Fun facts!

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In 1950, Magokichi Yamaoka, the founder of Yanmar, the diesel engine manufacturer in Japan, visited West Germany and learned that there was no tomb or monument for Diesel. Yamaoka and people associated with Diesel began to make preparations to honour him. In 1957, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Diesel's birth and the 60th anniversary of the diesel engine development, Yamaoka dedicated the Rudolf Diesel Memorial Garden (Rudolf-Diesel-Gedächtnishain) in Wittelsbacher Park in Augsburg, Bavaria, where Diesel had undertaken his early technical education and original engine development.
Fun Fact: I ripped this straight from wikipedia.
 
Never forget that in 1862 Ulysses Grant expelled the Jews from Tennessee.

What goofy shit to happen in the United States.
:wow: General Grant's own father got in on the business of illegal cotton trading too.
Link
Grant and the cotton trade took on a more personal tone when his father Jesse Grant, and the Mack brothers, Jewish clothing contractors, visited Grant at his Southern base of Oxford. Jesse and Grant got along well with each other for a couple of days. Grant also treated his Jewish guests respectfully. The Mack brothers needed cotton to make Union army uniforms. Jesse Grant had been promised by the Mack brothers to receive a quarter of the profits, after Jesse had gotten his son Grant to bestow permits to buy cotton, and then be shipped to New York. When Grant found out about the business agreement between Jesse and the Mack brothers, Grant was livid. Grant abruptly sent Jesse and the Mack brothers packing north on the next train. Grant may have felt betrayed to find out his own father was involved in the cotton trade that he despised.
 
that’s not even scratching the surface of his obsession.
Yes, he was also extremely megalomaniac.

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And he wrote a book named Ruhnama, which is composed of the bullshit he made up. He added questions about the book to the university entrance exam and the driving test.


More of his insanity:
Saparmurat Niyazov is the first name that popped into my mind.

-War orphan, mother died in earthquake, traumatic childhood.
-Wrote a book that contains his memories, Turkmen lore, dietary suggestions, Soviet bashing, boasting, wild promises, pep talk and his poems. Promised that everyone who reads it 3 times will go to heaven because he personally asked Allah to arrange it. Closed all libraries because people only need to read Quran and his book.
-Named towns, schools, airports, a meteorite and everything after himself. Named months after himself and his family members. Changed the word bread to his mothers name.
-Banned beard and long hair for young men.
-Banned men from listening to car radios.
-Banned makeup on television for men to not confused with women.
-Banned ballet, opera and circuses.
-Banned lip syncing and recorded music at public events.
-Banned smoking in all public places after he gave up smoking, after his heart surgery.
-Banned dogs in Ashgabat because they smell bad.
-Banned public benches in Ashgabat because walking is healthy.
-Fired 15,000 health workers and closed all hospitals outside of Ashgabat, forced every sick people in 480,000 km² country to visit city.
-Switched the Hippocratic Oath with his own.
-Banned gold teeth, recommended people chewing bones for strong teeth.
-Reduced secondary education by one year to dumb down the population to prevent dissent.
-Spent money coming from natural resources to stupid shit like artifical lakes in the middle of desert, ice rinks, mega mosques or twenty four karat gold statues of himself.
-Discontinued pensions of one-third of all country's elderly and reduced the remaining.
 
Technically, Hank Williams wasn't strictly a full-bore alcoholic, apparently: he was more of a binge-drinker, and pals of his said he could go months without necking 'em down. Usually, he got trousered when he was touring, and it was the kind of stuff he was drinking (neat whiskeys, neat vodkas etc.), plus his generally unrelaxed lifestyle, that made him die so young. And it couldn't have helped that he was partial to moonshine, too, which was his first alcoholic beverage, at like, 8 years old, or something.

