In March 1964, David Threlfall sent a unique request to bookmaker William Hill: "I'd like to bet £10 that a man will set foot on the surface of the moon before the first of January 1970."
He'd heard President Kennedy's 1961 address challenging the United States to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, and "I thought if a bookmaker was prepared to offer reasonable odds it would be a commonsense bet."
The bookmaker disagreed and put the odds at 1,000 to 1. Threlfall accepted, and the bet was placed on April 10.
As the Apollo program advanced, the odds began to drop, and people began to offer Threlfall thousands of pounds for his betting slip. He held on to it, though, and when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969, he received the reward for his forethought -- a check for £10,000.
Unfortunately, Threlfall was killed when he crashed the sports car he bought with his winnings.
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LuvTheMonkeyHigh Sierra SerenadeRegistered Userregular
I've got a relative who works and tests nuclear submarines. Apparently a bunch of those are missing as well
Yeah that's not true. No US nuclear sub has been lost since the USS Scorpion in 1968 and that was downed by an accident.
And we know where it and the Thresher are, thanks to Bob Ballard. That mission he went on to find the Titanic was actually to locate our lost subs, and the Titanic was found in his spare time after the primary goals were complete.
FakefauxCóiste BodharDriving John McCain to meet some Iraqis who'd very much like to make his acquaintanceRegistered Userregular
Al-Musta'sim was the last of the Abbasid Caliphs. He's sometimes regarded as the last "true" Caliph, in that after his death the institution was basically just ceremonial, at least until the Ottoman Turkish leaders started claiming the title for themselves. That's not the interesting part. The interesting part is how he died.
In 1258 the Mongols invaded the Middle East. The destruction they caused was so great that some of the Islamic leaders of the region attempted to appeal to Europe and the crusaders for aid. The crusaders thought this was very funny, and even made some overtures at an alliance with the Mongols, though it never really went anywhere. Eventually Baghdad was sacked, and the Mongols got their hands on the Caliph. And here they had a quandary.
You see, the Mongols were a practical people in a lot of ways. They had their own internal rules for the behavior of the army. These rules allowed the killing of political leaders, because those assholes will always come back and cause trouble later if you let them live. Plus, nine times out of ten the locals won't miss them that much. Religious leaders, on the other hand, were a different matter. Their deaths could turn them into martyrs, and serve as rallying points for an uprising. The Mongols weren't quite sure what to do with Al-Musta'sim, since he was both a religious and a political leader.
But, like I said, they were a practical bunch. Their specific rule said that a religious leader could not die "by our hands." So, they rolled Al-Musta'sim up in a big Persian carpet and then kicked him to death.
the myth said that if al-Musta'sim's blood was spilt a terrible calamity would occur, on account of he was of the family of the Prophet Mohammed
so the Mongols either had him trampled by horses or locked him in his treasure room to starve
this is all apocryphal as hell and probably never happened, of course. i've definitely heard a similar story regarding an Asian prince whom one of the Khans had drowned in molten gold
basically if the Dothraki do it the Mongols probably did it first
what's actually true is that the Baghdad of the Abbasids was the greatest centre of learning of the medieval world, Harun al-Rashid and his successors established a grand library called the House of Wisdom and gathered scholars from every corner of the globe
however al-Musta'sim's particular brand of Islam was less friendly to scholars than al-Rashid's so it was already on the decline before Hulagu Khan burnt the whole fucking thing to the ground
Still though, that's just a trend, things could have been reversed.
Burning Baghdad? Not so much.
As many interesting tidbits as there are about the Mongols, I still rather loath them for burning Baghdad.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
In April 1968, the Soviet submarine K-129 sank northwest of Hawaii. The US was tipped off to this when the Soviets sent a huge surge of ships into the Pacific. They were unable to locate the sub, but the US was, thanks to its network of hydrophones. Rather than tipping off the Soviets with a huge naval fleet, the CIA hired Howard Hughes to build an enormous ship to try and pull the sub off the bottom of the sea, under the pretense that it was mining manganese nodules. The ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, was basically playing a giant crane game with the wreck of the K-129 when its claw fractured and 2/3 of the ship broke off and sank back to the bottom.
They did recover two nuclear torpedoes however, basically carrier killers, along with the bodies of several crewmen who were subsequently buried at sea. The recovery of the K-129 remains the deepest salvage operation ever conducted.
