I bet you didnt know that

Capt'n Midnight · 05-02-2017 12:12am

Red Kev wrote: »

So the biggest selling car of all time was actually almost a direct rip off of a Czech design.

When Germany invaded France in 1940 a quarter of the tanks used were Czech. Had the UK, France and Poland stood together for Czechoslovakia those tanks could have been used against Germany. ( many of the guns used on the Atlantic Wall came from there too )

Instead the Czechs , who were the only democracy in eastern Europe at the time, were sold down the river.

Cartouche · 05-02-2017 12:33am

The Great Leap Forward
All of a sudden, in evolutionary terms, about 40,000 years ago we humans develop cave painting, music, burial, simple jewelery
No evidence showing any of that before then....

Red Kev · 05-02-2017 1:16am

The Frauenkirche in Dresden was left in ruins after the war as a memorial. After the reunification of Germany it was decided to restore it. They wanted the gold cross on the top of the church to be made as close as possible to 18th century techniques.

What was believed to be the most experienced craftsman in Europe in these techniques was picked to do it, his name was Adam Smith from England. As it turned out his father was on the crew of one of the bombers that destroyed Dresden over two nights in February 1945.

The Allies used over 2000 planes to attack Dresden, they lost 8. The Luftwaffe had less than 30 planes to defend the city.

KKkitty · 05-02-2017 1:41am

I've posted this before in a similar thread but don't feel like impending doom is about to happen if you break a mirror. The 7 years bad luck went back to slavery times where if a servant broke a master's mirror it would take approximately 7 years wages to recuperate the loss. Just be annoyed that you have to clean up shards of glass off the floor.

prinzeugen · 05-02-2017 1:42am

Red Kev wrote: »

The flag of the President of Finland has a Swastika on it..

The St Brigids Cross is a Swastika, which meant that RTE had a Swastika as a logo for several decades.

During WW2 the Finnish air force roundel was a swastika.

http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter2/blenheims.htm

Skylinehead · 05-02-2017 1:56am

prinzeugen wrote: »

During WW2 the Finnish air force roundel was a swastika.

http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/quarter2/blenheims.htm

The Finns were all over the place in WW2. First the Soviets invaded (didn't go particularly well for them, thank Stalins purges for that, as well as resolute defending), then they invaded the USSR back along with the Germans, as part of the siege of Leningrad. After the Russians pushed back, the Finns fought against the Germans in Lapland to try get them out of the country.

indioblack · 05-02-2017 1:53pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Just googled it. Seems you might be totally wrong

I haven't googled it, but prior to American independence I think the period was called The First British Empire. I guess the period after, when the empire didn't collapse with the loss of America, could be termed the Second empire.
Open to correction on this - if it's true, it'll please some people on Boards to discover they now have two empires to complain about!

Cartouche · 05-02-2017 8:26pm

The “Cambrian Explosion” refers to the appearance in the fossil record of most major animal body plans about 543 million years ago. The new fossils appear in an interval of 20 million years or less. On evolutionary time scales, 20 million years is a rapid burst that appears to be inconsistent with the gradual pace of evolutionary change. However, rapid changes like this appear at other times in the fossil record, often following times of major extinction.

pedigree 6 · 05-02-2017 9:24pm

On 28 January 1457, at Pembroke Castle, the thirteen year old Margaret Beaufort, Lancastrian heiress to the throne, gave birth to a son, Henry Tudor. In 1471, young Henry had to flee from the Yorkists with his uncle Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke: they sailed from Tenby and landed in Brittany and another fourteen years were to pass before he returned. On Sunday evening, 7 August 1485, just before sundown Henry landed at Mill Bay on the Dale peninsula, and, early next morning, marched through Haverfordwest and set off on the long journey to Bosworth Field where he defeated Richard III and became King Henry VII, founder of the Tudor dynasty.

http://www.pembrokeshireonline.co.uk/history2.htm

ForestFire · 05-02-2017 10:18pm

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Ireland was the first (modern) country to leave the British Empire / Commonwealth. India was the 2nd. For their new republic, the Indians adopted the Irish flag, but turned it 90 degrees and added a mandala. They thought it could become a thing. Each country leaving would create a new flag of green, white, and orange and personalise it.

It didn't catch on.

Not according to any official records, it is nothing to do with the Irish flag

ForestFire · 05-02-2017 10:22pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

And of course St Valentine down in Whitefriars

St. Patrick yes
St Nicholas no (local folklore only)
St Valentine, yes but only some very small pieces

RiderOnTheStorm · 05-02-2017 10:45pm

ForestFire wrote:

Sm St Nicholas no (local folklore only)

Wikipedia says different.

