Today I Learned

[BillTre]

Big (monsoon?) rains in the Sahara
https://www.severe-weather.eu/globa...rainfall-event-sahara-desert-2024-anomaly-fa/

 

[BillTre]

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that "havok" was in Old English a command to cease fighting and begin looting and pillaging.

 

[BillTre]

 

[Hornbein]

View attachment 351423

I can read that. I however failed to get past the first sentence of my niece's PhD in political geography.

 

[collinsmark]

View attachment 351423

Hmm. Oddly succinct.

 

[Hornbein]

Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders . One which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground.[151]

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that jazz bass viol player Cecil McBee lost his lawsuit against the Japanese line of trendy clothing that stole his name. He lost so badly he had to pay the court costs. This did however induce the company to never sell their clothing in the USA.

https://www.organissimo.org/forum/topic/13723-cecil-mcbee/

Twenty years after the lawsuit Cecil McBee clothing remains popular.

 

[BillTre]

TIL while listening to a podcast interview of Francis Collins (former NIH head)
that the cost of sequencing an individual human has gone from:
400 million dollars (the first human genome)
down to < $500.

 

[Tom.G]

Now if we could get that efficency in housing costs, that Million $ "mansion' would be $125.

 

[OmCheeto]

TIL while listening to a podcast interview of Francis Collins (former NIH head)
that the cost of sequencing an individual human has gone from:
400 million dollars (the first human genome)
down to < $500.

I saw that this January

source page

I've been thinking about getting one done.

 

[Swamp Thing]

TIL how the word "ghost" got its "h".
Thank or blame William Caxton, who founded the first printing press in England.

Clip from video:
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxkw6jY2Li5hcByziDS8cxEY6lOxWa6HV7?si=J8XZfOGCjWu-l97e

The rest of the video is pretty interesting, too:

 

[Tom.G]

I tried the long version, but couldn't get through more than 5 minutes of that computer pretending to be a narrator.

 

[haushofer]

Today I learned that the expression for the velocity of a particle in Bohmian mechanics behaves properly under Galilean boosts (\dot{Q} \rightarrow \dot{Q}+v), which offers an extra explanation for its definition (and why you take the imaginary part).

 

[sbrothy]

Today I learned that turtles can breathe using their butt.

I thought that was the craziest thing I ever heard but this one rivals it:

In Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia there's this bird, The Black Kite, (according to wiki: "the worlds most abundant species of Accipritdae") which is attracted to wildfires and spreads them by picking up burning twigs dropping them here and there (obviously to flush out prey).

As if there weren't enough problems we cohabit Earth with a pyromaniac species of bird!

Ain't nature just great?!




EDIT: Corrected spelling and grammatical errors.

 

[Swamp Thing]

picking up burning twigs dropping them here and there (obviously to flush out prey).

What do the experts believe it is -- hard wired instinct or learned culture?

 

[sbrothy]

What do the experts believe it is -- hard wired instinct or learned culture?

Without having anything to back it up I'd expect it to be learned behavior. Most animals aren't too keen on fire so the prime mover must have been desperately hungry!

EDIT: To make it utterly ridiculous I wouldn't be surprised if the species was protected! Now wouldn't that just be a fireman's nightmare?!

But I'm only speculating here. For the fun.

 

[Hornbein]

What do the experts believe it is -- hard wired instinct or learned culture?

I don't know but instinctive behaviors can be much more complicated and subtle than one might expect.

 

[jack action]

TIL:

​

You know that sharp odor of chlorine from the swimming pool you can recall from earliest childhood? It turns out it's not just chlorine, but a potent brew of chemicals that form when chlorine meets sweat, body oils, and urine.

[...]

The scientists calculated that one 220,000-gallon, commercial-size swimming pool contained almost 20 gallons of urine. In a residential pool (20-by-40-foot, five-feet deep), that would translate to about two gallons of pee.

[...]

Apart from being gross, that's also a potential health hazard. Chlorine reacts with urine to form a host of potentially toxic compounds called disinfection byproducts. These can include anything from the chloramines that give well-used pools the aforementioned odor, to cyanogen chloride, which is classified as a chemical warfare agent. There are also nitrosamines, which can cause cancer. There's not enough evidence to say whether the nitrosamine levels in pools increase cancer risk, Blatchley says, but one study in Spain did find more bladder cancers in some long-term swimmers.

