Did You Know...

Did you know that the building in London at 112 Bishopsgate known as The Gherkin is 12 inches taller in summer than in winter and that the more people there are within it the wider it gets in the middle,

I didn't know that. I imagine most large buildings would shrink and expand with changing temperatures, but I didn't think it would be quite that discernable.

Meanwhile, did ya'll know that there is such a sport as Chess Boxing?

It starts with four minutes of chess played without a great deal of study alternated with three minutes of boxing and continues for eleven rounds unless there is a checkmate or a knockout in which of course the one who checkmates the other or knocks him out wins.

If it was Bobby Fischer vs Mike Tyson, who would you have put your money on?

This, purportedly, was an exam question. The answer is "a long way." To the sun and even further away stars. According to the professor, a large number of students thought that vision works by sending out rays from the eyes rather than absorbing light from distant objects.

I googled in Chess Boxing. Amazing! Some videos.

Now that I know this, I really wish I didn't.

The eskimos (Inuit) say all polar bears are lefthanded.

I knew that.

(I think.)

Euclid thought that and invented geometry from the idea.

Did you know that the song "Nothing compares to you", made famous by Sinead O'Connor is actually written by Prince?

And did you also know that his version of the song is 9 hundred times better?

Same with Manic Monday by the Bangles

Did ya'll know that there is a whole new adventure called "Geocaching"? People all over the USA, and presumably the world, are hiding little treasures (usually inexpensive souvenir type stuff) in obscure places and then email the coordinates into a central Geocache website. Then others pull off a map of such treasures in a general area and use their GPS to locate them. It is considered good form to hide a treasure for each one found. My daughter likes to do this on weekends.

Another similar activity is exploring the world via Google Earth looking for strange and hidden phenomenon. (Hubby likes to do that.) Findings are as strange as this completely natural phenomenon I think in Alberta Canada that was only noted after somebody zeroed in on it with Google earth. I especially like the earphones.

Did you know that ... in several Westphalian towns some insightful mayors opened the local destilleries and gave two bottles of schnaps to their citizens (three for soldiers) ... some hours/two days before the Allied troops arrived in March/April 1945, thus stopping "defence fighting" with very 'human methods'?



Photo (private archive W. Kottrup) from April 1, 1945, Warendorf

interesting stuff..I'm sure no amount of schnapps could have calmed the citizens of Frankfurt waiting for the arrival of the Russians

Actually, most civilians had been evacuated from Frankfurt/Oder in early February 1945. Before that, the citizens had to give ... clohtes and din't get anything.
[Frankfurt/Main was occupied by American troops in March 1945.]

Interesting that the German "Schnaps" got another 'p' in English - but that "Hannover" lost its second 'n'.

Walter, You'll have to explain the "Frankfurt/Main" to the uninitiated. I learned about this some decades ago on my trip to Frankfurt.

I just now realized I should have written Frankfurt/Oder

Coinciding with the release of a new documentary on Amelia Earhart...
Back in July, 1937, a 15 year old girl named Betty Brown was listening to her dad's short wave radio. She was writing down song lyrics. She moved the dial a bit and claims that, for 3 hours, she heard Earhart begging for help after she and her navigator had crashed on an island. Ms Brown made notes of what she allegedly heard. And then the signal faded out.
She says she notified authorities days later but, perhaps because she was a 15 year old girl, no one took her seriously. Her notes got put away.
Interestingly, an adult Ms Brown went on to get various pilot's licenses. She is now 88 years old.
The notes came to the attention of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery a few years ago. They have been to, and will soon be going back to an island called Nikumaro. They have found fragments of stuff like zippers and buttons that appear to be of American origin. So far, though, nothing that can link Earhart to that small, donut shaped island with a big lagoon in the middle.
That organization is looking for participants in the next trip. Two folks, but you have to pay to play.

You should see what we did to Koln. And sorry about the missing umlaut.

Recently The New Yorker had an article about Earhart. She was a complex and fascinating woman