Obscure facts ya know!

Post Reply New Topic

^ That's not impossible, though I've played a fair bit of cricket in the past and never noticed such a phenomenon.

I did once face a few deliveries from a leg-spin bowler, who many years later became a Test Cricket captain, and you could actually hear the ball making a loud fizzing sound as it passed through the air.

testimony by marine general smedley butler, in front of congress, prevented a military coup from toppling FDR's gov't and installing a dictator.

Every year in the U.S there are approximately 300 toaster related deaths. Most deaths occur when people tryi to dislodge a piece of toast by sticking a knife into the toaster.

I have been known to plunge my knife into a toaster on occasion, it really is a dumb thing to do

I'm having trouble getting a hot cross bun out right now. This food tastes luxurious, I finally went to a shop after 3 weeks. Yesterday's breakfast was celery, carrot, barley soup.

The Wiki article about shark deaths in the US lists each individual fatal attack from the colonial 1600s, to today. And the listed attacks total 141.

So apparently…

EVERY SINGLE YEAR more than twice as many Americans are killed by their own toasters than have been killed by sharks in four centuries!

why can't those folks just unplug their bloody toasters first before mucking about in them?

After the 1918 Flu Pandemic, some wealth people built "isolation apartments" in their mansions to be ready for next pandemic. I suppose after about 20 years and no second pandemic they stopped using that name. Now they are staying on a remote island, I read. I wonder if any are on Tristan da Cunha . It's too late to go there now Island Council takes steps to protect island from coronavirus.

The first "Made in <Country" label was made in 1887 in England to curb consumption of exported German-made goods in the country, and to encourage consumption of domestically-made goods. This backfired, as the opposite occurred: The British continued to purchase German-made goods, because of their reputation of being high-quality.

There were at least two warships in World War Two that were...paddle wheeled steamers!

Not only that, both were both aircraft carriers!

Both were in the US Navy.


They were the Sable, and the Wolverine. Most US carriers are named after famous battles. Those two were named after vicious fur bearing weasels for some reason! But I digress.

Originally they were civilian cruise ships that took wealthy passengers around the Great Lakes in first class luxury, and both were powered coal fired paddlewheels (maybe to look like the storied riverboats of old). They had the pair of paddle wheels on each side, rather than one big stern paddlewheel set up. Both were derelict after the stock market crash when the roaring Twenties gave way to the great Depression.

The navy bought them both right after Pearl Harbor, and converted them to carriers with flight decks, but retained the archaic powerplants making them the only two paddlewheel powered aircraft carriers ever. They were also the only two warships in the US Navy in WWII that had coal fired, rather than oil fired, engines.

Not actually used on any ocean, they plied the fresh waters of the Great Lakes as training ships. They trained over 18 thousand navy pilots, including George H.W. Bush.