A strange world full of odd facts

[IanHx]

On 1/1/2020 at 2:19 PM, Bullbasket said:

Yeah, but how do you get a bucket underneath a pigeon to milk it?

 

 

Disguise it as a statue....

[Tzulscha]

3 hours ago, IanHx said:

Disguise it as a statue....

That ain't milk.

 

Just sayin'...

[dogsbody]

14 hours ago, LostCosmonauts said:

... but that shopping basket will definitely get you talked about

 

There are way more things than that that can get me talked about, but I don't care. I'm old and retired and don't give a rat's backside about a very large portion of western humanity

 

 

 

Chris

[JohnT]

6 hours ago, Vince1159 said:

That's one book i've always wanted to read but never got around to buying,maybe one day my curiosity'll get me to buy one....

I did read the abridged English version while at secondary school. Got the copy from the library. Abridged to make it more readable and even then it was pretty long and turgid going as I recall, not that really remember that much. It wasn’t a sparkling read but it does set out what he intended so none of WW2 should have come as a surprise. 
 

come to think of it I just realised my reading it at school was far closer in time to WW2 than the elapsed time from school to 2020 

[JohnT]

On 31/12/2019 at 04:24, dnl42 said:

These last two decades, I've learned that what I should pick up was far less than what I could pick up...

I was working backwards through this thread and thought “how true is that” then realised you were talking about weights and not girls as I first thought 

[bentwaters81tfw]

Our 'friend' with the short moustache wrote a second volume. I have a copy of that as well.

[dnl42]

19 minutes ago, JohnT said:

On 12/30/2019 at 8:24 PM, dnl42 said:

These last two decades, I've learned that what I should pick up was far less than what I could pick up...

I was working backwards through this thread and though “how true is that” then realised you were talking about weights and not girls as I first thought 

If the conversation was about women, I would have written something about what I could not pick up. 

[593jones]

20 hours ago, Vince1159 said:

That's one book i've always wanted to read but never got around to buying,maybe one day my curiosity'll get me to buy one....

I acquired a copy some years ago from someone who served in BAOR.  It was in German Fraktur script, so was completely unreadable for me, even if I could read German!  It was one of the copies that it was apparently the practise for the Third Reich to give to couples on their wedding day, and the couples names written in and a rubber stamp from, I think, Stuttgart.  An interesting item, which I sold on some time ago.

Edited January 6, 2020 by 593jones

[Pete in Lincs]

20 hours ago, JohnT said:

I was working backwards through this thread

Stupid boy, Pike

[Bullbasket]

Now here's a fact that really pi makes me angry. Why is it that you can sit in front of the TV at night and start to watch a program that you've been looking forward to seeing, only to fall asleep half way through. Really, really struggle to keep your eyes open. And yet, when you go to bed ten minutes later, you spend the next two hours trying in vain to fall asleep. Happens every time. I reckon that it's because some of Marty's alien friends shine blue lights through the window.👽

 

John.

[Beardie]

I have to say that I suffer from the same thing. I can be sitting in the living room and feel myself dropping off and think "Right off to bed" and I will then spend the next six hours or more staring at the ceiling trying to shut down and sleep.

[Harley John]

1 hour ago, Beardie said:

I have to say that I suffer from the same thing. I can be sitting in the living room and feel myself dropping off and think "Right off to bed" and I will then spend the next six hours or more staring at the ceiling trying to shut down and sleep.

Yes I do that as well!

[Pete in Lincs]

I could sell you a slightly used TV for your bedroom?

Personally I read for about 30 minutes and drift off nicely. It's worked for me for at least fifty years!

[dogsbody]

 

2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Now here's a fact that really pi makes me angry. Why is it that you can sit in front of the TV at night and start to watch a program that you've been looking forward to seeing, only to fall asleep half way through. Really, really struggle to keep your eyes open. And yet, when you go to bed ten minutes later, you spend the next two hours trying in vain to fall asleep. Happens every time. I reckon that it's because some of Marty's alien friends shine blue lights through the window.👽

 

John.

