I haven't linked to it in over a month
But today's fact scared the fuck out of me.

wannafeelold.tumblr.com/post/106470240/eh-ohld

:(

How are you all this lovely Monday night? Any facts that make you feel old?
( __, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:31, archived)

I'm the oldest member of staff who's not part of the management.
I'm 23.

Sometimes, I think the business could be run more efficiently if all these fucking kids were replaced with dedicated, professional staff.

Oh, and I have first-hand memories of Snap's "The Power" being released.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:33, archived)

I told you my fact and you never put it on there you bastard.
That tellytubbies one doesn't bother me.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Tue 12 May 2009, 0:34, archived)

What was your fact again?
I get so many emailed to me I lose track of them :(
( __, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:34, archived)

About Eric Cantona and his kicking incident.

( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Tue 12 May 2009, 0:36, archived)

If it helps, you inspired this..
wannafeelold.tumblr.com/post/96782005/this
( __, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:36, archived)

Stuff that happened in 1990 doesn't make me feel old,
even though I was born in 1987.

Before my time.
( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Tue 12 May 2009, 0:37, archived)

Bah, I was 13 and I remember drinking cider before the 1987 FA cup final at my mate John's house.
His mum and dad were out, but his hot older sister was IN! YESS!
( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:44, archived)

You're very old aren't you?

( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Tue 12 May 2009, 0:45, archived)

I really am

( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:46, archived)

Can I read at your funeral?

( Master Of Turnips. Only gays and morons believe in ghosts., Tue 12 May 2009, 0:47, archived)

Yes.

( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:57, archived)

wont you need something a little more complex
than a ladybird book?
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:12, archived)

I've got this one, somewhere
pointlessmuseum.com/computer/default.html

Should probably read it again, actually...
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:17, archived)

apparently, in the 60s the MoD ordered 200 copies of that
in a plain brown cover so the staff wouldn't be embarrassed reading it.
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:24, archived)

Now there's a fact and a half.
People in the 1960's reading books that weren't published until 1971. Wow.

They were all well accustomed to reading stuff that came in brown paper, I take it.

I'm impressed how many women apparently worked with computers in the 1970's. It's almost like a modern-day university engineering department prospectus. Having said that, my gran worked with a computer in the 1950's. MoD as well. From what she's told me, it was rubbish, the size of a room or no.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:28, archived)

meh, so i fucked the dates up, sue me :D
the fact is still true tho..
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:38, archived)

How it Works: The Computer was used by university lecturers to make sure that students started at the same level. Two hundred copies of this same book were ordered by the Ministry of Defence. The MOD wanted the books to be bound in plain brown covers and without any copyright information, to save embarrassing their trainees!

actually, it was printed in the 60s :P

www.theweeweb.co.uk/ladybird/ladybird_history.php
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:39, archived)

[citation needed]
but it's a good fact (or otherwise), so I think I'll keep it anyway.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:40, archived)

see above

( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:41, archived)

disputed...
"The rarest Ladybird book - so elusive, it seems, that not one collector has even seen one - is The Computer from the How it works series, produced privately for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1972."
www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/this-is-how-it-works-bunnikin-wonk-and-the-tinker-will-make-their-owners-richer-547624.html

This is a mystery.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:46, archived)

book published in the late 60s
custom one ordered a few years later, maybe?
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:47, archived)

1971 seems to be the first edition,
the above citation appears to be some kind of paraphrase of Ladybird's own text on the subject, which doesn't mention a date but has simply been assumed to be in correct chronological order.
www.ladybird.co.uk/aboutus/companyhistory.html
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:51, archived)

ahh ahaha
1969
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:53, archived)

so..
the 60s then... ;p
( Azra3l Lubrication Persuasion and Brute Force ™, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:59, archived)

by the skin of your teeth :D

( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 2:00, archived)

Aww,
I was just eBaying to see if I could get a copy to take into my open-notes Computer Science exams. You're allowed one textbook, and I'd have liked that one.
( MooCow_Byter, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:48, archived)

Hah, found it.
Can't be that rare, I found two copies selling for under a fiver each. Maybe reprints, though.
( MooCow_Byter, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:51, archived)

brown cover?

( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:54, archived)

No, the 1979 cover.
I misread the bit on rarity and thought it applied to all versions of the book, not just the MoD one.
( MooCow_Byter, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:56, archived)

Even I've got that one.
And the Usborne Spotter's Guide to Dinosaurs, however much sense that does or does not make.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 2:01, archived)

January 1995?
It was as I was househunting in Leeds if I recall correctly
( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:37, archived)

There is less time between now and my daughter being able to take her driving test
than there is time passed between me passing my driving test and now :(
( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:35, archived)

Ha! I may make that the weekly anecdote next week. It's short and sweet.

( __, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:36, archived)

you mean you took your test before she did?

( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:36, archived)

No. I'm 35, she is 2. The legal age that one can take their driving test is 17.
I'll leave you to do the maths there.
( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:39, archived)

Ha! May I use this for the weekly anecdote?

( __, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:40, archived)

Yes!

( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:42, archived)

If it's any consolation,
she might die before she's 17.
(King Baby Duck more than a ceiling, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:40, archived)

or she might not learn to drive as soon as she's legally allowed
MASSIVELY CONTROVERSIAL
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:43, archived)

Or she'll take years to pass because she's female.

(King Baby Duck more than a ceiling, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:44, archived)

One cannot take their driving test.
One can take one's driving test.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:44, archived)

Yes. I'll concede the hastily typed grammar point there, your highness.
I'll leave you to carry on with the mathematics problem though.
( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:46, archived)

The mathematics is very simple.
If you had taken your test a year ago, and she had taken it in the last 6 months (for instance), what you just said would still hold.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:49, archived)

But she is 2 years old. I already said that up there^ when I said "I'll leave you to do the maths there"
The mathematics is even simpler in this case. I'll simplify it down into days for you though...

I passed my test 6,510 days ago, when I was 6,318 days old.
The earliest my daughter could take her test is on her 17th birthday which would make her 6,209 days old.

6,510 - 6,209 = 301 days difference.
( mns 2️⃣2️⃣9️⃣0️⃣7️⃣, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:56, archived)

I would dispute that your version is simpler.
Especially since you didn't mention when you passed your test.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:58, archived)

the fact I was possibly going to the pub
when you were born

but Rick Astley was still on the radio so Meh.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Tue 12 May 2009, 0:39, archived)

It's late and that's that.

( Wildheart Baby. Drunken Mess In A Good Way, Tue 12 May 2009, 0:40, archived)

CreeeDIIITTTTTT or coincidence.
www.b3ta.com/board/9430024
( zoldergoose, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:24, archived)

Fuck
:(
(Peter_G, Tue 12 May 2009, 1:36, archived)