The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird holds the official Air Speed Record for a manned airbreathing jet aircraft with a speed of 3,530 km/h or 2,193 mph or Mach 2.86.
July 28 will be the 40th anniversary of that record-setting flight.
The official Air Speed speed record for a piston-engine plane is held by a modified Grumman F8F Bearcat, the Rare Bear, with a speed of 528.31 mph on 21 August 1989 at Las Vegas, Nevada.
picture here: Fastest propeller-driven aircraft - Wikipedia
The Brown Bear, the Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are not distinct species of bear. They are the three North American sub-species of Brown Bear (Ursa arctos), of which there are sixteen sub-species in the world. The Mexican Grizzly Bear is thought to be extinct.
The KA-BAR is the official Marine Corps combat knife. The KA-BAR’s (say “kay bar”) distinctive 7" clip-point blade and leather washer handle make it instantly recognizable by Marines and civilians everywhere. The KA-BAR was first issued during WWII. The Marine Corps adopted the new knife on 23 November 1942, under the designation 1219C2 that is still used today.
The owner of the KA-BAR trademark, the Union Cutlery Co. of Olean NY, began using the name on its knives and in its advertising in 1923 after receiving a testimonial letter from a fur trapper, who used the knife to kill a wounded bear that attacked him after his rifle jammed. According to company records, the letter was only partially legible, with “ka bar” readable as fragments of the phrase “kill a bear”. In 1923, the company adopted the name KA-BAR from the “bear story” as their trademark. KA-BAR – ‘kill a bar’, ‘kill a bear’, Marines often misspell words anyway, so the story works for me too.
The KA-BAR can be seen and purchased from many sources including KA-BAR itself:
Despite the bloated bluster of Marines, there are certain things the Marine Corps cannot take credit for, including its offten celebrated illiteracy. The “bar” spelling of “bear” dated back to Daniel Boone in 1760, who posted a sign to the effect that he “cilled a bar”. D. Boone Cilled A Bar On Tree In Year 1760 - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
Daniel Boone the pioneer was the gt-gt-gt-gt-uncle of William Jennings Bryan the orator, and the gt-gt-gt-gt-grandfather of Pat Boone the singer.
Pat Boone made a heavy metal album called No More Mr. Nice Guy. Pictures of him in his leather is something you cannot unsee.
Seven pure metals were known to the ancients, and associated with the seven planets (Sun-gold, Moon-silver, Mars-iron, Mercury-mercury, Jupiter-tin, Venus-copper, Saturn-lead). Although some of its compounds were known to the ancients, arsenic, the eighth metal, was first purified in the 13th century by Albert of Cologne, a Catholic Bishop who was canonized as Saint Albert by Pope Pius XI in 1931.
Ancient Greek and Roman writers Hesiod and Ovid described the world in terms of moral devolution, with humanity moving from an idealized golden age downward to silver and bronze ages to an iron age (their present) where all good qualities have vanished.
Arthur Golding, the famous translator of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was the uncle of Edward de Vere; the young Earl spent some time in Golding’s household. The plays of Shakespeare contain much material from Metamorphoses, including parts that were not included in Golding’s translation.
The 1983 Nobel prize in Literature was awarded to an author “for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today”. That author, who wrote Lord of the Flies, was Sir William Gerald Golding CBE (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993).
Flies are insects of the order Diptera, which means they have two wings. Most insects have four wings, and traditionally were taxonomically classed according to their wing structure (from Greek, -ptera), with Aptera being those without wings at all. Modern taxonomy now orders them all according to different criteria, but the -ptera suffix still is used for most of 29 currently recognized orders…
Epiclass Hexapoda includes insects and their close relatives, e.g. springtails. It does not include, obviously, mutant 6-armed octopi.
The mysterious line from the The Wizard of Oz – the Wicked Witch saying, “I’ve sent a little insect to take the fight out of them” – refers to the “jitterbug,” which was supposed to be a full musical number about insects that give you the jitters. The song and number were cut when it was decided that the name was too close to the jitterbug dance that was popular around that time.
Springtail sounds like the name of a Harley-Davidson bike, but there is no such thing. Harley makes a Springer, which means the front suspension visibly shows the spring. Harley also makes a Softail, which means it has a rear suspension designed to absorb bumps for comfort. Harley also makes a Springer Softail. Or you can call it a Softail Springer if you want.
ETA: Ninja’d, so added the name of a.
The Japanese Yamaha corporation makes both motorcycles and grand pianos. Apparently, the Japanese would not mind playing on a Harley Davidson grand piano at Carnegie Hall, nor turning up with a biker gang in Deadwood with a Steinway chopper.
The Yamaha XS 650 was introduced in 1968 and continued in various forms through 1985. The last model year in the United States, though, was 1983. Wikipedia says,
Personally, I find this interesting because my very first motorcycle was a 1983 Yamaha XS 650 SK Heritage Special, bought new from a dealership in 1985. (San Bruno Motorcycles, just south of San Francisco and now defunct) i put 50,000 miles on that bike before riding it from San Francisco to Oklahoma and selling it there.
Honda, currently the eighth largest automobile manufacturer in the world, was originally known for its motorcycles, which it started producing in 1949; it released its first automobile in 1963.
Honda’s motorcycle ad campaign was the subject of an episode of Mad Men set in 1965. In the episode any hopes for the firm getting the account are sabotaged by the firm’s VP Roger Cooper, a Pacific theater vet who intentionally insults the Japanese businessman with crude WW2 double entendres such as “These guys love surprises!” and “They won’t be impressed until you drop a big one on them! Twice!” The episode was entitled The Chrysanthemum and the Sword after a bestselling 1946 book on Japan by Ruth Benedict.
In a 1935 episode of Three Stooges, Curly rattles off a quick, correct spelling of ‘chrysanthemum’ in a matter-of-fact tone, as though surprised that anyone would not know that.