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"B*lt my hat's arse!" - AMAZING things you've only just found out

Started by touchingcloth, July 01, 2021, 09:03:42 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

buzby

Quote from: MojoJojo on October 08, 2021, 11:44:40 AM
There's some pretty strong evidence that Thalidomide was first developed by Nazi doctors experimenting on concentration camp victims.
That's a myth/conspiracy theory, largely perpetuated by freelance journalist Peter Hofland on his site oncozine.com. Phthalimidoglutarimide, the compound that became Thalidomide, was first synthesized by Ciba in Switzerland in 1952 by chemists looking for a non-barbiturate based tranquiliser. They tested it's efficacy in animals as an anti-convulsive but found it ineffective and rejected it in favour of Glutethimide, which they then patented and marketed in 1954 as Doriden.

A couple of years later, the German pharmaceutical firm Chemie Grünenthal were also looking for new products and Wilhelm Kunz, a research chemist there, also synthesized Phthalimidoglutarimide in an attempt to find an an analogue to Ciba's Glutethimide. They also performed tests and while not as effective as Glutethimide, it showed promise so they aquired the rights to the compound from Ciba in 1956 and marketed it as Contergan (crucailly, they never did any large scale human testing, and falsified research to say they had) initially as an anti-convulsant for epileptics (at which it had limited effectiveness), and subsequently as a tranquiliser.

The 'Nazi Link' comes from Heinrich Mückter, the head scientist of Chemie Grünenthal (who employed quite a few former Nazi scentists), who was a lead scientist in viral research for the Nazi war effort. He and his colleagues tested the effects of various viruses and vaccines on concentration camp inmates. There is also circumstantial evidence that a similar compound to Thalidomide was developed during the war by scientists at IG Farben as a nerve agent antidote, and Otto Ambros, the head of the nerve agent division at IG Farben (the 'A' in Sarin is from his surname) who was tried at Nuremberg after the war alongside his IG Farben colleagues for their concentration camp experiments, also acted as an advisor to Chemie Grünenthal during the period they were developing Contergan. However, at the same time Ambros was also advisor to other companies such as Distillers, W. R. Grace, Dow Chemical and even the U.S. Army Chemical Corps.

Hofland has attempted to embroider the link between Ambros, Grünenthal and the alleged Nazi development of Thalidomide during WW2 by citing a 2009 Daily Mail article that quotes by Dr. Martin Johnson of the Thalidomide Trust.  However, in the subsequent 2018 book The Thalidomide Catastrophe Johnson and his co-authors specifically state there as no direct link between Thalidomide and WW2 Nazi research.

buzby

Quote from: Norton Canes on October 15, 2021, 10:11:52 AM
The 'Later...' in 'Later... with Jools Holland' is there because originally the show was an extended version of BBC2's arts programme The Late Show.
It wasn't an extended version of The Late Show, it was broadcast immediately after The Late Show at 11.55pm, hence Later....

The first episode did link into The Late Show uninterrupted with a brief pre-taped handover between Holland and Tracey MacLeod inserted into the titles. However from the second episode onwards there was a junction between the two programmes,.

Twonty Gostelow

I thought it came from "Later, I'll be playing piano on your song whether you want me to or not."

Norton Canes

Quote from: buzby on October 15, 2021, 10:52:00 AM
It wasn't an extended version of The Late Show, it was broadcast immediately after The Late Show at 11.55pm, hence Later....

The first episode did link into The Late Show uninterrupted with a brief pre-taped handover between Holland and Tracey MacLeod inserted into the titles. However from the second episode onwards there was a junction between the two programmes,.

My bad - by 'extended version' I didn't mean a straight continuation of the broadcast programme, but that there was simply a production connection. I was trying to encapsulate what TV Cream were saying in this week's mailout, with a special section on the history of The Late Show:


"But The Late Show would have an even bigger musical legacy. Mark Cooper was the Late Show producer most interested in rock, and with most of the rest of the production team more concerned with making fancy films, he noticed the studio was pretty empty most nights and you could fit a couple of bands in it. Hence at midnight on 8th October, The Late Show got an extra forty minutes or so for the first edition of Later. This was such a small scale show that it took a while for it to even get a proper name, being initially billed as Late Show Music Special in the Radio Times, while Cooper had modest hopes, saying "It is not intended to be rock- or chart-orientated, although we do hope to feature some mainstream artists." The Neville Brothers, Nu Colours, The Christians and D-Influence were on the first show, with Jools Holland on presenting duties, and things went so well that it spun off into its own series in 1993 and it's still going nearly thirty years later as the Beeb's flagship music show."

buzby

Quote from: Norton Canes on October 15, 2021, 03:15:40 PM
"Hence at midnight on 8th October, The Late Show got an extra forty minutes or so for the first edition of Later. This was such a small scale show that it took a while for it to even get a proper name, being initially billed as Late Show Music Special in the Radio Times,
<snip>
and things went so well that it spun off into its own series in 1993 and it's still going nearly thirty years later as the Beeb's flagship music show."

