Fun fact: 65% of people believe that the result of last year's coin toss somehow influences this year's, demonstrating a total lack of understanding of independent probabilities.
Fun fact 2: I made that shit up. But I bet a lot of people actually do believe that.
Fun Fact:
In the previous 48 Super Bowls, the coin toss has resulted in "Heads" 24 times, and "Tails" 24 times.
No one could have ever predicted that outcome.
I could have put it in the Bitchfest but since I don't really know her, it's more like "just interesting" to me.
My grandmother's youngest sister has died. I don't think I've seen her since 1999 when my grandfather died, and I didn't know her at all. But what is interesting is that she was the last of my family driven from their land and fled the Soviet Union in 1925. She was just a baby but the last of my family born overseas that came here as refugees. The end of an era, of sorts.
Being a subject of Her Majesty myself, I am probably more familiar with HM Queen Elizabeth than most people here. This story doesn't surprise me as much as it likely does most people here.
The story was excerpted in The Sunday Times from a memoir by British diplomat Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who was appointed Ambassador to Saudi Arabia in 2003. It begins with Abdullah -- then the crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia -- visiting Balmoral, the Queen’s estate in Scotland.
“After lunch, the Queen had asked her royal guest whether he would like a tour of the estate,” wrote Cowper-Coles, who is said to have heard the tale from both Elizabeth and Abdullah themselves. “Prompted by his foreign minister the urbane Prince Saud, an initially hesitant Abdullah had agreed. The royal Land Rovers were drawn up in front of the castle. As instructed, the Crown Prince climbed into the front seat of the front Land Rover, his interpreter in the seat behind.”
Little did Abdullah know, however, that his driver for the day would be none other than Elizabeth herself.
“To his surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned the ignition and drove off,” Cowper-Coles wrote. “Women are not -- yet -- allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen.”
Not to mention a queen who can drive like the wind. According to Cowper-Coles, Elizabeth didn’t just drive the SUV, but rapidly whizzed along the estate’s roads as she chatted, prompting Abdullah to become increasingly anxious.
“Through his interpreter, the Crown Prince implored the Queen to slow down and concentrate on the road ahead,” the diplomat said.
For those who are not aware, HM was a trained truck mechanic during WW2 and was apparently known as a skillful driver. While virtually never "allowed" to drive off her own property, she happens to own quite a bit of it and has kept her driving skills up during her tenure as monarch.
Mongolian beef originated in America.
Well, at least the dish "Mongolian Beef" did.
French Fries didn't originate in France either. But the Canadians bastardized them by putting gravy on them. Maybe blame the French Canadians for that?
The only time "incorrectly" is spelled incorrectly is when it's spelled incorrectly.
Take that autocorrect.
Zipper is the most common cause of penile injuries. The zipper-related genital injuries send 1,700 men to the ER each year.
I had to look this one up after seeing recent post someone made about leaving their zipper open in another thread.
Trying to stay on the theme of fun fact...
FF: Several US firms are eager to begin business in Cuba. Perhaps they're hoping to tap the US tourist market.
FF: Cubans can finally import directly those new 60's model Chevrolets (built Ford tough) they weren't able to get after the Revolution.
There was always food in the USSR including after the break up of the USSR and the rise of the NIS. The problem was the no middle class. So you had the ultra rich and ultra poor. The rich had everything. The poor nothing.
As the Cuba....that will be a nightmare for the USA in the long run. There is literally nothing to gain, and everything to lose from normalizing our relationship with them.
Well you as a tourist won't be starving. My friend remembered in the first few years after the USSR collapsed and their food aid dried up overnight; going to be hungry was really common. Things have improved somewhat but food is still a problem.
Things are better since the stores began accepting Cuban pesos (I know that sounds crazy but that's how it was - you were given ration cards and worthless Cuban pesos, which the stores wouldn't take.)
Their currency system is still bizarre but hey - it's Cuba. Without tourism I don't know what the hell they would do.
