Things you've always wondered about but couldn't be bothered to find out

[JudyJudyJudy]

2 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

I've just googled her. Some job she has, eh? Minister for green skills?! Wtf? 

I know . ))0

[Dawnrazor]

13 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

Has it become office speak? In what way is it used? 

Aye, it's a buzz word now, thrown about by various "conservation" groups.

There's a real push for moorland to be planted with trees resulting in the loss of habitat and the "bio diversity" that relies on moorland, Curlew, Short Eared Owl, Ring Ouzel, Merlin etc, replaced by species who can thrive in a woodland environment. All sides think thier "Bio Diversity" is the most important one, MP's generally know **** all about it and respond to those who lobby them the loudest. I'm earning a living from repairing damage done years ago to the uplands and I'll most likely be ripping trees out before long, all on tax payer too via grants, grants handed out without ANY accountability when things don't go to plan.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Dawnrazor

[Dick Dastardly]

22 minutes ago, jonesy said:

Perhaps some kind of brigade could help her achieve her goals...

They could make her a funky banner at least

[Dick Dastardly]

1 hour ago, Dawnrazor said:

Aye, it's a buzz word now, thrown about by various "conservation" groups.

There's a real push for moorland to be planted with trees resulting in the loss of habitat and the "bio diversity" that relies on moorland, Curlew, Short Eared Owl, Ring Ouzel, Merlin etc, replaced by species who can thrive in a woodland environment. All sides think thier "Bio Diversity" is the most important one, MP's generally know **** all about it and respond to those who lobby them the loudest. I'm earning a living from repairing damage done years ago to the uplands and I'll most likely be ripping trees out before long, all on tax payer too via grants, grants handed out without ANY accountability when things don't go to plan.

So how do i get my hands on one of those grants? I could plant some flowers in a window box if they pay me some cash 

[Dawnrazor]

19 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

So how do i get my hands on one of those grants? I could plant some flowers in a window box if they pay me some cash 

They give them out for less than that.

*edit*

And don't worry if no flowers grow and don't worry if you planted the seeds in a place they were never going to grow in the first place, they don't worry about that.

Edited May 14, 2022 by Dawnrazor

[Dick Dastardly]

2 minutes ago, Dawnrazor said:

They give them out for less than that.

I'm looking into this further 😂😂

[Dawnrazor]

1 minute ago, Dick Dastardly said:

I'm looking into this further 😂😂

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad, the public money I've seen wasted on ****ing vanity projects dreamed up by people who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a project would have you in tears, it truly is a national disgrace.

[Dick Dastardly]

Has Clancy Brown ever played a "good guy" 

[jambo89]

1 hour ago, Dick Dastardly said:

Has Clancy Brown ever played a "good guy" 

Starship troopers maybe? Certainly at the end he becomes the 'hero'

[Dick Dastardly]

20 minutes ago, jambo89 said:

Starship troopers maybe? Certainly at the end he becomes the 'hero'

Ffs! I just watched that again a few weeks ago. Brain like a sieve. He just has that villainous aura about him though, thats probably what made me forget

[milky_26]

3 hours ago, Dick Dastardly said:

Has Clancy Brown ever played a "good guy" 

While not necessarily a good guy definitely not a bad in the guardian

[Dick Dastardly]

1 minute ago, milky_26 said:

While not necessarily a good guy definitely not a bad in the guardian

Didn't know he wrote for them

[milky_26]

10 minutes ago, Dick Dastardly said:

Didn't know he wrote for them

He was in disguise.

 

Fyi I am talking about the Kevin Costner and Ashton kutcher film

[Dick Dastardly]

15 minutes ago, milky_26 said:

He was in disguise.

