Quote:
Originally Posted by hutch
and that`s why......
About two hundred babies are born worldwide every minute.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hutch
and that`s why......
About two hundred babies are born worldwide every minute.
One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition. It is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine.
fact:
cotton and cotton candy are not the same...
Well now we know why Greece is tanking, no one left to run the country :DQuote:
Originally Posted by The Cobra
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body The female initiates sex by ripping the males head off. ("Honey, I'm home. What the....")
No one running the country........they`re all F********
fact.
this cobra does not spit venom
http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/mp..._commander.jpg
"Twas a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her for it." - W.C. Fields
fact:
Cobras typically live to 20 years old or more in the wild...
:)
It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
OH OH!!.......that takes me 3X past my due date.Quote:
Originally Posted by fonger
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool! He changed it every 2 innings
As Wimbledon just ended it may be interesting to note......
On average, 42,000 balls are used and 650 matches are played at the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament
I always thought they used horsehide for baseballs & pigskin for footballs...lol:tehe:Quote:
Originally Posted by The Cobra
Hutch my buddy, here`s the straight dope on your question......Quote:
Originally Posted by hutch
A Straight Dope Classic from Cecil's Storehouse of Human Knowledge
Why is a football called a pigskin?
September 20, 1991
Why is a football called a pigskin?
Because calling it a pig's bladder, which is what it actually is (or was), is a bit too real even for football players. In the days before vulcanized rubber, animal bladders were easily obtained, more or less round, readily sealed and inflated, and reasonably durable--just the thing if you wanted to play the medieval equivalent of soccer. In later years the bladder might be covered with leather (not necessarily pigskin) for added protection.
The main drawback of a pig's bladder was that inflating it by way of the obvious nozzle was too grotty for words. Still, it was an improvement over what the English traditionally regard as the original football, namely the noggin of an unsuccessful Danish invader. If you were offended by the aesthetics of this you could always stuff a leather casing with hay or cork shavings or the like, but such balls lacked zip.
Happily for the sensibilities of modern youth, pig's bladders faded from the scene not long after intercollegiate football began in 1869. One account indicates rubber bladders were being used in 1871 and they were probably around long before that, Charles Goodyear having patented vulcanization in 1844. Couldn't have been too soon for me.
The real question here, if you don't mind my saying so, is how footballs got to be prolate spheroids ("round but pointy," for you rustics) rather than perfectly spherical. As usual with these pivotal episodes in history, it was an accident. Henry Duffield, who witnessed the second Princeton-Rutgers game in 1869, tells why:
"The ball was not an oval but was supposed to be completely round. It never was, though--it was too hard to blow up right. The game was stopped several times that day while the teams called for a little key from the sidelines. They used it to unlock the small nozzle which was tucked into the ball, and then took turns blowing it up. The last man generally got tired and they put it back in play somewhat lopsided."
The odd shape of the ball, eventually enshrined in the rules, was turned to advantage with the introduction of the forward pass in 1906, which was made possible by the fact that you could grip the ball (barely) around the narrow part. Passing got a lot easier in the 1930s when the rules committee ordered the watermelon of previous decades slimmed down by an inch and a half, opening the door for the modern aerial game. How fortunate for the future shape of the game that the Ivy Leaguers of yesteryear didn't have any more lung power than today's.
— Cecil Adams
A certified MLB has 108 stitches and an average life span of 7 pitches.
I wonder if he made sauer kraut at night?;)Quote:
Originally Posted by The Cobra
being that we are now on the eve of the MLB All Star game it may interest some that....
The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games—MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL—are the day before and the day after the Baseball All-Star Game.
Wonder why so many of you fall asleep watching a ball game?????
The actual playing time in a Major League Baseball game which lasts two and a half hours has been clocked at 9 minutes and 55 seconds
Wilfred Benitez is the youngest man to ever win a world title when at the
age of 17 years and 3 months he won the jr. welterweight title.
Heavyweight champ Primo Carnera weighed 22 pounds.....at birth!!!
