Obscure facts ya know!

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But the 1st Jan 1970 date clearly has some sort of functional relevance in the WP database, as it features elsewhere as well. Turn to the final contents page (currently page 604) in Random Discussion and check out the date assigned to the threads there.

In Britain there are three different sizes of 20" bicycle wheels. There's the 20x1 3/8 which in itself comes in two different sizes which do not fit each other. 37-450 and 37-451.
Then there's the USA size which came in with BMX's ans then childrens mountain bikes, e.g 20 x 1.75 (Generally widths vary from 1.5 to 2.125 but they fit the same wheel rims.
There are new fat tyre sizes but I have never had to fix one so I can't say what sizes they are.

22" wheels were never used for bicycles but were used for wheelchais as it was a common wheelchair size. However, when ToysRUs stores used to sell bikes, they did have bikes made with 22" wheels and tyres, but they were almost impossible to get spares for. Not quite impossible, but not too far off!

Its just some BS default setting date common in computer world.

My mom's apple computer would always reset its date to January first 1970 when there was a power outage. And you had to manually reset it. But the computer was manufactured in like AD 2005, and Apple didn't even exist as a company until long after 1970.

The archives of WP are accurate back to some point, but then it defaults to 1970. Back when WP had the old look you COULD go back and find the actual dates for the first member joining, and the first post ever made if I am not mistaken ( I kinda recall doing that kinda search myself a few times). But since Alex changed the site to this new look they apparently economized on memory space, or something, and they just toss a lot of old stuff into the hopper with the bogus default date.

The first 'real' member to join was clearly Nuttdan, according to the list provided in my previous post. Whether he in fact made the first post on the site is rather less clear. Maybe someone will do a bit of sleuthing....

D.B Cooper, the commonly known alias used by the man who hijacked a plane bound for Seattle in 1971 and who was never identified, actually used the alias “Dan Cooper” when he purchased his flight ticket. The media miscommunicated his alias as “D.B.” and it stuck.

Denis Istomin is fourteen years older than his brother, Anton.

Spanish tennis player David Ferrer and French tennis player Marian Bartoli have cats.

The movie Chariots of Fire is a mishmash of inaccuracy to someone who knows the real life stories of the athletes involved. Still, it's not as bad as some movies about the Olympic Games.

The Colony of Rhode Island was founded in 1636 as a religious and political refuge by Roger Williams who was forced to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

apparently a carpet bombing cow, more then i searched for , let's see then
operation starvation



another 'nazi' tread from c-d, yeay
owee
mr wagfinger

The Volvo 740GLT has a 4 cylinder twin overhead cam engine designed by Porsche. It is a non-turbo engine giving 155bhp. The whole car weiged around 1260 kgms despite its size. The boot lid (Trunk) was made from aluminium. It had a 4 speed sports manual gearbox with overdrive. First gear felt where second gear is on most cars. The car wasn't comfortable to cruise in overdrive until one was travelling around 80mph. The car did excellent mpg even when towing, but its handling could be a handful as it felt like there was far too much power going into the rear wheels, so keeping the back in line was tricky. It wasn't easy to drift like my smaller 360GLT's were. The 740 would throw you off in a hedge! But straight line acceleration was probably one of the quickest cars that I have ever driven with a Citroen C2GT coming rather close behind. The 740 would leave my T5 behind by a noticeable margin if I was able to put the two on a drag strip.
The Volvo 850 T5 2.3 estate was impressive on paper... 225bhp. 17" magnesium alloys. Traction control... But in practice, though it handled well through corners.. A bit like a go cart... Its achillies heel was it was front wheel drive. It was more likely to sit on the spot spinning its front wheels then it was to actually go anywhere. Low end torque was the exact same as the non turbo 10 valve version (2.5) and that used to be a tyre shredder too. The problem with the T5 is it handled better without traction control turned on as if you turned it on pulling out if a corner (Which is how you drive a front wheel drive car) both wheels would spin and you would be drifting as if on ice towards the opposite side of the road. At least with traction control turned off, only one front wheel would spin.
The car was also heavy compared to the 740. I think about 400kgs heavier? It could be why the 740 was much quicker then it, or it could simply be the 740 could get grip while the T5 could not. The T5 needed to be taken carefully up to about 30 to 40mph before one was safe to put ones foot down without wheelspinning. Front tyres would last between 2500 to 4500 miles, and even the non turbo 140bhp version would last around 4500 to 6500miles. Not a lot! I was always buying tyres for these cars and the non T5 had 16" T5 wheels and the T5 had T5R 17" wheels. Both these meant that tyres were around £70 each for them. They were not economical on fuel either. T5 would be 25 to 30mpg (As I live on a steep hill which saps mpg.. 30 mpg would be motorway cruising) and the non T5 was around 25 to 35mpg on a good day with motorway driving. The 740GLT used to touch 43 mpg towing a caravan and I don't think it went below 30mpg at all.
For a comparisson with mpg figures, my little Mitsubishi is a diesel and averages around 48pmpg on local trips. 55mpg+ on longer trips though it depends how man people are in the car. Those figures are for two adults and half a boot full of things like my toolkit etc.
Edit. The T5 did 20 to 25mpg and the non turbo version was 25 to 30mpg. Neither of the 5 cylinder cars were any good on fuel, unlike the older 4 or 6 cylinder Volvos which were usually good on fuel if one had a powerful version. If one had the base model little engined version they drank the fuel. For example, the v6 engined Volvo 760GLE was an automatic and very quiet.. It was about 195 bhp if I remember and it would get 40 mpg on a long run. I drove one once. Was the first automatic car I ever tried. I couldn't hear the engine while driving even driving slow with the windows down!

Pantheism is the belief that the universe and all things within nature are God.

Pantheists do not celebrate a distinct personal or anthropomorphic god, but accept all gods into worship because they view God as everything and everyone, and everyone and everything as God.

The Ritz on Piccadilly in London has had a completely indoor cigar smoking lounge for one and a half years. I know because I visited it yesterday.

Spain declared war against Great Britain in 1762 during the Seven Years War because the war didn't end before May 1 1762 and to help the French recover their colonies in North America.

Cats have a special meow like a baby's cry that they use to communicate their wants and needs with their owners.

The way Ive heard it explained is that cats never use any kind of "meow" with other cats. Only with humans.

An expert on the radio said that a "meow" consists of two parts. The "me", and the "ow". The "me" means "come hither", and the "ow" part means "back off!". The me and the ow are used separately with other cats, but they only put them together with humans. In effect cats are saying to us "come hither, and back off!" to communicate that they want something from us.

Mayflies are easily identified by their triangular-shaped wings. Also, adult male mayflies have no mouthparts because they are designed to just mate and die. The females need to eat in order to stay alive long enough to develop and lay the eggs, so they do have mouthparts.

Ladybugs are not actually bugs, but boxelder bugs and stink bugs are. True bugs are actually a subgroup of insects, identified by a visible triangular-shaped region just below the head.

The things that look like giant mosquitoes are actually crane flies, which eat mosquitoes. No need to be frightened of them, they don't bite humans.