Today I Learned

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned that when you are a responsible and good employee, your boss gives you more responsibilities and tasks to do and you are less likely to get a promotion because your boss doesn't want to lose you!

"Make yourself useful and you will be used."

 

[Ibix]

Today I learned that there are people who can read 80-page policy documents in one 40-minute sitting and come away with both a coherent picture of what was being said, and three pages of questions and requests for clarification. I was fighting sleep by page 4...

 

[Lisa!]

Today I learned Lisa! is still a teenager, learning the most obvious things about adults the hard way ;)

I'm not a teenager! I just didn't have a job like this before.

"Make yourself useful and you will be used."

 

[JorisL]

I learned it's better for me to go for a run on the road. Not on a soft course.
It made a difference of 20-30 minutes regarding endurance

 

[Bandersnatch]

Today I learned about the etymology of the word 'leech'. It used to mean 'doctor' ('medicine man', more precisely 'conjurer' - similar to 'witch doctor') before that word superseded it, and is still present in the form of its linguistic equivalent in my mother tongue (Polish) as 'lekarz'.
I always find it spellbinding when I stumble upon an inconspicuous word whose roots run so deep, connecting as distinctive languages as these two.

 

[Yanick]

This was yesterday, but it will have to do. Yesterday I learned that Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was born from the Michelson interferometer used in the famous Michelson-Morley experiment.

 

[jim hardy]

Took the plunge into embedded microcomputers
bought Arduino Esplora's for myself and two grandsons... (on sale for $15 at MCM)
Learned once again just how nit-picky computers are
but if one is excruciatingly attentive to details that seem intentionally obscured, the software(56 meg of it!) will load into the PC and go.

Learned this morning how to copy & paste a program then install it on the Arduino, feels like i oughta get wings for that.
Now there's all that syntax and structure to slog through.
Goal is a Roman Numeral digital clock.

wish me luck ?

 

[Borg]

wish me luck ?

Good luck Jim. Let us know how it goes. I have links to some good tutorials if you're interested.

 

[dlgoff]

Learned this morning how to copy & paste a program then install it on the Arduino, feels like i oughta get wings for that.
Now there's all that syntax and structure to slog through.
Goal is a Roman Numeral digital clock.

 

[Cake]

There's a chrome/firefox extension that replaces the word "females" with a bolded word with Ferengi heads around it: http://www.beesgo.biz/chrome.html

 

[MathAmateur]

Today I learned if you pass on 1/2 yard to go, you lose the football game.

 

[nuuskur]

Today, I learned that I am even more stupid than I thought.
When you write a letter (Yes, a letter, on paper and everything, I know it's so 20th century , right? ugh)
DO NOT mark the recipient as yourself...

 

[jtbell]

Today I learned that the next item in the sequence "par, birdie, eagle..." is "albatross", e.g. a hole-in-one on a par 4 golf hole:

 

[Nathanael]

Today I learned there was a man named Dase who could multiply two hundred digit numbers in his head (and it took over 8 hours)!
A quote from wikipedia, "he multiplied 79532853 × 93758479 in 54 seconds."
He is said to have been able to work on a calculation until night, stop and go to sleep, and then resume right where he left off in the morning.
Perhaps even more remarkable, "he could distinguish some thirty objects of a similar nature in a single moment as easily as other people can recognise three or four."
Interestingly enough, he was incapable of doing mathematics (other than calculating) and is said to have failed to understand Euclid's elements.

I also learned that the author of my textbook gets distracted when talking about pi, (Dase first calculated 200 digits of pi) and I learned that I am easily distracted.

 

[iDimension]

Today I learned there was a man named Dase who could multiply two hundred digit numbers in his head (and it took over 8 hours)!
A quote from wikipedia, "he multiplied 79532853 × 93758479 in 54 seconds."
He is said to have been able to work on a calculation until night, stop and go to sleep, and then resume right where he left off in the morning.
Perhaps even more remarkable, "he could distinguish some thirty objects of a similar nature in a single moment as easily as other people can recognise three or four."
Interestingly enough, he was incapable of doing mathematics (other than calculating) and is said to have failed to understand Euclid's elements.

