Somewhat Useful Facts Thread

[Villain]

Absinthe is actually a spirit, not a laquer. (Hooray for spelling)

[captain_obvious]

Absinthe is actually a spirit, not a laquer. (Hooray for spelling)

Liquor or liqueur

Hooray for spell-check extensions!!

[JimmyB76]

if you flip a coin ten times, the odds against its coming up with the same side showing each time are 1,023 to 1...

[Viper]

Absinthe is actually a spirit, not a laquer. (Hooray for spelling)

Liquor or liqueur

Hooray for spell-check extensions!!

Maybe he was going for lacquer.  Although I would think its more of a lacquer thinner or remover.

[captain_obvious]

Absinthe is actually a spirit, not a laquer. (Hooray for spelling)

Liquor or liqueur

Hooray for spell-check extensions!!

Although I would think its more of a lacquer thinner or remover.

You're damn right there :/
Still feeling the after effects of last night. I woke up clutching one of those guitar controllers for guitar hero..

[Armondikov]

if you flip a coin ten times, the odds against its coming up with the same side showing each time are 1,023 to 1...

Interestingly, that's also the same odds as the combination permutation HHHTTTHTHT, and even more spooky, the same odds as the combination TTTHTHTTTT.

[Senator]

Now the true question is, after a 10 tail streak are the odds for or against you in betting that the 11th coin flip is going to be tails as well. ;)

[Armondikov]

Now the true question is, after a 10 tail streak are the odds for or against you in betting that the 11th coin flip is going to be tails as well. ;)

http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Gambler's_fallacy

[Senator]

Currently, the biggest, non-radio/x-ray telescope in space is Herschel (it's an infrared one) with a 3.5m mirror. (Hubble: 2.5m)
It was launched in 2009 and it is the one on its way to L2 rather than Earth Orbit. (only 1.5 million km away. Yes, forget service missions about that one, they had to get it right the first time)

[Villain]

Now that is a thing of beauty.

EDIT: Damnit, I can't stop reading this Rationalwiki website! Curse you! *Shakes fist*

[Viper]

Oooooo, aaaaahhhh. Pretty. Where can I get one? I need to, um, you know its not really important why I need it.

[Armondikov]

EDIT: Damnit, I can't stop reading this Rationalwiki website! Curse you! *Shakes fist*

Excellent, my work here is done.

But yeah, Herschel is pretty awesome, I think it's starting to send back some images back already, isn't it? And it's the Sun-Earth L2 right, not the Earth-moon one, otherwise that'd defy the point a bit.


Anyway, useless fact:

If the tracks on Queen's original studio albums are numbered in sequential order starting with their first, "'39" does in fact fall in the thirty-ninth position. The song is a reference to the twin paradox, which is what happens when you let astrophysicists form rock bands.

[limey BSc.]

which is what happens when you let astrophysicists form rock bands.

Brian May is the only astrophysicist in the band. Freddie has a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design and John Deacon has a Degree in Electronics.

Freddy Mercury's real name is Farrokh Bulsara.

[Armondikov]

which is what happens when you let astrophysicists form rock bands.

Brian May is the only astrophysicist in the band. Freddie has a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design and John Deacon has a Degree in Electronics.

Freddy Mercury's real name is Farrokh Bulsara.

I never implied that they were all physics students, I've seen a band like that, it was very, very different... Anyway, all four have degrees. Which is quite good considering most new Indie bands are all like "uh, we can't go on tour, we're still doing our A-Levels".

IIRC. Every member of Queen has penned a no.1 hit, which I don't think even The Beatles or Led Zeppelin did, but I'll have to check that one.

[Armondikov]

I'll correct the above. Definitely not no.1s, they only had 6 and two of those don't count as they're We Will Rock You with 5ive and the George Micheal version of Somebody to Love at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. But all four have been stated as primary/sole writers on some of their classic songs and each one has at least one of theirs on their Greatest Hits II (I have the piano reduction in front of me now complete with appropriate credits).

A Kind of Magic - Roger Taylor
Who Wants to Live Forever - Brian May (I played this one on piano for GCSE music)
I Want To Break Free - John Deacon
And of course a there are dozens attributed to Freddie Mercury and even more credited to the band alone.

So I think it's fair to say that those are four shit-hot songwriters.

[Viper]

The US was not the first to create a stealth bomber....

I give you the WWII German Horten 229 under construction. [There were three of them in total. The first 2 crashed after several flights. The third was captured at war's end before full production began]


After the war...it went to Northrop Grumman for testing and storage...



And what does Northrop Grumman produce....




And for those wondering what happened to the original, it is still in the same storage facility, however Northrop Grumman did use it as a guide in creating this...

[086gf]

You saw the show about this on the National Geographic channel the other day too didn't you?

Also thats the mini version(though first designed/built) of the six engine transcontinental bomber that could have reached New York.





Here's the episode btw. http://www.youtube.com/user/TsarHD#g/c/463E6E278C9B8AB1

[Viper]

Actually, I knew about it long before the show. I majored in military history and I'm an amateur WWII historian.

[Villain]

I had a model kit of one of those babies a long, long time ago. Had a speculative one of the Aurora, too. I miss that whole ball of wax.

[Armondikov]

Actually, I knew about it long before the show. I majored in military history and I'm an amateur WWII historian.

I remember it as well. They discovered it by accident, they just wanted to experiment with the shape for plane and realised it just-so-happened to have a very low radar cross-section that would have made it difficult to detect. But the B-2 was designed to be stealthy, but based on the knowledge gained from the German model.

Also, if I remember my WWII documentaries properly, there was something like a 2-3 year ban on weapons development, imposed by Hitler for some odd reason. The only decent reason I can think of is that he wanted to divert all funds into expanding the Reich as quickly as possible. But when it was lifted, they developed some really, really scary shit. Imagine tanks the size of houses rolling across Europe and stealth bombers dropping nukes on New York, in 1944.