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

[DDE]

15 hours ago, Minmus Taster said:

Did you know:

RMS Titanic's aft funnel was a dummy?

When building it and it's slightly older and lesser known sister ship Olympic it was decided to give the ship an extra funnel to make it look more impressive.

The aft funnel wasn't used for redirecting smoke like the first three funnels but it did find a small practical purpose as it was used for ventilation:

Dummy funnels sometimes had a far more nefarious purpose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Cap_Trafalgar

[DDE]

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/alcohol-consumption-hamster-drunk/621125/

[StrandedonEarth]

 

[DDE]

You have no choice but be a bearded Viking.

[Hyperspace Industries]

1 hour ago, DDE said:

You have no choice but be a bearded Viking.

First off, my facial hair barely exists at this point.

Second, there is a thing called shaving oneself.

Third, I'm not at all interested in becoming a non operational Mars lander. 

Fourth, Mars landers don't have beards!

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

 

[kerbiloid]

You call all of this "beards".

That's the beards.
 

Spoiler

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

8 hours ago, DDE said:

You have no choice but be a bearded Viking.

I live in 'Murica and my barber still costs less than $20.  Them fancy "hipster" Millennials must be buying craft hair don'ts in places like Noo York Citee for running the average up like that! 

[kerbiloid]

The chart clearly represents the groups of the countries:
1) where the barbering is a cheap and easily available occupation for the low class to get some money for food;
2) where the barbering is a cheap and easily available occupation for the otherwise-unemployed urban low-middle class to have them being formally employed and doing at least anything but sitting on welfare, by turning the facial hair cutting into a fanciful luxury for the middle-middle class cosplayers of life success;
3) where the barbering is prohibited, or is not very much required due to physiological reasons;
4) where it's cold and it's a cheap replacement of a mask made of fur.

P.S.
Why just "barbering", why google doesn't know "barbery"?

Edited January 1, 2022 by kerbiloid

[caecilliusinhorto]

The Twin-Boar engine in KSP isn't an Atlas V first stage, it is the abandoned SLS Advanced Liquid Booster. Each booster had 2 F1-A engines, which were simplified versions of the F1, with a simpler nozzle.

Spoiler

 

[DDE]

The R-36M Voevoda/15A14/RS-20/SS-19 Satan ICBM and by extension the 15A18 Dniepr SLV has a very simplistic approach to tank pressurization: drip some UDMH into the NTO tank, and visa versa. Any subsequent combustion is intentional.

[SunlitZelkova]

All Tu-95s and Tu-142s in service with the Russian Air Force have names, painted on the side of the aircraft. For example, Tu-95s are named after cities, like Moskva, Krasnoyarsk, and Samara. Tu-142s are named after historical naval heroes or places, like Ivan Borzov and Rossiya.

But during the 2000s, a Tu-142 of the Pacific Fleet instead bore the logo of TTK Dalniy Vostok- a telecom company!

[kerbiloid]

ГТК - Дальний Восток = "mining transportation company Far East"

Edited January 2, 2022 by kerbiloid

[cubinator]

5 hours ago, DDE said:

The R-36M Voevoda/15A14/RS-20/SS-19 Satan ICBM and by extension the 15A18 Dniepr SLV has a very simplistic approach to tank pressurization: drip some UDMH into the NTO tank, and visa versa. Any subsequent combustion is intentional.

That sounds like it took a few tests to get the mixture right...

[DDE]

3 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

All Tu-95s and Tu-142s in service with the Russian Air Force have names, painted on the side of the aircraft. For example, Tu-95s are named after cities, like Moskva, Krasnoyarsk, and Samara. Tu-142s are named after historical naval heroes or places, like Ivan Borzov and Rossiya.

But during the 2000s, a Tu-142 of the Pacific Fleet instead bore the logo of TTK Dalniy Vostok- a telecom company!

B-871, the only Kilo/Varshavyanka submarine with a pumpjet (and the only Russian pumpjet boat aside from the Boreis), is named after the diamond company Alrosa.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Corporate sponsorship of war - color me unsurprised. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/culture/article/british-east-india-trading-company-most-powerful-business

[Hyperspace Industries]

@JoeSchmuckatelli

Funnily enough, South Africa was colonized by the Dutch East India company.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Hyperspace Industries

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

1 minute ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

Funnily enough, South Africa was colonized by the Dutch East India company.

Maybe they got lost?

[Hyperspace Industries]

2 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Maybe they got lost?

Not exactly, they founded Cape Town as a refueling/restocking port. After that, the Dutch streamed in, some French people came in, the indigenous people joined in, people kept finding gold (or in Kimberley's case, diamonds) and ta da! You have a brand new country with the atrocious belter style mishmash of languages known as Afrikaans along with it.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

15 minutes ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

Not exactly, they founded Cape Town as a refueling/restocking port. After that, the Dutch streamed in, some French people came in, the indigenous people joined in, people kept finding gold (or in Kimberley's case, diamonds) and ta da! You have a brand new country with the atrocious belter style mishmash of languages known as Afrikaans along with it.

History is a fascinating thing.  Driven by the limits of the time, setting up there was (beyond being a literal gold mine) a fantastic 'choke point' economic site.  I also hear the weather is nicer than Northern Europe.

(Obligatory nod to the fact that there were others already using the place... but that happens...  ...and is part of what makes human history interesting).

[DDE]

The Red Army's Main Automobile and Tank Directorate had people methodically sort through the, ahem, useful suggestions and fanmail throughout the entire war (one wonders if there's a similar junk pile in the Ministry of General Machinebuilding, waiting to be analyzed).

Among them are the works of none other than Stanislaw Lem himself, who, like most amateurs, was into single-seat tanks and land battleships.

Spoiler

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

20 minutes ago, DDE said:

The Red Army's Main Automobile and Tank Directorate had people methodically sort through the, ahem, useful suggestions and fanmail throughout the entire war (one wonders if there's a similar junk pile in the Ministry of General Machinebuilding, waiting to be analyzed).

Among them are the works of none other than Stanislaw Lem himself, who, like most amateurs, was into single-seat tanks and land battleships.

  Hide contents

 

So... WOT's next low tier reward tanks? 

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, DDE said:

The Red Army's Main Automobile and Tank Directorate had people methodically sort through the, ahem, useful suggestions and fanmail throughout the entire war (one wonders if there's a similar junk pile in the Ministry of General Machinebuilding, waiting to be analyzed).

Among them are the works of none other than Stanislaw Lem himself, who, like most amateurs, was into single-seat tanks and land battleships.

  Hide contents

 

Warships had multiple turrets but even an tiny destroyer is 10-20 times heavier than any tank, rattle does not count  
Now the rooftop machine gun makes no sense in that you have an AAA turret behind you, who would restrict the movement of the main gun. 
And who mans the 4 wing turrets and who coordinate them. 
Tankietka A might work as an AAA platform doing the job of the restrictive rear AAA turret without restricting the main gun.
B you want your main gun as high as practical, look at the weird Swedish tank, please its an excellent tank destroyer but not an tank  
 

[GuessingEveryDay]

I was 14 when COVID was first reported in China, now I'll be turning 18 next year.

Edited January 3, 2022 by GuessingEveryDay
ha ha ha

[Admiral Fluffy]

2 hours ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

I was 14 when COVID was first reported in China, now I'll be turning 18 next year.

What?

The is a bowling robot named Earl.