“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy” .
Yes, apparently gray and white matters as you will find out in one of today’s selection of unusual facts.
Hope you enjoy the others as well. .
. During the production of the video game Deus Ex,
one of the artists forgot to add
the Twin Towers to New York City.
His mistake was explained by
way of a terrorist attack.
The year was 2000.
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Switzerland has
208 mountains over 3,000 meters high
and 24 over 4,000 meters.
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The male brain contains more gray matter
whereas the female brain contains more white matter.
White matter basically increases the speed
of transmission of all nerve signals,
which ultimately allows women to process thoughts
more rapidly than their male counterparts.
Don’t fret guys, you’ll get this
in another nano second or two.
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Genghis Kahn wanted the location
of his grave to be unknown
(somewhere in present day Mongolia)
so his funeral escort killed everyone they met
along the way and he even demanded that
a river be diverted to run across his grave
so it could never be disturbed.
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Although their civilization has declined and been conquered,
in many rural parts of Mexico and Guatemala
Mayan language and culture perseveres.
In fact, there are an estimated 7 million Maya
still living in and around the Yucatan Peninsula.
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The modern chainsaw was invented by Scottish
doctors to help with Symphysiotomy.
This is a surgical procedure that widens the
pelvis in order to assist in childbirth.
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China is among the countries with
the highest air pollution in the world.
Breathing air in Beijing, the country´s capital,
increases the risk of lung cancer in the same way
as smoking 21 cigarettes a day.
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In 1883 Sir Hiram Maxim created the Maxim gun.
The world’s first machine gun would go on to
revolutionize warfare and was used in both World Wars.
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Some rich people in Moscow buy
ambulances and use them to drive around
because the traffic is so bad.
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Operation Mockingbird was a secret campaign
begun in the 1950s by the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
to influence media.
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After being frustrated by the service
he was receiving at Bank of America,
Dalton Chiscolm sued them
for $1.7 billion trillion.
During the trial a professor of mathematics
was even called in to testify about
how big the number was.
To give you an idea,
Earth’s total combined GDP was $60 trillion that year.
There is a lot of nonsense surrounding Friday 13th.
Many superstitious people consider it to be unlucky. So much so in fact that they spend most, if not all, of that day in their homes, afraid to venture out into the great world beyond in case something bad happens to them.
In fact it has been estimated that around a billion dollars are lost every Friday the 13th because people are scared to work and travel on this date.
The really unfortunate thing is that sometimes circumstances play right into their hands, which only serves to reinforce their superstitions.
You can find some of them below along with other facts about Friday 13th that I hope you enjoy reading.
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Every month has a 13th but no single year
has more than three Friday the 13th’s
and on average there are two.
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Months with a Friday the 13th
always begin on a Sunday.
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Folklore remedies for triskaidekaphobia
include climbing to the top of a mountain
or skyscraper and burning all the socks you own
that have holes in them.
Another is to stand on your head
and eat a piece of gristle.
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It is from the Norse goddess Frigg, or Freyja,
that we get Frigg’s Day, or Freyja’s Day
which became the English Friday.
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On Friday 13 2006,
36 inches of snow fell on upstate New York.
The ensuing chaos claimed three lives
and caused $130 million worth of damage.
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On a Friday 13th in 1307.
thousands of soldier monks of the powerful
Knights Templar were massacred
by French king Louis IV.
Many people believe this is where
our fear of the date springs from.
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Friday 13 January, 1939
in Australia is known as Black Friday
because on that date bushfires
decimated 20,000 km² of land,
killing 71 people and
destroying several towns entirely.
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Retired bus conductor Bob Renphrey of North Wales
decided to spend every Friday 13 in bed
after a run of bad luck on the
fateful day during the early 1990s.
Among other misfortunes
he wrote off four cars,
got made redundant,
fell into a river,
crashed a motorcycle
and walked through a plate glass door.
When Bob died of cancer in 1998,
his widow Betty, who on previous Friday 13ths
had fallen downstairs,
been hit by falling guttering
and been hospitalized
after Bob hit her in the face
with a stick he was throwing to a dog,
decided to book his funeral for
Friday 13 March as a final tribute.
Alas, all Rhyl’s undertakers were too busy.
“Bob would have seen the funny side,”
said Mrs Renphrey.
