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The Good News: If you swallow a watermelon seed, it can't grow in your stomach.
The Bad News: If you inhale a pea, it CAN grow in your lung.
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The Sandlot is a 1993 American coming-of-age baseball film co-written, directed and narrated by David Mickey Evans, which tells the story of a group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962. It stars Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Karen Allen, Denis Leary and James Earl Jones. The filming locations were in Midvale, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, Utah.
It grossed $33 million worldwide and has become a cult film.
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Nondestructive testing or non-destructive testing (NDT) is a wide group of analysis techniques used in science and technology industry to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage. The terms nondestructive examination (NDE), nondestructive inspection (NDI), and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) are also commonly used to describe this technology. Because NDT does not permanently alter the article being inspected, it is a highly valuable technique that can save both money and time in product evaluation, troubleshooting, and research. The six most frequently used NDT methods are eddy-current, magnetic-particle, liquid penetrant, radiographic, ultrasonic, and visual testing. NDT is commonly used in forensic engineering, mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, systems engineering, aeronautical engineering, medicine, and art. Innovations in the field of nondestructive testing have had a profound impact on medical imaging, including on echocardiography, medical ultrasonography, and digital radiography.
Various national and international trade associations exist to promote the industry, knowledge about non-destructive testing, and to develop standard methods and training. These include the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, the Non-Destructive Testing Management Association, the International Committee for Non-Destructive Testing, the European Federation for Non-Destructive Testing and the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing.
NDT methods rely upon use of electromagnetic radiation, sound and other signal conversions to examine a wide variety of articles (metallic and non-metallic, food-product, artifacts and antiquities, infrastructure) for integrity, composition, or condition with no alteration of the article undergoing examination. Visual inspection (VT), the most commonly applied NDT method, is quite often enhanced by the use of magnification, borescopes, cameras, or other optical arrangements for direct or remote viewing. The internal structure of a sample can be examined for a volumetric inspection with penetrating radiation (RT), such as X-rays, neutrons or gamma radiation. Sound waves are utilized in the case of ultrasonic testing (UT), another volumetric NDT method – the mechanical signal (sound) being reflected by conditions in the test article and evaluated for amplitude and distance from the search unit (transducer). Another commonly used NDT method used on ferrous materials involves the application of fine iron particles (either suspended in liquid or dry powder – fluorescent or colored) that are applied to a part while it is magnetized, either continually or residually. The particles will be attracted to leakage fields of magnetism on or in the test object, and form indications (particle collection) on the object's surface, which are evaluated visually. Contrast and probability of detection for a visual examination by the unaided eye is often enhanced by using liquids to penetrate the test article surface, allowing for visualization of flaws or other surface conditions. This method (liquid penetrant testing) (PT) involves using dyes, fluorescent or colored (typically red), suspended in fluids and is used for non-magnetic materials, usually metals.
Analyzing and documenting a nondestructive failure mode can also be accomplished using a high-speed camera recording continuously (movie-loop) until the failure is detected. Detecting the failure can be accomplished using a sound detector or stress gauge which produces a signal to trigger the high-speed camera. These high-speed cameras have advanced recording modes to capture some non-destructive failures. After the failure the high-speed camera will stop recording. The capture images can be played back in slow motion showing precisely what happen before, during and after the nondestructive event, image by image.
Hiding,
I've had some good Stilton. Never any dreams, nightmares. Now if I eat a whole tray of brownies though...
During the early years of the 19th century, Captain Jérôme Bonaparte (later Jerome I, King of Westphalia; 1784-1860), brother of Emperor Napoleon I, commanded a squadron of ships that led attacks on British shipping in the south and west Atlantic. Bonaparte frequently made port in the neutral American city of Baltimore, Maryland, and on one of his visits married Elizabeth Patterson, the daughter of a wealthy merchant.
Upon hearing of his brother's marriage, an angry Napoleon had it annulled, but the union had already produced a son, Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte (1805-1870). Jérôme Napoléon, known as "Bo," became a wealthy Maryland farmer, and served as chairman of the Maryland Agricultural Society.
"Bo" Bonaparte's son, Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851-1921) became a lawyer, and later was a leading civil service reformer, eventually serving as Secretary of the Navy, then Attorney General of the United States during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt.
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In 1806, Scottish naval officer Captain (later Admiral; 1775-1860) Lord Thomas Cochrane, fed up with the level of corruption in Britain's dockyards, ran for a seat in Parliament representing the constituency of Honiton, Devonshire, widely considered to be the most corrupt in the nation.
