02-07-2002 06:31									#91
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Hey, I asked one already:

Which famous leader's body exploded at his own funeral?

	02-07-2002 07:03									#92
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Karl Marx's body? Though methinks that's from an alternate history novel.

	02-07-2002 07:07									#93
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Nope, much earlier. Political/government leader, not philosopher.

	02-07-2002 07:15									#94
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I just remembered that I was thinking of a novel where Germany had occupied Great Britain during WW2. Marx's body was going to be handed over to the Soviets, but resistance fighters made a terror strike and hid dynamite in the coffin.

	02-07-2002 07:16									#95
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William the Conquerer

	02-07-2002 07:17									#96
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Ramo wins.

	02-07-2002 07:22									#97
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Here's the full tale:

"For all his conquests in life, William had one challenge that he could never conquer - that of being extremely fat. He was constantly ridiculed for being a "fat man" and was said to be "lying in" (pregnant).

So, in the summer of 1087, William went off to the ancient equivalent of a weight loss clinic in Rouen, France. Here he planned to trim the pounds with a strict diet of herbs and medications. He never made it, however.

Along the way, he had to take care of a little business. He decided to retaliate against an invading French garrison at the border town of Mantes. Of course, William and his troops won the battle, but poor William lost his life as the result of the celebration. It seems that his horse suddenly shied away from a fiery ember of the smoldering ruins. The horse took William and threw him violently into the saddle's iron pommel (that big knob on the front of the saddle). Ouch! The pain!

His injuries were solely internal, but severe. The saddle burst his intestines and waste matter began to fill and poison his intestines (sounds great, huh?). Peritonitis (inflammation of the abdominal cavity membrane) quickly set in. William was carried to Rouen where he slowly died over a period of five weeks. Pus filled his intestines.

Now for the weird, twisted part of his death: William died on September 9, 1087 at the age of sixty years.
Within minutes, the servants stole everything from his residence - including his clothes - and left his swollen, lifeless body lying naked on the floor. An obscure knight named Herluin was the first to discover William's nude body. At his own expense (he was not a wealthy man), he arranged for the body to be prepared for the funeral and transported to Caen. Just before the solemn funeral procession reached the church, the cries of fire were heard. The mourners were forced to put his coffin down and go fight the fire. Eventually, they put the fire out, returned to the body, and continued it along its way to the church.

The funeral was held on a blisteringly hot day. As a result, his abscess had swelled and became putrid. When they tried to fit William's body into a custom made sarcophagus (stone tomb), they found out that it had swelled so much that it would not fit in! What to do? What to do?

Very simple - squeeze him in!

They tried pushing him in to no avail. They then pushed on his swelled abdominal wall. (BIG mistake!)

Guess what?

William the Conqueror's body burst like a popped balloon! The pus and putrefaction drenched the King's burial garb. The stench filled the chapel. The mourners raced for the doors with their hands covering their noses. (I wasn't even there and I can imagine the smell!) Needless to say, they buried him very quickly! His body was allowed to rot in peace until 1562 when the Huguenots dug him up and threw his bones all over the courtyard.

So ends the strange, smelly death of William the Conqueror."

	02-07-2002 07:30									#98
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I wonder what was the name of that French king who was killed by inserting a hot, red-glowing tool up his rectum? Oh the pain!

	02-07-2002 07:44									#99
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I believe you're thinking of an English King. Edward II.

	02-07-2002 08:16									#100
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quote: er... wait no... a bit later. 13th century, I believe. In Wales.

Actually, the 11th century. Wales was conquered by the Normans, and then revolted a few decades later.

	02-07-2002 13:34									#101
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No, I've been assured that parts held out until the 13th... oh well, I should get the details soon.

	02-07-2002 13:55									#102
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Is there an active question?

If not, try this one:

Which is the only liquid that isn't wet?

	02-07-2002 14:00									#103
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Liquid mercury?

	02-07-2002 14:01									#104
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Good boy!

Bonus question: why?

	02-07-2002 14:05									#105
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Yippee!

My question is: which US president hold the record for the shortest presidency ever, and how long was it?

	02-07-2002 14:09									#106
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Urg... define wet?! I do know that mercury's cohesion is such that it naturally wants to stick to itself, not the ground, so it beads naturally, but not sure if that's what you're looking for...