 

Fyi I am talking about the Kevin Costner and Ashton kutcher film

Yes, i was just trying to be clever! Hadn't actually heard of the film until you mentioned it. There is a cracking viewer review on IMDB 

[A Boy Named Crow]

I've not always wondered about this,  only since reading the post by @trotter in the Signs Of The Times thread,  about a sign in a bar in an airport in Texas that banned guns from the premises. Now,  the point was that getting a gun that far into an airport would be odd... but that's what got me thinking,  are guns banned from planes and airports in the US? If they are, and it doesn't breach the right to bear arms... why not declare the whole country an airport???

Edited June 2, 2022 by A Boy Named Crow

[Maple Leaf]

2 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

I've not always wondered about this,  only since reading the post by @trotter in the Signs Of The Times thread,  about a sign in a bar in an airport in Texas that banned guns from the premises. Now,  the point was that getting a gun that far into an airport would be odd... but that's what got me thinking,  are guns banned from planes and airports in the US? If they are, and it doesn't breach the right to bear arms... why not declare the whole country an airport???

 

Which raises the obvious question ... if the Constitution says it's OK to ban guns in airports, why doesn't the Constitution allow a ban on guns anywhere outside a person's house?

 

Of course, if that question was posed to the current Supreme Court, they would immediately rule that the airport ban was unconstitutional.

[A Boy Named Crow]

1 minute ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Which raises the obvious question ... if the Constitution says it's OK to ban guns in airports, why doesn't the Constitution allow a ban on guns anywhere outside a person's house?

 

Of course, if that question was posed to the current Supreme Court, they would immediately rule that the airport ban was unconstitutional.

Maybe there should just be a blanket ban on bullets... or triggers? Guns are still available, people don't die,  it's a win- win surely???

[jambo89]

4 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

I've not always wondered about this,  only since reading the post by @trotter in the Signs Of The Times thread,  about a sign in a bar in an airport in Texas that banned guns from the premises. Now,  the point was that getting a gun that far into an airport would be odd... but that's what got me thinking,  are guns banned from planes and airports in the US? If they are, and it doesn't breach the right to bear arms... why not declare the whole country an airport???

Might be because the whole country is a toilet

 

It's a fair point though

[Samuel Camazzola]

Why is the scoring method in tennis as it is? 15, 30, 40...

 

1, 2, 3 etc would be suffice. 

 

 

[jambo89]

6 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Why is the scoring method in tennis as it is? 15, 30, 40...

 

1, 2, 3 etc would be suffice. 

 

 

I think I rememeber reading about this. Something to do with keeping the score on a clock, but not sure as don;t understand why its 40

[A Boy Named Crow]

7 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

Why is the scoring method in tennis as it is? 15, 30, 40...

 

1, 2, 3 etc would be suffice. 

 

 

Ah, I wondered the same myself a while back. It's because they used to record the score on a clock. 40 is used instead of 45 to allow them to count duece/advantage... apparently 

 

 

[A Boy Named Crow]

1 hour ago, jambo89 said:

Might be because the whole country is a toilet

 

It's a fair point though

I'd disagree, parts of America seem quite nice. Bloody wasted on the Americans though!

[Samuel Camazzola]

3 hours ago, jambo89 said:

I think I rememeber reading about this. Something to do with keeping the score on a clock, but not sure as don;t understand why its 40

 

3 hours ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

Ah, I wondered the same myself a while back. It's because they used to record the score on a clock. 40 is used instead of 45 to allow them to count duece/advantage... apparently 

 

 

👍 

 

I think there is now scope to change. 😄

 

Badminton and table tennis changed their scoring - tennis could follow. 

[A Boy Named Crow]

11 minutes ago, Samuel Camazzola said:

 

👍

 

I think there is now scope to change. 😄

 

Badminton and table tennis changed their scoring - tennis could follow. 

Tennis doesn’t strike me as being a particularly progressive sport,  they seem quite stuck in their ways!

[milky_26]

9 minutes ago, A Boy Named Crow said:

Tennis doesn’t strike me as being a particularly progressive sport,  they seem quite stuck in their ways!

just look at mauresmo's comments about womens matches not being a big enough draw to put them in the prime time slots. this is someone who is director of the french open

[Tazio]

My wife left me for her tennis coach. 
It turns out love means nothing to her. 

