Yes it really happened

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Doodoo
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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 12, 2020, 10:02 am

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On September 10, 1897, a 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building. Smith later pleaded guilty and was fined 25 shillings.

In the United States, the first laws against operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol went into effect in New York in 1910. In 1936, Dr. Rolla Harger, a professor of biochemistry and toxicology, patented the Drunkometer, a balloon-like device into which people would breathe to determine whether they were inebriated. In 1953, Robert Borkenstein, a former Indiana state police captain and university professor who had collaborated with Harger on the Drunkometer, invented the Breathalyzer. Easier-to-use and more accurate than the Drunkometer, the Breathalyzer was the first practical device and scientific test available to police officers to establish whether someone had too much to drink. A person would blow into the Breathalyzer and it would gauge the proportion of alcohol vapors in the exhaled breath, which reflected the level of alcohol in the blood.

Despite the invention of the Breathalyzer and other developments, it was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that public awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving increased and lawmakers and police officers began to get tougher on offenders. In 1980, a Californian named Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, after her 13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver while walking home from a school carnival. The driver had three previous drunk-driving convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days earlier. Lightner and MADD were instrumental in helping to change attitudes about drunk driving and pushed for legislation that increased the penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. MADD also helped get the minimum drinking age raised in many states. Today, the legal drinking age is 21 everywhere in the United States and convicted drunk drivers face everything from jail time and fines to the loss of their driver’s licenses and increased car insurance rates. Some drunk drivers are ordered to have ignition interlock devices installed in their vehicles. These devices require a driver to breath into a sensor attached to the dashboard; the car won’t start if the driver’s blood alcohol concentration is above a certain limit.

Despite the stiff penalties and public awareness campaigns, drunk driving remains a serious problem in the United States. Each year, roughly 1,500 people die in alcohol-related crashes and almost 1.5 million people are arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.itation Information

2
There used to be more apple varieties
While it may seem as if your grocery store 
has a nice selection, we’re a long way from what fruit historians describe as “the golden age of pomology.” 
During the 19th century, there were about 14,000 distinct apple varieties across North America. Today, only around 100 varieties of apples are commercially grown.



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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 13, 2020, 7:30 am

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Cider over pie
Apples grown in North America during the 18th and 19th centuries were often more likely to end up in a cider barrel than in a pie. “In rural areas, cider took the place of not only wine and beer but of coffee and tea, juice, and even water,” author Michael Pollan wrote in The Botany of Desire.

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There’s plenty of truth to the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”
A large apple has about 115 calories and five grams of fibre per 
serving, and the fruit’s polyphenols and fibre help balance bacteria in your gut. In fact, apples are one of the healthiest fruits for your body. But make sure not to peel it: two-thirds of an apple’s anti­oxidants and much of its fibre are found in the skin. Here are more food parts you should never throw away.

3

How did this earthy fruit become the symbol of one of the world’s wealthiest corporations?
One day in the mid-1970s, Steve Wozniak picked up Steve Jobs at the airport. The paperwork for their nascent computer company was due the next day, according to Walter Isaac­son’s biography of Jobs. As it happened, Jobs had just been pruning apple trees in Oregon, and when the men started throwing around potential names (Matrix, Exec­u­tek, and Personal Computers Inc. were among their ideas), 
he suggested Apple Computer. “It sounded fun, spirited and not intimidating. Apple took the edge off the word computer, ” Jobs said. “Plus, it would get us ahead of Atari in the phone book.”

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 14, 2020, 5:55 am

1
Did any Japanese pilots that took part in the Pearl Harbor attack survive past the end of the war?
Most did not. They suffered very heavy casualties early in the war. Few Japanese pilots were returned to Japan after a period of time in combat. So many stayed in combat zones until they were dead. And Japanese pilots were very unwilling to become prisoners so few were captured.

Later in the war when Japan began to lose territory and Japan was under threat many were used as kamakaze pilots.

Japanese navy training was very long and had very high standards. As the war progressed the navy was unable to train enough effective pillots to replace the pilots lost. So there combat service was extended. Some airforces would allocate some experience combat pilots to finnish combat missions and train new pilots. And many also had some periods of leave.

