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Sczarni

The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, and 400 times further from the earth. This is why they appear to be the same size, and why total solar eclipses are possible.


Trinite wrote:
The sun is 400 times larger than the moon, and 400 times further from the earth. This is why they appear to be the same size, and why total solar eclipses are possible.

Well the Earth's diameter is roughly 4 times that of the moon, and the sun's diameter is roughly 109 times that of the Earth. But the actual size (volume) is in the order of probably (off the top of my head) 70 million moons in the sun.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:
One mile of every 5 (or 10, I forget exactly) on the US interstate system is straight so that it can be used as an aircraft runway in case of emergencies or war.

The main purpose of the interstate was to move troops quickly.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm still not a zombie.


Xabulba wrote:
I'm still not a zombie.

That's just what a zombie would say.

Scarab Sages

There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.


Hitler and Stalin (very briefly) lived in Vienna at the same time.


7 people marked this as a favorite.
Kajehase wrote:
Hitler and Stalin (very briefly) lived in Vienna at the same time.

If they were roommates, that would make an AWESOME sitcom!


Kajehase wrote:
Hitler and Stalin (very briefly) lived in Vienna at the same time.


In 802 Egbert became King of Wessex, and he and his successors are known as Kings of England.

King Egbert!!

The Exchange

Sadly there was but the one episode so we shall never know.

Scarab Sages

The oldest known vegetable is the pea.


1 in 50 Britons suffer from headaches brought on by taking too many painkillers.


When the Same people of northern Scandinavia and Russia made bows, they used a glue made from the European perch*.

*:
A fish


Comrade Anklebiter wrote:
Kajehase wrote:
Hitler and Stalin (very briefly) lived in Vienna at the same time.

It's a little (but only a little) unfair to blame Franz Josef for WWI. His government wanted a small war with Serbia and might have been able to get away with that right up until the Germans decided that the Austrian war with Serbia was the pretext they needed to launch their long-planned war with France.

There's an interesting bit of parallelism involved, though. The German elites were pretty sure their time in the sun was soon to end as the way they'd unified was a huge mess that could not easily adapt to the times and would inevitably be a drag on their future progress. The way to forestall that was to get a big war going which could shake things up a bit domestically and, more importantly, get Germany more all-German territory (Which was how Alsace-Lorraine was governed.) to buy more time. And also probably give the Junkers a big boost in popularity, as their influence had been declining for a few decades in favor of other aristocracies.

...which isn't actually that far off from the shrinking South theory of a lot of the Slave Power guys, now that I think on it.

The Habsburgs had the same kinds of problems, except they arose from mutually antagonistic nationalisms. They bought off the Hungarians, but then the Hungarians immediately became the dire foes of any attempt to make a triple (or more) monarchy that would give their Slavic subjects more domestic sway and steal some of their nationalist thunder. Integrating Serbia into Austria-Hungary with a third crown and all might build some goodwill and would be harder for the Hungarians to resist after a great big victorious war. Or so they thought.

Scarab Sages

The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturdays.


Aberzombie wrote:
The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturdays.

... Half of them are in atlanta.

I made that up:

80% of all internet statistics are completely made up.


The average lifespan of a major league baseball is 7 pitches.

Sczarni

The Chicago Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908. This is the longest period without a championship of any American professional sports team.

Up until 1908 they were the most dominant team in baseball.

Scarab Sages

The average hen lays 228 eggs each year.


Aberzombie wrote:
The oldest known vegetable is the pea.

The word "pea", singular, is a modern invention. The plant was for centuries known in England as "pease", as preserved in the rhyme "pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold..."

The eventual conversion is understandable, because of the need for a plural/singular distinction with this particular vegetable.


Aberzombie wrote:
The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturdays.

Dead is dead. It's hard to imagine how one fatal thing is deadlier than another fatal thing. =P /end symantics humor

---

The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire started in 1980 as a two-day jousting festival (read as: publicity stunt) to attract vistors to a winery.

Scarab Sages

The Effiel Tower has 1792 steps.

Scarab Sages

Oak trees usually don't produce acorns until they are 50 years old.


Evil Lincoln wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
The oldest known vegetable is the pea.

The word "pea", singular, is a modern invention. The plant was for centuries known in England as "pease", as preserved in the rhyme "pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold..."

The eventual conversion is understandable, because of the need for a plural/singular distinction with this particular vegetable.

