Post: #151

Here's an interesting one. It's the Toba catastrophe. Check out the section about the bottleneck in human evolution and the possible repercussions to our development as human beings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory

Post: #152

This is an incredible story of bravery, resourcefulness, and being British men in the RAF... in 1982. Study your history, guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTDYcuoOKkM

EDIT - Given my age, I have a keen memory of the news from that historical event. I was a freshman in college at the time.

Post: #153

The Falklands War.

Brian Hanrahan was the BBC correspondent during that war. He was involved in a lovely piece of reporting.

Quote:He joined the press corps attached to the Falklands War, and when on HMS Hermes, was responsible for one of the most memorable journalistic moments of the campaign, when he commented:

“I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I counted them all out and I counted them all back.”

This got him around the reporting restrictions placed by military intelligence, enabling him to reassure the public that all the British Harrier jump jets had returned safely without saying how many there were.

http://youtu.be/1AF_-2rU0GY?t=49s

Post: #154

Jim Morrison used 'Mr Mojo Risin' as a refrain in the song LA Woman.

Mr Mojo Risin is an anagram for Jim Morrison.

----------------------------

Amsterdam is the murder capital of Western Europe.

Post: #155

Selection and training of the SAS (Special Air Service).

For those unaware, the SAS is regarded as the top special forces unit in the world, and is the main special forces unit of the British Army. Originally a long-range reconaisance unit that was deveoped to combat the Germans and Italians in North Africa in WWII, it's training is among the most difficult and demanding of all armed forces. The percentage of recruits who pass selection is most often <<10%.













By the way, I put this up because I find it fascinating, and not because I want to start a debate about who's the best!

Post: #156

One of the best sites on the web here:

http://www.snopes.com/

It is a collection of urban legends - which have been researched and analysed to see if they are true or not.

Another interesting tidbit. Here is a train which never stops.





Alot of big cities have subway systems. And getting round the city is slowed down alot by the subway train continually slowing down and stopping to let people on and off. So - any way around this would be incredibly helpful for those dealing with a stressful commute (the underground in London is just horrible).

The above design is a refinement to an earlier one called the AT200 which was proposed in France and which was more suitable for use underground.

Post: #157

Just came across the story behind why Bill Murray did the voice for the movies, Garfield and Garfield 2.

Quote:He was contractually locked into Garfield 2, since he’d done the first - which he only agreed to because he thought one of the writers was Joel Coen (as in “Raising Arizona”, “Fargo”, etc), rather than Joel Cohen (as in “Money Talks”, “Cheaper By The Dozen”, etc).

He’s stated that he felt so strongly about jumping aboard a Coen script, and was so excited to see what the would do with Garfield, that he signed on without even reading the script.

Post: #158

Wow, that's pretty funny actually. Bill Murray, I love you, and the day Ghostbuster's 3 comes out is the day I invest my liquid assets in a singular charity. I shit you not, my disposable assets will go towards an unselfish worthy cause (red cross, cancer, whatever) when GB3 hits the theatres. 'Cause I'm muthafuckin' betta like that.

Post: #159

So Gawker, Yahoo, etc. were publishing articles about a ghost cruise ship supposedly floating around the Atlantic with tons of rats on board...

Here's a more realistic analysis:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/25/...-atlantic/

Post: #160

Quote:Arturo di Modica's Charging Bull sculpture is probably the most popular piece of guerilla street art of the last generation: the sculptor secretly plopped it down in front of the New York Stock Exchange late one night in 1989.

The authorities initially hauled it off, but popular opinion demanded it be made permanent. Asian tourists have developed the tradition of rubbing its now shiny testicles for good luck.

http://www.isteve.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02...treet.html

Just came across this interesting fact on Steve Sailor's blog. I had no idea that sculpture was a piece of guerilla street art.

Post: #161

I was reading about the central Asian conqueror Tamerlane (Timur the Lame) recently and came across this nugget on Wikipedia...probably a good dose of myth mixed in here, but good for a story:

Quote:It is alleged that Timur's tomb was inscribed with the words, "When I rise from the dead, the world shall tremble." It is also said that when Gerasimov exhumed the body, an additional inscription inside the casket was found reading, "Who ever opens my tomb, shall unleash an invader more terrible than I." In any case, two days after Gerasimov had begun the exhumation, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest military invasion of all time, upon the U.S.S.R. Timur was re-buried with full Islamic ritual in November 1942 just before the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad.

Post: #162

In 1990, the artist Jim Sanborn installed a sculpture entitled 'Kryptos' in the garden of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The sculpture has 4 encrypted messages. Three of have been solved. But the fourth one remains one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kryptos

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/07...efore-cia/

Post: #163

Toxoplasma gondii

This single-celled has been linked to schizophrenia, increased testosterone levels, risk taking and more.

Quote:Found worldwide, T. gondii is capable of infecting virtually all warm-blooded animals. In humans, it is one of the most common parasites; serological studies estimate that up to a third of the global population has been exposed to and may be chronically infected with T. gondii, although infection rates differ significantly from country to country. Although mild, flu-like symptoms occasionally occur during the first few weeks following exposure, infection with T. gondii generally produces no symptoms in healthy human adults. However, in infants, HIV/AIDS patients, and others with weakened immunity, infection can cause serious and occasionally fatal illness (toxoplasmosis).

It is crazy to think a single-celled organism can take over the mind of multi-celled but it does happen.

Post: #164

Isn't that the one that affects most cat owners - since it is very common to catch it off your cat?

Post: #165

(03-07-2014 04:37 AM)cardguy Wrote:  Isn't that the one that affects most cat owners - since it is very common to catch it off your cat?