The Japanese standards for new trainees was also very high. So they hato reduce their standard during the war. The US had a much larger number of potential pilots and developed a more effective pilot training. Including longer time flying aircraft. So US pilot standards remain good and in very large numbers. And it was continually improved with experience.

Another factor was the qualities of Japanese aircraft. This included in many cases a lack of armor. Such as in the famous Japanese Zero fighter. As allied pilots adjusted to fighting Japanese aircraft they developed better tactics to use against Japanese pilots and take advantage of weaknesses like poor armor.

Another factor was parachutes. Many Japanese did not want to carry them. Later many had to be ordered to wear them This may have been due to the culture of the Japanese military and willingness to die for the emperor.

Buy 1944 the Japanese were very short in pilots and especially experienced ones. Durinf the Battle of Leyte Gulf a number of carriers were used to divert US navy ships and carried few pilots and aircraft.

The battle for Midway took a heavy toll on Japanese navy pilots. Four carriers were lost in that battle. Leaving surviving pilots nowhere to land. And the Japanese fleet withdrew without having time to rescue crashed air crew.

The battle for Guadalcanal in 1942/43 was a deadly battle of attrition. Many American and Japanese pilots were lost. Along with many ships. But the US could replace its navy pilots. By the end 0f 1944 the Japanese had very few experienced pilots left to fly. The major Battle for the Marianas was a decssive US air victory. US casualties were low but hundreds of Japanese pilots were lost.

Another problem for aircraft carrier pilots is navigation and landing. Carrier operations are very risky and it was easy for pilots to get lost or crash on landing. Along with normal threats. Navigating at sea was very difficult and most fighters had no navigators. Finding carriers in the vast Pacific ocean was difficult and few islands were available for landings if they got lost.

So Japanese pilots suffered heavy losses. For many reasons. And few Pearl Harbor veterans survived.

2
ZULU
Alfred Henry "Harry" Hook VC (6 August 1850 – 12 March 1905) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for valour in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, for his actions at the Battle of Rorke's Drift.
A fantastic movie
Zulu 1964 720p

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 15, 2020, 6:16 am

1
At dawn on June 14, 1846, a ragtag group of about 30 gun-toting Americans entered Sonoma, a small town in the Mexican territory of Alta California. Prepared to take the town by force, they instead sat for brandy with Col. Mariano Vallejo of the Mexican army and accepted his surrender. For the next 25 days, California was an independent nation: the California Republic.
Known as the Bear Flag Revolt, a reference to the short-lived republic’s flag, this event was something between an American invasion and a miniature war of independence. Though the fighting was limited and the country it established lasted less than a month, the Bear Flag Revolt led directly to the American acquisition of what is now its most populous state.

2
Hollywood star and real-life princess Grace Kelly dies on September 14, 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco—the American-born former film star Grace Kelly, whose movie credits include The Country Girl and Rear Window—dies at the age of 52 from injuries suffered after her car plunged off a mountain road near Monte Carlo. During the height of her Hollywood career in the 1950s, Kelly became an international icon of beauty and glamour.Kelly, the daughter of a former model and a wealthy industrialist, was born on November 12, 1929, in Philadelphia, and began acting as a child. After high school, she attended the American Academy for Dramatic Arts in New York. While she auditioned for Broadway plays, the classic blonde beauty supported herself by modeling and appearing in TV commercials.
In 1949, Kelly debuted on Broadway in The Father by August Strindberg. Two years later, she landed her first Hollywood bit part, in Fourteen Hours. Her big break came in 1952, when she starred as Gary Cooper’s wife in the Western High Noon. Her performance in 1954’s The Country Girl, as the wife of an alcoholic actor and singer played by Bing Crosby, won her a Best Actress Oscar (Kelly beat out Judy Garland in A Star is Born). Among Kelly’s other acting credits were three Alfred Hitchcock thrillers: Dial M for Murder (1954), with Ray Milland and Robert Cummings, Rear Window (1954), with James Stewart, and To Catch a Thief, with Cary Grant. Her last big-screen role was in 1956’s High Society, a musical adaptation of 1940’s The Philadelphia Story, co-starring Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

