Today I Learned

[PeterDonis]

If I have to interprete his quotes.

A good discussion of what the quote might actually mean is in this article:

https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/05/23/oppenheimer-gita/

The article is from Alex Wellerstein's blog Nuclear Secrecy, which is worth reading for much more than just this article.

 

[gmax137]

A good discussion of what the quote might actually mean is in this article:

https://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/05/23/oppenheimer-gita/

The article is from Alex Wellerstein's blog Nuclear Secrecy, which is worth reading for much more than just this article.

Thanks for that link, @PeterDonis . That blog had dropped off my list.

 

[BillTre]

 

[Drakkith]

Germany had launched blitzkrieg, Benelux fell in three weeks. And in June 1st 1940, German soldiers marched in Paris. V2 had been raining on London and other cities, still the US Gorvernment only gave UK lend lease.

Yep. The public didn't want to help The United Kingdom. It was all that Roosevelt could do just to get Lend Lease passed. We were very 'isolationist' at the time.

 

[Swamp Thing]

TIL that the wire wheel (e.g. as used in bicycles) was invented by none other than 19th century aviation pioneer George Cayley.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_wheel

 

[Grelbr42]

It didn't. By early 1940 the US government already had researchers working on nuclear fission. What took until January 1942 was doing enough research to show that an atomic bomb was a real possibility--enough of one to justify a full-on effort to design, produce, test, and deploy bombs.

Indeed yes.

I think it's actually in the letter that a snip is posted here that the "lore" at the time was that a uranium-based bomb was possible but might require something that could only be delivered by an ocean ship. They were thinking it might require something like a reactor, and so many many tons of material. So at the time of the letter, folks were thinking that it would be a pretty drastic increase in destructive capability, but they didn't quite have a handle on how drastic. They were thinking in terms of bringing a barge into a harbor and wiping out the harbor. Nobody was thinking airplane delivery.

But there was a lot of research going on. And presently the lore changed to something a little more accurate. An airplane delivered device seemed possible.

Plus, various hints were coming out the NAZIs and Japan had their programs. This worried a lot of people. It turned out that the NAZIs were not as far along as was feared. And Japan was even farther behind. Turns out that getting your city bombed frequently makes it tough to construct precision scientific equipment. But it was not possible to be sure of that.

 

[jtbell]

Today (OK, yesterday) I learned about the "Carolina Squat" pickup truck modification, after both North and South Carolina banned it.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/south-carolina-latest-to-ban-notorious-carolina-squat-truck-mod

 

[Hornbein]

TIL elections in the USSR had only one candidate. However victory was not certain. They had to get at least fifty percent of the vote. It was possible to vote against the candidate by writing an angry message on the otherwise blank ballot. Evidently this was a real possibility.

Murray Gell-Mann got involved in advising about anti-ballistic missiles. He found them destabilizing. At a conference an official of the USSR, Millionshchikov, sought him out. This man told Murray that the people of Moscow wanted the ABM, destabilizing or not. He said, if we do not put up this system then we would not get a single vote in the next election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzFw2d2YHCU

 

[BillTre]

Reminds me of a ciliate:

 

[pinball1970]

Brits have been getting drunk and making up silly stories for a long time.

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-unique-bawdy-bard-revealing-15th-century.html

 

[BillTre]

NASA had a panel on UAPs (formerly UFOs).

Basically, they want better data:

“We have not seen the extraordinary yet.” Most incidents end up being more mundane. Panel member Scott Kelly, a former NASA astronaut and naval aviator, recounted flying in an F-14 off the coast of Virginia, when his co-pilot swore that he saw a UAP. “We turned around,” he said. “We went to go look at it. It turns out it was Bart Simpson, a balloon.”

An ISO (Identified Simpson Object).

 

[BillTre]

 

[collinsmark]

The last part of the video kind of reminds me of this spoof:

(The following is not real: it's a creative video made with CGI meant as satire/comedy)

 

[pinball1970]

TIL Fats Waller died aged 39 of pneumonia.

 

[Grelbr42]

Today I learned where the serviceberry gets its name.

It comes from the fact of the time of year when the plant flowers. The flowers were taken to indicate that the soil had thawed enough such that graves could be dug, and so funeral services could proceed properly.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/netn-s...ern Great Lakes,burial services for your dead.

 

[hmmm27]

Today I learned where the serviceberry gets its name.

It comes from the fact of the time of year when the plant flowers. The flowers were taken to indicate that the soil had thawed enough such that graves could be dug, and so funeral services could proceed properly.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/netn-species-spotlight-serviceberry.htm#:~:text=From the western Great Lakes,burial services for your dead.

okay, so much for my quest to find saskaberries at the grocer's in the city.

 

[russ_watters]

An ISO (Identified Simpson Object).

