malaria.
The infection rate in some parts of Africa like Gabon is 200%...because some people contract Malaria twice a year...and Malaria was originally introduced by Europeans.

Speedsie · 29-11-2019 7:23am

Widdershins wrote: »

An estimated that half of the number of people who ever lived have been killed by Malaria.
The infection rate in some parts of Africa like Gabon is 200%...because some people contract Malaria twice a year...and Malaria was originally introduced by Europeans.

Malaria is a terrible disease. The last person to die from malaria contacted in Ireland (in Cork I think) was a certain Mr O Cromwell in the 17th century.

I think the last major outbreak of malaria was in the 19th century, also in Cork...

osarusan · 29-11-2019 11:29am

The dinosaurs that roamed the earth 250 million years ago would have experienced a day that was around 23 hours long, and whatever creatures roam the earth 250 million years in the future will experience a day of around 25 hours.

At the time of the formation of the moon, an earth day would have been only 2-3 hours long, but has lengthened ever since in an incredibly gradual process. This is because the gravitational interplay between the moon and the earth, and the transfer of angular momentum, is causing the moon to move farther away at a rate of approximately 1-2cm a year. Accompanying this is the earth's rotation slowing down by 1/500th of a second every century, leading to an increase of about an hour every 200 million years or so.

Billions of years in the future this interplay will finally end when an equilibrium is reached, when the length of an earth day is the same length as a lunar month, which will be about 45 hours. At that time, the earth will always show the same face to the moon, as it now does to us (because the same process just described has already resulted in the earth's mass slowing down the rotation of the relatively smaller mass of the moon until one rotation on its axis lasts as long as one circle around the earth).

Buford T. Justice XIX · 29-11-2019 11:44am

Speedsie wrote: »

Malaria is a terrible disease. The last person to die from malaria contacted in Ireland (in Cork I think) was a certain Mr O Cromwell in the 17th century.

I think the last major outbreak of malaria was in the 19th century, also in Cork...

Cork, the real (malaria) capital of Ireland:pac:

mikhail · 29-11-2019 2:01pm

Widdershins wrote: »

An estimated that half of the number of people who ever lived have been killed by Malaria.
The infection rate in some parts of Africa like Gabon is 200%...because some people contract Malaria twice a year...and Malaria was originally introduced by Europeans.

What do you mean by that last bit? Malaria has been a feature of a huge part of the African ecosystem basically forever. It's one of the big factors that limited population growth in Africa because it tended to kill off livestock and so reduced options for agriculture, and because of the huge overhead strain it put on manpower. It's so devastating that you can trace the malaria band in the archeological record! If anything, its spread has been significantly reduced by man-made changes to the ecosystem.

Widdershins · 29-11-2019 2:52pm

I can't remember, Mikhail. Sleep deprived, just disregard

Ineedaname · 29-11-2019 6:54pm

Widdershins wrote: »

An estimated that half of the number of people who ever lived have been killed by Malaria.
The infection rate in some parts of Africa like Gabon is 200%...because some people contract Malaria twice a year...and Malaria was originally introduced by Europeans.

It played a role in the decline of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The builders of the pyramids were given large amounts of garlic in the hopes it would protect them.

We've found evidence of the parasites that cause it in mosquitoes trapped in amber from over 30 million years ago.

Safe to say few diseases have influenced the world as much as malaria.

Chancer3001 · 30-11-2019 12:48pm

Even still surely it hasnt killed half the people that ever lived?

Realt Dearg Sec · 30-11-2019 3:41pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Even still surely it hasnt killed half the people that ever lived?

It's not a universally agreed upon fact, some dispute it, but it's apparently not considered outlandish at all. There's a good breakdown of the history of the claim here:

https://businesstech.co.za/news/general/71652/the-biggest-killer-diseases-in-history/amp/

Widdershins · 30-11-2019 3:47pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Even still surely it hasnt killed half the people that ever lived?

I had the same thought but I thought maybe it's sufficiently agreed on to be worth posting in here

Widdershins · 30-11-2019 3:48pm

Incidentally we still have isolated incidents of bubonic plague in the West. Apparently its much more curable now.

Ineedaname · 30-11-2019 6:15pm

Widdershins wrote: »

Incidentally we still have isolated incidents of bubonic plague in the West. Apparently its much more curable now.

There were four cases in China just this month.

Widdershins · 01-12-2019 12:43pm

Octopuses have blue blood, no bones, and three hearts.

KevRossi · 01-12-2019 12:57pm

https://twitter.com/theauldsthretch/status/1200938506513715203

Expanation is here http://www.gibiris.org/eo-blog/posts/2016/12/05_grand-auld-sthretch-starts-earlier-than-you-think.html

Buford T. Justice XIX · 01-12-2019 4:38pm

The last person to die of Smallpox was a 40yo British woman, Janet Parker, who contracted the disease while at work in a medical lab in Birmingham, England.

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/11/the-last-victim-of-smallpox.html

KevRossi · 01-12-2019 6:29pm

The same piano was used by Paul McCartney to record Hey Jude and by Freddie Mercury to record Bohemian Rhapsody.

KevRossi · 05-12-2019 2:02pm

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1202543358813655041

BTW - this guy is worth following on Twitter for interesting facts.

mzungu · 05-12-2019 9:37pm

Sir Hugh Beaver, the Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery, decided to set up the Guinness Book of World Records after attempting to settle an argument over whether golden plover or the red grouse is the fastest game bird in Europe. He found that the answer to this was hard to find in reference books. So, in order to settle these kinds of trivial arguments the Guinness Book of World Records was born in 1955.

LaFuton · 05-12-2019 11:08pm

Widdershins wrote: »

Octopuses have blue blood, no bones, and three hearts.

octopi?

Say my name · 05-12-2019 11:35pm

mzungu wrote: »

Sir Hugh Beaver, the Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery, decided to set up the Guinness Book of World Records after attempting to settle an argument over whether golden plover or the red grouse is the fastest game bird in Europe. He found that the answer to this was hard to find in reference books. So, in order to settle these kinds of trivial arguments the Guinness Book of World Records was born in 1955.

And that took place while out on a shooting party on the North Sloblands in Co.Wexford on the 10th November 1951.

Adyx · 06-12-2019 1:12am

LaFuton wrote: »

octopi?

Nope. Octopuses is correct.

Speedsie · 06-12-2019 9:22am

Adyx wrote: »

Nope. Octopuses is correct.

Indeed, though at a push you could use octopodes.

Octopi is a horrific mashup of Greek and Latin

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

Comments