ForestFire · 05-02-2017 10:53pm

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Wikipedia says different.

I think Wikipedia agrees with me, i.e Local tradition, and not widly accepted"

Where do you think I checked?

"An Irish tradition states that the relics of Saint Nicholas are also reputed to have been stolen from Myra by local Norman crusading knights in the 12th century and buried near Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, where a stone slab marks the site locally believed to be his grave.[38] This is not widely accepted beyond local tradition.

Relics are in Bari and Venice according to the same site.

prinzeugen · 06-02-2017 12:52am

The Firth of Forth in Scotland has some major claims to fame.

The rail bridge was the largest cantilever structure in the world when it opened in 1890.

The dockyard at Rosyth, a bit up river, scrapped most of the German High Seas fleet that was salvaged from Scappa Flow.

Most of these arrived upside down. Today the new QE2 aircraft carriers are being assembled there as it is the only dry dock in the UK big enough to take them.

Down river is Inverkeithing (my former home).

Its scrapyard broke many famous ships as it was the only big finishing dock in the UK.

The Olympic (Titanic's sister) was finished there as was the Robert Ley (sister of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the Nazi "strength through joy" liner) not to mention many battleships.

In the river, the isle of Inchmickery was made to look like a battleship to fool U boats during WW1

It was again modified in WW2..

The result is convincing from a distance!

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inchmickery_(4535494704).jpg

Cartouche · 06-02-2017 1:02am

The Barber’s pole symbolizes blood and bandages, as most barbers in the middle ages also performed the roles of surgeons and dentists in their towns. Bandages stained with blood would be washed and hung from a pole outside the barber’s shop – these would then twist in the wind to form the spiral pattern we are all familiar with today

Gwynplaine · 06-02-2017 1:08am

Weigh yourself before you go to bed. Then weigh yourself first thing in the morning. For me anyway I'm about 1.5kg lighter in the morning.
Where has the weight gone?

(I haven't gone to the toilet btw)

Capt'n Midnight · 06-02-2017 1:24am

Gwynplaine wrote: »

Weigh yourself before you go to bed. Then weigh yourself first thing in the morning. For me anyway I'm about 1.5kg lighter in the morning.
Where has the weight gone?

(I haven't gone to the toilet btw)

Most people would sweat a pint a night.

And the icky bit is that you'll also shed a pound of skin flakes into the bed every year.

Senna · 06-02-2017 1:30am

Gwynplaine wrote: »

Where has the weight gone?

Your bed contains billions of parasitic insects that eat your skin over night, over an 8 hours period in bed, they can eat as much as 2kgs of your skin. Night Night everybody

Thats not true, its to do with being dehydrated, food being fully digested over night and actually burning calories as you sleep.

Capt'n Midnight · 06-02-2017 1:32am

Skylinehead wrote: »

The Finns were all over the place in WW2. First the Soviets invaded (didn't go particularly well for them, thank Stalins purges for that, as well as resolute defending), then they invaded the USSR back along with the Germans, as part of the siege of Leningrad. After the Russians pushed back, the Finns fought against the Germans in Lapland to try get them out of the country.

The Winter War may have convinced Germany that Russia could be beaten easily resulting in the later invasion.

Point of information - Finland didn't invade the USSR. They stopped at the pre-war border , much to the consternation of the Germans.

The only capitals of the warring countries in WWII in Europe that weren't captured by an invading army were, London (on an island), Moscow (but recon units got to the suburbs) and Helsinki.

RiderOnTheStorm · 06-02-2017 7:46pm

ForestFire wrote:

I think Wikipedia agrees with me, i.e Local tradition, and not widly accepted"

ForestFire wrote:

Where do you think I checked?

ForestFire wrote:

"An Irish tradition states that the relics of Saint Nicholas are also reputed to have been stolen from Myra by local Norman crusading knights in the 12th century and buried near Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, where a stone slab marks the site locally believed to be his grave.[38] This is not widely accepted beyond local tradition.

ForestFire wrote:

Relics are in Bari and Venice according to the same site.

Don't know where you checked, as those references are not on the Wiki page I checked, "Tomb of St Nicholas". There are a few reference sites at the bottom backing claim.

And Wiki is not only site to make this claim.

Why are you making a big deal out of this claim? Do you like to draw attention to people's mistakes (which this isn't). Or did you think Santa would live forever?

