Kavey

Yep, horribly wrong <BR> <BR>I forget that this stupid editor thing always removed blank spaces at the beginning of a line when the post is posted

Ursula

Oh, Kavey, thanks for that cute picture. I am enjoying the very last day without my boss at the office. Hard life will be back on Monday! <BR> <BR> @---&gt;-&gt;-&gt;-&gt;- <BR> <BR>.. a little flower for you!

acanuck

Tongue in cheek from a Canadian - <BR>- when you arrive at the Canadian border, it doesn't start snowing <BR>- we don't live in igloos it's actually hot here in the summer <BR>- wild bears and moose don't roam our streets <BR>- we are not a "state" <BR>- we are not all hunters and fishermen <BR>- we don't speak "Canadian" - two languages are English and French (well, except for "eh"!) <BR>- we're not all Mounties <BR>- we're not all draft dodgers <BR>- We really like our neighbours to the south! <BR> <BR> <BR>- Toronto is not the capital of Canada (Ottawa is) <BR>

Canadian

Yeah, right a canuck. Do we look that stupid? And remember, we have ways of making you pronounce the letter "o"!

ilisa

The toilet on the space shuttle can flush up to five times per hour (learned that a long time ago, but thought I would share).

anon,too

I learned that 28% of all human hair is in India. (Women don't cut their hair.) Rural woman have always washed their hair with soap because (1) they have always done it that way and (2) rural women don't want to shell out dear money for shampoo. Thus, even with all this rural hair waiting to be marketed to, the Lever soap corporation was having a devil of a time selling their shampoo. However, now Lever has come up with a bar soap product they call Lever 2 in 1, which not only cleanses the body but cleanses the hair more effectively than regular bar soap. The Lever 2 in 1 bar soap is a big seller. I wonder if it works well and I wonder about shampoo and conditioner all over the world.

Capo

anon, too: interesting that you mention that. I saw a show on TV on India about a year ago which showed how Lever goes about marketing its products, specifically that 2-in-1 bar soap, in small villages in India. <BR> <BR>On a different note, I just got the new National Geographic and learned about the Chauvet Cave, in the Ardèche region of south-central France. <BR> <BR>Whereas the images in Spain's Altamira are 17,000 years old, and those in France's Lascaux are 20,000 years old, the art in the Chauvet Cave (discovered only in 1994) is 35,000 years old. <BR> <BR>http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/...0010801.6.html

Escritora

Here's my favorite dead President trivia: <BR> <BR>James Garfield, our second assassinated President, was not wounded fatally. An operation could have saved him if the doctors had known the location of the bullet. Alexander Graham Bell had invented a metal detector, and though it worked properly, it failed to locate the bullet. Why? Because it was run over Garfield's body as he lay on a mattress with metal springs! Garfield died of infections caused by the wound about three months after the shooting.

Spider

I learned that if I eat Fritos at my desk the person next to me gets irritated.

mutant

Spider, if there's enough StarLink in your Fritos, it won't just be your office mate that gets irritated, it'll be your grandkids.

thingsIlearnedtoday

Man who run in front of car get tired. Man who run behind car get exhausted. <BR> <BR>Man with one chopstick go hungry. <BR> <BR>Man who farts in church sits in own pew. <BR> <BR>Passionate kiss, like spider's web, soon lead to undoing of fly. <BR> <BR>Crowded elevator smells different to midget. <BR>

Spider

Thanks for the warning Mutant, but genetically mutated grandchildren will not be a problem for me (I'll just say that the Boy Scouts don't like my kind). <BR> <BR>

Ginger

OK, I'll keep it travel related, having looked in my very entertaining diary I discovered that tomorrow is the anniversary of the very first American Express travel cheque being cashed - this momentous event occurred in 1891! Wonder if they'll have a party or give out free tours! <BR> <BR>But, who can tell me what Dom Perignon did today (Aug 4) in 1693?? <BR> <BR>or what happened in Turkey (tomorrow) in 1924??? <BR> <BR>or even what happened to The Nile on Aug 3 in 1858???? <BR> <BR>

