Posted: 1/21/2009 8:50:41 PM EDT
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Post something interesting from your own experience (does not have to be something you did, just something you have a connection to). I will start. I guess this is three things tied together if anyone is keeping count. I used to have an old lady who was a friend of mine. She lived in Houston. She was a 92 year old (last I saw her, she has passed now, assumably still a) virgin. She worked as a statistician all her life. Created the first comprehensive cancer statistic registries back in the day through exhaustive research (that kept her from ever dating). It is amazing what you can accomplish when you aren't motivated by the pie. Anyway, her father was named Angus MacDonald. Some old timers around here may remember AT&T's old motto "In the Spirit of Service" and their image that included a lineman in the snow making his way to a train caught in a blizzard. Saved the lives of a whole train full of people by being in the right place. That was her dad. He was an immigrant that started with AT&T when their longest line was 8 miles. Ended up being a big wig with them by the end. There is a video interview with her here (you have to wait for the one that says Eleanor MacDonald and click on it). She told me a story about how after he retired (quite a well known member of the community at this point, IIRC in MA) he decided not to pay income taxes. He was a principled man, and he outlined a pretty clear argument for their being no Constitutional obligation for him to pay them. A local member of the IRS (friend of the family) knew he was not the type of man to relent easily from a decision, so he came and talked to my friend and her sisters. He explained that if her father was just some wingnut the IRS might not take this too seriously, but since he was such a well known and respected man, they could not afford to allow him to set this precedent. He explained that, while he agreed that her dad's argument was logical, they needed to know (before he let it pass his desk to his superiors) that the IRS would pursue him and his estate to bankruptcy if necessary to litigate this problem out of existence. They talked to their dad (who apparently had not considered the full ramifications on his family) and he did indeed relent. I thought it was interesting that even the IRS man did not argue that her dad's assertions were incorrect, just that they would not let his actions go by peacefully. Anyway, I am not trying to write a book. Just wanted to see if we could have a thread full of random interesting stuff. |
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Janie Fricke lives in the town I grew up in. Gorgeous singer....she should have went farther than she did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCASdn_ve1Y&feature=related |
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My dad was part of a team that revolutionized (in a small way) air safety. When the DC-10 was still on the drawing boards, they told him to create a wiring harness pass-through between the fuselage and the engines.
The FAA requires that the pass-through withstand a pretty rigorous heat test; 2500 F. for 20 minutes, or something like that. Formerly, they had a very expensive titanium machined part, through which individual wires passed. His idea was to put a cluster of wires through a single 2-part rubber connection... much cheaper to manufacture. I remember he came home one day, very satisfied with his work. The initial test had failed, but, as he put it, "it failed in a way that showed us how to do it right." A week later the test succeeded. Of course, being a contract engineer, he didn't get jack for his work. |
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How do you know?  Sophmore year of highschool we had to go on a week long camping / hiking trip. I was having really bad allergies that made me have to blow my nose every 5 minutes, and eventually we were at a high enough altitude in the mountains where I just felt something "pop" in my nose. The blood just wouldn't stop, and the hiking guide ran out of gauze the previous day. She looked at me and said, "Now, just hear me out. The guys on the football team at UNH did this all the time, and they are obviously really tough! So you can be just as tough as them!" At this point I still didn't know she meant she was going to cram a tampon up my nose. When she pulled it out of her bag I was not in the best of moods. Well, with the tampon up my nose I continued hiking and we eventually passed a long line of German tourists who all pointed and laughed at the string dangling out my left nostril. On the bright side, the advertisements are true. I felt as though I could ride a horse, go swimming, and all of that jazz 
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ETA: after rereading the thread title, this has nothing to do with me
This slightly chubby man is the best unarmed fighter on the planet today. 