Kelly gave up her acting career after marrying Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1923-2005) on April 19, 1956, in a lavish ceremony in Monaco. The couple, who had met the year before at the Cannes Film Festival, went on to have three children. On September 13, 1982, Princess Grace was driving with her youngest daughter, Stephanie, when she reportedly suffered a stroke and lost control of her car, which plunged down a mountainside. Seventeen-year-old Stephanie survived, but Princess Grace died the following day. Her death was mourned by millions of fans around the world.

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 16, 2020, 6:06 am

1
Animals that kill
Cows about 30 deaths per year
Dogs same about 30 deaths per year
Bees that swarm if disturbed about 100 people per year

The number one are deer which cause 1.3 million accidents per year and result in 200 deaths per year

2
WW2 Rations Germans

As well as the hot food, soldiers received a daily bread ration with cheese, ham and jam for breakfast and iron or half-iron rations as necessary:

March rations - total weight about 1kg (2.2lb) split into 700g of bread, 200g of cold meat or cheese, 60g spreads, 9 coffee (or 4g of tea), 10g of sugar and six cigarettes.
Iron rations - around 650g of food: 250–300g biscuits , 200g cold meat , 150g preserved vegetables , 25g coffee substitute and 25g salt . Iron and half-iron rations could only be eaten with the express permission of the unit CO.
Half-iron rations - about 0.5kg (1lb) of biscuits (250g) and a tin of preserved meat (200g).
Towards the end of the war the Germans tried to emulate the US K rations by producing the Großkampfpäckchen (combat package) and Nahkampfpäckchen (close combat package) for troops in combat. Contents varied but included chocolate bars, fruit bars, sweets, cigarettes and possibly biscuits.
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Why does Russia’s aircraft carrier sail with a trail of black smoke?

I assume you are talking about the Admiral Kuznetsov
The Kuznetsov was not in good shape to start with. She is old, and her boilers had chronic issues. On her last sortie to the med, she had to be accompanied by tug boats in case the engines failed:
The reality is that she is old and she runs on oil-fired boilers. The USN and other Navies used similar technologies, but have mostly moved on. The USN primarily uses turbine engines in modern warships which run on marine diesel. At one point, there was a plan to convert the Kuznetsov to turbines but that plan was not implemented. It has been reported that most of the smoke you see is due to failures within the powerplant. There are apparently issues with the way fuel is heated prior to being burned which causes the smoke.

Since her last deployment, she was placed into drydock for overhaul. That drydock sank. The ship was recovered only to catch fire later. It looks like that fire was extensive enough that the ship won’t be returned to service. Ironically, this is similar to what happened to the USN on one of their smaller carriers

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by samster » September 16, 2020, 1:15 pm

Doodoo wrote:
September 16, 2020, 6:06 am

Animals that kill
Cows about 30 deaths per year
Dogs same about 30 deaths per year
Bees that swarm if disturbed about 100 people per year

The number one are deer which cause 1.3 million accidents per year and result in 200 deaths per year

Apart from mosquitoes, snakes, tsetse flies and many others (including other humans!)

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 16, 2020, 2:42 pm

Thanks I should mention that the stats are for USA and not the world

"It has been estimated that 7,000–8,000 people per year receive venomous snake bites in the United States, and about five of those people die. Most fatal bites are attributed to the eastern diamondback rattlesnake and the western diamondback rattlesnake"

Mosquitoes in USA "Last year, the CDC reported at least 15 people died in the U.S. from Eastern Equine Encephalitis, a rare disease spread by mosquitoes. "

Tsetse flies are only found in Africa
Thanks again for the
info

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 17, 2020, 5:53 am

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On September 16, 1620, the Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World with 102 passengers. The ship was headed for Virginia, where the colonists—half religious dissenters and half entrepreneurs—had been authorized to settle by the British crown. However, stormy weather and navigational errors forced the Mayflower off course, and on November 21 the “Pilgrims” reached Massachusetts, where they founded the first permanent European settlement in New England in late December.