 

2 hours ago, Beardie said:

I have to say that I suffer from the same thing. I can be sitting in the living room and feel myself dropping off and think "Right off to bed" and I will then spend the next six hours or more staring at the ceiling trying to shut down and sleep.

 

 

This is the gospel ( not a great word for an ol' heathen like me to use! ) truth, but when I lay down in bed at night, I think about kit assembly, past, present and future and historical what-if's and I'm asleep in minutes. Ask my wife. After over 30 years together, she is still amazed that I can fall asleep so quickly. She is still much less amazed that I can start snoring so quickly, too, not to mention the flatulence!

 

 

 

Chris

[Kiwidave4]

2 hours ago, Bullbasket said:

Now here's a fact that really pi makes me angry. Why is it that you can sit in front of the TV at night and start to watch a program that you've been looking forward to seeing, only to fall asleep half way through. Really, really struggle to keep your eyes open. And yet, when you go to bed ten minutes later, you spend the next two hours trying in vain to fall asleep. Happens every time. I reckon that it's because some of Marty's alien friends shine blue lights through the window.👽

 

John.

 

Me too! Doesn't this tell us more about TV programmes than about sleep patterns?

These days even the 'best' TV shows are so mind numbingly awful that there is no option but to go to sleep while watching them.

[Beardie]

Interesting fact I learned last night from the telly.... The Loch Ness Monster cannot be a 'relic' of the dinosaur era as Loch Ness didn't exist during the same time period as the dinosaurs and is believed to be a mere 10,000 years old and a relic of the ice age. 

 

Personally I am still convinced that Nessie exists however. 

[Admiral Puff]

18 minutes ago, Beardie said:

Personally I am still convinced that Nessie exists however. 

It's just that she's smart enough to avoid contact with humankind whenever and wherever that's possible ...

[hairystick]

On 1/6/2020 at 3:57 AM, 593jones said:

...  It was one of the copies that it was apparently the practise for the Third Reich to give to couples on their wedding day, and the couples names written in and a rubber stamp from, I think, Stuttgart.

I read somewhere that the book was not popular, or sold well at all, up until the time when their power was able to make it required reading in the hitler youth. From then on, sales increased.

[Beardie]

On the subject of sleep I have to say that I have always struggled terribly with it. If I have the telly on I can't sleep as I find myself listening to whatever is on and the flickering light keeps me awake but, if I switch the telly off my brain becomes a damned nuisance. For example, last night I went to bed feeling tired. As soon as I climbed into bed I started puzzling over ideas about the origin of the universe. For starters ,I have a sneaking suspicion that everything began with a single, massless, but incredibly energetic primeval photon(not an atom as such) which contained not only all the energy that we are aware of in the entire universe but also all the energy that, in the early universe, started to coalesce into matter as Space/time came into being. This would be the ultimate low entropy state from which entropy has since increased from and which explains why time has an arrow. This is what I was puzzling over and I was still awake at 6am trying to grasp ideas and explanations that I felt were lurking right at the edge of my consciousness. This is typical of the way my mind decides to wake up when I want to go to sleep!

 

As a very young lad I recall lying awake at night wondering what being dead feels like and where the edges of the box that the universe was inside might be. I think I was born weird!

[dogsbody]

42 minutes ago, Beardie said:

On the subject of sleep I have to say that I have always struggled terribly with it. If I have the telly on I can't sleep as I find myself listening to whatever is on and the flickering light keeps me awake but, if I switch the telly off my brain becomes a damned nuisance. For example, last night I went to bed feeling tired. As soon as I climbed into bed I started puzzling over ideas about the origin of the universe. For starters ,I have a sneaking suspicion that everything began with a single, massless, but incredibly energetic primeval photon(not an atom as such) which contained not only all the energy that we are aware of in the entire universe but also all the energy that, in the early universe, started to coalesce into matter as Space/time came into being. This would be the ultimate low entropy state from which entropy has since increased from and which explains why time has an arrow. This is what I was puzzling over and I was still awake at 6am trying to grasp ideas and explanations that I felt were lurking right at the edge of my consciousness. This is typical of the way my mind decides to wake up when I want to go to sleep!

