You Learn Something New Every Day!

[Mirabeau]

50 trillion to 200 trillion watts of heat energy is released by a hurricane.

[Hairy-Joe]

50 trillion to 200 trillion watts of heat energy is released by a hurricane.

Don't tell Eamonn Ryan!

[isha]

I love these and I only heard about them today. Prohibition era cow shoes to throw the law off your tracks. What a smart idea.

20221026_203157.jpg (146.49 KiB) Viewed 1290 times

[isha]

I was researching a bit recently around Boyle Somerville who was a Naval Officer and an amateur archaeologist and ethnographer. He surveyed at least 60 archaeological sites in Scotland and Ireland, and was a big advocate of archaeo-astronomy. He followed the ideas of Sir Norman Lockyer (another fascinating person) who in the early 1900s had posited theories about the astronomical alignments at Stonehenge.
Anyways what I learned today, as I had not read his life story just some of his writings, was that Boyle Somerville was killed by the IRA in 1936. He answered the door and was shot 5 times, down in Cork. People say now it may have been his brother who was the target and the IRA admitted that they didn't mean to kill him. Tom Barry says he meant to take him hostage.
What a waste of a life - I'd say he would have gone on contributing to archaeological knowledge for many more years. He spoke Irish, was a nationalist, and just was a fascinating person who lived a very interesting life.

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

[Del.Monte]

If memory serves, his brother used to encourage local men to join the Royal Navy and thus made himself a target.

[KHD]

The collective term for a group of buzzards is "a wake of buzzards".

[Del.Monte]

The collective term for a group of buzzards is "a wake of buzzards".

I'll stick with flock.

Here's a few more the twitchers among you: https://www.countrylife.co.uk/nature/co ... irds-68344

[KHD]

I was looking at two Seagulls out in the grass there and they were going like they were on thread mills. I looked at them closely and seen that they were tapping the grass rapidly with both feet. One of them was pulling a large earthworm out of the ground. So I take it the feet tapping was mimicking the rain to get the worms to break through the surface. Clever feckers but from afar it was like they were doing the moonwalk.

[quodec]

It's 50 years ago this week since Apollo 17, the last manned US mission to the moon. That's a half century since man last walked on the moon! What have we being doing since?

[isha]

I didn't want to do this to you but this is a mix of fascinating and and I only found out today. This picture is true because
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... -your-face

20221212_101424.jpg (291.4 KiB) Viewed 920 times

[CelticRambler]

Ah yeah. Good ol' Demo. I know him well!

In a professional capacity, of course.

[KHD]

I didn't want to do this to you but this is a mix of fascinating and and I only found out today. This picture is true because
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... -your-face

20221212_101424.jpg

OMG..... Isha.......

*logs off in horror*

Anyway, that's apparently a close up of a silkworm rather than on of them demo things. I was searching for a funny version of it and found this
https://newschecker.in/fact-check/viral ... a-silkworm

[isha]

OMG..... Isha.......

*logs off in horror*

Anyway, that's apparently a close up of a silkworm rather than on of them demo things. I was searching for a funny version of it and found this
https://newschecker.in/fact-check/viral ... a-silkworm

everything's fake news

[KHD]

everything's fake news

Silkworms always make for interesting threads Isha.

*gets coat again*

[CelticRambler]

There's a new video on "local" silk production in Switzerland on the DW YouTube channel, if yiz are interested.

Sorry for no link, am on the phone atm and can't be bothered with the messing about.

[KHD]

Socotra Island in Yemen. Never knew this island existed, seen the trees before though. Twitter thread on it below.

[CelticRambler]

I was convinced that first pic was photoshopped ... and then saw the video later in the thread. Think that may be a place to put on my "must visit" list.

But:

The natives of Socotra, however, have never devised a way to write their language.

Never?

[95438756]

112 (One Hundred And Twelve) Final Cut Pro Film Professionals sent an open letter to Apple imparting their dismay that Final Cut Pro as a Video Editor is not being sufficiently updated. Why is this important to me? I own and use Final Cut Pro. Apple will most likely deal with them as, let me see, RTE deals with the fallout from Toyshow musical or something

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12 ... e-mac-pro/

[Mirabeau]

A factoid I read today:
Australia is wider than the moon. The moon sits at 3400km in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4000km.

[Del.Monte]

A factoid I read today:
Australia is wider than the moon. The moon sits at 3400km in diameter, while Australia’s diameter from east to west is almost 4000km.

That could be very useful in a pub quiz or if you find yourself at the Bridge of Death.

[678904673]

Beer that you left in the freezer and forgotten about actually tastes alright when defrosted

[marhay70]

Beer that you left in the freezer and forgotten about actually tastes alright when defrosted

I presume it's not bottled beer.

[678904673]

I presume it's not bottled beer.

No. Beer in a can

[marhay70]

No. Beer in a can

Try it with bottled beer

[PogMoThoin22]

Try it with bottled beer

I've made that mistake before, it comes out completely flat

If you ever want to cool beer quickly wrap it in a wet tea towel and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes