Somewhat Useful Facts Thread

[Senator]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082290/Pictured-Worlds-truly-blue-roses-display-Japan.html

The world's first blue Roses (as by their own genetic code, not pigment in their water etc) through genetic modification.

SCIENCE CONQUERS ALL! (Again)

[JimmyB76]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082290/Pictured-Worlds-truly-blue-roses-display-Japan.html

The world's first blue Roses (as by their own genetic code, not pigment in their water etc) through genetic modification.

SCIENCE CONQUERS ALL! (Again)

oooh pretty!



That Explains The Stockpiles Of Peashooters In Our Surveillance Photos

In November 2006, As further evidence of Saddam's advance weapon technology, The New York Times and CBS News released video shot in the months before the American-led invasion in 2003 of the dictator encouraging the use of slingshots, Molotov cocktails, and crossbows.

Hussein told his generals: "Let's all use the methods we can, these methods can be made at home."


_{69 Days Left!}

[JimmyB76]

The 'Vice' President

Two years after September 11, 2001, and even though the American intelligence community had found no credible evidence to support the idea that Saddam Hussein was involved in the terrorist attacks, Vice President Cheney continued to make the claim.

On NBC's Meet The Press on November 14, 2003, the vice president asserted that the administration was "learning more and more" about connections between Iraq and al Qaeda "before 9/11".

Former CIA counterterrorism expert Vincent Cannistraro, who served as director of intelligence programs at the National Security Council under Reagan, was quoted in The Boston Globe as saying that Cheney's "willingness to use speculation and conjecture as facts in public presentations is appaling."


_{67 Days Left!}

[captain_obvious]

It now costs ?108.30 to buy a return ticket from Darlington (where I work) train station to Caerphilly (where I live) train station. 

[Senator]

Dear diary. Today I arc welded, something that entails constructing a high voltage with the thing you are welding and danger of "cornea sunburn" caused by invisible UV light, while essentially melting metal with a small lighting, caused by holding what is essentially the end of a live wire. Used a spinning disk to cut metals, (throwing burning metal sparks everywhere and doing all the appropriate deafening sounds). I did the logical thing of cource and because I didn't want to dirty the flour did all these upon a flammable plastic sheet. (I knew it wasn't appropriate, I just figured out that at most, any spark that touched it would locally melt it like a cigarette, rather than catch fire). Screwed some screws. Then finished with welding some electronics (not with the arc welder silly, that little hot rod thingy).

The only trauma of the day? A paper cut, which happened after I moved some, erm, paper from place A to place B.

Conclusion: Beware of paper.

[JimmyB76]

That's Because Seeking Deferments Was Pretty Much A Full-Time Occupation

"I would have obviously been happy to serve had I been called.  I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."

- Vice President Dick Cheney, who sought and received five deferments during the Vietnam War.


1. January 1963: Cheney enrolls in Casper Community College and seeks and receives his first student deferment.

2. July 1963: Transferring to the University of Wyoming, he seeks and receives his second student deferment.

3. August 1964: Cheney marries, giving him protection under a temporary ban against drafting married men.  He seeks and receives his third student deferment.

4. July 1965: With the ban on married draftees threatened, Cheney heads to graduate school and receives a fourth student deferment.

5. October 6, 1965: The Selective Service lifts the ban against drafting married men, but leaves in place the exemption for men with children.  Nine months and two days later, Mr. Cheney's daughter, Elizabeth, is born.


_{62 Days Left!}

[Senator]

By 2010, Lagos is predicted to have a population of 13 million, making one of the biggest cities in the world (3rd biggest I think)

In case you don't know, Lagos is was the capital of Nigeria, making it one of the least known big cities as well.



P.S. No btw its not "in ruins". It is building up in fact, fast, I just thought that the photograph of a semi-collapsed building was interesting.

[Kirk]

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

[Senator]

The British National Party (read: anti-liberty Collectivists / Fascists AND Racial Supremacists) has been apparently been leaked online. They, for some unfathomable reason don't seem to like it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/19/bnp-list

The list can be found here:
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/British_National_Party_membership_and_contacts_list%2C_spread_sheet%2C_2007-2008
Tehehe

On other news, isn't wikileaks.org an awesome concept?

[JimmyB76]

Especially The Bathrooms

During a live relief telethon for Katrina victims, rapper Kanye West departed from his scripted portion of the show to say, "I really hate the way they portray us in the media.  You see a black family, it says 'They're looting.'  You see a white family, it says 'They're looking for food'. ... George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Barbara Bush praised the administration's response to Katrina, as the victims were "underprivileged anyway" and life in the Astrodome sports arena is "working very well for them."


_{57 Days Left!}

[Senator]

During a live relief telethon for Katrina victims, rapper Kanye West departed from his scripted portion of the show to say, "I really hate the way they portray us in the media.  You see a black family, it says 'They're looting.'  You see a white family, it says 'They're looking for food'. ... George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Ah, I happen to know what he refers to. He has probably seen this story(ies), there were a few red faces in AP for the differences in the commentary of:

[Senator]

When you think about it, Christianity has some fucked up relationships.

To begin with, it is an one parent family. There is God, there is the Son of God (while they still pretend to be monotheistic) but there is no Goddess.
Now, Mary someone could say is the mother, but she is not exactly referred as being of equal status, neither she is exactly thought as "married" with God. So essentially God has a child out of marriage.
Worse, Mary was already married, (to Joseph grasshopper) so God had a child, with someone else's wife.

