In reply to The0retical :
For the last few months I've been playing a game on my iPad that is very loosely based on naval combat in WWII, and includes a considerable number of ships from both sides- it's been fun whenever I get a new on to look it up on Wikipedia and read about its history.
Was also very interesting on a more personal note when I thought to ask over Thanksgiving and learned what ship my grandfather had served on in WWII (USS Denver (CL-58)) and read up on its service during the war.
In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :
I know that there is a website where you can look up peoples' service records, because my mom did that for my grandmother one year as a gift. You could hear the pride in grandma's voice as well as the capital letters when she said that he served on a Destroyer Escort. I didn't want to break it to her that those were the tin cans. But I never found out WHICH ship it was.
In reply to Knurled. :
I'd be interested in that site if you find out what it is.
In reply to Knurled. :
Like Stampie I'd be interested in finding out what that site was.
And regarding the tin cans- yeah, knowing WHICH would definitely be worth finding out given some of them were quite valiant in their service...
(to clarify- I don't doubt that most if not all did their jobs well, just that some were move pivotal and recognized...)
Til the little 1.4 turbo in a Sonic RS makes amusing noises.
This is kinda sad but TIL that the leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 isn't car crashes. The latest data I could find from Statistics Canada was from 2016 but during that year 1,951 Canadians aged 15-24 died in traffic accidents whereas 3,978 died as a result of suicide. The leading cause of death for that age group is non-vehicle accidents.
that putting the SE-R into auto-neutral to hyper mile with the empty light on whilst going downhill through an empty toll road with nine miles to go kills the engine. At first I thought I'd prompted it to run out of fuel but with steely nerve and sheer fortitude of well that was stupid restarted it after a moments pensive hesitation and googled the nearest gas station. It wasn't a TIL admittedly but last Sunday.
TIL that Lego is the world's largest manufacturer of tires. 318m/yr compared to 190m for Bridgestone at #2.
RossD
MegaDork
12/8/18 8:59 a.m.
TIL that I missed the original Pokemon craze by a few years, but I really enjoy the show with my son.
lrrs
HalfDork
12/8/18 3:13 p.m.
TIL that while great for keeping your coffee hot, yeti cups steal heat from your cold hands when you try to warm them with your hot coffee by grabbing said cup.
NickD
UberDork
12/11/18 12:15 p.m.
TIL that the very first production-spec Ford Focus RS is unaccounted for somewhere in Dubai and will likely be the Bullit Mustang of 2066.
The story: Ford gave the first Focus RS to Ken Block for him to use it for promotional purposes. They shipped it to Dubai, where it was supposed to have a role in Gymkhana 8. Unfortunately they damaged the suspension, and because the RS wasn't in production yet, they couldn't get parts to repair it and it got parked and never appeared in the film. After filming was over, they shipped everything back to the US, only to find that the Focus RS hadn't made the return trip and nobody knew where it was or what had happened to it. So, Ford gave him another Focus RS.
TIL plastic models have increased in price a bit since I bought one last...20 years ago or so.
I was picking up something from Hobby Lobby for SWMBO. I saw there was a model of BB-63 USS Missouri and the F&F Green Eclipse. They were 30 dollars a piece.
OTOH These 3d metal ones exist now:
One will likely find its way onto my desk shortly.
Duke
MegaDork
12/11/18 3:53 p.m.
TIL that custom framing (even simple custom framing) is ridiculously expensive.
Like, $25 for the poster and $450 for the matting and frame expensive.
That's right up there with the cost of prescription eyewear frames on the "areyouberkingkiddingme" scale.
TIL that the UK nuked the continental US two dozen times, between 1958 and 1992.
In reply to Knurled. :
Links or something? I want to learn it too.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
I was watching this video ("A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto") and noticed that the color code for the UK showed up quite few times in the American Southwest.
A little random poking around on Wikipedia eventually got me to this page.
RossD
MegaDork
12/13/18 7:48 a.m.
Duke said:
TIL that custom framing (even simple custom framing) is ridiculously expensive.
Like, $25 for the poster and $450 for the matting and frame expensive.
That's right up there with the cost of prescription eyewear frames on the "areyouberkingkiddingme" scale.
We went to a craft store and they did custom framing for a more reasonable price. I think it was Joann Fabrics.
TIL Chris is a sadomasochist. He asked about buying out our share of the Explorer so that his daughter could have it.
TIL that you can fit the wheel from a Pontiac G6 onto a Ford Focus, even though it is a 5x115 bolt pattern to the Focus's 5x108. And it looks pretty nice too.
The good news is that the sightly wider and taller tires on the G6 wheels fit in the Focus wheel wells. I'll just have to get the tires switched over onto the Focus summer wheels. That way I save $500 by not having to buy new tires.
ShawneeCreek said:
TIL that you can fit the wheel from a Pontiac G6 onto a Ford Focus, even though it is a 5x115 bolt pattern to the Focus's 5x108. And it looks pretty nice too.
The good news is that the sightly wider and taller tires on the G6 wheels fit in the Focus wheel wells. I'll just have to get the tires switched over onto the Focus summer wheels. That way I save $500 by not having to buy new tires.
How are you dealing with the difference in lug nut seats? That's a big enough difference to cause serious issues.
Or am I not understanding and this was just an exercise to see if the tires fit, not the wheels?
TIL that both Perry Como and Andy Williams have been dead for years.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
Just an exercise to see if the tires fit. I knew the bolt patterns were off.
Going from the stock 215/50R17 to the barely used 225/50R17 from the $2016 Challenge van. I didn't expect any issues considering the wider tires fitted to the ST and RS versions of the Focus. But I was rotating the winter tires and took the opportunity to check before paying the tire store to swap the tires onto the summer wheels.
TIL that when the missus asks me what in particular I'm looking forward to in the next five years for instance, especially considering our upcoming move to Michigan, an acceptable answer isn't a sad, "nothing at all, actually," followed a minute later by, "oh yeah, today I was thinking I cannot WAIT to take the Z4 out to the track again!"
Apparently there are many alternative and correct answers to what I came up with. And I probably couldn't have found a better way to remind her that I didn't remember to do anything special for her birthday weekend, whereas I couldn't stop talking about taking the Z4 to that track for like the whole month leading up to it.
SMH I'm kind of a bonehead
TIL that there’s a recall on the PCV Heater on the N52 engine in my E60, because “in very rare cases” they can “overheat.” The recall was issued over a year ago, but I don’t think I ever received notice.
I learned this by punching my VIN into the NHTSA recall search engine after putting out the fire that was overheating my PCV Heater. Pic below was taken after flames were extinguished and there was only the glow of cooling electrical bits.
On the plus side, I guess this means my E60 is very rare. Barrett Jackson, bitches!