Fun Fact Thread! (previously fun fact for the day, not limited to 1 per day anymore.)

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, TheSaint said:

That's horrible.

Spoiler

A space food.

[TheSaint]

49 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

  Reveal hidden contents

A space food.

[steve9728]

2 hours ago, TheSaint said:

That's horrible.

There are three acceptable ways to drink beer: bottle, draft, and straight out of the cask.

I got a ex from there before. I asked her and her answer is she also don't know why. Perhaps the people who first started doing this thought it would be more convenient - after all, you don't have to wash the cups. And the most important thing is, it's fresh: you need to drink it ASAP.

The way they drink is buy the beer from the street. Carry it home in bag and hang it on the corner of the table. Poke a small hole on the bag and squeeze the glass against the bag to pour the beer.

Edited April 16, 2023 by steve9728

[kerbiloid]

7 hours ago, TheSaint said:

There are three acceptable ways to drink beer: bottle, draft, and straight out of the cask.

2b Wheeled draft.

Spoiler

Traditionally, via the 3-liter glass jar, but just because there was no enough strong plastic bags.

The same about kvass.

Spoiler

It may look undermanding, but it is still a standard 750-liter pressure vessel with torispherical heads.

Interesting fact: its nominal volume is 900 l, but every time I had seen it, it was written 750 l.
Who knows, why...
It was based on the 500 kg capable trailer chassis. So, probably a compromise.

Spoiler

 

Also it's equipped with a 30 l water barrel to wash the cups!

The hatch is 500 mm in diameter, so you can get through even in an escape spacesuit (550 mm is required).
Also, the barrel is two-hulled. A steel outer hull and an aluminium inner one.
Maybe, good for a Kerbal lunar habitat.

Upd.

Spoiler

https://forum.trucksinscale.com/viewtopic.php?id=317

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

9 hours ago, steve9728 said:

In Qingdao, people use plastic bag to hold the fresh beer

https://shanghaimetalcorporation.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/only-in-china-drink-beer-straight-from-a-plastic-bag/

 

8 hours ago, TheSaint said:

That's horrible.

There are three acceptable ways to drink beer: bottle, draft, and straight out of the cask.

Welllllllllll... There are exceptions. 

In HS some friends and I drove past a rival HS party that was being broken up by the cops.  Half hour later, everyone is gone and the street is quiet. 

Someone hopped the fence and stole the keg.  Still had beer in it. 

That someone didn't steal the cups. 

So, Jenius us, we made do.  Drank beer out of empty Doritos bags!

[kerbiloid]

Way #4.
https://www.npr.org/2008/07/28/93001529/beer-drinking-tree-shrews-sober-as-judges

[steve9728]

20 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Way #4.
https://www.npr.org/2008/07/28/93001529/beer-drinking-tree-shrews-sober-as-judges

Reminds me one day I saw a squirrel probably ate some "expired" berries. The pace and demeanour are highly similar to a friend of mine who loves to drink.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

41 minutes ago, steve9728 said:

Reminds me one day I saw a squirrel probably ate some "expired" berries. The pace and demeanour are highly similar to a friend of mine who loves to drink.

Hey - speaking of spirits (or at least it's cousin)... what is the 'scene' in China these days with regard to whiskey?  I know that Japan has a history of brewing Sake which led into an interest in whiskey, but I'm unfamiliar with Chinese distillates.  

Does China have a similar 'home brew' hard alcohol?  

Do folks there have a taste for Scotch, or Bourbon or Irish whiskeys?

 

(oh - and not just as something you mix with Coke - but as something enjoyed for itself, neat or on the rocks; people who mix drinks are worth pitying.)

Edited April 16, 2023 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[steve9728]

1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Hey - speaking of spirits (or at least it's cousin)... what is the 'scene' in China these days with regard to whiskey?  I know that Japan has a history of brewing Sake which led into an interest in whiskey, but I'm unfamiliar with Chinese distillates.  

Does China have a similar 'home brew' hard alcohol?  

