Useless (But Fun!) Fact For Today - Page 4

**cheesy** · 11-24-2022, 08:37 PM

^^^To give you all an idea of how old the Rudolph TV show by Rankin-Bass is, I was Cub Scout on the verge of earning my Bobcat pin.

Emerikol · 11-25-2022, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheesy

^^^To give you all an idea of how old the Rudolph TV show by Rankin-Bass is, I was Cub Scout on the verge of earning my Bobcat pin.

Didn't you have to stalk, kill and skin a dinosaur to get the Bobcat pin?

**cheesy** · 11-25-2022, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emerikol

Didn't you have to stalk, kill and skin a dinosaur to get the Bobcat pin?

And I had to walk uphill in the snow.

Emerikol · 12-03-2022, 07:51 AM

3 Dec 22

The nine-letter word "spoonfeed" is the longest word that's spelled with letters that are arranged completely in reverse alphabetical order. "Trollied" comes in second place with eight letters.

Mudflap · 12-03-2022, 09:08 AM

It's Dinosaur December.

Largest dinosaur is estimated to have weighed 180,000 lbs. Smallest is still living today, a hummingbird.

wheelbender6 · 12-03-2022, 06:58 PM

The Vikings let their women handle the finances because they thought math was witchcraft.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/251709066650912142/

Emerikol · 12-06-2022, 12:45 PM

6 Dec 22

The second attack on Pearl Harbor that you never heard about...

Emboldened by a string of victories across the Pacific in the early months of World War II, the Japanese empire launched a bold and unorthodox attack that is seldom remembered today.

Though a tactical victory, the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor was also a strategic blunder, as the Japanese failed one of their most critical objectives: destroy the American aircraft carriers. Even worse, the Japanese failed to destroy the strategic oil reserves at Oahu, and the damage to docks and yards was slight.

According to "Pearl Harbor" by H.P. Willmott, the American fleet was damaged, but far from crippled.

The Japanese were desperate for information on the disposition of the U.S. fleet and its ability to project sea power, and not knowing was still a potential threat. It soon became apparent to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) that a second attack was necessary.

The Second Pearl Harbor Attack
According to Steve Horn's book, The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor: Operation K And Other Attempts to Bomb America in World War II," the Japanese decided the attack would be carried out with long-range flying boats refueled by submarines.

The attack had three objectives: reconnoiter the damage of the original attack to the infrastructure at Oahu, disrupt salvage efforts and once again terrorize the population. The IJN reasoned that if successful, additional raids could occur.

After weeks of planning, the Japanese worked out the details. With no fighter escort available, they determined a nighttime raid would be their best option. They would launch Kawanishi H8K flying boats from the Wotje Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The H8k was considered one of the finest flying boats of the war, and their extreme range would allow them to fly the 1,900 miles to French Frigate Shoals in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Once there, they would rendezvous with submarines for refueling.

The planes would then fly off to Oahu to execute the attack. In an effort to disrupt salvage and repair efforts, their primary target was Pearl Harbor naval base's "Ten-Ten" dock -- so named for its length of 1,010 feet.

As a secondary mission, the aircraft were to make careful observations to obtain accurate intelligence of U.S. naval infrastructure. This would be crucial to helping IJN planners determine American capabilities.

To coincide with full moonlight over Pearl Harbor and have maximum visibility, the date planned for the raid was March 4, 1942.

The Second Attack's Failures
While audacious, the plan was plagued with errors. First, the number of aircraft available was cut to two. Second, a lookout submarine positioned south of French Frigate Shoals went missing in mid-February. Finally, Japanese cryptanalysts had broken the United States Navy weather code before the attack, but by the time of the raid, the code had changed. The moonlight that the raid depended on came from a single source, which later proved entirely inaccurate.

Blinded by foul weather, the pilots were forced to split up and carry out their attacks separately. The Japanese planes were picked up by radar, and the Americans scrambled their aircraft in an attempt to intercept what was presumed to be an airborne armada and the carrier task force that launched them. They were quickly thwarted by the same inclement weather blinding the Japanese.

