Share Your Interesting But Not Very Useful Facts

Share Your Interesting But Not Very Useful Facts

Author
Discussion

Jonquil

206 posts

12 months

Friday 28th April 2023
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I can't see anybody saying, "I'm on a dinghy." Doesn't sound safe to me. Ditto canoe.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Friday 28th April 2023
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Jonquil said:
I can't see anybody saying, "I'm on a dinghy." Doesn't sound safe to me. Ditto canoe.
That's exactly the point that AstonZagato was making.

98elise

26,376 posts

160 months

Saturday 29th April 2023
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Penny Whistle said:
98elise said:
Agreed. You are "On board"

I served in the RN and nobody would say "in" a ship, it was "on" a ship.

"I'm on Ark Royal, my mate is on Invincible"

'In" just doesn't work!
What if the ship is a boat ? You wouldn't say "I'm on a submarine" - or would you ?
It would be on a submarine. It's only tradition that we call them boats.


Edited by 98elise on Saturday 29th April 10:48

Roofless Toothless

5,612 posts

131 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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The mounted charge by Arab forces on the town of Akaba did not go exactly as Lawrence of Arabia had planned.

He rode with a contingent of Arabs who were famed for their ability to fire their rifles accurately from a galloping camel. He didn’t have a rifle but decided to do as best as he could with a heavy service revolver.

Lawrence was thrown from his mount (a celebrated racing camel that had been given to him as a special honour) and spent some minutes unconscious. When he got up he realised he had shot his own camel in the back of the head.



Edited by Roofless Toothless on Monday 15th May 19:51

Raccaccoonie

2,797 posts

18 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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In America if you killed someone at certain point, you could never be tried.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_Death_(Yello...

Allegro_Snapon

557 posts

27 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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Penny Whistle said:
98elise said:
Agreed. You are "On board"

I served in the RN and nobody would say "in" a ship, it was "on" a ship.

"I'm on Ark Royal, my mate is on Invincible"

'In" just doesn't work!
What if the ship is a boat ? You wouldn't say "I'm on a submarine" - or would you ?
If you'd listened to you security training you wouldn't, you'd say you were on "the Platform" but certainly not mention you were with with "the Deterrent".

Allegro_Snapon

557 posts

27 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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Cats cannot understand mirrors. They can see a "object" in the mirror but because no cat has ever had it explained to them in cat terms that the thing in a mirror is the cat in itself it doesn't know it is itself and therefore completely ignores the presence of other cats in mirrors. This even occurs in multi cat households where one cat could see many other cats in a mirror or in "cat".

Put a mirror in front of a cat as it is running down a corridor say, it will face plant the mirror. Cat wants food. Move cat bowl leaving a mirror point backwards from where at bowl was. Put cat bowl 180 degrees away from mirror but reflected in the mirror. Cat won't find it.

There is one scientific exception:

mikey_b

1,771 posts

44 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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popeyewhite said:
Men cannot take drinks designed to alleviate the symptoms of cystitis in women.
Why is that? Men can certainly get cystitis, I’ve had it myself. It was most unpleasant.

The traditional drinks-based remedy of cranberry juice was perfectly ‘takeable’, but was also a waste of time and money. A weeks worth of antibiotics sorted it just though.

Edited by mikey_b on Monday 15th May 21:45

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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mikey_b said:
popeyewhite said:
Men cannot take drinks designed to alleviate the symptoms of cystitis in women.
Why is that? Men can certainly get cystitis, I’ve had it myself. It was most unpleasant.

The traditional drinks-based remedy of cranberry juice was perfectly ‘takeable’, but was also a waste of time and money. A weeks worth of antibiotics sorted it just though.

Edited by mikey_b on Monday 15th May 21:45
I've drunk cranberry juice.

WrekinCrew

4,572 posts

149 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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The theory is that the sugar d-mannose (found in cranberries and other fruits) stops bacteria sticking to the urinary tract.

A cursory search suggests the limited testing has only been done on women, maybe because they get more UTIs. Doesn't mean it wouldn't work equally for men.

But its not patentable so no incentive for big pharma to test properly.

