Anyway, Dave S wrote another song about when Jack Nicholson phoned him, called "It's Jack Calling"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY5P5F3IYoQ
― calzino, Monday, 14 August 2017 21:31 (six years ago) link
The nobbly bits on pavements help visually impaired people judge where the kerb is.
― Gulley Jimson (Ward Fowler), Monday, 14 August 2017 21:31 (six years ago) link
OK thats a worthy one! what'dye think they did?
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 14 August 2017 23:15 (six years ago) link
OK, I've just found out what RT means - re-tweet - I thought it meant Russia Today. I'm right naive, me.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 12:29 (six years ago) link
I make that mistake all the time.
― how's life, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 12:41 (six years ago) link
i knew that, i win!this is a spectacularly foolish one: i hadn't realized that the "dye in the pool that activates if you urinate" thing was an urban legend until this week. i am 33. in fairness i had assumed that it was either: a) something that was done in the past but not anymore, or b) something that was done in other countries (like maybe the US where it features as a plot line in movies and tv sometimes) but not in the UK.
this is a spectacularly foolish one: i hadn't realized that the "dye in the pool that activates if you urinate" thing was an urban legend until this week. i am 33. in fairness i had assumed that it was either: a) something that was done in the past but not anymore, or b) something that was done in other countries (like maybe the US where it features as a plot line in movies and tv sometimes) but not in the UK.
This summer I told my children this lie and intend to keep it going for as long as possible.
― Right column Leftist (sunny successor), Friday, 15 September 2017 23:23 (six years ago) link
there's always the candiru fish fallback plan
― you are juror number 144 and we will excuse you (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 15 September 2017 23:27 (six years ago) link
Just found out this week that the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean is named after the group of islands 200km away from it which I think I'd only heard of individually. Guam being one of them.Just turned up in Ken Burns The War I think tied in with the story of the Indianapolis. Ship that after being repaired from a kamikaze attack was tasked with a secret mission. Kept secret from its 1000+ crew some of whom thought it was delivering scented toilet paper for McArthur's use. But turned out to be the bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima. I wondered if there was any record of radiation poisoning among the crew afterwards. But this was the ship that went on to be torpedoed and have the survivors floating in open ocean for days being picked off by sharks. I then remembered Robert Shaw in Jaws which I haven't seen in years. It's the ship he was supposed to have been on.
― Stevolende, Friday, 15 September 2017 23:55 (six years ago) link
Plus, as Robert Shaw and his shipmates floated in the water, some of them had to pee. Unfortunately, there was a special dye in the ocean that activates if you urinate. And the color attracts sharks. [CUE TWILIGHT ZONE THEME]
― Tegumai Bopsulai (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 16 September 2017 02:34 (six years ago) link
I don't think I'd realised quite how many people died in that incident,. Only 316 out of a crew of 1000+ were eventually saved.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 16 September 2017 08:37 (six years ago) link
0203 phone numbers for London exist.
― koogs, Thursday, 21 September 2017 11:39 (six years ago) link
?!?
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 21 September 2017 13:44 (six years ago) link
Kept secret from its 1000+ crew some of whom thought it was delivering scented toilet paper for McArthur's use
if you're gonna lie, lie big!
― Mr. Eulon Mask, urging the UN to ban the "homicide robot" (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 21 September 2017 13:49 (six years ago) link
i'd not seen a 0203 telephone number before last week and now i've seen 2. they are geographical numbers for london (like 0207 and 0208).
(actually, londonist points out that london area code is 020 and the above are more correctly (020)7 and (020)8 (and (020)3))
― koogs, Thursday, 21 September 2017 14:48 (six years ago) link
They've been around since 2005!
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 21 September 2017 15:21 (six years ago) link
iirc the geographical thing is no longer a hard & fast rule so some 020 7 numbers are in outer london and some 020 8 in inner. /telephonesplaining
Look here is a whole fascinating page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_telephone_code_misconceptions#London_numbers_added_in_2005
― angelo irishagreementi (ledge), Thursday, 21 September 2017 15:49 (six years ago) link
nobody calls me, what can i say?
― koogs, Thursday, 21 September 2017 16:28 (six years ago) link
koogs, I am surprised you thought the code was 0207 and 0208 rather than 020. That's a classic! It mattered more when people actually bothered dropping the local area code when calling from a local landline. Or when people called from landlines at all.
― Alba, Thursday, 21 September 2017 19:00 (six years ago) link
I still think the code is 0171 / 0181
― koogs, Thursday, 21 September 2017 19:23 (six years ago) link
01 till I die.
― Alba, Thursday, 21 September 2017 19:42 (six years ago) link
xpthe 0171 and 0181 changes kicked in when I was living in Woolwich, so same here!
― calzino, Thursday, 21 September 2017 19:47 (six years ago) link
I learned something last week that I really should have known long before: but I'm now so shockingly old that I've forgotten what it is...
