WTF! Stranger than fiction facts.

[JWL]

7 minutes ago, trotter said:

As was the successor of what is now referred to as the US Navy - John Paul Jones - born in Kirkcudbrightshire. Who at various points in his life fought for the UK, Imperial Russia and the US. Fascinating character. I think he has the record for the number of ships named after him. 

 

Another one. Almost 4x the number of people died making the Nazi V2 rocket then were by being hit by it.

 

And a final: the longest 'putt' ever made was on Concorde. The European Ryder Cup team going to the US placed a glass at the front of the cabin, the ball was played from the rear. Jose Maria Olazabel took the shot, although it was only 150 feet or so, at cruising speed the ball actually traveled just shy of 10 miles over the ground. 

 

Pretty sure it was Bernhard Langer.

[trotter]

Oh, and another one:

 

Although not much anymore, whenever extremely pure steel is required for sensitive applications, it is harvested solely from ships sunk prior to 1945. The reason being that all iron/steel after that is contaminated with radioactive fallout following testing and use of nuclear weapons. It's known as 'low background steel'. 

[trotter]

1 minute ago, JWL said:

 

Pretty sure it was Bernhard Langer.

http://www.concordespeakers.com/other-aircraft-we-ve-flown/18-concorde-lesser-known-facts#:~:text=On 21st September 1999 Spain's,in the cup first time.

 

Although to be fair, it became a bit of a game over the years, so he may well have done it at some point. 

Edited January 8 by trotter

[Ulysses]

4 minutes ago, JWL said:

 

That's a famous QI one. Can't recall the exact equation but something like if every start in our galaxy had a trillion planets, each with a trillion people living on them, and each of these people had a trillion pack of cards, only now, since the beginning of time would they start to duplicate a shuffle. In fact, I actually think it's more than that but that's the gist and obviously the atom one is a headbreaker. If you only had ten cards, it could take you around five years to repeat a shuffle. Mental/

 

McGill University described it in a different way:

 

"It seems unbelievable, but there are somewhere in the range of 8x10⁶⁷ ways to sort a deck of cards. That’s an 8 followed by 67 zeros. To put that in perspective, even if someone could rearrange a deck of cards every second of the universe’s total existence, the universe would end before they would get even one billionth of the way to finding a repeat."

 

 

[Gorgiewave]

There are about 100,000 convicted murderers in the USA.

 

There are about 22,000 Protestant denominations.

[Ulysses]

The formal directions for sending legislation from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, or returning Bills from the Lords to the Commons, are written in French.

 

House of Lords - Companion to Standing Orders - Companion to Standing Orders (parliament.uk)

 

 

[periodictabledancer]

58 minutes ago, trotter said:

 

Another one. Almost 4x the number of people died making the Nazi V2 rocket then were by being hit by it.

 

 

I live roughly 130 NW of London and where I now live had a V2 land just short of us.

Most folk around here have no clue but I talk to the old timers 😉,  they know.

[periodictabledancer]

8 minutes ago, Ulysses said:

The formal directions for sending legislation from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, or returning Bills from the Lords to the Commons, are written in French.

 

House of Lords - Companion to Standing Orders - Companion to Standing Orders (parliament.uk)

 

 

I thought we "took back control"...

 

🤣

[JudyJudyJudy]

1 hour ago, Ulysses said:

 

I'd say his wife might not have agreed with you.   

Why what did he do ? FFS . I meant as a writer where he highlighted poverty and inequality and other issues in his various books .

[Ulysses]

8 minutes ago, JudyJudyJudy said:

Why what did he do ? FFS . I meant as a writer where he highlighted poverty and inequality and other issues in his various books .

 

In his mid-40s, he claimed his wife had mental issues and tried to have her locked up in an institution so he could shack up with an 18-year old.  

[periodictabledancer]

The Scottish guy in Band of Brothers who notoriously shot a German soldier in the head was born in Edinburgh , Scotland (Gorgie) and died in Glasgow, Canada. 

[Ribble]

12 hours ago, Ulysses said:

 

McGill University described it in a different way:

 

"It seems unbelievable, but there are somewhere in the range of 8x10⁶⁷ ways to sort a deck of cards. That’s an 8 followed by 67 zeros. To put that in perspective, even if someone could rearrange a deck of cards every second of the universe’s total existence, the universe would end before they would get even one billionth of the way to finding a repeat."

 

 

 

The above is the purely statistical answer of 'if you randomly rearrange 52 cards, how many times before you would statistically repeat', if you also account for starting with a new deck with the cards in suit order, the same dealer using the same style of shuffle for an exact amount of time then the chances of a repeat must be much higher.

Edited January 9 by Ribble

[hughesie27]

1 minute ago, Ribble said:

 

The above is the purely statistical answer of 'if you randomly rearrange 52 cards, how many times before you would statistically repeat', if you also account for starting with a new deck with the cards in suit order, the same dealer using the same style of shuffle for an exact amount of time then the chances of a repeat must be much higher.