Unable to see Oahu due to a wartime blackout, one pilot is presumed to have dropped his bombs harmlessly into the ocean while the other struck the slopes of Tantalus Peak, an extinct volcano cinder cone just north of Honolulu. Aside from a few blown-out windows, no damage occurred to any structures.

The early morning attack renewed fear among residents of a Japanese invasion and caused changes to U.S. naval strategy that would remain in place throughout the war.

In the days before the attack, American codebreakers warned that Japanese were preparing raids and would refuel at French Frigate Shoals. Shockingly, they were once again ignored by their superiors, much like the first attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

Despite the failure of the attack, its out-of-the-box thinking had major impacts on the war and demonstrated the potential of air power. American ships would patrol French Frigate Shoals for the remainder of the war, and greater attention was paid to the discoveries of codebreakers.

More importantly, American ships stationed at French Frigate Shoals denied the Japanese further use of the base to carry out reconnaissance missions. This left them unable to continue observing U.S. Navy activity or to keep track of the American carriers. These changes would prove pivotal, when only three months later, the two nations' fleets would converge at a small island chain called Midway.

wheelbender6 · 12-09-2022, 08:17 PM

The Pan-American Highway, from Alaska to Argentina, is not a continuous road.

You must take a ferry around the Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is a region of Panama near the Columbian border where there are no roads. You travel the thick rainforested area by foot or canoe.

An article about the Darien Gap is at the link below.
https://www.advrider.com/ex-military...w-documentary/

Emerikol · 12-11-2022, 09:52 AM

Not a useless fact, but a little bit of humor for today - 11 Dec 22

You need to think around "old people". A tale from the wild, wild West...
"An old woman walked up and tied her old mule to the hitching post.
As she stood there, brushing some of the dust from her face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.
He looked at the woman and laughed,
"Hey old woman, have you ever danced?"
The woman looked up at the gunslinger and said, "No ... I never did dance ... Never really wanted to"
A crowd has gathered as the young gunslinger grinned and said, "Well you old bag, you're gonna dance now!", and started shooting at the old woman's feet.
The old woman prospector - not wanting to have her toes blown off- started hopping around. Many were laughing.
When his last bullet was fired, the gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon.
The old woman turned to her pack mule, pulled out a double-barrelled shotgun and cocked both hammers. The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air, and the crowd immediately stopped laughing.
The gunslinger heard the sounds too, and turned around very slowly. The silence was almost deafening. The crowd watched tensely as he stared at the woman and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels.
The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in her hands as she quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's ass?"
The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No m'am, but I've always wanted too"
THERE ARE FIVE LESSONS HERE FOR ALL OF US:
1 - Never be arrogant.
2 - Don't waste ammunition.
3 - Whiskey makes you think you're smarter than you are.
4 - Always make sure you know who has the power.
5 - Don't mess with old people; they didn't get old by being stupid."

Emerikol · 12-11-2022, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wheelbender6

The Pan-American Highway, from Alaska to Argentina, is not a continuous road.

You must take a ferry around the Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is a region of Panama near the Columbian border where there are no roads. You travel the thick rainforested area by foot or canoe.

An article about the Darien Gap is at the link below.
https://www.advrider.com/ex-military...w-documentary/

I actually knew about that! There are a few people I follow on YouTube that have made the ride, and that was always a great part of their trip. They would usually get fleeced for some little knick-knack or a couple bucks of native currency right off of the ferry.

TominMO · 12-11-2022, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emerikol

I actually knew about that! There are a few people I follow on YouTube that have made the ride, and that was always a great part of their trip. They would usually get fleeced for some little knick-knack or a couple bucks of native currency right off of the ferry.

Following Noraly/Itchy Boots?

Emerikol · 12-11-2022, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TominMO

Following Noraly/Itchy Boots?

I've seen some of her posts, but I was also really impressed with BuckAbroad (living to the dead end), and ADVWanderer.

wheelbender6 · 12-11-2022, 09:15 PM

Itchy Boots is one I like to watch.
Did she actually ride the Darien Gap? I heard you spend most of the time pushing the bike in the Darien Gap.

Emerikol · 12-15-2022, 05:26 AM

I have to fly a couple airplanes today for work, so I figured today would be an aviation themed Useless but Fun!