Cobra......oh man that hadda hurt.
Ever wonder where the phrase "Is it the real McCoy" came from??? Back in
the 1890's Charles "Kid" McCoy was a master at tricking his opponents
into believing he was ill or in difficulty. Consequently people were
never sure wether he was realy hurt, ill or faking. Thus the saying
"Is it the real McCoy" was born
Get water out of your watch.
Strap watch to light bulb, turn on for a few minutes. Water drops will form
on glass. Open up and wipe off.
for all our resident boxing experts..............
Most consecutive successful title defenses
Division Name Title Years Defenses
Heavyweight: Joe Louis World (1937-49) 25
Cruiserweight: Anaclet Wamba WBC Title (1991-94) 7
Light Heavyweight: Bob Foster World (1968-74) 14
Super Middleweight: Nigel Benn WBC Title (1992-95) 9
Middleweight: Carlos Monzon World (1970-77) 14
Junior Middleweight: Gianfranco Rosi IBF (1989-94) 11
Welterweight: Henry Armstrong World (1938-40) 19
Junior Welterweight: Julio Cesar Chavez WBC/IBF (1989-94) 12
Lightweight: Roberto Duran World (1972-79) 12
Junior Lightweight: Brian Mitchell IBF/WBA (1986-91) 12
Featherweight: Eusebio Pedroza WBA (1978-85) 19
Jr. Featherweight: Wilfredo Gomez WBC (1977-83) 17
Bantamweight: Orlando Canizales IBF (1988-94) 16
Junior Bantamweight: Khaosai Galaxy WBA (1984-91) 19
Flyweight: Miguel Canto WBC (1975-79) 14
Junior Flyweight: Myung Woo Yuh WBA (1985-91) 17
Strawweight: Ricardo Lopez WBC (1990-99) 21
There Once was a 17 Year Old Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig Back to Back
Daven Hiskey July 12, 2012
There once was a girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession.
What’s even more impressive about that was neither Ruth nor Gehrig managed to even get the bat on the ball when they swung. Ruth swung and missed twice before taking a called third strike. Gehrig swung and missed three times, striking out on just three pitches. Unfortunately for her, what she got for her efforts was to be promptly banned from Major and Minor league baseball by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
The woman was Virnett Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell, one of the first female professional baseball players in history. Mitchell’s baseball life started out about the same time she was old enough to pick up a ball. Her father initially taught her to play baseball, but she got more instruction from a soon to be famous neighbor. Seeing her interest in the game and learning of her dream to someday play in the Major Leagues, her neighbor, minor leaguer (and future MLB Hall of Famer and the greatest strikeout pitcher of his era), Dazzy Vance, taught her a few tricks, including supposedly how to throw what would become her signature pitch, a devastating sinker.
Fast forward to the age of 17 and Mitchell was making a name for herself playing around with various teams, including striking out nine consecutive batters at one point. She drew the attention of Joe Engle, owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts, while she was attending a baseball school’s pitching camp in Atlanta, Georgia in March of 1931. He spotted her and signed her to a contract to play for the New York Yankee’s AA minor league baseball club, the Lookouts. It was while with the Lookouts that she got a chance to face off with the game’s best.
The Chattanooga News on March 31, 1931 scouted her thus:
She uses an odd, side-armed delivery, and puts both speed and curve on the ball. Her greatest asset, however, is control. She can place the ball where she pleases, and her knack at guessing the weakness of a batter is uncanny …. She doesn’t hope to enter the big show this season, but she believes that with careful training she may soon be the first woman to pitch in the big leagues.
After the previously scheduled exhibition game was rained out, on April 2, 1931, Mitchell got her chance in front of 4,000 spectators, though few saw her as anything but a side-show.
