Today I Learned

[ergospherical]

My mother sent that to me. I sure hope it isn't some thinly veiled jibe...

 

[jack action]

TIL:

Imagine that it’s the middle of the night.

You’ve been driving for hours.

White line fever is setting in.

You hear a deep, dark, malevolent voice coming over the CB radio. It sounds so familiar.

You turn it up, not believing your ears as the voice of the evil “Darth Vader” from Star Wars asks, “What’s your 20?”

“Darth Vader” Chatted With Truckers On CB Radio​

According to interviews given by “Star Wars” voice actor James Earl Jones, this really happened to some truckers in the 1970’s, when CB radios were far more commonly used by both truckers and the motoring public.

After “Star Wars” premiered, Jones would get bored while driving cross country and would hop on the CB radio. Using “Darth” as his handle, he used to chat with truckers as he traveled the highways.

But Jones eventually caused so much CB panic that he had to give up the game. He said, “the truck drivers would really freak out—for them, it was Darth Vader. I had to stop doing that.”

 

[DaveC426913]

: desperately scrambles to find transportation-related puns for "I am your father" and "Search your feelings":

How about "May TransForce be with you"?

 

[BillTre]

from XKCD:

 

[Oldman too]

How about "May TransForce be with you"?

It could be "may the farce be with you"

 

[Oldman too]

TIL, that I don't suffer from Anhedonia.

 

[DaveC426913]

TIL, that I don't suffer from Anhedonia.

Well you ol' braggart you.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL what spamdexing is.

 

[pinball1970]

TIL, that I don't suffer from Anhedonia.

That's good to know! I suspected pleasure may be something to do with that word but I still had to look it up to check.

 

[Hornbein]

TIL, that I don't suffer from Anhedonia.

That word inspired the title "Annie Hall."

 

[pinball1970]

That word inspired the title "Annie Hall."

Really?

 

[Anachronist]

Today I learned that a single kiss may transfer 80 million microbes!

That explains why, whenever I started a relationship with a new girlfriend in my youth, I would come down with a cold 100% of the time after the first kiss. People are big bags of germs, everyone has their own unique collection of them, and in any new relationship I had to acclimate to the collection of my new partner. For some reason, the girlfriends never got sick.

 

[Astronuc]

Dostoyevsky, Just After His Death Sentence Was Repealed, on the Meaning of Life, by Maria Popova
https://www.themarginalian.org/2019/12/05/dostoyevsky-execution-life/

“To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart — that’s what life is all about, that’s its task.”

“I mean to work tremendously hard,” the young Fyodor Dostoyevsky (November 11, 1821–February 9, 1881) resolved in contemplating his literary future, beseeching his impoverished mother to buy him books. At the age of twenty-seven, he was arrested for belonging to a literary society that circulated books deemed dangerous by the tsarist regime. He was sentenced to death. On December 22, 1849, he was taken to a public square in Saint Petersburg, alongside a handful of other inmates, where they were to be executed as a warning to the masses. They were read their death sentence, put into their execution attire of white shirts, and allowed to kiss the cross. Ritualistic sabers were broken over their heads. Three at a time, they were stood against the stakes where the execution was to be carried out. Dostoyevsky, the sixth in line, grew acutely aware that he had only moments to live.

And then, at the last minute, a pompous announcement was made that the tsar was pardoning their lives — the whole spectacle had been orchestrated as a cruel publicity stunt to depict the despot as a benevolent ruler. The real sentence was then read: Dostoyevsky was to spend four years in a Siberian labor camp, followed by several years of compulsory military service in the tsar’s armed forces, in exile. He would be nearly forty by the time he picked up the pen again to resume his literary ambitions. But now, in the raw moments following his close escape from death, he was elated with relief, reborn into a new cherishment of life.

To be sure, Russia has a rich literary heritage/legacy.

 

[Klystron]

To be sure, Russia has a rich literary heritage/legacy

Unlike many/most of my contemporary literary friends, I prefer reading Russian / USSR science fiction to dull Dostoyevsky, too dated for my taste in literature although I have read the classics. I snatch English translations of Russian novels as they appear in my local library.

Take brilliant SF author Vladimir Sorokin. After reading his satirical "Ice" trilogy beginning with "Bro", depicting a Ukrainian protagonist out to save the world after falling on a frozen fragment of the Tunguska meteor, Russian atrocities in invaded countries appear inevitable.

"Blizzard" remains a satirical favorite with miniature horses, looming giants, tiny people and an eminently clumsy, if well meaning, doctor hellbent on curing a plague outbreak. "Day of the Oprichnik" must be one of the most sadistic cruel novels that I have read from any locale. Chilling, you will never look at Vladimir Putin or Russian oligarchs the same.

 

[Oldman too]

That word inspired the title "Annie Hall."

Great, now I'll be running Woody Allen skits in the back of my mind for a while, (everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask ?)

 

[Oldman too]

TIL what spamdexing is.

TIL, I hate spamdexing. Although it appears Doxxing can be useful when properly applied.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60864283

The boy's father told the BBC: "I had never heard about any of this until recently. He's never talked about any hacking, but he is very good on computers and spends a lot of time on the computer. I always thought he was playing games."

