Something New Every Day: Random & Newly Found Facts

[Ogdred Weary]

Who has the biggest winky?

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Who has the biggest winky?

I think we have his picture on another thread!* He claims it disables him, as it disqualifies him from ordinary activities. And he keeps tripping over it.

*Clothed but revealing.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

I think we have his picture on another thread!* He claims it disables him, as it disqualifies him from ordinary activities. And he keeps tripping over it.

*Clothed but revealing.

It's a rhetorical question: I HAVE THE BIGGEST WINKY, IT WILL DESTROY TIME ITSELF.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

I can see a five-legged race in the offing . . .

 

[Mythopoeika]

Who has the biggest winky?

Whoever has the most nukes.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Whoever has the most nukes.

 

[Yithian]

I must say, even living a stone's throw from North Korea I find Pakistan's possession of nuclear weapons the most troubling.

The others, for their various sins, are relatively stable countries.

There have been a number of stories in years past of how the Pakistan army and security services work to their own agenda and the upper ranks are riddled with questions of dubious loyalty and worrying sympathies. I felt the same with regard to the Soviet arsenal in the final days of the U.S.S.R. when some nuclear material supposedly went walkabout.

Everybody wails about the peril of the North Korean threat, but you could write the criteria for their actual usage on the back of a postage stamp: when facing certain invasion--ditto Israel.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

I bought three nukes from a bloke in the pub but they haven't put me on there, bastards.

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

Surely you only need one or two?

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Surely you only need one or two?

They were on offer, I can't resist a bargain.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I bought three nukes from a bloke in the pub but they haven't put me on there, bastards.

You misheard him saying 'Newky Brown'.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I must say, even living a stone's throw from North Korea I find Pakistan's possession of nuclear weapons the most troubling.

The others, for their various sins, are relatively stable countries.

There have been a number of stories in years past of how the Pakistan army and security services work to their own agenda and the upper ranks are riddled with questions of dubious loyalty and worrying sympathies. I felt the same with regard to the Soviet arsenal in the final days of the U.S.S.R. when some nuclear material supposedly went walkabout.

Everybody wails about the peril of the North Korean threat, but you could write the criteria for their actual usage on the back of a postage stamp: when facing certain invasion--ditto Israel.

Before I scrolled down to read your post, I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Also, with those Iranian nuclear contrefuges spinnng faster each day, how long before the "Mad Mullahs" have nukes?

 

[maximus otter]

...how long before the "Mad Mullahs" have nukes?

“A former deputy head of the UN’s atomic watchdog said Wednesday that Iran is capable of producing enough enriched uranium a nuclear bomb in six to eight months.

In an interview with Israel’s Army Radio, Olli Heinonen said that Israel and the Gulf states “have a reason to worry.”

Heinonen said that despite assertions to the contrary by the current leadership of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, which he left in 2010, Tehran has not been adhering to the 2015 nuclear deal.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-could-make-nuclear-weapon-in-6-8-months-says-former-iaea-deputy/

maximus otter

 

[Yithian]

Also, with those Iranian nuclear contrefuges spinnng faster each day, how long before the "Mad Mullahs" have nukes?

I have almost total faith that Israel will not permit Iran to gain nuclear weapons.

The only reason they have not repeated Operation Opera is that the Americans have assured them that they will handle it.

 

[maximus otter]

The only reason they have not repeated Operation Opera is that the Americans have assured them that they will handle it.

Coincidentally (heh-heh...) the USA has developed the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is capable of destroying hardened targets 200’ underground:

They need to work on their accuracy, though. It must have missed that traffic cone by at least six inches.

maximus otter

 

[Yithian]

Today I learnt that there is a disorder called orthosomnia. Those who suffer from it are so obsessed with getting an optimum night's sleep that they can lose sleep fretting about the possibility of failing to do so.

Those who use modern sleep-monitoring apps and gadgets are particularly susceptible to this.

Modern humans are broken:
https://www.health.com/sleep/what-is-orthosomnia

 

[Yithian]

Coincidentally (heh-heh...) the USA has developed the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which is capable of destroying hardened targets 200’ underground:

They need to work on their accuracy, though. It must have missed that traffic cone by at least six inches.

maximus otter

There's something hypnotic about the way that the way they penetrate and vanish beneath the surface before detonation. Did you see the (lower-yield) South Korean missile version a few years back?

 

[maximus otter]

There's something hypnotic about the way that the way they penetrate and vanish beneath the surface before detonation. Did you see the (lower-yield) South Korean missile version a few years back?

Fascinating.

While looking up the YouTube video of the MOP, I idly did a few minutes’ research on WW2 bombing accuracy:

“The US defined the target area as being a 1,000 ft (300 m) radius circle around the target point - for the majority of USAAF attacks only about 20% of the bombs dropped struck in this area.

[During] a raid in the Northern Hemisphere summer of 1944 by 47 B-29's on Japan's Yawata Steel Works from bases in China. Only one plane actually hit the target area, and only with one of its bombs. This single 500 lb (230 kg) general purpose bomb represented one quarter of one percent of the 376 bombs dropped over Yawata on that mission.