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On Friday 13 July, 1951
in Kansas ‘The Great Flood’
left 2 million acres of land underwater,
causing $760 million and killing 24 people.
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Friday 13 August, 1976
was particularly unlucky
for New York man Daz Baxter.
Having elected to stay in bed
to ward off bad luck,
the floor of his apartment block collapsed
and he fell six storeys to his death.
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Black Sabbath’s self-titled first album
was released in the UK on
Friday, February 13, 1970.
It wasn’t unlucky for them.
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Michelle and Gary Docherty had a
memorable wedding on Friday 13 August 2004.
First, a swarm of wasps attacked guests
at East Kilbride Registry Office, Lanarkshire,
as they waited for Michelle’s arrival.
Her aunt Mary Strachan
smashed an expensive digital camera
trying to swat one of the pests,
and when Michelle finally did turn up,
an insect flew up her dress,
triggering a panic attack.
After the ceremony,
two minibuses booked to transport guests
to the reception failed to turn up
and the couple lost their wedding video.
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On Friday November 13, 1970
a monster South Asian storm hit Bangladesh
killing 300,000 people in Chittagong
and creating floods that killed one million people
living on the Ganges Delta.
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Women drivers have a 64% increased chance
of death when driving on Friday the 13th.
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Friday 13 February, 1998
was simply business as usual for Manchester man,
John Sheridan, dubbed Britain’s unluckiest man
after once having his car stolen five times in one day,
making 16 trips to casualty in two years,
seeing eight TVs explode in six months
and losing out on a £4000 lottery win when he
put the ticket in the washing machine with his jeans.
John’s big day began when his Saab ran out of petrol.
He hitched a lift with a sympathetic policeman,
whose car broke down at the garage.
John returned to his car with a can of petrol,
got it started but lost a wheel as he turned a corner.
He returned home on a bus, which broke down.
Completing his journey on foot,
he realized he’d left his keys inside the car
and had to return in case in was stolen.
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Friday, October 13th, 1989,
the stock exchange suffered a serious crash,
the second most damaging in market history at the time
(this was in the pre-recession era).
Brokers were in a state of shock,
as the Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 190.58 points.
In Britain a deadly virus crashed IBM computers,
terrifying people and deleting lots of data
that could not be recovered.
This was before backup systems were used.
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A full moon on Friday February 13 1987
drove troubled Robert Bullard, 21,
to attempt suicide by putting his head in a gas oven.
Not only was his methodology flawed,
suicide by natural gassing is virtually impossible
since Britain moved from lethal coke gas
to less dangerous natural gas,
but a flicked light switch caused an explosion
which injured his mother and a policeman
and caused £35,000 of damage.
Robert was unharmed.
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On Friday the 13th, 2012,
the cruise ship Costa Concordia partially sank
killing more than 30 people.
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Friday 13 October 1972 was the date
a plane carrying Uruguayan rugby team
Montevideo Old Christians crashed
on its way from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile.
When rescuers finally found the fourteen
survivors two months later,
it emerged that they had survived
by eating human flesh from some of the
thirty-one crew and passengers
who had perished in the crash.
In 1992, the story was filmed as
Alive, starring Ethan Hawke.
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On the same day, Friday October 13, 1972,
an Aeroflot Il-62 airplane carrying 176 people
took off from Paris on a commuter flight
bound for Leningrad and Moscow.
The plane landed at Leningrad
and then took off for Sheremetyevo airport,
located just outside Moscow.
The weather was bad with rain and poor visibility.
The pilots were told to descend on approach to
the airport, but for unknown reasons,
they attempted and failed to land twice.
On the third attempt to land,
the plane crashed into a large pond
about 4 miles short of the airport.
There were no survivors.
No cause of the accident was ever established.
At the time, the crash resulted in one of the worst
loss of life incidents for a single plane crash, in history.
I read a strange thing on the internet the other day.
Not much unusual there, you could do that every day.
This was a study that found that Americans’ attitudes about whether the US should intervene in Ukraine is correlated with their ability to find the country on the map.
And even more strangely – perhaps – it was the Americans who COULDN’T find the Ukraine on a map who were more in favor of intervention!
Apparently – and I kid you not – some of the respondents thought that the Ukraine was in Iowa.
Europe with Ukraine highlighted USA with Iowa highlighted
Unfortunately the guys that think out American foreign policy are these sorts of people. The kind who just don’t know what they are talking about. The kind of bureaucrats who rub Preparation H on their elbows – if you see what I mean!