Thirty-five of the Pilgrims were members of the radical English Separatist Church, who traveled to America to escape the jurisdiction of the Church of England, which they found corrupt. Ten years earlier, English persecution had led a group of Separatists to flee to Holland in search of religious freedom. However, many were dissatisfied with economic opportunities in the Netherlands, and under the direction of William Bradford they decided to immigrate to Virginia, where an English colony had been founded at Jamestown in 1607.

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September 16
United States imposes the draft
The Burke-Wadsworth Act is passed by Congress on September 16, 1940, by wide margins in both houses, and the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States is imposed. Selective Service was born.
The registration of men between the ages of 21 and 36 began exactly one month later, as Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who had been a key player in moving the Roosevelt administration away from a foreign policy of strict neutrality, began drawing draft numbers out of a glass bowl. The numbers were handed to the president, who read them aloud for public announcement. There were some 20 million eligible young men—50 percent were rejected the very first year, either for health reasons or illiteracy (20 percent of those who registered were illiterate).

In November 1942, with the United States now a participant in the war, and not merely a neutral bystander, the draft ages expanded; men 18 to 37 were now eligible. Blacks were passed over for the draft because of racist assumptions about their abilities and the viability of a mixed-race military. But this changed in 1943, when a “quota” was imposed, meant to limit the numbers of blacks drafted to reflect their numbers in the overall population, roughly 10.6 percent of the whole. Initially, blacks were restricted to “labor units,” but this too ended as the war progressed, when they were finally used in combat.
“Conscientious objector” status was granted to those who could demonstrate “sincerity of belief in religious teachings combined with a profound moral aversion to war.” Quakers made up most of the COs, but 75 percent of those Quakers who were drafted fought. COs had to perform alternate service in Civilian Public Service Camps, which entailed long hours of hazardous work for no compensation. About 5,000 to 6,000 men were imprisoned for failing to register or serve the nation in any form; these numbers were comprised mostly of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
By war’s end, approximately 34 million men had registered, and 10 million served with the military.

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 18, 2020, 4:13 am

1
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

She additionally served as Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship.

In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission, with 242 years' service as of 2020.

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The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.

From the middle decades of the 17th century, and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century, it was the world's most powerful navy until the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the unmatched world power during the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, to refer to it as "the Royal Navy" without qualification.

Following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size,[6] although at the onset of World War II it was still the world's largest. During the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines and mostly active in the GIUK gap. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its focus has returned to expeditionary operations around the world and it remains one of the world's foremost blue-water navies.[7][8][9] However, 21st-century reductions in naval spending have led to a personnel shortage and a reduction in the number of warships.[10][11]

The Royal Navy maintains a fleet of technologically sophisticated ships, submarines, and aircraft, including two aircraft carriers, two amphibious transport docks, four ballistic missile submarines (which maintain the UK's nuclear deterrent), seven nuclear fleet submarines, six guided missile destroyers, 13 frigates, 13 mine-countermeasure vessels and 23 patrol vessels. As of August 2020, there are 77 operational commissioned ships (including submarines as well as two "static ships") in the Royal Navy, plus 13 ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA); there are also five Merchant Navy ships available to the RFA under a private finance initiative. The RFA replenishes Royal Navy warships at sea, and augments the Royal Navy's amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class landing ship vessels. It also works as a force multiplier for the Royal Navy, often doing patrols that frigates used to do. The total displacement of the Royal Navy is approximately 450,300 tonnes (826,300 tonnes including the Royal Fleet Auxiliary).

The Royal Navy is part of Her Majesty's Naval Service, which also includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord who is an admiral and member of the Defence Council of the United Kingdom. The Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The Royal Navy operates from three bases in the United Kingdom where commissioned ships and submarines are based: Portsmouth, Clyde and Devonport, the last being the largest operational naval base in Western Europe, as well as two naval air stations, RNAS Yeovilton and RNAS Culdrose where maritime aircraft are based.

