Random Trivia

I do my best thinking in the bathroom- and thought about it this morning....

Who was the last president with a beard?

The answer appears to be Benjamin Harrison.

Correct!

If you want more random...
Where can you buy Cashew Nuts with the shell?

You can't. They don't come in a shell, at least not individually.

Heh, this all came from me wondering if Grant was the only president on money with a beard. The answer is no- Lincoln has one too.

Start naming famous TV personalities with beards.

Appleseed wrote: Start naming famous TV personalities with beards.

End Thread

An Englishman named Cassius Marcellus Coolidge invented the tourist's gag photo where you stick your head through a cartoon poster, but he's much better known for having painted the series of "Dogs Playing Poker." (See the first few seconds of "Opulence. I Has It.") I've always liked that one.

I remember being at a Q&A with Fred Haise (Apollo 13 fame). Someone asked him the question how powerful were the computers at the time. He said they had 4 Megabytes total. Scary to think we went to the moon with something with less power than my Ipod.

DoctorBlade wrote: I remember being at a Q&A with Fred Haise (Apollo 13 fame). Someone asked him the question how powerful were the computers at the time. He said they had 4 Megabytes total. Scary to think we went to the moon with something with less power than my Ipod.

I think it's even more scarier how many Terrabytes are squandered these days.

DoctorBlade wrote: I remember being at a Q&A with Fred Haise (Apollo 13 fame). Someone asked him the question how powerful were the computers at the time. He said they had 4 Megabytes total. Scary to think we went to the moon with something with less power than my Ipod.

why is that scary? the calculations to do it were all done on paper by some smart guys with buzzcuts and pocket protectors.. the computers were just there to make simple corrections on the fly.

In the 1800s, studies of the optical spectrum of the the Sun's visible surface yielded absorption lines that did not match any atomic elements that were at that time known on Earth. In 1868, Norman Lockyer hypothesized that these absorption lines were there because of the presence of a new element which he named "helium", after the Greek Sun god Helios. It was not until 25 years later that helium was isolated on Earth.

DoctorBlade wrote: I remember being at a Q&A with Fred Haise (Apollo 13 fame). Someone asked him the question how powerful were the computers at the time. He said they had 4 Megabytes total. Scary to think we went to the moon with something with less power than my Ipod.

There was a lot less porn back then. 4 megs would about handle it.

Tim Baxter wrote:

DoctorBlade wrote: I remember being at a Q&A with Fred Haise (Apollo 13 fame). Someone asked him the question how powerful were the computers at the time. He said they had 4 Megabytes total. Scary to think we went to the moon with something with less power than my Ipod.

There was a lot less porn back then. 4 megs would about handle it.

You owe me a new keyboard.

DoctorBlade wrote: I remember being at a Q&A with Fred Haise (Apollo 13 fame). Someone asked him the question how powerful were the computers at the time. He said they had 4 Megabytes total. Scary to think we went to the moon with something with less power than my Ipod.

The really scary part is with all the multiple trillions of bytes available, we haven't been back to stay.

Back when we went to the moon, computers also cost WAAY more than your average 'phone. I mean, did anyone own a "personal" computer in the '60s?

Another thing to think about, when it comes to computers and travel, when they went to the moon, your average car didn't have any computers in it...nor where they being used to diagnose problems and/or maintenance. Nowadays, the "average" car has a few computers that probably do more calculations "on the fly" (while not inside a nice air-conditioned room) than the first computers used in moon shots did.

Tim Baxter wrote:

DoctorBlade wrote: I remember being at a Q&A with Fred Haise (Apollo 13 fame). Someone asked him the question how powerful were the computers at the time. He said they had 4 Megabytes total. Scary to think we went to the moon with something with less power than my Ipod.

There was a lot less porn back then. 4 megs would about handle it.

Didn't they include some in the mission manual?