[...]

Once someone does pee in the pool, the only way to truly get rid of it is to replace the water. "It's not uncommon for water in a pool to go unchanged for years," Blatchley says, since many pool owners or operators just add water as needed rather than completely replacing it, which is more expensive.

And the longer water sits in a pool, the worse it gets, his research has shown. Over time, people add more chlorine to the water, which is converted to a form called chloride that builds up and encourages the formation of yet more disinfection byproducts.

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that the first Republican party was formed in 1824. It lasted ten years before being absorbed by the Whigamores, who in 1860 were in turn blown away by the next Republican party.

 

[Swamp Thing]

Today I learned that the first Republican party was formed in 1824. It lasted ten years before being absorbed by the Whigamores, who in 1860 were in turn blown away by the next Republican party.

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...original-track-which-ones-are-better.1050205/

 

[PeterDonis]

Today I learned that the first Republican party was formed in 1824.

Actually, the original Jeffersonian party called themselves "Republicans", historians later renamed them to "Democratic-Republicans".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic-Republican_Party

 

[BWV]

William Herschel was a decent composer

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learn that until the year 2000 the constitution of Switzerland prohibited absinthe.

 

[collinsmark]

Today I learn that until the year 2000 the constitution of Switzerland prohibited absinthe.

Yeah, over a century ago, absinthe got a bad rap around the world: partly from misinformation (false urban legends) and partly from disinformation by the wine industry (absinthe was cutting into their profits/revenue). It was outlawed in may countries (even in the US, long before prohibition). To this day, there's still a lot of misinformation out there.

Then, once all the misinformation/disinformation was debunked, politicians still didn't bother taking the laws off the books for approximately a century. It reminds me of some of those weird laws still on the books in some places like restricting which hours you can/can't hitch your horse to the post on a Tuesday (or similar).

Making it into a country's constitution is a more extreme example. 'Shame, since Swiss (style) absinthe is some of the tastiest. (Of course, it's not illegal anymore. But the change happened in relatively recent memory.)

 

[BillTre]

 

[jtbell]

TIL that Goldfish crackers are no more. They're now Chilean Sea Bass crackers.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/23/food/campbells-goldfish-name-change/index.html

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that Goldfish crackers are no more. They're now Chilean Sea Bass crackers.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/23/food/campbells-goldfish-name-change/index.html

The Goldfish dynasty continues uninterrupted.

 

[pinball1970]

Today I learned that the first Republican party was formed in 1824. It lasted ten years before being absorbed by the Whigamores, who in 1860 were in turn blown away by the next Republican party.

We had Whigs a few hundred years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whigs_(British_political_party)

 

[BillTre]

 

[jack action]

Human vs Animals Ultramarathon (100km)

- This video features a 100km ultramarathon race between animals and humans, revealing unexpected results. Previously, we showcased a 500-meter sprint where the cheetah triumphed. Here, we focus on long-distance efficiency.

We calculated each animal's time, factoring in rest, hydration, and feeding, using five reliable sources, including three research papers.

It's important to note that such a race has never taken place due to the complexities of animal behavior. While there have been many 35km races between humans and horses, horses have always emerged victorious.

Human efficiency is key in long distances, shaped by millions of years of evolution for hunting and migration. Our upright posture has allowed us to develop tools and improve our legs and feet for running. Human feet, with their unique arches, are designed for long-distance running.

Additionally, our superior sweating system helps us regulate heat during intense exercise, preventing overheating—a challenge for fur-covered animals.

Genetics influence endurance, but training and conditioning play a significant role in enhancing it. Watch this animation and find out which one of these amazing creatures comes out first!

​

 

[DaveC426913]

[ MEDIA goz heer ]​

This is very cool, and highly relevant to a discusson I am having right now about persistence hunting in hominids. Unfortunately, I can neither get a link to it nor download it. Do you happen to have a linakble source?

Ah. Found it.

 

[Hornbein]

​

American Indians used to chase down game like this, before they got horses.

 

[DaveC426913]

American Indians used to chase down game like this, before they got horses.

I'd love a citation.

 

[phinds]

American Indians used to chase down game like this, before they got horses.

Righhhtttt ... American Indians are SO much faster than cheetahs.