15 Dec 22

Fun Facts about the 747 Super Jumbo Jet

-The Boeing 747 wing span (195 feet) is longer than the Wright Brothers’ first flight of 120ft.

-The worldwide 747 fleets have logged more than 78 billion kilometers, equivalent to 101,500 trips to the moon and back.

-The average 747 has between 240-280 kilometers of wiring.

-Each engine on a Boeing 747 weighs almost 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg), cost about $8 million USD, and burns about twelve gallons of fuel per minute when cruising.

-The Boeing 747 burns approximately one gallon of fuel every second. Over the course of a ten-hour flight, it may burn up to 36,000 gallons.

wheelbender6 · 12-16-2022, 05:37 PM

While we are talking about the mighty 747, the last one rolled off the assembly line in Everett, WA last Tuesday. Link is below. I had no idea that these monsters were still in production in 2022.

I only flew on a 747 once. I think it was Tokyo Narita to Honolulu and back in 1989.

Another thing the article below told me about the 747 was that it was originally designed as a military transport. it was beaten out by the Lockheed C5 for the job, so the 747 was then redesigned for civilian passenger and cargo duty.
-That explains why the 747 is such a great cargo plane.

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/last-j...eaves-factory/

11-24-2022, 08:37 PM	#46
cheesy Moderator Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Elburn, IL Posts: 5,805	^^^To give you all an idea of how old the Rudolph TV show by Rankin-Bass is, I was Cub Scout on the verge of earning my Bobcat pin. __________________ Cheesy ______________________________________ 07 Hi Bird Enduro-Flown the Coop 07 Ural Gear Up 79 Honda CX500 77 VeloSolex 4600 V3 73 VeloSolex 3800 I'm making this up as I go.-Indiana Jones Telling me something 'is for my own good', is a fast way to a fat lip.-Me I don't even care about my own problems, why should I care about yours?-Quote on one of my favorite t-shirts
	4

12-03-2022, 07:51 AM	#49
Emerikol Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Carrollton, GA Posts: 1,465	3 Dec 22 The nine-letter word "spoonfeed" is the longest word that's spelled with letters that are arranged completely in reverse alphabetical order. "Trollied" comes in second place with eight letters. __________________ First Rule of Aviation: -Never Pass Up The Opportunity to Pee I was struggling to get my wife's attention; I sat down on the couch and looked comfortable. That did the trick! My wife says I only have two faults. I don't listen and something else... If at first you don't succeed, try doing it the way I told you to... The Stable: 2005 Yamaha V-Star 650 - SOLD 2015 Suzuki DR 650 2015 RPS Hawk 250 - SOLD 2016 Ural Gear Up
	2

12-03-2022, 06:58 PM	#51
wheelbender6 Join Date: May 2015 Location: Houston area Posts: 1,902	The Vikings let their women handle the finances because they thought math was witchcraft. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/251709066650912142/ __________________ "Its not WHAT you ride; its THAT you ride"
	2