Do folks there have a taste for Scotch, or Bourbon or Irish whiskeys?

 

(oh - and not just as something you mix with Coke - but as something enjoyed for itself, neat or on the rocks; people who mix drinks are worth pitying.)

If only some kind "home brew", the answer is yes. Broadly, there's Baijiu (白酒 White wine), Huangjiu (黄酒, Yellow wine). Baijiu is distilled wine and Huangjiu fermented wine. Basically, all starchy crops have been made into wine by us Chinese, including but not limited to rice, wheat, sorghum, barley, and sweet potatoes. One of the homemade wine made by rice called Sweet Ferment Rice (醪糟) is particularly tasty, looks harmless and you will have no problems with it for the first 5 minutes - I can't guarantee what happens after that.

Spoiler

How bad it can b........

In Shaoxing, that's a kind of wine made by rice called "Daughter Red (女儿红)". It means that after the birth of a daughter in the family, after the kid's first month, the father will choose a few jars of wine and bury them in the ground (today it's sealed and kept in somewhere of the house). When the daughter was married, he would take them out and serve them to his guests. Some of them made by sweet potato. You can think it's some kind vodka. Video about how people make this little monster: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1tG411N7cg/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=6fef304b8d0c4737896e6b702ddfbfb3

But meanwhile, there's something call "medicinal wine (药酒)". Just like my UK classmates said to me that "better don't ask what's in the pie", kindly suggest don't ask what they put in the wine. 

Spoiler

Basically, this thing is herbs soaked in Baijiu and Huangjiu. But in addition to the regular medicinal plants, the things steeped in it include but are not limited to wasps, centipedes, snakes, turtles, and stags' reproductive organs.

"If you let me know what's in, no thanks, I don't dare to drink it"

The whisky or other wine from outside of China, yes, we like to drink it. Fun fact is, in the club they not only mix with coke, but also mixed in the tea drink which added sugar. On my return from the UK, I brought back bottles of Glenlivet for my parents and my gf's parents respectively from Heathrow. Judging by their facial expressions and subsequent developments, it was a great gift.

Edited April 16, 2023 by steve9728

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 hour ago, steve9728 said:

"If you let me know what's in, no thanks, I don't dare to drink it"

Urk.  No kidding!

(Although... I have 'drank the worm'!)

[steve9728]

23 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Urk.  No kidding!

(Although... I have 'drank the worm'!)

Good news is that unlike the tequila, you don't need to eat the 'contents', you just need to drink the liquid.

Edited April 16, 2023 by steve9728

[AtomicTech]

1 hour ago, steve9728 said:

subsequent developments

Oh-ho! Sounds like something good happened 

[steve9728]

Of course, as long-winded as this may seem, but it's still important to mention that please drink responsibly, don't let the minors drink and don't drive after drunk.

Edited April 16, 2023 by steve9728

[darthgently]

18 hours ago, DDE said:

This is easily parried by many planned economies retaining corporate structures for ease of management.

What is that word where the state and private corporations work hand in hand in a centrally planned way?   There is a word for that, dang it.  If only Mussolini were here to jog my memory, lol

[kerbiloid]

2 hours ago, darthgently said:

What is that word where the state and private corporations work hand in hand in a centrally planned way?

Административно-командный госкапитализм

Administrative-command state capitalism.

2 hours ago, darthgently said:

There is a word for that, dang it.  If only Mussolini were here to jog my memory, lol

It's a word with another meaning. This word means "state is everything, person is nothing; state is for everything the person is and does, person does everything via and for the state".

The "Order" pole of evil, opposite to the "Chaos" pole known as anarchy.

But this happily works with free trade, it's perpendicular to it.

Edited April 16, 2023 by kerbiloid

[magnemoe]

14 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

  Reveal hidden contents

A space food.

