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May 28 25 by Thesuperyoshi
How is it possible that Jonathan Rea crashed in, but still won, the Suzuka 8 Hour Race in 2019?
It was a red flag finish. He crashed on the final lap. [quote] The #21 Yamaha Factory Racing Team has taken a surprise victory at the 2019 Suzuka 8 Hours after Jonathan Rea crashed out while leading inside the final minute of the race which triggered a red flag finish. Rea had been set to charge to Kawasaki's first Suzuka 8 Hours win since 1993 after surviving late scares from a crashing backmarker and rain which hit the track in the final 30 minutes.
But the drama unfolded when the #2 Suzuki Endurance Racing Team suffered a terminal engine issue with five minutes to go, fighting for the Endurance World Championship title against the #11 Team SRC Kawasaki, forcing Etienne Masson to retire in tears at the side of the track. With suspected oil down across the first sector of the track from the #2 Suzuki, Rea crashed out while leading by 20 seconds which triggered an early red flag stoppage. With the #10 Kawasaki failing to finish the leading team were not in the final classification which hands defending Suzuka 8 Hours champions #21 Yamaha of Alex Lowes, Michael van der Mark and Katsuyuki Nakasuga victory.[/quote] https://www.crash.net/wsbk/news/926033/1/yamaha-takes-shock-suzuka-8-hours-win-after-late-rea-crash
(gtho4)
1 answer
May 28 25 by Thesuperyoshi
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May 23 25 by Bright_Star
The son of which German emperor was a prisoner of the Italian city of Bologna for almost 23 years in the 13th century?
Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen
[quote]King Enzio of Sardinia spent the last 23 years of his life as a prisoner of Bologna from 1249 to 1272.
Enzio (from the German name Heinrich, sometimes rendered as Enzo) was an illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen and by all accounts his favorite. They shared a love for falconry and poetry among others, and Frederick II valued his son as a capable leader and commander.
Enzio was 24 when he was captured at the Battle of Fossalta during a battle with the Guelphs, a powerful faction in northern Italy opposed to the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick II repeatedly demanded the release of his son, but to no avail.[/quote]
https://malvevonhassell.com/falconello-prisoner-in-bologna/?doing_wp_cron=1693152297.5683588981628417968750 (elburcher)
1 answer
May 26 25 by pehinhota
For what courageous expression of opinion did Alexander Altmann, the communal Rabbi in Manchester, become known in the fifties?
His support was instrumental in Bert Trautmann - a former Nazi sergeant and British prisoner of war - being accepted into the squad of Manchester City as a goalkeeper.
This was in spite of him being Jewish (and a fugitive from Nazi Germany) as well as in spite of the substantial Jewish fan following of the club at the time - so Trautmann was certainly not the most obvious prospect for him to endorse.
Trautmann's spell at the club was initially met by resistance from the fans, but he quickly became a mainstay of the team and was among those responsible for the club's good results in the 1950s.
(It should be noted that Trautmann, while a member of the Wehrmacht and Nazi party, was not directly involved in any crimes against Jews. Still, this was a tall order for someone who had to flee his home country due to persecution.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Trautmann
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Altmann
(WesleyCrusher)
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May 23 25 by pehinhota
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May 25 25 by chabenao1
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May 25 25 by chabenao1
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May 23 25 by chabenao1
When an airliner is flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet, the temperature of the air outside may be as low as -30 F. However, instead of heaters, air conditioners must be used in aircraft flying that high. Why?
[quote]Cabin pressurization is a process in which conditioned air is pumped into the cabin of an aircraft or spacecraft in order to create a safe and comfortable environment for humans flying at high altitudes. For aircraft, this air is usually bled off from the gas turbine engines at the compressor stage ... The air is cooled, humidified, and mixed with recirculated air by one or more environmental control systems before it is distributed to the cabin ... Certain aircraft have unusual pressurization needs. For example, the supersonic airliner Concorde had a particularly high pressure differential due to flying at unusually high altitude: up to 60,000 ft (18,288 m) while maintaining a cabin altitude of 6,000 ft (1,829 m). This increased airframe weight and saw the use of smaller cabin windows intended to slow the decompression rate if a depressurization event occurred ...