I also learned that the author of my textbook gets distracted when talking about pi, (Dase first calculated 200 digits of pi) and I learned that I am easily distracted.

This seems like pure brute force as opposed to something which requires an analytical approach like geometry or calculus. And of course an incredible memory.

 

[Nathanael]

This seems like pure brute force as opposed to something which requires an analytical approach like geometry or calculus. And of course an incredible memory.

Yeah, it would take lots of practice. I think it said somewhere that he studied methods of calculating (which seems odd, because it's an entirely useless skill in our day, but back then I'm sure it was somewhat useful).

But I feel like very few people could do this even if they dedicated a lifetime... I mean, 79532853 × 93758479 in 54 seconds? That takes some finesse! (If it's true.)

It's amazing how skilled we (people) can become at something (anything) if we devote all of our life to it.

 

[Borek]

I knew a guy who could multiply 675629*298417 in memory, and he got 201619712939 each time.

 

[Bystander]

Today I learned that the expression "population density" has more than one meaning --- as in, "There is a really dense population along 'The Front Range.'"

 

[Enigman]

TIL - Kurt Vonnegut graphed the world’s most popular stories

 

[NascentOxygen]

Today I learned about truly unbreakable glass, and how it was invented nearly 2000 years ago. It's inventor took a sample of his craft to show the emperor, hoping to impress the Ruler with such a useful material in an era when clay pots were the norm. The smith hurled his glass vessel onto the cobble stones whereupon it sustained a fearful dent. He then took a tiny hammer from his pocket, and hammered the glass back into its original shape. The emperor was impressed, mightily impressed. He leaned forward and earnestly inquired had the glasssmith shared his secret with anyone? With not a soul, came the answer. The emperor turned to a nearby centurion and ordered, "Off with his head!", fearing that the royal collection of fragile glassware would become of no significance if unbreakable glass were put into production.

(told by a university lecturer, so it must be true)

 

[zoki85]

Today I learned about popularity of a superellipse shape watching this super egg video

 

[Nathanael]

Today I learned about popularity of a superellipse shape watching this super egg video

Today I learned that x^∞+y^∞=1 tends towards a square.

 

[dlgoff]

Today I learned why I don't like roundabouts.

 

[Bystander]

Today I learned why I don't like roundabouts.

Stay the *#$% away from Colorado.

 

[Bystander]

"TIL" that "Murphy" never sleeps. Just try shoving two carriage bolts with orthogonal orientations through a piece of timber without having them intersect.

 

[jim hardy]

"TIL" that "Murphy" never sleeps. Just try shoving two carriage bolts with orthogonal orientations through a piece of timber without having them intersect.

And when they collided it boogered the threads just enough that the nut spins the bolt so one of the holes will round out to where the square neck doesn't engage the wood and you can't tighten it up...

 

[Bystander]

... or, I have to decide which to sacrifice by drilling through it --- inevitably with a woodworking bit that I'll have to regrind.

 

[jim hardy]

Indeed, Murphy is an optimist..

 

[Bystander]

A malicious optimist.

 

[HiggsBoson1]

Today I learned that "Ah, Satan sees Natasha," when spelled backwards, reads, "Ah, Satan sees Natasha."

 

[Borek]

Today I learned that "Ah, Satan sees Natasha," when spelled backwards, reads, "Ah, Satan sees Natasha."

But have you learned it is a palindrome?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned that "Ah, Satan sees Natasha," when spelled backwards, reads, "Ah, Satan sees Natasha."

I get: "ahsatan sees nataS ,hA."

 

[collinsmark]

I get: "ahsatan sees nataS ,hA."

Capitalization, punctuation and white spaces are allowed to slide. It's a generally accepted compromise to increase the never-ending joy of palindrome fun. :w

 

[nsaspook]

That most Oregon state employees are good honest people.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-32827-gov_john_kitzhabers_office_sought_to_destroy_thous.html

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Today I learned that doctors sometimes also check one's coccyx to analyze his headache's possible causes.