Today I Learned

[Ibix]

I was beginning to get worried that "Forums" wasn't a real word. So I checked my word processor's dictionary;
(plural fo·rums or fo·ra [fáwrə]).
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Still wouldn't bet on that.

Indeed. The © & (P) implies they just copied and pasted, probably from Wikipedia.

 

[Rive]

Even now there are words that I pronounce wrong.

Imagine the office of an international company where the official language is English, yet nobody there has English as native language: so everybody is desperately trying to recall all the lessons and figure out some common basis for understanding mostly based on written English (even worse: written technical English) and the native language of his own...

Imagine this keep on boiling for a decade.

Now, that's like how we are

 

[strangerep]

[...] yet nobody there has English as native language: [...]

Many decades ago, I and some of my colleagues were trying to understand a technical manual for some Japanese equipment. It was written in what we called "Jinglish" (Japanese English).

The strangest thing is that if one of us was to read the manual aloud, simulating a thick Japanese accent, and punctuated with lots of "and..ah...", the content became easier for the others to understand. Go figure.

(True story.)

 

[gmax137]

I worked in Japan for a few months back in 2011. Most of the Japanese engineers had some English. I'm sure they made fun of our accents, though we were limited to "arrigato" and "ohio, gozaimass." The "residual heat removal system" was a real tongue twister for them.

We would get English translations of regulatory requirements, some of these we couldn't figure out. We asked the Japanese engineers if they could explain one of them. The first guy got the original Japanese version, puzzled it over, then called a colleague over, then another, pretty soon there was a huddle of six or eight engineers. The final consensus? "It is very difficult to say just what this means."

 

[BillTre]

TIL that these exist:

Nice idea, I think.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Today I learned that an 8 inch square cake baking pan has almost exactly the same volume as a 9 inch round one of the same depth. My wife had the former but the recipe called for the latter, so she asked me to calculate the difference, which turned out to be less than 0.6%. We'll soon discover how well it works.

 

[WWGD]

Hmm. Physics Fora. Physics Fora.

It does have sort of a ring to it.

Physics Fora Dults.

 

[Bystander]

Physics Fora Dults.

Careful, careful.

 

[BillTre]

TIL there are bridges in India made of living tree roots:

Very cool. I want one.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL there are bridges in India made of living tree roots:

Very cool. I want one.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Watson! Bill is a nickname which points to North America, maybe Australia or New Zealand. Now none of them has a (sufficiently hot and wet) climate where such trees would grow. I conclude: no bridge for you, Bill.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL there are bridges in India made of living tree roots:

Very cool. I want one.

... on the other hand: hemp could work
However, depending on location this could lead to a completely different kind of problems.

 

[BillTre]

I live in Oregon. The Bill name came from some UK area.
I could imagine doing this in Hawaii or possibly in the Olympic peninsula (its a temperate rain froest there).
Since I'm in the US and have visited Hawaii a few times, I claim that as reasonably possible.
Hawaii has the right kind of vegetation. Not so sure about The Olympic Peninsula.

 

[BillTre]

I don't think hemp would have the longevity to get it done right.
Nor have I seen hemp stems (or roots) fusing together like they do in these bridges.

 

[fresh_42]

I live in Oregon. The Bill name came from some UK area.
I could imagine doing this in Hawaii or possibly in the Olympic peninsula (its a temperate rain froest there).
Since I'm in the US and have visited Hawaii a few times, I claim that as reasonably possible.
Hawaii has the right kind of vegetation. Not so sure about The Olympic Peninsula.

Haven't thought of Hawaii. But as I thought a bit, I know roots which would definitely work!

Spoiler

Blackberries!

 

[fresh_42]

I don't think hemp would have the longevity to get it done right.
Nor have I seen hemp stems (or roots) fusing together like they do in these bridges.

Not roots, but the fibers are strong and one can make cloths of it. And it grows like crazy.

 

[BillTre]

Reminds me of a National Geographic I got as a kid.
The cover had a guy with a mule in front of a bunch of pot (hemp) plants that were 30-40 foot tall.

 

[mfb]

Wikipedia only knows the bridges from India and Southeast Asia.

 

[fresh_42]

Wikipedia only knows the bridges from India and Southeast Asia.

Some pictures of Angkor Wat in mind, it should work in other countries in southeast Asia, too.

 

[BillTre]

That's what the CNN article I read said.
However, I see no reason to feel limited on this.

 

[fresh_42]

That's what the CNN article I read said.
However, I see no reason to feel limited on this.

Try blackberries. I remember once I wanted to remove a bush with a friend somewhere, and as it came to its roots, we ended up 50 m further downhill! That thing seemed to stop nowhere.

 

[BillTre]

I have a few wisteria plants (which I have grown from seed).

The veins grow really well once established, can get quite thick and strong, and can fuse together.
A couple years ago I wanted to make them grow into a canopy over the backyard. Sadly the wife was against this. Establishing an initial support for it would have to have been worked out.

There are also some kind of oak trees around here which are very flexible and can easily be bent into a variety of shapes.

Blackberries grow great, but I don't think they fuse together (making them stronger). Plus, they have lots of spines. Can't use barefoot.
The favored way to remove blackberries around here is to stake out goats in the middle of a blackberry patch. Come back in a week or two.

 

[dabunting]

Today I learned that, for depression, Trazedone may reduce apnea events, while Venlafaxine may increase them.

 

[Tom.G]

I bet those bridges had some schedule overruns!

 

[BillTre]

TIL there's a vagina museum in London.

NY Times story here.
The article makes note of a Phallological Museum in Iceland.

 

[nuuskur]

god damn it..I was just having a snack :s

 

[Klystron]

TIL there's a vagina museum in London.

View attachment 253158

NY Times story here.
The article makes note of a Phallological Museum in Iceland.

Oh... My... Bog. I glanced at the article in this morning's NYT but seeing the photo here I realize the center sculpture depicts a giant used tampon. One hesitates to imagine the phallic museum equivalent.

 

[strangerep]

TIL there's a vagina museum in London.

I never thought I'd say this, given my tendency toward off-colour jokes,... but,...

Congratulations. You've exposed the exact location of my vomit threshold.

 

[BillTre]

I never thought I'd say this, given my tendency toward off-colour jokes,... but,...

Congratulations. You've exposed the exact location of my vomit threshold.

Try the National Museum of Health and Medicine, in Silver Spring, MD.

 

[chemisttree]

TIL there's a vagina museum in London.

View attachment 253158

NY Times story here.
The article makes note of a Phallological Museum in Iceland.

Sometimes you can know too much!

 

[strangerep]

Sometimes you can know too much!

Yes. We need a complimentary thread: "Today I wished I could forget..."

 

[OCR]

Not roots, but the fibers are strong and one can make cloths of it. And it grows like crazy
weeds.

Fixed that for ya. . . ..

.

 

[OCR]

Lol. . . Gene Watson released this song in 1975, and for 44 years now, I've been

wondering exactly what. . ."the street vendor cries"But, now I know. . . .
.

 

[jemmy200]

Today I learned more than 80% of our ocean is unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored

 

[mfb]

Only for loose definitions of "unmapped" and "unobserved".

 

[phinds]

Today I learned that the one-way street was "invented", along with the stop sign and the traffic circle and other traffic safety things, all by one man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Phelps_Eno