Pressurization becomes increasingly necessary at altitudes above 10,000 ft (3,048 m) above sea level to protect crew and passengers from the risk of a number of physiological problems caused by the low outside air pressure above that altitude. For private aircraft operating in the US, crew members are required to use oxygen masks if the cabin altitude (a representation of the air pressure, see below) stays above 12,500 ft (3,810 m) for more than 30 minutes, or if the cabin altitude reaches 14,000 ft (4,267 m) at any time. At altitudes above 15,000 ft (4,572 m), passengers are required to be provided oxygen masks as well. On commercial aircraft, the cabin altitude must be maintained at 8,000 ft (2,438 m) or less ... . This cabin altitude is maintained while the aircraft is cruising at its maximum altitude and then reduced gradually during descent until the cabin pressure matches the ambient air pressure at the destination. Keeping the cabin altitude below 8,000 ft (2,438 m) generally prevents significant hypoxia, altitude sickness, decompression sickness, and barotrauma. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations in the U.S. mandate that under normal operating conditions, the cabin altitude may not exceed this limit at the maximum operating altitude of the aircraft. [/quote] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_pressurization
(gtho4)
4 answers
Dec 06 02 by Nude Dude
How is the name Mandeville linked to the 2012 London Olympics? Any link with the Middle Age travel writer Mandeville?
Regarding any link with the Middle Ages travel writer Sir John Mandeville, I'd say yes and no. It is generally thought that the writings assigned to that name were collected from several sources, possibly added to some first-hand experiences, and there is much uncertainty as to who that author really was. As a pseudonym, the name de Mandeville had an aristocratic air due to Geoffrey de Mandeville acquiring English estates after the Norman Conquest. One of these estates included a village named Stoke, which then was relabelled Stoke Mandeville, much later to be the site of the hospital that pioneered the Paralympics. So, the famous Mandevilles who gave their name to the village of Stoke Mandeville (and subsequently its hospital) may have inspired the name used by the (possibly fictional) travelling knight Sir John Mandeville.
[quote] The village was originally recorded as Stoches in the Domesday Book of 1086, from the Old English word stoc meaning an outlying farm or hamlet. The suffix Mandeville was first recorded in 1284 when the manor was listed as being in the hands of the powerful Norman de Mandeville family. [/quote] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke_Mandeville
[quote] Sir John Mandeville (flourished 14th century) was the purported author of a collection of travelers' tales from around the world, The Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville, Knight, generally known as The Travels of Sir John Mandeville. The tales are selections from the narratives of genuine travelers, embellished with Mandeville's additions and described as his own adventures.
The actual author of the tales remains as uncertain as the existence of the English knight Sir John Mandeville himself. The book originated in French about 1356-57 and was soon translated into many languages, an English version appearing about 1375. The narrator Mandeville identifies himself as a knight of St. Albans. [/quote] https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Mandeville
See https://celtic2realms-medievalnews.blogspot.com/2018/01/origin-and-early-history-of-mandeville.html for more on the Mandeville families, many of whom confusingly were named Geoffrey. (sportsherald)
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May 20 25 by chabenao1
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May 21 25 by WesleyCrusher
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May 21 25 by WesleyCrusher
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May 21 25 by WesleyCrusher
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May 19 25 by pehinhota
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May 20 25 by chabenao1
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May 18 25 by chabenao1
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Apr 30 25 by pehinhota
How many chess variants are recognised?
There is no single, authoritative number of officially "recognised" chess variants because they are often defined, promoted and played in different communities and not governed by a unified global body.
David Pritchard's "Encyclopedia of Chess Variants" (1994) documented over 1,400 variants. The more recent and expanded "Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants" (2022, by Pritchard and John Beasley) describes more than 2,000 variants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pritchard_(chess_player)
Online databases like chessvariants.com list well over 2,000 distinct variants, including user-submitted games.
https://www.chessvariants.com
(wellenbrecher)
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Apr 22 25 by RedRobin7
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May 17 25 by chabenao1
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May 17 25 by Thesuperyoshi
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May 17 25 by pehinhota
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May 14 25 by gmackematix
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May 14 25 by gmackematix
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Feb 05 04 by supermary345
I see the current pope's real middle name is the previous pope's papal name. Has this ever happened before?