Only if you go digging around in weeks-old cat shit that was produced by a cat that frequently goes outdoors. Even if a cat does carry the parasite, you would need to actually have contact with its old feces, not just rub its fur or something.

Since the primary source of infection for cats is eating raw or undercooked meat, your chances of infection are greater from doing the same than from contact with cats.

Post: #166

This is a good resource to skim through, and I can see it being useful for those trying to improve their writing style (myself included):

http://clichesite.com/alpha_list.asp?which=lett+1

Post: #167

Children/Widows of Civil War Veterans

I remember reading about this stuff in the Economist when I was a kid, and found it really fascinating how people could have such a direct link to history long ago.

Daily Mail comes through once again:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ended.html

Quote:Only one child of an American Civil War veteran is alive today and receiving pensions for their parents' service, a Veteran's Affairs spokesperson exclusively told MailOnline.

Though it was widely reported this week that two children of the veterans were getting an annual $876 pension from the Department, spokesman Randy Noller said that one of the two, a 93-year-old man living in Tennessee, died last August.

The American Civil War ended on April 12, 1865 with the surrender of the Confederate Army, putting an end to the bloodiest battles ever fought on U.S. soil.

Quote:The last verified Civil War veteran, Albert Woolson, was 109 when he died in 1956, while the last Civil War widow, Gertrude Janeway, passed away in 2003, aged 93, though some dispute that she was the last living widow.
Mrs Janeway had married her husband, John Janeway, when he was 81 and she was 18 and received a $70 pension check monthly.

Quote:Circumstances similar to the two pensioners allow for the grandchildren of President John Tyler, who was born in 1790, to be alive today.

His grandsons, Harrison Ruffin Tyler and Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr were born nearly 140 years after their grandfather, the 10th president of the U.S.
More than $40billion each year is spent on compensation for veterans of the Spanish-American War of 1898, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the two Iraq campaigns, and the war in Afghanistan.

Post: #168

Jesse Owens DID shake hands with Adolf Hitler.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...Owens.html

Interesting to note as well that the President of the United States never invited Jesse Owens to the White House to shake hands.

Post: #169

Spoke to a guy who studied actuary maths at the weekend.

He told me you have the same chance of dying in the next 45 minutes as you do of winning the lottery.

So - the easiest way to double your chances of winning (or at least being alive to experience the win) the lottery is to wait until 45 minutes before the lottery is drawn to buy a ticket!

Post: #170

Samuel James Seymour (March 28, 1860 – April 12, 1956) was the last surviving person who had been present in Ford's Theatre the night of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. He was from Maryland and lived in Arlington, Virginia in his later years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_J._Seymour

Just two months before his death, at age 95, he appeared on the February 9, 1956 episode of the CBS TV quiz show I've Got a Secret as a mystery subject, in an episode in which Lucille Ball made an unusual appearance as a guest panelist. Seymour incorrectly gave his age on the show as 96, although his 96th birthday was actually not until March 28, several weeks later. He had been in failing health since February when he fell in a New York City hotel while preparing to appear on "I've Got A Secret". He came on the show with his left eye swollen. Garry Moore had suggested he not appear, but Seymour insisted:

Post: #171

Weather Station Kurt (Wetter-Funkgerät Land-26) was a automatic weather station, erected by a German U-boat crew in Northern Labrador, Dominion of Newfoundland in October 1943. Installing the equipment for the station was the only known armed German military operation on land in North America during the Second World War.

The station was forgotten until 1977 when Peter Johnson, a geomorphologist working on an unrelated project, stumbled upon the German weather station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Station_Kurt

Post: #172

The letters of last resort are four identically-worded handwritten letters written by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to the commanding officers of the four British ballistic missile submarines. They contain orders on what action to take in the event that an enemy nuclear strike has destroyed the British government and has killed or incapacitated both the Prime Minister and the "second person" (normally a high-ranking member of the Cabinet) whom the Prime Minister has designated to make a decision on how to act in the event of the Prime Minister's death. In the event that the orders were to be carried out, the action taken could be the last official act of Her Majesty's Government.

The letters are stored inside two safes in the control room of each submarine.[2] The letters are destroyed unopened after a Prime Minister leaves office, so their content remains known to only them.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort

Post: #173

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirin_Dajo

Mirin Dajo was the pseudonym of a Dutch named Arnold Gerrit Henskes (August 6, 1912 – May 26, 1948).[1] Arnold specifically asked not to be called a fakir.[2]

He became famous for radically piercing his body with all kinds of objects and apparently without injury, even astounding the medical community at the time.[1]

He was born in Rotterdam. He started out trying a career in the Beaux Arts. He headed a design firm in his twenties. During his earlier years he had had all sorts of dreams and "paranormal" experiences. It was not until he turned 33 he claimed to realize that his body was "invulnerable." As a result he left his job and went to Amsterdam. Hanging around pubs, he made money by letting people pierce his body with "dagger-like objects." He also swallowed glass and razor blades.[1]

Post: #174

On 1 July 1984, Liechtenstein became the last country in Europe to grant women the right to vote. The referendum on women's suffrage, in which only men were allowed to participate, passed with 51.3% in favor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein#Government

Post: #175

(05-10-2015 11:10 PM)LeBeau Wrote:  On 1 July 1984, Liechtenstein became the last country in Europe to grant women the right to vote. The referendum on women's suffrage, in which only men were allowed to participate, passed with 51.3% in favor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein#Government

Technically, the Vatican City still denies women the right to vote. Obviously it's not a democratic nation, but papal enclave (voting for a new pope upon a death or abdication of a pope) is the only democratic process there and is only open to cardinals, which by default are male.

Also, there was a canton in Switzerland which granted women the vote in the early 1990s, so Switzerland couldn't be said to have had full suffrage until then.