INTERESTING FACT OF THE DAY

[Matt-EUC]

C/O Wikipedia. "The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like "th" or "st") so that their typebars were not neighboring, avoiding jams. Contrary to popular belief,[5] the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down,[6] but rather to speed up typing by preventing jams.[4][7] There is also evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, keys being farther apart increases typing speed on its own, because it encourages alternation between the hands."

[Matt-EUC]

Also, they were altered to be arranged diagonally apart to increase distance between neighbouring keys.

[ClunkintheUK]

C/O Wikipedia. "The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like "th" or "st") so that their typebars were not neighboring, avoiding jams. Contrary to popular belief,[5] the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down,[6] but rather to speed up typing by preventing jams.[4][7] There is also evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, keys being farther apart increases typing speed on its own, because it encourages alternation between the hands."

C/O Wikipedia. "The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like "th" or "st") so that their typebars were not neighboring

not keys, which are pretty close.

In fact those commonly used combinations (apart from "TH") are from the same hand, "ST", "ER", "ES", "ED" are all in the left hand. I did also say in my original post that the reason for slowing down the typist was to prevent jams. Ok that statement wasn't entirely correct, they wanted to slow down specific pairs, as these are common and will become quicker with practice, leading to jams, I do take that point.

[ClunkintheUK]

Also, they were altered to be arranged diagonally apart to increase distance between neighbouring keys.

Yes, i.e. to prevent hitting two at the same time.

[L3nny]

This was on QI last night, co-incidence?

[ClunkintheUK]

This was on QI last night, co-incidence?

haha, was it? Or it could be that I am a researcher for QI. This particular bit I got argued down by my colleagues.

[Luckypants]

I thought they were referred to as cannon too, because they were pretty big. I was remembering a story from way back when we went to the Imperial War Museum as a kid.

In this instance, cannon fired explosive rounds as opposed to bullets.

Also you may have something about the belts, as I have discovered that Martin-Baker (they of the ejector seat fame) developed a belt feed system for the cannon in 1941 which was known as the MKII. I cannot find anything about the length of ammunition belts. The MKII was not fitted to the Spitfire due to space problems in the thin wing of that aircraft. Later Hurricanes were fitted with four such cannon. The cannon were less reliable than the Brownings in these installations. So these belt fed cannons did not see widespread service until the introduction of the Typhoon in 1941, intended as a replacement for the Hurricane.

[ClunkintheUK]

You, Sir, are a nerd. In a good way. though if they were not widespread, it is unlikely that the phrase would have entered the lexicon.

Though perhaps if they were unreliable, giving someone the whole 9 yards would be note worthy, in that you managed to fire them before the mechanism jammed. I doubt it, but I'd love to save the story.

[ophic]

The cannon were less reliable than the Brownings in these installations.
I thought the pilots just hated them because the convergence point was dictated to be set too far away for them to hit anything.

[Luckypants]

In both installations the main problem was with icing of the cannon at altitude, leading to jamming. In the Spitfire they mounted the gun on it's side which led to mechanical jamming in dog-fight manoeuvres. Hence the reliability issues. I believe the 'cone of fire' convergence was further out than with the brownings but due to the heavier fire power it was less critical to have all the projectiles hitting one spot. As later aircraft were designed to accommodate these weapons, both problems were overcome.

These issues were mainly present in wing mounted applications forced on the designers by a single engine 'blocking' the fuselage. On aircraft such as the Mosquito or Beaufighter they were mounted in the nose and were very effective.

[ophic]

On aircraft such as the Mosquito or Beaufighter they were mounted in the nose and were very effective.
Good that the guns were, cos the planes weren't :rolleyes:

[yorkie_chris]

These issues were mainly present in wing mounted applications forced on the designers by a single engine 'blocking' the fuselage. On aircraft such as the Mosquito or Beaufighter they were mounted in the nose and were very effective.

Mosquito cannon were in the bomb bay, with browning .303s in the nose.

Believe they'd sussed most of these issues by later in the war in the typhoon and tempest, ending up with a pretty formidable attack aircraft.

[Luckypants]

Of course you are correct Chris.

[DJFridge]

Good that the guns were, cos the planes weren't :rolleyes:

Um, the Beaufighter might have been a bit of an aeronautical dullard but the Mosquito was a fantastic aircraft, probably the first true fighter/bomber. The sad thing is that, because of the canvas and wood construction, they virtually all rotted away long before the current wish to preserve bits of the past.