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 19, 2020, 7:21 am

Why did German soldiers in WW2 always have chocolate?

The Germans knew the army travelled on its stomach and there were rules about feeding the troops. German field kitchens were marvels and could put out 300 loaves of bread a day as well as hot stew. Stew was a served at least once a day as German soldiers were expected to get one hot meal a day. The stew was anything that could be put in a pot and boiled until it was paste, and usually contained meat. It was carried to front line soldiers in a metal tin carried on one soldiers back and squirted into the mess tin from something that resembled a fire hose. Entire herds of cattle followed the German army. The kitchens expected to get 1000 rations from one head of cattle, and learned they could get 700 from a horse. Cattle had to be fed as well and miles of horse-drawn wagons carrying oats for horses and meal for cattle followed along behind.

But in addition to this German soldiers were issued something called their “iron rations”. This was food that was to be eaten only in an emergency. It consisted of various tinned meats and things of that nature. In addition the German Army invented something called “Shoka-Kola”, which was a large, round hard brick of chocolate infused with caffeine and sugar and was included in the iron rations. It was also served out as a special addition or as a reward. It was very tasty and filled soldiers with calories and energy. You can still purchase it today. Shoka-cola was well liked by the troops and often used as a bribe or bargaining instrument when things got tough.

2
What did the Paris police do during the German occupation? Did they collaborate with the Germans and secretly help the resistance or did they just go to work each day?
After your Army has overrun an enemy country, the first rule of the occupation is to grab control of the police and since, as I understand, all police in France are state officials, down to the lowest town, this made it real easy.

And quite soon, the police were grabbing Jews for deportation. Some did help with the resistance, but not all.

When the US occupied Germany, they grabbed the German MPs, took the chained gorget off them, let them keep their pistols and used them to direct traffic. They were the only Germans allowed weapons. The gorgets were restamped w/o the swastikas. Here is a pic of the original gorget which since the MPs were not popular with the soldiers, they called them “chained dogs”.
Wiki: “Despite the surrender of all German forces in May 1945, some Feldgendarmerie and Feldjägerkorps units in
the western zones of occupied Germany were allowed to keep their weapons by the Allies because of the number of POWs that required guarding and processing. For example, the British VIII Corps based in Schleswig-Holstein used an entire regiment of volunteers from the Feldgendarmerie to maintain discipline at its demobilisation center at Meldorf. Re-activated military police, who received extra rations as pay, were identified by an armband stating Wehrmachtordnungstruppe (Armed Forces Order Troop). In June 1946, more than 12 months after the official end of the Second World War, the Feldgendarmerie became the last German units to surrender their arms.”

It would be more difficult in UK/US because we have decentralized police at city/county/state/federal level. If I were charged with this duty, I would grab the Secret Service, FBI, and all the US police forces in Washington.

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 20, 2020, 8:07 am

1
On September 18, 1987, cesium-137 is removed from an abandoned cancer-therapy machine in Brazil. Hundreds of people were eventually poisoned by radiation from the substance, highlighting the danger that even relatively small amounts of radiation can pose.

In 1985, the Goiania Institute of Radiotherapy moved to a new location and left behind an obsolete Cesium-137 teletherapy unit in their abandoned headquarters. The institute failed to inform the authorities of the existence of the outdated device and the machine sat in the building in downtown Goiania, 600 miles from Sao Paulo, for over a year before two criminally enterprising men removed the machine.

The men sold it to a local junkyard on September 13. Five days later, workers at the junkyard dismantled the machine, releasing the Cesium-137 that was still inside. Fascinated by the glowing blue stone and completely unaware of its dangers, they distributed pieces to friends, relatives and neighbors. The cesium was spread around so much that contamination was later found 100 miles away.

Days later, the junkyard owner’s wife began noticing that her friends and relatives were getting sick. When she sought medical assistance, doctors found that they were suffering from acute radiation poisoning. Four people eventually died from exposure, including one child. Scores were hospitalized and more than 100,000 people in the city had to be monitored for contamination.

