Today I Read (and Learned) ...

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
Yep, it's always a race to outdo Google, I reckon on flag terrain I do about 3.5mph.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
I've just had a read up on the walking one. It says it doesn't believe people walk at 3 miles an hour any more. I would have thought it's actually slightly quicker...

Back in the 1950s 4mph was generally regarded as average walking pace so I guess Google have already cut it back a bit.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
3 mph is reasonable walking pace, 4 mph is probably closer to a forced march - at these speeds it's probably more likely to be a matter of perspective.

Expected distance at outset is probably more important when determining overall pace - 'leisurely' would have to factor in 'breaks' of up to ten minutes per mile etc for example.

I like to think of Harold's march from the South Coast of England to just a bit North of York as our benchmark of what actually happened, when thinking of what is reasonably possible. From London to York was ~200 miles, and carrying a lot of weight by way of wargear, he managed to cover at least 20 to at most 30 miles per day, every day for what would have been just ten days. Bearing in mind he was probably at the head of a fighting force of up to ten thousand men, they probably stretched back for some ten miles of road at a time. It was a feat of arms that would have been the stuff of legend had it not been subsequently superseded.

Imagine watching this army march on and past your village, probably taking a few of your men with it, crunching, jangling, and shaking the ground as it wound its way onwards, like nothing you'd ever like have seen before, taking the most of, if not more than, an hour to march past your house.

People walk at 3mph, that's a reasonable assumption.
 
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Glam

Mad Cat Woman
Today I Read (and Learned) ...
That a rich American woman has had a baby boy, which let's be honest, is a miracle in itself, not everyone gets the chance of the gift of life.
But I am a bit peaved that me, you and every other tax paying person in the country are going to have to pay for said babby for rest of its natural life.
Not everyone will agree with me, that's fine, I don't always agree with everyone else.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
I saw that on the news. In fact it was mainly what the news was all about. The fact that the US is gearing up for war with Iran, and the Earth is undergoing the sort of decimation not seen in millions of years was mentioned somewhere near the bottom of the news. Good to see we've got our priorities right. :heyhey:
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
I saw that on the news. In fact it was mainly what the news was all about. The fact that the US is gearing up for war with Iran, and the Earth is undergoing the sort of decimation not seen in millions of years was mentioned somewhere near the bottom of the news. Good to see we've got our priorities right. :heyhey:

bread & circuses
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I saw that on the news. In fact it was mainly what the news was all about. The fact that the US is gearing up for war with Iran, and the Earth is undergoing the sort of decimation not seen in millions of years was mentioned somewhere near the bottom of the news. Good to see we've got our priorities right. :heyhey:
I listened to an hour-long news programme this evening, the arrival of the "bread and circuses" child was not even mentioned.

I am not in Brexitland.
 

Noah

Well-Known Forumite
When Insults Had Class

These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words....

A member of Parliament to Prime Minister Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir", said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy" - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."- Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here." - Comedian Kip Adota

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." -Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." -Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." -Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" -Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts.. . for support rather than illumination. " - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
You have to wonder about that magical dinner where you can invite anybody you like, dead or alive, just for the conversation. (And conversation would be the primary objective because all yer gonna get from me is a chip butty and a bottle of Desperados Beer.)

My guests would be Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde (but he'd have to sit at the other end of the table,) Mae West, Groucho Marx. Because I don't much like politicians (I'm with Billy Connolly on that one, anybody who wants to be a politician, shouldn't be allowed to be one,) I'm afraid I'd have to swap out Churchill for Albert Einstein. A fair swap I think if the multitude of quotes attributed to the good professor were actually his.

There are others for sure, but, I don't have an unlimited supply of Desperados Beer. :pint:
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
I think it would be a great evening around the dining table with Adolf Hitler, Margaret Thatcher, Freddie Starr, Bugs Bunny and Ena Sharples......
 

Glam

Mad Cat Woman
You have to wonder about that magical dinner where you can invite anybody you like, dead or alive, just for the conversation.
Perhaps this subject should have a post all of its own?
But my dinner guest would just be my Mum. I would have included Dad, but he made far too much noise when eating and us kids were almost physically sick everytime.
 
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