12-06-2022, 12:45 PM	#52
Emerikol Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Carrollton, GA Posts: 1,465	6 Dec 22 The second attack on Pearl Harbor that you never heard about... Emboldened by a string of victories across the Pacific in the early months of World War II, the Japanese empire launched a bold and unorthodox attack that is seldom remembered today. Though a tactical victory, the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor was also a strategic blunder, as the Japanese failed one of their most critical objectives: destroy the American aircraft carriers. Even worse, the Japanese failed to destroy the strategic oil reserves at Oahu, and the damage to docks and yards was slight. According to "Pearl Harbor" by H.P. Willmott, the American fleet was damaged, but far from crippled. The Japanese were desperate for information on the disposition of the U.S. fleet and its ability to project sea power, and not knowing was still a potential threat. It soon became apparent to the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) that a second attack was necessary. The Second Pearl Harbor Attack According to Steve Horn's book, The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor: Operation K And Other Attempts to Bomb America in World War II," the Japanese decided the attack would be carried out with long-range flying boats refueled by submarines. The attack had three objectives: reconnoiter the damage of the original attack to the infrastructure at Oahu, disrupt salvage efforts and once again terrorize the population. The IJN reasoned that if successful, additional raids could occur. After weeks of planning, the Japanese worked out the details. With no fighter escort available, they determined a nighttime raid would be their best option. They would launch Kawanishi H8K flying boats from the Wotje Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The H8k was considered one of the finest flying boats of the war, and their extreme range would allow them to fly the 1,900 miles to French Frigate Shoals in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Once there, they would rendezvous with submarines for refueling. The planes would then fly off to Oahu to execute the attack. In an effort to disrupt salvage and repair efforts, their primary target was Pearl Harbor naval base's "Ten-Ten" dock -- so named for its length of 1,010 feet. As a secondary mission, the aircraft were to make careful observations to obtain accurate intelligence of U.S. naval infrastructure. This would be crucial to helping IJN planners determine American capabilities. To coincide with full moonlight over Pearl Harbor and have maximum visibility, the date planned for the raid was March 4, 1942. The Second Attack's Failures While audacious, the plan was plagued with errors. First, the number of aircraft available was cut to two. Second, a lookout submarine positioned south of French Frigate Shoals went missing in mid-February. Finally, Japanese cryptanalysts had broken the United States Navy weather code before the attack, but by the time of the raid, the code had changed. The moonlight that the raid depended on came from a single source, which later proved entirely inaccurate. Blinded by foul weather, the pilots were forced to split up and carry out their attacks separately. The Japanese planes were picked up by radar, and the Americans scrambled their aircraft in an attempt to intercept what was presumed to be an airborne armada and the carrier task force that launched them. They were quickly thwarted by the same inclement weather blinding the Japanese. Unable to see Oahu due to a wartime blackout, one pilot is presumed to have dropped his bombs harmlessly into the ocean while the other struck the slopes of Tantalus Peak, an extinct volcano cinder cone just north of Honolulu. Aside from a few blown-out windows, no damage occurred to any structures. The early morning attack renewed fear among residents of a Japanese invasion and caused changes to U.S. naval strategy that would remain in place throughout the war. In the days before the attack, American codebreakers warned that Japanese were preparing raids and would refuel at French Frigate Shoals. Shockingly, they were once again ignored by their superiors, much like the first attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Despite the failure of the attack, its out-of-the-box thinking had major impacts on the war and demonstrated the potential of air power. American ships would patrol French Frigate Shoals for the remainder of the war, and greater attention was paid to the discoveries of codebreakers. More importantly, American ships stationed at French Frigate Shoals denied the Japanese further use of the base to carry out reconnaissance missions. This left them unable to continue observing U.S. Navy activity or to keep track of the American carriers. These changes would prove pivotal, when only three months later, the two nations' fleets would converge at a small island chain called Midway. __________________ First Rule of Aviation: -Never Pass Up The Opportunity to Pee I was struggling to get my wife's attention; I sat down on the couch and looked comfortable. That did the trick! My wife says I only have two faults. I don't listen and something else... If at first you don't succeed, try doing it the way I told you to... The Stable: 2005 Yamaha V-Star 650 - SOLD 2015 Suzuki DR 650 2015 RPS Hawk 250 - SOLD 2016 Ural Gear Up
	2

12-09-2022, 08:17 PM	#53
wheelbender6 Join Date: May 2015 Location: Houston area Posts: 1,902	The Pan-American Highway, from Alaska to Argentina, is not a continuous road. You must take a ferry around the Darien Gap. The Darien Gap is a region of Panama near the Columbian border where there are no roads. You travel the thick rainforested area by foot or canoe. An article about the Darien Gap is at the link below. https://www.advrider.com/ex-military...w-documentary/ __________________ "Its not WHAT you ride; its THAT you ride"
	3

12-03-2022, 09:08 AM	#50
Mudflap Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 1,874	It's Dinosaur December. Largest dinosaur is estimated to have weighed 180,000 lbs. Smallest is still living today, a hummingbird.
	3