That doesn't rhyme.

The Exchange

The members of the three Stooges were:

Ted Healy

Moses "Moe Howard" Horowitz
Louis "Larry Fine" Feinberg
Samuel "Shemp Howard" Horwitz

Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz

Joe "The Fake Shemp" Palma

Joe Besser
Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita
Emil "The fourth stooge" Sitka who was to have replaced Larry as "Harry" before the death of Moe.


There is a space shuttle landing strip in Easter Island.

Scarab Sages

Crimson Jester wrote:

The members of the three Stooges were:

Ted Healy

Moses "Moe Howard" Horowitz
Louis "Larry Fine" Feinberg
Samuel "Shemp Howard" Horwitz

Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz

Joe "The Fake Shemp" Palma

Joe Besser
Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita
Emil "The fourth stooge" Sitka who was to have replaced Larry as "Harry" before the death of Moe.

And Curly actually appeared briefly in a Stooges' short after his official retirement. He was largely unrecognized because he had grown his hair and beard out.

Scarab Sages

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.


Freehold DM wrote:
Evil Lincoln wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
The oldest known vegetable is the pea.

The word "pea", singular, is a modern invention. The plant was for centuries known in England as "pease", as preserved in the rhyme "pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold..."

The eventual conversion is understandable, because of the need for a plural/singular distinction with this particular vegetable.

That doesn't rhyme.

"Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old."

The Exchange

Aberzombie wrote:
Crimson Jester wrote:

The members of the three Stooges were:

Ted Healy

Moses "Moe Howard" Horowitz
Louis "Larry Fine" Feinberg
Samuel "Shemp Howard" Horwitz

Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz

Joe "The Fake Shemp" Palma

Joe Besser
Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita
Emil "The fourth stooge" Sitka who was to have replaced Larry as "Harry" before the death of Moe.

And Curly actually appeared briefly in a Stooges' short after his official retirement. He was largely unrecognized because he had grown his hair and beard out.

"Hold That Lion!" where he is briefly seen as a passenger in the, plane or is it train, and talks to Moe.

In his your Jerry (curly) was a competition ballroom dancer. He got his famous curly shuffle from a limp caused by a hunting accident when he shot himself in his leg.

Scarab Sages

Crimson Jester wrote:
Aberzombie wrote:
Crimson Jester wrote:

The members of the three Stooges were:

Ted Healy

Moses "Moe Howard" Horowitz
Louis "Larry Fine" Feinberg
Samuel "Shemp Howard" Horwitz

Jerome "Curly Howard" Horwitz

Joe "The Fake Shemp" Palma

Joe Besser
Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita
Emil "The fourth stooge" Sitka who was to have replaced Larry as "Harry" before the death of Moe.

And Curly actually appeared briefly in a Stooges' short after his official retirement. He was largely unrecognized because he had grown his hair and beard out.

"Hold That Lion!" where he is briefly seen as a passenger in the, plane or is it train, and talks to Moe.

Indeed. And I believe it was a train.


-Luminiferous Aether was still the dominant theory at the turn of the XX Century. Though Maxwell, Michelson, Morley (MMMmmmmmmmmm...) and company had been undermining it for a while, it was Einstein who finally toppled it.

-Contrary to popular belief, medieval scholars thought the world was round.

-It is believed that the Mediterranean Sea was originally a deep basin created as Europe and Africa split appart. At a certain point, a massive, massive waterfall is thought to have originated where the Straits of Gilbraltar now sit, eventually filling the region.

-If the world were to stop spinning, the equator would dry up and the oceans would pile up around the poles, sinking most of Europe, Russia, Canada, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and parts of Australia. This is because the Earth's axial rotation has made the planet wider at its equator and thus gravity is not evenly distributed, being lower between the tropics and higher on the poles. It is that same axial rotation that pulls water to the equator and evens out the oceans. Without it, we would see one supermassive continent stretching around the planetary waist and two enormous oceans covering the poles (though the Southern Andes would create a chain of very tall islands).


Klaus van der Kroft wrote:

-If the world were to stop spinning, the equator would dry up and the oceans would pile up around the poles, sinking most of Europe, Russia, Canada, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and parts of Australia. This is because the Earth's axial rotation has made the planet wider at its equator and thus gravity is not evenly distributed, being lower between the tropics and higher on the poles. It is that same axial rotation that pulls water to the equator and evens out the oceans. Without it, we would see one supermassive continent stretching around the planetary waist and two enormous oceans covering the poles (though the Southern Andes would create a chain of very tall islands).

