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The Return Of Today I Learned!!


Canadian Bills Fan

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31 minutes ago, Canadian Bills Fan said:

I am bringing it back! feel free to contribute! Just going to post with facts that I found interesting! 

 

 

 

 

They really aren't that secret.

They just aren't a passenger airline.

They use normal air traffic control freqs.

The people who work at the Groom Lake complex, known as Area 51, and the folks who work at Tonopah Test Range, which is about 70 miles further NW from Groom Lake, get shuttled back and forth on a daily basis. Not all, but many.

From time to time the Air Force will do it with their own transports, but mostly it's done by Janet 737's.

They use to leave from Nellis AFB, but since everyone lives in or near Las Vegas, they operate from McCarran Intl. Airport and save them the drive to Nellis, which isn't that far away. 

Everybody who operates out of the Nellis complex knows about it, there is just no reason for other folks to.

Funny, I haven't talked about the Tonopah Test Range for years, and just yesterday I got an email asking me something about it.

We used to operate in the Nellis complex and the restricted area which serves Tonopah Test Range regularly.

(See "Operation Constant Peg).

 

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8 minutes ago, sherpa said:

 

They really aren't that secret.

They just aren't a passenger airline.

They use normal air traffic control freqs.

The people who work at the Groom Lake complex, known as Area 51, and the folks who work at Tonopah Test Range, which is about 70 miles further NW from Groom Lake, get shuttled back and forth on a daily basis. Not all, but many.

From time to time the Air Force will do it with their own transports, but mostly it's done by Janet 737's.

They use to leave from Nellis AFB, but since everyone lives in or near Las Vegas, they operate from McCarran Intl. Airport and save them the drive to Nellis, which isn't that far away. 

Everybody who operates out of the Nellis complex knows about it, there is just no reason for other folks to.

Funny, I haven't talked about the Tonopah Test Range for years, and just yesterday I got an email asking me something about it.

We used to operate in the Nellis complex and the restricted area which serves Tonopah Test Range regularly.

(See "Operation Constant Peg).

 

 

You told us.  Are you going to have to kill us all now?  😟

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10 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said:

 

You told us.  Are you going to have to kill us all now?  😟

 

No You're safe.

Constant Peg was declassified in 2006.

When I was in the Pacific Fleet Adversaries, the bad guys, we used to fight the Migs regularly. We were forced to sign agreements that if we ever said anything, they would wipe us and everyone we knew out.

Very serious stuff.

They kept them in hangars to avoid Soviet recon satellite pics.

You'd hold about 15 miles north, then they'd taxi out, takeoff and you'd fight them for about 20 mins.

We were told never to try to land there.

One day, i was the duty officer at the Adversary Squadron and my CO was over there. The plan was to fight them, then tank, (air to air refuel), then come back. During the tanking, something happened and the tanker sent a bunch of raw fuel into the air. It went own my CO's intake, exploded when it hit the compressor, blew out his right main landing gear doors, and a total hydraulic failure ensued.  Losing the flight controls, he had to go in there. No brakes, so he rolls to the end and into the barricade.

He wasn't hurt, so they blindfolded him and drove him 90 miles to Naval Air Station Fallon, NV.

We wanted to send our maintainers to fix the airplane, but they would hear none of that. The accident report was altered to indicate it happened at Fallon Naval Air Station.

They disassembled the airplane, put it on a truck and drove it to Fallon where we got it fixed a month later.

Funny times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 7/5/2021 at 1:19 PM, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Today I learned that when the young female pharmacy assistant is administering my Covid vaccine, the phrase she says is referring to the severity of the needle, not certain anatomical shortcomings on my part. 🤔

just a little prick

19 hours ago, WhoTom said:

I'm not sure this belongs in TIL, since I kinda suspected it before, but ...

 

 

TIL.jpg

See @Gugny

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1 hour ago, Beerball said:

 

Some drivers in US should be required to do same thing for front bumper or maybe include hood as well for they fail to turn on head lights because they say "I can see fine." - It is not just about driver.  Some try to make everything a personal choice.

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I guess this is a 'YIL'...

 

So yesterday I found our (mostly indoor) male cat at the back door.  He only goes out supervised for now (adolescent/siamese/fetches better than our dog/awesome cat!!), - I knew the only way he could be there was by jumping off our second story roof... 

 

which made me nervous

 

until

 

I looked up 'how far can a cat fall'

 

maybe I'm the last person on the planet to know this, but apparently the odds are in a cat's favor to survive a fall from ANY height- as long as they have oxygen.  Their terminal velocity is about 60 MPH, and if they land on a reasonable, non-jagged surface, their bodies stand a decent chance of absorbing the impact.   