Though extremely popular within the navy* (with a notable exception being First Lord of the Admiralty Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St. Vincent, who disliked Scotsmen on principle), Lord Cochrane was defeated by a small margin because he refused to match the five guinea per vote bribe offered by his opponent.
However, the ballot was not secret, and after the election, Lord Cochrane personally gave a gift of ten guineas each to all of the electors who had voted for him. In 1807, Lord Cochrane was elected as MP for Westminster.
As an aside, Lord Thomas Cochrane was the main historical figure upon which author Patrick O'Brian (1914-2000) based his character Captain Jack Aubrey. Aubrey appeared as the main character of twenty novels published between 1969 and 1999 (as well as an unfinished draft published in 2004).
The first of the Jack Aubrey novels, Master and Commander (1969), was later adapted into the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe as Aubrey.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, considered by some to be one of the most historically accurate historical fiction films ever made, was nominated for ten Oscars at the 76th Academy Awards (2004), including Best Picture. However, despite winning the awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound Editing, it lost in all other categories to Peter Jackson's record-breaking The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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Peter Jackson's fantasy film adaptation The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003; based on J.R.R. Tolkien's 1956 novel of the same name) is one of the most financially and critically successful films of all time. The Return of the King was the second-ever film to gross $1 billion or more (the first being James Cameron's Titanic (1998)), and is the most successful film ever released by New Line Cinema.
Despite being released in late December, The Return of the King was the highest-grossing film of 2003, and by the end of its theatrical run was the second highest-grossing film in history (again, outclassed only by Titanic). As of July 2018, it is the 20th highest-grossing film of all time.
At the 76th Academy Awards, The Return of the King won all eleven Academy Awards for which it was nominated, breaking the record for highest Oscar sweep, which it retains to this day. The wins included the awards for Best Picture, the first time a fantasy film has done so. The film was also only the second sequel to win a Best Picture Oscar (following Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974)) and Best Director (again, The Godfather Part II). The film jointly holds the record for the largest number of Academy Awards won with Ben-Hur (dir. William Wyler; 1959) and, of course, Titanic.
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Kung Pao chicken, also transcribed as Gong Bao or Kung Po, is a spicy, stir-fried Chinese dish made with chicken, peanuts, vegetables, and chili peppers. The classic dish in Sichuan cuisine originated in the Sichuan Province of south-western China and includes Sichuan peppercorns. Although the dish is found throughout China, there are regional variations that are typically less spicy than the Sichuan serving. Kung Pao chicken is also a staple of westernized Chinese cuisine.
Over the course of eight days in 1814, the American privateer schooner Kemp captured five of seven vessels in a British convoy without alerting the convoy's escort. Upon returning to port in Baltimore, Kemp's prizes were sold for US $500,000 (equating to roughly US $6.9 million in 2018 currency).
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Hello Kitty is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, created by Yuko Shimizu and currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi. According to her backstory, she is a perpetual 3rd-grade student who lives outside London. Though she appears to be anthropomorphic, according to her creators she is not a cat: she is simply a cartoon character, with a red bow and, notably, no mouth. Sanrio announced in 2018 that Hello Kitty's birthday is November 1.
Shortly after her creation in 1974, the Hello Kitty vinyl coin purse was introduced by Sanrio in March 1975. The character was then brought to the United States in 1976. The character is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. By 2010, Sanrio had groomed Hello Kitty into a global marketing phenomenon, worth $6 billion a year. By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, she was worth about $8 billion a year. As of 2018, Hello Kitty is the third highest-grossing franchise of all-time with an estimated revenue over $41 billion.
Originally aimed at preadolescent females, Hello Kitty's market has broadened to include adolescent and adult consumers, being found on a variety of products ranging from school supplies to fashion accessories. Several Hello Kitty TV series, targeted towards children, have been produced, as well as several manga comics and anime films. There have been two Sanrio theme parks based on Hello Kitty, Harmonyland and Sanrio Puroland.
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The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970, by songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of Beatlesque pop, classical arrangements, and futuristic iconography. After Wood's departure in 1972, Lynne became the band's leader, arranging and producing every album while writing virtually all of their original material. For their initial tenure, Lynne, Bevan and keyboardist Richard Tandy were the group's only consistent members.