Russia is the only nation that issues its astronauts firearms on space missions:
Starting in 1986, the USSR's Cosmonauts' standard survival kit included the TP-82, a 3-barreled combination 40-gauge Shotgun and .223 automatic pistol. It was discontinued in 2006 only to be replaced with an ordinary handgun.
They started doing this because Cosmonauts kept having to fight off Wolves when they landed in Siberia
+26
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
Russia is the only nation that issues its astronauts firearms on space missions:
Starting in 1986, the USSR's Cosmonauts' standard survival kit included the TP-82, a 3-barreled combination 40-gauge Shotgun and .223 automatic pistol. It was discontinued in 2006 only to be replaced with an ordinary handgun.
They started doing this because Cosmonauts kept having to fight off Wolves when they landed in Siberia
that is wonderful.
Though I have to wonder how dangerous wolves in sibera are if you need a shotgun pistol hybrid
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
+2
Tallaclasseeyou ever seen a lion limber up before it takes down a gazelleRegistered Userregular
They're wolves. In Russia.
+5
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
Russian wolves are way drunker and meaner and poorer than american wolves
Russian wolves are way drunker and meaner and poorer than american wolves
They'e also terrible drivers
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
Im inclined to believe the drunk thing. Russia only recently started calling Beer an alcohlic beverage. I have to assume their food circle is like 50 proof by now
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
The Olympics used to include art competitions. Between 1912 and 1952, medals were awarded in architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture; even the Soviets contributed art to the 1924 Paris games, though they disdained the sporting events as "bourgeois." An exhibition at the 1932 games drew 384,000 visitors to the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art.
All works had to be inspired by sports; those ranked highest received gold, silver, and bronze medals. The categories included epic literature, chamber music, watercolors, and statuary; the 1928 games even included a competition in town planning.
In two cases champion athletes also won art competitions. Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós, who had won two gold medals in Athens in 1896, took home a silver medal for designing a stadium in 1924. And American Walter Winans won gold both as a marksman in 1908 and as a sculptor in 1912.
In 1954 the art competitions were dropped because most of the participants were professionals, which was held to conflict with the ideals of the games. But the Olympic charter still requires hosts to include a cultural program "to promote harmonious relations, mutual understanding and friendship among the participants and others attending the Olympic Games."
Im inclined to believe the drunk thing. Russia only recently started calling Beer an alcohlic beverage. I have to assume their food circle is like 50 proof by now
Some are concerned it will lead to a RISE in problem drinking. Since you can't get beer 24 hours any more, they expect people may just start stockpiling vodka.
I like how permitting that you might not have a constant source of booze is apparently just not an option.
In June 1744, the College of William & Mary invited the Indians of the Six Nations to send six young men to be "properly" educated. They received this reply:
We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinc'd, therefore, that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of Things; and you will therefore not take it amiss if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it: Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer, or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, or Counsellors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer, tho' we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take great Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.
On Feb. 5, 1958, during a simulated combat mission near Savannah, Ga., a B-47 bomber collided with an F-86 fighter. The fighter crashed; the bomber, barely airworthy, needed to reduce weight to avoid an emergency landing.
So it dropped a 7,600-pound nuclear bomb.
The bomb contained 400 pounds of conventional explosives and highly enriched uranium. There's some disagreement as to whether it included the plutonium capsule needed to start a nuclear reaction.
That's rather important, because in 50 years of searching the Air Force still hasn't found the bomb. It hit the water near Tybee Island off the Georgia coast and is presumably buried in 10 feet of silt somewhere in Wassaw Sound. But exactly where it is, and how dangerous it is, remain unknown.
The quality of this post is fine but given the content I don't know if we should be rating it "awesome". I'm not sure that's how that button is supposed to work.
In June 1744, the College of William & Mary invited the Indians of the Six Nations to send six young men to be "properly" educated. They received this reply:
We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinc'd, therefore, that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of Things; and you will therefore not take it amiss if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it: Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer, or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, or Counsellors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer, tho' we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take great Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.
I'd take them up on that offer if you know, we didn't kill them all.
Yeltsin's National Security Advisor insisted until his death in 2002 that the GRU lost track of between 100-200 suitcase nukes during the fall of the USSR, which have never been accounted for.