The Yankees will meet a club here that has a girl pitcher named Jackie Mitchell, who has a swell change of pace and swings a mean lipstick. I suppose that in the next town the Yankees enter they will find a squad that has a female impersonator in left field, a sword swallower at short, and a trained seal behind the plate. Times in the South are not only tough but silly.” The New York Daily News, April 2, 1931
The starting pitcher of the day was former Cardinal and Tiger, Clyde Barfoot. He was removed after just two batters after giving up a double to Earle Combs and a single to Lyn Larry. In came the lefty Mitchell, whose extreme side arm delivery made it particularly hard for lefties to hit off of her. The first batter she faced was none other than the Sultan of Swat himself, Babe Ruth. The first pitch she threw him was high for a ball. The next two, though, Ruth swung and missed at. She then threw a sinker low and away that caught the edge of the strike-zone, which he took for strike three. He reportedly had a few choice words for the umpire while walking away that were “not meant for a lady’s ears”, giving his thoughts on the pitch being called a strike.
Next up was “Iron Horse” Lou Gehrig. She didn’t mess around with him, throwing him three consecutive sinkers, with him swinging and missing at every one. The next batter, Tony Lazzari, fared better, though he didn’t manage a hit. Instead, Mitchell ended up walking him, at which point she was pulled from the game. The Yankees would go on to win 14-4.
After the game, Ruth stated, “I don’t know what’s going to happen if they begin to let women in baseball. Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day.”
Apparently Commissioner Landis felt the same way. Within a few days, he officially voided her contract and banned her from Major and Minor league baseball, stating that baseball was “too strenuous” for women to play (though “The Queen of Baseball”, Lizzie “Spike” Murphy, should have given him the notion that this wasn’t true with her 17 year illustrious baseball career; more on her in the Bonus Facts below). Despite this individual banning, Major League Baseball wouldn’t officially ban women until June of 1952, a ban that stood for 40 years, until it was repealed when the Chicago White Sox drafted Carey Schueler in the 43 round of the draft for the 1993 season.
Not everyone was quite so down on Mitchell’s efforts. The New York Times had this to say after her performance against Ruth and Gehrig:
Cynics may contend that on the diamond as elsewhere it is place aux dames. Perhaps Miss Jackie hasn’t quite enough on the ball yet to bewilder Ruth and Gehrig in a serious game. But there are no such sluggers in the Southern Association, and she may win laurels this season which cannot be ascribed to mere gallantry. The prospect grows gloomier for misogynists.
Of course, she was never given the chance to show what she could develop into against the world’s best, so no such gloomy prospect arose. After being unjustly kicked off the Yankee’s AA farm club, Mitchell continued her professional career playing on various barnstorming teams, including the famed “House of David” team, famous for their long beards (Mitchell would sometimes wear a fake beard to match them). She quit baseball at the age of 23, though, after becoming fed up with people ignoring the fact that she was a genuinely good lefty pitcher, and instead treating her like a side-show, including once being asked to pitch from the back of a donkey in a match.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-con...th-340x284.jpg
I didn’t know that!
Q: Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left?
A: When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid's right! And that's where women's buttons have remained since.
Q: Why do ships and aircraft use 'mayday' as their call for help?
A: This comes from the French word m'aidez — meaning 'help me' — and is pronounced, approximately, 'mayday.'
Q: Why are zero scores in tennis called 'love'?
A: In France, where tennis became popular, the round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called 'l'oeuf,' which is French for 'the egg.' When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans (mis)pronounced it 'love.'
Q. Why do X's at the end of a letter signify kisses?
A: In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.
Q: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called 'passing the buck'?
A: In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would 'pass the buck' to the next player.
Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?
A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host's glass with his own.
Q: Why are people in the public eye said to be 'in the limelight'?
A: Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatre, a performer 'in the limelight' was the centre of attention.
Q: Why is someone who is feeling great 'on cloud nine'?
A: Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.
Q: In golf, where did the term 'caddie' come from?
A. When Mary Queen of Scots went to France as a young girl, Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scots game 'golf.' He had the first course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her. Mary liked this a lot and when returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced 'ca-day' and the Scots changed it into ‘caddie.’
Q: Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?
A: Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a dense orange clay called 'pygg'. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as 'pygg banks.' When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a container that resembled a pig. And it caught on.
