Saturday, June 22, 2013
Three German soldiers in body armor and gas masks demonstrate operating a 2cm Becker-Flugzeugkanone, an anti-aircraft gun, Western Front, circa 1918
See A Supermoon In The Sky This Weekend
This Sunday at 7 a.m. ET, the moon will reach its annual perigee, its closest point to Earth for all of 2013. Thirty-two minutes after that, the moon will turn full. This celestial combination will bring about the biggest full moon of the year, a so-called supermoon.This supermoon won't be quite as super as the one we saw on March 19th, 2011, when the moon was only 221,565 miles from Earth, the closest it had been in 20 years. Sunday's supermoon will be a bit more distant at 221,824 miles away. (That's a difference of 259 miles, to save you the calculation.)
The supermoon of 2011 passed without apocalypse, but a few ships ended up stranded thanks to low tide and the moon's particularly strong pull when close. This year's supermoon will cause ocean tides to be higher and lower than usual.
Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know ???
Strange Things You Likely
Didn't Know ???
Didn't Know ???
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and
down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen
in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily!
(That explains a few mysteries....)Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per
side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple and silver.Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space
because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.Weatherman Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald.If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will
instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who was the sadist who
discovered this??)Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down
so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in
the USA."The original name for butterfly was flutterby.The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player
for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot
sink into quicksand.Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin
look-alike contest.An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman
to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book
most often stolen from public libraries.The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!Thanks to Deborah for submitting this!!And another via email --this comes by Suzie T....In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb"The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.Men can read smaller print then women can; women can hear better.It is impossible to lick your elbow.The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: AlaskaThe average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius CaesarIf a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?A. Their birthplace.Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?A. One thousandQ. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. HoneyIn Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight."It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the "honeymoon".In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them, "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.
6 Insane Coincidences You Won't Believe Actually Happened
We're not going to bullshit you. Look hard enough, and you can find "amazing" coincidences anywhere. With a whole universe to work with, sometimes the stars are going to align just right.
But, even cynical types like us have to admit that sometimes this stuff can get downright creepy.
#6.
A Terrifyingly Accurate Prediction by Edgar Allan Poe
In 1838, future horror-god Edgar Allan Poe released a book called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, his only full novel. The book was such a bomb that Poe eventually agreed with his critics that it was "a very silly book" (yet still good enough to inspire heavyweights like Jules Verne and Herman Melville to write Moby Dick and An Antarctic Mystery--yes, Poe was a badass).
PIMP.
Where it Gets Weird:
Poe did a Blair Witch thing with his novel, which claimed to be based on true events. This turned out to be a half-truth: The real life events simply had not happened yet.
One scene in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket visits a whaling ship lost at sea, taking with it all but four crewmen. Out of food, the men drew lots to see who would be eaten, the unfortunate decision landing on a young cabin boy named Richard Parker.
Forty-six years later, there was an actual disaster at sea involving the Mignonette. It became famous due to the legal consequences of some gruesome events on board, specifically the way the men drew lots and decided to eat their cabin boy...
Where it Gets Even Weirder:
...who was named Richard Parker.
Richard Parker: aged 17 years.
The bizarre story was discovered decades later by Nigel Parker, a distant cousin of the Richard Parker who got eaten. You can only imagine what the fuck went through his mind when he stumbled upon the connection.
Hell, this was us!
And that would go down as the freakiest unintentional prediction of future events in a work of fiction, if it were not completely blown away by...
#5.
Morgan Robertson Writes About the Titanic... 14 Years Early
A hundred years before James Cameron turned douchebaggery into an art form at the Oscars, American author Morgan Robertson wrote a shitty book called Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, about the sinking of an "unsinkable" ocean liner. When you see the cover, you figure you're pretty clearly looking at a fictionalized version of the Titanic story.
No surprise there; it's a story that's been told over and over (there were 13 Titanic movies before Cameron's, including one by the Nazis) but Robertson's book was first.
