Today I learned...

Becky said:
Thought we could all learn something from each other here! If you stumble across an interesting fact, share it here :)

I'll kick things off...



Today I learned of Cunningham's Law, which states that the best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer.

:lol::lol::lol:

Never heard of this before, but I guess it makes a good point! Given that I share a surname with the person who this law is named after (Ward Cunningham if you're interested), it tickled me. Maybe I should start putting this into practice :D
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Good point....
But to be honest one should be honest with atleast the spirits with which the forums are formed... Sharing of thoughts and experience is a noble job.... While playing tricks by intentionally posting wrong answers is not.... Act local Think Global!
 
AmjiBhai said:
Good point....
But to be honest one should be honest with atleast the spirits with which the forums are formed... Sharing of thoughts and experience is a noble job.... While playing tricks by intentionally posting wrong answers is not.... Act local Think Global!
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Don't think any of the posts in this thread are deliberately wrong. No doubt there are some errors but I'm sure they are not intentional.
 
TIL that The Gunfight at the OK Corral didn't occur there after all.

The gunfight, it turns out, took place near the OK Corral but not in it. But I suppose Gunfight Near The OK Corral doesn’t have the same ring to it as Gunfight At The OK Corral as a film title. Nor does Gunfight in Fremont Street, where it actually happened.

Also found that Wyatt Earp was virtually unknown in the US as a gunfighter until 1931, when a book was published, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal two years after Earp's death. However Wyatt Earp was well known in the US for something completely different. Earp was a last-minute choice as referee for a boxing match on December 2, 1896 which the promoters billed as the heavyweight championship of the world, when Bob Fitzsimmons fought Tom Sharkey in San Francisco. Earp had refereed 30 or so boxing matches in earlier days, and here Earp stopped the bout, ruling that Fitzsimmons had hit Sharkey below the belt, but virtually no one witnessed the punch. Earp awarded the fight to Sharkey but it seemed that the whole thing was set up and that Earp was in on it. Later a judge finally ruled that prize fighting was illegal in San Francisco and the courts would not determine who the winner was but Earp’s reputation was ruined.

As to Wyatt Earp’s squeaky clean image in the films that came later it seems that this was a fabrication. Earp had been arrested for stealing a horse, escaped from jail, and was sued twice. He was arrested and fined three times in 1872 for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame". His third arrest was described at length in the local paper, which referred to him as an "old offender." Villains often became lawmen when it suited them and it seems that the pay was usually quite good. In the OK Corral gunfight, which happened in October 1881, Wyatt Earp is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was Tombstone city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal that day and had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier in combat. Wyatt was merely a temporary assistant marshal. The whole gunfight was over in just 30 seconds and three of the “baddies” were killed.

After the gunfight the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday were charged with murder but at the hearing no one could determine who had fired first and the judge said that the evidence indicated that the Earps and Holliday acted within the law and that Virgil had deputized Holliday and Wyatt quite lawfully.

Some months later, in two separate incidents, Virgil was very badly injured after being shot and Morgan Earp was killed, both it was thought by the Clanton gang. Wyatt then got together an unofficial posse and, in what was called The Earp Vendetta Ride, chased after the killers of Morgan and eventually killed four of them over the next two weeks. The gang then left Arizona for good and nothing was ever done about the killings.

Wyatt moved around a lot over the years and ended up in Los Angeles where he was often a consultant to Hollywood when they made Westerns. He died in 1929 aged 80.

:)
 
TIL that 100 years ago a report appeared on the possibility of introducing a decimal system to our currency. The pound would be divided into 1000 mils but the commission eventually decided that it would be too inconvenient and it was dropped.

Decimalisation did occur in 1971. :)
 
TIL there are some advantages to living in america.

America's longest mountain coaster opens in Lake Placid

Once a person reaches the top, they can control how slow or fast their car goes down the mountain. A single driver must be over age 9 and a ticket is $65. A driver and passenger is $75, with the driver having to be over 18; the passenger must be ages 3 to 12.


The coaster will be open to the public on weekends only and includes commentary for riders as they ride down the mountain through twists and turns that replicate the historic track.


“The coaster follows the alignment of the 1932 & 1980 Olympic Bobsled track as it descends the mountain. The views are amazing, and the curves get your heart pounding," ORDA President & CEO Mike Pratt said in a press release.
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I want. :drool:
 
A Brief History of House Cats

TIL.

In the United States, cats are the most popular house pet, with 90 million domesticated cats slinking around 34 percent of U.S. homes.
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The ancient Egyptian reverence for cats is well-known—and well-documented in the archaeological record: scientists found a cat cemetery in Beni-Hassan brimming with 300,000 cat mummies. Bastet, an Egyptian goddess of love, had the head of a cat, and to be convicted of killing a cat in Egypt often meant a death sentence for the offender.
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Aw sweet kitty kitty kitty :rolleyes:
 
Abarbarian said:
I knew that the Rocket Man series i watched in awe at the ABC Minors all them years ago would become reality. :bow:
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It's amazing how many things we saw in old science fiction have become reality. E.g. phones without cables, computers, driverless cars, flat screen TVs, wireless applications (even though "wireless" is a very old term), space travel and a host of other things.

Technology marches on. :thumb:
 
So what have we seen in movies that hasn't become a reality... yet?

I don't think we've yet discovered how to make a black hole :eek:
 
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