Recent history proves this beyond all reasonable doubt.
To add insult to injury so to speak, these know nothings who advise the President on foreign matters try to spin every situation by telling everyone that, even though it has massive debt already and is effectively bankrupt, the US must still be the world’s policeman and uphold democracy.
Why?
What business is it of ours?
And if we are so hell bent on ensuring democracy exists throughout the world why aren’t we intervening in one of the biggest dictatorships of them all, Saudi Arabia which was also the home of most of the 9/11 terrorists and of course Bin Laden’s mother country? But no, lets attack Iraq and Afghanistan instead!
For more than half a century American foreign policy has been dictated by a mindless mantra that “if the Russians are for it, then we’re against it”.
The rights and wrongs of any particular situation are not analyzed or discussed. The facts are never examined. The truth is not even looked for.
That is why US foreign policy has been such a shambles throughout the world and will continue to be so until basically the people directing it wise up.
As for the Ukraine?
First of all it is NOT in Iowa.
Second, the US has spent (wasted) $5 billion and more during the past twenty years on “democratization” programs in Ukraine, including efforts from the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy.
Third, yes there were elements within the Ukraine who did not like being subservient to Russia, but what happened in the Ukraine was that a democratically elected president, Yanukovych, was overthrown in February in what amounted to a coup d’etat.
Students of history will remember what a funk America was in when the Russians started to “assist” Cuba way back in the early 1960s, yet they can’t understand why Russian leader Putin doesn’t want a fully nuclear armed Ukraine as anything other than an ally on his doorstep.
Why can they not see that the strategy of absorbing Ukraine into NATO and stationing missile defense systems there, is bound to piss the Russians off in exactly the same way as events in Cuba did for the Americans?
The fact is, of course, that they probably do see that. And they don’t care. The name of the game here is not upholding democracy at all. Such a laudable goal is only a smokescreen. The name of the game is to try to curtail Russia by having Ukrainian missiles pointed towards Moscow instead of Washington, or Washington’s allies.
It’s a game plan that Putin sees quite clearly. To think that he will sit back and not respond is just a fantasy. Let’s hope that the idiots in Washington don’t land us with yet another catastrophe.
With their past record I wouldn’t count on it though!
Yes, today is the first Monday in August (how fast is this year going?) and time for another quiz.
As usual the answers are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below – but NO cheating!
Have a go and, hopefully, enjoy.
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Q. 1: Which Sergeant Detective Lieutenant worked with Scientist Ted Olson under the watchful eye of Captain Ed Hocken?
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Q. 2: The slogan for which famous website is ‘We Open Governments’?
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Q. 3: What are the genetically engineered robots called in the movie ‘Blade Runner’?
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Q. 4: With 4,400 km, what is the longest river in the world beginning with the letter ‘L’? (Bonus point if you know what country it is in.)
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Q. 5: Which band has had a record 36 top ten albums in the US charts?
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Q. 6: The OSS was the predecessor of which organization?
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Q. 7: The two amiable lawbreakers Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh were better known as what?
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Q. 8: A ‘Black Perigord’ is an expensive example of what?
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Q. 9: The world heritage site of Petra is located in what country?
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Q. 10: What is the well known word for ‘sailor of the universe’?
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Q. 11: The name of which criminal syndicate translated means ‘our thing’?
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Q. 12: H.G. Wells ‘The Time Machine’ has been made into a movie twice. Which actor played the ‘Time Traveler’ in a) the original 1960 movie and b) the 2002 version? (A point for each.)
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Q. 13: What is the well known translation for ‘River of January’?
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Q. 14: John Spilsbury is credited with putting together which baffling invention in the 1760s?
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Q. 15: Which politician is the co-author of the book ‘Judo: History, Theory, Practice’?
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Q. 16: Which Hollywood sex symbol did RAF pilots get into during World War II?
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Q. 17: Which world famous Hollywood actress does one associate with the words “I want to be alone..”?
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Q. 18: Which uplifting 1956 invention carried Sir Christopher Cockerell to fame?
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Q. 19: Before reunification what was the capital of West Germany?
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Q. 20: And finally, a question to chew on. What is the name of the famous department store in Moscow?