ELO was formed out of Lynne's and Wood's desire to create modern rock and pop songs with classical overtones. It derived as an offshoot of Wood's previous band, the Move, of which Lynne and Bevan were also members. During the 1970s and 1980s, ELO released a string of top 10 albums and singles, including two LPs that reached the top of British charts: the disco-inspired Discovery (1979) and the science-fiction-themed concept album Time (1981). In 1986, Lynne lost interest in the band and ceased its operation. Bevan responded by forming his own band, ELO Part II, which later became the Orchestra. With the exception of a short-lived reunion in 2000–01, ELO remained largely inactive for the next three decades. In 2014, Lynne re-formed the band again with Tandy as Jeff Lynne's ELO, where he resumed concert touring and new recordings under the moniker.
During ELO's original 14-year period of active recording and touring, they sold over 50 million records worldwide, collecting 19 CRIA, 21 RIAA, and 38 BPI awards. For a period in the mid 1970s, the band saw more success in the United States, where they were billed as "the English guys with the big fiddles". From 1972 to 1986, ELO accumulated twenty Top 20 songs on the UK Singles Chart, and fifteen Top 20 songs on the US Billboard Hot 100. The band also holds the record for having the most Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 hits (20) without a number one single of any band in US chart history. In 2017, the ELO line-up of Wood, Lynne, Bevan, and Tandy were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Incarnations of Immortality is the name of an eight-book fantasy series by Piers Anthony. The first seven books each focus on one of seven supernatural "offices" (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good and Night) in a fictional reality and history parallel to ours, with the exception that society has advanced both magic and modern technology. The series covers the adventures and struggles of a group of humans called "Incarnations", who hold these supernatural positions for a certain time.
The title alludes to William Wordsworth's 1804 poem Ode: Intimations of Immortality.
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Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is an American web series talk show directed and hosted by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, distributed for the first nine seasons by digital network Crackle, then moving to Netflix for season ten. The series premiered on July 19, 2012.
Episodes feature Seinfeld introducing a vintage car selected for a guest comedian, followed by a drive to a pre-selected café or restaurant for coffee. Episodes diverge from the format spontaneously, as when Michael Richards implores Seinfeld to take a side street, when Seinfeld returns after coffee with Carl Reiner to join him for dinner with Mel Brooks—or when car trouble arises. As of May 2015, the series had been streamed nearly 100 million times.
In January 2017, it was announced that Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee would migrate from Crackle to Netflix starting with the show's tenth season. In January 2018, most of the show's previous episodes became available on Netflix (the episode with Jason Alexander in character as George Costanza was not included). The series' 12-episode tenth season premiered on July 6, 2018.
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Flogging a dead horse (alternatively beating a dead horse, or beating a dead dog in some parts of the Anglophone world) is an idiom that means to continue a particular endeavour is a waste of time as the outcome is already decided.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of the expression in its modern sense was by the English politician and orator John Bright, referring to the Reform Act of 1867, which called for more democratic representation in Parliament. Trying to rouse Parliament from its apathy on the issue, he said in a speech, would be like trying to flog a dead horse to make it pull a load. The Oxford English Dictionary cites The Globe, 1872, as the earliest verifiable use of flogging a dead horse, where someone is said to have "rehearsed that [. . .] lively operation known as flogging a dead horse".
However Jay Dillon has discovered an earlier instance attributed to the same John Bright thirteen years earlier: speaking in Commons 28 March 1859, Lord Elcho (Francis Charteris, 10th Earl of Wemyss) remarked that Bright had not been "satisfied with the results of his winter campaign" and that "a saying was attributed to him [Bright] that he [had] found he was 'flogging a dead horse.'"
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Pringles is an American brand of potato and wheat-based stackable snack chips owned by Kellogg's. Originally marketed as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips", Pringles are sold in more than 140 countries, and it was the fourth most popular snack brand after Lay's, Doritos and Cheetos in 2012, with 2.2% market share globally, compared to Lay's share of 6.7%. The snack was originally developed by Procter & Gamble (P&G), who first sold the product in 1967. P&G sold the brand to Kellogg's in 2012.
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A forklift (also called lift truck, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various companies, including Clark, which made transmissions, and Yale & Towne Manufacturing, which made hoists. Since World War II, the use and development of the forklift truck have greatly expanded worldwide. Forklifts have become an indispensable piece of equipment in manufacturing and warehousing. In 2013, the top 20 manufacturers worldwide posted sales of $30.4 billion, with 944,405 machines sold.