More than 40 homes in the city were found to have high levels of contamination and had to be demolished. The after-effects were also serious. Many of the citizens suffered psychologically from their fear of contamination. In fact, fear was so widespread that other cities shunned the people and products of Goiania following the incident.

Following this disaster, Brazil completely overhauled their laws regarding the storage of radiation sources.

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 21, 2020, 5:47 am

1
The Great Lakes are as hazardous for shipping as the oceans and have claimed more than 6,000 wrecks. One of those, lying in frigid water 450 feet below the surface about 15 miles east if the city of Port Washington, Wisconsin is the SS Senator.

On October 31, 1929, just days after the infamous Black Thursday stock market crash, the SS Senator, carrying a shipment of 268 new Nash automobiles built at the company’s Kenosha Lakefront Plant and loaded at Milwaukee, was steaming north in the fog. At about 10:20 pm the crew of the Senator heard the fog signals of the SS Marquette, a bulk carrier hauling iron ore from Escanaba, Michigan to Indiana Harbor.

Although visibility was limited to only 100 feet, both ships were steaming at full speed. The Senator signaled for a port to port pass with one short blast of its horn. The Marquette acknowledged this with a similar single short blast in the fog. At this point the ships in the thick fog were not visible to each other. suddenly the crew of the Senator saw the Marquette only a few hundred feet from the Senator’s port side…too close to avoid a collision despite frantic efforts to turn the rudder of the Senator.

The Marquette struck the Senator on its port side just aft of amidship. When it pulled away it left a gaping hole in the Senator which immediately took on water and began to list to the port side. At 10:30 pm, only ten minutes after first hearing the Marquette’s signals and becoming aware of its proximity, the radio officer of the Senator sent out the signal "SOS; collided with SS Marquette 20 miles east of Port Washington; sinking fast.”

The Marquette went down in 450 feet of cold water within 8 minutes of the collision. Eight men died. My family had a large (probably 15 or more feet long) gray painted wooden oar from one of the Senator’s lifeboats which washed up practically in the backyard of our Lake Michigan home.

The Senator has recently been discovered and explored. The ship is sitting upright at the bottom of a deep section of the lake. The cars, the new 1929 or 1930 model year Nashes that were being sent to dealerships in Michigan and the Mid-West, in the hold and chained on deck, are in good shape.

The collision was always controversial. The captain and crew of the Marquette ore carrier were accused of doing little to aid the sailors on the SS Senator. No life boats were launched from the Marquette, no life preservers were thrown, no ladders were lowered. The crew of the sunken Senator were saved instead by a tug which was in the area and came to the aid of the sunken ship’s crew. The damaged Marquette limped into the harbor at Milwaukee where its captain and crew were jeered. An inquiry faulted both captains for proceeding at too great a speed in conditions of extremely limited visibility.

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 22, 2020, 5:50 am

1
The Filthy Thirteen was the name given to the 1st Demolition Section of the Regimental Headquarters Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, of the United States Army, which fought in the European campaign in World War II. This unit was the inspiration for the 1965 book and 1967 film The Dirty Dozen.

The 1st Demolition Section was assigned and trained as demolition saboteurs to destroy enemy targets behind the lines.[1] Inspired by Jake McNiece's leadership style, the unit had a tremendous mission focus but their blatant disregard for those aspects of military discipline that did not contribute to the mission became the bane of their officers. The unit acquired the nickname the Filthy Thirteen while living in Nissen huts in England. A demolition section consisted of thirteen enlisted men and they refused to bathe during the week in order to use their water ration for cooking game poached from the neighboring manor.[2] Photos of the men wearing Indian-style "mohawks" and applying war paint to one another excited the public's interest in this unit. The inspiration for this came from McNiece, who was part Choctaw.[1] During the Normandy Invasion of Europe in June 1944, the group was airdropped with the 3rd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment by aircraft of the 440th Troop Carrier Group of the United States Army Air Forces. They were ordered to secure or destroy the bridges over the Douve River.[1] Half were either killed, wounded or captured on the jump, but the rest led by Jake McNiece accomplished their mission. Most of the 3rd Battalion leadership had been killed on the initial jump so without any contact with the 3rd Battalion, senior officers assumed the battalion had failed its mission and ordered the Air Force to bomb the bridges. The Filthy Thirteen also participated in the capture of Carentan.