[ophic]

Um, the Beaufighter might have been a bit of an aeronautical dullard but the Mosquito was a fantastic aircraft, probably the first true fighter/bomber. The sad thing is that, because of the canvas and wood construction, they virtually all rotted away long before the current wish to preserve bits of the past.
Yeah I was waiting for someone to bite on that. Some loved them, but it was primarily designed to be fast, and never quite had the edge it was supposed to due to rapidly advancing fighter tech.

Except as a night fighter, where it excelled.

Obviously this isn't my opinion, just something I read about 20-odd years ago.

Some say the Bf 110 was the best twin engined aircraft around at the time...

[yorkie_chris]

Some say the Bf 110 was the best twin engined aircraft around at the time...

They'd be wrong, the mossie outclassed it in basically all regards. Another few years of development and an extra 800hp will do that.



On the sort of track of aeronautics and progress, Sir Sydney Camm, a prolific engineer responsible for the Hurricane among many others, started off building free flight gliders when mans first powered flight had barely been made. His career spanned the era from biplanes made of wood and string to supersonic jets. It's amazing to imagine looking back on a career like that, seeing so much change and being part of a lot of it.

[davepreston]

well as were on the subject
the new strike fighter made and designed for the americans went into production 4 years ago, 3 years ago the found they could not use them on aircraft carriers (which was the main design brief) because the location of the arrest arm meant upon landing it ripped the undercarriage off , the best bit is they only found this out when running the simulations the year after they started building it even tho they had the specs 4 years previously

[Amadeus]

Ireland drinks more tea than any other nation on earth. Not per head of population, on a country basis.

[ClunkintheUK]

On the subject of drinking.

Gin was originally added to tonic water to make it more palatable, not the other way round.

[Berlin]

When they were trying to increase the speed of production of Spitfires in the war, they realised going to dome head rivets instead of flat rivets would save significant time. To test how this would perform in the air, they glued split peas to every flat rivet on a Spitfire.

It lost 7 mph due to the extra drag. The idea was cancelled as that 7mph advantage over the Messerschmitt was deemed its primary advantage.

C

[ophic]

When they were trying to increase the speed of production of Spitfires in the war, they realised going to dome head rivets instead of flat rivets would save significant time. To test how this would perform in the air, they glued split peas to every flat rivet on a Spitfire.

It lost 7 mph due to the extra drag. The idea was cancelled as that 7mph advantage over the Messerschmitt was deemed its primary advantage.

C

I thought they used the split peas to discover which rivets had a major
affect on drag and then used the flush rivets on those only. Was it Ginger Lacey who did this?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[ophic]

Or Alex Henshaw?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Heorot]

well as were on the subject
the new strike fighter made and designed for the americans went into production 4 years ago, 3 years ago the found they could not use them on aircraft carriers (which was the main design brief) because the location of the arrest arm meant upon landing it ripped the undercarriage off , the best bit is they only found this out when running the simulations the year after they started building it even tho they had the specs 4 years previously

They have now found that the efflux from the jet pipe on the STOL version of the strike fighter is so hot that it causes the ships deck to warp. Theyare still looking for solutions. Same problemwith the V22 and that has 2 engines causing the damage.

[davepreston]

They have now found that the efflux from the jet pipe on the STOL version of the strike fighter is so hot that it causes the ships deck to warp. Theyare still looking for solutions. Same problemwith the V22 and that has 2 engines causing the damage.
this does not surprise me lol

[Shawthing]

Some (I suspect Spurs and Chelsea fans) have speculated that every time Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) scores a goal, a Celebrity dies within hours.

So Far:
Osama bin Laden
Whitney Houston
Paul Walker (fast & furious)
Muammar Gaddafi
Steve Jobs
Robin Williams
Sir Richard Attenborough.

[Heorot]

On 9th November 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte participated in a coup and declared himself dictator of France.

[Grant66]

Barry Scott from the cillit bang ads is really called Neil Burgess

[Shawthing]

Some (I suspect Spurs and Chelsea fans) have speculated that every time Aaron Ramsey (Arsenal) scores a goal, a Celebrity dies within hours.

So Far:
Osama bin Laden
Whitney Houston
Paul Walker (fast & furious)
Muammar Gaddafi
Steve Jobs
Robin Williams
Sir Richard Attenborough.

Oh dear. He's just scored the second goal against Stoke!

[BanannaMan]

The song 'Away in a Manger' is played to a different melody in the US.

