What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?

[paulpablo]

I found out that in the UK now school children can't take time off school to go away with their parents for what we would call a holiday but Americans would call a vacation.  When I was young you would just send a letter to the school saying we're taking some time off, see you later.  I heard that now there's a fine for the children taking the time off.  

It stems from rules of imposing a fine to the parents if their child is playing truant, seems like a bad rule to me.


Along the same topic of conversation the same person told me that going on flights abroad cost more during the school holidays.

I thought of going a broad - but I don't have the legs for pantyhose......

I don't know if Americans use the phrase abroad or not, I know you use the word vacation and not holiday, and you call Christmas and days like that the Holidays.

[onlinebiker]

I thought of going a broad - but I don't have the legs for pantyhose......

I don't know if Americans use the phrase abroad or not, I know you use the word vacation and not holiday, and you call Christmas and days like that the Holidays.

Lol

A play on words...

Abroad is very close to "a broad"

"Broad" being an obsolete slang synonym for woman...

[Anomalocaris]

I found out the continental shelf off the coast of Norway is susceptible to enormous underwater slope failures and land slides. The largest of these involved simultaneous collapse of 180 miles of the continental shelf. If the material involved were piled on Rhode Island, it would bury the state 3000 feet deep. When the last of these collapse occurred, it sent a tsunami racing cross the North sea. The Tsunami was so large it washed up to 80 miles inland in Scotland and Northern Ireland. That was 8000 years ago, not very long ago at all geologically.

[Rev. Rye]

I found out that not only is the mass incarceration epidemic in the US comparable to slavery, but also this:

This photo was taken in 1997 at the Ferguson Unit, a prison in Madison County, Texas. And before the Civil War, it was a cotton plantation. And it still fucking is. Jesus God, I did not expect the parallels to be this fucking blatant. I had expected unpaid manual labor, and also the sort of upheaval when these prisoners are released paralleling the freedmen's situation after the abolition of slavery (being thrust into the larger world with no new skills and a lot of distrust, among other things), but did they really have to go all the nine yards?

[Peebothuhlu]

At work.

Not only does Australia have nasty, fek off, agressive "Kill you stone cold" funnel Web spiders.......

We have a native spider big enough to be classed as a "Tarantula".

Though, of course we don't call 'em that. No.

Here they're called "Barking" or "Whistling" spiders.

Because of course you want a spider the size of a good sized crab to make some noise to let you know its giant, furry @rse is just wandering by.

Yup. 'Straya', gotta love the place.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I don't know if Americans use the phrase abroad or not, I know you use the word vacation and not holiday, and you call Christmas and days like that the Holidays.

Lol

A play on words...

Abroad is very close to "a broad"

"Broad" being an obsolete slang synonym for woman...

Kind of like Groucho's line, 'I'd like to have one gala night before I die.  At my age, one gal a night is all I can handle.'

Boru

[Gwaithmir]

Ocean Spray sells jarred cranberries. 

[Mister Agenda]

There's a rotary tool called a dremel that can be used to buff down all kinds of nails. Finishing nails, dog nails, toe nails....

[Mister Agenda]

In WWII, the Russians released some Polish soldiers, who went to serve under the British, stopping off in Iran where they bought a brown bear cub from a boy. The bear was named 'Wojtek' (pronounced Vostek) and became much beloved and grew up to be 490 or so lbs. He liked to smoke (or maybe eat) cigarettes, drink beer from bottles, march on two legs, ride in a jeep, and take hot showers, which he learned to operate by himself. He once came upon an enemy scout hiding in the shower, becoming the first bear to capture an axis agent. When the Poles finally hooked up with the Brits they were told they could not bring Wojtek along for the invasion of Italy due to rules about mascots and pets not being allowed; so the Polish soldiers enlisted Wojtek and made him a private. During the battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek carried 100 pound crates of ammunition and other supplies tirelessly amid gunfire and explosions. He was promoted to corporal for his exceptional contribution to the battle. After the war he retired to the Edinburgh zoo. When members of his platoon visited they would sometimes get in his enclosure to play with him. He was a frequent guest on UK TV shows, and lived to be 21. There's numerous statues and other memorials of Wojtek the soldier bear and he's on the emblem of the 22nd artillery supply company.

[Anomalocaris]

When the first British warships were sunk by German submarines during WWI, there was no method for detecting or locating a submerged submarine. So a sort of panic ensued in Britain since the accustomed mastery of the sea's surface is apparently insufficient to keep the British safe while at sea. So enthusiastically original ideas for how to locate dastardly underhanded German subarines flooded into the Admiralty.


One idea was to train large flocks of sea gulls to alight on German periscopes and defecate on the Periscope lenses