― Fine Toothcomb (sonofstan), Thursday, 21 September 2017 20:12 (six years ago) link
That "varsity" is short for "university"
― i know kore-eda (or something), Monday, 25 September 2017 21:58 (six years ago) link
agh that's terrible
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 25 September 2017 22:02 (six years ago) link
The characters of Elmyra and Montana Max in Tiny Toons are surrogates for Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 25 September 2017 22:20 (six years ago) link
the basic skills of treating and dealing with cracked calluses on my fingers. With the simple combined use of a file and some moisturising cream. Nobody ever taught me this stuff!
― calzino, Monday, 25 September 2017 23:15 (six years ago) link
This reminds me of weird things like "gubernatorial" like what even is that word.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 25 September 2017 23:38 (six years ago) link
the adjective of governorship based on the same latin root.
― Stevolende, Monday, 25 September 2017 23:44 (six years ago) link
― i know kore-eda (or something), Monday, September 25, 2017 2:58 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this can't be true
*visits oed*
Etymology: Colloquial abbreviation of university n.
The hell
― .oO (silby), Monday, 25 September 2017 23:50 (six years ago) link
Yeah, varsity is new one for me, especially because I associate it more with high school
― Moodles, Tuesday, 26 September 2017 00:17 (six years ago) link
that the word painstaking is pains-taking, as in taking pains to do something well, and not pain-staking
― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 28 September 2017 18:03 (six years ago) link
I just got why "fruit flies like a banana" is funny
― Neanderthal, Thursday, 28 September 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link
This reminds me of weird things like "gubernatorial" like what even is that word.― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 25 September 2017 23:38 (three days ago)the adjective of governorship based on the same latin root.― Stevolende, Tuesday, 26 September 2017 00:44 (two days ago)
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 25 September 2017 23:38 (three days ago)
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 26 September 2017 00:44 (two days ago)
Fun fact (or maybe not): also from the same root, or the root of that root I guess, being from the Greek = cybernetics.
― a passing spacecadet, Thursday, 28 September 2017 20:05 (six years ago) link
calzino's post reminds me that there's loads of basic everyday stuff (start brushing your hair near the bottom if it might be tangled and work your way up, how to use various kitchen implements, more I can't remember right now) that I never worked out until well into my adulthood and then went "nobody told me this!!1" to my parents, who immediately said that they totally had told me that repeatedly as a child but I never listen
probably I really do never listen, though there's also lots of stuff that they never bothered telling me because "everyone just knows" and apparently I'm the only person who ever needed to be told it
― a passing spacecadet, Thursday, 28 September 2017 20:13 (six years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Acclimatization_Society
oh god
― mh, Tuesday, 24 October 2017 17:26 (six years ago) link
I also knew nothing about this.
― The Wetting Planner (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 24 October 2017 17:32 (six years ago) link
Dunno if there was a society/body per se but similar happened in Aus - the invading brits decided they wanted to have fun hunting in their new lands. So they let loose a bunch of fucking rabbits, and now we have rabbit plagues.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 24 October 2017 22:41 (six years ago) link
maybe you can get them to fight the cane toads
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 24 October 2017 22:57 (six years ago) link
cane toads also an introduced species, brought in to fight native beetles
― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Tuesday, 24 October 2017 23:09 (six years ago) link
I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly...
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Tuesday, 24 October 2017 23:10 (six years ago) link
the Chinese needle snakes will take care of the cane toads
― Number None, Tuesday, 24 October 2017 23:19 (six years ago) link
I did always wonder where our mynas and sparrows came from, that said.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 24 October 2017 23:26 (six years ago) link
I only recently learned that the female singer (Merry Clayton, btw) in "Gimme Shelter" was singing: "Rape! Murder!" Her voice may have been electrifying, but her enunciation was a bit unclear.
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 25 October 2017 00:11 (six years ago) link
what did you think she was singing?
― new noise, Wednesday, 25 October 2017 00:24 (six years ago) link
AAAY! UUUUR-UH!
― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 25 October 2017 00:27 (six years ago) link
Crape Myrtle
https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/images/D/Sioux-Crape-Myrtle-2-450w.jpg
― nickn, Wednesday, 25 October 2017 00:32 (six years ago) link
i just realized that we use a base-10 counting system most likely because we have 10 fingers to count on
― scoff walker (diamonddave85), Wednesday, 25 October 2017 01:44 (six years ago) link
It wasn't until I read a book about surveying that I realized why imperial measurements so didn't follow any rules of ten.
― pplains, Wednesday, 25 October 2017 01:50 (six years ago) link
Yeah, if only we had eight fingers and toes everyone would be happy.It's funny how hard it is to shake off the idea that ten is an intrinsically special number.
― Alba, Wednesday, 25 October 2017 08:36 (six years ago) link
With that introducing species to countries being colonised the book Ecological Imperialism by Alfred crosby covers the idea in pretty great depth. Seems that anybody arriving anywhere by a traditional sea faring vessel would unintentionally take some unexpected flora and fauna with them. & that would subsequently fight for dominance of the area.Also if the travellers were expecting to settle anywhere they would probably try to bring some of the food stuff they were used to at home with them and try to get it to flourish in the new area and things would subsequently spread.
Also did I hear that myxomatosis the rabbit euye disease that was going rampant across the UK in the mid 70s was actually released in Australia in ana ttempt to control the growing rabbit population. Think somebody said that to me at the time.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 25 October 2017 10:05 (six years ago) link