Things you've always wanted to know......

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The Boleyn Hound
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by The Boleyn Hound »

Czech Hammer wrote:What was happening twenty minutes before the big bang?
Time only started to exist at the point of the big bang, so the concept of a "before" makes no sense.

Hard to get your head around, I know, but time is as much a property that we perceive as space, distances, material etc. are.
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Cockneyboy311
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Cockneyboy311 »

When flying somewhere, why does the plane sometimes take a strange route? For instance if you fly to NYC the plane flys up towards Canada, passes Greenland ( i think) and then down to NYC. Why not fly in a straight line? Is it to do with international airspace or other flying routes? I understand it must be pretty busy 30,00ft up.
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The Boleyn Hound
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by The Boleyn Hound »

Cockneyboy311 wrote:When flying somewhere, why does the plane sometimes take a strange route? For instance if you fly to NYC the plane flys up towards Canada, passes Greenland ( i think) and then down to NYC. Why not fly in a straight line? Is it to do with international airspace or other flying routes? I understand it must be pretty busy 30,00ft up.
Take a look at a globe and you can see that this is not such a strange route after all - it's probably more/just as direct. The earth bulges in the middle.

We're so used to seeing flat maps of the earth, but they distort the distances involved.

Also they will bear in mind things like the Jet Stream which they can use to push them along a bit, and the absence of population centres.
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RichieRiv
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by RichieRiv »

Other the explanation given by BH, airliners cannot just fly anywhere. There are pre-designated air routes - like motorways in the sky, albeit 3-dimensional - that airliners have to take.

Here's a better explanation....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01b77bj
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Hammer Laffers
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Hammer Laffers »

Why do petrol prices always end in .9?
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Philosophical Dan
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Philosophical Dan »

Hammer Laffers wrote:Why do petrol prices always end in .9?
Same reason that a new car costs 15995. To make the number appear smaller, thus fooling people who are thick that something's cheaper than it is.
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Hambrosia Stu
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Hambrosia Stu »

BPRIGGSC wrote:Also, one other un-related question. Am I the only person who feels sick every morning, from the smell of smoke and coffee as soon as I leave the station?

I know some people enjoy that stuff in the morning, but God it makes me feel awful!
Reminds me of my very first experience of Holland....

Got the ferry over with 3 mates, we got stuck into cheap liquor on the night crossing, got on the train, had to change at Rotterdam, so the plan was to get off and mooch about for an hour or so in our hideously hungover states, before getting the connection.
As my foot hit the platform floor, the over-powering smell of coffee and butter-rich pastries hit me, and I instantly went into projectile vomit mode....

Still can't stand the smell of croissants and all that stuff
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Billy_Boy »

Cockneyboy311 wrote:When flying somewhere, why does the plane sometimes take a strange route? For instance if you fly to NYC the plane flys up towards Canada, passes Greenland ( i think) and then down to NYC. Why not fly in a straight line? Is it to do with international airspace or other flying routes? I understand it must be pretty busy 30,00ft up.
Can't explain that (although the previous post about two dimensional maps distorting our perception is pertinent) but I do know that civilian planes are routed away from any active airborne military activity. Civilian aircraft did not, I am told, fly over Afghanistan for a long time.
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Philosophical Dan
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Philosophical Dan »

There's also the fact that many aircraft are not permitted to be more than 4 hours from an airport, so flying over oceans isn't always allowed.
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Billy_Boy »

Philosophical Dan wrote:There's also the fact that many aircraft are not permitted to be more than 4 hours from an airport, so flying over oceans isn't always allowed.
Out of curiosity, was that one of the reasons that the 'Icelandic volcanic dust-cloud' caused so many civil aviation problems? I'd imagine that if Keflavik airport was out of bounds, transatlantic flights would have been more than 4 hours from an airport. :eh:
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the oldham stripper
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by the oldham stripper »

Cockneyboy311 wrote:When flying somewhere, why does the plane sometimes take a strange route? For instance if you fly to NYC the plane flys up towards Canada, passes Greenland ( i think) and then down to NYC. Why not fly in a straight line? Is it to do with international airspace or other flying routes? I understand it must be pretty busy 30,00ft up.
winds, the planes follow the trade winds so they are always directly behind them to save fuel
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by EastHammer »

why why why delilah?
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by prophet:marginal »

delbert wrote:The big build up......
On a supernova buttercup.
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jevs
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by jevs »

the oldham stripper wrote:
winds, the planes follow the trade winds so they are always directly behind them to save fuel
Thought the trade winds went from Africa, across the Atlantic, to the Caribbean :?
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by rare as rockinghorse shat »

Not something I've 'always' wanted to know...

But, the best Fish & Chips in Brighton?

I'm heading there on Saturday. I've read about a few places - Bardsleys coming out on top, but I get the impression that this is one of those 'everyone says it's great, but the proper locals who know their stuff, think it's overrated and overpriced' sort of places.

I've read about Sung Li? Or something like that?

Preferably, somewhere bang on the front. Regency?
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sendô
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by sendô »

the oldham stripper wrote:
winds, the planes follow the trade winds so they are always directly behind them to save fuel
jevs wrote:Thought the trade winds went from Africa, across the Atlantic, to the Caribbean :?
I think he means the jet stream. The trade winds were the prevailing winds that were used during the age of sail to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by WHU_Del »

RARS, I always used to go to Bankers, but it was just round the corner from my house :)
http://goo.gl/maps/zEzhH" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; <- This one at the bottom of Ship Street right on the front is good, but is expensive (I think it was £8.50 each for cod & chips last time I was there).
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Irish Iron
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by Irish Iron »

LeeWHU88 wrote:What does the saying 'making my piss' actually mean lol.
In every community or group of friends there is always a defining moment where one brave person steps away from the crowd to make his stand in the name of freedom, fairness, justice or good ol’ Country ‘n’ Western. Lost in the annals of Hall of Fame obscurity one such Snug resident was an hero called dicksie (small ‘d’, very important that. You will get called out on it).

dicksie took to the forums to inform us of a very unsavoury occurrence that befell him and his lady wife while they were out enjoying the musical musing of some Country ‘n’ Western singer, who’s name I didn’t know from Adam then and escapes me now. Apparently dicksie was upset by the antics of a fellow audience member, I think he could have jostled his missus or something or spilt his pint, who the f*** knows.

So anyway, dicksie in a fit of pique did what every self-respecting West Ham fan would have done and went and ‘made his piss’, came back and gave the poor fellow ‘the crossed arms’.

Well this is the Snug so it is fair to say that dicksie got some gentle ribbing over his choice of wording which I guess was the straw that broke the camels back after all he’d been through and was never seen again. It remains a mystery whether or not before he deleted his KUMB account he made his piss and gave his computer screen the crossed arms. I like to think he did.
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by sendô »

I thought it was at a pre-season friendly when West Ham went to the US, some blokes were giving him the verbal and so, as he got up to "make his piss" he gave them the crossed arms so as to make them fully aware of his allegiance.
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Re: Things you've always wanted to know......

Post by rare as rockinghorse shat »

Cheers Del, I did hear about Bankers. Seems like it may be in with a shout :thup:
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