Cartouche · 06-02-2017 8:45pm

Nobody knows for sure if William Shakespeare wrote those plays

How did a provincial commoner who had never gone to college or ventured outside Stratford become one of the most prolific, worldly and eloquent writers in history? Even early in his career, Shakespeare was spinning tales that displayed in-depth knowledge of international affairs, European capitals and history, as well as familiarity with the royal court and high society. For this reason, some theorists have suggested that one or several authors wishing to conceal their true identity used the person of William Shakespeare as a front. Proposed candidates include Edward De Vere, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe and Mary Sidney Herbert. Most scholars and literary historians remain skeptical about this hypothesis, although many suspect Shakespeare sometimes collaborated with other playwrights.

ForestFire · 06-02-2017 9:25pm

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Don't know where you checked, as those references are not on the Wiki page I checked, "Tomb of St Nicholas". There are a few reference sites at the bottom backing claim.

And Wiki is not only site to make this claim.

Why are you making a big deal out of this claim? Do you like to draw attention to people's mistakes (which this isn't). Or did you think Santa would live forever?

Santa is a fictional character....

If the people of Kilkenny want to believe St. Nicolas is there and tell the tourist that's fine but he's most likely not.

One simple search will tell you this, and I'm not making a big deal, I simple noted it was "local belief" only and "not widely acceted" which you seem not to be able to accept.

If the next Dan Brown film require Prof. Langdon to go to the relics of St. Nicolas, I very much doubt he end in in Kilkenny.

I don't believe blindly everything that any one says so sorry if this upsets you.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas

RiderOnTheStorm · 06-02-2017 10:34pm

Cartouche wrote:

Nobody knows for sure if William Shakespeare wrote those plays

Also, bit weird that someone so successful in his own lifetime (and being a man of words) should have left so few signatures behind. Only 5 I think (I may be wrong). So maybe he was an amalgam of multiple other authors.

Wibbs · 06-02-2017 10:53pm

Cartouche wrote: »

How did a provincial commoner who had never gone to college or ventured outside Stratford become one of the most prolific, worldly and eloquent writers in history?

Provincial commoner he may have been, but the family weren't poor and he attended a grammar school(and may have taught in one later on). Such schooling at the time was heavily weighted towards the classics and was quite extensive. This would have exposed him to Greek and Roman playwrights and writers generally, as well as the general political and geographical shape of the world as it was then. History was another subject. He also lived and worked in London and would have been exposed to all the intellectual life there. He was also a jobbing actor and writer in a hothouse of same, who needed to keep pushing to get bums on seats. Lennon-McCartney are among the greatest songwriters of the 20th century and they were lower middle class "provincials" far away from the centres of the music genre they originally emulated. They did it the same way oul Liam likely did; raw preternatural talent, mixed with exposure to ideas, outside competition and sheer hard work.

xper · 06-02-2017 11:10pm

prinzeugen wrote: »

The Firth of Forth in Scotland has some major claims to fame. ...

... In the river, the isle of Inchmickery was made to look like a battleship to fool U boats during WW1

It was again modified in WW2..

The result is convincing from a distance!

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inchmickery_(4535494704).jpg

Someone posts "Inchmickery" in an After Hours thread and there's no joke after nearly 24 hours?

Seriously, you people are off your game.

RobertKK · 06-02-2017 11:39pm

ForestFire wrote: »

St. Patrick yes
St Nicholas no (local folklore only)
St Valentine, yes but only some very small pieces

I was at the grave site twice where St Nicholas is reported to be very buried, the grave is part of a graveyard beside a ruined church that is named after St Nicholas. The grave has a limestone flagstone and a man is carved onto it, it looks extremely old.
Whether it is St Nicholas who is buried there or not, clearly someone very important was buried there.

Cartouche · 07-02-2017 1:13am

Wibbs wrote: »

Provincial commoner he may have been, but the family weren't poor and he attended a grammar school(and may have taught in one later on). Such schooling at the time was heavily weighted towards the classics and was quite extensive. This would have exposed him to Greek and Roman playwrights and writers generally, as well as the general political and geographical shape of the world as it was then. History was another subject. He also lived and worked in London and would have been exposed to all the intellectual life there. He was also a jobbing actor and writer in a hothouse of same, who needed to keep pushing to get bums on seats. Lennon-McCartney are among the greatest songwriters of the 20th century and they were lower middle class "provincials" far away from the centres of the music genre they originally emulated. They did it the same way oul Liam likely did; raw preternatural talent, mixed with exposure to ideas, outside competition and sheer hard work.