Small addendum (not really an answer): While it is actually rather common for Europeans to have multiple (often way more than 2) given names, it's unusual to actually use more than the first - that "middle name" convention is mostly an American thing.
King Charles III for example has four given names - Charles Philip Arthur George, All but the first would be "middle" and he could actually have chosen to reign under any of the four, but he is rarely referred to as anything but Charles.
It is thus possible (although not particularly likely) that a pope may have had a second, third or further given name that matched the regnal name of a prior pope or even his direct predecessor. We'd just not know - for many pre-20th century popes, their additional given names may not be recorded at all. Leo XIV is the first pope for whom this name coincidence it is definitely known. (WesleyCrusher)
2 answers
May 14 25 by gmackematix
On the 4 clocks of Elizabeth Tower, London, why have the X (for 10) been replaced by F?
It was the preferred font of the clock's designer Augustus Pugin. As a gothic revivalist, Pugin believed the aesthetic of the shape was better suited to the gothic style than the more traditional roman X. However, the shape is an X, just one that happens to look more like an "F" shape. This font is not just found on the Elizabeth tower but on the clocks inside the Palace of Westminster as well.
https://virtualtour.parliament.uk/bigben
https://luc.devroye.org/AWNPugin-Alphabet-1844.png (Snowman)
1 answer
May 15 25 by chabenao1
I see the current pope's real middle name is the previous pope's papal name. Has this ever happened before?
It does not appear so. Popes until the late tenth century used their birth name. The first appearance of a middle name for a pope occurred in the fourteenth century, although middles names didn't occur with great frequency until the 1500s. Another limiting factor was that most of the common names chosen by popes were not commonly used by people. Pius, Innocent, Boniface are examples.
Although this was not asked by the original question, the birth name of Pope Paul VI was Giovanni, the name of his predessor Pope John XXIII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_popes (SixShutouts66)
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May 14 25 by gmackematix
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May 14 25 by gmackematix
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May 14 25 by gmackematix
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May 14 25 by gmackematix
Poker: why is the WSOP main event held sometimes in July and sometimes in November?
It is not as random as the question makes it sound. The Main Event is a series of games that culminates in a final table of nine players which determines the tournament winner. In 2008 that final table was moved from June/July (when the preliminary contests were still held) to November, when it was held for several years before the managers decided to revert to July. The reason for both changes was television.
[quote]Prior to 2008, the entire Main Event was played without interruption. Starting in 2008, in an effort to build excitement in the WSOP and to increase ratings for the tape-delayed televised shows, Harrah's Entertainment and ESPN decided to delay the final table until shortly before its scheduled broadcast. The delay would allow ESPN to cover the rest of the tournament leading up to the final table without viewers knowing the winner in advance. Due to the timing of U.S. presidential elections, the final tables for the 2012 and 2016 Main Events were held in October.
In 2017, Poker Central announced a television and digital media rights agreement with the WSOP and ESPN which returned the final table to the tail end of the rest of the tournament.[/quote]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_Nine (looney_tunes)
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May 13 25 by chabenao1
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May 13 25 by Thesuperyoshi
In the American hymn "Battle Hymn of the Republic", to what does "the grapes of wrath" refer?
It comes from the Bible, Book of Revelation 14:18-19:
[quote]And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.[/quote]
This is generally thought to signify that the wicked will be destroyed and sent to Hell.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2014%3A17-20&version=NKJV (Sweeper11)
1 answer
May 13 25 by RedRobin7
Soldiers who joined the British military during the 18th and 19th centuries filled out enlistment papers. Did officers who bought their commissions also have to fill out enlistment forms?
No, they paid for the position they wanted to occupy...
[quote]From the birth of the regular army, in 1661, to 1871, two thirds of officers' commissions were obtained by purchase. The aspiring officer paid the government an agreed sum, often adding a non-regulation premium to the holder of the post he sought to occupy.[/quote]
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/wars_conflict/soldiers/soldier_trade_in_world_05.shtml
[quote]The purchase of officer commissions in the British Army was a common practice through most of its history. Commissions could only be purchased in cavalry and infantry regiments (and therefore up to the rank of colonel only). The Royal Navy never practiced the sale of commissions, with advancement in officer ranks being solely by merit and/or seniority.
There were several key reasons behind the sale of commissions:
- It preserved the social exclusivity of the officer class.
