Today I Learned

[WWGD]

Careful when you move in a small kitchen to avoid accidentally turning on knobs for the stove. Or at least pay attention to the lights on the stove, and to the level of heat to check whether I did turn the knobs on --phew!.

 

[lisab]

Today I learned that our own highly-esteemed BobG has been stalked by a can of garbanzo beans all his life.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...have-in-your-house.806405/page-2#post-5065793

 

[NascentOxygen]

This project will teach one computer some humility.

And it might give the grandkids a jump start on Roman Numerals .

My Aunt had a grandmother clock with Roman numerals. I loved its reassuring tick-tock and hourly chimes through the night, but I didn't like its clockface because one of the numbers seemed wrong: it was different from what we'd been learning at primary school.

I've just now tried to figure out what it could have been, and I'm a bit lost for ideas. But pondering what it could have been, maybe it was this: at school we learned that 6 would be VI but that clockface showed it as IΛ. I was uncomfortable with that difference.

If that's what it was, then other numbers would have looked awkward, too, but my memory is of only one number being "wrong".

Maybe it will come to me if I sleep on it ... EDIT: Okay, after a 5 minute sleep I tried a google search. I think I have my answer: http://mentalfloss.com/article/24578/why-do-some-clocks-use-roman-numeral-iiii

 

[collinsmark]

[...] but I didn't like its clockface because one of the numbers seemed wrong: it was different from what we'd been learning at primary school.

I've just now tried to figure out what it could have been, and I'm a bit lost for ideas. [...]

Some Roman numeral clockfaces use IIII instead of IV to represent 4. There's a tradition behind it, and several disparate, possible explanations, but as far as I can tell based on my scant research, the tradition's origin remains a mystery.

 

[epenguin]

The most common explanation is that it was at the behest of King Henri the somethingth who found the proper Roman numeral especially in that position hard to read.

 

[OmCheeto]

Today I learned that our own highly-esteemed BobG has been stalked by a can of garbanzo beans all his life.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...have-in-your-house.806405/page-2#post-5065793

Reminds me of a stench in my kitchen a few years back, that took me several weeks to discover the source of.
I had "top shelfed" a can of peas, obviously left behind from my one and only experiment with "renting out a spare room to a friend, acquaintance, someone I never want to hear from ever again*", as I would never buy a can of peas.
The "top shelf", being a location where I put things that I will not be using in this lifetime, as I have to get the ladder out.
Anyways, the can had rusted through, and slowly leaked its contents.
I no longer put canned goods on the top shelf.

*See: http://www.hulu.com/watch/13932

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Today a wasp got into the house. I squirted him with first thing i could find , which happened to be Windex. The knockdown was immediate.
No stinky insecticide smell ...

I think squirted wasps are not smelly. I used to do that many times .

 

[nuuskur]

I learned that when you can't see then you don't know what you are looking at.

 

[lisab]

Reminds me of a stench in my kitchen a few years back, that took me several weeks to discover the source of.
I had "top shelfed" a can of peas, obviously left behind from my one and only experiment with "renting out a spare room to a friend, acquaintance, someone I never want to hear from ever again*", as I would never buy a can of peas.
The "top shelf", being a location where I put things that I will not be using in this lifetime, as I have to get the ladder out.
Anyways, the can had rusted through, and slowly leaked its contents.
I no longer put canned goods on the top shelf.

*See: http://www.hulu.com/watch/13932

TIL whatever is on Om's top shelf is probably going to kill all of us someday.

 

[Overt]

Today I learned sex is a powerful motivator.

 

[nitsuj]

I learned that the milky way is very big!

Playing a game (Elite Dangerous) that emulates the milky way with over 400 billion "star systems" and the possiblity to travel to them. To compensate for the vast distance FTL travel is possible. Trully remarkable the amount of space there is, and how big some stars are and specifically the amount of speed required to make traveling between them within a "game play" amount of time; the speed of light is a snail's pace for objects within the universe.

And then from there to think that the milky way is one galaxy amongst billions.

 

[dlgoff]

I learned that the milky way is very big!

You think that's big. http://htwins.net/scale2/

 

[nitsuj]

There must be as much space as there is time!

 

[OmCheeto]

Paul Almond passed away on the 9th.
He was the creator of a documentary series, the original being called; "Seven Up!".
I normally don't give much of a hoot when old people die, as that's what old people are supposed to do.
But, the "Up" series, really influenced my views of people, and I thought it merited mention.

 

[NascentOxygen]

Paul Almond passed away on the 9th.
He was the creator of a documentary series, the original being called; "Seven Up!".
I normally don't give much of a hoot when old people die, as that's what old people are supposed to do.
But, the "Up" series, really influenced my views of people, and I thought it merited mention.

Thanks for mentioning that. Yes, I've seen quite a few of that series, including repeats. A British series, tracing the lives of a diminishing group of participants from age 7 until they reached age 56. I think we can all identify with the vicissitudes of fate we see distributed throughout the lives of these children.

 

[Astronuc]

The mango is the national fruit of India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, and the national tree of Bangladesh.
Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango

I didn't know that. I found that out while looking for an article on Kesar Mangos.

I love mango juice and fresh mango fruit. I'm also fond of guava and papaya.

"Kesar" Mango is the queen of mangoes widely grown in the Gujarat state of India.It has a unique sweet taste. Kesar is characterised by its golden color with green overtones. The fruit is slightly smaller compared to the Alphonso variety. Savani farms offers very best of Kesar naturally ripened fruit products as "Queen Kesar"

Ref: https://www.savanifarms.com/

 

[nsaspook]

I loved the Mango with dried danggit fish breakfast in the Philippines.

