Factoids

[threegee]

The Royal Mail uses 342 million rubber bands a year to bundle up letters. It has switched to using red bands so that they can be more easily seen when dropped.

Comment: This isn't working, but only 1 million of the 342 million end up on the ground outside of my door.

[onilkleymoorbaht]

Here's an interesting fact: believe it or not, there are parts of Kaiser Bill's Grand Fleet on the moon!

Here's how:

It's the end of WWI. The German Fleet is being held at Scapa Flow. Weeks pass and the Commanding Officer of the Fleet begins to suspect that Britain is not going to let Germany keep their ships. One night he sends a coded message to each of his captains and together they scupper the entire fleet.

In 1945. America explodes two nuclear weapons above mainland Japan. This results in a vast amounts of radiation being spread through out the atmosphere. Now making steel uses huge amounts of atmospheric oxygen which is now contaminated with radiation. Every single bit of steel made post Nagasaki has loads of radio activity in it.

1967: America is on it's way to the moon....they are going to conduct a lot of radioactivty sensitive experiments. But hold on! we need non radioactive steel ... otherwise the experiments won't work! where on earth can we get loads of non radioactive steel?

"Hello! Scapa Flow? this is Houston, we understand you have an awful lot of non radioactive steel just a few feet under water?"

And so it was that several ships of The Grand Fleet were bought to the surface and made their way to the US where their metal was used to make all of the experiments the Apollo mission deployed on the Moon.

Another marvellous thing? the same ship's metal was used to make the 2 pioneer probes which have now both left the Solar System and are drifting off gently into the universe. The furthest any World War One battle ships have ever travelled!

[Hamburger Pimp]

Here's an interesting fact: believe it or not, there are parts of Kaiser Bill's Grand Fleet on the moon!

I'll choose "Not" then.

[onilkleymoorbaht]

I'll choose "Not" then.

That's your choice, but it's true!

[Hamburger Pimp]

Do you have a source for this rather tall tale?

[onilkleymoorbaht]

Do you have a source for this rather tall tale?

The Grand Scuttle: The Sinking of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1982.

EDIT: Here's a fairly well sourced on-line reference http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/jralston/rk/s...y/backgrnd.html

There are also samples from the Fleet at the N.P.L. which are used to calibrate gieger counters.

Also ...

The scrapman who bought the Fleet for a pittance in the 1920's pioneered many of the standard salvage techniques which are still used to-day.

[Sw@lnalla]

I believe it, even old U boats scuttled by the Germans have been salvaged.

"All steel made since the detonation of the first atom bomb in 1945 has contained tiny amounts of radioactivity. This is because the atmosphere now contains trace amounts of radioactivity. The steelmaking process involves the use of large amounts of air, which transfers the radioactivity to the steel. Instruments and equipment used for measuring radioactivity must be free from extra background radiation, so post-1945 "new" steel cannot be used for these purposes. Instead, pre-1945 "clean" steel is used. The steel is obtained from the scrapping of pre-1945 ships, and a considerable amount has been obtained from the German ships scuttled in Scapa Flow at the end of WWI. Obviously, steel obtained from these relatively limited sources is much more valuable than normal steel. The existing sources for "clean" steel have mostly dried up, so the salvage of the U-Boats is economically justifiable now. The submarines will not be melted down after salvage, rather, plates cut from the hulls will be used in their current form."

http://www.hazegray.org/faq/smn7.htm

[Hamburger Pimp]

Hmm. I'll allow that steel has been recovered from WWI battleships.

The stuff about radioactivity rings a bit untrue, though. Radioactivity wasn't created in 1945, it's always been there.

Even if it is true, there's still no link to materials used on moon landings.

Still, if it turns out to be true, there'll be a fulsome apology waiting for you.

[Sw@lnalla]

Hmm. I'll allow that steel has been recovered from WWI battleships.

The stuff about radioactivity rings a bit untrue, though. Radioactivity wasn't created in 1945, it's always been there

You are so right CK, radioactivity has always been there as you say.

"The chemical element krypton, whose principal source is the atmosphere, had a long-lived radioactive content, in the mid-1940s, of less than 5 dpm per liter of krypton. In the late 1940s, this content had risen to values in the range of 100 dpm per liter. It is now some hundred times higher than the late 1940 values. This radioactivity is the result of the dissolving of nuclear fuel for military and civilian purposes, and the release thereby of the fission product krypton-85 (half-life = 10.71 years, fission yield = 0.2%). The present largest emitter of krypton-85 is the French reprocessing plant at Cap-de-la-Hague."

[Pencil_Neck]

You are so right CK, radioactivity has always been there as you say.

"The chemical element krypton, whose principal source is the atmosphere, had a long-lived radioactive content, in the mid-1940s, of less than 5 dpm per liter of krypton. In the late 1940s, this content had risen to values in the range of 100 dpm per liter. It is now some hundred times higher than the late 1940 values. This radioactivity is the result of the dissolving of nuclear fuel for military and civilian purposes, and the release thereby of the fission product krypton-85 (half-life = 10.71 years, fission yield = 0.2%). The present largest emitter of krypton-85 is the French reprocessing plant at Cap-de-la-Hague."

Aye, look you so-called chemist or should I say comic boy, everyone knows krypton is supermans weakness green rock......tsk

[Denzel]

Nuclear fusion, hot topic.

[onilkleymoorbaht]

Nuclear fusion, hot topic.

cold topic, surely

[Sw@lnalla]

**********

[Denzel]

cold topic, surely

Looked bliddy warm in 'The China Syndrome'.

[Dave]

this thread needs ressurecting . i think its alot more interesting than stuff posted recently , i intend to use this factoid in conversation later .Anymore factoids?

[Denzel]

this thread needs ressurecting . i think its alot more interesting than stuff posted recently , i intend to use this factoid in conversation later .Anymore factoids?

A McDonalds burger bun is topped with an average of 198 sesame seeds.

[Hamburger Pimp]

The Fonz's motorbike in "Happy Days" was the one that Steve McQueen rode in "The Great Escape".

That's a fact, Jack.

[Ms Hair]

All the guards in the Vatican are swiss.

[Dave]

coka cola used to have real cocaine in it ... not like these days

[Joe Rooney]

coka cola used to have real cocaine in it ... not like these days

Seventy percent of kitchens in North America have a "Junk drawer"!

[Hamburger Pimp]

All the guards in the Vatican are swiss.

Four - two!

[Pete]

Seventy percent of kitchens in North America have a "Junk drawer"!

One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year

[Hamburger Pimp]

The banana is not a fruit, it's a herb.

[Sw@lnalla]

90% of men don't wash their hands after a visit to the loo (yuk), women are only 50%

[Mr Darn]

90% of men don't wash their hands after a visit to the loo (yuk), women are only 50%

73.4% of statistics are made up on the spot without any investigation into what they refer to.