Not taught this in US History class?
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Did you know? (Random things in life)
- Thread starter Tricia
- Start date
A lot of scholars believe that Francis Bacon (classical essayist) actually wrote the plays. He and William Shakespeare were friends and the Shakespearean imagery is very similar to the language used by Bacon in his observations of nature. The theory holds that Bacon- of royal lineage- could not be found to be writing for theater because it was considered a very lowly occupation at the time. That and Shakepearean plays had a nasty habit of mocking royalty!
Yup. Lot's of sailing lingo immersed within our colloquial language. How many know where "three sheets to the wind" came from? Or the term "I gotta go hit the head"? In sailing, a rope that controls sails is called a sheet. On a large enough vessel that requires more than two sails there would be three sheets. If the sailor was semi drunk, he may let go of one sheet, not caring about the consequences. As he got drunker, he would let go of more sheets. Three sheets to the wind ( sheets flapping in the wind ) means the sailor is totally blotto and the boat is adrift. Hitting the head means: in larger sailing vessels of yore, there was often a carved bust of someone affixed to the bow of the ship. This someone had something to do with the name of the boat or a mythical figure to protect the boat, or something like that. This was called a figurehead. Once the boat was underway at sea and sails were set, most of the crew were aft of the bow, so when a sailor needed to take a crap, they were sent to the bow to do their business overboard. So hitting the head was about crapping on the figurehead. This may be common knowledge to those that have sailed, but I always find lot's of people that don't know where these terms come form, thus the post.
Must be where the Navy expression "only bosun mates and fools whistle" comes from.
I don't have one, and don't know how fair it is, but making fun of this seems to be a thing. Apparently there is a 23 minute you-tube video on how to reset your light bulbs. I guess control-alt-delete doesn't work on them.
The rest room on a boat is called a Head not sure if that is how it got it's name. It seems like the bow or the front of a boat would be a poor choice for the crew to relieve them self since that is the direction they are moving. It is like spitting in to the wind.
Sail power drives a different wind. Sitting on a bowsprit is a good clean drop.
Is that always true, what is the wind position when a sailboat does a tack maneuver? Isn't that when it sails into the wind? That would not be a good clean drop.
It is also a well anticipated event and no more (actually less) problematic than the last half hour before landing in an airplane.
Not so for some crew members.....
Not so for some crew members.....
Well...better overboard than punished for fouling the paintwork.
Did you know...
My fellow countryman and Olympic Gold Medalist Maarten van der Weijden is to complete the almost 200 km 'Friese Elfstedentocht'. SWIMMING almost non-stop (a few hours of sleep and some stops to eat) since last Friday afternoon. He is expected to finish around 7 PM local time. With this major mental and physical accomplishment he raises money for cancer research (he was cured from cancer himself a few years befor he got his Olypic win at the 2008 Beijing Games - 10 K open water).
The 'Elf Steden tocht' is a round trip of about 200 km connecting the 11 cities in our province Friesland. This route is a speed skating event (on natural ice) that was last held in 1997. Since then, the ice was never thick enough to skate the race.
So now, Maarten has decided to swim it for charity.
The Dutch Public Television has a live youtube streaming (streaming non-stop from Friday onwards, nice work!):
My fellow countryman and Olympic Gold Medalist Maarten van der Weijden is to complete the almost 200 km 'Friese Elfstedentocht'. SWIMMING almost non-stop (a few hours of sleep and some stops to eat) since last Friday afternoon. He is expected to finish around 7 PM local time. With this major mental and physical accomplishment he raises money for cancer research (he was cured from cancer himself a few years befor he got his Olypic win at the 2008 Beijing Games - 10 K open water).
The 'Elf Steden tocht' is a round trip of about 200 km connecting the 11 cities in our province Friesland. This route is a speed skating event (on natural ice) that was last held in 1997. Since then, the ice was never thick enough to skate the race.
So now, Maarten has decided to swim it for charity.
The Dutch Public Television has a live youtube streaming (streaming non-stop from Friday onwards, nice work!):
There are more trees on Earth than stars in the galaxy
There are about 3 trillion trees on Earth but only 300 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
There are about 3 trillion trees on Earth but only 300 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2015
- Posts
- 24,967
There's a global sand shortage.
A global sand shortage could cause damaging effects to our rapidly urbanizing world
Greg Brown
Jan. 16, 2019
https://www.businessinsider.com/global-sand-shortage-could-cause-damaging-effects-2018-12
Listen:
https://www.npr.org/2017/07/21/538472671/world-faces-global-sand-shortage
The speed of sound varies with the density of the material through which the sound wave is travelling.
In glass it's 4,540 m/s which is around 10,155 mph.
In glass it's 4,540 m/s which is around 10,155 mph.