Share Your Interesting But Not Very Useful Facts

[Ayahuasca]

The official coat of arms of the Republic of Colombia contains a map of the Republic of Panama, which pisses off the Panamanians.

[Frank7]

The flag of the U.S. state of Hawaii, is the only one of the U.S. states which carries the flag of another nation, Great Britain, the top left canton is a Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

[Doofus]

Frank7 said:

Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

That's a matter of debate/opinion, not fact.

[Ayahuasca]

Doofus said:

Frank7 said:

Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

That's a matter of debate/opinion, not fact.

A very tedious debate at that.

[Dr Jekyll]

Frank7 said:

The flag of the U.S. state of Hawaii, is the only one of the U.S. states which carries the flag of another nation, Great Britain, the top left canton is a Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

Basque flag looks oddly familiar as well

[glenrobbo]

Doofus said:

Frank7 said:

Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

That's a matter of debate/opinion, not fact.

[nonsequitur]

talksthetorque said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Probably neither interesting or useful, but I'm thoroughly bored of arcane discussion about guns and cartridges.

I ammover it too.

Me too. But I had to bite the bullet.

[Oilchange]

Ayahuasca said:

Doofus said:

Frank7 said:

Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

That's a matter of debate/opinion, not fact.

A very tedious debate at that.

You can call it both.

[Lily the Pink]

Oilchange said:

Ayahuasca said:

Doofus said:

Frank7 said:

Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

That's a matter of debate/opinion, not fact.

A very tedious debate at that.

You can call it both.

Or either, even.

[RDMcG]

The island of St Pierre & Miquelon is a few miles off the coast of Newfoundland but is a French territory of 6,000 people. French citizens, supplies representatives to French Parliament, has French cars and registrations and even uniformed Gendarmes. Strsnge place to visit.



It was a gangsters' paradise during Prohibition to transship Canadian whiskey to the US:

https://blog.iwfs.org/2015/02/st-pierre-and-miquel...

Edited by RDMcG on Saturday 14th November 22:12

[Doofus]

RDMcG said:

The island of St Pierre & Miquelon is a few miles off the coast of Newfoundland but is a French territory of 6,000 people. French citizens, supplies representatives to French Parliament, has French cars and registrations and even uniformed Gendarmes. Strsnge place to visit.

The car registrations are unique to the island. They may well use the French font, but they're a different format to French registrations.

[Frank7]

Oilchange said:

Ayahuasca said:

Doofus said:

Frank7 said:

Union Flag, often erroneously called a Union Jack.

That's a matter of debate/opinion, not fact.

A very tedious debate at that.

You can call it both.

Thank Christ for that, I was going by this;

Sometime around 1674 the British flag became formally known as the 'Union Jack' when mounted on a warship and the ship was not in harbour. At the same time the British flag was referred to as the 'Union flag' on land. ... The first version of the flag was created in 1606, featuring only the English and Scottish flags.

[Rostfritt]

Doofus said:

The car registrations are unique to the island. They may well use the French font, but they're a different format to French registrations.

That is some utterly pointless information, also they are the only long rectangular plates used in North America.

I do want to visit one day, just for the weirdness of it being France but in the middle of Maritime Canada. I did meet someone from Reunion once, that is kind of an Indian Ocean equivalent. There is also New Caledonia which is one of the closest places to New Zealand.

[paua]

Rostfritt said:

Doofus said:

The car registrations are unique to the island. They may well use the French font, but they're a different format to French registrations.

That is some utterly pointless information, also they are the only long rectangular plates used in North America.

I do want to visit one day, just for the weirdness of it being France but in the middle of Maritime Canada. I did meet someone from Reunion once, that is kind of an Indian Ocean equivalent. There is also New Caledonia which is one of the closest places to New Zealand.

"Close" to NZ is relative. NZ to New Caledonia is more than 2000 km. When I was learning German for foreigners in Cologne, the teacher asked if anyone else knew the where-abouts of NZ ( class was full of people from Eastern Eur, Africa, Nth & Sth America, China, Iran etc) One person answered "next to Australia". I said NZ is close to Aust like Cologne is close to Moscow.

[Rostfritt]

paua said:

"Close" to NZ is relative. NZ to New Caledonia is more than 2000 km. When I was learning German for foreigners in Cologne, the teacher asked if anyone else knew the where-abouts of NZ ( class was full of people from Eastern Eur, Africa, Nth & Sth America, China, Iran etc) One person answered "next to Australia". I said NZ is close to Aust like Cologne is close to Moscow.

True, but it is closer than anything else except Australia. You look at distance a bit differently when the shortest international flight is over 3 hours and doesn't take you anywhere that different.

[DickyC]

Standard equipment on the Jensen FF included front seat belts, a tachometer and map pockets.

But then it was quite advanced.

[eldar]

The recorded production run of the Jensen FF produced 320 cars. Some sources suggest the actual figure was 328 or 330.

[coppernorks]

Bashing into a tree on France's picturesque byways claim an average of 400 lives per year.

Although it's fairly safe to say they would find something else to thwack into.

If such tree banging is existential enough for Bert Camus, it's OK for the average Gaul.

[Dr Jekyll]

In 1979 the UK govt tried to discourage excess drinking by advising a maximum weekly consumption of 56 units a week. That's about 3 pints a night by my calculations.

[Lily the Pink]

Dr Jekyll said:

In 1979 the UK govt tried to discourage excess drinking by advising a maximum weekly consumption of 56 units a week. That's about 3 pints a night by my calculations.

Ah, the good old days.