Weekend Open Thread

… the dwarf planet Pluto is a long, long way away? Putting it in miles, Pluto is between 2.66 billion and 4.67 billion miles from us here on Earth. If you have trouble imagining that kind of a number, look at it this way: the New Horizons spacecraft, which sent back the first photos of Pluto’s surface in 2015, was launched in 2006. It took nine years for the spacecraft to get to Pluto. But if you wanted to travel in, say, a commercial aircraft, settle in – it would take 800 years for an airplane to fly to Pluto, if indeed it could. (All aboard!)

… more than 50% of the genes of humans and slugs are identical? (I can guess which 50%, too.)

… members of the British royal family are required to keep a black outfit packed whenever they go on a trip? The reason, of course, is the possibility of a death in the family. The rule came about in 1952, when King George VI (1895-1952) died of cancer. His daughter, the crown princess Elizabeth (1926-2022), was on a holiday in Kenya when the news of His Majesty’s death was released, and upon her return to London as queen she had to stay on her aircraft a while until a suitable black ensemble could be brought to her.

… the cast of a popular television program still make millions of dollars each year, even though the show has been off the air since 2004? The members of the cast of Friends, which ran on NBC from 1994 to 2004, negotiated syndication rights for themselves as part of their contracts. Since Friends still rakes in almost $1 billion a year in revenue via syndication, the cast – Jennifer Aniston (born 1969), Courteney Cox (born 1964), Matt LeBlanc (born 1967), Lisa Kudrow (born 1963), Matthew Perry (1969-2023), and David Schwimmer (born 1966) – splits a total of $20 million per year. (I guess it really does pay to have Friends.)

… a “Bridge to Nowhere” actually exists? It’s in the European nation of Latvia. Built in 1940, the bridge near Irlavas was intended to be part of a new rail line. The outbreak of World War II brought the work to a halt, and Latvia becoming part of the Soviet Union following the war kept the work stopped. The bridge is now in the middle of a meadow and is not connected to any rail lines. (The textbook example of a government project.)

… you are very likely in possession of a supercomputer? While you may not think your desktop or laptop is all that great shakes, it is very much a supercomputer compared to the first automatic computing devices built in the 1940s. The very first actual computer, ENIAC, which was constructed in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania, weighed 60,000 pounds. It used as much floor space as a medium-sized house, 1,500 square feet. And all it could do was solve math problems – specifically, ones concerning trajectories for missiles. (Now you can do that and much more with a device in your pocket.)

… the abbreviation “OMG” is older than you may think? Along with many other sayings in this age of text messaging, “OMG” – meaning Oh My God or Oh My Goodness – seems like a new-fangled saying. But it isn’t. The earliest recorded use of “OMG” as it is currently used can be found in a 1917 letter from one Lord Fisher (John Fisher, 1841-1920) to Winston Churchill (1874-1965). (OMG indeed!)

They all looked happy to be seen together.