I found out this info in this book (which I know I already mentioned in 'Have you been reading any good gooks Lately?'): https://books.google.co.uk/books/ab...RyY3gC&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y

My favourite entries in the book are Oliver Reed, Peter O'Toole, Ava Gardner, Charles Bukowski, Keith Floyd (Britain's most entertaining TV chef there was. Shame he was a disaster in his personal life, and a general pain in the arse to his family), Jeffrey Bernard (journalist), Blackbeard, Sir Francis Dashwood (founder of the Hellfire Club, whom, if I found out I'm a descendant of his, I wouldn't be surprised, 'cos he kept knocking up women even into his 70s, without somehow ending up with a myriad of STDs), Wild Bill Hickok (crazy fucker killed a grizzly bear with his knife, after he ran out of bullets, and "self-healed" (not sure how well it worked) himself by pouring whiskey on his wounds), John Huston, Sam Peckinpah, and Robert Mitchum.
 
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And it couldn't have helped that he was partial to moonshine, too, which was his first alcoholic beverage, at like, 8 years old, or something.
Or opiates from morphine to heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and even weird shit like chloral hydrate (more common back in the day but pretty dangerous), and combining all these. My guess is it fucked up his heart, which may have already had issues to start with, and that's what caused his (probable) fatal heart attack, even if he might not have been acutely intoxicated at the time.

This is why I always kind of hate it when people say no big loss about someone who ODs. Losing Hank Williams at 28 was a genuine tragedy.
 
Or opiates from morphine to heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and even weird shit like chloral hydrate (more common back in the day but pretty dangerous), and combining all these. My guess is it fucked up his heart, which may have already had issues to start with, and that's what caused his (probable) fatal heart attack, even if he might not have been acutely intoxicated at the time.

This is why I always kind of hate it when people say no big loss about someone who ODs. Losing Hank Williams at 28 was a genuine tragedy.
29, but yeah, sad as fuck to drop dead so young. Forgot he was a drug addict, too. His appearance in I Saw the Light was pretty solid, might I add, even if I did initially have trouble seeing anyone but Loki. Looked youthful and old at the same time, like he was wearing himself out.
 
Diethyl ether had a run on europe in the late 1800s. Cities and villages from Ireland to Poland had abuse rates approaching 90%. Children commonly abused the substance, and were given it as a 'treat'.
Use (abuse) of this substance displaced alcohol abuse and eventually led to state control/bans (at the request of the alcohol monopolies)

 
Up until the early 2000s the majority of suit actors for women in super sentai/power rangers where just dudes. A few in the 90s where actual women like ohpink and ninjawhite but for the most part if you found yourself fantasizing about ladies in tight spandex you where actually ogling these dudes
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Also most of the yellow ranger characters where just guys in super sentai making you double gay if you stared
 
Ernest Hemingway's mum dressed him up like a sissy, for lack of better terminology, when he was a boy. It was a huge factor in why he became infamous for his manly man image. His dad, a respected doctor, also "went nuts" and shot himself. The reason why I put '"went nuts'" in quotations, is because it's most likely that they both suffered from an hereditary blood disease that eventually affected (effected? I never remember the difference. A bit like with patronising and condescending) their minds.
 
affected (effected? I never remember the difference
You used it correctly. Affect is used as a verb there as you're describing what it (the disease) was doing. Effect would be a noun and it would describe what was done/the end result.

The blood disease was affecting their minds. Their minds were effected by the blood disease.
 
Sad Fact: The last Passenger Pigeon, and the last Carolina Parakeet both died in the same zoo in the same enclosure within less than five years of each other.
 
Enough of sad shit: I'm not sure if someone already mentioned it, but in WWII, the Polish army had a Syrian Brown Bear that was smart and friendly enough to load mortars, because he was rescued as a cub. He survived the war, and spent the rest of his days in Edinburgh Zoo. Him and his unit were also present at the Battle of Monte Cassino, undoubtedly the most pants-shittingly scary Italian campaign. Some info on that:

Most of the area is a mountainous, hillside village area, with an increasingly steep stone slope the higher you climb, and the main Monte Cassino bit is a massive cathedral/church/castle/fortress, with a shadowed wide entrance (probably a tunnel), ideal for ambushes, or surprise attacks. Wojtek was tasked with carrying a lot of supplies as the Pole Corps made their way up to do their bit in assisting the rest of the Allies in breaking the Gustav Line.
 
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Since cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide and so many troons are heavy smokers they can probably save alot of money by sucking on their cars exhaust pipe
 
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