Factoids - useless but interesting snippets

[Bill W]

2 hours ago, Page Scrawler said:

On March 5th, 2022, a legendary stone in Japan, called the Sessho-seki, cracked apart. The stone reputedly contained the spirit of Tamamo-no-mae, a monstrous fox-woman with nine tails. Social media platforms joked that the stone's fracture is an omen of calamity.

More calamity than the world has already been experience?  

[Zombie]

Research student Michael L Smith won the 2015 Ig Nobel Prize for physiology and entomology by being stung with bees more than 100 times on various parts of his body in order to find out on which body part the bee stings were most painful *yikes *

Smith shared the prize with colleague Justin Schmidt, who presumably enjoyed using the data (measurements of the volume and duration of Smith’s screams) to create the “Schmidt Sting Pain Index” while Smith was strapped down as Schmidt carefully administered an angry bee to each part of his body…

Answer? 
Nope - not where you think
It was inside his nose *ouch!*

 

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-been-awarded-science-prize-10084228

Edited June 6, 2022 by Zombie

[AC Benus]

On 5/16/2022 at 3:21 PM, Zombie said:

News flash!

According to a recent survey…

nearly a third of people aged between 25 and 34

think Salman Rushdie is a fish dish

...but I love the poems of Tikka Masala. She's great, and the UK's number one fave, I hear...

[Zombie]

“I’ll be back!” is one of the most famous catchphrases in movie history and you probably think it originated in the first Terminator movie of 1984.

In fact it was used 11 years earlier, in 1973, at the end of a short British public information film chillingly titled Lonely Water and made by the UK government to scare the sh!t out of young children while they were watching their favourite cartoon shows on TV.

If the youngsters hadn’t already become mortality statistics they would be so deeply traumatised that they would never leave the house again  

 

 

 

[Bill W]

If General McArthur had a little more foresight during World War II, instead of saying "I shall return," he could have more memorably said "I'll be back."  

[BigBen]

On 5/12/2022 at 9:36 AM, Zombie said:

This provided nervous passengers with helpful and reassuring advice  

Like where to sit in relation to the steam locomotive in order to minimise the risk of death 💀 

Though apparently there was a quite valid concern back then, about whether people could even survive traveling at the excessive speed of thirty miles an hour.  No one actually knew, until it was tried.

[Zombie]

Kids’ toys today are just so lame!  
 

 

Free bonus factoid!!!

These links don’t work - when you click ‘em they get redirected to a “.gov” website that doesn’t exist, with this message:

 

404 - File or directory not found.

The resource you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

I guess it’s to stop curious kiddies learning all the interesting stuff that kids in the 1950s were encouraged to spend their time on - what with no iPhones and social media to keep them out of mischief…

BUT you can view them simply copying and pasting the links direct into your browser address bar  

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/toys/index.html

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/toys/gilbert-u-238-atomic-energy-lab.html

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/toys/atomic-energy-lab.html

Edited July 5, 2022 by Zombie

[Bill W]

20 minutes ago, Zombie said:

Kids’ toys today are just so lame!  
 

 

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/toys/index.html

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/toys/gilbert-u-238-atomic-energy-lab.html

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/toys/atomic-energy-lab.html

 

Atomic Energy Lab: Everything the budding terrorist will need to learn how to build a dirty bomb and much, much, more.  

[Zombie]

3 minutes ago, Bill W said:

Atomic Energy Lab: Everything the budding terrorist will need to learn how to build a dirty bomb and much, much, more.  

Ah yes, I’ve just added a comment that clicking the links redirects them to a bogus address but these websites are still up there and the Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity is a legitimate university associated educational organisation and all these resources are freely available

Which handily gives us another free bonus factoid  

- it’s available, but maybe “they” would rather it wasn’t…

[Zombie]

Tragic news! 

Titanic II has sunk

…fortunately, this time, without loss of life  

https://youtu.be/cJvexrKjBII

factoid #2

Titanic's incredible interior was lost when the ship sank 110 years ago in 1912.  Right?

Not quite. Parts of the interior still exist because one of Titanic's sister ships, Olympic, survived until 1935 and was fitted out in very similar style and some of its public “spaces” survive, including this first class lounge which was bought at auction (before the ship was scrapped) and then reconstructed at the Swan Hotel in Northumberland, England

[Zombie]

 

when swans get hungry in Wells (near Glastonbury, Somerset) they only have to ring a bell with their beaks and then they get fed  (no meal deal for hungry cats )

 

[Bill W]

1 hour ago, Zombie said:

 

when swans get hungry in Wells (near Glastonbury, Somerset) they only have to ring a bell with their beaks and then they get fed  (no meal deal for hungry cats )

 

Pavlov would be proud, but it seems the swans have conditioned humans to respond to their needs.  

