Fun Facts

Wasn't that from Pee Wee' Big Adventure? He's hitching a ride with a fugitive, running from the law, who cut the tag off a mattress?

I was thinking that very thought last week when I threw caution to the wind and cut the tag off my new mattress.

BT

I don't know if that's true. Might some people do this crazy thing because they're just a bit crazy?
Like -- gotta die sometime, may as well do this very risky thing?

Fun Fact: every corpse on Mt. Everest was someone who believed in themselves.

(well, that's a downer isn't it...)

Fun Fact:

The Supreme Court has the highest approval rating since 2009 - 53%. (This poll was taken in July, before everything related to Kavanaugh). It's never been higher than 62% as long as Gallup has been tracking it (since 2000).

Surprisingly (well, to me anyway) 72% of Republicans approve of the Supreme Court while only 38% of Democrats do. Looking back on it, basically Republicans approve of the Supreme Court when a Republican is president, and Democrats approve when a Democrat is president.

Case in point:

Poll taken in July 2008: 60% of Republicans approve, 40% of Democrats do. In July 2009 - with NO difference in the makeup of the court - only difference is that Obama is now president - 75% of Democrats approve and 49% of Republicans. Likewise, from July 2016 - July 2017 - Democrats went from 67% to 38%, and Republicans from 26% to 72%.

What can we take from all of this?

Most people are fucking idiots.

Fun Fact:

I am such a dork that I lay out an Excel worksheet of what goes where at what time in the kitchen the night before a big food event such as Thanksgiving. I assign everything a cooking vessel, a location (grill, oven, left front burner etc) and a 15-minute time increment.

Dinner is on at 5. A dork, I may be, but I hit my mark every time.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all

Cuz I like telling stories.

During WW2, the need arose for more and bigger aircraft carriers. Especially those that could be built quickly and cheaply.

Englishman Geoffrey Pyke conceived of an idea - reinforced ice. Not as crazy as it sounds - it was discovered long before than certain brittle materials like concrete become far stronger when small amounts of materials such as cellulose are mixed into it. So - a mixture of 14% sawdust and 86% water. Frozen into blocks. Called it Pykrete - a portmanteau of his own name and concrete. Turns out the stuff is about 50% as strong as concrete in spite of being made mostly of garbage and water. It can withstand small arms fire and even artillery to a reasonable extent. And in the event of heavy damage - it's made of wood pulp and ice - no matter how many holes you blast in it, it still floats.

Canada - having an asston of both trees, water and the ability to freeze everything - was highly interested in the project. A prototype was built in Alberta and subjected to heavy fire, and it proved very resilient. It was almost impossible to sink or destroy a large barge made of Pykrete. As long as the water you were floating it in was fairly cold (which the North Atlantic is), it lasted a long time before deteriorating to melting. The low thermal conductivity of the material meant it melted much, much slower than a similarly sized piece of plain ice.

In 1943 during the Quebec Conference, proponent Lord Mountbatten brought a block of Pykrete with him to demonstrate the material to his skeptical allies, various American, Canadian and British leaders and military brass, including the 3 leaders Roosevelt, Churchill, and (Canadian PM) King. A demonstration was arranged where the block was shot with a rifle. Instead of shattering the block, the bullet ricocheted off of it and struck the leg of American admiral Ernest King, although he was not seriously hurt.

Since the very strong material cost next to nothing to produce in Canada, consumed no strategic materials, and the giant barges could simply be abandoned if need be, you'd have thought there would be more interest. There wasn't.

Well, actually there was. Openly, American leaders scoffed at the idea. The US navy however continued to explore it further, attempting to build the fucking things in the idiotic locale of Norfolk, VA (which has warmer winter waters than San Diego) and determined it to be a failure.

Well, dumbasses, I could have told you that it wouldn't work for a very long time in 70-85 degree water. You should have built it in 33 degree Quebec City water like Churchill and King proposed.