Kavey

Ursula <BR> <BR>Keeeewte!!! <BR> <BR>Have spent the whole weekend having my 12 year old niece to visit and have enjoyed spoiling her thoroughly as is the privilege of all childless Aunties! <BR> <BR>I found that quite a nice way of switching off from the stresses (and occasional boredoms) of work before the coming week!!! <BR> <BR>Kavey

nancy

Hi Kavey, <BR>so you are one of those marvelous persons, the "childless auntie"! <BR>My close friend Ellen, who joined my children and I in Italy, is one also. <BR>And I do not know what we would do without her ! <BR>(even though she lives 400 miles away) <BR>not only was she brave enough to spend 8 days in italy with my children, but next week we are driving down to Delaware for 4 days, and she has allowed the children to invite a friend each! <BR>that makes 4 children in a childless house. <BR>The children adore her, and so do their friends. <BR> <BR>I bet you are a great auntie, and your sibling is lucky to have you. <BR> <BR> The Sport of Ultimate Frisbee: <BR>What I learned today was that my old highschool , in Maplewood , N.J was where the sport <BR>Ultimate Frisbee originated, in 1967. <BR>Gee, I went to school there in 1968, and I bet if I had gone to school and ever actually spent any time AT the school, I would have learned this, instead of getting it off the web. <BR> <BR> <BR>

Lessonlearned

Well, on Friday, I learned a very important lesson. <BR> <BR>If you're male friend says, "That movie you just rented is porn." <BR> <BR>Don't smugly answer, "Well, of course it isn't porn ... Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell, and John Gielgud wouldn't be in a porn movie. Besides, it's about a Roman Emperor." <BR> <BR>Instead, just assume that your male friend knows the genre and rent a different movie.

Anonymous

I just learned that Canada created a new province in 1999 -- the territory of Nunavut. Did I hear about this in 1999 and just forget? Or was it not given much coverage? Anyone know the history of the creation of Nunavut?

Mr. Go

Dear Anonymous: <BR>No. I know Nunovit.

Thyra

Lesson learned...Oh you rented Caligula huh? Actually that movie has an interesting history. <BR>It was originally supposed to be one of those really super-large technicolor costume dramas... that's how they got those big names to be in it. Half way through filming the production company ran out of money and I believe Bob Guccioni (of Penthouse) took over financing. Thats why you have these sort of art/acting/semi-nude stuff shot with high quality film and Peter O'Tool then you'll get a grainy...um..porno scene with unknown porno actresses...not exactly travel but interesting. <BR>Did anyone happen to see the National Geographic special on India's trains. <BR>Made me want to pile out to India, but it's very expensive to get there from here.

the horse's mouth

from a friend who got it from her uncle who didn't say where he got it.... <BR>A TALE OF A HORSE'S ASS <BR> The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads. Why did the English people build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad <BR>tramways, and that's the gauge they used. Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. Okay! Why did the wagons use that odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing the wagons would break on some of the old, long distance roads, because that's the spacing of the old wheel ruts. So who built these old rutted roads? Imperial Rome for the benefit of their legions built the first long distance roads in Europe. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts? Roman war chariots first made the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagons. Since the chariots <BR>were made for or by Imperial Rome they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Thus, we have the answer to the original question. The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman army war chariot. Specs and Bureaucracies live forever. So, the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horses ass came up with it, you may be exactly right. Because the Imperial Roman chariots were made to be just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war-horses. <BR> <BR> Now the twist to the story... There's an interesting extension of the story about railroad gauge and horses' behinds. When we see a Space Shuttle sitting on the launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. Thiokol makes the SRBs at a factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line to the factory runs through a tunnel in the mountains.The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than a railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So a major design parameter of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined by the ancient Romans, based on the width of a horse's ass. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>