[andrewsmith]

The song 'Away in a Manger' is played to a different melody in the US.
Yeah it's played to Slayer ;-)

[punyXpress]

One hundred years ago today, the German Navy bombarded Scarborough, Whitby and Hartlepool.
Contrary to rumour, I wasn't there, neither did I take the picture.The wife of the owner of this shop in Prospect road was killed and my aunt, who lived in the same street received a relatively minor injury.

http://i582.photobucket.com/albums/ss267/punyXpress/b1fd1695-f499-4f6e-bf79-66777e4691fa.jpg (http://s582.photobucket.com/user/punyXpress/media/b1fd1695-f499-4f6e-bf79-66777e4691fa.jpg.html)

[Amadeus]

The song 'Away in a Manger' is played to a different melody in the US.


It was actually composed in Newcastle and was originally called "wey aye in a manger".

[Brettus]

The term "Pot hole" comes from the fact that 18th-century potters routinely dug clay right out of the roads.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/china-and-dinnerware/staffordshire

[BanannaMan]

Today in 1963 Charlie Watts played his first gig with the Rolling Stones at the Ealing Club in west London.

[BanannaMan]

Selfridges in London has the world’s largest women’s shoe department.
It stocks more than 100,000 shoes at any given time and sells more than 7,000 pairs per week.

(I'm glad my wife doesn't shop in London)

[Trev B]

If you swim 5 miles a day, by the end of the week you'll be 35 miles away!!!

[Trev B]

Honda have sold over 87 million cubs (honda 50)!!!

[swaffle]

Anyone can be forgiven to liking/listening to the Kelly Clarkson Song, Heartbeat song... becauseeeee if you listen to the tune and the chorus tune... ring any bells? Jimmy Eat World - The Middle

BOOM Mind is blown

[Bibio]

Anyone can be forgiven to liking/listening to the Kelly Clarkson Song, Heartbeat song... becauseeeee if you listen to the tune and the chorus tune... ring any bells? Jimmy Eat World - The Middle

BOOM Mind is blown

but both are shizz

[swaffle]

Jimmy Eat World shizz?! wash your typing fingers for typing that (best way I could write that without extra questions coming into it)

[L3nny]

Anyone can be forgiven to liking/listening to the Kelly Clarkson Song, Heartbeat song... becauseeeee if you listen to the tune and the chorus tune... ring any bells? Jimmy Eat World - The Middle

BOOM Mind is blown

All songs are the same tune anyway

5pidokakU4I

[BanannaMan]

Today is the day Marty McFly goes to the future!



http://40.media.tumblr.com/a3dd0ffc9948d6256af90703dc035abe/tumblr_nnk4ugiZMF1sm1qloo1_500.jpg

Ok techniclly speaking it may actually be yesterday now.

[ophic]

Today is the day Marty McFly goes to the future!



http://40.media.tumblr.com/a3dd0ffc9948d6256af90703dc035abe/tumblr_nnk4ugiZMF1sm1qloo1_500.jpg

Ok techniclly speaking it may actually be yesterday now.
I'm confused. Today is the 10th, yesterday was the 9th and that picture says the 6th. And Marty went to October 21st...

[L3nny]

Handy website for when these weekly hoaxes appear, in that one they didn't even photoshop the numbers in the same colour!

http://istodaythedaymartymcflyarriveswhenhetravelstothefu ture.com/

[BanannaMan]

:oops: Oops

[L3nny]

:oops: Oops

Pretty obvious really, have you seen anyone walking around with a double tie on today? ;)

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/bttf/images/1/19/Mockfry.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20071115062411

[punyXpress]

Seventy years ago today, the second A-bomb was dropped, this time on Nagasaki.
Surprised these earth moving ( in more ways than one ) events have not yet been mentioned. They, probably more than any other, have shaped the world we live in more than anything since.

[Amadeus]

What about the pill?

[punyXpress]

Agincourt

[punyXpress]

Today is the 50th anniversary of the 'temporary' 70mph limit

[punyXpress]

Final Land Rover Discovery constructed this day. :(

[Red ones]

:(
Always wanted to buy me a new one and now they stop making them before I get there

[tinpants]

Defender. It was the last Defender.

[andrewsmith]

Buy one and jam a V8 in it. Ideally an supercharged jag motor

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk

[Heorot]

British Airship R.101 Crashes, Killing 48 – This Day in 1930

[Toooldtodie]

A Japanese supercomputer with 705,024 processor cores and 1.4 million GB of RAM to process the data, took 40 minutes to process a single second of human brain activity.

Surely most people could get by with a Commodore 64 and the time it takes to mash a cup of tea to do the same? Or does it just appear to be so?

[punyXpress]

This day in 1936:
At 16.35, first flight of K5054, prototype Spitfire

http://i582.photobucket.com/albums/ss267/punyXpress/070508c1-0c19-4521-9175-3ed91a627284.jpg (http://s582.photobucket.com/user/punyXpress/media/070508c1-0c19-4521-9175-3ed91a627284.jpg.html)

[punyXpress]

. . be with you.

