I was going to introduce today’s post by saying some like “I hope you are having a pun-tastic week”, but I thought I would sound like a demented DJ from the 1970s.
So I’ll just say hello and welcome and let you get on with the puns.
Enjoy or endure!!
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Lite:
the new way to spell “Light,”
now with 20% fewer letters!
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I was asked to man the phones
at work the other day.
So I went round and drew a
little mustache on all of them.
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Spelling…
It’s not brian surgery.
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Hamlet:
A small pig.
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According to my Spanish doctor
I have Hepatitis Yes
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My doctor told me to quit my helium addiction
before I got carried away.
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2B or not 2B?
I don’t think I’ve ever put this much thought
into which shade of pencil to use before.
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‘UK Man has first hand transplant.’
Surely that’s a second hand transplant.
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I was taking a short cut across a field the other day,
I was halfway across when the farmer approached me and said,
“Did you leave that small wooden step at the edge of my field?”
I replied, “No, it wasn’t me, that’s not my stile”
Hi, and welcome to fasab’s fascinating festive facts.
Everything on my blog this week is in Christmas mode including these tidbits of information that you may be able to work into the conversation if you are at a party or two this week.
Enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas.
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The traditional three colors of Christmas
are green, red, and gold.
Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth;
red symbolizes the blood of Christ,
and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
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The first printed reference to a
Christmas tree was in 1531 in Germany.
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Apparently seven out of ten British dogs
get Christmas gifts from their doting owners.
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A lot of people don’t like it,
but the abbreviation of ‘Xmas’ for
Christmas is not irreligious.
The first letter of the word Christ in Greek is chi,
which is identical to our X.
Xmas was originally an ecclesiastical abbreviation
that was used in tables and charts.
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Electric Christmas lights
were first used in 1854.
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Some people who were born on December 25
feel hard done by because they have to
make do with one present instead of two
and share their big day celebrations with everybody else.
Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island,
recognized the problem. When he died on December 4, 1894,
he willed his November 13 birthday to a friend
who disliked her own Christmas birthday
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Franklin Pierce was the first president to
decorate an official White House Christmas tree.
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Silent Night was written in 1818,
by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr.
He was told the day before Christmas
that the church organ was broken
and would not be repaired in time for Christmas Eve.
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Artificial Christmas trees
have outsold real ones since 1991.
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In the British armed forces it is traditional
that officers wait on the other ranks
and serve them their Christmas dinner.
This dates back to a custom from the Middle Ages.
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Long before mistletoe became a saucy ‘kiss encourager’,
it was considered to have magic powers.
It was said to have the ability to heal
wounds and increase fertility.
Celts hung mistletoe in their homes
in order to bring themselves good luck
and ward off evil spirits.
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Each year there are approximately 20,000
“rent-a-Santas” across the United States.
“Rent-a-Santas” usually undergo seasonal training
on how to maintain a jolly attitude
under pressure from the public.
They also receive practical advice,
such as not accepting money from parents
while children are looking and
avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch.
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In Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea,
your age is measured not in years
but in how many Christmases you’ve lived through;
you’re not 20, you’re twenti krismas.
Rather less charmingly,
the Japanese expression to describe
single women over 25 years old is
kurisumasu keiki – left-over Christmas cake.
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Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names,
such as Blitzen, Comet, and Cupid.
However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas,
so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh
are likely not male, but female – or castrati.
(I wonder if that is the origin of hanging balls
on a Christmas tree comes from?)
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The popular Christmas song “Jingle Bells”
was actually written for Thanksgiving.
The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont,
and was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh”.
As time moves on – and it’s moving on far too fast – more and more things tend to irritate me.
The stupidity and bureaucracy we have to endure is the thing that inspired this blog in the first place and that remains a huge thorn in my side. I have made many comments on that subject and given the opportunity will no doubt make many more.
But another thing that pisses me off more and more is almost the opposite of stupidity – it is people trying to be too damn smart.
Nowhere is this more noticeable than in the technology that we use today.
Now, I’m not a technophobe by any stretch of the imagination. I love my computers and the advent of the internet was one of the greatest things ever, as far as I was concerned. Indeed I have blogged in the past about my long love affair with computers click here to read it.
Maybe it’s because of that long love affair, because I have been involved with computers for so many years, that what is happening now irritates me so much.
What I’m talking about is the fact that today’s personal computers and tablets and telephones and all the other periphery of techo gadgets try to do far too much for their owners. Everyone who has one of these machines is apparently a moron, or at least that’s how the manufacturers seem to treat us.