- It served as a form of collateral against abuse of authority or gross negligence or incompetence. Disgraced officers could be cashiered by the crown (that is, stripped of their commission without reimbursement).
- It ensured that the officer class was largely populated by persons having a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, thereby reducing the possibility of Army units taking part in a revolution or coup.
- It ensured that officers had private means and were unlikely to engage in looting or pillaging, or to cheat the soldiers under their command by engaging in profiteering using army supplies.
- It provided honorably retired officers with an immediate source of capital.
The official values of commissions varied by regiment, usually in line with the differing levels of social prestige of different regiments. (A farm laborer in 1800 would have earned around 30 to 40 pounds a year. These prices were not incremental. To purchase a promotion, an officer only had to pay the difference in price between his existing rank and the desired rank.)
[/quote]
https://byuprideandprejudice.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/the-purchase-of-a-military-commission/ (elburcher)
1 answer
May 12 25 by lordprescott
Wiki writes that the giraffe's tongue is blue "probably" to avoid sunburn. What does it mean?
According to the theory, there is an increased amount of melanin in the giraffe's tongue to protect the giraffe, since melanin absorbs more UV rays from the sun, protecting the giraffe from the sun's damage. Some biologists have raised doubts about the theory, but it seems this is the most widely accepted explanation. You can read more about giraffes and blue tongues here:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/why-do-giraffes-have-purple-tongues (TriviaFan22)
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May 12 25 by chabenao1
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May 11 25 by pehinhota
Christopher Columbus, during his first voyage to the Americas, probably used a world map created by which German cartographer?
Henricus Martellus was a German cartographer working in Florence in the 15th century. Little is known about his early life, and similarly the contemporary relevance of his work to cartography and exploration is difficult to establish.
There is indirect evidence that Columbus had studied one of his maps in particular, which has been studied at Yale. Columbus wrote about expecting to find Japan in the location and orientation Martellus had depicted it, which was different to all other surviving maps from that time. Furthermore, one of Columbus' crewmembers also described certain islands found in the new world in a way that corresponds to Martellus' map.
At the very least, it's thought that Martellus' maps or similar maps influenced Columbus' geographical perception of Asia's proximity to the west coasts of Africa and Europe that inspired his expedition.
https://news.yale.edu/2015/06/11/hidden-secrets-yale-s-1491-world-map-revealed-multispectral-imaging
https://www.wired.com/2014/09/martellus-map/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henricus_Martellus_Germanus (patrickk)
1 answer
May 09 25 by pehinhota
Is there a biopic about Al Jolson?
There have been a couple of stage shows one being the 1999's "Jolson & Co." by Stephen Mo Hanan and Jay Berkow.
[quote]...Jolson & Co. by Stephen Mo Hanan and Jay Berkow, which calls itself a "new musical play" and is the life story of Al Jolson told in monologue, dialogue, and a goodly number of songs from Jolson's ragbag. It does a pretty fair job of giving you the man, warts and all, and generally avoids sappiness. Directed by Berkow, it is aptly accompanied by Peter Larson and two associates on a variety of instruments.[/quote]
https://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/theater/reviews/1798/ (elburcher)
3 answers
May 07 25 by chabenao1
Is there a biopic about Al Jolson?
There is a sequel to "The Al Jolson Story", 1949's "Jolson Sings Again". Reportedly Al Jolson failed the screen test to portray himself, presumably due to his age, he was 63 at the time.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041530/?ref_=nmbio_trv
(elburcher)
3 answers
May 07 25 by chabenao1
Why does the band The Neighbourhood use the British spelling "Neighbourhood" rather than the American "Neighborhood"?
According to the wikipedia page on the advice of their manager:
The Neighbourhood was formed in August 2011 by the singer Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Zachary Abels and Jeremiah Freedman, bass guitarist Michael Margott and drummer Bryan "Olivver" Sammis. The members of The Neighbourhood chose the British spelling of "neighbourhood" on the advice of their manager, in order to distinguish themselves from a band already using the American spelling; hence, their song names also use the British spelling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neighbourhood
But if you read closely, there was already another group using the American version, so they likely also did it to avoid any legal hangups of groups using the same moniker. (maripp2002)
1 answer
May 08 25 by Thesuperyoshi
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