Little know facts

[Mich the Tester]

Fact. Barnes Wallis did not invent the bouncing bomb. He got the idea from his assistant Tom Scheital who had German ancestry

...and whose name means 'tulip all' in the dialect of lower Saxony, but 'dividing valley' or Valley of the Schei in other German dialiects, I think.

[EternalOptimist]

damn that tester

[Mich the Tester]

damn that tester

Testers are trained to spot inconsistencies and then saddle someone else with the consequences. Oh bloody hell, I've used a horsey word again.

[EternalOptimist]

One pile of horse droppings contains more bacteria than there are grains of sand on every beach in Europe

[Amiga500]

To keep alive in the wild, a pigeon needs to keep its eyes open for predators. Having eyes on the side of its head gives it a field of view of 340 degrees and, in order to fly at speed, its brain can process visual information three times faster than a human’s.

If a pigeon watched a feature film, 24 frames per second would appear to it like a slide presentation.

They would need at least 75 frames per second to create the illusion of movement on screen. (This is why pigeons seem to leave it until the very last second to fly out of the way of an oncoming car: it appears much less fast to them.)

Our world moves in slow motion to pigeons.

[Mich the Tester]

One pile of horse droppings contains more bacteria than there are grains of sand on every beach in Europe

How big is the pile of horseshytte? Is this a standard on the trot turd or a really big morning ablution? Is it perhaps a large heap stored by a market gardener for the improvement of his soil? Specifications please.

[EternalOptimist]

How big is the pile of horseshytte? Is this a standard on the trot turd or a really big morning ablution? Is it perhaps a large heap stored by a market gardener for the improvement of his soil? Specifications please.

immaterial.
A small dollop - assume that the tide is in
A larger heap - assume that the tide is out
the full steaming Gordon - assume a tsunami is about to hit

[Amiga500]

The bouncing bomb was such (British) genius:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3ohMEZ-d3I

[ace00]

This factoid is so interesting it really deserves its own thread.

Caravaggio used 'photography' to create dramatic masterpieces

The 16th century master used modern darkroom techniques to create his masterpieces, more than 200 years before the invention of the camera.


Actually it's in the Telegraph.
Part of the fixing agent was mercury and this also explains why he was apparently a bit crazy.

[NotAllThere]

This factoid is so interesting it really deserves its own thread....

No. It doesn't. Really.