Explain something you know ALOT about...

[Malice]

I thought I would start a thread that is actually somewhat educational in nature.

Every poster, will post something that they know about. Please keep it clean, please keep it interesting.

I will start.

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 - Relevant Link

At the time, Galveston was actually one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. It was a huge port town that made huge amounts of money thru trade of cotton/tobacco, etc...

Houston at the time, was a fledgling town with no official port, so around this time Houston started the Ship Channel project (building the Houston ship channel to allow ships to travel close to Houston for a large port)

Well in Galveston at the time, had a population of around 42,000 people and this Category 4 storm hit Galveston on September 8, 1900. Once it hit, thousands of deaths occurred. Its not entirely known how many died, but its estimated from 6,000 to 12,000 were killed during the storm.

This Hurricane is currently to date, the deadliest natural disaster in American History.

After the Hurricane came and went bodies were seen simply floating in the water on land, since there was such a huge storm surge. Galveston at its HIGHEST point is only like 8 feet above sea level. So the storm surge simply covered the entire island. They ended up just burning the bodies in funeral pyres.

Houston finished it ship channel around 1909, so this basically killed Galveston becoming the booming town that it was previous to the storm.

Around 1902 Galveston started building a 17 foot seawall. Also, most of the island was literally RAISED by dredging sand from the bay and putting it on the island. Buildings were raised and this sand was put under them to raise the overall height of the island almost 17 feet.

This was a fascinating and grossly scary issue of Human complacency since Galveston had the warnings the hurricane was coming, but alsmot nothing was done.

Read more in the above link if you are interested in more.

 

[Malice]

Come on guys, quit it and let people actually post something they know...

 

[tomahawk53]

I'm game.

Of course this is useless knowledge but I've always been fascinated with Shark Attacks which lead me to read about and then later watch the documentary of the true life story that inspired the movie Jaws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_Shark_Attacks_of_1916

The reports now are saying that it wasn't a great white but a bull shark that did the killings.

But it was the first time in America that a shark attack got publicity...the initial new story was that a man was killed 'by a fish'. Back then scientist were adamantly saying that sharks did not attack or bite humans.

Anyway the story goes that a guy had one of his legs bitten off then a few days later another guy had both his legs bitten off near the Jersey Shore and then the shark traveled up stream 11 miles from the ocean in to Fresh Water. Apparently at that point the ocean would some times flood over in to that particular river so even though it was fresh water it had some sea water in it.

An old man was walking over a bridge close to town and noticed the silhouette of a large 'fish' swimming towards the town and being a fisherman knew that it was indeed a shark. He ran in to town to warn everyone but every one thought he was crazy.

Then 4 boys were swimming in the fresh water when one of them felt a 'bump' and said later that it felt like sandpaper. The boys were scared and started to climb out when the shark attacked and dragged one of the boys (Lester Stillwell, 12) under.

The remaining boys fled in to town where they told the story to one of their older friends. A 24 year old tailor and avid swimmer Stanley Fisher. Fisher went with the boys back to the swimming hole but there was no sign of little Lester. Fisher thought they were joking with him but also knew that young Lester had epilepsy I believe it was and thought that maybe he had a seizure and drowned.

Fisher dove in and search for Lester...about 10 minutes went by and he found nothing. A large crowed gathered around the river to see what was going on. Just then Fisher came up with 'part' of Lester. All he could find was from the waist up of little Lester. As Fisher was starting to swim to get out the shark attacked him out of no where dragging him under. Fisher fought his way out of the grip of the shark a few times and tried to get out but each time the shark caught him again and dragged him back under.

Fisher was eventually retrieved from the river and died at the hospital.

The frantic call went out for everyone to get out of the river and about 100 yards up another group of kids were swimming and they heard the commotion and decided to get out and see what was going on. The last kid that climbed out was also attacked by the same shark and it bit his leg clean off. He survived at least.

People began hunting the shark like crazy and killing every shark they could find. But they couldn't find the man eater.

Later on two guys were fishing on a small boat in the river when the shark attacked the boat. They were able to kill it by beating it on the nose with the oars.

An autopsy of the shark revealed human remains inside its stomach....

It's fascinating to me how naive we were back then to think that sharks would not attack humans.

 

[ToddIsDead]

I'm game.

Of course this is useless knowledge but I've always been fascinated with Shark Attacks which lead me to read about and then later watch the documentary of the true life story that inspired the movie Jaws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_Shark_Attacks_of_1916

The reports now are saying that it wasn't a great white but a bull shark that did the killings.

But it was the first time in America that a shark attack got publicity...the initial new story was that a man was killed 'by a fish'. Back then scientist were adamantly saying that sharks did not attack or bite humans.

Anyway the story goes that a guy had one of his legs bitten off then a few days later another guy had both his legs bitten off near the Jersey Shore and then the shark traveled up stream 11 miles from the ocean in to Fresh Water. Apparently at that point the ocean would some times flood over in to that particular river so even though it was fresh water it had some sea water in it.

