Today I Learned

  • Thread starter Greg Bernhardt
  • Start date
In summary: Today I learned that Lagrange was Italian and that he lamented the execution of Lavoisier in France during the French Revolution with the quote:"It took them only an instant to cut off this head and a hundred years might not suffice to reproduce it's...brains."
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #4,658
kyphysics said:
A bunch of Googlers who used to work at Amazon are internally sharing horror stories about their former employer's 'frupid' and aggressive culture

https://www.businessinsider.com/for...ho-work-at-google-share-horror-stories-2022-9
Halloween arrives early?
Why the blocking screen "INSIDER, Become an Insider, Special Introductory Offer,..."?
Should I click on the browser's remove-overlay extension, or should I "Report" the post?

Upon clicking my browser's "Underneath-the-Overlay" extension, I still see I am instructed to "Become an Insider" in order to see or read the article. Your post with the referenced article is a waste!
 
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  • #4,659
symbolipoint said:
Why the blocking screen "INSIDER, Become an Insider, Special Introductory Offer,..."?
Should I click on the browser's remove-overlay extension, or should I "Report" the post?

Upon clicking my browser's "Underneath-the-Overlay" extension, I still see I am instructed to "Become an Insider" in order to see or read the article. Your post with the referenced article is a waste!
Sorry - wasn't aware that'd happen (at least, not for certain).

[Post edited by the Mentors]
 
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  • #4,660
Thread closed temporarily for Moderation and cleanup. The TIL thread is not meant to be a place to encourage bypassing paywalls, IMO...
 
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  • #4,661
Okay, after some cleanup, the thread is reopened. Everybody move along past the paywall please, and thank you... :smile:
 
  • #4,662
berkeman said:
Okay, after some cleanup, the thread is reopened. Everybody move along past the paywall please, and thank you... :smile:
The Today I Learned idea is still fine, but we still cannot move along past the paywall, so referencing the article is still wasted. If some member knows where else is the same article not using such a "paywall", then we would have some progress on this sub-sub-topic.
 
  • #4,663
symbolipoint said:
If some member knows where else is the same article not using such a "paywall", then we would have some progress on this sub-sub-topic.
Weird... I can read the article, provided I allow scripts from businessinsider.com (normally I have most scripts blocked in my browser).
 
  • #4,664
TIL P 52 is right on my door step. (This is NOT a religious post, I am just interested in the history)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Library_Papyrus_P52

Whatever your views are this is a very important piece and I have been reading about that and other ancient finds for a few years.
These types of texts are dated by analysing the writing technique, paleography but if you look at the link there is no agreement on the date.
Around 125CE according to my source. Bart Ehrman's lectures and books.
My first thought was, why not carbon date it?

It is supposed to be around 1900 years old, the oldest they have for that book or any in the NT.

The Manchester museum used to have a whole section dedicated to Egyptian History and I visited many times as a child. I have never been to Rylands though.

Edit: Yes it's still there but they are doing some construction work.
https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/collection/ancientegyptandsudan/
 
  • #4,665

. . .that table tennis can be darn exciting!

. . .at least, when it's between the world's greatest offensive player vs. the world's best defensive player

Very cool.
 
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  • #4,666
kyphysics said:

. . .that table tennis can be darn exciting!

. . .at least, when it's between the world's greatest offensive player vs. the world's best defensive player

Very cool.

It beggars belief that they can react at that speed.
Consistently too.
Probably only badminton can compare?
 
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  • #4,668
TIL Sean Carroll latest podcast is on General relativity. To coincide with his new book.
It hard to visualise as there are no diagrams or equations but it was interesting and he does not shy away from the details.
 
  • #4,669
TIL
  • Mount Everest's peak is the highest altitude above mean sea level at 29,035 feet [8.85 km].
  • Mount Chimborazo's peak is the furthest point on Earth from Earth's center. The summit is over 6,560 feet [2,000 meters] farther from Earth's center than Mount Everest's summit.
  • Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain from base to peak at more than 32,800 feet [10 km].
From https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/highestpoint.html
 
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  • #4,670
TIL that October is National Sarcasm Awareness Month!
Sarcasm is defined as using irony to mock or convey contempt.
Some call sarcasm the lowest form of humor, but it often requires a quick wit, and the ability to know just when to throw it into a conversation.
 
  • #4,671
BillTre said:
TIL that October is National Sarcasm Awareness Month!
Please don't tell V50.
 
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  • #4,672
pinball1970 said:
Please don't tell V50.
C.D. Bales said:
Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a, a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.
 
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  • #4,673
 
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  • #4,674
BillTre said:

TIL 1.08 The wife from the Shining was in Roxanne!
 
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  • #4,675
From a random "collection of things" video I came across, I discovered that iron floats in mercury.
 
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  • #4,676
A radio station in London asked 50,000 Europeans for their favorite songs at a funeral:
X95z_6_&tn=gMXr7BW6gpKPJJCa&_nc_ht=scontent-dus1-1.jpg
 
  • #4,677
LOL, Highway to Hell... :smile:
 
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  • #4,678
berkeman said:
LOL, Highway to Hell... :smile:
Would have been my first choice. 🤘 Or Hell's bells.

Viva Las Vegas is good, too! My sister is a great Elvis fan. I wonder what she would choose. Probably some boring gospel like Crying in the Chapel.
 
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  • #4,679
Ibix said:
From a random "collection of things" video I came across, I discovered that iron floats in mercury.
Rather well in fact.

There is at least one astronomical observatory here in Southern California that has its Dome floating in a trough of Mercury.

I can't think a a lower friction passive thrust bearing than that!

Cheers,
Tom
 
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  • #4,680
fresh_42 said:
A radio station in London asked 50,000 Europeans for their favorite songs at a funeral:
Jackson Browne's For a Dancer:

 
  • #4,681
Tom.G said:
Rather well in fact.
Actually, I knew that mercury bearings existed because Michelson and Morley had their interferometer on one in their experiment that discovered the isotropy of light speed. A bit like the battleship in a bucket of water, I hadn't thought of it as "floating". Although I should have.
 
  • #4,682
TIL the worst year ever was 536:

​
 
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  • #4,683
jack action said:
TIL the worst year ever was 536:

​

Yeah that was definitely worse than dates I had in my head.
 
  • #4,684
TIL (TWIL) I was wrong about something regarding the human eye, colour, physics, pigments, the iris.
Eye colour is more physics than Chemistry. At least for certain colours. Jim smelt a rat immediately. Obviously!
 
  • #4,685
TIL skydiving is not scary.
 
  • #4,686
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  • #4,687
TIL that some folks like to bring generators and extra power sources when they go camping, apparently to power their fans so they can stay cool while using their laptops. From my Facebook feed today...

1665686370368.png
 
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  • #4,688
That's called 'glamping' - a portmanteau of glamor and camping.

Or 'boujee', depending on your attitude toward it.
 
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  • #4,689
DaveC426913 said:
That's called 'glamping' - a portmanteau of glamor and camping.

Or 'boujee', depending on your attitude toward it.
I thought glamping was where the tent is more like little house? A shed with facilities?
I never saw the point, if people are not keen on the tent element of the out doors but like the country side, just get a nice B&B instead.
 
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  • #4,690
pinball1970 said:
I thought glamping was where the tent is more like little house? A shed with facilities?
I never saw the point, if people are not keen on the tent element of the out doors but like the country side, just get a nice B&B instead.
The purpose for the tent is portability, even if setup and repack is a chore.
 
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