mjmooney Posted May 15, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted May 15, 2019 The release date of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is closer to the end of the First World War than it is to today. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted May 16, 2019 Moderator Share Posted May 16, 2019 10 hours ago, mjmooney said: The release date of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is closer to the end of the First World War than it is to today. You're right! Spoiler That is totally useless 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Chindie Posted May 16, 2019 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted May 16, 2019 The Voynich Manuscript got back in the news this week, if you look for weird shit in the news that is. The Voynich Manuscript is a book from the 15th century that has been written in what appears to be a completely unknown language. It's 'letters' aren't found anywhere else, and nobody has ever managed to decipher it. The manuscript also includes numerous illustrations, which have been used to infer that the book is divided into sections on different subjects. One section is filled with images of plants and flowers, another with cosmological symbols, another with zodiac diagrams, and so on. This has lead to the assumption that the book appears to intended to inform the reader about varying contemporary subjects like herbology, astrology and the like... Except in a language nobody has ever seen before or since. Even the illustrations aren't that helpful - the drawings of plants are too vague or inaccurate to identify the plants with any certainty. Various attempts at decoding it have been made, none with any success. WW2 code breakers made no inroads with it, the FBI tried to decipher it, and the last century has seen numerous universities look into it. Theories have included that it's been created using various forms of encoding and ciphers, including numerous ones that weren't known to be around at the time it was written (although noone has worked out which or how), that it's an extended script of nonsense written by someone who was suffering from delusion or another mental illness, that it's an extremely early attempt at creating a synthetic 'universal' language, that its an attempt at translating an Eastern language using an invented alphabet of some sort, that it is some forgotten language, and of course, that it's a fake. If it is a fake, it's an old one. The manuscript is written on vellum (calfskin) that's been carbon dated to the 15th century, and the ink and paint used to create the text and art are contemporaneous. It's very unlikely a large bundle of vellum was held onto at least a couple of hundred years. It's first documented ownership is 200 years after its creation, in the 1600s, where it's recorded as having been the subject of a letter between it's owner and a man 'renowned' as being able to decipher languages. The letter alleged that the manuscript was written by Roger Bacon, an English medieval friar and natural philosopher, and eventually had been owned by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf 2nd. The only things that seem reasonably concrete about the thing are that it's old, and that it seems to be a workable language. The latter point has come about from analysis of it's structure in various ways, including statistically comparing it's language structure to existing texts to see if it appears to match actual meaningful language features, and comparisons of word structure to actual languages - which interestingly lead to it's having many similarities to East Asian languages. The latter point has lead credence to the theory it's an attempt at translating a language using an invented alphabet, which also ties in with various other features of it. But hasn't been proven. It's back in the news as a bloke from Bristol University has published a paper thinking he's cracked it (like many others before). He believes it's a reference guide on the natural world written by Spanish nuns for a queen, who wrote it in 'proto-Romance' language, a colloquial form of Latin that became the modern Romance languages. Unfortunately everyone else thinks the theory is bollocks. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 A child's skull, second set of teeth in place and showing the 'eye' teeth, under the eyes. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted May 24, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted May 24, 2019 Ted Bundy, infamous US serial killer whose story is more bizarre and horrifying than the recent movie about his trial would have you believe, used an obscure Florida law to get married. He called a former co-worker as a character witness, and while questioning her, proposed. She said yes. In Florida, a marriage declaration in the presence of a judge is legal. He also gave us this cracking quote Quote You learn what you need to kill and take care of the details. It's like changing a tire. The first time you're careful. By the thirtieth time you can't remember where you left the lug wrench. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BOF Posted June 14, 2019 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted June 14, 2019 Noel Fitzpatrick, better known as the Supervet, is the inspiration behind Britney Spears' hit track Toxic. He broke up with its co-writer Cathy Dennis in 2003. Now that's useless (but interesting) trivia 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted July 4, 2019 Moderator Share Posted July 4, 2019 The bloke that wrote "Lets get ready to rumble" for Ant & Dec also wrote all of Bros's hits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 4, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 4, 2019 Just now, OutByEaster? said: The bloke that wrote "Lets get ready to rumble" for Ant & Dec also wrote all of Bros's hits. Seems entirely unremarkable, that. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 He was also in the band The End. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 (edited) 7 hours ago, OutByEaster? said: The bloke that wrote "Lets get ready to rumble" for Ant & Dec also wrote all of Bros's hits. Trivia upon trivia but that song was called Let’s get ready to rhumble because Michael Buffer of professional boxing fame trademarked the correct spelling of that phrase. Edited July 5, 2019 by The_Rev 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 5, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 5, 2019 2 hours ago, The_Rev said: Trivia upon trivia but that song was called Let’s get ready to rhumble because Michael Buffer of professional boxing fame trademarked the correct spelling of that phrase. I know it's not all from saying that phrase, but he allegedly earns between $25k and $100k per fight, where basically all he does is the intros and says those words. There have been times when his fee has been $1million. He's alleged to have earned around $400m from trademarking that phrase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 And of course Bruce Buffer apparently gets $100k a show from UFC simply because he's Michael Buffer's brother. It's now a self fulfilling prophecy that it's not a big fight unless you've got one of the Buffer brothers doing the intro. Weird how people can make so much by doing so little just because they got the right breaks in life, isn't it? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted July 5, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 5, 2019 1 minute ago, The_Rev said: And of course Bruce Buffer apparently gets $100k a show from UFC simply because he's Michael Buffer's brother And he was the one making sure Michael made the phrase-trademark Smart dude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCDAN Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 1 hour ago, The_Rev said: And of course Bruce Buffer apparently gets $100k a show from UFC simply because he's Michael Buffer's brother. I always thought it was odd that they had the same last name but it never clicked they might be related! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 5, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 5, 2019 53 minutes ago, AVFCDAN said: I always thought it was odd that they had the same last name but it never clicked they might be related! Imagine if they ever fell out. Michael Buffer ringing up Dana White and saying "$5k more per show and I'll do it instead of Bruce" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 On 07/05/2019 at 06:27, KenjiOgiwara said: You have all heard of allotropes of carbon. Most typically graphite. Graphene however is another synthesized allotrope of carbon, yet by tweaking the molecular structure you and up with a material several hundred times stronger than steel and several times the spesific surface of biochar. Essentially the brother to the soft shite in your pencil. Kinda neat. They say graphene can do everything apart from leave the lab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 5, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 5, 2019 On 07/05/2019 at 06:27, KenjiOgiwara said: You have all heard of allotropes of carbon. Not me. I assume they're one of these shit modern bands. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted July 5, 2019 Moderator Share Posted July 5, 2019 12 minutes ago, mjmooney said: Not me. I assume they're one of these shit modern bands. I think it sounds like a band that needs to happen, a kind of neo classical / post metal cross over band 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 11 hours ago, VillaJ100 said: They say graphene can do everything apart from leave the lab Maybe one for the science thread, or possibly the boring thread, but why *hasn't* it taken off? It was discovered over a decade ago now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 25 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: Maybe one for the science thread, or possibly the boring thread, but why *hasn't* it taken off? It was discovered over a decade ago now. I think while inexpensive its an incredibly slow process to create it and pretty much impossible to mass produce it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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