One of the links suggests it needs to be rifle shuffled 7 times to be considered "shuffled".

[Ulysses]

15 minutes ago, Ribble said:

 

The above is the purely statistical answer of 'if you randomly rearrange 52 cards, how many times before you would statistically repeat', if you also account for starting with a new deck with the cards in suit order, the same dealer using the same style of shuffle for an exact amount of time then the chances of a repeat must be much higher.

 

I'd hope it was a purely statistical answer, and not a reflection of the failed poker career of a lecturer in Mathematics.

[RobboM]

 

[JWL]

The entry to the Panama Canal from the Pacific Ocean (West Side) is further east than the entry on the Atlantic Ocean (East Side). Or something like that.

Edited January 9 by JWL

[Dawnrazor]

Does Edinburgh not lie further west that Bristol‽

[Tazio]

6 minutes ago, Dawnrazor said:

Does Edinburgh not lie further west that Bristol‽

And Swansea. 

[Day@theraces]

On 09/01/2024 at 00:50, periodictabledancer said:

The Scottish guy in Band of Brothers who notoriously shot a German soldier in the head was born in Edinburgh , Scotland (Gorgie) and died in Glasgow, Canada. 

 

Well portrayed in the series. Even his own men were wary of him.

[il Duce McTarkin]

On 08/01/2024 at 11:32, leginten said:

The Romans gave the name Hibernia to Ireland because they never lost a game there.

 

 

On 08/01/2024 at 22:43, JudyJudyJudy said:

Fascinating . Charles Dickens was a good  man 

 

No he wasn't.

[Loorimer]

If you could, folding a piece of paper in half 42 times would reach the moon. 

[Chimp]

On 09/01/2024 at 00:50, periodictabledancer said:

The Scottish guy in Band of Brothers who notoriously shot a German soldier in the head was born in Edinburgh , Scotland (Gorgie) and died in Glasgow, Canada. 

 

Yep, Ronald Spiers.

[milky_26]

1 hour ago, Loorimer said:

If you could, folding a piece of paper in half 42 times would reach the moon. 

I saw somewhere but can't find it now that mathematically you can only fold a piece of paper around 14 times and to do it you need a long and thin piece of paper. For a standard A4 sheet you will most likely struggle to make 7 folds

[kila]

19 minutes ago, milky_26 said:

I saw somewhere but can't find it now that mathematically you can only fold a piece of paper around 14 times and to do it you need a long and thin piece of paper. For a standard A4 sheet you will most likely struggle to make 7 folds

 

During lockdown I imagine a lot of folk were folding toilet paper 14 times

[Loorimer]

1 hour ago, milky_26 said:

I saw somewhere but can't find it now that mathematically you can only fold a piece of paper around 14 times and to do it you need a long and thin piece of paper. For a standard A4 sheet you will most likely struggle to make 7 folds

 

That would explain the money spent on the Apollo program 😄

[FWJ]

On 08/01/2024 at 23:40, trotter said:

http://www.concordespeakers.com/other-aircraft-we-ve-flown/18-concorde-lesser-known-facts#:~:text=On 21st September 1999 Spain's,in the cup first time.

 

Although to be fair, it became a bit of a game over the years, so he may well have done it at some point. 

Wasn’t the holder of ‘longest televised putt’ for a long time Terry Wogan?

 

The first person to miss a penalty in the 1994 World Cup Finals was Diana Ross.

Edited January 10 by FWJ

[Tazio]

11 minutes ago, FWJ said:

Wasn’t the holder of ‘longest televised putt’ for a long time Terry Wogan?

 

 

Who then lost the record to Michael Phelps the swimmer in a pro-celebrity tournament. 

[FWJ]

10 minutes ago, Tazio said:

Who then lost the record to Michael Phelps the swimmer in a pro-celebrity tournament. 

👍  nice one!

 

These are pub-quiz gold

[Samuel Camazzola]

2 hours ago, Tazio said:

Who then lost the record to Michael Phelps the swimmer in a pro-celebrity tournament. 

At the Dunhill. 👍 

[Maple Leaf]

21 hours ago, Dawnrazor said:

Does Edinburgh not lie further west that Bristol‽

And Reno Nevada is further west than Los Angeles California.

[FWJ]

There’s a persistent rumour that in 1960s negotiations the Danish foreign minister got a bit p****d and in a you’re-my-best-mate moment signed over tens of thousands of sq kilometres of seabed to Norway.

After a couple of years of bemusement the Norwegians thought “I wonder what would happen if I drilled down here….”

Edited January 10 by FWJ

[JWL]

Bobby Farrell of Boney M fame died in Russia on the same date that Rasputin was born on.

[RobboM]

14 minutes ago, JWL said:

Bobby Farrell of Boney M fame died in Russia on the same date that Rasputin was born on.

[Maple Leaf]

4 hours ago, JWL said:

Bobby Farrell of Boney M fame died in Russia on the same date that Rasputin was born on.