Worse, Gene Simmons at 34,000 ft:

 

[Hornbein]

According to Wikipedia, Paul McCartney wished to make a film about a rock band whose members discover they are being impersonated by a group of extraterrestrials. He had Isaac Asimov write a proposal but that's as far as the project went.

 

[Ibix]

According to Wikipedia, Paul McCartney wished to make a film about a rock band whose members discover they are being impersonated by a group of extraterrestrials.

I have my suspicions about this woman.

 

[Hornbein]

TIL of the Subtropical Russian Party. Their slogan was, “Let there be bananas in the Banana Republic.” And their entire platform was that they wanted the mean temperature of Russia to be 78 degrees Fahrenheit.

​

With that much global warming, Russia, Antarctica, and Denmark/Greenland would have the most of the livable real estate.

 

[TonyStewart]

Today I learned that the PracticalCryptography website does not support HTTPS.

Curious, http://www.russinovich.com is the same. Author of several cyber security novels.

"Someone might be able to see the information you send or get through this site."

scary ? nah

 

[Ibix]

View attachment 327713

TIL that Jif is not lemon juice in America, but peanut butter. I already knew it was a cleaning product in some countries.

 

[diogenesNY]

TIL that Jif is not lemon juice in America, but peanut butter. I already knew it was a cleaning product in some countries.

If one visits Walmart, a cleaning fluid named _Bona_ is clearly present at eye level on the shelf, however as far as I know, there is no _Naff_.

 

[pinball1970]

TIL The drones are tuned in a bag pipe, I thought the piper blew up the bag and off he went.

Far from it.

The drones are Bb and octave apart (on the ones I have checked) and the tune is played on the chanter with his fingers

In the wiki link below there is a recording of the “Skye boat song.”

The top note at the end each phrase sounds flat which I thought odd if they want to showcase an instrument on wiki.

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

I may contact bag pipe news see what their view is
https://bagpipe.news/

The inspiration for this informative thread was this thread https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/excellence-on-obscure-instruments.1053063/

#31 – Bag pipes at a wedding from @DennisN

 

[BillTre]

 

[BillTre]

 

[Hornbein]

TIL The drones are tuned in a bag pipe, I thought the piper blew up the bag and off he went.

Far from it.

The drones are Bb and octave apart (on the ones I have checked) and the tune is played on the chanter with his fingers

In the wiki link below there is a recording of the “Skye boat song.”

The top note at the end each phrase sounds flat which I thought odd if they want to showcase an instrument on wiki.

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

I may contact bag pipe news see what their view is
https://bagpipe.news/

The inspiration for this informative thread was this thread https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/excellence-on-obscure-instruments.1053063/

#31 – Bag pipes at a wedding from @DennisN

I bet that flatness is deliberate.

I live in Bali. The gamelan notes are close to a pentatonic scale but deliberately "sour" to give it a certain character.

Country blues was tuned by ear and usually didn't match orthodox pitch correctness. It gives the sound personality.

In Thailand karaoke is popular. Often I'd be far enough away I could hear only the singer, not the background. It sounded grossly out of tune to me so I'd be sure to pack ear plugs. If you can hear the chords though it usually made sense. Asian singing often uses "out of tune" notes that in the West only little children sing.

 

[BillTre]

 

[strangerep]

TIL... about the Lesbian Rule and its relationship to Dark Matter. (Not what you're thinking!)

For what is itself indefinite can only be measured by an indefinite standard, like the leaden rule used by Lesbian builders; just as that rule is not rigid but can be bent to the shape of the stone, so a special ordinance is made to fit the circumstances of the case.

Yep, definitely like Dark Matter.

The puzzling name similarity between the Lesbian Rule (pliable lead) and female-gay seems to be coincidence -- associated with writings of the poet Sappho of Lesbos.

 

[Swamp Thing]

TIL that papyrus is now nearly extinct in Egypt:

 

[BillTre]

TIL that papyrus is now nearly extinct in Egypt:

I got some growing at my house.
Its an interesting plant (with a lot of history).

 

[pinball1970]

I got some growing at my house.
Its an interesting plant (with a lot of history).

We have an important little bit of that in Manchester. Some debate over the date.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rylands_Library_Papyrus_P52

 

[Ibix]

Today I learned that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is called Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo in Italian, which means The Good, the Ugly, the Bad. And Spanish has a "two countries divided by a common language" thing going on with it being released in Spain as El bueno, el feo, y el malo (same as in Italian) and in South America as El bueno, el malo, y el feo, (same as in English).

Spanish Wikipedia: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_buono,_il_brutto,_il_cattivo. Note the bold text at the top of the first paragraph.

Edit: also, today I learned that if you use the paste key on this phone instead of the popup context menu, it has a nasty habit of replacing a word with what you paste instead of inserting it.

 

[BillTre]

This looks fun:

 

[Ibix]

This looks fun:

It is fun. I know I took a photo or two, but I can't find them right now.