Stuff you didn't know and probably don't care about

[GagHalfrunt]

There is a death metal band fronted by a parrot. Yes, it's real. And they're not any worse than most other death metal bands.

I bring you the glory of Hatebeak!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwXKR9EWhXo

 

[shortylickens]

Ethan Hawke is a fairly successful author:


https://www.amazon.com/Ethan-Hawke/e/B000AQ6YAE/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

 

[John Connor]

From a Snapple bottle cap. " It is illegal in North Carolina to sing out of key."

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I like factoids about old brands. Like the following:

The Chef Boyardee brand was the brainchild of Chef Boiardi, a New York chef who opened the Chef Boyardee company in the 1920's. During WWII his company was called upon by the U.S. government to assist war efforts by producing rations for the U.S. military, many of which look like the canned pasta products we still have around today. At one point the company was the largest importer of parmesan cheese in the U.S., as well as one of the largest importers of olive oil.

Many people know that the Coca Cola recipe once had cocaine in it. But fewer know that soda pop (or soft drinks) were originally developed in pharmacies for the express purpose of making medicine taste better. As a result, many early soda recipes included artificial and/or natural pharmaceuticals. One example (other than Coca Cola) is 7-UP, which included lithium citrate until 1950 and was administered to patients for its "mood stabilizing qualities."

Another fun brand factoid concerns the development of modern day charcoal briquettes. In the 1920's many Ford cars included a substantial number of wooden parts. As a result, a tremendous amount of wood scrap was generated by Ford manufacturing plants. After learning of a process to turn wood scraps in to charcoal, Henry ford decided to open a charcoal plant that would utilize the woodscraps from his car manufacturing plants (a relatively early form of horizontal integration). E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Henry ford, brokered the selection of the site for Ford's Charcoal plant, and eventually the plant (and company) were renamed "Kingsford" in E.G., honor. The relationship between Ford and Kingsford can be seen by comparing their two logos, which are quite close.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

 

[John Connor]

Well how be damned. I never new that about Ford and Kingsford. Thanks for sharing!

 

[John Connor]

The atomic bomb.

 

[Charmonium]

2/3's of all 100 dollar bills circulate OUTSIDE of the US.

Have you ever noticed that you don't see $100 bills very frequently? This is because only about a third of $100 bills in circulation are held by people in the United States. High demand for U.S. currency in the world economy has caused a large number of $100 bills to circulate in other countries. The demand for U.S. currency overseas has been growing steadily since the 1990's. Foreign companies often prefer to do their business transactions in U.S. dollars and many individuals prefer U.S. currency for their savings.

More about the U.S. economy:

• Founding Father Benjamin Franklin appeared on the $100 bill for the first time in 1914.
  
• As of 2015, the United States has an annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 2.4%.
  
• As of 2015, the median household income in the United States is $55,775 USD.

http://www.wisegeek.com/why-dont-i-see-100-bills-very-often.htm

 

[IronWing]

The US maintains the largest gold hoard in the world with 8100 tons of gold.

http://www.profitconfidential.com/gold/top-10-countries-highest-gold-reserves/

 

[Carson Dyle]

The US maintains the largest gold hoard in the world with 8100 tons of gold.

However, per capita, it looks like this:

 

[Charmonium]

Lebanon is a shocker. Portugal is kind of surprising as well given their debt situation.

 

[lxskllr]

Lebanon is a shocker. Portugal is kind of surprising as well given their debt situation.

I'd have thought India would have made the list. It was my understanding the women collected gold jewelry as a sort of savings account that would be theirs alone, as opposed to husband's property

edit:
Maybe privately held gold isn't accounted for in that chart.

 

[highland145]

However, per capita, it looks like this:
]

And in reality, it looks like this because congress already spent that gold a long time ago.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I want my 3/4 of an ounce delivered now!!

 

[Imp]

The atomic bomb.

I'm probably going to end up on an FBI watch list... but it's hilarious how you can dumb atomic bombs down to squashing some nuclear material -- from what I've read from Wikipedia. The screenshot on that YouTube video looks like the squash it from every direction method. Other one is squash it at the end of a pipe barrel by firing a bullet at it.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I'm probably going to end up on an FBI watch list... but it's hilarious how you can dumb atomic bombs down to squashing some nuclear material -- from what I've read from Wikipedia. The screenshot on that YouTube video looks like the squash it from every direction method. Other one is squash it at the end of a pipe barrel by firing a bullet at it.