[Zombie]

as a Christmas present, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once gave HM Queen Elizabeth (gift wrapped ) a pair of rubber washing up gloves 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Zombie

[Bill W]

1 hour ago, Zombie said:

as a Christmas present, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once gave HM Queen Elizabeth (gift wrapped ) a pair of rubber washing up gloves 

 

 

Was she trying to tell the Queen to clean up her act or to clean up the messes in her family? 

[Zombie]

1 hour ago, Bill W said:

Was she trying to tell the Queen to clean up her act or to clean up the messes in her family? 

Apparently she’d always done the washing up at her Scottish home so maybe her favourite Marigolds had sprung a leak?   

 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Zombie

[Zombie]

Names - confused?
You should be…

Greig

Scottish surname
Origin: Greg/Gregory (Christian/given name) 

Grieg

Norwegian surname
Origin: Scottish surname Greig

Example Edvard Grieg, the famous Norwegian composer

How to remember which is which?  
Here’s an easy mnemonic…  

”i” before “e” except after “c” - except when it isn’t  

 

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Zombie

[Zombie]

Run out of things to have nightmares about?  
 

no need to worry  

 

those clever scientists have come up with something to wake you up screaming and gibbering

Cyborg remote controlled giant cockroaches with artificial intelligence🪳  

 

 

[Zombie]

Each of these red dots is a town or village in England

in 1086

as recorded in the Domesday Book audit/survey of the whole country that was commissioned by William The Conqueror after his famous invasion of England from France in 1066

basically, he wanted to find out how much he was worth for the Rich List  

I live in one of these dots  

 

[Zombie]

Yesterday was “budget day” in the UK when the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the “finance minister”) tries to “balance the books” (i.e. raise taxes ) of the nation’s economy in a speech in the House of Commons (equivalent to the US Congress) to all his fellow MPs. It lasts on average around an hour and the Chancellor is allowed to bring his own choice of liquid “refreshment” - whatever he/she wants, such as whisky (Kenneth Clarke from a cut glass tumbler - pic below), gin and tonic (Geoffrey Howe), brandy and water (Benjamin Disraeli), sherry and beaten egg (Gladstone)  

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Zombie

[Zombie]

The board game Anti-Monopoly was not allowed to use the word “monopoly” because Monopoly claimed a monopoly on the use of “monopoly” in board game names. But after lengthy legal wrangles Monopoly lost the monopoly on “monopoly” and so Monopoly no longer has a monopoly on “monopoly”   

[Slytherin]

3 hours ago, Zombie said:

The board game Anti-Monopoly was not allowed to use the word “monopoly” because Monopoly claimed a monopoly on the use of “monopoly” in board game names. But after lengthy legal wrangles Monopoly lost the monopoly on “monopoly” and so Monopoly no longer has a monopoly on “monopoly”   

Took a sip of Coke while reading this - not so smart 

*cleaning up cola stains*  Bad Zombie  

 

[Zombie]

Strange but true…

the British Prime Minister must be at least 18 years old but doesn’t have to be a British citizen

they can be an Irish citizen

or a Commonwealth country citizen but with some extra rules around membership date, date of birth etc

[Bill W]

3 hours ago, Zombie said:

Strange but true…

the British Prime Minister must be at least 18 years old but doesn’t have to be a British citizen

they can be an Irish citizen

or a Commonwealth country citizen but with some extra rules around membership date, date of birth etc

Isn't that rather big of the English.  If they could rule other countries, then why shouldn't one of those citizens have a chance to play a significant part in the British government.  Jolly good.  

[Zombie]

On 19 December 1932, 90 years ago today, the BBC began its overseas broadcasting (now called the World Service) which was announced with an excited fanfare of triumphal trumpeting from the Director General, John Reith:

"Don't expect too much... the programmes will neither be very interesting nor very good.”  

[Slytherin]

1 hour ago, Zombie said:

On 19 December 1932, 90 years ago today, the BBC began its overseas broadcasting (now called the World Service) which was announced with an excited fanfare of triumphal trumpeting from the Director General, John Reith:

"Don't expect too much... the programmes will neither be very interesting nor very good.”  

Just sayin… or am I.. No I listen 

Thanks!  I’ll see myself out