Did you know that...

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that the Kieler Brandtaucher was
a) the first German submersible
b) the first iron ship build in Germany
c) the first ship built by Howaldt, a company that before that produced steam boilers and since then and up to this very day is in the submarine business (and among the most successful)
d) possibly the first sub that got a full engineering treatment instead of mere trial-and-error fiddling
e) saw the first successful escape of a crew from a sunken sub (using a technique still practiced today)
f) got salvaged and is still on display (after surviving WW2 and some close bomb misses)?

[Sibling DavidH]

Did you know that the celebrated Composer Peter Warlock was an alcoholic and composed the beautiful carol Bethlehem Down in 1927 with the sole intention of financing a Christmas booze-up for him and his friend Bruce Blunt, who wrote the words?

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that there was once the job of coffee smeller?
That had nothing to do with quality control but with sniffing out people who made coffee without licence (under King Freidrich II of Prussia)

[Griffin NoName]

Did you know that there was once the job of coffee smeller?
That had nothing to do with quality control but with sniffing out people who made coffee without licence (under King Freidrich II of Prussia)

See the drugs thread !! Coffee is the demon drink.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

And we evil Colombians are inundating the market with the stuff! 

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that Carl Benz changed his name several times during his life?

[Sibling DavidH]

^ Is that the bloke who use to be called Jim Scrint?

----------------------------------------------

Did you know that the pope was on BBC Radio 4 on Friday morning?  There's a slot called 'Thought For The Day' around 7:50; it's usually live but Ratbag recorded his contribution.

He didn't say anything unusual or interesting.

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that the legend goes that every time the Horses of San Marco are moved an empire dies?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Who moved them the last time?

[Swatopluk]

The Soviets borrowed them for an exhibition iirc. Before that it was Mussolini.

[Sibling DavidH]

DYKT the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal publishes an experiment to test the Danish belief that one can get drunk by submerging one's feet in alcohol?

SPOILER ALERT  -    you can't.

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that Madame Curie's notes have to be stored in lead containers and can only be displayed behind lead glass?
Or that they can allegedly be read in the dark because they are faintly glowing?

[Griffin NoName]

I wonder if Marie Curie's bones glow in the dark?

[Sibling DavidH]

Did You Know That her bones were ground up for luminous paint many years ago?

[Swatopluk]

Did you know that in the early 60ies a certain type of dime novel known as Stalag was produced and very popular in Israel (up to 80000 sold per issue)?
The content always followed the line of nymphomaniac female SS officers getting their hands on male allied POWs abusing them to their hearts content until the heroic victim can turn the table.
NSFW (fürchterliche Naziweiber):
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/09/06/world/06stalag-600.jpg
http://sites.google.com/site/stalags/stalag-woman.jpg