Hmm, I'd expect TV Cream to do a bit more of a deeper dive than that. If you watch the video it's evident that from the pilot episode they had already settled on the title (it appears on the studio chalkboard when Holland wipes The Late Show off it in the opening titles), and by the third episode it appeared in the RT schedules under that name (it was only the second episode that was billed as 'The Late Show Music Special' - the pilot episode was billed as 'The Late Show:Later'). The quote from Mark Cooper that they have lifted from the RT/Genome entry for the pilot episode even mentions the title:
Quote
A new weekly music series presented by Jools Holland, including two guest bands plus an additional acoustic set. Producer Mark Cooper says Later will provide an eclectic mix of artists: "It is not intended to be rock- or chart-orientated, although we do hope to feature some mainstream artists.

The first series (minus the 09/10/92 pilot episode) was repeated late Sunday evening/after midnight Monday from the beginning of January 1993, with the second series starting on 07/05/93 on Fridays immediately after Newsnight (The Late Show was only broadcast Monday to Thursday).

The Dog

The film 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' is a remake of a little-known silent era film called 'The Evil Dr Boot'. The film was censored on its release as it showed evil union organiser Dr Freddy Krueger menacing women with a giant shoe. It is notable for being the first film ever to be filmed in colour - green - which was a huge breakthrough at the time because people in the olden days were quite stupid.


Sebastian Cobb

Just discovered that Harry, of the Wet Bandits in home alone, one half of Harry and Marv, has the full name Harry Lyme.

You know like Orson Welles in The Third Man

touchingcloth

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on October 16, 2021, 09:00:27 PM
Just discovered that Harry, of the Wet Bandits in home alone, one half of Harry and Marv, has the full name Harry Lyme.

You know like Orson Welles in The Third Man

Where did you discover this?

If a character has a surname which isn't said in the film or mentioned in the credits or listed on their Wikipedia page, does that character telly have that surname at all?


olliebean

Oliver Postgate was first cousins with Angela Lansbury. And their grandfather was George Lansbury, leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935.

gilbertharding

I was looking up the wikipedia entry for the 'Russian Flu' epidemic of the early 1890s. Interesting, because they now think that it was caused by a novel coronavirus which jumped species from cows to humans - but is now just another one of the many types of common cold we all used to get...

Anyway, the thing which fucked my hat was the link at the bottom of the page to "See also" the page on Carlill vs Carbolic Smoke Ball Co - which anyone who's ever studied a module of law at university will recognise as the case which, 130 years later still defines English consumer/contract law.

Carbolic Smoke Balls were marketed as a cure for the 'Russian flu'.

The Dog

The expression 'I could shit a brick' was first introduced into the English language by Crackerjack's Stu Francis.

touchingcloth

Quote from: gilbertharding on October 21, 2021, 02:56:45 PM
I was looking up the wikipedia entry for the 'Russian Flu' epidemic of the early 1890s. Interesting, because they now think that it was caused by a novel coronavirus which jumped species from cows to humans - but is now just another one of the many types of common cold we all used to get...

Anyway, the thing which fucked my hat was the link at the bottom of the page to "See also" the page on Carlill vs Carbolic Smoke Ball Co - which anyone who's ever studied a module of law at university will recognise as the case which, 130 years later still defines English consumer/contract law.

Carbolic Smoke Balls were marketed as a cure for the 'Russian flu'.

Ah, no, you're confused - I think you're thinking of Jarndyce & Jarndyce.

William "Ken Barlow" Roach was/is 20 years older than the actress who played Deirdre's mum, Blanche. He'll be 90 soon.

The Dog

Quote from: The Dog on October 21, 2021, 04:05:47 PM
The expression 'I could shit a brick' was first introduced into the English language by Crackerjack's Stu Francis.

