Nice Little Facts

[Hog]

Dolphins can have half of their brains sleep, while the other half is awake.

peace
Hog

[Daggit]

This fun fact was on the roll of a brand of toilet paper at my local bar (i don't know if it's true or not): if you consistently fart for 6 years & 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb!

[The Alcoholic]

I'll try and post one per day.

Today's introductory nice little fact:

Just as you have a herd of elephants and a pride of lions, a group of rhinos is called a crash.

Out of every fact on earth and THIS is the one you chose for the first fact of the day! Jesus H Christ lol.

A good fact would be something like...


Did you know there's a a syndrome  where a person is "cortically blind", but affirms, often quite adamantly and in the face of clear evidence of their blindness, that they are capable of seeing?


It's from occipital lobe damage in the brain. It's called Anton's syndrome and is super rare.

[GravitySucks]

There is a town in California up towards San Fransisco called Los Banos.

I don't know how far that is from Martinez.

[MR. Spock]

There is a town in California up towards San Fransisco called Los Banos.

I don't know how far that is from Martinez.

About 90 minutes away.

[effluenza]

During your lifetime, you will produce enough saliva to fill two swimming pools.

[akwilly]

The wrestler known as the Rock Had a catch phrase " can you smell what the Rock is cooking". He only said that so that Sony could guage the publics interest in smellavision TV technology.

[bigchucka]

The wrestler known as the Rock Had a catch phrase " can you smell what the Rock is cooking". He only said that so that Sony could guage the publics interest in smellavision TV technology.

Chuck Norris can smell what the The Rock is cooking.  The Rock is his personal chef.

[twiki]

When Twister was introduced in 1966 it was denounced by critics as "Sex in a box".

[venix]

There are more lifeforms living on your skin than people living on the planet.

[akwilly]

In Australia all the globes are upside down.

[akwilly]

coconuts are classified as mammals because they have hair and produce milk.

[Inglorious Bitch]

coconuts are classified as mammals because they have hair and produce milk.

I'll be sure to remember that next time I am in a trivia contest.

[Inglorious Bitch]

Philip Glass, influential music composer and Ira Glass, NPR personality and sex symbol are cousins.

[Walks_At_Night]

I'll be sure to remember that next time I am in a trivia contest.

Ibby is back!   Hooray!   

[Inglorious Bitch]

Ibby is back!   Hooray!   

[akwilly]

Ibby is back!   Hooray!   

it wasn't the same without her

[Inglorious Bitch]

it wasn't the same without her

Your coconut trivia may win me a pub quiz some day.

[akwilly]

Your coconut trivia may win me a pub quiz some day.

some of the " facts" I've posted here might not be 100% correct.lol

[Inglorious Bitch]

some of the " facts" I've posted here might not be 100% correct.lol

What?! I'm glad you said something or I would have been a victim of MAS (Male Answer Syndrome)*




*"Male Answer Syndrome" (MAS) is the tendency among men to give answers to questions whether they know anything about the subject or not, particularly when in the presence of women. (Google)

[zeebo]

Your coconut trivia may win me a pub quiz some day.

Wouldn't hurt to brush up on your pineapples too:


* One pineapple plant produces only one pineapple every 2 years.

* Pineapples were historically very useful on long boat trips. Eating them prevented scurvy, and pineapple juice mixed with sand is a great cleaning agent for boats.

* Pineapple is not, strictly speaking, a fruit. Rather it is 100-200 berries/fruitlets all fused together.

* Honolulu is sometimed refered to as 'The Big Pineapple'.

[73s]

Wouldn't hurt to brush up on your pineapples too

Also this:
Fresh Pineapple Juice contains an enzyme bromelain, which is a natural meat tenderizer. It is used in many commercial meat tenderizers.

[Hog]

On Sept 13, SR-71 Pilot Captain Harold B. “Buck” Adams and his backseater RSO (reconnaissance systems officer) Major William C. Machorek flew a SR-71-A from London, England to Los Angeles, USA in 3 hours, 47 minute and 39 seconds.  The flight covered 5,447 statute miles, and required 2 arerial refuellings, thus brought its average speed down to 1,35mph.

2 weeks before, on September 1, 1974 Major James V. Sullivan, 37 (pilot) and Noel F. Widdifield, 33 (reconnaissance systems officer) went from New York to London in 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds.  It required only a single aerial refueling, so its average speed was higher at 1,807mph.