One can make their own quasi-Pykrete by soaking a roll of toilet paper in water and then freezing it. It is so strong that a 20 ton hydraulic press is unable to crush it.

Sea Horse's are the slowest swimmer's in the ocean

The Great War, as it was then known, ended 100 years ago today.

Specifically, at 11 am Paris time, which was 6 am EST.

Added fun fact to VA’s - “Hof was found dead at his Love Ranch brothel about an hour outside Las Vegas. His body was discovered by porn actor Ron Jeremy and a prostitute at the brothel.

Hof had spent the four previous days partying with notables from the sex industry and political world celebrating his 72nd birthday.

The brothel where his body was found is where NBA player Lamar Odom was found unconscious in 2015.“

~rabbit~

re: rabbit

I always thought all of your pics are hot ;-) Kind of a fun fact though and something that basically proves a theory I mentioned in the "Review my profile" thread, changing your profile pic alone is very likely to get you more views.

That’s ok, I returned the favor.

;^D

~Scamp

That would be me, guilty as charged

FF- there is a sudden influx of absentee forumers appearing on our WVM after the mention of my new picture being hot.

Btw, thank you boys.

~rabbit~

Fun Fact:

Brother owner Dennis Hof won his contest for Nevada Assembly district 36, in spite of being dead for 3 weeks.

Fun Fact:

Contrary to the role of Speaker of the House in the US, the somewhat analogous role of Speaker of the House of Commons in Commonwealth countries, such as Canada, has a strictly non-partisan role.

An amusing tradition is that whenever the Speaker has been elected from the Members of Parliament, the incumbent feigns reluctance and is physically dragged to the chair by the Prime Minister on one arm and the Leader of the Opposition on the arm. This tradition dates back to a time when the Speaker was a dangerous job, as the King (of the UK) once had great influence over such matters, and if displeased with the workings of Parliament would order the execution of the Speaker from time to time.

It's Guy Fawkes Day.

Haven't watched V for Vendetta in a while now....

It doesn't actually cost all that much to ship a car, so for those Alaskans who spend winters in Hawaii (as long as your registration is current, you don't have to re-register), they drive their cars with suitable for Alaska tires to the dock, maybe after hours of driving, and then pick it up at an Hawaii dock a few weeks later. And might need to change out the tires.

Interesting thought, GGMM, although I would think that while the owner might be registered to live on the mainland, the car likely resides full time on the island. I guess it might be shipped there the first time, but I would think most people going through such efforts would have the brainpower to not send it with studded tires. Maybe I'm overestimating the intelligence of people.

The reason these places don't allow it is because studded winter tires rip up paved roads.

Not smart at all to ride on snow tires in warm weather. Your handling and braking will suffer and you will wear the tires out faster.

Dunno about Puerto Rico, but you see a fair number of Alaska plates in Hawaii. Some are snowbirds, others have moved there. South Dakota is pretty well represented too. Without the thing that puzzles you, it might not occur to people whose cars have just rolled off the boat that they need different tires.

Fun Fact:

Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Florida all have restrictions on the use of studded snow tires. Florida allows only rubber studs.

Florida sorta makes sense, I guess, since someone could in principle drive to Florida from somewhere else with snow tires. But the islands of Hawaii or Puerto Rico? Has anyone ever attempted to outfit their car with studded snow tires there? What motivated them to pass these laws?

FF: nobody ever won the lottery by not playing the lottery.

While I do not have scientific data to back this up, I imagine there is a strong inverse relationship between playing the lottery and an understanding of mathematics and finance.

FF1: The Mega Millions lottery tonight is for the record lottery prize.

FF2: Lottery winners are more likely to file bankruptcy than the average American.

Depending on who you believe, between 40% and 70% of lottery or other windfall recipients are broke within 4 years. Worse, some end up dead- often murdered by someone trying to get their money.

Remember that as you buy your Mega Millions ticket for today's record jackpot.