During Operation Market Garden, the Demolition Platoon was assigned to defend the three bridges over the Dommel River in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. German bombing of the city killed or wounded half the demolitions men in the platoon, and McNiece was promoted to platoon sergeant of what was left. Jack Womer took his place as section sergeant. For the rest of the campaign, the demolitions men secured the regimental command post or protected wire-laying details. On one occasion, the survivors of the Demolitions Platoon were assigned as a rifle squad to an understrength company.[3]

After coming back AWOL from Paris after Market Garden,[4] McNiece volunteered for the Pathfinders thinking he would never make another combat jump.[5] These were paratroopers sent in ahead of the main force to guide them in or guide in resupply drops. Half the surviving members of the original Filthy Thirteen followed him into the Pathfinders thinking they would sit out the rest of the war training in England. To their surprise they parachuted into the encircled town of Bastogne at the height of the Battle of the Bulge. Anticipating casualties as high as 80–90%, the 20 pathfinders lost only one man. Their CRN-4 beacon enabled them to guide in subsequent airdrops of supplies crucial to the continued resistance of the trapped 101st Airborne Division.[1]

McNiece considered that any activities not directly concerned with his mission were irrelevant, an attitude that got him in constant trouble with the military authorities. Nevertheless, McNiece finished the war as the acting first sergeant and with four combat jumps, a very rare feat for an American paratrooper. His combat jumps included Normandy, the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden, the pathfinder jump in to Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge, and as an observer with the 17th Airborne Division during Operation Varsity.

Of the activities of the Filthy Thirteen, Jack Agnew once said, "We weren't murderers or anything, we just didn't do everything we were supposed to do in some ways and did a whole lot more than they wanted us to do in other ways. We were always in trouble."

2
Albert Pierrepoint 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father, Henry, and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him.

Pierrepoint was born in Clayton in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His family struggled financially because of his father's intermittent employment and heavy drinking. Pierrepoint knew from an early age that he wanted to become a hangman, and was taken on as an assistant executioner in September 1932, aged 27. His first execution was in December that year, alongside his uncle Tom. In October 1941 he undertook his first hanging as lead executioner.

During his tenure he hanged 200 people who had been convicted of war crimes in Germany and Austria, as well as several high-profile murderers—including Gordon Cummins (the Blackout Ripper), John Haigh (the Acid Bath Murderer) and John Christie (the Rillington Place Strangler). He undertook several contentious executions, including Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis and executions for high treason—William Joyce (also known as Lord Haw-Haw) and John Amery—and treachery, with the hanging of Theodore Schurch.

In 1956 Pierrepoint was involved in a dispute with a sheriff over payment, leading to his retirement from hanging. He ran a pub in Lancashire from the mid-1940s until the 1960s. He wrote his memoirs in 1974 in which he concluded that capital punishment was not a deterrent, although he may have changed his position after that. He approached his task with gravity and said that the execution was "sacred to me".[1] His life has been included in several works of fiction, such as the 2005 film Pierrepoint, in which he was portrayed by Timothy Spall.

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by mech_401 » September 22, 2020, 12:30 pm

airspeed is measured in "knots" with a speed of
1 knot covering 1 minute of latitude in 1 hour =
1 nautical mile per hour = 1.85 km/hr= 1.15 m/hr
groundspeed for aircraft also measured in knots
but with headwinds or tailwinds,its often not same as airspeed. ships use knots for obvious reasons, 1 nautical mile is division of earths circumference
a land mile was calculated by romans as 1,000 steps or 5280 ft ( fascinating isn't it lads)

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 24, 2020, 5:54 am

1
In the 18th century, (1784) a treasure-hunting seaman from Japan named Chunosuke Matsuyama, shipwrecked on a South Pacific island with 43 shipmates, carved a message into coconut wood, put it in a bottle, and set it adrift. It was found in 1935—supposedly in the same village where Matsuyama was born. The bottle had washed ashore in the village of Hiraturemura, where Matsuyama supposedly was born. The find is quite shocking to me … What might be the chances for the coincidence? 151 years later, in the same village…

2
Honda makes small jet powered aircraft that are usually used as small corporate jets or small services like air ambulances.

