British Tanks and Their Damn Tea

By Lizzie Butler

image via Wikipedia

If there is one tv or movie trope that has been overused, it's how much the British love their damn tea. If you want to demonstrate just how British your character is, there is no better way than to have them all sit down drinking some Earl Grey while complaining about Americans. But surely it is exactly that - a trope, merely a caricature of British culture purely for entertainment...right?

Wrong. Turns out World War II British tank crews were dying to get their tea time in.

Pakistan's Top Gun

image via PAFWallapers

An air ace is someone who has successfully shot down five enemy aircraft in combat. An air ace-in-a-day is the same feat, however, as is stated, it has been completed in a day. Air aces were relatively common in World War II but have been getting increasingly rarer as modern jet technology has made dogfights obsolete.

For some perspective, the closest any American has come to being an ace since Vietnam has been USAF Colonel Cesar Rodriguez with three air-air kills through various conflicts in the 1990s.

So it's likely that Pakistani pilot Muhammad Mahmood Alam's feat will never ever be matched. What feat? On September 7th, 1965, Alam became an ace by shooting down five enemy aircraft in under a minute.

The Joke That Could've Started World War III

image via OregonLive

It was October 1984, and President Ronald Reagan was preparing his weekly address to the nation on National Radio. Needing to test the microphone beforehand, they asked the President to speak. Always the joker, Reagan quipped:

"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

Everyone in the room had a good chuckle at the joke, and moved on with the address. Across the ocean however, the Soviets were reacting very differently.

The Simpsons Mystery Room

image via FanPop

The Simpsons have been an American icon since it began airing in 1989. The family of five has been happily living at 742 Evergreen Terrace for over twenty-five years. The house itself has almost become as iconic as the show, with Bart's treehouse, the tv room, and their living room all becoming common settings for the family's antics.

The house is so famous that they even built a real version of it in Nevada. Yet despite its familiarity with most people, one thing nobody seems aware of is the secret room in the house: their rec room. 

The Korea's Ridiculous Flag War

image via Various

It's no secret that North and South Korea don't get along very well. When they aren't busy shooting across the DMZ, or sinking each others ships, they're usually throwing threats to annihilate each other.

Despite this, there is one area along the DMZ known as the Joint Security Area, which was designed for the two nations to actually talk their problems out. But sadly, the conflict between the two nations doesn't stop there, it just gets . . .weirder.

Like that one time negotiations were stopped when the two sides couldn't agree on a flag size.

The Man Who Survived Sitting on a Grenade Almost Without a Scratch

image via Mirror

Smothering a grenade to save one's comrades is seen as one of the most heroic actions that can be taken on the battlefield. Most of the time, the action is very fatal, and a small chance of the time the smother-er might survive with serious injuries.

And then you have Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, who is apparently invincible since in 2008 he smothered a grenade to save his squad, was blown off of his feet, and then walked away without a scratch.

The Dude Who Barrel-Rolled an Airliner

image via Wikipedia

I've previously written about how one moronic airline pilot accidentally caused an airliner to nearly complete a barrel roll. What I haven't written about is the pilot who actually performed a barrel roll in an airliner. Twice.

And unlike the previous post, this pilot did it entirely on purpose.

Lyndon Johnson's Ridiculous Silver Star Decoration

image via Wikipedia

Lyndon Johnson was in Congress at the time of World War II, and like many of his colleagues he felt the need to join the US military in a patriotic furor to do their duty for the nation. He soon found himself as a Lt. Commander in the United States Navy.

Despite being rejected for combat duty (due to his position in the government), Johnson finagled himself an assignment inspecting facilities in the South Pacific war-zone. It was here that he earned his famed Silver Star award for . . . well nobody is really sure.

The World's Most Spoiled High School Football Team

image via pbk

Allen High School is like many in the United States. Students go there to learn, grow, and realize whether or not they're going to be shitheads for the rest of their lives. One thing that sets Allen High School apart from the rest of the US's educational system is its football stadium. Whereas most high schools might have a small scale field with some bleachers for parents to come watch their kids, Allen High School chose to spend a little more with their venue. How much is a little?

Try $60 million. But hey, it's not like the US is lagging behind the rest of the world in education.

Ruptured Space Suit? No Problem.

image via Wikipedia

If there has been anything that Hollywood has taught us, it's that a ruptured space suit is very bad news for anyone inside of it. The unfortunate person usually spends their last few seconds frantically waving in desperation before dying, except in the 2015 film The Martian.

Matt Damon survives being impaled in a space suit, and the explanation is a cheesy "my blood clogged the hole and I survived" throwaway line. Utterly ridiculous, until you realize its totally happened in real life. Well, except for the whole "while on Mars" thing.

The Empty Skyscraper in the Middle of New York City

image via Engadget

One Times Square is a twenty-five story skyscraper located in the middle of Manhattan, just south of the actual Times Square. Originally built in 1904 as the New York Times headquarters, these days the building is raking in $23 million a year in revenue based on rent figures. Which is astonishing considering how many tenants the building has: zero.

The Most Inept Weapon Ever Developed by the US Army

image via MilitaryToday

A self-propelled anti-aircraft gun is basically a fancy way of saying a tank, but instead of shooting other tanks, it's supposed to shoot aircraft. They operate alongside armored units to protect them from devastating attacks from ground attack aircraft like the A-10 Warthog.

