The fun facts thread.
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It is illegal to ship live bees to England.
...nothing is mentioned of -dead- bees, however.
Either way, good luck getting that through customs.
...nothing is mentioned of -dead- bees, however.
Either way, good luck getting that through customs.
The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas as it contains a formula for making beer at home.
A banana is a berry. Before you ask, I have just had higher plants in university. The plant is however a herb because the ability to grow trees disappeared at some point in evolution before it reappeared again.Segadroid said:
The actual fruit type on strawberries is a nut, those nuts are the green dots that cover the surface, the red is actually a flower.
Coconut is not a nut, but a drupe. Coconut palms have the same thickness in their entire life.
Raspberries are multiple small drupes that end up looking like one fruit.
taxi drivers in New South Wales are required by law to carry a bale of hay in the boot to feed their horse.
-The primary killing mechanism of a modern bullet isn't actually the initial tissue damaged caused by an object boring a small tunnel through the body, but the shockwave [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_shock] it sends through your tissue as the bullet's kinetic energy is absorbed by the body, rupturing organs, blood vessels, and especially neurological structures in the vicinity of the impact. This is why hollowpoint bullets are more lethal than solid rounds; contrary to the popular belief that they will "take a bigger chunk out of you", the expansion of the slug increases its surface area and slows it to a stop much more quickly, ensuring that all of its energy is transferred rapidly and completely; this, in turn, significantly increases the magnitude of the trauma caused.
-Grenades and artillery shells are not commonly designed to cause damage with the blast wave caused by their detonation (though this can certainly be deadly, its casualty radius is small as the force of the blast dissipates quickly). Typically, an anti-personnel grenade or general-purpose artillery shell will rely on shrapnel (small metal pieces of the casing sent in all directions by the explosion) to achieve damage. The iconic "pineapple" grenade used by American infantry in WWII originally relied on its casing to fragment into shrapnel (hence the scoring on its surface), but its fragmentation pattern proved too inconsistent; contemporary frag grenades generally consist of a thin outer shell, and just beneath it, a good length of segmented wire wrapped around its explosive core, which results in an even pattern.
-The easily-recognized M16 was first fielded in the Vietnam conflict as the M16A1, to disastrous results. Marketed as a "self-cleaning rifle", the complicated weapon was issued without cleaning kits. Once fielded in the jungles and exposed to the elements, it would jam with astounding frequency, rendering its user unable to fire the weapon and taking great amounts of time to repair, which frequently resulted in the unnecessary death of its operator. While its modern variants are much more reliable, a recurring complaint among servicemen is that its 5.56x45mm (a small, high-velocity round, specifically designed to pierce armor as a counter to the threat of a Soviet invasion) will go clean through an unarmored insurgent and cause minimal damage.
-The arc of a Javelin missile's flight path is intended to bring it down on the top of a vehicle, where its armor is weakest. When engaging aircraft, its trajectory is much more direct.
-In WWI, British troops would often file the point off their bayonets so that it would glance off an enemy's ribs and go between them, rather than getting stuck.
-The XM8, an assault rifle featured prominently in BFBC2, is actually a prototype weapon based on the German G36. It was intended to replace the M16/M4 family of weapons, but failed the US military's trials. One particularly alarming feature was that the plastic grips would melt after prolonged firing. Also, it's a stupid-looking rifle that strongly resembles a fish.
-The .45ACP round was designed in the early 1900's for use in the Philippines against mounted cavalry. The round was intended to be large enough to take down a horse, and has been used in conflicts long after horses were made obsolete due to its superior manstopping capabilities.
-Suppressors (also colloquially known as "silencers") do not actually make a firearm quiet, they simply mask its report (the deafening "bang"), making the shooter more difficult to locate at a distance and making the resulting clatter harder to identify as a gunshot. When being fired, a suppressed weapon can usually be expected to be at least as loud as a pneumatic nail gun, which is to say, still quite loud.
-While the Barrett M82A1 (the most commonly depicted .50BMG rifle) is frequently seen in works of fiction being used like any other sniper rifle, in actuality it weighs thirty pounds, making it very difficult to fire accurately while standing.