However, in any case, we are all children of God in the first case. So that makes it incest.
Or in fact, makes it a relationship between a  grand-grand-...-grand-parent and a grand-grand-...-grand-child, which has a certain iffy factor of its own.

Finally, if the gospel of James counts, according to it she got married to Joseph at 12, and got pregnant by God at 16. (References: catholic library grasshopper: http://www.catholic.com/library/mary_ever_virgin.asp + Protoevangelium of James 8 & 15). Which makes God a... weeell, let's just say that the age of consent in Texas is 17.

[Senator]

See what they did there?

[JimmyB76]

no more offtopic or spam  *grumble grumble* :arms:


Rhode Island's latest unemployment statistics still remains #1 (highest) in the entire U.S. now rising to 9.3% (with a state population of just over one million)...

and from what i have been observing in my company the last few months, everyone here just might be a part of that statistic very soon

[JimmyB76]

The Bush Freedom Of Disinformation Act

The Bushes are no stranger to secrecy - think Skull and Bones at Yale - so it should have come as no surprise that both presidential Bushes have been trying to keep their acts in public office private. 
After taking office as president, Dubya tried to circumvent the Texas Public Information Act by having his state papers as governor shipped off to his father's presidential library.
Extending the practice to the White House, Dubya overturned the 1978 Presidential Records Act with orders that claim executive privilege to withhold papers because they contain military, diplomatic, or national security secrets.
He extended the same priveledges to vice presidents, allowing his father to keep secret his dealings on the Iran Contra and in Central America - even though the Reagan library wants the records released.
Then Dubya expanded the mandate in perpetuity to his heirs.


_{52 Days Left!}

[Senator]

Where some company names comes from.

Adobe - came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the houses of founders John Warnock and Chuck Geschke .

AMD - Advanced Micro Devices.

AT&T- American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation

BenQ- Bet you thought they were the founders initials or something? Nope. It stands for: "Bringing ENjoyment and Quality to life" (no srsly)

BMW - Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Factories)'

BP - British Petroleum

Cisco - Apparently short for San Francisco

eBay - despite the e appearing obviously inspired from "electronic" like email etc, actually the creator initially wanted to call it Echo Bay, as was the name of his first web company (Echo Bay Technology Group), someone had registered that domain already however so he shortened it to eBay

Epson - "Son of Electronic Printer"

Fiat - Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian Factory of Cars of Turin)

HP - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett

HSBC - The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation

IBM - International Business Machines

Intel - coined up from INTegrated ELectronics, although the named "integrated electronics" itself was taken from someone else.

LG - Combination of two popular Korean brands Lucky and Goldstar

Microsoft - Back then, every small sized computer was called "microcomputer" so Microsoft was coined essentially from: "MICROcomputer SOFTware"

Nokia - started as a wood-pulp mill, the company expanded into producing rubber products in the Finnish city of Nokia

Qantas - Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services

Red Hat - Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. People would turn to him to solve their problems, and he was referred to as 'that guy in the red hat'. He lost the cap and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone

SAAB - "Svenska Aeroplan aktiebolaget" (Swedish Aeroplane Company)

Sun Microsystems - its founders designed their first workstation in their dorm at StanfordUniversity, and chose the name Stanford University Network for their product, hoping to sell it to the college. They didn't.

Tesco - Founder Jack Cohen, who from 1919 sold groceries in the markets of the London East End, acquired a large shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first two letters of his surname forming the word "TESCO"

Vodafone - VOice, DAta, TeleFONE

Volvo - From the Latin word "volvo", which means "I roll".

[MLeo]

About Red Hat.
The hat given to Marc Ewing was a fedora hat, thus the name of the linux distribution called "Fedora Linux".

[JimmyB76]

Foul Ball

After failing the oil business, Dubya was joined in 1989 by supporters of his dad, the then president, in a deal to buy the Texas Rangers.
Dubya received a 1.8 percent share of the team for an investment of $600,000.
The deal was on the verge of falling through when Dubya's dad's friend, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth, produced another finance group to back the deal. 
Dubya was later given 10 percent of the team as a bonus for his work in "putting the deal together."

in 1990 the partnership used its political connections to pass a law giving them powers of eminent domain, which they used to condemn and purchase 300 acres of "worthless" land between the new stadium and a Six Flags amusement park.
They then built a new $190 million stadium entirely with taxpayer funding and ticket surcharges.
The free stadium and land comprised the bulk of the team's value.

In 1998 the team was sold by the partnership and then Governor Dubya for $250 million to a Texas billionaire with substantial amountsof business before state agencies.
Dubya's cut was $14 million.


_{50 Days Left!}

[Senator]

[1DeadlySAMURAI]

Worlds oldest lolcat is from 1905

What?s Delaying My Dinner?


This captioned cat picture postcard was found by Tracy Angulo in a Seattle antique store. Tracy tells us that the photograph is from 1905, which would make this officially the oldest cat picture with a caption, AKA lolcat, that we?ve seen.

The differences are clear. Proper grammar and a more formal tone was in vogue back then. But the similarities to modern-day kitten struggles and lolcats are amazing. ALL CAPS is still cool, but most importantly, she also no can has cheezburger. More than a hundred years later, all that?s changed is the spelling.

Evekitteh, we hope you got a good dinner.