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Dan Jurgens (born June 27, 1959) is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years.
He's not my favorite Thor writer, but he's done some good DC stuff.
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Robotman (Clifford "Cliff" Steele, called Automaton in first two appearances) is a fictional character, a cyborg superhero in the DC Comics Universe. He is best known as a member of the Doom Patrol, being the only character to appear in every version of the team since he, and the team, were introduced together in June 1963.
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Ingersoll-Rand is an Irish–American global diversified industrial manufacturing company formed in 1905 by the merger of Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company and Rand Drill Company, rival companies that had each been founded in 1871. The company is incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, and has its US operations headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina. Ingersoll-Rand has been a constituent of the S&P 500 Index since 2010, replacing Pactiv Corporation on 16 November 2010 (it had previously been in the S&P 500 Index until it was replaced by Quanta Services in June 2009).
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In the movie Gladiator, over the course of the gladiatorial scenes, Russell Crowe lost all feeling in his right forefinger for two years after a sword fight, aggravated an Achilles tendon injury, broke a foot bone, cracked a hip bone, and popped a few bicep tendons out of their sockets.
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Makes you wonder how those Roman soldiers managed to become *old* Roman soldiers, doesn't it? :-)
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Contra is a run and gun video game developed and published by Konami, originally released as a coin-operated arcade game on February 20, 1987. A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, along with ports for various computer formats, including the MSX2. The home versions were localized in the PAL region as Gryzor on the various computer formats and as Probotector on the NES, released later. Several Contra sequels were produced following the original game.
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↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A SELECT START
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Back when I was a regular on RPG.net's "Motivational Posters" uber-threads, I came into the habit of using the term 'creeponaut'. It turns out I might want to talk licensing rights with the Russian Space Agency....
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Q: What's the only thing better than a cat that helps with groundbreaking AIDS research?
A: A cat that helps with groundbreaking AIDS research and glows in the dark!
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Norman Keith Breyfogle (February 27, 1960 – September 24, 2018) was an American artist, best known for his comic book art on DC Comics' Batman franchise from 1987 to 1995. During this time, he co-created the villains Ventriloquist and Ratcatcher with writers Alan Grant and John Wagner, and the characters Anarky, Jeremiah Arkham, Victor Zsasz, and Amygdala with Grant alone. He co-created with writers Gerard Jones and Len Strazewski the Malibu Comics Ultraverse flagship hero Prime, and both wrote and drew the Malibu-published series featuring his original character Metaphysique.
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Breyfogle is gone? Damn it. RIP man, your fun, stylish art was a huge part of my relatively small Batman collection.
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The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P-40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.
The Mustang was originally designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which, in its earlier variants, had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the RAF as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). The replacement of the Allison with a Rolls-Royce Merlin resulted in the P-51B/C (Mustang Mk III) model and transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 66 two-stage two-speed supercharged engine and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2/AN Browning machine guns.
From late 1943, P-51Bs and Cs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF's Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's Second Tactical Air Force and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944. The P-51 was also used by Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean, Italian and Pacific theaters. During World War II, Mustang pilots claimed to have destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft.
At the start of the Korean War, the Mustang, by then redesignated F-51, was the main fighter of the United Nations until jet fighters, including North American's F-86, took over this role; the Mustang then became a specialized fighter-bomber. Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s. After the Korean War, Mustangs became popular civilian warbirds and air racing aircraft.
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Historically, paints varied in price between different colours, due to each colours pigment being made from a different material - blue paints where particularly expensive, due to their pigments being created from lapis lazili, which caused renaissance and pre-renaissance European painters to reserve the colour blue for important religious figures, such as the Virgin Mary, giving the colour a great deal of symbolic significance.
In a modern context, price differences between paint colours still exist for higher quality paints that still use high grade pigments for the same reasons.
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Captain Yesterday isn't my real name.
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Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City, where he was a regular performer.
Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular big bands from the start of the 1930s to the late 1940s. Calloway's band featured performers including trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, New Orleans guitarist Danny Barker, and bassist Milt Hinton. Calloway continued to perform until his death in 1994 at the age of 86.
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The distinctive short haircut worn by the character Cassandra Pentaghast in BioWare's Dragon Age II (2011) and Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) video games was designed in part due to the fact that the longer hair of her original character design (later used for the film Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker (2012)) kept clipping through her armor.