Fun facts!

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You can avoid being sung by a bee by simply standing still once it takes interest in you. Often whenever a bee feels threatened by something it will typically fly around the perceived threat and maybe even bump into them a few times. They do this as a test to see if you'll retaliate against them and determine whether they should sting you or not, if you don't move they'll deem you passive and leave.


There have been apparent sighting and recordings of an odd small humanoid creature that supposedly dwells in the London Sewers. Workers that maintain the sewer systems often report hearing odd sounds and catching glimpses of the creature darting around corners. As a testament to humanity's uncanny ability to cope with things that would be otherwise horrifying, the workers are actually pretty fond of the freaky little bastard scurrying about and watching them go about their day and sometimes they even make attempts to talk to it and give it little pet names. There was even a horror movie made about the creature, and it's not half bad.
 
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In 1974, the mummy of pharaoh Ramesses II was flown to Paris to be examined with a CAT scan. His plane was met at the airport with full military honors befitting a visiting head of state, and he was issued a special passport with his occupation listed as "King (deceased)".
 
Count groudon said:
You can avoid being sung by a bee by simply standing still once it takes interest in you. Often whenever a bee feels threatened by something it will typically fly around the perceived threat and maybe even bump into them a few times. They do this as a test to see if you'll retaliate against them and determine whether they should sting you or not, if you don't move they'll deem you passive and leave.


There have been apparent sighting and recordings of an odd small humanoid creature that supposedly dwells in the London Sewers. Workers that maintain the sewer systems often report hearing odd sounds and catching glimpses of the creature darting around corners. As a testament to humanity's uncanny ability to cope with things that would be otherwise horrifying, the workers are actually pretty fond of the freaky little bastard scurrying about and watching them go about their day and sometimes they even make attempts to talk to it and give it little pet names. There was even a horror movie made about the creature, and it's not half bad.
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The sewer thing makes me want to screem
 
In 1835, Ohioan and Michagander state militias actually had fought each other over the Toledo, a disputed territory of Michigan, the war ended in 1836, with the Federal government ending the war, and there were no deaths.
 
Forever Train Engineer said:
In 1835, Ohioan and Michagander state militias actually had fought each other over the Toledo, a disputed territory of Michigan, the war ended in 1836, with the Federal government ending the war, and there were no deaths.
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And that's why Michigan has the Upper Peninsula. Getting it was part of the deal for giving up the disputed territory. They got a bargain as it is packed with metal ores that were discovered later.
 
In 1955 and 1956, Dodge released a car made just for women, the La Femme:

1280px-DodgeLaFemme.jpg


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It had a special compartment behind the front seat to hold a purse, and it came with a kit that included a matching face-powder compact, lipstick case, cigarette case, comb, cigarette lighter and change purse.
 
Japanese warrior monks have a reputation of being highly effective and skilled warriors.

warrior_monk.jpg

And they looked fucking epic in the Kamakura period (1185-1333).

While tales of their fearsome strength are true for certain individuals, there was quite a number of warrior monks that relied more on their position as monks and spiritual leaders for psychological warfare than actual strength or martial skills.

For instance, the monks from the Enryaku-Ji near Kyoto usually went to the imperial court, carrying a sort of sacred relic much like the ark of the covenant. They'd place that relic near the entrance of the imperial palace, state their demands and then wait for their demands being met.
If they weren't met by nightfall, they'd go to their barracks, but leave the relic in front of the gates as a means of intimidation. This sort of gave the court nobles the heebie-jeebies; especially since noone from the regular folk wanted to carry that thing away.
So, the demands were met eventually and the monks would come to pick up their relic.

Equally, a lot of regular troops feared for their spiritual safety if they attacked an army of warrior monks carrying such a relic into battle.

In case that warrior monks actually did get attacked, they got routed rather quickly, cause most of them weren't really that familiar with warfare to begin with.

One of the best known warrior monks is Benkei from the "Tales of the Heike".
1200px-Uchiwakamaru_fighting_Benkei_on_Gojo_bridge.jpg

Pictured on the right.

It is said he was wandering Kyoto, fighting worthy opponents and collecting their swords - his goal being to collect 1000. One night (when he had already bested 999 opponents), he came across a young man playing the flute and carrying a marvelous sword, so he challenged him for a duel on Gojo Bridge and lost. He also lost a second bout, so he became that person's retainer.
Thus, Benkei ended up serving under Minamoto no Yoshitsune (who's a fascinating character in his own right), who was a key figure in defeating the Taira clan in the Gempei War.

