Category: Omnibit

The average high in Timbuktu in May is 108 F.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-30-17

1,354,664 Americans have died in war since 1776 according the latest statistics.  Combat deaths account for 666,441 of them.

William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 5-29-17

Yes Miranda, those Odd Thomas paperbacks are codices. A codex is merely Latin for book i.e. bound stacked pages. Codices started creeping into use at about the start of the 2nd century. They quickly became the preferred medium albeit scrolls managed to hang around for another 300 years.

Now it appears the codex is being replaced by digital publications. It’s a tad ironic as the word “code” comes from codex as it was books it which laws were record i.e. the legal code.

Codex William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 5-27-17

Public pool urine — A typical  public pool contains about 17 gallons of urine but don’t let it keep you from the water. That pool holds about 219,000 gallons of water so the urine content is only about .008 percent. Consider that the FDA allows canned apricots to be 2 percent insect filth.

Public pool urine — William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 5-26-17

 

The longest war was between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly. It lasted 335 years.

The Isles of Scilly are English but were used as a base against the Dutch by the Royalists during the English Civil War. Rather than declaring war on all of England — which was in the hands of Cromwell’s Parliamentarians, who were their allies — the Netherlands declared war specifically on Scilly on March 30, 1651. The declaration became moot when Cromwell captured the isles.

In 1985, the chairman of the Isle of Scilly Council, wrote to the Dutch Embassy in London in attempt to dispel the legend that his community was at war with a nation of Europe. The Embassy, however, found that the legend to be true as no peace treaty was ever signed.

So on April 17, 1986, that was rectified.

 

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-25-17 Longest War

Ever wonder how much voltage a transmission line carries? Count the insulators. Each insulator can withstand about between 13,500 and 17,250 volts.  A 500KV line will have between 24 and 28 insulator disks.

William Lawrence Sr. Omnibit 5-24-17

 

Things weigh less at the equator.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-23-17

Genghis Khan was a slave for a while. He escaped, though, and the rest is history.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-22-17

Florins and ducats were gold coins used for common trade in Europe starting in the Middle Ages. The florin was minted by Florence and the ducat by Venice. Ducats eventually became minted by other nations. The Hungarian ducat remained in use until 1915.

William Lawrence Sr. Omnbit 5-20-17

Cubic zirconium beats diamond, at least by traditional measures of beauty. The original test for diamond beauty was the number of colors displayed while refracting light. CZ is much better at this.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 5-19-17