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ANSWERS
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Q. 1: Which Sergeant Detective Lieutenant worked with Scientist Ted Olson under the watchful eye of Captain Ed Hocken?
A. 1: ‘Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Lieutenant Police Squad’ in the Police Squad TV series and Naked Gun movies, played by the late Leslie Nielsen.
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Q. 2: The slogan for which famous website is ‘We Open Governments’?
A. 2: WikiLeaks.
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Q. 3: What are the genetically engineered robots called in the movie ‘Blade Runner’?
A. 3: They are called ‘Replicants’.
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Q. 4: With 4,400 km, what is the longest river in the world beginning with the letter ‘L’?
A. 4: The River Lena in Russia. It is also the 11th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest watershed.
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Q. 5: Which band has had a record 36 top ten albums in the US charts?
A. 5: The Rolling Stones.
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Q. 6: The OSS was the predecessor of which organization?
A. 6: The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was the predecessor of the CIA.
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Q. 7: The two amiable lawbreakers Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Longabaugh were better known as what?
A. 7: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
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Q. 8: A ‘Black Perigord’ is an expensive example of what?
A. 8: A Truffle.
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Q. 9: The world heritage site of Petra is located in what country?
A. 9: Jordan.
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Q. 10: What is the well known word for ‘sailor of the universe’?
A. 10: Cosmonaut (Astronaut is ‘sailor of the stars’).
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Q. 11: The name of which criminal syndicate translated means ‘our thing’?
A. 11: Cosa Nostra.
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Q. 12: H.G. Wells ‘The Time Machine’ has been made into a movie twice. Which actor played the ‘Time Traveler’ in a) the original 1960 movie and b) the 2002 version?
A. 12: Two answers a) Rod Taylor and b) Guy Pearce.
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Q. 13: What is the well known translation for ‘River of January’?
A. 13: Rio de Janeiro.
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Q. 14: John Spilsbury is credited with putting together which baffling invention in the 1760s?
A. 14: The Jigsaw Puzzle.
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Q. 15: Which politician is the co-author of the book ‘Judo: History, Theory, Practice’?
A. 15: Vladimir Putin.
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Q. 16: Which Hollywood sex symbol did RAF pilots get into during World War II?
A. 16: Mae West. The automatically inflatable lifejacket worn by RAF pilots was given the nickname Mae West.
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Q. 17: Which world famous Hollywood actress does one associate with the words “I want to be alone..”?
A. 17: Greta Garbo.
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Q. 18: Which uplifting 1956 invention carried Sir Christopher Cockerell to fame?
A. 18: The Hovercraft.
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Q. 19: Before reunification what was the capital of West Germany?
A. 19: Bonn.
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Q. 20: And finally, a question to chew on. What is the name of the famous department store in Moscow?
Whether we realize it or like it, the advent of the internet has changed all our lives. From power users like myself to just casual users, things are a lot different from how they used to be.
There are, of course, negatives like the increase of spam, fraud, pornography and so forth, but by and large the impact of the internet has been a positive one.
It has made finding information much quicker and easier.
It has given us better and cheaper communication possibilities such as Skype.
It has revolutionized shopping for millions of people.
And it has spawned new social interaction platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and not forgetting blogging sites such as WordPress, allowing people to find groups and individuals all over the world with similar interests to their own.
But perhaps the greatest thing that the internet has achieved is to give freedom for ordinary people to say what they want to say and have that reach a much bigger audience than would have hitherto been possible without having to spend vast sums of money trying to do it.
Unfortunately, however, that freedom is the one thing that governments cannot tolerate. Hell bent on control, they see the freedom that the internet provides as a threat to their power. And slowly but relentlessly they are chipping away at that freedom.
In China there is no pretense or deceit. The government there controls the internet and that’s just how it is.
However in the West, as they always do, governments create smokescreens to hide their real objectives. They read our private emails and listen to our private phone calls in secret, only reluctantly admitting to it when they are exposed by a whistleblower such as Edward Snowden, last seen leaving Hong Kong and heading for Moscow.
And even when they are exposed they can’t tell the truth about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Invariably the excuse trotted out is “security issues”, in other words, they are doing what we don’t want them to do and invading our privacy, for our own good!
If governments expect the people to have confidence in them, then they in turn should show confidence in the people. That means doing their job properly and targeting people and groups that are a possible threat without treating everyone as a potential terrorist.