Raccaccoonie

2,797 posts

18 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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Doofus said:
I've drunk cranberry juice.
cranberry juice like grapefruit juice, are drinks no one knows why people drink them, because they taste vile.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Monday 15th May 2023
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The statement was that men cannot take drinks designed to alleviate the symptoms of cystitis in women.

They can, but they it won't alleviate the symptoms of cystitis in women. I've drunk cranberry juice, and I neither vomited nor shat myself inside out. I don't expect I alleviated the symptoms of cystitis in any women, but I was able to handle the drink.

DaveTheRave87

2,079 posts

88 months

Tuesday 16th May 2023
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The colour orange is named after the fruit. Before that, anything that was orange coloured was named red, Robin Redbreast and Redheads for example.

Bannock

4,462 posts

29 months

Tuesday 16th May 2023
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In a similar vein, the English word "black" comes from the same root word as many words for white in other Indo-European languages, such as "blanc" in French and "bianco" in Spanish. See also "bleach" and "blank" in English. In Proto Indo-European, the root "bla-" just meant something without colour, or shining.

Thereby proving that black is white.

Also, in English, the word "pink" used to refer to the colour we now call yellow, hence the term "dressmaker's pink", which is a form of marking chalk which is yellow in colour.

Edited by Bannock on Tuesday 16th May 15:24

eldar

21,614 posts

195 months

Tuesday 16th May 2023
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Bannock said:
In a similar vein, the English word "black" comes from the same root word as many words for white in other Indo-European languages, such as "blanc" in French and "bianco" in Spanish. See also "bleach" and "blank" in English. In Proto Indo-European, the root "bla-" just meant something without colour, or shining.

Thereby proving that black is white.

Also, in English, the word "pink" used to refer to the colour we now call yellow, hence the term "dressmaker's pink", which is a form of marking chalk which is yellow in colour.

Edited by Bannock on Tuesday 16th May 15:24
Which explains why snooker was more exciting in those days.

NMNeil

5,860 posts

49 months

Wednesday 17th May 2023
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The girls name Wendy didn't exist before 1904. (First used by J.M. Barrie in Peter Pan)
Shirley was always a boys name until Charlotte Bronte published her book of the same name in 1849.
Vanessa was coined by Jonathan Swift as a nickname for one of his female students in 1708.


eldar

21,614 posts

195 months

Wednesday 17th May 2023
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NMNeil said:
The girls name Wendy didn't exist before 1904. (First used by J.M. Barrie in Peter Pan)
Shirley was always a boys name until Charlotte Bronte published her book of the same name in 1849.
Vanessa was coined by Jonathan Swift as a nickname for one of his female students in 1708.
Wendy pre dated Peter Pan, in both the US and UK, generally as a diminutive of Gwendoline.
JM Barrie popularised it.

CT05 Nose Cone

24,942 posts

226 months

Wednesday 17th May 2023
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The last widow of the American Civil War, and the last person in receipt of a Civil War pension both died in 2020.

NMNeil

5,860 posts

49 months

Wednesday 17th May 2023
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eldar said:
NMNeil said:
The girls name Wendy didn't exist before 1904. (First used by J.M. Barrie in Peter Pan)
Shirley was always a boys name until Charlotte Bronte published her book of the same name in 1849.
Vanessa was coined by Jonathan Swift as a nickname for one of his female students in 1708.
Wendy pre dated Peter Pan, in both the US and UK, generally as a diminutive of Gwendoline.
JM Barrie popularised it.
Gwendolyn, and it's multiple spellings, from my experience is reduced to Gwen, not Wendy.
One of Barrie's friends was William Henley, whose 5 year old daughter Margaret, called Barrie her "fwendy-wendy", and Wendy was born.

eldar

21,614 posts

195 months

Wednesday 17th May 2023
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NMNeil said:
Gwendolyn, and it's multiple spellings, from my experience is reduced to Gwen, not Wendy.
One of Barrie's friends was William Henley, whose 5 year old daughter Margaret, called Barrie her "fwendy-wendy", and Wendy was born.
The name has been in use since at least 1615. As a male name.

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