| Flash
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| 157887. Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:00 am |
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| On the Magnum .357s, the wiki says that it was developed to compete with and out-gun Colt's .38 format and that both were designed to be able to penetrate car doors and bullet-proof vests, which was the requirement at the time they were introduced - 1934. |
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| MatC
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| 158265. Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:04 am |
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| It’s come to my attention that some colleagues consider wikipedia a decent source. Hmm, well, I’ve been carefully avoiding wiki, but all right then - in that case, the square bullets story is reinstated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puckle_Gun |
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| eggshaped
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| 167706. Thu Apr 19, 2007 6:24 am |
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Hi,
Can anyone find anything about the South Pole (or the earth's axis) moving due to the 2004 tsunami? I found a few things written at the time saying that scientists think it might have happened. But nothing really authoritative.
thx |
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| Gray
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| Molly Cule
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| 170093. Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:19 am |
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What are these?
They are coffins from Arnhelm land in the Northern Territories. They are hollowed out by termites. A few years after someones death the dry bones of the deceased were put in the hollow log coffin and left upright to be worn away by the weather.
British Museum. |
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| Gray
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| 170110. Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:46 am |
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I like that. Wiki mentions that some ancient cultures buride their people upright, but neglects to enlarge.
This is quite interesting too:
| Quote: | In Gulliver's Travels, the Lilliputians buried their dead upside down:
| Quote: | | They bury their dead with their heads directly downward, because they hold an opinion, that in eleven thousand moons they are all to rise again; in which period the earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by this means they shall, at their resurrection, be found ready standing on their feet. The learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine; but the practice still continues, in compliance to the vulgar. |
Swift's notion of inverted burial might seem the highest flight of fancy, but it appears that among English millenarians the idea that the world would be "turned upside down" at the Apocalypse enjoyed some currency, and there is at least one attested case of a person being buried upside down by instruction; a Major Peter Labelliere of Dorking (d. June 4, 1800) lies thus upon the summit of Box Hill. |
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| suze
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| 170116. Fri Apr 27, 2007 7:58 am |
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When I were a lass, there was a rather non-PC gag doing the rounds along the lines of
Q: Why are Jewish people buried standing up?
A: So that the change doesn't fall out their pockets.
Is it true though? (The notion that is, not the allegedly humorous answer.) A quick bit of Googling suggests that it's a fairly well notion, but I haven't found a definitive answer. If it isn't true, perhaps the world needs to know. |
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| Molly Cule
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| 170560. Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:12 am |
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Or rather, not the end...
Henry Ford (US automobile pioneer, 1863-1947)
"I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilise the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan I realised that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more. The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease. If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men’s minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us". - San Francisco Examiner, 26 Aug 1928 |
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| Gray
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| 170595. Sun Apr 29, 2007 12:39 pm |
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Wooo! What a flake he was.
Mind you, that's a fairly original excuse for not being particularly smart: not having lived enough lives. Then it can't be your fault! |
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| MatC
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| 170730. Mon Apr 30, 2007 4:47 am |
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| suze wrote: | When I were a lass, there was a rather non-PC gag doing the rounds along the lines of
Q: Why are Jewish people buried standing up?
A: So that the change doesn't fall out their pockets.
Is it true though? (The notion that is, not the allegedly humorous answer.) A quick bit of Googling suggests that it's a fairly well notion, but I haven't found a definitive answer. If it isn't true, perhaps the world needs to know. |
When I was a kid, the same joke was told about Scotsmen!
More burying uprights at post 18026 |
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| eggshaped
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| 171074. Tue May 01, 2007 2:47 am |
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File under: "No flipping way".
Undertakers have been accused of using human ashes to grit the path outside their funeral home.
| Quote: | "Sometimes when families ask to get their relatives' ashes back, the plastic container for them is too small.
"This wasn't every time but every now and then there were too many remains.
"Instead of getting a bigger container, the spare ashes were tipped into an emptied-out bottle of embalming fluid which also contained grit."
The worker, a funeral director for eight years, added: "In winter when it was frosty, the boss would tell one of the staff to go and salt the road outside the office so that people wouldn't slip on ice - and the remains from the bottle were used." |
link |
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| MatC
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| 172474. Mon May 07, 2007 5:27 am |
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At Dylan Thomas’s funeral, Louis MacNiece threw his sandwiches onto the coffin, in the drunken belief that they were daffodils.
S: Characters of Fitzrovia by Pentelow and Rowe (Pimlico, 2002). |
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| eggshaped
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| 174238. Mon May 14, 2007 10:55 am |
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James Doohan's (the guy who amongst other amazing things played Scottie in Star Trek) ashes are currently somewhere in the mountains of New Mexico, after the shuttle carrying them into space got lost on re-entry.
link |
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| Jenny
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| 176283. Sun May 20, 2007 9:13 pm |
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I don't know if it's too late for this now, but I came across a good factoid this weekend.
December 31st 1951 was the last time anybody in the USA officially died of 'old age'. After that, some other cause of death had to be put on the death certificate.
See the beginning of this pdf leaflet: http://www.ilcusa.org/_lib/pdf/diedofoldage.pdf
I like the idea that there was this fatal condition from which millions of Americans died until the end of 1951, and nobody has died of it since. |
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| Frederick The Monk
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| 177199. Wed May 23, 2007 11:55 am |
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We've missed 'Endings' but it's a great fact and I'm sure we can wheedle it in somewhere.
So you are now, literally, never too old........... |
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