An old man was walking over a bridge close to town and noticed the silhouette of a large 'fish' swimming towards the town and being a fisherman knew that it was indeed a shark. He ran in to town to warn everyone but every one thought he was crazy.

Then 4 boys were swimming in the fresh water when one of them felt a 'bump' and said later that it felt like sandpaper. The boys were scared and started to climb out when the shark attacked and dragged one of the boys (Lester Stillwell, 12) under.

The remaining boys fled in to town where they told the story to one of their older friends. A 24 year old tailor and avid swimmer Stanley Fisher. Fisher went with the boys back to the swimming hole but there was no sign of little Lester. Fisher thought they were joking with him but also knew that young Lester had epilepsy I believe it was and thought that maybe he had a seizure and drowned.

Fisher dove in and search for Lester...about 10 minutes went by and he found nothing. A large crowed gathered around the river to see what was going on. Just then Fisher came up with 'part' of Lester. All he could find was from the waist up of little Lester. As Fisher was starting to swim to get out the shark attacked him out of no where dragging him under. Fisher fought his way out of the grip of the shark a few times and tried to get out but each time the shark caught him again and dragged him back under.

Fisher was eventually retrieved from the river and died at the hospital.

The frantic call went out for everyone to get out of the river and about 100 yards up another group of kids were swimming and they heard the commotion and decided to get out and see what was going on. The last kid that climbed out was also attacked by the same shark and it bit his leg clean off. He survived at least.

People began hunting the shark like crazy and killing every shark they could find. But they couldn't find the man eater.

Later on two guys were fishing on a small boat in the river when the shark attacked the boat. They were able to kill it by beating it on the nose with the oars.

An autopsy of the shark revealed human remains inside its stomach....

It's fascinating to me how naive we were back then to think that sharks would not attack humans.

This is why New Jersey rocks. First shark attack ever.

 

[Wilhelm-Scream]

I'd love to do a sex-ed piece but it'd get shut down.

 

[THWIP*]

Come on guys, quit it and let people actually post something they know...

I KNOW ALOT ABOUT CARS......PARTICULARLY COLLISION REPAIR/PAINT. BUT, WITH OVER 20 YEARS EXPERIENCE, I WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT TO POST.

 

[Erzengel]

I know a lot about Star Wars more than I care to admit.

 

[bulok]

I'd love to do a sex-ed piece but it'd get shut down.

Malice said something you know about, not read or watched about :P

 

[The Incredible Hulk]

I'm game.

Of course this is useless knowledge but I've always been fascinated with Shark Attacks which lead me to read about and then later watch the documentary of the true life story that inspired the movie Jaws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_Shark_Attacks_of_1916

The reports now are saying that it wasn't a great white but a bull shark that did the killings.

But it was the first time in America that a shark attack got publicity...the initial new story was that a man was killed 'by a fish'. Back then scientist were adamantly saying that sharks did not attack or bite humans.

Anyway the story goes that a guy had one of his legs bitten off then a few days later another guy had both his legs bitten off near the Jersey Shore and then the shark traveled up stream 11 miles from the ocean in to Fresh Water. Apparently at that point the ocean would some times flood over in to that particular river so even though it was fresh water it had some sea water in it.

An old man was walking over a bridge close to town and noticed the silhouette of a large 'fish' swimming towards the town and being a fisherman knew that it was indeed a shark. He ran in to town to warn everyone but every one thought he was crazy.

Then 4 boys were swimming in the fresh water when one of them felt a 'bump' and said later that it felt like sandpaper. The boys were scared and started to climb out when the shark attacked and dragged one of the boys (Lester Stillwell, 12) under.

The remaining boys fled in to town where they told the story to one of their older friends. A 24 year old tailor and avid swimmer Stanley Fisher. Fisher went with the boys back to the swimming hole but there was no sign of little Lester. Fisher thought they were joking with him but also knew that young Lester had epilepsy I believe it was and thought that maybe he had a seizure and drowned.

Fisher dove in and search for Lester...about 10 minutes went by and he found nothing. A large crowed gathered around the river to see what was going on. Just then Fisher came up with 'part' of Lester. All he could find was from the waist up of little Lester. As Fisher was starting to swim to get out the shark attacked him out of no where dragging him under. Fisher fought his way out of the grip of the shark a few times and tried to get out but each time the shark caught him again and dragged him back under.

Fisher was eventually retrieved from the river and died at the hospital.

The frantic call went out for everyone to get out of the river and about 100 yards up another group of kids were swimming and they heard the commotion and decided to get out and see what was going on. The last kid that climbed out was also attacked by the same shark and it bit his leg clean off. He survived at least.

People began hunting the shark like crazy and killing every shark they could find. But they couldn't find the man eater.

Later on two guys were fishing on a small boat in the river when the shark attacked the boat. They were able to kill it by beating it on the nose with the oars.

An autopsy of the shark revealed human remains inside its stomach....

It's fascinating to me how naive we were back then to think that sharks would not attack humans.

Nice, I grew up in Matawan, NJ thats where that attack happened, in the inlet there

 

[Slipknot]

Malice said something you know about, not read or watched about :P

Hahaha.

 

[Malice]

closing