Interesting Stuff

• Have you ever noticed that in the movies, it seems no matter how long a girl is stranded on a desert island or in the jungle, her armpit hair never grows, her leg hair is gone, and she looks youthful even though she doesn’t do her usual beauty treatments. On the other hand, men are always very dirty, have a lot of facial hair a few days after they stop shaving, and their skin turns brown because they are in a tropical country, which makes them look like ‘jungle people’.
• And speaking of the movies, Hollywood icon Marlon Brando was not a particularly tall man at 5′8″, but he was a boxer in his youth. During his career Brando was stalked relentlessly by a reporter until Brando warned: “If you don’t get lost right now, I will break your jaw.”  The reporter failed to heed Brando’s warning, so the iconic actor punched the intrusive photographer breaking his jaw and knocking out a few teeth. knocked-out teeth.  The matter was settled out of court, presumably making the man an offer he couldn’t refuse.  After the incident the reporter would only follow Brando wearing a football helmet with a face mask – and yes, there are photos.
• Perhaps the weirdest flood ever occurred on January 15, 1919, when a large storage tank containing 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst in Boston’s North End neighborhood causing a wave of molasses, estimated to be 25 feet high and moving at 35 mph, flooded the streets, causing 21 deaths and over 150 injuries. Yes, this really happened and is known by two different name, the Great Molasses Flood or the Boston Molasses Disaster.  Years afterward, people claimed they could still smell molasses in the area –   the disaster led to stricter building regulations and corporate liability laws.
• Whe batting lefty, Yankee great Mickey Mantle had the fastest recorded time in history running from home to first base, which he did in 3.1 seconds.
• ​Nigel Ogden was a British Airways flight attendant who played a crucial role during the emergency on British Airways Flight 5390 on June 10, 1990.The aircraft suffered an explosive decompression when a cockpit windscreen panel blew out at 17,300 feet, causing Captain Tim Lancaster to be partially ejected from the cockpit.Ogden, who was near the flight deck at the time, immediately grabbed the captain by his legs and ankles to prevent him from being fully sucked completely of the plane.Despite the extreme conditions, including high winds and freezing temperatures, Ogden held onto Lancaster for over 20 minutes until the co-pilot, Alastair Atchison, managed to land the aircraft safely at Southampton Airport.  Ogden sustained injuries such as frostbite on his face and a dislocated shoulder during the ordeal.He later suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and retired from British Airways in 2001 due to ill health.As of 2005, he was working as a night watchman at a Salvation Army hospital.  Moral of the story – heed the “Fasten Seat Belt”
• The Alphabet Song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Baa, Baa, Black Sheep share the same melody! All are based on the French folk tune “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman”, which dates back to the 18th century.
• If life exists anywhere else in the solar system other than the Earth, it will be found not on any of the planets in our solar system but rather on a few of the moons orbiting the outer gas giant planets Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune where subsurface oceans are believed to exist.
• In 1998, the Marine Corps experimented by placing female Marines at Camp Geiger, North Carolina for integration in Marine Combat Training. After being in the field for 12 days, many female Marines developed urinary tract infections due to a lack of hygiene.  Leadership also discovered prostitution in the ranks with female Marines accepting money for sex with male Marines and the notion of integrating the sexes in combat units was dropped until 2015 when the  Marine Corps conducted new research with similar results, i.e., teams with female members performed at lower overall levels, completed tasks more slowly and fired weapons with less accuracy than their all-male counterparts while sustaining significantly higher injury rates to accompany lower levels of physical performance capacity overall.  Most concerning was that mixed teams fell far behind in important tasks such as simulated casualty evacuations, and only test women were rated equal to men was the Artillery Cannon Crewman Course.  The Infantry Officer Course graduated 71 percent of male participants, but no women were able to complete the grueling course.  Marine Corps Commandant Joseph Dunford met with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to discuss the troubling results yet was ordered to lower the Corps’ standards to accommodate Barack Obama’s obsession with equalizing the genders in the military.
• And finally, today I’ve included something to test your reasoning and deduction skills. What follows is what is a puzzle that is widely considered the Greatest Puzzle of all time.  Now, I don’t know who decides these things, or whether or not it’s actually “the greatest,” but after trying to figure it out, I think you’ll agree it’s pretty damn good.  And remember, there’s no “catch” to this, however, you must also remember, EVERY fact is important.

On a train, Smith, Robinson and Jones are the fireman, brakeman and engineer, but NOT respectively.  Also aboard the train are three businessmen who have the same names: a Mr. Smith, a Mr. Robinson and a Mr. Jones.

• Robinson lives in Detroit
• The brakeman lives exactly halfway between Chicago and Detroit
• Jones earns exactly $20,000 a year
• The brakeman’s nearest neighbor, one of the passengers, earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman
• Smith beats the fireman at billiards
• The passenger whose name is the same as the brakeman’s lives in Chicago

Who is the Engineer?    bmazz68@icloud.com if you think you have the answer. –

Quote of the day: “Knowledge is Good” – Emil Faber. Founder – Faber College