In the good old days you actually had to work at making your computer do things. Your telephone in those days made telephone calls and that was about it. And tablets were the things the doctor prescribed when you were feeling poorly.
To cut what could well turn into a very long list of current irritations into a manageable size, let me concentrate on just a few of the most horrible things that we now have to face.
In fact, rather than go on and on I’ll split this post over a few days.
Today it’s telephones.
Like I just said, I remember the days when phones were used to make phone calls – seemed logical enough to us at the time. Now they do all sorts of things. You can still phone people when you figure out how, but now you can also text, surf the internet, send and receive video messages and calls, play games, buy stuff – in fact almost everything you can do on your computer you can now do on a smart phone. And most of them have reasonable quality cameras too.
For a while those who could afford a cell phone were lumbered with a thing the size of a brick and it weighed almost as much too!
You can see one of those in the photo below (far left!). You can still get them, or rather a modern version if you want to draw a bit of attention to yourself – and there are always people who do.
As the years went on the phones kept getting smaller and smaller. That was good for a while. They became light and pocket sized. But miniaturization became the trend, and cell phones got really really really small to the extent that unless you had the fingers of a five year old child instead of chubby man paws it was a struggle to find the right numbers to make a call and a nightmare to send a text.
Then, mainly because of the advance of wifi and 3G and 4G and so forth, cell phones started to get bigger again to the extent that they are nearly back to the size of that brick again, albeit a lot thinner and lighter. Glasses are the next step, with a heads up view just like on the helmet visors of those jet fighters you see in the movies. And sometime in the not too distant future you will just need a silicone chip embedded at the back of your ear-hole. Not sure I’ll go for that last one though.
That’s a potted history of the cell phone, but now for the really irritating part.
When texting really took off and became the most popular form of communication when using a cell phone, someone – they won’t tell me his name probably for his own safety – decided that we needed help writing a text. Not what I call a “speel chekkar” that is available on your computer – which would have been acceptable – but a much more sinister and annoying invention.
Guessed what it is yet?
Yes, it’s “auto-correct” or as it likes to call itself “anal cortex”.
I hate this thing with a passion. I disconnect it on every device I can because it doesn’t work!
Auto-correct has not the slightest idea what you are trying to say. It is unnecessary, frustrating, irritating and useless.
It has only one saving grace that I have found.
Sometimes it’s funny.
If you are not likely to be offended by strong language, have a look at some of the examples below and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
In case you are wondering these numbers are picked quite randomly. Only after it makes itself known does the search start for things associated with it.
Sometimes there is a lot, sometimes not so much. Sixty-four seems to be a well used number so a lot of information below.
If you are into numbers, enjoy.
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The Number Sixty-Four 64
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In religion
The 64th word of the King James Version of the Bible’s Old Testament Genesis is “light”;
King David prays for deliverance from his enemies in the 64th Psalm;
The 64 Dakinis or Yoginis are 8 Mother goddesses each with 8 attendants in India religious traditions; each of the 64 can be further correlated to the currents or winds of the human “etheric” body;
The Lord Shiva has 64 forms or manifestations.
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In mathematics
Sixty-four is the square of 8, the cube of 4, and the sixth power of 2;
Sixty-four is the smallest number with exactly seven divisors;
Sixty-four is the lowest positive power of two that is adjacent to neither a Mersenne prime nor a Fermat prime;
Sixty-four is the sum of Euler’s totient function for the first fourteen integers;
Sixty-four is also a dodecagonal number and a centered triangular number;
In base 10, no integer added up to its own digits yields 64, hence it is a self number;
Sixty-four is a super-perfect number – a number such that s(s(n))=2n.
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Base64
Base64 is a group of similar binary-to-text encoding schemes that represent binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64 representation. The term Base64 originates from a specific MIME content transfer encoding.
Base64 encoding schemes are commonly used when there is a need to encode binary data that needs to be stored and transferred over media that are designed to deal with textual data. This is to ensure that the data remain intact without modification during transport.
Base64 is commonly used in a number of applications including email via MIME, and storing complex data in XML.
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Graham’s number
Graham’s number, named after Ronald Graham, is unimaginably larger than other well-known large numbers such as a googol, googolplex, and even larger than Skewes’ number and Moser’s number.
The number gained a degree of popular attention when Martin Gardner described it in the “Mathematical Games” section of Scientific American in November 1977, writing that, “In an unpublished proof, Graham has recently established … a bound so vast that it holds the record for the largest number ever used in a serious mathematical proof.” The 1980 Guinness Book of World Records repeated Gardner’s claim, adding to the popular interest in this number.
Specific integers known to be far larger than Graham’s number have since appeared in many serious mathematical proofs (e.g., in connection with Friedman’s various finite forms of Kruskal’s theorem).
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In Computing
64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit computing is the use of processors that have datapath widths, integer size, and memory addresses of 64 bits (eight octets) wide. Also, 64-bit CPU and ALU architectures are those that are based on registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. From the software perspective, 64-bit computing means the use of code with 64-bit virtual memory addresses
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Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, commonly called C64, CBM 64 (for Commodore Business Machines), or VIC-64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International.
Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595.
Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM, and had favorable sound and graphical specifications when compared to contemporary systems such as the Apple II, at a price that was well below the circa US$ 1200 demanded by Apple.
For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC compatibles, Apple Inc. computers, and Atari 8-bit family computers.
Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore’s founder, said in a 1989 interview “When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years.”
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Dragon 64
The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo), and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., in Port Talbot, Wales, and for the US market by Tano of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The model numbers reflect the primary difference between the two machines, which have 32 and 64 kilobytes of RAM, respectively.
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In science
Sixty-four is the Atomic Number of Gadolinium (Gd), discovered by Jean de Marignac 1880 (Switzerland), and named after the mineral gadolinite;
Sixty-four is the Atomic Weight of Copper (Cu).
There are 64 codons in the RNA codon table under genetic code.
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In space
Messier object M64, is a magnitude 9.0 galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, also known as the Black Eye Galaxy;
The New General Catalogue object NGC 64, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus;
WOH G64 is a red hypergiant in the Large Magellanic Cloud. With 1540 times the radius of the Sun, it is one of the largest known stars and the largest known in the LMC. The physical parameters are still poorly known due to the distance, visual faintness, several solar masses of shrouding dust, and the possibility of a bright hot companion.
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STS-64
STS-64 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 9 September 1994, to perform multiple experiment packages.
STS-64 marked the first flight of Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) and first untethered U.S. extravehicular activity (EVA) in 10 years. LITE payload employs lidar, which stands for “light detection and ranging”, a type of optical radar using laser pulses instead of radio waves to study Earth’s atmosphere.
On day five of the mission, the Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy-201 (SPARTAN-201) free flyer was released using the Remote Manipulator System arm.
STS-64 was the first mission to see the use of the new full-pressure Advanced Crew Escape Suit, which eventually replaced the partial-pressure Launch Entry Suit.
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In politics
Department of State Form DS-64 is the one US Citizens need if they lose or have your passport stolen;
Department of Labor Chapter 64 regulates the employment of workers with disabilities at special wages;
In the United States presidential election of 1964, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964, Democratic candidate and incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson who had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, and who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy’s popularity, won 61.1% of the popular vote, the highest won by a candidate since 1820.
In Chinese the “Six Four Incident” refers to Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
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In sport
There are 64 teams participating in the NCAA Basketball Tournament;
In chess or draughts, there are a total of 64 black (dark) and white (light) squares on the game board;
The Knight’s Tour of a chessboard is a sequence of moves by a knight so that each of the 64 squares is visited only once. The numbers of the knight’s moves form a magic square where each row and column adds up to 260;
64 is the name of the premier Russian chess magazine;
NFL Hall of Famers with jersey #64 include Dave Wilcox, Linebacker (Boise Junior College, Oregon) and 1964-1974 San Francisco 49ers; George Blanda, Quarterback-Kicker, 1949, 1950-58 Chicago Bears, 1950 Baltimore Colts, 1960-66 Houston Oilers, 1967-1975 Oakland Raiders; Joe Delamielleure, Guard, 1973-1979, 1985 Buffalo Bills, 1980-1984 Cleveland Browns; Randall McDaniel, Guard, 1988-1999 Minnesota Vikings, 2000-01 Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Y.A. Tittle, Quarterback, 1948-1950 Baltimore Colts (AAFC/NFL), 1951-1960 San Francisco 49ers, 1961-1964 New York Giants.
In the National Hockey League, jersey #64 is used by James Robert McGinn IV is a Canadian professional ice hockey player currently playing for the Colorado Avalanche.
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In books, movies, music and TV
The $64,000 Question is an American game show broadcast from 1955–1958, which became embroiled in the scandals involving TV quiz shows of the day. The $64,000 Challenge (1956–1958) was its popular spin-off show.
When I’m 64 is a song by John Lennon & Paul McCartney from The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album (1967).
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In militaria
HMS Vansittart
HMS Vansittart was an Admiralty modified W class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was ordered in January 1918 from William Beardmore & Company with the 13th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1918-19. She was the second Royal Navy ship to carry the name which was first used in 1821 for a hired packet.
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HMS Beverley (H 64)
Completed in July 1920 as USS Branch (DD 197) for the US Navy, on 8 Oct, 1940 she was transferred to the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Beverley (H 64).
On 9 Apr, 1943, during WWII convoy duty in the North Atlantic, HMS Beverley had been seriously damaged in a collision with the British steam merchant Cairnvalona and had taken station in the rear of the convoy. When it was subsequenty attaced by a German U-Boat, U-188, 30 hours later she was hit by torpedos and sunk. HMS Clover (K 134) (Lt P.H. Grieves, RNR) later picked up five survivors and recovered two bodies, but one of the survivors later died on board.
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HMS Fencer (D64)
The USS Croatan (CVE-14) (originally AVG-14 then ACV-14) was transferred to the United Kingdom on 20 February 1943 under lend-lease where she served as HMS Fencer (D64). As an anti-submarine warfare carrier, Fencer escorted Atlantic, Russian and African convoys, even participating in a strike on the German battleship Tirpitz before being transferred to the Pacific.
Following World War II, she returned to the United States 21 December 1946, stricken for disposal on 28 January 1947 and sold into merchant service 30 December as Sydney.
The ship went through a series of renamings, first to Roma in 1967, then Galaxy Queen in 1970, Lady Dina in 1972 and finally Caribia in 1973 before being scrapped in Spezia in September 1975.
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HMS Scorpion (D64)
HMS Scorpion (D64) was a Weapon-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy. Originally named HMS Centaur, the ship was renamed Tomahawk and finally Scorpion (in September 1943) before her launch.
Scorpion was the only Weapon-class ship fitted with the Limbo depth charge mortar rather than the older Squid.
In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
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HMS Theseus (R64)
HMS Theseus (R64) was a Colossus-class light fleet aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 July 1944.
Theseus was laid down to serve in the Second World War, but was not completed before peace was declared in 1945. She was utilized as a training vessel until the outbreak of the Korean War when she was deployed to Korea, commencing standard carrier operations.
In 1956, Theseus was used as an emergency commando carrier, along with her sister-ship Ocean, during the Suez Crisis. From November to December, helicopters from Theseus transported troops ashore, as well as evacuating wounded soldiers. Compared to her actions during the Korean War, her role at Suez was relatively quiet. The following year she was placed in reserve. She was subsequently broken up at Inverkeithing in 1962.
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USS Wisconsin (BB-64)
The USS Wisconsin (BB-64), “Wisky” or “WisKy”, is an Iowa-class battleship, the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. She was launched on 7 December 1943 (the second anniversary of the Pearl Harbor raid).
During her career, Wisconsin served in the Pacific Theater of World War II, where she shelled Japanese fortifications and screened United States aircraft carriers as they conducted air raids against enemy positions.
During the Korean War, Wisconsin shelled North Korean targets in support of United Nations and South Korean ground operations, after which she was decommissioned.
She was reactivated 1 August 1986, modernised and participated in Operation Desert Storm in January and February 1991.
Wisconsin was last decommissioned in September 1991, having earned a total of six battle stars for service in World War II and Korea, as well as a Navy Unit Commendation for service during the January/February 1991 Gulf War.
She currently functions as a museum ship operated by Nauticus, The National Maritime Center in Norfolk, Virginia. .
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USS Constellation (CV-64)
The USS Constellation (CV-64), a Kitty Hawk–class supercarrier, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the “new constellation of stars” on the flag of the United States and the only naval vessel ever authorized to display red, white, and blue designation numbers.
One of the fastest ships in the Navy, as proven by her victory during a battlegroup race held in 1985, she was nicknamed “Connie” by her crew and officially as “America’s Flagship”.
She was launched 8 October 1960 and delivered to the Navy 1 October 1961, and commissioned 27 October 1961, with Captain T. J. Walker in command. At that time, she had cost about US$264.5 million. Constellation was the last U.S. aircraft carrier (as of 2010) to be built at a yard other than Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company.
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USS Gettysburg (CG-64)
The USS Gettysburg (CG-64) is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser in the United States Navy, built at the Bath Iron Works in Maine and named for the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
With her guided missiles and rapid-fire cannons, she is capable of facing and defeating threats in the air, on the sea, or ashore, and underneath the sea. She also carries two Seahawk LAMPS multi-purpose helicopters, but mainly for anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
She is based in Mayport, Florida.
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U-64
The first U-64 was a Type U-63 class submarine in the Kaiserliche Marine that served during World War I. She was built in 1916 and served in the Mediterranean Sea.
On 19 March 1917, while on patrol in the Tyrrhenian Sea, U-64 torpedoed and sank the French battleship Danton 30 miles south of Sardinia, with the loss of 296 men. She herself was lost on 17 June 1918.
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In 1937 another German submarine U-64, a Type IXB U-boat of the Nazi German Kriegsmarine, was ordered in July 1937 and launched in September 1939.
This U-64 had a very short career and sank no enemy vessels. Having left her home port of Wilhelmshaven for her first war patrol on 6 April 1940, she was intercepted by Allied aircraft seven days later off the coast of Norway during the invasion of that country and was sunk by a bomb from a Fairey Swordfish aircraft of HMS Warspite. Of her crew of 46, eight men died and 38 escaped from the sinking submarine.
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K-64
The K-64 Designation was first given to the first Alfa Class Submarine, launched on April 22, 1969.
In 1972, the submarine suffered a major reactor problem in the form of a leak of liquid metal coolant. The superheated metal solidified on contact with the colder outside air, freezing and damaging internal components of the reactor. She was removed from service and towed to Severodvinsk.
The K-64 designation was again given to a Delta IV class submarine launched on February 2, 1986 as the fourth ship of its class, entered in service in the Russian Northern Fleet. The sub was laid down in December 1982 and was built at Sevmash plant in Severodvinsk.
This ship is still in active service.
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P-64
P-64 was the designation assigned by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) to the North American Aviation NA-68 fighter, an upgraded variant of the NA-50 developed during the late 1930s.
Six NA-68s ordered by the Royal Thai Air Force were seized before export by the US government in 1941, after the Franco-Thai War and growing ties between Thailand and the Empire of Japan. These aircraft were used by the USAAC as unarmed fighter trainers.
Seven NA-50s were purchased by the Peruvian Air Force, which nicknamed it Torito (“Little Bull”). The Peruvian NA-50s subsequently saw action during the Ecuadorian-Peruvian War of 1941.
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The Grumman G-64/111 Albatross
The Albatross is easily the largest of Grumman’s series of utility amphibians, and was the only one originally developed specifically for military service.
The Albatross resulted from a late 1940s US Navy requirement for a general purpose amphibious transport. The first Albatross prototype flew for the first time on October 24 1947, with more than 400 production HU-16s subsequently delivered to the US Navy, US Coast Guard and 12 other nations. Military Albatross missions included general reconnaissance, maritime patrol, anti submarine warfare (in which role it could be armed with torpedoes and depth charges) and search and rescue.
In the late 1970s, Grumman and major US flying boat operator Resorts International began work on a program to convert the Albatross for civil airline service. The conversion incorporated numerous changes to the basic Albatross, including a 28 seat passenger interior, a galley and provision for a flight attendant, upgraded avionics and other improved systems.
In all only 13 aircraft were converted, 12 for Resorts International, and 1 for Conoco Oil/Pelita which operated from Singapore. Several of these are still active, together with ex military examples.
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AH-64 Apache
The Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew.
Originally, the Apache started life as the Model 77 developed by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army’s Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the AH-1 Cobra, and was first flown on 30 September 1975.
The AH-64 was introduced to U.S. Army service in April 1986.
The AH-64 Apache features a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night vision systems; is armed with a 30-millimeter (1.2 in) M230 Chain Gun carried between the main landing gear, under the aircraft’s forward fuselage; and has four hardpoints mounted on stub-wing pylons, typically carrying a mixture of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and Hydra 70 rocket pods. The AH-64 has a large amount of systems redundancy to improve combat survivability.
The first production AH-64D Apache Longbow, an upgraded version of the original Apache, was delivered to the Army in March 1997. Production has been continued by Boeing Defense, Space & Security; over 1,000 AH-64s have been produced to date.
The U.S. Army is the primary operator of the AH-64; it has also become the primary attack helicopter of multiple nations, including Greece, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands and Singapore; as well as being produced under license in the United Kingdom as the AgustaWestland Apache. U.S. AH-64s have served in conflicts in Panama, the Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Israel used the Apache in its military conflicts in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip; both British and U.S. Apaches have seen deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane
The Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane is an American twin-engine heavy-lift helicopter, the civil version of the United States Army’s CH-54 Tarhe. The S-64 Aircrane is the current production version, manufactured by the Erickson Air-Crane company.
Erickson Air-Crane purchased the type certificate and manufacturing rights in 1992 and since that date they have become the manufacturer and world’s largest operator of S-64 Aircranes. The Aircrane can be fitted with a 2,650-gallon (~10,000 litre) fixed retardant tank to assist in the control of bush fires, and it has proved itself admirably in this role.
Erickson is manufacturing new S-64s, as well as remanufacturing existing CH-54s, with each being assigned an individual name, the best-known being “Elvis”, used in fighting fires in Australia alongside “The Incredible Hulk” and “Isabelle”.
Other operators, such as Siller Brothers, have followed with their Sikorsky S-64E, Andy’s Pride. The Erickson S-64E nicknamed “Olga” was used to lift the top section of the CN Tower into place in Toronto, Canada.
The S-64 is the first helicopter built with a rear-facing pilot’s seat—this allows the pilot to watch exactly where the load is being placed as he’s flying the helicopter. The feature came in handy in 1993, when an S-64 removed and replaced the Statue of Freedom from the US Capitol building during a renovation. When transporting a big load like that, the S-64 uses an anti-rotation rigging system that prevents the aircraft from twisting and swaying.
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T-64
The T-64 is a Soviet main battle tank, introduced in the early 1960s. It was a more advanced counterpart to the T-62: the T-64 served tank divisions, while the T-62 supported infantry in motor rifle divisions. Although the T-62 and the famed T-72 would see much wider use and generally more development, it was the T-64 that formed the basis of more modern Soviet tank designs like the T-80.
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W64 nuclear warhead
The W64 nuclear warhead was the Los Alamos Laboratory’s entry into a brief competition between Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and Los Alamos to design an “enhanced-radiation” nuclear warhead (i.e., a “neutron bomb”) for the United States Army’s MGM-52 Lance tactical surface-to-surface missile.
The Los Alamos design, the W64, was canceled in September 1964 in favor of Livermore’s W63. In November 1966, the W63 was canceled in favor of the W70, the model that finally entered production.
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L64
The L64 was an intermediate calibre British bullpup layout prototype assault rifle developed in the 1970s. The British Army had considered bullpup designs with intermediate calibre rounds in the 1950s, and officially adopted one of these as .280 British in 1951 in the EM-2 and Taden gun. However, US intransigence during NATO standardization efforts, and Winston Churchill’s interest in standards above all, led to the adoption of the significantly more powerful 7.62×51mm NATO round and the British and Canadian armies adopted the L1A1 SLR, a licensed version of the FN FAL, itself originally designed for the .280.
In the late 1960s a new L64/65 “Individual Weapon” was developed, outwardly similar to the earlier EM-2, but adopted a firing mechanism very similar to ArmaLite’s latest AR-18 design. The first examples were available in 1972.
By 1976, NATO was ready to standardize on a small calibre round, and testing of the various rounds head-to-head started in 1977. As designed, the British round out-performed the standard US 5.56 mm. However Fabrique Nationale’s entry based on the 5.56 mm, the “SS-109” performed as well as the British cartridge. In the end it was selected largely due to its similarity with existing US ammunition.
The L64 pattern was later developed into the SA80 family of weapons, which entered service with the UK in the 1980s.
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P-64 Pistol
The P-64 is a Polish 9mm semi-automatic pistol designed to fire the 9x18mm Makarov cartridge. The pistol was developed in the late 1950s at the Institute for Artillery Research, which later became the Military Institute of Armament Technology.
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In other fields
Cities situated on longtitude 64 degree west are: Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands; Hamilton, Bermuda; Road Town, British Virgin Islands; and Córdoba, Argentina.
Cities situated on latitude 64 north are: Fairbanks, Alaska; Skellefteå, Sweden; Anadyr and Arkhangelsk, Russia; Nuuk (Godthåb), Greenland; and Reykjavík, Iceland.
There are 64 gems in total number in a standard Bejeweled game board.
64 is the code for international direct dial calls to New Zealand.
There are 64 Braille characters in the old 6-dot system.
Since 1996, the number 64 has been an abbreviation or slang for Nintendo 64 (though N64 is more common) along with the games Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and more.
64 is the maximum number of strokes in any Chinese character.
There are 64 hexagrams in the I Ching.
There are 64 sexual positions in the Kama Sutra.
There are 64 demons in the Dictionnaire Infernal.
There are 64 classical arts listed in many Indian scriptures. They include: singing, dancing, painting, poetry, playing cards, making arguments, making flower garlands, etc.