PH: Talk about a softball. William Henry Harrison, held office for a month with a bad case of pnemounia. Now McKinley comes close, except for the fact that he had a whole previous term, so it probably doesn't count.

	02-07-2002 14:14									#107
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I'm 99.9% sure I'm right, so here's another question. While on the topic of presidents, what president was known for wearing these bizarre silver reflective pants? No, the answer is not Bill Clinton.

	02-07-2002 14:15									#108
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Well, Harrison was the one I was thinking of. So well done. And I'm deeply sorry that my question was too easy for you.

	02-07-2002 14:18									#109
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Nah, it's just that after questions like "There's a very specific region that did something very nebulous in Europe involving ruling themselves but being native before Rome, start guessing centuries!" that question was a bit more straight-forward. ;-)

	02-07-2002 14:23									#110
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Snowie, almost. Mercury doesn't want to stick to anything, not even itself. (although, pouring mercury over gold is interesting. It is somewhat like pouring water over a sugarcube.). In essence, it behaves like a noble gas. At room temperature it doesn't have enough energy to go into gasphase, however, so it has to stick to something and it prefers other mercury atoms to other (non-oxidazable) materials, much like liquid nitrogen.

	02-07-2002 14:24									#111
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I see. I should have guessed that Americans would probably have known the answer (I'm British, and very few people in Britain have even heard of Harrison).

Anyway, I'm going to guess that Roosevelt (Franklin) wore silver pants at some point, for reasons unknown.

	02-07-2002 15:12									#112
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"As the Roman empire in the west fell, its control over several provinces passed back into the hands of those who held them before the Romans came in; however, later barbarians would overwhelm all of these. What was the leader or last region to be controlled by the original pre-Roman peoples who lived there and in what century was it lost to barbarians or the descendents thereof?"

Have you agreed on Wales ? Because depending on the exact meaning of "controlled" I'd rather go for the basques in the kingdom of Navarra, or the Kabyles....

	02-07-2002 15:42									#113
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Maybe, but Wales is the answer that my Medieval England professor gave me earlier.

	02-07-2002 15:48									#114
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quote: Originally posted by Victor Galis Maybe, but Wales is the answer that my Medieval England professor gave me earlier.

Then you should have asked "which part of England..."

Seriously, the Kabyles in today's Algeria were never really subjected by the Romans, and were essentially independent until the French conquered them in the 19th century.

The Basques developped the Navarra kingdom with some germanic influence, but they were never subjected by the Visigoths. So in a way their continuity reaches into the 16th century, with the fueros into the 19th.

	02-07-2002 15:51									#115
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Hmm... I suppose I should look at that.

quote: Seriously, the Kabyles in today's Algeria were never really subjected by the Romans, and were essentially independent until the French conquered them in the 19th century.

-Well, then they don't really count if they were never really Roman in the first place.

I admit the answer may have been biased towards the Welsh, but it may be that the Basques nominally surrendered earlier, while certain Welsh regions never did.

	02-07-2002 16:00									#116
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But for a lot of Navarra's history, the King of Navarra was often a vassal to Castile or (later) France.

	02-07-2002 16:02									#117
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Roman "Control" over Wales was far from certain. They had two legions stationed on today's english/welch border for a long time. Imagining roman "control" in the way of a modern state is erronous, so depending how much you twist it you can have varying results.

The basques didn't surrender until the 16th century; I think Navarra was conquered by the spanish in one of their wars with France. Navarra had kings that were related to the counts of Champagne (sounds funny) and to the french kings and was in a personal union with Aragon for a while.

Of course one could ask the question of Basque/Navarra continuity....

	02-07-2002 16:05									#118
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"But for a lot of Navarra's history, the King of Navarra was often a vassal to Castile or (later) France."

Well John Lackland was a vassal of the Pope. Doesn't necessarily say much. Castile and France occupied Navarra in the 14th century though when they drove out Charles the evil.... not 100 % sure about that though.

	02-07-2002 16:06									#119
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Yeah. I think that might be where that came in. In any case, it would probably take a detailed study of history to make any such statements.

	02-07-2002 16:18									#120
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OK! Another science question:

Black holes are called just that because they don´t emit any light. Still they aren´t exactly black, why is that?