-Despite its video game incarnations losing effect beyond ten feet, a combat shotgun firing 00 buck retains effectiveness at distances in excess of 70 yards. At close range, it needs to be fired as carefully as any other weapon, as the spread absolutely will not compensate for poor aim.
-The primary weapon of the A-10 Thunderbolt (known as the "Warthog" for its relative ugliness for a turbine-powered aircraft) is a tremendously powerful rotary cannon that fires 30mm depleted uranium shells. It can only fire a continuous burst for eight seconds before it will begin to melt. It is scary as fuck. (1:10)
-Grenades and artillery shells are not commonly designed to cause damage with the blast wave caused by their detonation (though this can certainly be deadly, its casualty radius is small as the force of the blast dissipates quickly). Typically, an anti-personnel grenade or general-purpose artillery shell will rely on shrapnel (small metal pieces of the casing sent in all directions by the explosion) to achieve damage. The iconic "pineapple" grenade used by American infantry in WWII originally relied on its casing to fragment into shrapnel (hence the scoring on its surface), but its fragmentation pattern proved too inconsistent; contemporary frag grenades generally consist of a thin outer shell, and just beneath it, a good length of segmented wire wrapped around its explosive core, which results in an even pattern.
-The easily-recognized M16 was first fielded in the Vietnam conflict as the M16A1, to disastrous results. Marketed as a "self-cleaning rifle", the complicated weapon was issued without cleaning kits. Once fielded in the jungles and exposed to the elements, it would jam with astounding frequency, rendering its user unable to fire the weapon and taking great amounts of time to repair, which frequently resulted in the unnecessary death of its operator. While its modern variants are much more reliable, a recurring complaint among servicemen is that its 5.56x45mm (a small, high-velocity round, specifically designed to pierce armor as a counter to the threat of a Soviet invasion) will go clean through an unarmored insurgent and cause minimal damage.
-The arc of a Javelin missile's flight path is intended to bring it down on the top of a vehicle, where its armor is weakest. When engaging aircraft, its trajectory is much more direct.
-In WWI, British troops would often file the point off their bayonets so that it would glance off an enemy's ribs and go between them, rather than getting stuck.
-The XM8, an assault rifle featured prominently in BFBC2, is actually a prototype weapon based on the German G36. It was intended to replace the M16/M4 family of weapons, but failed the US military's trials. One particularly alarming feature was that the plastic grips would melt after prolonged firing. Also, it's a stupid-looking rifle that strongly resembles a fish.
-The .45ACP round was designed in the early 1900's for use in the Philippines against mounted cavalry. The round was intended to be large enough to take down a horse, and has been used in conflicts long after horses were made obsolete due to its superior manstopping capabilities.
-Suppressors (also colloquially known as "silencers") do not actually make a firearm quiet, they simply mask its report (the deafening "bang"), making the shooter more difficult to locate at a distance and making the resulting clatter harder to identify as a gunshot. When being fired, a suppressed weapon can usually be expected to be at least as loud as a pneumatic nail gun, which is to say, still quite loud.
-While the Barrett M82A1 (the most commonly depicted .50BMG rifle) is frequently seen in works of fiction being used like any other sniper rifle, in actuality it weighs thirty pounds, making it very difficult to fire accurately while standing.
-Despite its video game incarnations losing effect beyond ten feet, a combat shotgun firing 00 buck retains effectiveness at distances in excess of 70 yards. At close range, it needs to be fired as carefully as any other weapon, as the spread absolutely will not compensate for poor aim.
-The primary weapon of the A-10 Thunderbolt (known as the "Warthog" for its relative ugliness for a turbine-powered aircraft) is a tremendously powerful rotary cannon that fires 30mm depleted uranium shells. It can only fire a continuous burst for eight seconds before it will begin to melt. It is scary as fuck. (1:10)
They didn't have the vote, you may not care about that but they sure as hell did.GrimTuesday said:
'In part' on the colonist's behalf but mostly for the benefit of the Empire.
Britain would later suffer a huge loss of money and lives in the defence of India from Japan, yet by then we were much more enlightened by then and knew to not resist Indian Independence if they want it.
Were Indians in 1940's "treated as lesser beings" by the British? About to the same extent as the Colonists in 1770's.
and I just happen to have a nuke and 500 bucks!RobCoxxy said:
In germany if you have more than one title (Sir Doctor Professor etc) common courtesy dictates that all should be used, for example Doctor Doctor Professor Mordin Solus!