 

[epenguin]

TIL that Mho's, a unit of electrical conductance, is just Ohm spelled backwards.
It also uses an upside down omega as its symbol, whereas Ohm's uses a non-inverted omega.
Conductance is also the reciprocal of resistance.
They just took everything about Ohm's and inverted them!

The unit etc. was in my first textbook, without explanation but I soon worked out how they came about. Never liked it, don't like jokey or slangy terminology. (But all my principles like that have exceptions.) This leads, through a thread you may be able to discern, this leads, to the neologisms, at least they were neologisms when they were new: "input" and "output".

I always thought these were very neat, natty, useful and indicative words with a self-explanatory character. Though sounding slangy. (Or, what is practically the same thing, I perceived a bit later, American. :) ) I could sense what they meant before I really knew. That was early on. My Dad was a radio/TV engineer (I was a disappointment) and I was seeing the term very early. almost as early as possible in fact. You would think it's currency started around the 1920s, but according to a graph in Oxford Languages Dictionary it seems to have, but with very very low frequency and does not start to be noticeable though still rare until the 1940s. I knew it not long after it started then. Since then the range of meaning has expanded - for a decision whatever like where to take the school's annual picnic you might be asked for your input.

'Output' is notably different from 'input' that way. As well as engineering you associate the word with economics etc., and it was already becoming fairly common before 1900.

'Feedback' is another originally technical word of which most of the above could be said. But according to the same above source usage of the first two peaked around 1990, that of 'feedback' which started around 1940 is still expanding.

I just thought you might like to know.

 

[Oldman too]

TIL, ORCs just may be the true Lord of the Rings.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00861-6
https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.10669
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ra4b6vk5uxaykg2/Meerkat_ORC1_paper__Revised.pdf?dl=0

 

[ergospherical]

 

[Klystron]

View attachment 299110

From their habits (brown robes), white cord, the monks are Franciscans, office of friars minor.

From the knots on his cord the doggie is third order, a lay dog, licensed to beg.

 

[berkeman]

If the doggie is not fixed already, that could be a problem with violation of his vows. Sorry doggy...

 

[BWV]

This number has not changed for any European country in over 300 years

 

[jtbell]

Today I learned that cashless ATMs are a thing. Instead of cash, they dispense pot, using a loophole to get around restrictions that are intended to prevent people from using debit or credit cards to buy pot via a retail point-of-sale terminal. The ATMs code the transaction as a cash withdrawal, instead of a purchase.

Visa cracks down on cashless ATMs at cannabis dispensaries (MarketWatch)

 

[Ibix]

This number has not changed for any European country in over 300 years

View attachment 299273

What happened 300 years ago? Divide by zero somewhere is the only thing I can think of, but the implications of that are pretty horrible...

 

[BillTre]

What happened 300 years ago? Divide by zero somewhere is the only thing I can think of, but the implications of that are pretty horrible...

Depending on how you count population and people, you might get numbers different from one in the US before the Civil War. Prior to that slaves were only counted as 3/5 of a non-slave, in the official census anyway.

 

[jbriggs444]

Depending on how you count population and people, you might get numbers different from one in the US before the Civil War. Prior to that slaves were only counted as 3/5 of a non-slave, in the official census anyway.

The legendary two headed man. One half person per capita.

 

[LCSphysicist]

View attachment 299110

He has become a jedi

 

[Drakkith]

The legendary two headed man. One half person per capita.

Goes well with the 2.5 kids every american should have.

 

[Oldman too]

TIL, α = 1/137.035999206
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2964-7

 

[strangerep]

TIL, α = 1/137.035999206
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2964-7

Once again, it gives me pause (for thought) that we have such a stunning theory of QED, yet still find significantly frustrating issues in galactic/cosmological dynamics.

 

[Klystron]

TIL Telluric currents exist, can be used as an energy source and to map subsurface Earth. Thanks @Baluncore .

I knew Tellus is Latin for Earth and that we ground EM circuits and send and receive VLF and ELF signals through the Earth. I was taught or I assumed that the many references in old books to geomantic or telluric currents talked about some spiritual or supernatural essence or described the Earth's geomagnetic field.

Fra Junipero Serra mentioned telluric currents guiding his mission site planning in California but I assumed he meant compass readings. I need to rethink the meaning of many old manuscripts I read years ago though I no longer have access to those libraries and no longer understand much Latin and Spanish due to age. Live and learn something new each day.

 

[gmax137]

Live and learn something new each day.

That's it.

 

[strangerep]

TIL that, for large areas of the Antarctic, the bedrock on which the ice rests is in fact below sea level.

 

[Oldman too]

TIL, this makes perfect sense.
https://www.science.org/content/art...a-could-delay-catastrophic-ice-sheet-collapse

 

[phinds]

TIL that I'm not the only one who misreads words (didn't really think I was, but this confirms it)

TIL the title of the PF science fiction subforum is "Writing and Worldbuilding". I read the title as "Word Building"

I still read it as Word building.

My problem is that every time I see the word "lawmakers" I read it as "lawn makers" in the split second before my brain recovers and thinks "crap ... did it again!"