[A Boy Named Crow]

26 minutes ago, milky_26 said:

just look at mauresmo's comments about womens matches not being a big enough draw to put them in the prime time slots. this is someone who is director of the french open

Nah, I was thinking about the net.

 

Just think how much easier the game would be without the bloody net in the way. I'm sure somebody at Tennis HQ must've brought this up, I can only assume they persist with this totally unnecessary obstacle out of some slavish dedication to tradition!

[Maple Leaf]

2 hours ago, Tazio said:

My wife left me for her tennis coach. 
It turns out love means nothing to her. 

 

Excellent!  Should be in the "Really crap jokes" thread.  

[Samuel Camazzola]

6 hours ago, Tazio said:

My wife left me for her tennis coach. 
It turns out love means nothing to her. 

 

[gjcc]

14 hours ago, Maple Leaf said:

 

Excellent!  Should be in the "Really crap jokes" thread.  

“Really Deuce jokes”

[hughesie27]

Why are out of contract footballers called Free Agents.

[I P Knightley]

What's a "Hoose Jock"?

 

Am I one?

[Jambo_jim2001]

1 hour ago, I P Knightley said:

What's a "Hoose Jock"?

 

Am I one?

Like collies?

 

[Lone Striker]

Back in the 1200's,  1300's and 1400's  - long before newspapers or organised mail services - did any ordinary person  in Britain know who the King or Queen or Pope was ?   Or even what  King or Queen or Pope actually meant ?    Loads of  people couldn't read or write, so how did they know what was going on ?     Did they just live like Baldrick, blissfully unaware of pretty much everything except how sh1t life must have been back then  ? 

 

 

[Tazio]

9 minutes ago, Lone Striker said:

Back in the 1200's,  1300's and 1400's  - long before newspapers or organised mail services - did any ordinary person  in Britain know who the King or Queen or Pope was ?   Or even what  King or Queen or Pope actually meant ?    Loads of  people couldn't read or write, so how did they know what was going on ?     Did they just live like Baldrick, blissfully unaware of pretty much everything except how sh1t life must have been back then  ? 

 

 

I’m pretty sure there were people who traveled from town to town telling people the news in taverns etc for a bit of cash. Also I’d imagine town criers imparted information from the high ups. 

[Tazio]

Just watching the highlights of the England game and the usual array of flags with club names on them. Are they the only fans to do this? I’ve seen flags at Scotland games with the names of towns but not teams. It’s always struck me as very odd. 

[Maple Leaf]

4 hours ago, Lone Striker said:

Back in the 1200's,  1300's and 1400's  - long before newspapers or organised mail services - did any ordinary person  in Britain know who the King or Queen or Pope was ?   Or even what  King or Queen or Pope actually meant ?    Loads of  people couldn't read or write, so how did they know what was going on ?     Did they just live like Baldrick, blissfully unaware of pretty much everything except how sh1t life must have been back then  ? 

 

 

 

It was a strange world in those days.  Most people never left the village they were born in their entire lives.  I read that if you picked up a person and dropped them off ten miles away, they wouldn't be able to find their way home. In many cases the village didn't even have a name, or the residents didn't know the name, so the lost person wouldn't know how to ask for directions.

[¼½¾]

9 hours ago, Lone Striker said:

Back in the 1200's,  1300's and 1400's  - long before newspapers or organised mail services - did any ordinary person  in Britain know who the King or Queen or Pope was ?   Or even what  King or Queen or Pope actually meant ?    Loads of  people couldn't read or write, so how did they know what was going on ?     Did they just live like Baldrick, blissfully unaware of pretty much everything except how sh1t life must have been back then  ? 

 

 

To get seen by the populace, monarchs in those days did a thing called a Royal Progress. It was an annual event, usually taking place in the summer, where the whole royal court travelled all over the country, staying with different members of the nobility and gentry.

