I never knew that!

[Jimbuna]

On Good Friday in 1930, the BBC reported, "There is no news." Instead, they played piano music.

[Jimbuna]

Fredric Baur invented the Pringles can. When he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one.

[Eichhörnchen]

The name Hitler means small holder (interchangeable also with Huttler, Hiedler and Hietler)... so I could have entitled my film club thread "Adolf's Gardening and Soft Fruit Growing Thread" instead.

"Ach, mein lieber Gott... my bum-grapes are chafing!"

[Fubar2Niner]

About 75 acres of pizza are eaten in in the U.S. everyday.

[Jimbuna]

In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel was spending $2,500 a month on rubber bands just to hold all their cash.

[Mr Quatro]

Just 2 weeks to cross to the other side

USS Peleliu was commissioned on 3 May 1980, with Captain T. P. Scott in command.

The USS Peleliu immediately steamed southwards, and then she transited the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean.

She crossed the Equator for the first time on 27 May 1980, setting a new record for time between an American warship's commissioning and her crossing over into the Southern Hemisphere.

She was decommissioned March 31st 2015 and now rest next to the USS Tarawa in the Navy reserve fleet Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

[Aktungbby]

^ funny u should mention USS PELELIU. Following the 17 October 1989 San Francisco earthquake, USS Peleliu was one of the 24 U.S. Navy and Military Sealift Command ships that rendered assistance; Peleliu provided shelter for 300 victims and provided helicopter support! Today's SF Chronicle article really caught my eye: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Floating-homeless-shelter-could-be-game-changer-9206351.php

The Peleliu worked beautifully as a temporary emergency earthquake homeless shelter, but we would need to test the idea on a long-term basis.For 35 years, the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu, a small aircraft carrier complete with sleeping quarters, kitchens, medical clinics, offices and recreation facilities, carried 2,200 Marines, 2,500 sailors and 262 officers, totaling almost 5,000 military personnel working and living aboard the ship for months at sea.
While this might be a game changer in San Francisco, our city would not be the first to try this approach:
• Auckland, New Zealand — A group of businessmen began looking into the purchase of an Italian cruise liner for use as a homeless shelter for their city, an expensive international housing market.
• Dortmund, Germany — The city has deployed two cruise ships on the Emscher River to temporarily house its overflow of refugees.
•Galveston, Texas, and Mobile, Ala. — In 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency chartered three large cruise ships with a combined capacity of more than 4,400 beds to house Hurricane Katrina victims. Afterward, FEMA reported that “the use of cruise ships was an innovative and successful program.”
•New York — In 2002, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg explored the use of cruise ships for the homeless, but the cost of retrofitting was deemed to be too high at that time.
Would this “game changer” have challenges such as costs ... availability ... logistics ... federal cooperation for a pilot program here?

Having dealt with homeless persons for years on UN Plaza and Social Security offices myself, perhaps the great ship, now mothballed at Pearl, could be brought back for a repeat performance...a solution is sadly lacking and winter is coming on.

[Jimbuna]

When he appeared on Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, Bill Clinton correctly answered three questions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

[Fubar2Niner]

Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.

[Jimbuna]

When the mummy of Ramses II was sent to France in the mid-1970s, it was issued a passport. Ramses' occupation? "King (deceased)."

[Mr Quatro]

I never knew this: http://www.radiationworks.com/sl1reactor.htm

"3 January 1961: A reactor explosion (attributed by a Nuclear Regulatory Commission source to sabotage) at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, killed one navy technician and two army technicians, and released radioactivity "largely confined" (words of John A. McCone, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission) to the reactor building. The three men were killed as they moved fuel rods in a "routine" preparation for the reactor start-up. One technician was blown to the ceiling of the containment dome and impaled on a control rod. His body remained there until it was taken down six days later. The men were so heavily exposed to radiation that their hands had to be buried separately with other radioactive waste, and their bodies were interred in lead coffins.

[Aktungbby]

The catacombs of Paris hold over 6 million remains; one of them is Louis XXVI (yeah that one) truly 'a man of the people' in repose!In 2004, police discovered a fully equipped movie theater in one of the caverns. It was equipped with a giant cinema screen, seats for the audience, projection equipment, film reels of recent thrillers andfilm noir classics, a fully stocked bar, and a complete restaurant with tables and chairs. The source of its electrical power and the identity of those responsible remain unknown.

[Jimbuna]

In 1939, Hitler's nephew wrote an article called "Why I Hate My Uncle." He came to the U.S., served in the Navy, and settled on Long Island.

[Eichhörnchen]

"Meh!"

[Moonlight]

When a male bee climaxes, their testicles explode then they die.