Building airplanes is a very complex and expensive thing to do and the bigger the airplane, the more expensive it gets. Not just in designing and building the plane, but the factory has to be designed and built to be able to house the large assembly line of a large plane. Things get very expensive very fast when it comes to airplanes. That;s not even getting into the government costs. Airplanes have to be certified by a number of different bodies including the FAA (Aircraft safety), FCC (communication equipment and interfearance), and EPA (pollution control , including noise). And that’s just in the US. International regulatory compliance is a whole other nightmare. In some cases the cost of regulatory compliance is more than the cost of the aircraft.

Just because you have the experience and resources to build cars does not mean you have the expertise and resources needed to build airplanes.

3
Sayings in USA that need explaining
"To lay Low" To render one unable to move or leave their bed.
The car accident laid her low for a couple of months.
My husband won't be able to come in to work today—he's been laid low by the flu.
“Scoot over.” To move or go suddenly and speedily; hurry.
“High cotton.” Definition of in high cotton. in high cotton. Well off, especially in terms of happiness or satisfaction. For example, "We are living in high cotton since we moved to our new location.". In use at least since the early 1920's, especially in the South.
“Break a leg.”
“Not my cup of tea.”
“Easy-peasy.”
“Four flat tires.”
“Spill the beans.”
“Spill the tea.”
“Period.”
“Say what (now).”
“See you later, alligator.”
“In a while crocodile.”
“Child!.”

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 24, 2020, 5:55 am

Thanks Mech

Yes it is interesting stuff

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Udon Map » September 24, 2020, 8:42 am

Doodoo wrote:
September 20, 2020, 8:07 am
On September 18, 1987, cesium-137 is removed from an abandoned cancer-therapy machine in Brazil. Hundreds of people were eventually poisoned by radiation from the substance, highlighting the danger that even relatively small amounts of radiation can pose.
I had never heard of this before, and wanted more information. Wikipedia has the details.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 24, 2020, 11:18 am

Thank you Always good to see others digging for the information

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by mech_401 » September 24, 2020, 5:22 pm

harlan & wolff the famous shipyard that constructed white star lines most famous vessels

still in business, albeit just barely

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Re: Yes it really happened

Post by Doodoo » September 26, 2020, 2:26 pm

1
"Break a leg" is a typical English idiom used in theatre to wish a performer "good luck". An ironic or non-literal saying of uncertain origin (a dead metaphor),[1] "break a leg" is commonly said to actors and musicians before they go on stage to perform, likely first used in this context in the United States in the 1930s or possibly 1920s,[2] originally documented without specifically theatrical associations.

The expression probably reflects a superstition (perhaps a theatrical superstition) in which directly wishing a person "good luck" would be considered bad luck, therefore an alternative way of wishing luck was developed.[3][4][5] The expression is sometimes used outside the theatre as superstitions and customs travel through other professions and then into common use. Among professional dancers, the traditional saying is not "break a leg", but the French word "merde".


2
(Not) My Cup Of Tea
Meaning:
Something that a person finds to be agreeable to their tastes; delightful.

If something is your cup of tea, then that means you like it. If something is not your cup of tea, then that means you do not like it.

​Example: We couldn’t decide which movie to watch, so we ended up settling on a comedy. Half-way through the movie, I concluded that its humor was not my cup of tea.


3
easy peasy
It comes from a 1970's british TV commercial for Lemon Squeezy detergent. They were with a little girl who points out dirty greasy dishes to an adult (mom or relative) and then this adult produces Lemon Squeezy and they clean the dishes quickly. At the end of the commercial the girl says "Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy".

Today it is a silly way to state something was or will be very easy.
I will be in an out, easy peasy.

“Four flat tires.”
“Spill the beans.”

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