So there you are! Now you know!
hey Mac,
you could have posted this in The Cobra's little known facts... lol
Darn your right :thumbsup:
Done................
In the state of Virginia.....
Not only is it illegal to have sex with the lights on, one may not have sex in any position other than missionary.
If one is not married, it is illegal for him to have sexual relations.
You may not have oral or anal sex.
In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman is not to drive a car unless a man warns approaching motorists or pedestrians by walking in front of the car that is being driven.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well that one will cut down on the divorce rates............................................. .................NYUK NYUK NYUKQuote:
Originally Posted by pandr
Here is another one.
In San Francisco it is illegal to walk your Elephant down Market street with a leash longer then 6 feet.
LMAO.... Would you walk there?Quote:
Originally Posted by Terryl
Quiet...there's an elephant in the room.:tehe:
It almost makes you laugh. The idea that Western society is facing "the end of men" almost makes you titter a bit hysterically. It almost makes you want to sit down with a cup of coffee, and perhaps a cake, but definitely not a cupcake, and ask the American journalist who thinks it is if she's mad.
She thinks she isn’t. The American journalist, who’s called Hanna Rosin, and wrote an article called The End of Men, which created quite a stir, and has now written a book called The End of Men, which is creating quite a stir, has looked at a lot of statistics and decided that, for men, the game is up.
"In 2009," she says, "for the first time in American history, the balance of the workforce tipped toward women." Women, she says, "dominate colleges and professional schools on every continent except Africa". The US economy, she says, is "becoming a kind of travelling sisterhood". Personality tests, she says, "show men tiptoeing into new territory, while women race into theirs". We have, she thinks, reached a "tipping point" and when the pendulum swings, men will be left behind.
In certain areas, she's right. In big parts of America, and Britain, and Europe, where men used to work in mines, and shipyards, and factories, and now sit around waiting for their next benefit cheque, she's right. In areas like this, where the work that men used to do has gone, and the new work, if there is any, isn't the kind of work they're good at, she's right. In areas like this, it's often the women who get the jobs, while the men they live with, or often don't live with, stay at home.
But the end of men? The end of men, in politics, and media, and law, and medicine, and business, and banks, in charge? The end of men running newspapers, and broadcasting corporations, and political parties, and countries? Yes, it's nice that, as Rosin says, Iceland has a woman prime minister who wants to end the "age of testosterone". It's always nice when Nordic countries with tiny populations and very good childcare give big jobs to women. But it's also nice when women journalists who are trying to sell a lot of books can tell the difference between an argument and a trend.
If Hanna Rosin were to come to this country, which, she says, is facing the same shift in gender power as her country is, she might want to switch on the telly. If she did, she would probably notice that most of the politicians who were interviewed were men, and most of the bankers who were interviewed were men, and most of the lawyers who were interviewed were men. She might notice that most of the people who were interviewing them were also men, and so were most of the people who were interviewing them on the radio. And if, for example, she were to flick through the newspapers, she might notice that about 80 per cent of the articles in them were written by men, and so were most of the books reviewed.
If Hanna Rosin noticed these things, she might think that we all knew why they happened, and that you didn't really have to spell it out. She might talk about culture. She might talk about ambition. She might, in fact, say what we all know: that many women don't write books, or run countries, or banks, because it takes quite a lot of effort to write a book, or run a country or a bank, and it's hard to make that effort if you're looking after children as well.
Hanna Rosin might say that nobody is actually discriminating against these women, and that if they don’t put in the work, they can't expect the rewards. And if she did, she might be right. If you don't put in the work, you can't expect the rewards. If you leave work hours before your colleagues, and don't get a promotion, it may be upsetting, but it isn't unfair. But Hanna Rosin might also notice that a fifth of British women, and a fifth of American women, don't have children, and when it comes to women graduates, it's nearly a third. She might wonder why these women, who aren't leaving the office early, aren't rising to the top.
She might wonder why these women, who aren't leaving the office early, aren't rising to the top.