I dont doubt that its possible, but i would defer to the experts

Oxford University Press announced Monday it is crediting Shakespeare's British contemporary Christopher Marlowe as a co-author on Shakespeare's "Henry VI" plays in future publications. The decision is the biggest win to date for scholars who have been researching the possibility that Marlowe was the real writer behind many of Shakespeare's biggest works, which has until recently been treated as a mere conspiracy theory.

http://www.ibtimes.com/did-shakespeare-write-his-own-plays-oxford-credits-christopher-marlowe-co-author-2436663

prinzeugen · 07-02-2017 3:09am

xper wrote: »

Someone posts "Inchmickery" in an After Hours thread and there's no joke after nearly 24 hours?

Seriously, you people are off your game.

In 1990 my dad advised on the size of the rats they could expect on inchgarvie (under the Forth Rail Bridge)

The experts said they were the size of cats..

My dad said " they will be the size of mice once the fireworks are lit.."

FanadMan · 07-02-2017 3:18am

prinzeugen wrote: »

In 1990 my dad advised on the size of the rats they could expect on inchgarvie (under the Forth Rail Bridge)

The experts said they were the size of cats..

My dad said " they will be the size of mice once the fireworks are lit.."

Worked on a building site in London that backed onto a tube station. Occasionally we had to do night shifts in the tube tunnels. Rats the size of cats is real - some of those feckers were massive! So much food was thrown out from the trains inside the tunnels that the rats had an endless supply of food.

And on those night shifts, we used to see those rats running all over the site canteen - soon made me bring lunch and a flask to work

Duckworth_Luas · 07-02-2017 3:32am

Groucho Marx and Alice Cooper were best pals

prinzeugen · 07-02-2017 4:53am

FanadMan wrote: »

Worked on a building site in London that backed onto a tube station. Occasionally we had to do night shifts in the tube tunnels. Rats the size of cats is real - some of those feckers were massive! So much food was thrown out from the trains inside the tunnels that the rats had an endless supply of food.

And on those night shifts, we used to see those rats running all over the site canteen - soon made me bring lunch and a flask to work

Talking of pests . My dad was pest control for BR.

Most of the famous golf courses and hotels in the UK were owned by British Rail until 1984-86

Gleneagles, St Andrews and Turnbury, the North British and the Cally in Edinburgh being the most known.

prinzeugen · 07-02-2017 5:06am

The film trainspotting got its name from here...

http://m.ipernity.com/#/doc/pinzac55/21758825

The now demolished Leith Central station was used until 1974.

Became derelict and became a haven for drug users in the 80's.

When the police went in and asked the junkies what they were doing in the old station, the answer was..Trainspotting!

eviltimeban · 07-02-2017 11:29am

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

Groucho Marx and Alice Cooper were best pals

And they once sent Paul and Linda McCartney a round bed, with the inscription "may all your stains be big ones".

Paul installed the bed in the meditation dome he'd had built in his backgarden in St John's Wood.

Captain_Crash · 07-02-2017 1:42pm

Juventus have striped black and white shirts as they once traveled to the UK to play Notts County, but forgot to pack their jerseys. So Notts County loaned them kits, and ever since Juve have played in black and white.

Also, the first team to play at the new Della Apli after it was renovated was Notts County.

I think most people have heard about Germany wearing Green away shirts as a mark of respect to Ireland being the first team willing to play them after WWII. This is in fact a myth. While it is true that Ireland were the first team to play the Germans, green happens to also be the official colour of the German FA, hence the regular appearance in away strips.

Fox Hound · 07-02-2017 1:47pm

In the last episode of murder she wrote, it turned out that Angela Lansbury was really the murderer all along, and in every episode she was framing people to continue her murder's rampage

Bandana boy · 07-02-2017 3:39pm

Fox Hound wrote: »

In the last episode of murder she wrote, it turned out that Angela Lansbury was really the murderer all along, and in every episode she was framing people to continue her murder's rampage

The last Murder she wrote was based in Ireland !

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 07-02-2017 3:50pm

Bandana boy wrote: »

The last Murder she wrote was based in Ireland !

The last episode was Death by Demographics and was set in San Francisco.

ohnonotgmail · 07-02-2017 3:56pm

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

The last episode was Death by Demographics and was set in San Francisco.

