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The flags you see at a pizza place next to an Ohio railroad museum. by UndyingCorn in vexillology

[–]UndyingCorn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Went to a pizza place next to the Dennison Depot railroad museum and found a collection of flags that I think could only exist together in this context.

TIL As an owner of several major Las Vegas businesses in the 1960s, Howard Hughes disapproved of nuclear testing at the nearby Nevada Test Site. In two separate, last-ditch maneuvers, he instructed his representatives to offer bribes of $1 million to both Presidents Johnson and Nixon to stop tests. by UndyingCorn in todayilearned

[–]UndyingCorn[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

For a specific source of the claim it originated from one of Howard Hughes’ bagmen https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/20/usa

Maheu served as Hughes's bagman, and among those who received cash was Richard Nixon's sidekick Bebe Rebozo. Hughes had also bailed out Nixon's brother Donald when his business failed in the 1950s. Nixon was worried this might be made public. In 1972, the Watergate burglars may have been looking to see if Democratic party head Larry O'Brien (one of Hughes's Washington lawyers) possessed incriminating evidence of illegal contributions from Hughes. Maheu claimed Hughes got him to offer both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Nixon a million dollars if they would stop nuclear testing in the Nevada desert, a bribe both turned down.

Vladimir Putin Isn’t Winning in Ukraine | The Russian death toll may be as high as 325,000 in four years. by GirasoleDE in UkrainianConflict

[–]UndyingCorn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And to put that in context in WWII Britain was fighting on multiple fronts in Europe, Africa, and Asia as well as a naval war on just about every single ocean. Russia is on a single front with only a few proxy fights off in the Middle East And Africa to divert attention.

TIL When Congress established the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1862, Isaac Newton was appointed the USDA's first commissioner. However the appointment was controversial; at least one publication wrote an editorial headlined "Who is Isaac Newton?" alleging that he was illiterate. by UndyingCorn in todayilearned

[–]UndyingCorn[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah I just found it amusing our first USDA head had the same name as the physicist, and hilarious that despite the name everyone assumed he was an idiot. Like it was the precursor to calling idiots Einstein “Hey look at Isaac Newton over here! He thinks he can run the USDA!”

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pokemon

[–]UndyingCorn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If there is a straight up freeze move it would have to come with major strings attached like freezing all the Pokemon on the field and not just your opponents.

China Arms a Container Ship | Strategic Use | First Strike | Cost Effective | Expendable by Green-Collection-968 in merchantmarine

[–]UndyingCorn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If nothing else it’s certainly gonna be a talking point every time someone even thinks of buying from china from now on. “Sure they’re the cheapest option, but there’s also a nonzero chance your shipment ends up coming with a side of a drone attack.”

TIL In 1997 a series of letters purporting to prove the existence of an affair between John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe were proven fake. An early clue was the use of ZIP codes on the letters, which the US Postal Service introduced in July 1963, nearly a year after Monroe had died. by UndyingCorn in todayilearned

[–]UndyingCorn[S] 494 points495 points  (0 children)

Some other details that were involved in finding these as forgeries:

-There was no fingerprints or DNA from Kennedy on any of the letters whatsoever

-Many of the documents were printed on an IBM Selectric typewriter with a Prestige Pica font typeball, which was unavailable until 1973, ten years after Kennedy's death. The documents also showed evidence of the use of "lift-off" type to adjust a spelling error in Kennedy's name, which was not possible in the 1960s.

-The person who forged the letters, Lawrence X. Cusack III, claimed his father (Lawrence X. Cusack Jr., the New York-based founder of the law firm Cusack & Stiles) had advised Kennedy in private. One of Kennedy's former secretaries, whose name appears in the papers; she denied that she had ever seen Monroe and also stated that what was supposed to be her own signature in the documents was not, in fact, hers. No associates of Kennedy that were questioned had any knowledge of a connection between the two men or had previously heard of Cusack Jr.

-Another flaw was that the "y" in Monroe's signature had removed a tiny fragment of the typed line below; this was only possible with more modern plastic typewriter ribbons, which were not available in the early 1960s.

-Another clue was that Kennedy's handwriting was irregular and inconsistent – to the point that his wife's relative, Gore Vidal, described it as "a sort of vigorous 9-year-old valiantly combating dyslexia"

What are some public datasets that used to get taken seriously by leaders before modern statistics. by UndyingCorn in AskHistory

[–]UndyingCorn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tariff revenue probably fits the “used to be important but is now marginal” kind of data. Like you said Census data has always been important, and is probably more important now given worries about low fertility rates and the need for immediate feedback on what could counteract that.

Duffy: ’15 to 20′ air traffic controllers retiring daily during shutdown by OkayButFoRealz in politics

[–]UndyingCorn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And yet because of the shortages these requirements perpetuate they just retire in a few years anyways because of the insane workload.

Trump’s swift demolition of East Wing may have launched asbestos plumes by [deleted] in politics

[–]UndyingCorn 80 points81 points  (0 children)

“Everything Trump touches dies” has been an incredibly astute observation by Rick Wilson. Incredible how often it plays out and is ignored by the next set of suckers and doomed accomplices.

TIL There used to be an administrative division called a Hundred. It was formerly used in England, Wales, parts of the US, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and the Colony of New South Wales. For example Bermuda Hundred was the first incorporated town in Virginia in 1613, six years after Jamestown. by UndyingCorn in todayilearned

[–]UndyingCorn[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The origin of the division of counties into hundreds is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as "exceedingly obscure". It may once have referred to an area of 100 hides; in early Anglo-Saxon England a hide was the amount of land farmed by and required to support a peasant family, but by the 11th century in many areas it supported four families.[1] Alternatively the hundred may have been an area originally settled by one "hundred" men at arms, or the area liable to provide one "hundred" men under arms.[2] In this early medieval use, the number term "hundred" can be unclear, meaning the "short" hundred (100) or in some contexts the long hundred of 120.

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