Fun Facts

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Grath
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Grath » Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:51 pm

It does bring a whole new layer of meaning to "I totally have a girlfriend! She lives in Canada!"

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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Sun Jan 10, 2016 5:26 pm

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Blossom
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Blossom » Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:01 pm

I can't say I'm terribly surprised at that. Theme microbreweries do all sorts of nonsense shit, their customers are after the novelty more than any actual quality ("mixed reviews noting unique flavor") anyway.

There's a brewery that uses a yeast the founder just found growing in his beard. Taste good? Doesn't fucking matter, call it Beard Beer and they're selling loads.
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IGNORE ME
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby IGNORE ME » Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:25 am

Quick reminder that the most popular local product is that one beer that intentionally tastes like cough medicine and calls everyone who doesn't like it a pussy.

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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Sat Jan 16, 2016 2:15 pm

The only ship in the US Navy commissioned and on active service that has sunk another ship is the USS Constitution.

(they do have some other ships which have actually sunk other ships, but they're in reserve/mothballs, the last one to actually sink another ship being the USS Simpson in 1988, which was retired last year)
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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:45 am

Ancient gladiators were fat

....Compared to the average inhabitant of Ephesus, gladiators ate more plants and very little animal protein. The vegetarian diet had nothing to do with poverty or animal rights. Gladiators, it seems, were fat. Consuming a lot of simple carbohydrates, such as barley, and legumes, like beans, was designed for survival in the arena. Packing in the carbs also packed on the pounds. "Gladiators needed subcutaneous fat," Grossschmidt explains. "A fat cushion protects you from cut wounds and shields nerves and blood vessels in a fight." Not only would a lean gladiator have been dead meat, he would have made for a bad show. Surface wounds "look more spectacular," says Grossschmidt. "If I get wounded but just in the fatty layer, I can fight on," he adds. "It doesn't hurt much, and it looks great for the spectators."...
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Thad
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Thad » Tue Feb 02, 2016 2:31 am

"Fire and blood," said Barristan Selmy, softly, softly. For a long moment no one spoke. Then Strong Belwas slapped his belly and said, "Better than liver and onions."

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Joxam
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Joxam » Wed Feb 10, 2016 11:57 am

God damn look at this shit!

Holy shit.

I just learned that Peregrine Falcons hunt by diving at over 200 miles an hour, clenching their talons and literally punching their pray in the head to kill it.

EDIT: "The falcon has special adaptations in its nostrils which allow it to breathe at such tremendous speed. Each nostril contains a rod and two fins behind it. As air rushes past the nostrils, the flow is broken up and slowed by the rods and fins which enable the falcon to breathe normally without being overwhelmed by the force at which air enters its nostrils. Moreover, the eyes of the peregrine falcon are designed so that the falcon has a clear view of its prey throughout the dive. Each eye is equipped with an nictitating membrane which protects it from dust and other debris in the air and an additional secretory gland to prevent drying up of the cornea. The dark markings around its eyes also reduce glare, improving visual contrast."

THIS FUCKING BIRD MAN
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Thad
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Thad » Wed Feb 10, 2016 2:11 pm

Dinosaurs are awesome.

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Sharkey
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Sharkey » Fri Feb 12, 2016 12:35 am

Tigers absolutely fucking hate it when you meow at them.

Just... don't. Ever.

Cheetahs dig it, though.
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Büge
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Büge » Fri Feb 12, 2016 10:25 am

You have firsthand experience with this?
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Sharkey
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Sharkey » Wed Feb 17, 2016 9:10 pm

Yes.

Zoos are still a thing, and you pretty much have them to yourself on random weekdays in the winter months. Get to just shoot the shit with the animal guys while watching a condor tear out a dead goat's asshole. Would you believe those things are oddly friendly? And apparently weirdly fixated on walkie talkies. They want those.
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beatbandito
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby beatbandito » Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:16 pm

Glad to hear the animal guys were friendly. But the walkie talkies actually have to do with their jobs.
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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:31 pm

beatbandito wrote:Glad to hear the animal guys were friendly. But the walkie talkies actually have to do with their jobs.

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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Sun Jul 17, 2016 12:57 pm

The Toronto Police Service is actually the oldest Police service in North America. Their early history is also straight out of a lurid movie:

History
1834 creation to 1859 reforms

The Toronto Police Service was founded in 1834 when the city of Toronto was first created from the town of York. (Prior to that, local able-bodied male citizens were required to report for night duty as special constables for a fixed number of nights a year on the pain of fine or imprisonment in a system known as "watch and ward".)[6]

The Toronto Police is one of the English-speaking world’s oldest modern municipal police departments; older than, for example, the New York City Police Department which was formed in 1845 or the Boston Police Department which was established in 1839. The London Metropolitan Police of 1829 is generally recognized as the first modern municipal department. In 1835, Toronto retained five full-time constables—a ratio of about one officer for every 1,850 citizens. Their daily pay was set at 5 shillings for day duty and 7 shillings, 6 pence, for night duty. In 1837 the constables’ annual pay was fixed at £75 per annum, a lucrative city position when compared to the mayor’s annual pay of £250 at the time.[7]

From 1834 to 1859, the Toronto Police was a corrupt and notoriously political force with its constables loyal to the local aldermen who personally appointed police officers in their own wards for the duration of their incumbency. Toronto constables on numerous occasions suppressed opposition candidate meetings and took sides during bitter sectarian violence between Orange Order and Irish Catholic radical factions in the city. A provincial government report in 1841 described the Toronto Police as "formidable engines of oppression". Although constables were issued uniforms in 1837, one contemporary recalled that the Toronto Police was "without uniformity, except in one respect—they were uniformly slovenly." After an excessive outbreak of street violence involving Toronto Police misconduct, including an episode where constables brawled with Toronto's firemen in one incident, and stood by doing nothing in another incident while enraged firemen burned down a visiting circus when its clowns jumped a lineup at a local brothel, the entire Toronto Police force, along with its chief, were fired in 1859.[6]


The story just gets better and better and better as you read it.
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Büge
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Büge » Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:47 pm

Girl guides were employed by MI5 during WWII because Boy Scouts couldn't handle it:

All the girls who worked for MI5 between 1914 and 1918 were aged from 14 to 16. Their main role was as 50p-a-week messengers distributing highly classified information. The teenagers were so trusted by MI5 that they were allowed to relay some of the messages verbally. At the start of the war Boy Scouts were also used. But it quickly became clear that Girl Guides were more efficient because they were less boisterous and talkative.


source
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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Mon Nov 28, 2016 8:38 pm

Most of us are familiar with the cartoon trope of dropping an anvil on someone's head (I will mercifully neglect to link the appropriate TV Tropes page). Well the proposed origin of the trope is something else.

May have its origins in the real life practice of inverting an anvil, putting gunpowder in the hollow in the bottom, laying a fuse leading out of it, and then placing a second anvil right-side-up atop the first. This was used as a Fourth of July celebration.


Oh, America
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Friday
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Friday » Tue Nov 29, 2016 2:59 am

i don't want to hear it your milk comes in bags
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Mongrel
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby Mongrel » Tue Nov 29, 2016 3:09 am

Oh man, people still do this. There's videos!





This is batshit insane.

But also the tits.
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nosimpleway
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Re: Fun Facts

Postby nosimpleway » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:43 pm

Have you ever seen anything that makes you go "Man, fuckin' white people" even though you are a white people

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