Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history

 

How many more years of orgies have we got left?  

Will I be able to drain my liquor cabinet before the end?

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Why are we talking about toting weaponry about though? - Forest

Because at least from outside the US that seems to be the general attitude to guns there. Don't you have states which allow the general public to carry weapons, and concealed weapons?

But the thing I find weirdest about it is the seeming contradiction at the heart of America.

Yeah well one thing at a time Petty.
Unless you are a Jedi, you need to carry the gun around in your hands in order to use it!

Apparently only 5 states allow just anybody to carry a concealed handgun around in public, while most states (41) allow people to carry concealed handguns in public with a permit, but a permit that does not discern between whether or not a person should be allowed to have weapons on their person, only that they meet certain criteria like age or years lived in the state.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:then the UK is still hungover.- Eldo

How dare you! I remain far to drunk for any sort of hangover! (though when China and Russia take over backed by India I think the US hangover will be epic!)

I think they made some movies about that or something pre-emptively. As I understand it, they're full of metaphor about U.S.-Asia relations.

Unless you are a Jedi, you need to carry the gun around in your hands in order to use it!- Forest

Yes, but going on the amount of death by gun in the US it seems having guns about your person is just a little to convenient, and perhaps disputes that get out of hand in less gun orientated societies and would result in a fight in the US result in someone dead a lot more often.

Earth isn’t the only planet in the solar system with spectacular light shows. Both Jupiter and Saturn have magnetic fields much stronger than Earth’s. Auroras also have been observed on the surfaces of Venus, Mars and even on moons (e.g. Io, Europa, and Ganymede). The auroras on Saturn are created when solar wind particles are channeled into the planet’s magnetic field toward its poles, where they interact with electrically charged gas (plasma) in the upper atmosphere and emit light. Aurora features on Saturn can also be caused by electromagnetic waves generated when its moons move through the plasma that fills the planet’s magnetosphere. The main source is the small moon Enceladus, which ejects water vapor from the geysers on its south pole, a portion of which is ionized. The interaction between Saturn’s magnetosphere and the solar wind generates bright oval aurora around the planet’s poles observed in visible, infrared and ultraviolet light. The aurora of Saturn are highly variable. Their location and brightness strongly depends on the Solar wind pressure: the aurora become brighter and move closer to the poles when the Solar wind pressure increases.

Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. K)

Erm. No.
I read the National Geographic article too when it came out. Lets keep Tolkien out of it!

Crab Eater Seal's array of strange teeth.

wow gothic teeth! Ruskin would approve.

A bloody big 7m crocodile



And a fish eagle snatches a young Nile crocodile in Selous Game reserve, Tanzania. Photo by Mark Sheridan-Johnson / Barcroft.

wow. again! thats a dinosaur class crocodile surely? HOLY CRAPADOODLE!

I do like this one !

That's a really good optical illusion.

Indeed. Trees are powerful enforcers of perspective in this case.
I would like the image a lot more if there was no text.

The Hotel Grotta Palazzese in Polignano a Mare in Italy.

Bad place for a buckie

Inspired by Mrs Figg's popcorn story, I'm thinking it does have the advantage of not needing to walk to the facilities....

 I bet theres some nasty sprayback if theres a sea breeze. Plus women would have to dangle their bits over a precipice like Bilbo.

this village is called Elven its in France    

Mrs Figg wrote:  I bet theres some nasty sprayback if theres a sea breeze. Plus women would have to dangle their bits over a precipice like Bilbo.

Just think of it as nature's bidet.

David H wrote:Inspired by Mrs Figg's popcorn story, I'm thinking it does have the advantage of not needing to walk to the facilities....

Huh, what? Where's Figg's popcorn story?

Found it.

I have never actually used a popcorn bucket but I have definitely used a plastic bag on a motorway crouched in the well of the car at 100 miles an hour.

On said subject- advice to the men out there- if you are caught short and decide to use an empty bottle, make sure first the bottle holds more than you have drunk!