So... we'd look like a less-rusty, less-frozen Mars?


Orthos wrote:
Klaus van der Kroft wrote:

-If the world were to stop spinning, the equator would dry up and the oceans would pile up around the poles, sinking most of Europe, Russia, Canada, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and parts of Australia. This is because the Earth's axial rotation has made the planet wider at its equator and thus gravity is not evenly distributed, being lower between the tropics and higher on the poles. It is that same axial rotation that pulls water to the equator and evens out the oceans. Without it, we would see one supermassive continent stretching around the planetary waist and two enormous oceans covering the poles (though the Southern Andes would create a chain of very tall islands).

So... we'd look like a less-rusty, less-frozen Mars?

Well, we'd at least have water on the top and bottom parts. Roughly, the continent would span from near the northern US border to about the latitude of Uruguay. Everything else, with some minor exceptions, should be covered in water (now, there's also a lot of other things going on that would cause further changes, such as the new ocean floor collapsing due to the weight and thus further changing water distribution, but the rough outline should be that).

From what I remember of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, if Mars were to be flooded, the oceans would pile up in the northern hemisphere, mostly, which is the lowest part of the planet.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Mt. Dew in Canada is brown.


Kryzbyn wrote:
Mt. Dew in Canada is brown.

So its more like Mt. Ew?


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Mt. Poo :P
From what I understand, there are govt guidelines that say if the soda has caffeine in it, it must be brown.


Well, if it makes things better for Canada, we also have milk in bags here in Chile.

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kryzbyn wrote:

Mt. Poo :P

Oh thank the gods I wasn't drinking anything when I read this....

The Exchange

Klaus van der Kroft wrote:
Well, if it makes things better for Canada, we also have milk in bags here in Chile.

In bags?


Kryzbyn wrote:
Mt. Dew in Canada is brown.

I can't speak for all of Canada, but here in Quebec, Mt Dew is yellowish. Like bubbly lemonade.

Ultradan


Kryzbyn wrote:

Mt. Poo :P

From what I understand, there are govt guidelines that say if the soda has caffeine in it, it must be brown.

You're kind of right, but your reasoning is flawed. Until this year, Mountain Dew in Canada wasn't allowed to have caffeine in it because it wasn't a cola.


Crimson Jester wrote:
Klaus van der Kroft wrote:
Well, if it makes things better for Canada, we also have milk in bags here in Chile.
In bags?

Aye. Also yogurt. I remember once hearing a very reasonable explanation as to why those things exist, but I can't seem to recall it.

Ultradan wrote:
Kryzbyn wrote:
Mt. Dew in Canada is brown.

I can't speak for all of Canada, but here in Quebec, Mt Dew is yellowish. Like bubbly lemonade.

Ultradan

I'm gettin a whole dirty kind of vibe from these brown and yellow drinks here.

The Exchange

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Some days I felt like having a Mt. dew IV drip.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
meatrace wrote:
Kryzbyn wrote:

Mt. Poo :P

From what I understand, there are govt guidelines that say if the soda has caffeine in it, it must be brown.
You're kind of right, but your reasoning is flawed. Until this year, Mountain Dew in Canada wasn't allowed to have caffeine in it because it wasn't a cola.

Ah! I see thanks for the clarification.

Scarab Sages

Months that start on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Crimson Jester wrote:
Some days I felt like having a Mt. dew IV drip.

I prefer freebasing espresso. ;-)


-The £ symbol used to represent the British Pound comes from the latin "Librum", meaning, literally, "Pound".

-The $ symbol used to represent money everywhere, comes from the Spanish Peso, which was known as "Pieza de Ocho" or "Piece of Eight". It is thought the symbol itself comes either from the notation "PS" fusing into a single letter, used in Spanish accounting since the Middle Ages, or from a slashed 8, representing the custom of splitting the coins to make change (as the coins were made of actual silver or gold).

-Said Spanish Peso was also the first global currency.

-The word "Dollar" itself came from the german "Thaler", which further back comes from the name of the region in which the first pure silver coins were minted, Joachimsthaler. The Thaler became the model currency for the Spanish Peso, and from there it eventually determined modern coinage standards.


The month of July was originally called Quinctilius. August was Sextilius.

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