Yeah, I know; Mrs. G is from one of those 2 cities.
Food you actually get in Cuba is bland and boring. The common phrase is: for the best Cuban food, go to Miami or Tampa.
In honor of the reawakening of the US/Cuban relations:
FF: A staple of a Cuban lunch is the Cuban sandwich. Well that makes sense; except that the Cuban sandwich is actually a US invention.
NASA has been working diligently on the SLS - Space Launch System - the vehicle designed to replace the shuttle and eventually take us to Mars.
Will they just launch it and watch it explode? Or do you think they will test it - at all - before placing astronauts on it? If the astronauts protest, will they be suspended? If they are alone on the SLS but NASA finds out they have a significant other, will they be changed into a couple?
Will blocking unwelcome frequencies result in a flood of messages to their radio anyway?
Still can't figure out why Radar left.
Will you stop saying what I'm thinking?
Oops, wrong thread.
I get some of my best material from MASH.
It's where the Great Unwashed originated (for me, anyway).
BT
Don't have a cow, but Time Magazine's best show of the 20th Century, The Simpsons, celebrates the 25th anniversary of their first episode today.
D'oh, I would have picked MASH.
Every 60 Seconds, about 72 hours of YouTube video is uploaded.
Luckily for me, most of those videos are about cats doing cat things, dance moves, and inane things that I am not interested in.
Squirrel cam, now there's something worth watching. That is, when I am tired of chicken coop cam.
Men think about sex once every tits seconds.
Fun Fact: In South Park's theme song, Kenny's lines only get past the censors because no one can understand WTF he ever says.
Seasons 1&2: I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with deep vaginas!
Seasons 3-6: Me, I got a 10-inch penis, use your mouth if you wanna clean it.
Seasons 7-10: Someday I'll be old enough to stick my dick up Britney's butt!
Season10 Episode 8-Present: I like fucking silly bitches and I know my penis likes it.
Long live Kenny McCormick; until some bastard kills him again.
southpark.answers.wikia.c om/wiki/What_does_Kenny_McCormick_say_in_the_South_Park_theme_song
"No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple."
purple----maple surple
Fun Fact:
Pharmaceuticals played an enormous role in the outcome of WW2 in the European theater.
In the later stages of WWII (mid-1943 onwards) Nazi Germany resorted to methamphetamine (under the name - really - Pervitin) in an effort to improve the attentiveness, focus and wakefulness of exhausted personnel (especially Luftwaffe pilots). This was initially very successful; however, the effects of long-term meth use had not been well-documented and as is always the case with meth, everything comes crashing down.
Hitler himself was on huge amounts of methamphetamine (among many, many other controlled substances) for about the last 18 months of the war, right up until his bitter end, along with most senior Nazi officials.
The collapse of Nazi Germany is closely tied to the collapse of the methamphetamine supply. Without the "gas" to keep running, a cutoff of the supply of Pervitin meant a unit suddenly had nobody who could stay awake, focused or basically do anything useful other than fight with each other for the remaining pills. In the last days of the Third Reich, there was none to be found, which contributed heavily to the incredible slaughter that was the Battle of Berlin.
Ahh... remember the episode of Family Ties where Alex Keaton was on meth? A light-hearted approach to the topic. They didn't CALL it meth - they called it speed, as it was commonly known at the time. His father told him to stop, so he did. Apparently it's that easy.
Fun fact: Tsutomu Yamaguchi died in 2010 at the age of 91. He was famous for something rather unique.
On August 6, 1945, he survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, where he was visiting for work. He was rather seriously burned, but 2 days later, went home to where he figured he'd be safe. Nagasaki.
He was visiting his supervisor describing the Hiroshima bombing when Nagasaki was bombed. This time he was not seriously injured, but he could no longer get treatment for his burns and began to develop infections.
Just a random story about the only person in history to have survived two nuclear attacks.
"Some people never develop beyond this stage. "
I was already thinking that before I saw that you wrote it.