 

A similar question to your's: I've often wondered how, in the Wild West, before photography, how did people recognise outlaws from drawings on wanted posters?

[il Duce McTarkin]

16 hours ago, I P Knightley said:

What's a "Hoose Jock"?

 

Am I one?

 

'Hoose Jock' is a quasi-racist term coined by fervent nationalists to describe Scottish born unionists.

Although not directly racist in itself, the context in which it is employed and term from which it is derived most certainly is.

See also 'Uncle Tam'.

 

 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=house ******

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom

[I P Knightley]

21 minutes ago, Dirk McClaymore said:

 

'Hoose Jock' is a quasi-racist term coined by fervent nationalists to describe Scottish born unionists.

Although not directly racist in itself, the context in which it is employed and term from which it is derived most certainly is.

See also 'Uncle Tam'.

 

 

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=house ******

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom

Oh dear! How intolerant.

I'd got the Uncle Tam reference but hadn't heard "house n***o" before.

Edited June 8, 2022 by I P Knightley

[il Duce McTarkin]

8 minutes ago, I P Knightley said:

Oh dear! How intolerant.

I'd got the Uncle Tam reference but hadn't heard "house n***o" before.

 

Aye, I generally don't mind a spot of casual racism if it's subtly ironic or satirically offensive, but I'm really not a fan of this particular term.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Dirk McClaymore

[FWJ]

…. before this thread goes all McGodwin …

 

Pub quiz favourite - Sphairistike was the original name given to lawn tennis.

 

I was born in the mid-60’s.  How much further am I from New York now than then?  (Obviously using fixed points in both places…)

[il Duce McTarkin]

37 minutes ago, FWJ said:

I was born in the mid-60’s.  How much further am I from New York now than then?  (Obviously using fixed points in both places…)

 

Assuming that you were born in the UK, just shy of a meter and a half - or 4 feet and 8 inches if you were born just shy of the mid 60s.

 

Edited June 8, 2022 by Dirk McClaymore

[FWJ]

7 minutes ago, Dirk McClaymore said:

 

Assuming that you were born in the UK, just shy of a meter and a half - or 4 feet and 8 inches if you were born just shy of the mid 60s.

 

👍

Quite a lot - in geological terms.  I read that that big earthquake in Japan about 10 years ago shifted the whole island of Honshu 8 feet west.

[Lone Striker]

4 hours ago, Meathook said:

To get seen by the populace, monarchs in those days did a thing called a Royal Progress. It was an annual event, usually taking place in the summer, where the whole royal court travelled all over the country, staying with different members of the nobility and gentry.

 

A similar question to your's: I've often wondered how, in the Wild West, before photography, how did people recognise outlaws from drawings on wanted posters?

👍  Interesting question you've come up with.  When you think about it, there would almost be no point in trying to draw a picture of a wanted outlaw in the first place unless he had an easily recognisable feature - like a deformed ear, or big birthmark on his face.   

 

No photos, so just reliant on other Wild West folks describing some stuff to an artist.   Maybe most  of the wanted folk just looked much the same  on the posters ?   In which case, the sheriff might get a good response - with a tiny probability that the actual outlaw was one of the guys being fingered !  😉

 

 

 

 

[been here before]

14 minutes ago, Lone Striker said:

👍   with a tiny probability that the actual outlaw was one of the guys being fingered !  

 

[Lone Striker]

2 hours ago, been here before said:

 

🤣

[superjack]

[Ribble]

On 03/06/2022 at 09:20, hughesie27 said:

Why are out of contract footballers called Free Agents.

 

The term itself is derived from free will and applies to a person who isn't responsible to any authority, the free agent term in sports was really first used in 1976 in baseball where an adjudicator ruled that two players who had been playing for a year with no contracts were now deemed to be 'free agents' (although the free agency rules at the time of who could sign the players or even offer contracts was much more restricted than how we'd view a free agent now.

[Dick Dastardly]

If you had a solar powered led light shining on a solar panel could it power the led light?