The 64th French department is Pyrénées-Atlantiques.
Unsurprisingly it is the number of crayons in the popular Crayola 64 pack.
64 is the maximum stack size in the popular game Minecraft.
64 (dog) is a character in the Donald Duck comics universe.
Number of golden disks in the myth of the Tower of Hanoi.
The S64-1.25 MW has a well-suited ratio of rotor diameter to generator for most sites in a medium wind speed regime. The wind turbine concept is based on robust design and is efficiently handled by the Suzlon controller. These technologies are all well-known in the wind power industry and have proven themselves over time.
PARALOID B-64 solid grade acrylic resin provides an outstanding combination of hardness, flexibility, and adhesion to various substrates. This general-purpose resin permits wider latitude in formulating in solvents that are suitable for specific applications.
Group f/64 was a group of seven 20th century San Francisco photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpoint. In part, they formed in opposition to the Pictorialist photographic style that had dominated much of the early 20th century, but moreover they wanted to promote a new Modernist aesthetic that was based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects.
64 is the slang term referring to a 1964 Chevrolet Impala, often configured as a lowrider, a popular subject among early-90’s gangsta rap.
When I was a kid one of the things I loved to do was to go over to my cousin’s house at night during the winter months when it was dark. He lived out in the country on a farm – and he had a telescope. It wasn’t an expensive one, but it was a lot better than anything I, or any of my friends, had so to me it was great.
Many evenings we spent looking at the moon and the stars. It fascinated me then and it fascinates me to this day.
I never did get a telescope of my own. For one thing anything decent was always a lot more than I could afford when I was a kid and for another as I grew up so did the town where I lived. To the extent that there was so much ambient light from street lights, lights in houses and buildings etc., that there was very little left to see.
When I was in Las Vegas I did make a few trips well out into the Nevada desert which provided some fantastic results. You really have no idea just how many stars are out there until you can view them from somewhere very remote. (BTW, I think what I saw were all stars, but with Area 51 and all that, you’re never really sure. Cue some Twilight Zone music!)
So how much better would it be if you had telescope actually out there in space?
Well for the past few years we have, and it’s a LOT better as you will see.
But enough of an intro from me. There are other bloggers who can write with much more knowledge and passion about these things, such as Alex at Things I love, so I’ll sign off and let you look at some of the Hubble photographs that I though were worth sharing.
And whether you believe in Creation or that it is all the chaotic result of a big fart that came from nowhere, enjoy the wonder and beauty of what is out there.
It said, PUN: a play on words; the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications; the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning.
And, do you know, it was right.
Enjoy!
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I’ve never been to our basement.
I think it’s is beneath me
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Did you hear about the scarecrow that won an award?
He was outstanding in his field.
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First thing this morning, there was a tap on my door.
Funny sense of humor my plumber has.
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When I was younger my Grandma used to rub lard into my Grandpa’s back when he was ill.
He went down hill fast after that.
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I was reading this book today, The History Of Glue.
I couldn’t put it down.
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I went in to a pet shop.
I said, “Can I buy a goldfish?”
The guy said, “Do you want an aquarium?”
I said, “I don’t care what star sign it is.”
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Just seen a sign outside the hardware store:
“Stainless Steel Sinks”.
Bit obvious, I thought.
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I went to the Video Shop the other day.
I said, “Can I take out Batman Forever?”
They said, “No, you have to bring it back tomorrow.”
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God is talking to one of his angels.
He says, “Boy, I just created a 24-hour period of alternating light and darkness on Earth.”
“What are you going to do now?” asks the angel.
“Call it a day,” says God.
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A Freudian slip is one where you say one thing but mean a mother.
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I recently took up meditation.
It beats sitting around doing nothing.
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I was chopping up carrots with the Grim Reaper yesterday…
….You could say I was dicing with death.
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I went to the doctors.
He said, “You’ve got hypochondria.”
I said, “Oh no, not that as well.”
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My dog is a blacksmith.
Every time I open the front door he makes a bolt for it.
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I don’t understand how people call me homophobic.
I love my house.
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Did you hear about the guy that trashed a Chinese restaurant?
If you aren’t scared yet the chances are you are not afflicted with anything on the following list of phobias or irrational fears that seem to grip some unfortunate people. For them 2013 will be as frightening as 2012. Imagine, for example, spending the whole year with proctophobia – what a bummer!
In today’s list are the ‘O’s and the ‘P’s.
Enjoy.
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Obesophobia……….fear of gaining weight. (Pocrescophobia)
Ochlophobia……….fear of crowds or mobs.