The last episode of the tv show was as you say. there were a series of tv movies that followed and the last one was set in ireland. begorrah so it was.

steddyeddy · 07-02-2017 4:02pm

The honey bee, apis mellifera is one of the most interesting animals. A colony of honey bees can contain tens of thousands of bees. Amongst the bees are workers (females), a few males and a queen. The queen can live up to twenty times longer than the workers, she has no sting, no wax gland or no pollen baskets. She is near to double the size of a worker bee. Worker bees live for weeks yet the queen lives fo years. The interesting thing is she is genetically identical to thousands of her sisters since birth yet develops completely differently to them.

The queen might mate with several males and as a result not all bees will be genetically identical to each other but the hive will contain tens of thousands of genetical identical bees. All of these genetically identical larvae will be fed royal jelly from the nurse bees up to their third day of life. Then something mysterious happens, for some reason as of yet unknown to scientists, the nurse bees select some of the larvae (for reasons as yet unknown) which are indentical to their sisters and continue to feed them royal jelly after the third day. The rest of the larvae are fed pollen and nectar and develop into worker bees. The larvae fed on royal jelly develop into queen bees.

Only recently has the mechanisim behind this been elucidated. Royal jelly is a strange highly nutritious substance containing amino acids, strange fats and some as of yet uknown substances. This substance causes methylation of the bee's DNA (the addition of a carbon and three hydrogens to one of the DNA bases) this causes some of the genes to shut off and other genes to turn off. Hence one substance causes a complete change in the phenotype (the genotype is the actual list genes contained in the organism but the phenotype is the expression of those genes) of that animal.

ILikeBoats · 07-02-2017 4:03pm

I saw the start of a Murder She Wrote yesterday and she addressed the camera and told how the story came about, it was weird

Omackeral · 07-02-2017 4:04pm

Mr Owl ate my metal worm is spelled the same way backwards as it is frontwards.

Squall Leonhart · 07-02-2017 4:32pm

Omackeral wrote: »

Mr Owl ate my metal worm is spelled the same way backwards as it is frontwards.

"A man, a plan, a canal - Panama"

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 07-02-2017 4:38pm

Squall Leonhart wrote: »

"A man, a plan, a canal - Panama"

Doc, Note: I Dissent. A Fast Never Prevents A Fatness. I Diet On Cod.

Mr. FoggPatches · 07-02-2017 4:42pm

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

Doc, Note: I Dissent. A Fast Never Prevents A Fatness. I Diet On Cod.

Oxo

bonzodog2 · 07-02-2017 4:45pm

Mr. FoggPatches wrote: »

Oxo

Straw? No, too stupid a fad. I put soot on warts!

jimgoose · 07-02-2017 5:02pm

Ever wonder what these things are about, on trucks:

"TIR" stands for Transports Internationaux Routiers (International Road Transport) and is, essentially, a system where a road haulier can obtain customs pre-clearance for sealed cargos across intermediate jurisdictional borders as long as no deliveries take place before the final, pre-declared, destination. They haven't been necessary in this corner of the World since the European single market, but guess who's leaving the single market? Looks like TIR plates are coming back for haulage between Dundalk and Letterkenny, for example.

Cartouche · 07-02-2017 7:48pm

FanadMan wrote: »

Worked on a building site in London that backed onto a tube station. Occasionally we had to do night shifts in the tube tunnels. Rats the size of cats is real - some of those feckers were massive!

I think Stephen King wrote a story like that, might have been called Night Shift

Capt'n Midnight · 07-02-2017 9:53pm

Cartouche wrote: »

I dont doubt that its possible, but i would defer to the experts

Oxford University Press announced Monday it is crediting Shakespeare's British contemporary Christopher Marlowe as a co-author on Shakespeare's "Henry VI" plays in future publications.

So he should have signed it Marley & Me ?

Also no two of his surviving signatures are spelt the same way.

Mr. FoggPatches · 07-02-2017 9:56pm

jimgoose wrote: »

Ever wonder what these things are about, on trucks:

"TIR" stands for Transports Internationaux Routiers (International Road Transport) and is, essentially, a system where a road haulier can obtain customs pre-clearance for sealed cargos across intermediate jurisdictional borders as long as no deliveries take place before the final, pre-declared, destination. They haven't been necessary in this corner of the World since the European single market, but guess who's leaving the single market? Looks like TIR plates are coming back for haulage between Dundalk and Letterkenny, for example.

I did not know that.
Thread delivers

Cartouche · 07-02-2017 10:49pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Also no two of his surviving signatures are spelt the same way.

Which is annoying when trying to identify who a guy actually was and what he did

Bottom line, no one knows really. There was a dude called William Shakespeare for sure
Did he write all those plays , maybe

I bet you didnt know that

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