 

As a very young lad I recall lying awake at night wondering what being dead feels like and where the edges of the box that the universe was inside might be. I think I was born weird!

 

Have you tried this?

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[zebra]

On the subject of sleep, I’ve always had problems getting to sleep, but recently tried listening to sleep stories. I’ve subscribed to an app that has loads of them. They’re all about 30 mins long and I don’t think I’ve heard the end of one yet!

 

Re. odd and interesting facts, I just read that a children’s book called The Book With No Pictures (which does what it says on the tin and has no pictures) spent 34 weeks at the top of the bestseller list for picture books.

[Beardie]

@dogsbody Unfortunately I never found that alcohol had a soporific effect on me and, back in the day, I certainly consumed enough to permanently anaesthetise the average Rhino. Typically I drank gallons until my stomach became so upset that it ejected it all but I never reached the Nirvana that others seemed to find.  I don't drink at all these days as it just don't move me.

 

I envy my wife, who has always been able to literally, and I mean literally, be asleep before her head hits the pillow although, as she suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (amongst other things) these days, she doesn't actually get any benefit from her sleep any more.

[Bullbasket]

7 hours ago, Beardie said:

I think I was born weird!

Anyone want to argue with that? Nope? Thought not!

Seriously though, I've always been a light sleeper, flick the light switch on and I'm awake. Over the past two years though it's got worse. The maximum that I get in a night is 6 hours, and that's usually broken at least once. I personally put it down to my medication, as I'm getting a lot of side effects from the arthritis tablets that I'm on. Seeing my specialist on Friday so hopefully she'll change them.

 

John.

[qn30jEkPz7]

10 hours ago, Beardie said:

On the subject of sleep I have to say that I have always struggled terribly with it. If I have the telly on I can't sleep as I find myself listening to whatever is on and the flickering light keeps me awake but, if I switch the telly off my brain becomes a damned nuisance. For example, last night I went to bed feeling tired. As soon as I climbed into bed I started puzzling over ideas about the origin of the universe. For starters ,I have a sneaking suspicion that everything began with a single, massless, but incredibly energetic primeval photon(not an atom as such) which contained not only all the energy that we are aware of in the entire universe but also all the energy that, in the early universe, started to coalesce into matter as Space/time came into being. This would be the ultimate low entropy state from which entropy has since increased from and which explains why time has an arrow. This is what I was puzzling over and I was still awake at 6am trying to grasp ideas and explanations that I felt were lurking right at the edge of my consciousness. This is typical of the way my mind decides to wake up when I want to go to sleep!

 

As a very young lad I recall lying awake at night wondering what being dead feels like and where the edges of the box that the universe was inside might be. I think I was born weird!

I fall asleep easily at home but if I’m away and sleeping on my tod I have more difficulty. I often listen to something like the “In our time” or “99% Invisible” podcasts and they give me something to follow that isn’t my own brain burblings. Can heartily recommend the episodes on the Kuiper belt, the Earth’s core as good big ideas late in the night (& a potent source of interesting facts)

[Gorby]

On 07/01/2020 at 16:27, Bullbasket said:

you spend the next two hours trying in vain to fall asleep

 

On 07/01/2020 at 16:41, Beardie said:

I will then spend the next six hours or more staring at the ceiling trying to shut down and sleep.

I used to have the same problem of not being able to turn my brain off when trying to get off to sleep. I rarely have a problem now due to a trick I do every night.

After relaxing as much as possible, I replay a story or event in my head. It's important that it should be something that's quite neutral – nothing contentious or exhilarating, fortunately my life has given me a multitude of dreary stories to draw upon. The most important thing is that is should be the same story, related in the same way every night. It changes the focus of you thoughts and as the story progresses, it bores your brain to sleep. It may take a few nights to start working as I think that it's the repetitive monotony that makes it so effective.

I've been using this method for years and most of the people I've mentioned it to, and who have then tried it, have also said it's worked for them. For some reason it doesn't work for me if I wake up in the early hours of the morning as I often do, but at least it means I get some decent sleep at the start of the night.