Ochophobia……….fear of vehicles.
Octophobia ……….fear of the figure 8.
Odontophobia……….fear of teeth or dental surgery.
Odynophobia or Odynephobia……….fear of pain. (Algophobia)
Oenophobia……….fear of wines.
Oikophobia……….fear of home surroundings, house. (Domatophobia, Eicophobia)
Olfactophobia……….fear of smells.
Ombrophobia……….fear of rain or of being rained on.
Ommetaphobia or Ommatophobia……….fear of eyes.
Omphalophobia……….fear of belly buttons.
Oneirophobia……….fear of dreams.
Oneirogmophobia……….fear of wet dreams.
Onomatophobia……….fear of hearing a certain word or of names.
Ophidiophobia……….fear of snakes. (Snakephobia)
Ophthalmophobia……….fear of being stared at.
Opiophobia……….fear medical doctors experience of prescribing needed pain medications for patients.
Optophobia……….fear of opening one’s eyes.
Ornithophobia……….fear of birds.
Orthophobia……….fear of property.
Osmophobia or Osphresiophobia……….fear of smells or odors.
Ostraconophobia……….fear of shellfish.
Ouranophobia or Uranophobia……….fear of heaven.
Pagophobia……….fear of ice or frost.
Panthophobia……….fear of suffering and disease.
Panophobia or Pantophobia……….fear of everything.
Papaphobia……….fear of the Pope.
Papyrophobia……….fear of paper.
Paralipophobia……….fear of neglecting duty or responsibility.
Paraphobia……….fear of sexual perversion.
Parasitophobia……….fear of parasites.
Paraskavedekatriaphobia……….fear of Friday the 13th.
Parthenophobia……….fear of virgins or young girls.
Pathophobia……….fear of disease.
Patroiophobia……….fear of heredity.
Parturiphobia……….fear of childbirth.
Peccatophobia……….fear of sinning or imaginary crimes.
Pediculophobia……….fear of lice.
Pediophobia……….fear of dolls.
Pedophobia……….fear of children.
Peladophobia……….fear of bald people.
Pellagrophobia……….fear of pellagra.
Peniaphobia……….fear of poverty.
Pentheraphobia……….fear of mother-in-law. (Novercaphobia)
Phagophobia……….fear of swallowing or of eating or of being eaten.
Phalacrophobia……….fear of becoming bald.
Phallophobia……….fear of a penis, especially erect.
Pharmacophobia……….fear of taking medicine.
Phasmophobia……….fear of ghosts.
Phengophobia……….fear of daylight or sunshine.
Philemaphobia or Philematophobia……….fear of kissing.
Philophobia……….fear of falling in love or being in love.
Philosophobia……….fear of philosophy.
Phobophobia……….fear of phobias.
Photoaugliaphobia……….fear of glaring lights.
Photophobia……….fear of light.
Phonophobia……….fear of noises or voices or one’s own voice; of telephones.
Phronemophobia……….fear of thinking.
Phthiriophobia……….fear of lice. (Pediculophobia)
Phthisiophobia……….fear of tuberculosis.
Placophobia……….fear of tombstones.
Plutophobia……….fear of wealth.
Pluviophobia……….fear of rain or of being rained on.
Pneumatiphobia……….fear of spirits.
Pnigophobia or Pnigerophobia……….fear of choking of being smothered.
Pocrescophobia……….fear of gaining weight. (Obesophobia)
Podophobia……….fear of feet.
Pogonophobia……….fear of beards.
Poliosophobia……….fear of contracting poliomyelitis.
Politicophobia……….fear or abnormal dislike of politicians.
Polyphobia……….fear of many things.
Poinephobia……….fear of punishment.
Ponophobia……….fear of overworking or of pain.
Porphyrophobia……….fear of the color purple.
Potamophobia……….fear of rivers or running water.
Potophobia……….fear of alcohol.
Pharmacophobia……….fear of drugs.
Proctophobia……….fear of rectums.
Prosophobia……….fear of progress.
P-P-P-P-P-Psellismophobia……….fear of stuttering.
Psychophobia……….fear of mind.
Psychrophobia……….fear of cold.
Pteridophobia……….morbid fear of fearns.
Pteromerhanophobia……….fear of flying.
Pteronophobia……….fear of being tickled by feathers.
Pupaphobia ……….fear of puppets.
Pyrexiophobia……….fear of fever.
Pyrophobia……….fear of fire.
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How are you after all that? Are you developing symptoms or are you feeling good?
fasab 