Interesting facts you learn

[PaulB]

A friend of mine just started his own business, making land-mines that look like prayer mats.

It's doing well. He says Prophets are going through the roof.

 

[PBancroft]

I find it strange that a 'celebrity' can chuck his dolls out of the pram and refuse to leave a plane.

What would happen if you or I tried that?

Once again, one rule for them, one rule for the rest of us?

And before anyone plays the 'he had mental health issues' card - any other person doing that would have been forcibly removed and assessed in a hospital.

I'm sure he's a really nice bloke, but come on................?

It's not so much the celebrity factor, its the first class factor.

You and I would get booted off the plane, because they don't give two hoots if we go elsewhere. They'll bend over backwards for first class passengers, because 1. It's First Class and 2. They want them to come back and pay extortionate amounts again, preferrably with their rich mates.

 

[Cubist]

I find it strange that a 'celebrity' can chuck his dolls out of the pram and refuse to leave a plane.

What would happen if you or I tried that?

Once again, one rule for them, one rule for the rest of us?

And before anyone plays the 'he had mental health issues' card - any other person doing that would have been forcibly removed and assessed in a hospital.

I'm sure he's a really nice bloke, but come on................?

I'd have tasered the fat bastard.......

 

[snorri]

John O' Groats! which is merely the most northerly town, and boy what a DUMP it is!

It's not a town, but have you ever explored the area, the cliff scenery is second to none if you are prepared to get off your **** and look around.
What was the topic of this thread anyway? I seem to have got a bit lost.

 

[TVC]

Must have been a great trip! What's it like there? Wiki says it's mostly a shield volcano.

Surprising how few land masses are actually crossed by the 180th meridian. Only parts of Russia, Fiji and Antarctica, so it seems: it misses all the other Pacific islands. More information here. There appears to be a monument marking the line on Taveuni.

Taveuni is a proper tropical island, with incredibly rich volcanic soil, you could plant a dead stick there and it would grow, it is the greenest place I have ever seen. No mains power and the whole place runs on 'Fiji Time' where any notion of a timetable is no more than a suggestion. Most visitors to Fiji (Aussies and Americans) go to the concrete resorts on the main island near Nadi, but if you take the extra 2 hour flight in a Twin Otter to the lush eastern islands you're in for a real treat.


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[al78]

But Alaska doesn't cross over the International time line, does it?? therefore, it ISN'T in the east!
Anyway, it still isn't the first state you reach if you hit the U.S from the west!


P.S. Stephen Fry is a twat anyway.

The Aleutian islands are part of Alaska and the island chain does straddle the date line.

 

[al78]

That would be about 200? (phrased so as not to prevent others working it out)

Yes, it takes around a million tons of Sun to generate enough energy to power a hair dryer.

It is because the fusion reactions at its center take place at a very slow rate. The only reason the sun outputs the energy it does is due to its enormous mass. It is also because of this slow rate of fusion that the sun lasts so long (if it were 10x bigger, it would have used up its fuel rapidly and expired before life could evolve on earth.