Ultimately, Yoshitsune was betrayed by his brother Yoritomo, who attacked Yoshitsune and his men in a small castle.
While Yoshitsune withdrew into the inner buildings to commit seppuku, Benkei bought his master time by blocking off the enemy at a bridge.
It is said that he slew so many soldiers, noone dared another attempt to attack him in close combat. He was then shot with a large number of arrows, but still he would not budge. After some time, soldiers noted that he didn't move, so they drew closer carefully and realized that Benkei had bled to death from his many wounds some time ago, yet still he stood firm.
Him and Yoshitsune are some of the most well-known tragic heroes of japanese folklore.
 
The McDonald Douglass F-15 Eagle and the Grumman F-14 Tomcat were made purely in response to EXTREMELY trumped up Soviet claims about the MiG-25 and Tu-22 . By claiming they had built a Mach 3 fighter with 250 mile range radar that could track a dozen targets at once and a bomber that could move too quickly and launch missiles from every altitude with incredibly efficacy, the US response was to make a completely over-built pure fighter in the Eagle and a complex high speed interceptor in the Tomcat that could put the US Air Force and Navy on equal footing.

The reality was the Soviet claims were no where close to accurate about their own capabilities and the US ended up creating a massive gap in aircraft development. The F-15 ended up exceeding its own expectations upon enter service and in the hands of US, Israeli and Saudi pilots has the single greatest combat record of any jet aircraft in terms of both K/D and overall airframe retention. The Tomcat proved to be an excellent aircraft in its own right as well as the sexiest plane ever built. While the MiG-25 and Tu-22 ended up being extremely accident prone and often shown to be incapable of fulfilling their basic duties time and time again when challenged by NATO assets attempting to gauge them. The Soviet aircraft developed to match these two (the MiG-29 and the Su-27) both ended up being too little too late, as neither were as reliable, capable or able to be produced in enough numbers to ever really be seen as a true threat. In fact, the low cost stop-gap multi-role fighters the Navy and Air Force ordered to supplement their "Pure fighters" (the F/A-18 and the F-16, respectively) at the time ended up being more than capable of handling the aircraft built to counter their bigger brothers.

And as much as it pains me to say it, having once been a proud member of the Naval Aviation community, the Eagle made the venerable Tomcat look like a debutante. Everyone hated fighting them at Red Flag or any other aerial combat oriented exercise because more often than not you were just happy to survive more than 18 seconds against one.
 
TiggerNits said:
The McDonald Douglass F-15 Eagle and the Grumman F-14 Tomcat were made purely in response to EXTREMELY trumped up Soviet claims about the MiG-25 and Tu-22 . By claiming they had built a Mach 3 fighter with 250 mile range radar that could track a dozen targets at once and a bomber that could move too quickly and launch missiles from every altitude with incredibly efficacy, the US response was to make a completely over-built pure fighter in the Eagle and a complex high speed interceptor in the Tomcat that could put the US Air Force and Navy on equal footing.

The reality was the Soviet claims were no where close to accurate about their own capabilities and the US ended up creating a massive gap in aircraft development. The F-15 ended up exceeding its own expectations upon enter service and in the hands of US, Israeli and Saudi pilots has the single greatest combat record of any jet aircraft in terms of both K/D and overall airframe retention. The Tomcat proved to be an excellent aircraft in its own right as well as the sexiest plane ever built. While the MiG-25 and Tu-22 ended up being extremely accident prone and often shown to be incapable of fulfilling their basic duties time and time again when challenged by NATO assets attempting to gauge them. The Soviet aircraft developed to match these two (the MiG-29 and the Su-27) both ended up being too little too late, as neither were as reliable, capable or able to be produced in enough numbers to ever really be seen as a true threat. In fact, the low cost stop-gap multi-role fighters the Navy and Air Force ordered to supplement their "Pure fighters" (the F/A-18 and the F-16, respectively) at the time ended up being more than capable of handling the aircraft built to counter their bigger brothers.

And as much as it pains me to say it, having once been a proud member of the Naval Aviation community, the Eagle made the venerable Tomcat look like a debutante. Everyone hated fighting them at Red Flag or any other aerial combat oriented exercise because more often than not you were just happy to survive more than 18 seconds against one.
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That reminds me of that one story of the F-15 the Israelis tested...

They couldn't decide which fighter jet to obtain, so they got a few to test them out. During one simulated combat, Israeli pilot Zivi Nedivi saw the leading aircraft of the simulated attack force, "fired" a missile, but since both pilots had no direct line of sight, they happened to colide in mid-air.
The other plane blew up immediately while the F-15 went into a dive and started spinning uncontrollably. The pilot was about to eject, but throttled up and managed to regain control. While flying back to the airfield, he asked his wingman what his situation was, but a huge plume of leaking fuel obscured the entire right side of his jet, though he did realize that throttling down would lead to a spin that he couldn't counteract, so he had to land with roughly twice the speed that you'd usually fly at. The speed was big enough to tear off the landing hook, even.
So, after landing the pilot opens the canopy to shake his navigator's hand and realizes that his entire right wing is missing.