Contray to an other belief for the first 3 months of pregancy in mammals all babies are genderless not female, this is due the parts in question growing from either the X or Y that the sperm was carrying not developing until later in the pregnancy (in simple terms). These parts form later which is mostly why it takes so long to find out the sex of a child.
So effectively men have nipples not because we used to be female in the womb but because the egg carries the majority of the DNA needed to create a female whilst the sperm holds the rest or the Y + other stuff to create a male.
So all egg's start off female but when the fetus is formed it already has a set sex which cant be identifyed until later on.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081207163803AAfqbEg
So effectively men have nipples not because we used to be female in the womb but because the egg carries the majority of the DNA needed to create a female whilst the sperm holds the rest or the Y + other stuff to create a male.
So all egg's start off female but when the fetus is formed it already has a set sex which cant be identifyed until later on.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081207163803AAfqbEg
There is no evidence that hydrostatic shock has any significant lethal effect.SODAssault said:
The cause of death from bullets remains the bullets physically damaging tissue by impact, tearing open arteries to bleed to death, rupturing lungs to cause suffocation, or directly destroying vital brain or nervous tissue to kill by paralysis or brain-death.
The effect of hydrostatic shock only seems to be relevant in a "stunning" effect, for example the shock wave of a rifle bullet passing through the torso does not caus lasting damage but the shock wave will "knock" the spinal cord so badly it causes temporary paralysis and unconsiousness.
But the actual cause of death is the giant hole caused by the rifle bullet causing blood loss, suffocation and/or paralysis.
Nope.
The M16 first appeared in Vietnam not as the M16 but as the AR15 provided to South Vietnamese forces via the CIA, known then as the "Black Rifle" where its reputation was very good mainly because it DIRECTLY followed the maintenance advice of Armalite who designed the rifle.
And it first served with US armed forces not as the "M16A1" but just the "M16" WITHOUT THE FORWARD ASSIST!
The main problem with M16 was (apart from direct impingement gas system) was the low recoil, high fire-rate of full-auto capability meant soldiers could fire a LOT of shots much quicker than with any other rifle. Which is a problem as this put an incredibly larger heat load on the rifle, more than any previous rifle. The problem came with M16 when the direct impingement and heavy firing would heat up the bolt system too much.
Strictly the M16 is supposed to be used as a semi-auto rifle with full-auto capability only occasionally.
The problem with the 5.56x45mm "will go clean through an unarmored (person) and cause minimal damage" is true for ALL rifle calibres, especially the AK47 that fires a very stable bullet that will not "yaw" until travelling through nearly 12 inches of flesh. Great for penetrating firm cover (wood/sandbags) but it stabs through a person much like an FMJ pistol round.
It didn't fail the trials, it just didn't win them by a large enough margin. The US Army will only accept a new rifle if (by their metric) if it outperforms the current rifle by a 100% so it is 2x as effective as the current issued rifle.
They are not "Colloquially" known as silencers. Hiram Maxim who invented the modern firearms silencer actually NAMED the device "Silencer". He invented them not for subterfuge but so that firearms practice would be less disturbing to fire in urban areas. It was a long time before they were ever used in combat.
PS: The reflex sight may have only very recently been used on modern military rifles, but the design actually dates back to 1900 by Sir Howard Grubb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflector_sight
But it would not be used in war for another 100 years.
The tarantula hawk waspSwitchblade1080 said:
The tarantula's sting rates a 4 on the Schmidt Pain Index [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index], which features such descriptions as:1.2 Fire ant Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet and reaching for the light switch. and 2.x Honey bee and European hornet Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin. and my favourite: 4.0+ Bullet ant Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel.
Segadroid said:
tFMechanic said:
If you're referencing the study I think you are, I think you mean phenomes, the distinct sounds that make up words. The study posited a link between the age of a language with the number of phenomes in it, which suggested that the languages with the most phenomes are older and thus originated closer to the source of all language. They found that the further away from Africa you got, the less phenomes in a language and that Hawaiian - iirc, the study decided Hawaii was the furthest emigration point - had a much smaller number of phenomes.
Uh. So...not vowels.