And it means being honest with their people.
Will that happen?
Not a chance!
As I said earlier the game isn’t about what is good for the people, the game is about control of the people. And a big part of that control is ensuring that the herd shall not be heard – if they have anything important to say that the government doesn’t want us to know!
It’s been a few weeks since we had a numbers factoid. Today we are having a look at the number twenty-eight, so if that’s your lucky number or your date of birth or if you are just interested in numbers and things associated with them then read on.
And enjoy.
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The Number Twenty-Eight 28
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In religion
In Hebrew, the first verse of the Bible “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis I.1) has seven words and 28 letters.
The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits. (Exodus, 26.2)
The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the curtains were all of one size. (Exodus, 36.9)
In Chapter 28 in Genesis: Isaac blesses Jacob; Jacob’s Ladder; God’s promise; Stone of Bethel:
Artistic impression of Jacob’s Ladder
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In mathematics
28 is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, 4, 7, and 14.
Twenty-eight is the second perfect number. As a perfect number, it is related to the Mersenne prime 7, since 22(23 – 1) = 28. The next perfect number is 496, the previous being 6.
Twenty-eight is a harmonic divisor number, a happy number, a triangular number, a hexagonal number, and a centered nonagonal number.
Twenty-eight is the ninth and last number in early Indian magic square of order 3.
There are twenty-eight convex uniform honeycombs.
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In science & technology
28 is the atomic mass of silicon and the atomic number of nickel.
28 is the molecular weight of nitrogen, (N2 = 28.02) and the molecular weight of carbon monoxide, (CO = 12 + 16 = 28.01); also interesting in that while carbon monoxide is poisonous, nitrogen is essential to life, yet they have the same molecular weight of 28 daltons.
28 is the fourth magic number in physics.
The average human menstrual cycle is 28 days although no link has been established with the nightlighting and the Moon.
Skin research has discovered that the epidermis is constantly regenerating itself, and all of its cells are replaced every 28 days.
By the age of fourteen most people have 28 permanent teeth; the last four molars, the wisdom teeth, erupt only if the jaw allows space for them.
The curing time of concrete is classically considered 28 days.
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In space
Our universe is 28 billion light years in distance from edge to edge.
The revolution time of the surface of the Sun on itself is 28 days while its core is revolving in 33 days.
The moon completes 4 phases once it has wandered through the 28 lunar mansions.
28 Bellona is a large main belt asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. Bellona was discovered by R. Luther on March 1, 1854. It is named after Bellona, the Roman goddess of war; the name was chosen to mark the beginning of the Crimean War. Its diameter is 120.9 km, rotation period of 15.7 hours, and orbital period of 4.63 years.
The New General Catalogue object NGC 28, an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Phoenix.
Messier object M28 is a magnitude 8.5 globular cluster in the constellation Sagittarius.
Messier object m28
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STS-28
STS-28 was the 30th NASA Space Shuttle mission, and the fourth dedicated to United States Department of Defense purposes. It was also the eighth flight of Space Shuttle Columbia.
The mission launched on 8 August 1989 and traveled 2.1 million miles during 81 orbits of the Earth, before landing on runway 17 of Edwards Air Force Base, California, on 13 August.
The mission details of STS-28 are classified, but the payload is widely believed to have been the first SDS-2 communications satellite.
The crew consisted of Commander Brewster H. Shaw, Jr., Pilot Richard N. Richards, and three Mission Specialists, James C. Adamson, David C. Leestma and Mark N. Brown.
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Space Shuttle Challenger
One of the worst space related disasters happened on January 28 1986.
On that fateful day Space Shuttle Challenger (mission STS-51-L) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members.
The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 EST (16:38 UTC). Disintegration of the entire vehicle began after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized hot gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB attachment hardware and external fuel tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand SRBs aft attachment and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces promptly broke up the orbiter.
The crew compartment and many other vehicle fragments were eventually recovered from the ocean floor after a lengthy search and recovery operation. Although the exact timing of the death of the crew is unknown, several crew members are known to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. However, the shuttle had no escape system and the impact of the crew compartment with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable.
The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle program and the formation of the Rogers Commission, a special commission appointed by United States President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found NASA’s organizational culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors to the accident. NASA managers had known contractor Morton Thiokol’s design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings since 1977, but failed to address it properly. They also disregarded warnings from engineers about the dangers of launching posed by the low temperatures of that morning and had failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors.