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1 hour ago, BringMetheHeadofLeonLett said:

I guess this is a 'YIL'...

 

So yesterday I found our (mostly indoor) male cat at the back door.  He only goes out supervised for now (adolescent/siamese/fetches better than our dog/awesome cat!!), - I knew the only way he could be there was by jumping off our second story roof... 

 

which made me nervous

 

until

 

I looked up 'how far can a cat fall'

 

maybe I'm the last person on the planet to know this, but apparently the odds are in a cat's favor to survive a fall from ANY height- as long as they have oxygen.  Their terminal velocity is about 60 MPH, and if they land on a reasonable, non-jagged surface, their bodies stand a decent chance of absorbing the impact.   

Tough too! Did you see the story of Binx?

 

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_60e958e0e4b06dfc5e21a1a2/amp

 

Anyway, I recall reading that cats right themselves in mid air and use like a parachute effect.

Edited by ExiledInIllinois
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1 hour ago, BringMetheHeadofLeonLett said:

I guess this is a 'YIL'...

 

So yesterday I found our (mostly indoor) male cat at the back door.  He only goes out supervised for now (adolescent/siamese/fetches better than our dog/awesome cat!!), - I knew the only way he could be there was by jumping off our second story roof... 

 

which made me nervous

 

As long as if cat is smart enough to not go in yards with dogs.  When I was growing up we had a pair of very large collies (Rusty and Pepper) which spent most of their time in our backyard.  Many people just let their cats wander and occasionally a cat would wander into our backyard.  It was amazing how fast those big lumbering dogs could move when they wanted to; sort of reminds me of a lineman.  The cat would not usually be able to get out of backyard fast enough and dog would kill it.  Even saw one cat walking on plastic covered wire fence surrounding yard teasing dogs.  One dog ran into fence and cat fell into yard and before cat could get up and out the other dog got it.   Eventually our dogs were moved to a farm but I never got to see them and have always wondered if my mother lied to us.

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8 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

As long as if cat is smart enough to not go in yards with dogs.  When I was growing up we had a pair of very large collies (Rusty and Pepper) which spent most of their time in our backyard.  Many people just let their cats wander and occasionally a cat would wander into our backyard.  It was amazing how fast those big lumbering dogs could move when they wanted to; sort of reminds me of a lineman.  The cat would not usually be able to get out of backyard fast enough and dog would kill it.  Even saw one cat walking on plastic covered wire fence surrounding yard teasing dogs.  One dog ran into fence and cat fell into yard and before cat could get up and out the other dog got it.   Eventually our dogs were moved to a farm but I never got to see them and have always wondered if my mother lied to us.

 

Jeebus!  TIL @Limeaid has some deeply rooted childhood trauma 😳

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50 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Tough too! Did you see the story of Binx?

 

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_60e958e0e4b06dfc5e21a1a2/amp

 

Anyway, I recall reading that cats right themselves in mid air and use like a parachute effect.

With the webbed feet they can probably sky-surf too!

 

Where's the Pegula jet!!

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TIL selling playbooks is illegal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/02/sports/football/where-have-you-gone-garlic-breath.html

Quote

Hut $1, Hut $2, Hut $3

 

Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested the former N.F.L. quarterback Karl Sweetan in 1972 after he tried to sell a copy of the Los Angeles Rams' playbook to the coach of the New Orleans Saints. Sweetan had been released by the Rams and hoped to help a division rival. Instead, Saints Coach J.D. Roberts notified the N.F.L., which alerted the authorities.

 

Sweetan was slapped with federal charges that included wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property. But the playbook wasn't worth enough for Sweetan to be charged with a federal crime, so the charges were dropped. It's doubtful the playbook would have helped the Saints anyway. They finished the season with a 2-11-1 record.

 

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On 7/13/2021 at 8:49 AM, Limeaid said:

 

As long as if cat is smart enough to not go in yards with dogs.  When I was growing up we had a pair of very large collies (Rusty and Pepper) which spent most of their time in our backyard.  Many people just let their cats wander and occasionally a cat would wander into our backyard.  It was amazing how fast those big lumbering dogs could move when they wanted to; sort of reminds me of a lineman.  The cat would not usually be able to get out of backyard fast enough and dog would kill it.  Even saw one cat walking on plastic covered wire fence surrounding yard teasing dogs.  One dog ran into fence and cat fell into yard and before cat could get up and out the other dog got it.   Eventually our dogs were moved to a farm but I never got to see them and

 

have always wondered if my mother lied to us.

TIL what happened to Rusty and Pepper

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