Tom Clancy had a line in one of his books about that. Something to the effect that building the first atomic bomb took the combined efforts of thousands of the greatest scientists the world has ever seen and now it can be done by a couple of decent machinists if they have enough fissionable material. As long as you shape the implosion charges right and get them to fire simultaneously it's going to work.

 

[Charmonium]

Tom Clancy had a line in one of his books about that. Something to the effect that building the first atomic bomb took the combined efforts of thousands of the greatest scientists the world has ever seen and now it can be done by a couple of decent machinists if they have enough fissionable material. As long as you shape the implosion charges right and get them to fire simultaneously it's going to work.

I think getting the geometry of the shock wave is trickier than they let on. Otherwise NoKo would be a lot further along in development than they seem to be. It was just a couple years ago that they had a partial dud iirc.

If they mean you can get a partial detonation, then yeah, maybe. But that's going to be a tiny fraction of the the output you'd get from a proper explosion.

Also the timing issue is probably a lot more complicated since that affects the propagation of the shock wave.

 

[Darwin333]

I think getting the geometry of the shock wave is trickier than they let on. Otherwise NoKo would be a lot further along in development than they seem to be. It was just a couple years ago that they had a partial dud iirc.

If they mean you can get a partial detonation, then yeah, maybe. But that's going to be a tiny fraction of the the output you'd get from a proper explosion.

Also the timing issue is probably a lot more complicated since that affects the propagation of the shock wave.

I think the "gun" type doesn't have any of those issues but I am definitely not an expert.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I think getting the geometry of the shock wave is trickier than they let on. Otherwise NoKo would be a lot further along in development than they seem to be. It was just a couple years ago that they had a partial dud iirc.

If they mean you can get a partial detonation, then yeah, maybe. But that's going to be a tiny fraction of the the output you'd get from a proper explosion.

Also the timing issue is probably a lot more complicated since that affects the propagation of the shock wave.

You only get partial detonation no matter what. In a fission weapon max possible efficiency is 25% of the fissionable material converted to energy and in the real world bombs rarely get close to that nor do they need to. The Hiroshima bomb was something like 1% efficient, it would categorize as a fizzle by modern standards. It still did the job.

 

[Imp]

I think the "gun" type doesn't have any of those issues but I am definitely not an expert.

Nice diagram of it here. The "gun" design was the one used on Hiroshima. Looks like they just fired some uranium rings at some other uranium rings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy

 

[Charmonium]

You only get partial detonation no matter what. In a fission weapon max possible efficiency is 25% of the fissionable material converted to energy and in the real world bombs rarely get close to that nor do they need to. The Hiroshima bomb was something like 1% efficient, it would categorize as a fizzle by modern standards. It still did the job.

Dial-a-kiloton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_yield

 

[shortylickens]

No big deal.

When we finally get anti-matter weapons all this will be forgotten.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

No big deal.

When we finally get anti-matter weapons all this will be forgotten.

Don't hold your breath.

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/april-2015/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-antimatter

Antimatter-matter annihilations have the potential to release a huge amount of energy. A gram of antimatter could produce an explosion the size of a nuclear bomb. However, humans have produced only a minuscule amount of antimatter.

All of the antiprotons created at Fermilab’s Tevatron particle accelerator add up to only 15 nanograms. Those made at CERN amount to about 1 nanogram. At DESY in Germany, approximately 2 nanograms of positrons have been produced to date.

If all the antimatter ever made by humans were annihilated at once, the energy produced wouldn’t even be enough to boil a cup of tea.

The problem lies in the efficiency and cost of antimatter production and storage. Making 1 gram of antimatter would require approximately 25 million billion kilowatt-hours of energy and cost over a million billion dollars.

 

[MrSquished]

just as long as Trump doesn't figure out how to use the good atomic weapons we just might be ok

 

[John Connor]

Nice diagram of it here. The "gun" design was the one used on Hiroshima. Looks like they just fired some uranium rings at some other uranium rings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy

Holy crap! I didn't know they built thirty six of them. I thought there was just one.

 

[lxskllr]

French Presses are really an Italian invention circa 1929

A French press, also known as a cafetière, сafetière à piston, Cafeteria, press pot, coffee press, or coffee plunger, is a coffee brewing device patented by Italian designer Attilio Calimani in 1929.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_press

I had to fix the press I got for my daughter this morning. The carafe fit in the plastic holder way too tightly, so I shaved down the ridges on the interior of the plastic holder. I used my puukko to do the cutting. I love that knife. I was having issues justifying buying another blade, but it's one of the best purchases I've made in awhile. I love the Scandinavian grind for ease of sharpening, and it takes a very keen edge. All for only ~$40.