Everytime a SR-71 had to refuel, it had to slow from around 2,200mph down to about 300mph, and descend from an altitude of about 80,000ft down to 25,000ft to meet up with waiting tankers. The SR-71 had to stay at that low speed for about 20 minutes as that's how long it took to load the jet with its 80,000 pounds of specialized JP-7 fuel.  The SR-71 took on so much fuel, that the pilot had to actually light one of the engines afterburners in order to keep up with the tanker during the last 2-3 minutes of the 20 minute refueling. At full military power(engines at max power without afterburners-or dry max thrust) there wasn't enough thrust to maintain speed with the tanker.  After the Sr-71 was filled, the pilot pulled to the side, went to max throttles, engaged both afterburners 100%, and pushed the nose down in order to make the trans sonic portion of the flight as short as possible.  Once supersonic, the SR-71 pulled up and accelerated and climbed up to 75,000ft the cruise climbed up to 80,000+feet and Mach 3.2+.

The JP-7 jet fuel was used as a heat sink to cool the jet and its engines. It was also used as a hydraulic fluid. Until the jet had made a hot run, or had a period of time above Mach 2.8, the jet leaked fuel and the fuel tanks wouldn't seal 100% until the airframe had been heated during the "hot run". The "hot run" would cause the airframe to expand by 7 inches. The canopy reached 600ºF and the wing leading edges reached 1100ºF.  Ity is often said that the plane elaked fuel so bad that it had to refuel from a tanker immediatly after takeoff.  Well yes it did have to refuel right after takeoff, but that was because the SR-71 only took off with 45,000lbs of fuel, or about 1/2 a full load.  This was done for a few reasons: 1) If during takeoff, an engine failed, the jet becomes unmanageable when trying to takeoff on a single engine, having 1/2 a tank of fuel helps to make this single engine out takeoff envelope easier to manage.b) During testing an 80,000 pound fuel oad was used, and the mechanics noticed increased wear and damage on the tires and landing gear. Being a Delta wing plane, as the jet rotates to liftoff, extra forces is applied to the already taxed landing gear. The landing gear was designed to be lightweight, the extra fuel load didn't do it any favours.  After the testing phase, the SR-71 used the 45,000 pound fuel load for takeoff with a scheduled tanker refueling right afterwards.  Then the SR-71 would light the burners, dip its nose, break the sound barrier and accelerate/climb to 16 miles up and 3 plus times the speed of sound as its Standard Operating Procedure.
If aluminum was used to build the plane, it would have heated up then failed, so a certain alloy of Titanium was used. This certain alloy was a "softer" type of Titanium so that is was "easier" to machine. The Titanium was bought from the Soviets through companies setup via the CIA. Massive quantities were needed. To this day, there are millions of dollars of raw Titanium in storage along with hundreds of millions of dollars of parts inventory.  The actual tooling used to build the major airframe components were ordered destroys by Robert McNamara in the late 60's.  This was done so that the Interceptor version of the SR-71, the YF-12 could never be manufactured.  There were 3 YF-12's built with only 1 surviving in a museum. 1 crashed and was destroyed, the other crash landed, and its tail section was mated with an SR-71 test articles front fuselage to make the only SR-71-C model.  It was aid that this C model wasn't exactly straight when the grafted the 2 pieces together.  It was nicknamed "the Bastard", because at over Mach 3 the airframe would yaw ever so slightly requiring trim corrections to fly straight.  The YF-12 was designed to fire missiles and it had the front of its chines removed in order to house the radar that was used to identify and shoot down targets.
The original Blackbird was the CIA A-12, this is the smallest and lightest of all the Blackbirds.  Its full fuel load is only  An A-12 has flown at 94,800 ft in altitude. This is just under 18 miles, straight up.  Brian Schull a former SR-71 pilot the author of Sled Driver(the SR-71 Pilots called their jets, sleds) wrote that there was a time that he was trying to avoid missiles that were fired at his SR-71. He saw Mach 3,5 on his Mach meter, yet his CIT(Compressor Inlet Temperature was within the mandated 427º maximum.  The max CIT of 427ºC was the max CIT that the makers of the J-58 engines would guarantee their engines for.  Anything higher than that and the engine could destroy itself. The cooler the atmospheric temperatures, the faster the Sr71 can travel before this CIT becomes a factor.  In CITs were exceeded the Pilots career path would abruptly change.  Exceeding this temp was a no-no.  For the final record run for the SR-71, a maximum CIT of 450ºC was authorized, but wasn't approached during the record run.
There were 13 A-12's built and 2 M-21's built. 3 YF-12s built, and 32 SR-71s
The M-21 which stands for Mother, launches the D-21 drone(D stands for Daughter).  The M-21 would launch the D-21 while travelling at Mach 3+ and the drone would fly across China or the Soviet Union, the when it was done, the data package would separate from the Drone body and then parachute its way down, but a C-130 Hercules would snatch the parachute out of the air before it hot the ground.  This was the exact same way in which the US would recover its spy satellite film canisters that returned to Earth.
It should be noted that non of the Blackbirds have ever flown over Russia or the Soviet Union.  The SR-71 would skirt its borders at 80,000+ft and use its powerful spy equipment to look at a slant angle deep into her borders.