Where it Gets Weird:
He was so eager to be first, apparently, that he didn't bother to wait for the Titanic to actually sink before writing about it. The Wreck of the Titan was published in 1898, 14 years before RMS Titanic was even finished being [cheaply] built.
The similarities between Robertson's work and the Titanic disaster are so astounding that one has to imagine if White Star Line built Titanic to Robertson's specs as a dare. The Titan was described as "the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men," "equal to that of a first class hotel," and, of course, "unsinkable".
Both ships were British-owned steel vessels, both around 800 feet long and sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic, in April, "around midnight." Sound like enough to keep you up at night? Maybe that's why Robertson republished the book in 1912 just in case enough people didn't know that he wrote it.
And you thought this guy was an ass.
Where it Gets Even Weirder:
While the novel does bear some curious coincidences with the Titanic disaster, there are quite a few things that Robertson got flat wrong. For one, the Titanic did not crash into an iceberg "400 miles from Newfoundland" at 25 knots. It crashed into an iceberg 400 miles from Newfoundland at 22.5 knots.
Wait, what the fuck? That's one hell of a lucky guess!
What 41.1 million square miles looks like.
But maybe the weirdest thing about Titan were points that had nothing to do with the story, but check out after numerous inquires and expeditions to the Titanic wreck site.
For one, both the Titan and the Titanic had too few lifeboats to accommodate every passenger on board; the Titan carrying "as few as the law allowed." While Robertson decided to be generous and include four lifeboats more on his ship than Titanic, it's an odd point to bring up when you consider that lifeboats had nothing to do with the fucking story. When Titan hit the iceberg (starboard bow, naturally), the ship sank immediately, making the point made about lifeboats inconsequential. Why the fuck mention this?!
It'd be like HAL 9000 addressing the danger posed by O-rings at low temperature decades before the Challenger disaster.
#4.
The Civil War Keeps Finding Wilmer McLean
When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, Wilmer McLean of Virginia was too old and "whatever" for warfighting. Unfortunately, he also happened to live smack dab on the road between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA, the respective capitals of the Union and Confederacy.
The first battle of the Civil War pretty much happened at this guy's place. The Battle of Bull Run, broke out on July 21, 1861 near Manassas, Virginia--McLean's hometown. Confederate Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard needed a building to serve as headquarters for his staff and many initials, and when he saw Wilmer McLean's cozy house, he figured "what the fuck..." and camped there.
Major war foul.
This immediately subjected the building to artillery fire, and one cannonball somehow found its way down the poor bastard's chimney. The entire building should have gone up like the Death Star, yet miraculously no one was hurt.
Where it Gets Weird:
But, hey, an insane amount of fighting occurred along that road. A lot of people between Richmond and DC could say a battle happened on their front lawn. And, after this narrow escape with the Reaper in his very own home, McLean figured that moving his family out of No Man's Land would be a smart bet.
However, the man took so long to skip town that when 1862 rolled around, a battle nearly twice as large and four times as bloody exploded just outside his front door again--the Second Battle of Bull Run. After dodging this second bullet the size of Civil War battlefield, McLean finally sold and moved his family as far away as he could afford.
Where it Gets Even Weirder:
When Wilmer settled on a cottage in Clover Hill, Virginia, the town that later changed its name to Appomattox Court House. By 1865, Robert E. Lee's "invincible" Army of North Virginia was too busy having the ever-loving shit kicked out of it by General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army to defend Richmond. So after abandoning their capital, Lee's sorry-excuse-for-an-army was chased by Grant all across Virginia to... fucking Appomattox Court House.
The armies of the Civil War, taking the battle to wherever Wilmer happened to be that day.
On April 9, 1865, General Lee officially surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War. The site for his surrender: the parlor of Wilmer McLean's new home.
Once the two armies left (and helped themselves to some furniture as souvenirs), the now-bankrupt McLean remarked: "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor," which is probably the classiest way a man can handle the single most shit-luck in American history.
Should've just moved to Gettysburg.
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