That makes more sense, spirits don't contain co2 and are stable. 
Here in Norway you buy whine on bags but they come inside an cardboard box. This has the benefit for wine that unlike bottles no air is added then you empty it so it last longer mostly empty. 
You can not buy champagne on  bags for good reasons. 
Champagne and other sparkling wine bottles is not aged in  open racks as standard but in arrays of boxes so one bottle exploding will not create an chain reaction  

2 hours ago, darthgently said:

What is that word where the state and private corporations work hand in hand in a centrally planned way?   There is a word for that, dang it.  If only Mussolini were here to jog my memory, lol

US during WW 2. Lots of the economy was centrally  planned for the war effort, as in most of manufacturing. It did not affect businesses who was not relevant for the war economy at not directly. 
An car dealership would have problem getting new cars to sell as the car factories was producing for the war as an example. 
It worked pretty well, all knew it was for the duration of the war only and most supported the war. 
I say most active countries during WW 2 did something like this but the US is most famous. 

[DDE]

3 hours ago, darthgently said:

What is that word where the state and private corporations work hand in hand in a centrally planned way?   There is a word for that, dang it.

The French would call it dirigisme.

It's a lot softer than German Gleichschaltung and privatization. Mussolini relied heavily on the trade unions (fascio) as the sources of 'social' control.

[snip]

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Vanamonde

[Vanamonde]

Why does politics keep getting dragged into the Fun Facts thread? As always, please avoid that. 

[FleshJeb]

On 4/15/2023 at 9:23 PM, TheSaint said:

That's horrible.

There are three acceptable ways to drink beer: bottle, draft, and straight out of the cask.

You neglected, "Off a fellow mammal that's recently dismounted from a brass pole."

[kerbiloid]

http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/2022/03/giant-ufo-at-bottom-of-ocean-off-coast.html

Spoiler

 

The bathtub stopper? Then why two?

[steve9728]

Every spring (it's about that time now) when the rivers been frozen in northern China is about to melt, in order to prevent ice flooding, that needs the gov to blasting the ice. Some easy to reach and not that dangerous places, such as the Heilongjiang River on the Russian- Chinese border, can be blasted by going directly onto the ice and installing explosives.

But some river, such as Yellow River, that needs army using the artillery or even air force to send the bombers

Edited April 18, 2023 by steve9728

[DDE]

Most military buffs know that the Israelis made a Kalashnikov rifle derivative (twice removed, having studied the Finnish Valmet) called the Galil.

However, not everyone knows that the eponymous Yisrael Galil was born Yisrael Balashnikov, and only decided to change his surname midway through the rifle's development. His employers were reportedly relieved, having been rather cross to release a Kalashnikov-derived Balashnikov rifle.

[farmerben]

 

 

The Soviets built 2500 terrestrial RTGs.  For lighthouses and radio transmitters in remote territory.

 

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, DDE said:

Most military buffs know that the Israelis made a Kalashnikov rifle derivative (twice removed, having studied the Finnish Valmet) called the Galil.

However, not everyone knows that the eponymous Yisrael Galil was born Yisrael Balashnikov, and only decided to change his surname midway through the rifle's development. His employers were reportedly relieved, having been rather cross to release a Kalashnikov-derived Balashnikov rifle.

Yes that would sound stupid , now they could just give it an number like G-36 or M-16. 
In Norwegian army an M-72 was an lightweight single use RPG, M-71 was an standard army field jacket. Do not confuse the two. 
Now the M-72 has an 72 mm diameter, one alcoholic found he could fit an bottle inside his M-72. Good plan except someone else picked his up during an alarm at an exercise and then informed sergeant that he had an live M-72, all the training ones was empty. Retrieving an bottle of alcohol but not able to pin it back to the guy   

[DDE]

1 minute ago, magnemoe said:

In Norwegian army an M-72 was an lightweight single use RPG, M-71 was an standard army field jacket.

The US in WWII had a lot of various very different M1s.

1 minute ago, magnemoe said:

Now the M-72 has an 72 mm diameter, one alcoholic found he could fit an bottle inside his M-72.

During WWII, Soviet lend-lease stevedores spread the myth that every Sherman came with a bottle of whiskey stuffed down its (plugged-up) barrel.