In the 1970s, the US military was looking to replace its current self-propelled weapons system, the M163 VADS with a new weapon called the M247 Sergeant York. Although named after a total badass, the Sergeant York was anything but, and possibly the worst weapon the US military ever threw money at.

US Government: X-Men Aren't Human

image via GStyleMag

The X-Men series of films and comics is set around the central theme that the X-Men are striving for humanity to accept them as human. The first film struggles with X-Men registration whilst the most recent film portrays them fighting against extinction. Fortunately it's not a question that needs answering in today's world.

But of course, it already has. And incredibly according to the US Government, X-Men are "inhuman creatures", lacking "human qualities".

The Town that Was Destroyed by a Movie

image via QuotesGram

In the 1996 film Twister, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt star as storm chasers whose ultimate goal is to study a tornado via a device named "Dorothy". Throughout the film, they have several close calls with tornadoes, including one which rips through the town of Wakita, Oklahoma.

The scenes of them driving through the rubble and remains is one of the most iconic moments of the film . . .

The Biggest Jet Battle of All Time

image via impdb

I've previously written about how dogfights in modern jet fighters rarely, if ever happen anymore. The bottom line is that the combination of missile range, radar technology, and pilot skill have rendered close-up, elongated dogfights essentially a thing of the past. But like every rule, there are a few exceptions, like the air battle over El Mansoura. Occurring during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, the El Mansoura air battle was the longest and largest jet battle.

Ever.

Nuclear-Powered Bombers

image via Wikipedia

In the 1950s, nuclear power was all the rage.  It was seen as the future of everything, from nuclear powered cars and submarines to atomic golf balls. Seriously.

image via TrendHunter

"Save all those hours of looking for golf balls by eliminating them from your life entirely!"

Naturally the military was all over the atomic age, and one good idea that popped into their head was nuclear powered bomber aircraft. Because why not have the aircraft designed to deliver nuclear bombs be powered by the same destructive force?

The Nicest Surrender Ever

image via HistoryinPhotos

By May 1945, the war in Europe was wrapping up. The "Thousand-year Reich" was ending it's reign roughly a millennium earlier than expected, and Allied forces were pushing deep into Germany. One of those soldiers was Captain Moffat Burriss, who found himself bored to tears.

With his unit suffering more injuries from accidental gunshots, and falling off stolen horses, Burriss wanted some excitement. So on May 5th, he and a couple of his buddies hopped into a jeep and completely against orders, drove off to find some Germans.

The Canadian Town Inside of Maine, USA

image via Flickr

Estcourt Station is like any other town in Canada. It drinks water provided by Canada, is hooked into the Quebec electric grid, watches televeision in French, and spends Canadian currency. Even its area code is Canadian.

The only problem is that due to some quirky international borderlines, Estcourt Station is actually a town in Maine, USA.  Which has of course, led to some issues.

The BBQ that Shut Down the US Government

image via Huffington Post

Government shutdowns are no joke. During the famed 2013 shutdown, over 800,000 employees found themselves not working and not getting paid, while a further 1.3 million found themselves working without pay (myself included), for over two weeks. All because a certain Cuban-Canadian member of Congress was disagreeing with some legislation.

image via CrooksandLiars

Pictured: The ass-hole who prevented me from making my rent on time.

Scoring an Air-Air Kill with a Bomb

image via Tapiture

It was February 14th, 1991, and the Gulf War was in full swing. With the Iraqi Air Force too busy either testing their ejection seats, or crashing into the ground to put up a real fight, it was looking less and less like the brand new F-15E Strike Eagle would get it's first air-air kill. Fortunately, Captain's Tim Bennett and Dan Bakke put a stop to that nonsense and entered the history books at the same time by accomplishing a feat that has yet to be repeated.

They bombed another aircraft in mid-air.

Wyoming's Very Own Spaceport

image via AtlasObscura

In 1994, NASA made the discovery that the Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet was going to impact Jupiter. To most, this was an incident of merely academic potential. To the citizens of Green River, it was something more. The town council passed resolution R94-23 "conveying an offer of sanctuary to the possible residents of the planet Jupiter, being in imminent peril" specifically it slapped a sign on their local airfield that renamed is from Green River 48U to the Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport.

The US's Most Super-villainy Sheriff

image via MSNBC

Joe Arpaio is the elected sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. He has self-styled himself as the US's toughest sheriff, and continues to be elected repeatedly and by large margins. Which is kind of scary when you consider some of the things he's done.

Things like stage an assassination plot against himself, sending an innocent scapegoat to jail for several years, just to increase his own bravado. And no, this isn't a crack-pot conspiracy theory.

The Dumbest Almost-Plane Crash Ever

image via LifeasaButterfly

On September 6th 2011, All Nippon Airways Flight 140 was making its usual jog from Naha to Tokyo, Japan. Absolutely nothing was out of the ordinary at all. Until the 62,000 pound Boeing 737 decided to inexplicably attempt a barrel roll, which is not traditionally something an airliner should attempt.

image via Avianor

“Minor turbulence my ass!”

Only after the plane landed did investigators discover the reason why the aircraft went belly-up.

And it's hilarious.