[Heorot]

In 1812 British Prime Minster Spencer Perceval is shot by a bankrupt banker in the lobby of the House of Commons.

[Heorot]

This day in 1837 the 18-year-old Victoria is crowned Queen of England

[ClunkintheUK]

Each Saturn V rocket required a total of 55000 bhp of fuel pumps to supply the required 190,000 litres of fuel per minute to the rocket. This is equivalent to 857 sv650's.

[Heorot]

On this day in 1588, the English navy defeated the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Gravelines.

[punyXpress]

Surprised nobody has yet mentioned a certain game of football that took place 50 years ago . .

[Heorot]

This day in 1981 Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. That worked out well!

[punyXpress]

2500 years ago a slave call girl from Sardinia named Gedophamee (pronounced
Get-offa'-me) was attending a great athletic festival in Greece.

This festival had no name.

In those days the athletes performed naked (believe it or not).
To prevent unwanted arousal while competing, the men imbibed freely on drink
containing saltpeter before and throughout the variety of events.

At the opening ceremonial parade, Gedophamee observed the first wave of naked
athletic males marching toward her and she exclaimed: "Oh! Limp *****s!"

Over the next two and a half millennia that expression morphed into "Olympics".
Just thought I'd share this new found knowledge with you.

You're very welcome

[Trev B]

Like it !!!

[punyXpress]

29 April 1942 the Germans inflicted their Baedeker Raid on York.
Bar Convent was severely damaged, but not as much as Sir Ralph Wedgwood:

[Heorot]

This day in 1945, Adolf Hitler committed suicide.

[punyXpress]

50 years ago, H M Gov banned offshore pirate radio.Have somewhere a photo of Radio 270 which sailed out of Scarborough but it's lost somewhere in the puny archive of fame!
This action led to the start of Radio 1

[Heorot]

On this day in 1918 the Royal Air Force was founded by merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. It was the first independent Air Force in the world.

[punyXpress]

8th April 1968
Barbara Jane Harrison, aged 22, was a flight attendant on Flight 712 to Sydney, Australia from Heathrow. Within a minute from takeoff number 2 engine on the Boeing 707 caught fire and fell from the port wing. Within 2.5 minutes the plane landed back at Heathrow. The fire was beyond control and passengers were being evacuated. Due to an escape chute partial failure, Jane was the only person helping at the rear escape door including literally pushing passengers out. Eventually there were just four, including a disabled person in a wheelchair, out of over 200 but she still didn't save herself - she stayed at her post.
For her selfless and heroic action, she was posthumously awarded the George Cross, one of only 4 women to receive it, the youngest and the only one in peacetime.

[punyXpress]

Enoch Powell - remember him?

[Tom_the_great]

Hello Folks, I'm going to try and keep this going and post some lighter hearted facts (as we have more than enough rubbish from the news).

On this day In 1946 George Best, former Northern Ireland and Manchester United football player was born. When he was once asked what happened to the money he had earned, Best replied - 'I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.'

[Tom_the_great]

In 1956 The first large-scale nuclear power station was opened at Calder Hall, Cumbria.

It was decommissioned today 23rd May after producing electricity for almost 50 years

[Tom_the_great]

The smallest penguin on the planet is only 16 inches tall...

Which is only an inch taller then a standard bowling pin!

[Heorot]

In this day in history “Bockscar” left the island of Tinien and dropped “Fat Man” on Nagasaki.

[Heorot]

In this day in history “Bockscar” left the island of Tinien and dropped “Fat Man” on Nagasaki.

[punyXpress]

This day in 1805 the English Navy defeated the combined French and Spanish Navies at the Battle of Trafalgar.
The news of the victory was conveyed to Falmouth aboard HMS Pickle and from there by a relay of post chaise and four to the Admiralty in London.
This arrived in the early hours of 6th November.
. . if only they'd had a mobile signal!
and what a good Bank Holiday Trafalgar Day would be!

[Heorot]

Paul Tibbets, the commander of Enola Gay, drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

[gadget]

The older I get, the faster I was .... fact !

[Bibio]

really good house insulation works both ways.. the rad is off in my bedroom as i cant stand a warm/hot bedroom when sleeping and the room is a good 10c cooler then the rest of the house which is around 20-25c

[Craig380]

George Martin produced two singles by Paul Raven (aka Gadd, aka Gary Glitter) in the early 60s. However, Martin never used to blither on about those at great length, oddly.

[garynortheast]

Why people have good ideas in the shower! (https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/08/the-science-of-why-you-have-great-ideas-in-the-shower)