ETA.. as for me... I think I was the tallest person in Hong Kong for two weeks. It kind felt like how I'd think a really hot chick feels like, everyone staring at me for a second when I passed by. |
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Quoted: Quoted: How do you know? Sophmore year of highschool we had to go on a week long camping / hiking trip. I was having really bad allergies that made me have to blow my nose every 5 minutes, and eventually we were at a high enough altitude in the mountains where I just felt something "pop" in my nose. The blood just wouldn't stop, and the hiking guide ran out of gauze the previous day. She looked at me and said, "Now, just hear me out. The guys on the football team at UNH did this all the time, and they are obviously really tough! So you can be just as tough as them!" At this point I still didn't know she meant she was going to cram a tampon up my nose. When she pulled it out of her bag I was not in the best of moods. Well, with the tampon up my nose I continued hiking and we eventually passed a long line of German tourists who all pointed and laughed at the string dangling out my left nostril. On the bright side, the advertisements are true. I felt as though I could ride a horse, go swimming, and all of that jazz  I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the story. For the most part.  |
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Ooh good story time! lets see....
Hurricane Katrina, downtown New Orleans, Hilton riverside, 22nd floor, 150mph winds. saw the curtains swinging out from the wall about 2 feet. then i realized there was no wind inside the room....the building was swaying that much. that was just before i saw an ENTIRE rooftop fly by my window. yeah like 200 feet from ground level. A few years ago I came home from a date with an ex and noticed a car parked near my driveway with the lights on. told her bye got out of the car. Two black ladies were in the car and asked me for directions to another street. I told them where it was and then the wierdest thing happened. The one in the passenger seat asks me if i was planning to move to Florida. i reply yes why? she says in a very stern but kind voice DO NOT DO THAT FOR NOW! me->  I said ok you have a nice night now. before i walk off she tells me that a family member is going to leave soon and i will have a great fortune inherited.
A month later a hurricane hits the part of Florida that i was moving to for work and wipes the area out. two weeks after that one of my first uncles gets in a head on collision and dies. I take my cousin, his son, under my wing and he is my best friend till today. I have tons of crazy stories from my experiences in life. |
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ETA: after rereading the thread title, this has nothing to do with me This slightly chubby man is the best unarmed fighter on the planet today. http://manupwear.com/blog/wp-content/imagescaler/5161cff1697559b895194e941f5e3a6d.jpg Who is he? Name??? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
ETA: after rereading the thread title, this has nothing to do with me This slightly chubby man is the best unarmed fighter on the planet today. http://manupwear.com/blog/wp-content/imagescaler/5161cff1697559b895194e941f5e3a6d.jpg Who is he? Name??? fedor emelianenko |
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Surefire way to get rid of crabs. I read that and instantly thought of a guy aiming a very bright flashlight at his nutsack. Anywho, here's my interesting tidbit: Herbert Hoover, who was the 31st president of the United Stated, turned over all the Federal salary checks he received to charity during the 47 years he was in government. |
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Rowdy roddy piper, the wrestler, use to have breakfast every week in the restaurant where my mom worked.
Elmers pancake and steak house, Hillsboro, Oregon. I once peed next to Chuck Norris in a bathroom at Dalls FT Worth Airport. Middle of the night and he came in with his body guard and actually said " How ya doin Marine." To me. I was travelling in Uniform at the time. My urine crawled back inside of me out of fear. |
You want grass roots activism? Every year, VCDL goes down to the state capital in Richmond, Va and organizes gun owners from all over the commonwealth of Va. What do we do? We go throughout the legislature and meet with our representatives. He give them a handout of bills VCDL supports and talk about bad gun-control bills we do NOT support. We answer their questions about the bills and our positions on them. We ask them to vote our way, and we let them know that we pay attention to the way they vote and will remember come election time. Folks, THIS is how it works. Online petitions might make you feel great. Emails and letters to your reps work, but NOTHING compares to knocking on their door and respectfully declaring your position and asking for their support. And THAT is why VCDL is a force to be reckoned with in Virginia! 
ETA, I shot and edited the above video. For free. |
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a2 + b2 = c2
The words loose and lose cannot be correctly used interchangeably in the same sentence although many will attempt to do so when given the opportunity. A recent US survey found that 46.34% of all statistics are made up. The remaining 53.66% are true, although open to interpretation. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step but somewhere along the line you may need to change your socks. If all the economists in the world were laid end to end they would never reach a conclusion. YMMV |
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One day while skydiving in lake Elsinore CA, the guys who own the place started to say that some playboy gals were going to be there for a video shoot.
Brooke Burke and another chick were there for a Wild on E shoot... I jumped just before they did and was on the show. Cant find it on bthe interweb anymore but it was there for years... My 1 claim to fame 
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