Here is a video of a M-21 attempting to launch a D-21 at over Mach 3.  The video is being taken from another Blackbird.  The Pilot and the backseater (called a LCO in the M-21- stand for Launch Control Officer)eventually ejected, but the LCO had opened his visor and water streamed into his pressure suit causing him to drown.
This video is narrated by the creator of the Blackbirds and the U2, Kelly Johnson, the M21-D21 project was cancelled after this accident.  The D-21 was then launched from B-52 bombers.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMyC2urCl_4

The ejection seats and the pressure suits worn by the crew were used for the first 4 Space Shuttle missions aboard Columbia and for the manned portion of the Approach and Landing Test (ALT-where the launched Enterprise from the top of a modified 747 jet) aboard Enterprise.  During Sts-1,STS-2,STS-3 and STS-4, as Columbia crossed the 100,000ft mark, the CAPCOM(CAPsule COMmunicator) would say "Columbia Negative Seats"  this meant that at that point, Columbia was too high to use the ejection seats in case of a contingency.  Ejecting from Columbia or any of the Blackbirds was followed by a long and cold controlled-freefall down to 15,000ft where the main chutes deployed. Depending on how high you were upon ejection, the fall could take 10 minutes.

At 7:07 of this video you get a great shot of the air spikes moving into the engine.  During flight, the spikes move inwards about 27 inches which position the supersonic shockwave just within the entrance of the engine.  Anytime the shockwave is uncontrolled and comes out of the engine intake is a condition called an "unstart". Its a violent and immediate lost of thrust, and causes yawing as the opposite engine is still in afterburner producing big thrust. If one engine unstarts, the other engine also sometimes would unstart.
At 2;10 of this video(and again at 7:06 you get a nice closeup), you can see the shots of TEB(triethylborane) which burn in a greenish flame. TEB combusts on its own when exposed to oxygen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk7DLUxIp1w

It was used to both start the engines, and to ignite the afterburners whenever the throttles were lifter UP and pushed forward.  Each jet had enough TEB for 16 shots per engine. 1 engine start, 1 to light the burners on takeoff, another when coming off the tanker.  So you have used 3 already and you have just left the tanker.  The SR-71 cruises with the J58's in afterburner. They actually get more efficient in regards to pounds of fuel per mile travelled, the faster the jet travels.

Aluminum aircraft "work harden" and eventually become brittle and have to be taken out of service.  The Titanium that the Sr-71 is made of actually becomes stronger after each flight because the Titanium airframe retempers itself after each "hot pass" above Mach 2.8.


Over 4,000 missiles were fired at the Blackbird family, but none were ever hit.  These planes fly at about 3200 feet per second, handgun bullets travel at about 800-1200 fps, a .308 Winchester bullet travels at 2800 fps, so the SR-71 Blackbirds were literally "faster than a speeding bullet"


So many "Nice Little Facts" is such an "Awesome Little Plane".

peace
Hog

[Juan]

And SR-71 was long ago banned from Bellgab.

[cosmic hobo]

And SR-71 was long ago banned from Bellgab.

But his penchant for bad grammar and spelling lives on in MR. Spock.

[cosmic hobo]

A lethal dose of chocolate for human beings is 22 lbs or 40 chocolate bars.

[zeebo]

The famous Fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13 ...) is encoded within the number 1/89, which = 0.01 + 0.001 + 0.0002 + 0.00003 + 0.000005 + 0.0000008 + 0.00000013 + 0.000000021 + 0.0000000034 … and so on forever.

[Gruntled]

Thanks for the SR- Blackbird post Hog.
Most interesting!
I had models as a kid and remember my family quietly discussing the Francis Gary Powers situation in hushed tones.
Tense times.

[starrmtn001]

There are more lifeforms living on your skin than people living on the planet.

Showers must be their extinction level events.

[(Sandman) Logan-5]

 STONEHENGE IS FAKE ! ! !

OK, maybe not fake, but it has been rebuilt...   https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/12/330623.html?c=on

         

More images of the reconstruction are here:  http://fishki.net/46388-stroitelstvo-stounhendzha-108-foto.html