Ohh, those Russians!  (needs to be said in a deep voice)

[ri Alban]

If the earth was the size of a cue ball, it would be smoother than the cue ball. 

[Samuel Camazzola]

On 09/01/2024 at 23:56, Dawnrazor said:

Does Edinburgh not lie further west that Bristol‽

As well as being the most westerly US State, Alaska is also the most eastern. 

[redjambo]

1 hour ago, ri Alban said:

If the earth was the size of a cue ball, it would be smoother than the cue ball. 

 

Mostly. Over most of its surface it would be much smoother, but its peaks and troughs (deep oceans and high mountains) would stand out more than the peaks and troughs on a cue ball and parts would therefore feel like fine sandpaper.

 

https://billiards.colostate.edu/bd_articles/2013/june13.pdf

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/ejhomq/self_is_the_earth_really_smoother_and_rounder/

 

[ri Alban]

1 hour ago, redjambo said:

 

Mostly. Over most of its surface it would be much smoother, but its peaks and troughs (deep oceans and high mountains) would stand out more than the peaks and troughs on a cue ball and parts would therefore feel like fine sandpaper.

 

https://billiards.colostate.edu/bd_articles/2013/june13.pdf

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/comments/ejhomq/self_is_the_earth_really_smoother_and_rounder/

 

Not according to supermooth Neil. (Degrasse Tyson)

 

[Benny Klack]

It’s not possible to see the Great Wall of China from the moon. 

[Joey J J Jr Shabadoo]

On 02/01/2024 at 15:30, Lone Striker said:

Yes, quite possibly.  The Oliver STone documentary brought to light the infighting &  serious disagreements  between LBJ and JFK.  Can't remember the details, but the inference was that events surrounding the choice of cavalcade route, plus unexplained deviation from emergency protocol for the body immediately after the shooting, plus missing  testimony from 2 witnesses at the first official Congressional inquiry   all raised suspicion that LBJ had been involved somehow in the plot, even if it was just to turn a blind eye to what he knew.

 

 

 

On 02/01/2024 at 21:30, Maple Leaf said:

I don't want the thread to become a discussion on the Kennedy assassination, but an unbiased view of all the evidence would indicate that the CIA was involved, as was the Chicago Mafia.  And the paraffin tests on Lee Harvey Oswald were negative, proving that he did not fire a rifle that day.  Before he was murdered to shut him up, Oswald declared that he was a patsy, and he was.

I read that George H W Bush was part of the Dallas CIA, at the time, and he and LBJ we're instrumental in changing the presidential parade to go via Dealey Plaza.

Also, the Soviet Union handed over their dossier on JFK, as they did not want blamed for the assassination. Their intelligence said the person responsible was a right wing oil baron, from Texas, with links to Latin America. Bush had links to Cuba, and owned an oil company.

[Pap]

Its no even WTF but its quite cool.

 

Theres an actor that was in Basil Rathbones's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939 / One year after Hound) who is still alive.

[superjack]

Here are a couple I just read.

Nintendo were founded when Jack the ripper was still committing murders.

Fax machines were invented at a time that would have allowed a samurai to send a fax to Abraham Lincoln. 

[milky_26]

4 minutes ago, superjack said:

Here are a couple I just read.

Nintendo were founded when Jack the ripper was still committing murders.

Fax machines were invented at a time that would have allowed a samurai to send a fax to Abraham Lincoln. 

nintendo were founded in 1889 as a playing card company 

[JudyJudyJudy]

6 hours ago, Pap said:

Its no even WTF but its quite cool.

 

Theres an actor that was in Basil Rathbones's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939 / One year after Hound) who is still alive.

There are still a few actors / actresses kicking about who were in films in the 30s. Obviously were babies or children.  Ill need to look up and see what actor you are referring to?  

[JudyJudyJudy]

6 hours ago, Pap said:

Its no even WTF but its quite cool.

 

Theres an actor that was in Basil Rathbones's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939 / One year after Hound) who is still alive.

Terry Kilburn - Wikipedia

[ri Alban]

Your foot is the length of your forearm. Your nose is the length of your index finger from the top of your thumb resting against it.

[Daktari]

They turn Niagara Falls down at night. There are hydroelectric dams around the waterfalls for power generation, and both the American and Canadian authorities divert more of the river through them at night when there aren't tourists around. During the day (and especially in peak season) they let more of the water through so the waterfall looks more spectacular. At night time, this can cut the flow of water over the falls by 75%.

[Daktari]

The entire time period in which humans developed until now, would fit about 120x between the era of stegosaurus and the era in which Tyrannosaurus Rex lived. The time period is so huge in fact, that we are closer to some dinosaurs time wise, than some dinosaurs are to eachother.

[jamboj]

France's longest land border is with Brazil

[Pap]

Brother Walfrid formed Celtic FC a few months after the Jack The Ripper murders ended. Make of that what you will.