 

[lisab]

I loved the Mango with dried danggit fish breakfast in the Philippines.

Do you eat the eyeballs?

 

[nsaspook]

Do you eat the eyeballs?

Yes, everything but the larger bones. It's fried 'very' crispy so you add a little fish sauce to it and maybe some Bagoong alamang (shrimp paste) on green mango and rice. It keeps the mosquitoes away.
http://www.afodltd.com/images/afodpic/80-034.gif

I lived in Cabilao Bohol during the 80's with my wife (Her family owned a small farm there) . No utilities for fancy breakfast but it was about the most beautiful place in the world (Once the terrorists were eliminated).

cabilao loon bohol philippines

 

[nsaspook]

Ancient Egyptian Hangover Cure
http://news.discovery.com/history/a...als-ancient-egyptian-hangover-cure-150422.htm

Trying to ease a bad hangover? Wearing a necklace made from the leaves of a shrub called Alexandrian laurel would do the job, according to a newly translated Egyptian papyrus.

The “drunken headache cure” appears in a 1,900-year-old text written in Greek and was discovered during the ongoing effort to translate more than half a million scraps of papyrus known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

 

[SpanishOmelette]

Today I learned that "chasing the dragon" is slang for smoking heroin.

O-O
_

Aaah!

 

[Astronuc]

Gold nano-particles do interesting things!

 

[Astronuc]

Claim: GM, Ford, And Others Want to Make Working on Your Own Car Illegal
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/gm-ford-others-want-working-own-car-illegal-160000229.html

What GM, and even tractor companies like John Deere, argues is that you, as an owner, don’t actually own your car. Rather, you’re sort of just borrowing it for an extended amount of time and paying for the rights to use the technology. If it sounds ridiculous— it is. But it gets even more ludicrous.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Deere argued that “letting people modify car computer systems will result in them pirating music through the on-board entertainment system.”

That’s right— pirating music. Through a tractor.

Seriously?

 

[Borg]

Claim: GM, Ford, And Others Want to Make Working on Your Own Car Illegal
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/gm-ford-others-want-working-own-car-illegal-160000229.html

Seriously?

The first thing that I would work on would be disabling any software that sends information from my car to the auto maker without my permission.

 

[jim hardy]

I can sort of understand sensitivity to hackers tweaking stuff and OEM getting sued when a hacked computer disables the brakes.

There's a lesson in the "Tower of Babel" story , it's about diminishing returns.
Look at the IT industry.
Does anyone think our tongues have not been confused ?

I'm keeping my '68 F100, thank you.

 

[rootone]

Today I learned that my bank balance was less than I expected because for some reason my electric bill was more than I had anticipated.

 

[Ibix]

Claim: GM, Ford, And Others Want to Make Working on Your Own Car Illegal
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/gm-ford-others-want-working-own-car-illegal-160000229.html

Seriously?

Lexmark put chips with some kind of encrypted serial number on printer cartidges. Their printers would then only accept official cartridges. It got reverse engineered, of course, and they tried to sue under the "technical protection" clause of the DMCA - arguing that their serial number was a creative work protectable by copyright...

 

[Milkandcarrots]

Today I learned a yellow fin tuna moves at 55 mph at top speed and a sailfish is as fast as a cheetah.

 

[zoobyshoe]

...a sailfish is as fast as a cheetah.

Not on land.

 

[OmCheeto]

Claim: GM, Ford, And Others Want to Make Working on Your Own Car Illegal
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/gm-ford-others-want-working-own-car-illegal-160000229.html

Seriously?

I hope there's a statute of limitations on such things.
I reupholstered the seats on one of my cars back in 1980.

ps. I've been discussing William Shatner's $30 billion California water problem idea for about a week on Facebook.
Today, I ran across the last piece of the puzzle:

Summary of the below article*: The Carlsbad project will supply 7% of San Diego's water, at a construction cost of $1 billion.

So $14.3 billion would supply all their needs.
San Diego's population: 1.3 million
California's population: 38.8 million
Interpolated cost: $427 billion
Not counting the $50 billion annual cost of operation, which, if you can multiply , comes out to $1 trillion dollars over the next 10 years.

*{below article}

I was going to start a thread about it here, but it had so many peculiar angles to it, that, I decided to wait.

 

[Lisa!]

TILT I like to have a challenging job although it might be really hard for me...

 

[nsaspook]

ps. I've been discussing William Shatner's $30 billion California water problem idea for about a week on Facebook.
Today, I ran across the last piece of the puzzle:

I was going to start a thread about it here, but it had so many peculiar angles to it, that, I decided to wait.

If they just recycled waste water instead of dumping it into the ocean the amount they need to generate directly from sea water would be much less. It's less costly (but still expensive) to convert sewage into drinking water than salt-water.

 

[OmCheeto]

If they just recycled waste water instead of dumping it into the ocean the amount they need to generate directly from sea water would be much less. It's less costly (but still expensive) to convert sewage into drinking water than salt-water.

Someone named "puf..." started a thread on the topic very recently. Perhaps we should discuss this there.

[edit] But thanks for the link. I recorded all relevant data; "Frustratists: Politicians are stupid and don't listen to the optimists."

 

[mfb]

...a sailfish is as fast as a cheetah.

Not on land.

Not in the sea either.

Today I learned Hubble was launched 25 years ago.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned that no one has compiled statistics on the fastest fish on land.