And she might notice that women who have had children, but are now at an age when they don't have to rush home from work to put them to bed, also aren't rising to the top. She might, for example, laugh when she saw the sneer on Jeremy Paxman's face when he said on Newsnight, on Monday, that it was "absurd" to define the old as "over 60". She might think that it was all very well for people like Jeremy Paxman, who is 62, and people like John Humphrys, who is 69, to laugh at the idea that 60 was "old", but that it didn't seem quite so funny to the women newsreaders who had been sacked, because their (no longer quite such smooth) faces "didn't fit".
She might think of all the women who had dedicated themselves to their career, and who had thought, perhaps naively, that they were doing quite well at climbing a ladder, and who suddenly found that they were being pushed aside. She might think that it seemed to have to do, in certain industries, with a cult of youth, but that that cult didn't seem to apply to men.
And Hanna Rosin might think, as Harriet Harman, who has just set up a commission to address discrimination against women over the age of 50, clearly thinks, that this cult was so stupid that it almost made you laugh. She might want to remind the people who run the media that about a third of the British population is over 50, and that for many of these people 50 actually seems quite young.
If Hanna Rosin really thinks men are on their way out, she might wonder why it's nearly always men who think that their opinion is something that someone else wants to hear. She might want to say that although the media is only one industry, among many industries, it's the one that influences other industries by setting the tone. And if she really wants a society that edges towards a "tipping point", a tipping point where women don't have all the power, but have a little bit more than they do now, she should do this: she should tell women over 50, and under 50, that they need to learn to play the games that will get them seen, and heard. She should tell them, in other words, that the time has come to stop being nice, and stop being modest, and stop being victims, and fight.
C/P The Independant
I don't know where Cobra went, hope all is well, but i found some Montana facts that should be added :):)
Montana has the largest migratory elk herd in the nation.
The state boasts the largest breeding population of trumpeter swans in the lower United States.
At the Rocky Mountain Front Eagle Migration Area west of Great Falls more golden eagles have been seen in a single day than anywhere else in the country.
North of Missoula is the largest population of nesting common loons in the western United States.
The average square mile of land contains 1.4 elk, 1.4 pronghorn antelope, and 3.3 deer.
The Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area contains as many as 300,000 snow geese and 10,000 tundra swans during migration.
At Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge it is possible to see up to 1,700 nesting pelicans.
The Montana Yogo Sapphire is the only North American gem to be included in the Crown Jewels of England.
In 1888 Helena had more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world.
46 out of Montana's 56 counties are considered "frontier counties" with an average population of 6 or fewer people per square mile.
At Egg Mountain near Choteau dinosaur eggs have been discovered supporting the theory some dinosaurs were more like mammals and birds than like reptiles.
Montana is the only state with a triple divide allowing water to flow into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Hudson Bay. This phenomenon occurs at Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park.
The notorious outlaw, Henry Plummer, built the first jail constructed in the state.
No state has as many different species of mammals as Montana.
The moose, now numbering over 8,000 in Montana, was thought to be extinct in the Rockies south of Canada in the 1900s.
Flathead Lake in northwest Montana contains over 200 square miles of water and 185 miles of shoreline. It is considered the largest natural freshwater lake in the west.
Miles City is known as the Cowboy Capitol.
Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in the nation.
The town of Ekalaka was named for the daughter of the famous Sioux chief, Sitting Bull.
Fife is named after the type of wheat grown in the area or, as some locals contend, by Tommy Simpson for his home in Scotland.
Fishtail is named for either a Mr. Fishtail who lived in the area or as the area Indians prefer for some of the peaks in the nearby Beartooth Mountain Range which look like the tail of a fish.
The Yaak community is the most northwestern settlement in the state.
Montana has the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.
Near the Pines Recreation Area as many as 100 sage grouse perform their extraordinary spring mating rituals.
The first luge run in North America was built at Lolo Hot Springs on Lolo Pass in 1965.
How's that for bringing a basically dead thread back to life!! lol.