From Andrew Carroll's Behind the Lines (2005) -- during World War II, the parents of William Kyzer received this letter from their son, an infantry rifleman stationed in the Pacific:
Dear Dad & Carmilita
I'm OK, days flies by here in
Well maybe it can be all again soon. I'm praying for it. Write soon Nothing like getting a letter from home. Here on
Love
Bill
P.S. They may censor this letter
Carroll writes: "In fact, Kyzer's mail was not edited at all; he simply hated writing letters and only penned the few sentences at the top and bottom so that his folks would believe that the censors were responsible for slicing out the rest."
who's cooler, Russian mob, Italian mafia, or Japanese Yakuza
The only real way to settle this is to have all three on Deadliest Warrior, where they'll kill the hosts, destroy the "sophisticated simulation" equipment and burn the soundstage to the ground thus insuring the show is never renewed.
+1
Captain Marcusnow arrives the hour of actionRegistered Userregular
The Yakuza are semi-legitimate in Japan, apparently. They run businesses and the largest syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, sent relief supplies and a helicopter to aid the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Instead of forcing businesses to pay protection money, they attend shareholder meetings and blackmail the management into giving them money (or they'll yell company secrets, real or not, from loudspeakers mounted on trucks). They even have fan magazines!
Also we've lost a lot of bombs.
March 10, 1956 – Over the Mediterranean Sea – Nuclear weapons lost
A USAF B-47 Stratojet, AF Ser. No. 52-534, on a non-stop mission from MacDill Air Force Base to an overseas base descended into a cloud formation at 14,000 feet over the Mediterranean in preparation for an in-air refuelling and vanished while carrying two nuclear weapon cores. The plane was lost while flying through dense clouds, and the cores and other wreckage were never located
July 28, 1957 – Atlantic Ocean – Two weapons jettisoned and not recovered
A USAF C-124 aircraft from Dover Air Force Base, Delaware was carrying three nuclear bombs over the Atlantic Ocean when it experienced a loss of power. The crew jettisoned two nuclear bombs to protect their safety, which were never recovered.
December 5, 1965 – coast of Japan – Loss of a nuclear bomb
A U.S. Navy A-4E Skyhawk aircraft with one B43 nuclear bomb on board fell off the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga into 16,200 feet (4,900 m) of water while the ship was underway from Vietnam to Yokosuka, Japan. The plane, pilot and weapon were never recovered. There is dispute over exactly where the incident took place—the U.S. Defense Department originally stated it took place 500 miles (800 km) off the coast of Japan, but Navy documents later show it happened about 80 miles (130 km) from the Ryukyu Islands and 200 miles (320 km) from Okinawa.
Would a nuclear weapon be at all viable after sitting underwater for decades, or is the concern them leaking horrible filth into the ocean for thousands of years or what have you?
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
well I know nothing about nuclear bombs but
the weapons grade radioactive material or whatever would still be good yes? Even if the explody parts part got all watered filled and coroded?
So the big fear isn't that somebody is going to pull up a whole bomb and strap it to a plane or a train and set off a full blown nuke, but rather that they would take the dangerous nuclear material and fashion dirty bombs (I think is right term here)
I think the main worry re: the Tybee bomb is that salt water will corrode the metal casing and let the uranium free, contaminating the surrounding area.
Also in ten thousand years a careless acheologists will dig a little too hard with his spade and seriously impact his chances of gaining further funding.
0
KwoaruConfident SmirkFlawless Golden PecsRegistered Userregular
hey you just asked if the weapon would be viable and I provided my uninformed assumption
whether or not groups like al-qaeda could actually get it is a different matter
I mean really though nuclear bombs are something really worth trying to keep track of
Posts
Yeah that's not true. No US nuclear sub has been lost since the USS Scorpion in 1968 and that was downed by an accident.
Unfortunately, Threlfall was killed when he crashed the sports car he bought with his winnings.
And we know where it and the Thresher are, thanks to Bob Ballard. That mission he went on to find the Titanic was actually to locate our lost subs, and the Titanic was found in his spare time after the primary goals were complete.
In 1258 the Mongols invaded the Middle East. The destruction they caused was so great that some of the Islamic leaders of the region attempted to appeal to Europe and the crusaders for aid. The crusaders thought this was very funny, and even made some overtures at an alliance with the Mongols, though it never really went anywhere. Eventually Baghdad was sacked, and the Mongols got their hands on the Caliph. And here they had a quandary.
You see, the Mongols were a practical people in a lot of ways. They had their own internal rules for the behavior of the army. These rules allowed the killing of political leaders, because those assholes will always come back and cause trouble later if you let them live. Plus, nine times out of ten the locals won't miss them that much. Religious leaders, on the other hand, were a different matter. Their deaths could turn them into martyrs, and serve as rallying points for an uprising. The Mongols weren't quite sure what to do with Al-Musta'sim, since he was both a religious and a political leader.