12-11-2022, 09:52 AM	#54
Emerikol Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Carrollton, GA Posts: 1,465	Not a useless fact, but a little bit of humor for today - 11 Dec 22 You need to think around "old people". A tale from the wild, wild West... "An old woman walked up and tied her old mule to the hitching post. As she stood there, brushing some of the dust from her face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other. He looked at the woman and laughed, "Hey old woman, have you ever danced?" The woman looked up at the gunslinger and said, "No ... I never did dance ... Never really wanted to" A crowd has gathered as the young gunslinger grinned and said, "Well you old bag, you're gonna dance now!", and started shooting at the old woman's feet. The old woman prospector - not wanting to have her toes blown off- started hopping around. Many were laughing. When his last bullet was fired, the gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon. The old woman turned to her pack mule, pulled out a double-barrelled shotgun and cocked both hammers. The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air, and the crowd immediately stopped laughing. The gunslinger heard the sounds too, and turned around very slowly. The silence was almost deafening. The crowd watched tensely as he stared at the woman and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels. The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in her hands as she quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's ass?" The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No m'am, but I've always wanted too" THERE ARE FIVE LESSONS HERE FOR ALL OF US: 1 - Never be arrogant. 2 - Don't waste ammunition. 3 - Whiskey makes you think you're smarter than you are. 4 - Always make sure you know who has the power. 5 - Don't mess with old people; they didn't get old by being stupid." __________________ First Rule of Aviation: -Never Pass Up The Opportunity to Pee I was struggling to get my wife's attention; I sat down on the couch and looked comfortable. That did the trick! My wife says I only have two faults. I don't listen and something else... If at first you don't succeed, try doing it the way I told you to... The Stable: 2005 Yamaha V-Star 650 - SOLD 2015 Suzuki DR 650 2015 RPS Hawk 250 - SOLD 2016 Ural Gear Up
	3

12-11-2022, 09:15 PM	#58
wheelbender6 Join Date: May 2015 Location: Houston area Posts: 1,902	Itchy Boots is one I like to watch. Did she actually ride the Darien Gap? I heard you spend most of the time pushing the bike in the Darien Gap. __________________ "Its not WHAT you ride; its THAT you ride"
	0

12-15-2022, 05:26 AM	#59
Emerikol Join Date: Oct 2016 Location: Carrollton, GA Posts: 1,465	I have to fly a couple airplanes today for work, so I figured today would be an aviation themed Useless but Fun! 15 Dec 22 Fun Facts about the 747 Super Jumbo Jet -The Boeing 747 wing span (195 feet) is longer than the Wright Brothers’ first flight of 120ft. -The worldwide 747 fleets have logged more than 78 billion kilometers, equivalent to 101,500 trips to the moon and back. -The average 747 has between 240-280 kilometers of wiring. -Each engine on a Boeing 747 weighs almost 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg), cost about $8 million USD, and burns about twelve gallons of fuel per minute when cruising. -The Boeing 747 burns approximately one gallon of fuel every second. Over the course of a ten-hour flight, it may burn up to 36,000 gallons. __________________ First Rule of Aviation: -Never Pass Up The Opportunity to Pee I was struggling to get my wife's attention; I sat down on the couch and looked comfortable. That did the trick! My wife says I only have two faults. I don't listen and something else... If at first you don't succeed, try doing it the way I told you to... The Stable: 2005 Yamaha V-Star 650 - SOLD 2015 Suzuki DR 650 2015 RPS Hawk 250 - SOLD 2016 Ural Gear Up
	2

12-16-2022, 05:37 PM	#60
wheelbender6 Join Date: May 2015 Location: Houston area Posts: 1,902	While we are talking about the mighty 747, the last one rolled off the assembly line in Everett, WA last Tuesday. Link is below. I had no idea that these monsters were still in production in 2022. I only flew on a 747 once. I think it was Tokyo Narita to Honolulu and back in 1989. Another thing the article below told me about the 747 was that it was originally designed as a military transport. it was beaten out by the Lockheed C5 for the job, so the 747 was then redesigned for civilian passenger and cargo duty. -That explains why the 747 is such a great cargo plane. https://newatlas.com/aircraft/last-j...eaves-factory/ __________________ "Its not WHAT you ride; its THAT you ride"
	2