What Rogers did not highlight was the fact the vehicle was never certified to operate in temperatures that low.
Many viewed the launch live because of the presence of crew member Christa McAuliffe, the first member of the Teacher in Space Project and the (planned) first female teacher in space.
The Challenger disaster has been used as a case study in many discussions of engineering safety and workplace ethics.
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In politics
28th President of the United States is Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), who served (1913-1921). Wilson was President of Princeton University (1902-1910), where he graduated (1879) and taught as Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Economy (1890-1902). Wilson won the 1919 Peace Nobel Prize.
President Woodrow Wilson portrait December 2 1912
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28th State to enter the Union is Texas (December 29, 1845)
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In sport
The jersey number 28 has been retired by several North American sports teams in honor of past playing greats or other key figures:
In Major League Baseball: the Minnesota Twins, for Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven.
In the NFL: the Chicago Bears, for Willie Galimore; the Kansas City Chiefs, for Abner Haynes; the New York Jets, for Hall of Famer Curtis Martin; the St. Louis Rams, for Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk.
Car number twenty-eight was formerly run in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series by Yates Racing. The most notable driver was Davey Allison, who had the ride for his entire Cup Series career.
Baseball’s 28th All-Star Game was played at Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri, on July 11, 1960.
In the British game of cricket, the wicket is made of three wooden stakes each 28 inches high stuck into the ground.
The widely used 6-6 domino set contains 28 pieces.
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In books, music and movies
In Quebec, Canada, François Pérusse, made a parody of Wheel of Fortune in which all of the letters picked by the contestant were present 28 times. As a result, 28 became an almost Mythical number used by many Quebec youths, the phrase “Y’en a 28” (There are 28 [Letters]) became a running gag still used and recognized more than 15 years later.
The Preludes, Opus 28 consists of Frédéric Chopin’s 24 preludes for piano, ordinarily but not necessarily played together in concert.
28 Days (2000) is a 104-minute movie directed by Betty Thomas and starring Sandra Bullock, Viggo Nortensen, Dominic West, Diane Ladd. A big-city newspaper columnist is forced to enter a drug and alcohol rehab center after ruining her sister’s wedding and crashing a stolen limousine.
28 Days Later (2002). Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.
28 Weeks Later (2007). Six months after the rage virus was inflicted on the population of Great Britain, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to repopulate and start again. But not everything goes to plan.
28 Hotel Rooms (2012). A novelist and an accountant meet while they are traveling for work, and though they both are in relationships, their one-night stand could become something more.
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In militaria, shipping and aviation
T-28 Trojan
T-28 Trojan is a training military aircraft. In 1948 the U.S. Air Force originally acquired the T-28A as a trainer to replace the venerable AT-6. The T-28B and T-28C were acquired by the U.S. Navy and included a tailhook for carrier landing training. T-28 was shown on Card #15 of Topps Wings: Friend or Foe (1952).
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Miles M.28 Mercury
The Miles M.28 Mercury was a British aircraft designed for either training or communications during the Second World War. It was a single-engine, monoplane of wooden construction with a twin tail and a tailwheel undercarriage with retractable main units.
Originally, the M.28 had been planned as a replacement for the Whitney Straight and Monarch, but this was shelved when war broke out.
In 1941, the project was revived in response to a requirement for a training and communications aircraft. The design was produced as a private venture by Ray Bournon using Miles’ normal wooden construction. The resulting machine introduced several features not found on trainers ncluding retractable undercarriage and trailing edge flaps. In the communications role, the M.28 had four seats and a range of 500 miles (800 km).
Owing to Miles’ heavy commitment to war-production, however, only six aircraft were built, of slightly varying specifications, the last being the Mercury 6 which first flew in early 1946. Examples were operated in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Australia.
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XB-28
The North American XB-28 (NA-63) was an aircraft proposed by the North American Aviation to fill a strong need in the United States Army Air Corps for a high-altitude medium bomber. It never entered into full production, with only two aircraft having been built.
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MiG-28
The MiG-28 is a fictional aircraft that has appeared in several different unrelated works. These fictional aircraft have been independently created and the aircraft share nothing but a name.
The first instance of a “MiG-28” was in the 1978 Quiller novel The Sinkiang Executive written by Adam Hall. Referred to in the work as the MiG-28D, it was an aircraft that resembled a somewhat modified MiG-25, but with sharper air intakes and swept wings.