It took 108 B-17 bombers, crewed by 1,080 airmen, dropping 648 bombs to guarantee a 96 percent chance of getting just two hits inside a 400 x 500 ft (150 m) German power-generation plant.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_bombing#World_War_II

Now? Artillery officers can decide through which house window they want a shell or rocket to enter, from miles sway.

maximus otter

 

[Yithian]

Now? Artillery officers can decide through which house window they want a shell or rocket to enter, from miles sway.

maximus otter

Did you ever see the Bill Hicks sketch on 'smart fruit'?

When it comes to Second World War bombing accuracy, my mind usually turns to Cassino. The Americans were attempting to bomb a single very large monastery atop a massif, and bomb it they did--along with a great many other things near and far from this target.

Not least among those things were the personal caravan of the commander of the British Eighth Army (Oliver Leese) and the French Corps HQ, twelve miles away from Cassino.

As if the point was not clear enough, General Mark Clark who had himself approved the bombing was at his command post seventeen miles from the target and watched sixteen bombs strike the ground nearby.

Edit:

 

[pandacracker]

There's something hypnotic about the way that the way they penetrate and vanish beneath the surface before detonation. Did you see the (lower-yield) South Korean missile version a few years back?

At around the 30 second mark you can see someone in the tunnel on the left trying to run away. I don't think they make it!

 

[maximus otter]

At around the 30 second mark you can see someone in the tunnel on the left trying to run away. I don't think they make it!

l’m hoping that that was a wooden test dummy. Shortly thereafter, what appears to be chunks of sheet wood are ejected with the blast cloud.

If l’m wrong, at least Mrs. Kim can get away with a smaller turkey this Christmas...

maximus otter

 

[pandacracker]

l’m hoping that that was a wooden test dummy. Shortly thereafter, what appears to be chunks of sheet wood are ejected with the blast cloud.

If l’m wrong, at least Mrs. Kim can get away with a smaller turkey this Christmas...

maximus otter

I think you're right. On closer inspection what looks like a running motion is the dummy's limbs being moved by the blast.

Phew.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

The human population of our planet is (give or take a few) 7,699,616,839.

Of those, only 3,348 are 7ft or taller.

Of those, only 4 are 8ft or taller.

From today's Quora (ref. greaterancestors.com)

So... Jeremy Clarkson, Greg Davies and Richard Osman...

... nope, I can only think of three people who are 8ft tall. Who's the fourth?

 

[EnolaGaia]

Assuming this listing:

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

is up to date ...

There are five known people whose height is at or above 8' 0" tall. One of them (Jinnat Ali of Bangladesh) has not been officially measured by Guinness or an equivalent international authority.

 

[Ogdred Weary]

Did you ever see the Bill Hicks sketch on 'smart fruit'?

When it comes to Second World War bombing accuracy, my mind usually turns to Cassino. The Americans were attempting to bomb a single very large monastery atop a massif, and bomb it they did--along with a great many other things near and far from this target.

Not least among those things were the personal caravan of the commander of the British Eighth Army (Oliver Leese) and the French Corps HQ, twelve miles away from Cassino.

As if the point was not clear enough, General Mark Clark who had himself approved the bombing was at his command post seventeen miles from the target and watched sixteen bombs strike the ground nearby.

Edit:

I recall my dad saying that members of his father's generation who had served in WW2, had a saying:

"When British fired, the Germans ducked. When the Germans fired, the British ducked. When the Americans fired, every bugger ducked."

 

[Yithian]

This has several surprises for me. Is this kind of information known to Americans themselves?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Hmmm. That can't be right.

 

[Yithian]

Hmmm. That can't be right.

Which language/state are you not buying?

 

[EnolaGaia]

This has several surprises for me. Is this kind of information known to Americans themselves? ...

Yes - if they bother to look or happen to see the occasional news item on this sort of subject.

If you remove the two most commonly spoken languages (English and Spanish) it leaves you with the language most widely spoken in-home based on either:

- a sizable remaining population of Native Americans (Alaska; Arizona; New Mexico; South Dakota);
- geographic proximity to an adjacent region with significant non-English / Spanish language use (Maine: New Hampshire; Vermont); or
- the historical residue from a past or recent wave of settling / immigration (all the rest).

It's important to bear in mind this particular survey addresses language spoken in the home rather than language spoken in the community at large.

 

[Yithian]

Yes - if they bother to look or happen to see the occasional news item on this sort of subject.

If you remove the two most commonly spoken languages (English and Spanish) it leaves you with the language most widely spoken in-home based on either:

- a sizable remaining population of Native Americans (Alaska; Arizona; New Mexico; South Dakota);
- geographic proximity to an adjacent region with significant non-English / Spanish language use (Maine: New Hampshire; Vermont); or
- the historical residue from a past or recent wave of settling / immigration (all the rest).

It's important to bear in mind this particular survey addresses language spoken in the home rather than language spoken in the community at large.

I appreciate that.

It came up quite often in a discussion of why Hindi doesn't feature:

1) Being that some Indian families deliberately don't use their native language at home.
2) That many immigrants from Southern India have little knowledge of Hindi and use other Indian tongues.

The mystery being why we have 'Chinese' instead of Mandarin.