What have you learned today?

Zykon TheLich

Extra Heretical!
Legacy
Jun 6, 2008
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UK
As a non-Australian, I have to ask: What's a Democracy Sausage?
IIRC last general election they had a Barbie with sausages at all the polling stations to encourage people to vote.

Edit: ok, Google yells me they are basically there to make money for local schools etc. Nice idea, make waiting to vote less shitty and make some cash for local amenities.
 
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RhombusHatesYou

Surreal Estate Agent
Mar 21, 2010
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Between There and There.
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The Wide, Brown One.
Edit: ok, Google yells me they are basically there to make money for local schools etc. Nice idea, make waiting to vote less shitty and make some cash for local amenities.
Yeah, schools and local halls make up the bulk of polling stations, so for them having a sausage sizzle and/or a cake stall on election day is a good way to do some fund raising.
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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Apr 3, 2020
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Australia
As a non-Australian, I have to ask: What's a Democracy Sausage?
Well from memory the whole thing started a few elections ago where the schools we used as polling stations put on fundraiser sausage sizzles (a bbq with nothing but sausages and onions) as a sort of sweetener to the duty to vote. Someone jokingly called them “Democracy Sausages” and the name stuck. It’s also a delightfully multi-layered joke about the actual sausage of democracy.
 
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RhombusHatesYou

Surreal Estate Agent
Mar 21, 2010
7,595
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Between There and There.
Country
The Wide, Brown One.
Well from memory the whole thing started a few elections ago where the schools we used as polling stations put on fundraiser sausage sizzles (a bbq with nothing but sausages and onions) as a sort of sweetener to the duty to vote.
Just to clear up for those playing at home, the sausage sizzles and cake stalls at polling stations is an old tradition in Australian elections... and pretty much anything else we take seriously.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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While 54% of all third class female passengers perished on the Titanic, only 3% of all first class female passengers died.
Conversely, more first class male passengers died (67%) than third class female passengers. Both in % and amount.
The only category to survive 100% were second class children: all 24 were saved.
 
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Gordon_4

The Big Engine
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Apr 3, 2020
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While 54% of all third class female passengers perished on the Titanic, only 3% of all first class female passengers died.
Conversely, more first class male passengers died (67%) than third class female passengers. Both in % and amount.
The only category to survive 100% were second class children: all 24 were saved.
One of many pieces of information that the two seperate enquires held into the sinking took into consideration when they basically rewrote the book on maritime safety in the months afterwards.
 
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gorfias

Unrealistic but happy
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May 13, 2009
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USA
While 54% of all third class female passengers perished on the Titanic, only 3% of all first class female passengers died.
Conversely, more first class male passengers died (67%) than third class female passengers. Both in % and amount.
The only category to survive 100% were second class children: all 24 were saved.
Hey! The actress that played Vasquez in Aliens and the Foster Mom in Terminator 2 puts a couple of kids to bed in Titanic! They're not supposed to have made it! Course, that movie took lots of liberties.

It's been pointed out, like Rose in the movie, they could have survived on furniture. What happened? Why were they not breaking down everything they could get their hands upon and tying life vests to it? I read they had nearly 3 hours to do this. https://www.thecoldwire.com/how-long-did-it-take-titanic-to-sink/
 

Thaluikhain

Elite Member
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Jan 16, 2010
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It's been pointed out, like Rose in the movie, they could have survived on furniture. What happened? Why were they not breaking down everything they could get their hands upon and tying life vests to it? I read they had nearly 3 hours to do this. https://www.thecoldwire.com/how-long-did-it-take-titanic-to-sink/
I'm no expert, but I'm willing to guess it was that weird combination of panic and head-in-the-sandness that pops up (and people can jump from refusing to believe there is a problem to panicking about it without anything useful in between). People often totally fail to make really obvious decisions in a crisis.

Having said that, the cold was the real killer, not just drowning.

As an aside, the White Star Line also lost the Atlantic, though they might have gone bankrupt some time after there and been bought out, so same name, different company in effect. In that one, it was the women that had disproportionately more deaths, as their dresses were really bad for swimming to safety in.
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
6,141
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Australia
Hey! The actress that played Vasquez in Aliens and the Foster Mom in Terminator 2 puts a couple of kids to bed in Titanic! They're not supposed to have made it! Course, that movie took lots of liberties.

It's been pointed out, like Rose in the movie, they could have survived on furniture. What happened? Why were they not breaking down everything they could get their hands upon and tying life vests to it? I read they had nearly 3 hours to do this. https://www.thecoldwire.com/how-long-did-it-take-titanic-to-sink/
The movie took less liberties than you’d think, but more than it should have done. Looking at you, portrayal of First Officer Murdoch.