One-wing-F-15.jpg


Turns out the F-15 is one hell of a tough bastard. Needless to say, the Israelis decided to adopt that plane for obvious reasons.
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
That reminds me of that one story of the F-15 the Israelis tested...

They couldn't decide which fighter jet to obtain, so they got a few to test them out. During one simulated combat, Israeli pilot Zivi Nedivi saw the leading aircraft of the simulated attack force, "fired" a missile, but since both pilots had no direct line of sight, they happened to colide in mid-air.
The other plane blew up immediately while the F-15 went into a dive and started spinning uncontrollably. The pilot was about to eject, but throttled up and managed to regain control. While flying back to the airfield, he asked his wingman what his situation was, but a huge plume of leaking fuel obscured the entire right side of his jet, though he did realize that throttling down would lead to a spin that he couldn't counteract, so he had to land with roughly twice the speed that you'd usually fly at. The speed was big enough to tear off the landing hook, even.
So, after landing the pilot opens the canopy to shake his navigator's hand and realizes that his entire right wing is missing.

One-wing-F-15.jpg


Turns out the F-15 is one hell of a tough bastard. Needless to say, the Israelis decided to adopt that plane for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...

The Eagle is a fucking beast. They have so much thrust and such a good handling profile that in a dogfight you really can just get on the burners at any altitude, attitude and airspeed and have a solid chance at out turning your opponent or just getting away from them and disengage, set yourself up for a low-risk pass and get the kill that way. People get simulated Eagle kills, I've done it once, but it's mostly luck. The only plane aside from he F-22 (which in a lot of ways is just the 15 on steroids) that seems to fare okay are F model super hornets assuming they can sucker them in to the super bug's best envelope before they have a chance to compensate from their pretty impressive engagement cone
 
Benjamin Franklin once wrote a book about farts
fart-proudly.jpg

And AnimatedJames most certainly would have came to this.
 
Jack Nicholson grew up thinking that his mother was his sister and that his grandmother was his mother.

It was revealed to him when he was 37 by a Time reporter doing a story about his new movie, Chinatown.
 
There was once a pirate named Eustace the Monk who's life was pretty much an irl anime. During his youth he ran away to Spain and spent years studying black magic there more or less for shits and giggles, eventually he decided that doing this was wrong and ran away from Spain to return to his home where he joined a monetary where he became a monk (hence his epithet) and after his father was murdered he became a pirate in an attempt to hunt down the man who murdered him, he was also at some point appointed seneschal and baliff of the count of Boulogne, Renaud de Dammartin. Eventually after a few years of piracy he became a famous mercenary working under France and England, where he wasso skilled he was pardoned for his crimes many times because France and England felt that they couldn't achieve victory without him. Eventually the wars ended and Eustace was promptly executed for outliving his usefulness and his family who had accumulated a pretty sweet fortune from his work were forced back into poverty.


Sometimes history is way more entertaining than fiction.
 
Billy the Kid was shot dead with a Colt Frontier pistol that once belonged to his friend Billy Wilson. The pistol was confiscated from Wilson by Sheriff Pat Garrett on December 24, 1880 when he captured Billy the Kid, Wilson, and several other outlaws outside of Stinking Springs, New Mexico. Garrett carried both the pistol and a matching 1873 Winchester, both once owned by Wilson and both in .44-40 caliber, to hunt down Billy after he escaped from jail in April 1881, and killed him on July 14 of the same year.
 
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There is an entire band dedicated to making songs out of famous Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes, and they're really good. Also the main singer was arrested and sent to jail for conspiracy to murder his wife.

 
Mormon gunfighter Porter Rockwell opened the first brewery and distillery in Utah. Despite being the first ever convert to Joseph Smith's new religion, he never stopped drinking.
 
Rhodesia, and South Africa had a shit load of Jews in them. Israel did everything they could to keep them a float (men, materiel, supplies, political support). Israel also did everything they could to keep the colonial powers in power in Africa, and to help support their control (such as the Portuguese).
 
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Heroin was invented by Bayer Pharmaceuticals as a way to wəan junkies off of morphine. At one point in the 1900s, they even mailed samples of it to every known morphine addict in the United States.

Also, the term 'junkie' comes from morphine addicts who would scour the streets and gutters of New York City, looking for junk they could sell to get their next fix.
 
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