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Random facts

Yep, I thought that'd happen. I couldn't think of a better way to put it at the time.

Personally, I prefer rabbit over cat anyway.
 
Tech fact: The first Internet crash in history occurred in 1969 while the Internet was still a DARPA project known as ARPANet, and consisted of a grand total of two computers connected to each other. As a test, the sending computer tried to send the word "login" to a receiving computer over the equivalent of a 56k modem connection. However, due to a memory error in the receiving computer, the receiving computer only got "L" and "O", then promptly crashed, taking the connection down with it.
 
Missouri Executive Order 44 issues by Governor Lilburn Boggs on October 27, 1838 directed that "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description". It was not recinded untill 1976.
 
The US military is planning to test a 64 Megajoule railgun in 2016. For those of you that don't know what that is or can do... I will explain the simple half. This railgun is essentially a massive electromagnet which uses two metal rails, a conductive projectile, and a power supply to send the projectile out at around 200 km/second... or the equivalent of over Mach 7.
 
The military is also finishing up designing a laser cannon for the ground or attached to a large plane that can take down a missile... or vaporize a mass of tanks in a matter of a few moments with no sound or warning.
 
Just in case our military wasn't overpowered enough!
 
Disney fact: While at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (either one at Magic Kingdom in FL or Disneyland in CA), count the number of Jack Sparrow's. If you count 4, one of them was actually Johnny Depp in costume. Occasionally, between projects, Depp will come to the park he's closest to, and just for the hell of it, dress up as Captain Jack, and insert himself somewhere into the ride.
 
GrowTheHeat said:
The US military is planning to test a 64 Megajoule railgun in 2016. For those of you that don't know what that is or can do... I will explain the simple half. This railgun is essentially a massive electromagnet which uses two metal rails, a conductive projectile, and a power supply to send the projectile out at around 200 km/second... or the equivalent of over Mach 7.
 
The military is also finishing up designing a laser cannon for the ground or attached to a large plane that can take down a missile... or vaporize a mass of tanks in a matter of a few moments with no sound or warning.
 
Just in case our military wasn't overpowered enough!
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Am not impressed with the railgun. Mach 7 is weaker than the mach 9 one they had earlier. And the laser works on planes because they're mostly made of plastic and aluminum. Tanks are much harder to melt, and mirror coating the sides would make it backfire horribly. I don't expect to see the weapon getting much use because of A, the power it would take, and B, it would blind anyone who looks at the target it's hitting. Still an awesome device though.
 
They probably lowered the speed of the projectile to make the gun last longer. As i understand it they wont take many rounds before needing major maintenance.
 
The mist/oil that comes out of orange peel when folded in half is very flammable. If held in front of a naked flame it will readily catch alight.
 
Nova said:
They probably lowered the speed of the projectile to make the gun last longer. As i understand it they wont take many rounds before needing major maintenance.
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About 3 shots as of last I heard. I think they might get  8 now. The small one I made out of tinfoil and a plug could do several thousand, but it was only good for making a nail roll across a table.
 
Movie facts (Star Wars Episode IV edition):
 
  • George Lucas was so convinced that Star Wars Episode IV would fail that instead of going to the premiere, he went to go on vacation with his friend Steven Spielberg, where they conceived of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."
  • One of the banthas in the movie was actually an Asian elephant dressed up in costume, but it proved to be difficult to work with, since it wasn't used to the Death Valley heat, and kept taking pieces of the costume off.
  • Kenny Baker (who controlled R2-D2 internally) was occasionally forgotten when the crew broke for lunch, and photos exist of Baker eating his lunch still sitting in the R2-D2 model
  • Sir Alec Guinness described dreading the experience of filming Episode IV (especially the "rubbish dialogue" as he put it), so much so, he claimed it was his idea to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi. He even described an instance where a young boy who was a huge Star Wars fan approached Guinness and told him how many times he had seen Star Wars. Guinness, without missing a beat, patted him on the head and asked the boy to promise him to never watch the movie again.
  • In early versions of the script, R2-D2 could speak perfect English, but had a very vulgar vocabulary. The decision was made to replace his dialogue with various sound effects, but left C-3PO's reactions to the dialogue in the movie.
  • Darth Vader only had 12 minutes of screen time throughout the entire movie. David Prowse, who wore the costume, and James Earl Jones, who provided Darth Vader's voice never met each other in real life.
  • While filming in Tunisia, the Tunisian government was alarmed to receive threats from Libya because they assumed the film crew and equipment were of military origin, and thought the Tunisian military was massing for an invasion
  • Peter Cushing despised the shoes he had to wear for his costume so much that for every shot he could, he was wearing slippers. The costume department lost his shoe size and guessed (in correctly) what his size was, but never had the budget to get replacements.
  • When adjusted for inflation, this is one of the highest grossing films of all time.
 
Military/culinary fact: the microwave was created quite by accident. The Raytheon corporation was working on new radar emission methods after World War II, and one of the researchers noticed that a candy bar had quickly melted in his shirt pocket as he walked past a magnetron. They tested out various other items such as popping kernels, and noticed they cooked, because the magnetron they were working with emitted the exact microwave emissions frequency to excite water molecules, and cause them to emit infrared radiation, thus cooking the foods from the inside out. Early microwaves were larger than current conventional items, and cost the equivalent of a mid-level sedan today because the magnetrons inside were so large, but because of miniaturization and better manufacturing methods, are the size and price they are today.
 
And the german government toyed with the idea of making portable microwave units for it's soldiers. But that was too difficult, because stupid Nazi's!
 
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