In the 1986 film Top Gun, Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) squared off against MiG-28s of unspecified nationality. These were actually US Northrop F-5s, which at the time were being used as aggressor aircraft for dissimilar air combat training at the real TOPGUN seminar (now known as the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School). The F-5s “acting” as MiG-28s were painted flat black to indicate their villainous status, and retained those paint jobs after production closed. The paint also increased the aircraft’s visibility, a plus for filmmaking.
Another MiG-28 is “seen” in the 1988 ABC television series Supercarrier. This MiG-28 was a fictional Soviet stealth fighter. An F-16 fighter in Soviet-style markings was used to “simulate” the Soviet fighter.
Top Gun pretendy MiG-28
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Fokker F-28 Fellowship
The Fokker F28 Fellowship is a short range jet airliner designed developed in Holland (1964) and assembled by defunct Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker. The Fokker F-28 Fellowship jet was to complement Fokker’s highly successful F-27 turboprop.
Announced by Fokker in April 1962, production was a collaboration between a number of European companies, namely Fokker, MBB of West Germany, Fokker-VFW (also of Germany), and Short Brothers of Northern Ireland. There was also government money invested in the project, with the Dutch government providing 50% of Fokker’s stake and the West German government having 60% of the 35% German stake.
In total 241 Fokker F-28s were sold, including 160 in commercial service and 10 used as corporate jets.
The Fokker F-28 shown on a 40¡ Nauru stamp. Postage stamps with Fokker airplanes
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Enstrom F-28
The Enstrom F-28 and 280 are a family of small, light piston-engined helicopters produced by the Enstrom Helicopter Corporation.[1]
Since delivering their first helicopter shortly after Federal Aviation Administration type certification of the F-28 model in April 1965, Enstrom helicopter has produced (as of 2007) approx 1,200 aircraft.[2]
The company produces three models, the F-28, the more aerodynamic 280 and the turbine-engined 480, each with their own variants. The F-28 and 280 both use Lycoming piston engines virtually identical to those found in general aviation fixed-wing aircraft
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T-28 Tank
The Soviet T-28 multi-turret medium battle tank was among the world’s first medium tanks and became a symbol of the Red Army as was its heavier “brother” the T-35. Its silhouette is well known from pre-war newsreel about Soviet military parades in Moscow’s Red Square.
41 T-28 tanks were built in 1933 with hightest production of 131 in 1939. In the summer of 1941, the design of the T-28 became obsolete due to the drawbacks of multi-turret vehicles. The T-28 could hit any German tank from long distances.
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The B28
The B28, originally Mark 28, was a thermonuclear bomb carried by U.S. tactical fighter bombers and bomber aircraft. From 1962 to 1972 under the NATO nuclear weapons sharing program, American B28s also equipped six Europe-based Canadian CF-104 squadrons known as the RCAF Nuclear Strike Force. It was also supplied for delivery by UK-based Royal Air Force Valiant and Canberra aircraft assigned to NATO under the command of SACEUR. Also USN carrier based attack aircraft such as the A3D Skywarrior and the A4D Skyhawk were equipped with the MK 28.
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HMS Kandahar (F28)
HMS Kandahar (F28) was a K-class destroyer of the Royal Navy, named after the Afghan city of Kandahar.
Kandahar was launched on 21 March 1939, and on 21 February 1941, in company with HMS Kimberley and HMS Manchester, she captured the German blockade runner SS Wahehe off Iceland. On 19 December 1941, she was part of British Force K, tasked to intercept an Italian convoy bound for Tripoli when she was irreparably damaged by a newly laid Italian mine whilst attempting to rescue the stricken HMS Neptune. She was scuttled the next day by Jaguar. 73 men went down with the ship.
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HMS Cleopatra (F28)
HMS Cleopatra (F28) was a Leander-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built at HMNB Devonport. She was launched on 25 March 1964 and commissioned on 4 January 1966.
Upon Cleopatra’s commissioning, she joined the 2nd Destroyer Squadron, Far East Fleet and then participated in the Beira Patrol, which was designed to prevent oil reaching the landlocked Rhodesia via the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique (Lorenzo Marques).
In 1969, Cleopatra was present at the Evans-Melbourne collision.
