Really TRUE odd factoids

[T4tomo]

Gavels have never been used in English or Welsh criminal courts. People think they are because they've seen them being used in American TV dramas.

Surely a gavel is more associated with an auctioneer than a judge?

 

[kynikos]

In the 1898 novella The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility, author Morgan Robertson wrote about a fictional ‘unsinkable’ British ocean liner named Titan, that sinks after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic - and just like the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, the Titan didn’t have enough lifeboats for all of its passengers.

 

[classic33]

Peter E. Maxwell, a California manufacturer and president of Hi Life Products, was injured at work in 1977. Both Maxwell and the corporation hired independent lawyers. The company settled Maxwell’s injury claim for $122,500 and deducted that payment as a business expense; Maxwell did not report it as income.

The IRS later classified the payment as a dividend and disallowed the deduction. In 1990, the U.S. Tax Court held that the payment was damages for personal injuries, so the corporation could deduct it and Maxwell could exclude it from income under §104(a)(2). The court’s ruling effectively reversed the IRS’s position.

 

[classic33]

Switzerland’s air force does not operate outside normal weekday office hours.

 

[classic33]

West Midlands Police have a police dog named Drago.

 

[Dave7]

West Midlands Police have a police dog named Drago.

Is he a sniffer dog?
If so, when people ask "does Drago smell"??.........

 

[T4tomo]

Switzerland’s air force does not operate outside normal weekday office hours.

At least that's longer hours than its Navy

 

[Alex321]

Switzerland’s air force does not operate outside normal weekday office hours.

That was true up until 2020, but is no longer the case.

 

[Beebo]

if you accelerate at constant 1G. 0-60mph takes about 2.73 seconds, which is pretty quick.
If you carry on accelerating at 1G you will get to 99.9999% of light speed in just under a year.

 

[kynikos]

if you accelerate at constant 1G. 0-60mph takes about 2.73 seconds, which is pretty quick.
If you carry on accelerating at 1G you will get to 99.9999% of light speed in just under a year. die sooner than you might imagine!

FTFY

 

[Dave7]

One I just heard on the radio, it sounds right..........
If you spell every number from one....right through to one thousand.... then 'one thousand' is the only one to contain the letter 'a'.
No..... you can't have eg one hundred AND one etc.

 

[T4tomo]

One I just heard on the radio, it sounds right..........
If you spell every number from one....right through to one thousand.... then 'one thousand' is the only one to contain the letter 'a'.
No..... you can't have eg one hundred AND one etc.

so you mean ignoring the other 891 (i think that's right) numbers that have "a" in the "and" part then

 

[matticus]

One I just heard on the radio, it sounds right..........
If you spell every number from one....right through to one thousand.... then 'one thousand' is the only one to contain the letter 'a'.
No..... you can't have eg one hundred AND one etc.

Look, we all know this can't be done. At least not since
seven ate nine.

 

[Dave7]

so you mean ignoring the other 891 (i think that's right) numbers that have "a" in the "and" part then

That's almost correct, a bit, I think, maybe, possibly

 

[classic33]

One I just heard on the radio, it sounds right..........
If you spell every number from one....right through to one thousand.... then 'one thousand' is the only one to contain the letter 'a'.
No..... you can't have eg one hundred AND one etc.

https://math.answers.com/other-math/How_do_you_spell_the_numbers_1_to_10000