V6Ga
V6Ga t1_j2doeto wrote
Reply to TIL John Steinbeck IV wrote an article in January 1968 about marijuana usage among the troops. This set off a media firestorm, & the Army began clamping down on marijuana usage, arresting ~1000 G.I.s a week for possession. Many G.I.s switched to heroin, which was odorless and thus harder to detect. by The_Critical_Cynic
And later when they tested for both those, everyone switched to LSD.
V6Ga t1_iykd36q wrote
Reply to comment by boysan98 in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
Do you know how the gauge helps with terrain?
(Japan might be the only industrial nation that has no need to standardize train gauge with another country, being an island nation.)
V6Ga t1_iykcupk wrote
Reply to comment by DownwindLegday in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
They would lose defense advantage in having dissimilar gauges.
As noted the Nazis were stopped, in part, by the not being able to use trains in Russia.
V6Ga t1_iykcn3p wrote
Reply to comment by InfernalCorg in TIL that the southern United States converted all 11,500+ miles of its railroads from broad gauge (5 ft/1.524 m) to nearly-standard gauge (4 ft 9 in/1.448 m) in just 36 hours, starting on May 31, 1886 by 1859
Bogies are swapped on trains pretty regularly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nI467sc-Eo
Add the proven defense advantage in not having a common gauge, and no one is going to standardize rail.
V6Ga t1_iyeo04a wrote
Reply to TIL about the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that killed an estimated 224,000 people. It is not even not even in the top 10 for deadliest natural disasters in history. by ProfoundPenguin
The link you provided contains nothing about not being in the top 10 for natural disasters.
This Wikipedia links, however, does:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
And it shows it is right in line with the earthquake death tolls.
There is some decent rationale to exclude modern floods from being natural disasters as, the floods are usually caused by a failure of a man-made dam or canal system, and not by the floods by themselves.
And all of these are overwhelmed by pandemics, several of which have killed a serious percentage of the worldwide population. The Black Death killed 17- 54% of of the entire human population, Plague of Justinian 7-56% of the world population, and the Spanish Flu killed as much as 5% of the world population, and managed to spread to every continent and all populated islands, killing people everywhere in the world except Samoa.
V6Ga t1_ixrdm51 wrote
Reply to comment by Throwdaway543210 in TIL about the Nauruan Civil War. It went on for 10 years, killed more than 1/3 of the population and ended when the German's intervened. Shortly afterwards, it was annexed by Germany. by New_Blacksmith_115
That's amazing that I read and re-read what you wrote, and never caught the spelling error.
V6Ga t1_ixrcsd4 wrote
Reply to comment by drpinkcream in TIL the first media report about the shift from lighters to the cellphone was a U2 concert in Chicago in 2005. by PlasterBaby
I always thought that holding up lighters thing was a movie thing.
People really did that? That's weird. But then again so is taking videos of things that are happening instead of actually watching what it happening.
V6Ga t1_ixqnjge wrote
Reply to comment by Throwdaway543210 in TIL about the Nauruan Civil War. It went on for 10 years, killed more than 1/3 of the population and ended when the German's intervened. Shortly afterwards, it was annexed by Germany. by New_Blacksmith_115
> Someone go in and correct the article where it says: > > After World War II, Nauru became a United Nations trust terriory
What needs correcting about it?
V6Ga t1_ixql4ix wrote
Reply to TIL the first media report about the shift from lighters to the cellphone was a U2 concert in Chicago in 2005. by PlasterBaby
Anyone one want to ELI5 this for the slow kids in the back of the class?
V6Ga t1_ixdpcrw wrote
Reply to comment by Murderyoga in TIL that the Ishmael books by Daniel Quinn inspired Morgan Freeman's involvement with nature documentaries. by J_S_M_K
Full fathom five thy father lies.
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Nothing of him that doth fade
But that suffers a sea change.
Into something rich and strange
And I alone am left to tell the tale
Call me Ishmael
V6Ga t1_ix70q7d wrote
Reply to comment by jwill602 in TIL a type of film first produced in 1912 is still in production today. by rgrwilcocanuhearme
It's the cartridge roll film format which is the same, not the film itself.
V6Ga t1_ix6zjok wrote
Reply to TIL that Lorenzo Music, the famous voice of Garfield, was a frequent volunteer for a suicide hotline, and was occasionally recognized by callers as sounding "just like that cat from TV". by A_Real_Standup_Guy
I freaking love that picture of him and his wife.
Happy domesticity.
V6Ga t1_ix1npzy wrote
Reply to TIL in response to infamously high suicide rates at Mapo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea, the bridge was adorned with suicide prevention messages and uplifting photos. These measures weren't enacted by the government, however, instead the entire project was financed by Samsung's life insurance division by evilclownattack
:I wonder if there is a useful, or functional, distinction between Samsung and the South Korean government.
Link to relevant post with relevantness:
V6Ga t1_iugd3vt wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL When soul legend Wilson Picket recorded his iconic version of "Mustang Sally," he & his band rushed to hear the playback. The tape machine broke, cutting the tape into 30-40 tiny pieces. The engineer Tom Dowd carefully spliced them all back together, & that's the famous album version by wowbobwow
I am not saying it is true in this case, but when the tape snaps the tension from the supply reel slaps the end pretty quickly on the the take-up reel, or vice versa.
I did recording for my stuff on a reel to reel, and scrambling to get to the stop button before the tape slapped itself apart was just a thing you had to do, with old tape.
It is not that the plastic backing fails repeatedly, but that oxide gets slapped off the backing as the reel slaps the broken end on the other reel.
30-40 bits of oxide falling off is entirely reasonable.
I cannot imaging you could actually get it back into playable shape though.
V6Ga t1_ishyhba wrote
Reply to comment by Antares30 in TIL: Sperms were thought to move by wiggling their tails side-to-side, like eels, for 350 years. But research shows that they roll as they move forward like a spinning top. by vect77
I tried to sing this to the Beastie Boys song, but could not make it work.
V6Ga t1_ishyaiz wrote
Reply to TIL: Sperms were thought to move by wiggling their tails side-to-side, like eels, for 350 years. But research shows that they roll as they move forward like a spinning top. by vect77
Interestingly the tails only wiggle to one side, and the apparent back and forth motion is from seeing a 3d motion in a 2d plane.
V6Ga t1_j2dokg2 wrote
Reply to comment by doc_strange82 in TIL John Steinbeck IV wrote an article in January 1968 about marijuana usage among the troops. This set off a media firestorm, & the Army began clamping down on marijuana usage, arresting ~1000 G.I.s a week for possession. Many G.I.s switched to heroin, which was odorless and thus harder to detect. by The_Critical_Cynic
Mother's milk is the ultimate gateway drug:
Every heroin addict who ever lived started on milk.