I suppose this should be in the 'obvious things' section really.

touchingcloth

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58993679

I had to quadruple check that I was reading a current article and not missing one of those "this article was last updated over a hundred years ago" messages:

QuoteThe NFL has agreed to end race-based testing for compensation claims made by ex-players suffering from dementia, documents filed with a US court show.

It follows revelations that the previous testing system was based on a formula that assumed black players have a lower level of cognitive function.

Lads.

Mr Banlon

Quote from: thecuriousorange on October 21, 2021, 05:15:03 PM
William "Ken Barlow" Roach was/is 20 years older than the actress who played Deirdre's mum, Blanche. He'll be 90 soon.
Two years.

bgmnts

The cough reflex is the same reflex that triggers vomiting.

Found that out after trying a new asthma pump to stem this throat itch. Purged my entire dinner undigested into the pan.

The ultimate sign of a godless universe, that design.

How does the old watchmaker analogy stand up to scrutiny when there are so many flaws in the human body?

Cold Meat Platter

Tumbleweeds aren't native to the USA and are an invasive species from Russia.

beanheadmcginty


KennyMonster

Quote from: olliebean on October 17, 2021, 09:23:16 PM
Oliver Postgate was first cousins with Angela Lansbury. And their grandfather was George Lansbury, leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935.

Yeah, and my great grandfather did time with 'Big George' at his majesty's pleasure, along with a bunch of other Labour councillors from East london (Poplar).

The held their council meetings in prison because they were still elected officials at the time.

Thee 100th year anniversary of this has just passed earlier this month.

MojoJojo


On the nazi/thalidomide link.

Quote from: buzby on October 15, 2021, 10:29:43 AM
That's a myth/conspiracy theory, largely perpetuated by freelance journalist Peter Hofland on his site oncozine.com.

Yeah, fair enough - a lot of the "evidence" was tenuous at best. E. G. Their initial rat trials were a bit rubbish - > they fabricated the results because they knew it already worked because they'd used it on death camp victims.

I think it's the way they're both terrible, but are both made worse by linking them, that makes it an appealing conspiracy theory to me.

Brian Freeze

I just found out that the DB in relation to Aston Martin models refers to David Brown of tractor fame and fortune. It'd just been one of those things I never questioned.

Father in law reckons he drove the last Lagonda from the factory back to Yorkshire for DBs successor. It sounds very much like the sort of thing he'd do.

Bence Fekete

The CIA officially believes remote viewing to be a real phenomena:

QuoteThat report's conclusion—which echoed the assessments of the CIA officers involved in the program during the 1970s—was that enough accurate remote viewing experiences existed to defy randomness, but that the phenomenon was too unreliable, inconsistent, and sporadic to be useful for intelligence purposes. We decided not to restore the program.

https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/ask-molly-did-cia-really-study-psychic-powers/

Joe Oakes

Today I found out that Bence Fekete is a dunce. Admittedly, I'm not certain if this qualifies as amazing news, judging by his contributions to the UFO thread.


Gregory Torso

You know when elephants go mad and rampage through villages because they're all horned up and senile and can't handle it anymore, that is called "musth". That's a nice animal fact I found out.

touchingcloth

Quote from: Gregory Torso on November 03, 2021, 09:39:17 AM
You know when elephants go mad and rampage through villages because they're all horned up and senile and can't handle it anymore, that is called "musth". That's a nice animal fact I found out.

Presumably onomatopoeic based on the noise they make as they go fucking bonkers. MMMMMMMMUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTHHHHHH just squeaking out their trunks.

Gregory Torso

And this



This isn't a llama, like you and your dad think, it is a vicuña. There also such a thing that is called a guanaco. But they all look interchangeble so I don't know why they don't just do what the Chinese do and call them all "motherfuckers".

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: Gregory Torso on November 03, 2021, 09:42:43 AM
And this



This isn't a llama, like you and your dad think, it is a vicuña. There also such a thing that is called a guanaco. But they all look interchangeble so I don't know why they don't just do what the Chinese do and call them all "motherfuckers".
Just looking these cute guys up, and apparently llamas and alpacas are both domesticated forms of guanaco, not wild animals. Which I've only just found out. The actual wild species are guanaco and vicuñas. On the other hand I did just get to google "feral llamas", which they have in Italy. I also just found out they have brown bears in Italy, including in Lazio, not just the Alps.

EDIT: The species name of the llama is Lama glama!