But, like I said, they were a practical bunch. Their specific rule said that a religious leader could not die "by our hands." So, they rolled Al-Musta'sim up in a big Persian carpet and then kicked him to death.
so the Mongols either had him trampled by horses or locked him in his treasure room to starve
this is all apocryphal as hell and probably never happened, of course. i've definitely heard a similar story regarding an Asian prince whom one of the Khans had drowned in molten gold
basically if the Dothraki do it the Mongols probably did it first
what's actually true is that the Baghdad of the Abbasids was the greatest centre of learning of the medieval world, Harun al-Rashid and his successors established a grand library called the House of Wisdom and gathered scholars from every corner of the globe
however al-Musta'sim's particular brand of Islam was less friendly to scholars than al-Rashid's so it was already on the decline before Hulagu Khan burnt the whole fucking thing to the ground
Burning Baghdad? Not so much.
As many interesting tidbits as there are about the Mongols, I still rather loath them for burning Baghdad.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian
In April 1968, the Soviet submarine K-129 sank northwest of Hawaii. The US was tipped off to this when the Soviets sent a huge surge of ships into the Pacific. They were unable to locate the sub, but the US was, thanks to its network of hydrophones. Rather than tipping off the Soviets with a huge naval fleet, the CIA hired Howard Hughes to build an enormous ship to try and pull the sub off the bottom of the sea, under the pretense that it was mining manganese nodules. The ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, was basically playing a giant crane game with the wreck of the K-129 when its claw fractured and 2/3 of the ship broke off and sank back to the bottom.
They did recover two nuclear torpedoes however, basically carrier killers, along with the bodies of several crewmen who were subsequently buried at sea. The recovery of the K-129 remains the deepest salvage operation ever conducted.
Starting in 1986, the USSR's Cosmonauts' standard survival kit included the TP-82, a 3-barreled combination 40-gauge Shotgun and .223 automatic pistol. It was discontinued in 2006 only to be replaced with an ordinary handgun.
that is wonderful.
Though I have to wonder how dangerous wolves in sibera are if you need a shotgun pistol hybrid
They'e also terrible drivers
All works had to be inspired by sports; those ranked highest received gold, silver, and bronze medals. The categories included epic literature, chamber music, watercolors, and statuary; the 1928 games even included a competition in town planning.
In two cases champion athletes also won art competitions. Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós, who had won two gold medals in Athens in 1896, took home a silver medal for designing a stadium in 1924. And American Walter Winans won gold both as a marksman in 1908 and as a sculptor in 1912.
In 1954 the art competitions were dropped because most of the participants were professionals, which was held to conflict with the ideals of the games. But the Olympic charter still requires hosts to include a cultural program "to promote harmonious relations, mutual understanding and friendship among the participants and others attending the Olympic Games."
Some are concerned it will lead to a RISE in problem drinking. Since you can't get beer 24 hours any more, they expect people may just start stockpiling vodka.
I like how permitting that you might not have a constant source of booze is apparently just not an option.
hi laughingfuzzball
The quality of this post is fine but given the content I don't know if we should be rating it "awesome". I'm not sure that's how that button is supposed to work.
Hi Tossrock. How're things?
I'd take them up on that offer if you know, we didn't kill them all.
The Russian Mob has first strike capabilities.
Carroll writes: "In fact, Kyzer's mail was not edited at all; he simply hated writing letters and only penned the few sentences at the top and bottom so that his folks would believe that the censors were responsible for slicing out the rest."
School, a bit of travel, getting out of a bad relationship. Now I'm just saving a bit of money to finish up my schooling with.
And you? What's the haps?
Mob something something Russian Winters something something.
But then again, drunk fat hairy men in track suits, not my thing.
Also we've lost a lot of bombs.
So that's 5, not including the Tybee accident.
STEAM
the weapons grade radioactive material or whatever would still be good yes? Even if the explody parts part got all watered filled and coroded?
So the big fear isn't that somebody is going to pull up a whole bomb and strap it to a plane or a train and set off a full blown nuke, but rather that they would take the dangerous nuclear material and fashion dirty bombs (I think is right term here)
Also in ten thousand years a careless acheologists will dig a little too hard with his spade and seriously impact his chances of gaining further funding.
whether or not groups like al-qaeda could actually get it is a different matter
I mean really though nuclear bombs are something really worth trying to keep track of