Thread: Trivia and other useless but interesting items

Is it something to do with the mind set. Many years ago saw some soldiers swimming in the water under the jetty at Weipa. Asked what they were doing? Seems they were checking for explosives that might have been placed by the enemy force. Pointed out that locals would not go in there as crocs were often seen hanging around

When our field party arrived at Normanton in 1963, and were waiting for the ferry across the river to load, a couple of the blokes went in to cool off (it was a hot day, and they had just driven hundreds of miles on dusty roads without airconditioning). The ferry master leaned over the rail -

"I wouldn't swim there!"

"Why? Are there sharks?"

"Nah! The crocs chased them away!"

Hasty exit from the water.

Some booking sites might not be quiet as they seem

"A woman in north London says she feels victimised after dozens of tourists turned up at her home when her private address was placed on the Booking.com accommodation website.


Travellers from Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Los Angeles turned up at the home of Gillian, whose full name is not being given, throughout July.


She had to turn them away and told Booking.com it was a scam.


The firm said her home had now been "completely removed" from its site.


Gillian told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme that on 4 July she was surprised by unexpected visitors to her home.



"

They might be unhappy being ripped off as well

I would Love to run or ride over this place. A "Zud" was not in my universe until today



"Zud, a natural disaster unique to Mongolia, results in large proportions of the country's livestock dying from starvation or freezing temperatures or both, resulting in economic upheaval for the largely pastoral population. "

Trivia but not trivial for Mongolia!

Yep in Germany



"Firefighters are also battling a punishing heatwave, with Berlin forecast to hit 37C on Thursday. The forest is suffering from drought and is "bone dry", Jan Thomsen from the Department for Environment told Deutsche Welle radio station.



No firefighting helicopters were available to help, authorities said, because they were already busy in eastern Germany where there have been days of wildfires.


What caused the pre-dawn explosion that sparked the Grunewald forest fire is under investigation.



"

Video of it via tweetta

I helped move some sweating ordinance one time a few + years ago. It was by hand and we did move slow and steady. I recall a bit of sweat on my forehead as well. We did make it all go boom in a safe place.

In 1970 the exploration operation i was running moved into a small village in the Torricelli Mountains in PNG (access only by plane). One of our blokes, familiar with explosives, was talking to the Patrol Officer in his office, and noticed a stack of elderly looking gelignite boxes under the desk. With something oozing out one corner. On asking the Patrol Officer about them the response was "Dunno, they were here when I was posted here five years ago".

Following a sort lesson for him in explosives safety, a couple of hours later the local convict gang dug a deep hole on the far side of airstrip from the station, and were then seen very slowly and carefully carrying the boxes one by one to the pit (escorted by the police sergeant about 25m away) where they were carefully stacked. Next day a bomb disposal expert from the army base in Wewak came out. He refused to touch them, and detonated them where they were.

Closer to home a few years ago was on a farm and the owner asked me to look at some explosives that had been in the shed for many years.

There were 4 boxes of black power stacked in the corner with detonators piled on top. Seems that many years ago he had a Polish farm manager who had brought them with him when arrived on the farm and had not taken them with him when left. Reason for asking me to have a look as had noticed that the detonators had developed what he called a green slime coating and had expanded. When looked was close to producing an exploded diagram of the shed and all that was in it. Carefully removed detonators and burnt them in the creek bed

Was given the black powder and loaded car for trip home. Was in trouble if stopped as did not have the Explosives signs on all four sides of the car. That said the semi that was tailgating me on the way home really did not understand that this was the one car on the road that could bite harder than him if it went wrong. Loved those signs you got total respect from everyone on the road

When I was in the army a large part of our unit was "volunteered" to go and fight a bush fire on a live fire training ground. They were unimpressed as they heard a few rounds of unused small arms ammo go off in the flames!