Year: 2013
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TIL that 'Hellburners', 16th century fire-ships filled with decks of gunpowder sandwiched between bricks and tombstones, are considered to be an early WMD.
Hellburners (Dutch: hellebranders) were specialised fireships used in the Siege of Antwerp (1584-1585) during the Eighty Years' War between the Dutch rebels and the Habsburgs. They were floating bombs, also called "Antwerp Fire", and did immense damage to the Spanish besiegers. Hellburners have been described as an early form of weapons of mass destruction.
Wikipedia -
Orange
Which orange came first: the colour or the fruit? Dan answers this chicken-and-egg question, and then muses on the abstract nature of colours in linguistics.
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Review of BioShock Infinite
This review originally appeared on Steam. See more reviews by Dan. BioShock Infinite Rating: 👍 Fun, beautiful first-person-shooter. I disliked Bioshock and I hated Bioshock 2, so I was glad to discover that Bioshock Infinite is not terribly like either of them, but is something else - something more fun - entirely. Playtime was a …
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Screw you, TV Licensing. I'll write wherever I like.
Alt"This one here?" scrawled beneath the words "Please do not write below this line" on a TV Licensing form
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Review of Little Inferno
This review originally appeared on Steam. See more reviews by Dan. Little Inferno Rating: 👍 This game was so much better than I anticipated. I was given it as a gift by my sister, who raved about it. "It's okay," I thought, as I stuffed things into a fire and watched them burn, "But is …
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Jury Duty, Part 4
Dan's jury service comes to an end, and he looks back on it as he fills in his expenses claim form and contemplates tandems.
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Jury Duty, Part 3
As part of his ongoing jury duty, Dan serves on a trial. And while he can't write about the trial itself, he can tell you all kinds of other things...
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Jury Duty, Part 2
Dan's done his first day of jury service, in which he mostly sat around in a waiting room and watched a patronising DVD.
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Buying a House, Part 1
Dan, Ruth, and JTA are looking for a new house, and their first opportunity to buy a home. Dan discovers that it's an intimidating experience to offer up huge sums of money for a home!
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I once dated a woman who tried different horoscopes for her sign (teletext, web, newspaper...) until she found one she liked.
I used to think it was crazy. But eventually I came to realise it's no crazier than astrology is to begin with. -
Tubin'
[the GIF image originally associated with this repost, https://i.minus.com/ib1ShxHQC8NlO.gif, was lost when minus.com shut down]
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It's quite possible to subdivide a dick. [from our very own /r/nocontext!]
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Owl you need is love!
AltOwls in love
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TIL that in 1952, 4,000 people were killed during a five-day smog in London
The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air-pollution event that affected the British capital of London in early December 1952. A period of cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the …
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I'm sure it doesn't mean much to you, but finally making my first Mün landing means the world(s) to me.
AltMun landing