In 1972, Cleopatra took part in escort duties during the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s South East Asia tour.
In 1973, Cleopatra was dispatched to protect British trawlers against the Icelandic Coast Guard in the Second Cod War.
Afterwards, Cleopatra began her modernisation, becoming the first Batch Two Leander to do so, which included the removal of her one twin 4.5-in gun to allow the addition of the Exocet anti-ship missile system.
On 31 January 1992, Cleopatra was decommissioned. The following year, Cleopatra was sold for scrap.
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Mosin–Nagant M/28
The Mosin–Nagant is a bolt-action, internal magazine-fed, military rifle created under the government commission by Russian inventors, and used by the armed forces of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and various other nations.
It has gone through many variations, the M/28 designed by the White Guard. The M/28 differs from the Army’s M/27 primarily in the barrel band design, which is a single piece compared to the M/27’s hinged band, and an improved trigger design. Barrels for the M/28 were initially purchased from SIG, and later from Tikkakoski and SAKO.
The M/28-30 is an upgraded version of the M/28. The most noticeable modification is a new rear sight design.
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Smith & Wesson (S & W) Model 28
The most famous handgun with the 28 designation is the Smith & Wesson (S & W) Model 28, also known as the Highway Patrolman. It is an N-frame revolver chambered for the .357 Magnum cartridge, in production from 1954 to 1986. It is a budget version of the S&W Model 27.
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Other stuff
The Roman numeral for 28 is XXVIII.
The Arab alphabet has 28 letters
Cities located at 28o latitude include: New Delhi, India.
Cities located at 28o longitude include: Johannesburg, South Africa; Pretoria, South Africa; and Istanbul, Turkey.
28 is not yet used as the code for international direct dial phone calls.
Two Cleveland skyscrapers have 28 floors, the McDonald Investment Center (1969): East 9th St. at Superior Ave. (305 ft);and the Marriott at Key Tower (1991): 127 Public Square, Cleveland (320 ft)
Parker Brothers Monopoly board game consists of 40 squares with 28 properties for sale. In the U.S. version, the properties are named after locations in Atlantic City, NJ.
The Runik alphabet, also called Futhark, used by Germanic peoples of northern Europe, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland (3rd century to the 16th or 17th century AD) has 28 letters.
In Gematriya, the system of Hebrew Numerology, the number 28 corresponds to the word koakh, meaning “power”, “energy”.
The number of days in the shortest month of the Gregorian calendar, February (except in leap years, when there are twenty-nine).
The Gregorian calendar follows a 28-year cycle for the most part, since there are seven days in a week and leap year generally occurs every four years; usually, a calendar from any year is the same as that from 28 years earlier (e.g., 2008 and 1980 or 2009 and 2037). However, that rule holds only when there have been exactly seven leap days in a 28-year interval; years divisible by 100 but not by 400 are not leap years. Indeed, 1900 (as well as 2100, 2200, etc.) does not use the same calendar as 1872 (2072, 2172, etc., respectively) for the simple reason that 1900 is not a leap year. In 28 years, any day-of-the-week and date combination occurs exactly four times. February 29 will fall on each day of the week once.
In Jewish tradition there is a 28 year solar cycle in which the sun returns to its place in Creation every 28 solar years. This is commemorated in April every 28 years with the recitation of Birkat Hachama, the blessing of the sun.
There are 28 wheels on a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy.
28 is the common name for the parrot ‘Barnardius zonarius semitorquatus’, widely distributed in Western Australia and South Australia, because its call sounds like “wenniate”.
In neo-Nazi circles, twenty-eight indicates Blood and Honour (28 = BH – B – second letter of the alphabet and H – the eight letter).
The number of Chinese constellations, “Xiu” or “mansions” (a literal translation), equivalent to the 12 western zodiac constellations.
28 is the postal code of the province of Madrid, in Spain.
Twenty Eight is a popular game played in Kerala India.
28 is the number of the French department Eure-et-Loir.
There are approximately twenty-eight grams in an ounce, a measure frequently used in the illegal drug trade.
In horticulture the America and Cherish Roses have 28 orange pink petals; the Black Velvet Rose has 28 dark red petals; the Maestro Rose has 28 petals with a red center, pink edges and speckles; the Garden Party Rose has 28 white blend petals; and the Ophelia Rose has 28 light pink petals.
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