random fact game

[matie-k]

Smartie pants!

I didn't know that....obviously!

I'm about to go get myself a cuppa something hot to drink.

[Timothy]

Well, I didn't know that! Ha!

Did you know that the "K" in KDE (K Desktop Environment) doesn't stand for anything? Unlike GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment), KDE is designed only for Linux, yet it starts with a "K"??? Why? Because K is the letter before "L" for Linux.

[5dumplings@home]

Um, I didn't know that and I'm still unclear on the concept...

My husband repairs semi-conductor equipment, though.

[tired]

didn't know that

A desert snail can sleep for 3 years.

[Timothy]

I didn't know that.

Baby kangaroos are only about 19mm long. At that length they are capable of finding mum's milk and having a good old drink.

[matie-k]

I didn't know that, and it's pretty amazing!

We're having company tonight. :eek

[DaveW]

When the Me262 was first displayed to the German officials in WW2 the amazed officials after seeing the small single winged aircraft scream past at over 400mph asked "What engine is installed?" (In german of course! )

the answer was "None, herr General"!

The Komet was without an engine and performed this feat after being towed up to altitude behind a bomber, then released to glide down at high speed. The speed was due entirely to it's unique design.

Bet you didn't think you get a fact as random as that! :wink

[Timothy]

I didn't know that. That's because the Messerschmitt Me 163 was called the "Komet" while the Messerschmitt Me 262 was called "Schwalb" or "Swallow".

While we are on the subject... The ME 163 Komet (or Comet, for the spelling checker--happy now?) had to crash land at the end of every mission (as they always did because they didn't have a fixed landing gear of any kind). and the pilot had to be VERY careful because if he damaged the aircraft so that it ruptured the fuel tanks, he could die a horrible death by being disolved by the hypergolic fuel?

[DaveW]

Of course you are right - it was the 163 - I was pushed into putting in a random fact by my wife and son because my head is full of all sorts of useless rubbish, and it was all I could think of on short notice.

C-stoff and T-stoff were the two chemicals used in the fuel and to emphasise the point of the danger to the pilots, they would drop a single drop of one into a small dish of the other - and the dish would be destroyed in a blinding flash.

The wheels used for tak-off were a trolley that was jettisonned on take-off and a small sprung skid was lowered for landing - but anythin less than feather light would often cause the remaining fuel to splash together in the chamber with a subsequent blinding flash similar but much larger than the one used in the initial display!

The 262 was first flown with a DB 600 in the nose, and tail dragging landing gear.

[DaveW]

Just back from prayer meeting Timothy?

We are just about to leave - but no prayer meeting this week as we are in the middle of a week of meetings.

That will have to do for my random fact in this post! :lol:

[Timothy]

Nah, I didn't know that!

Or is that... "no I didn't know that" (as interpretation for foreigners :frog)

I certainly wouldn't fly a ME 163! Ha ha!

Did you know that Debian Etch comes with over 18,000 software packages ready to install and use royalty free? (even though I counted over 23,000)

[5dumplings@home]

I think it's obvious by now that I didn't know that and continue to remain unsure of the concept.

Did you know that General Irwin Rommel took poison offered him by the 3rd Reich because he wasn't a team player?

[HappyChristian]

I didn't know that.

Zvi was an Aryan looking Polish Jew who made it through the Holocaust by using his wits...and is now a Christian, living in Jerusalem (has since before 1948) trying to win the Orthodox to the Messiah.

[Timothy]

No, I didn't know that.

Just curious... but is the goal of this game to state facts that no one has ever known? I'm TRYING to state something that someone might know at the same time being random about it.

OK, you PROBABLY know that echidnas ate Australian ant-eating, egg laying mammals. They give their unborn young milk. The question: Did you know that the echidna doesn't have milk nipples, but milk "patches". That's right! bub has to suck the tummy to get a feed :wink

[DaveW]

Ooooooohhh - to stay on this topic for just a moment - the other animal that is "closely related" - the only other monotreme (egg-laying, milk feeding mammal) is the Platypus!

And the example that is in the London Museum has marks around the "beak" where the museum officials tried to find the stitching - they were convinced it was a made up creature and wanted to find the stitching where the "duck like bill" had been sewn onto the "beaver like body".

They certainly are a strange but cute little creature, and the fact that they and the Echidna are the only egg-laying milk feeding mammals is confusing to evolutionist who can't explain how they are "related" while being so incredibiliy dissimilar!