TIL Thread: Today I learned...
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- Mechanical Ape
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
On a side note, James Whitcomb Riley's 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" inspired the names of both Little Orphan Annie and Raggedy Ann.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
TIL the word "cobalt" is derived from "kobold", because of a superstition that its ores were planted there by goblins to trick miners—they look like silver or copper ore until you try to smelt them, at which point they give off toxic arsenic gas.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
That moment when you realize chemistry grew out of alchemy and still retains etymological baggage from the age of goblins and ghosties.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
fantasy breaking bad au where walter white the alchemist creates meth potions
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
this would be easy to do in elder scrolls games if they let you actually in on the process that turns moon sugar into skoomaDaikatunaRevengeance wrote: ↑Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:10 pmfantasy breaking bad au where walter white the alchemist creates meth potions
you can peddle a shitton of the stuff regardless
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I just learned about the "Pfeilstorch", or "arrow stork," referring originally to a stork shot in 1822 and found to have a central African spear stuck in its neck. It was a key piece of evidence that birds migrated across vast distances for the winter, and did not hibernate, transform into other animals, fly into space, or other outlandish theories as to where they went.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
It's wild how recent some seemingly-obvious scientific discoveries were. Almost makes you question how much we really know about the world even now.
TIL those "Buy Me a Coffee" links you see on people's websites may lead to one of two completely different sites—one of which is named Ko-Fi and the other of which is literally just called Buy Me a Coffee. Is it possible for a third party to sue both sites for trademark infringement on the grounds that they've created brand confusion and neither one seems willing to deal with it?
TIL those "Buy Me a Coffee" links you see on people's websites may lead to one of two completely different sites—one of which is named Ko-Fi and the other of which is literally just called Buy Me a Coffee. Is it possible for a third party to sue both sites for trademark infringement on the grounds that they've created brand confusion and neither one seems willing to deal with it?
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
a funny thing i remember reading about heliocentrism is that copernicus' evidence for it was flimsy at best
so people having doubts about it at the time wasn't that weird
so people having doubts about it at the time wasn't that weird
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
TIL Namco made a game called Tinkle Pit.
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Interesting, I didn't know that.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
Friends of mine were working at Antarctic Press when it published Shanda the Panda. They told me Mike Curtis would call every day to ask if Shanda had yet been sent to the printers, despite the fact that AP always gave him a date when his comic would go to the printers.Mr. Big wrote: ↑Thu Dec 23, 2021 9:19 pmShe, like Mike Curtis, was part of the furry comics days, including Shanda the Panda
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I finally got around to clicking that second link, and holy shit. TIL not only was Cyrano de Bergerac a real person, he basically invented an even more absurd version of the "cover yourself in oil" meme from a couple years back.Fizzbuzz wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 3:04 pmI just learned about the "Pfeilstorch", or "arrow stork," referring originally to a stork shot in 1822 and found to have a central African spear stuck in its neck. It was a key piece of evidence that birds migrated across vast distances for the winter, and did not hibernate, transform into other animals, fly into space, or other outlandish theories as to where they went.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
TIL the dark side of the moon is only “dark” in the sense that we can’t see it from earth. It gets sunlight just as regularly as the near side.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
I'm a flat-mooner I strongly believe that the moon is flat. As flat as a billboard object in an old 3D video game, that always orients towards the viewer. There is no backside!
"The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams
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TIL the "raising a lot of questions already answered by my shirt" tweet wasn't by Dril. It was by some guy named Mike Ginn.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
I don’t blame you, it’s an extremely dril gag
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TIL comedian Yakov Smirnoff (famous for the "In Soviet Russia" jokes) is from Ukraine.
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For a long time I assumed Smirnoff was a fictional character like Borat or Father Guido Sarducci. Then I saw a TV special where he visited his home town and I was like, he's for real!
I think I'm bad at distinguishing between a real Russian/Ukrainian accent and a parody of one.
EDIT: Today I learned it's Dr. Smirnoff: "[He] earned his Master’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in Global Leadership from Pepperdine University in May 2019."
I think I'm bad at distinguishing between a real Russian/Ukrainian accent and a parody of one.
EDIT: Today I learned it's Dr. Smirnoff: "[He] earned his Master’s degree in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and his PhD in Global Leadership from Pepperdine University in May 2019."
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TIL there's a city called Ontario in California. I found this out because my Maglite flashlight says "ONTARIO, CA, USA" which made me do a double take. I wonder if all mail addressed there has to be written that way to avoid confusion.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
There’s also a Sydney in Nova Scotia. If you want to get there, make sure your plane ticket says Sydney, NS and not Sydney, NSW.
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Today I learned that there was a woman was crazy enough to stuff dead rabbits into her womb and tell and show the world that she has birthed rabbits (dead and in pieces).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
Reading that article, ick.
This is not the sort of stunt you’d want to try during the witch persecution era.
This is not the sort of stunt you’d want to try during the witch persecution era.
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
TIL shrapnel was named after a guy named, no joke, Henry Shrapnel.
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TIL Will Smith's name is short for "Willard". Which I didn't even know was a real name!
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TIL platypuses glow teal under UV light. Yeah, they're nature's blacklight posters. Even more bizarrely, this was not discovered until 2020, meaning it's a complete coincidence that Perry from Phineas and Ferb and Norm from My Cage are that same color.
Flying squirrels, meanwhile, glow pink. We discovered this only a year earlier.
Boy it would have been nice to know this back when furries were obsessed with drawing their characters at raves.
Flying squirrels, meanwhile, glow pink. We discovered this only a year earlier.
Boy it would have been nice to know this back when furries were obsessed with drawing their characters at raves.
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- Mr. Big
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TIL that Ken Penders worked on "King of the Hill" as a storyboard artist.
(yes, the Chuck Austen also credited is THAT Chuck Austen. Two infamous comic book creators in one)
(yes, the Chuck Austen also credited is THAT Chuck Austen. Two infamous comic book creators in one)
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TIL that "laser" is an acronym, for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation"
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TIL the name "Idaho" was completely made up. George M. Willing, who was something of a conman, traveled to Washington DC posing as a delegate from Jefferson Territory (a position he'd actually lost the election for; Wikipedia doesn't say what happened to the real delegate) and suggested the name, falsely claiming it to be based on a Shoshone word.
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TIL the iPad I've had for five years now had a built-in barometer all along.
I have no idea why anyone would want that, or at least not enough anybodies that it would be worth Apple's while to put one in. A digital thermometer and hygrometer would be way more useful but maybe you can't put that into a device that has its own source of internal heat.
I have no idea why anyone would want that, or at least not enough anybodies that it would be worth Apple's while to put one in. A digital thermometer and hygrometer would be way more useful but maybe you can't put that into a device that has its own source of internal heat.
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TIL that Australia was very late in switching to color television. It didn't occur until March 1, 1975.
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TIL that Janet Jackson’s song “Rhythm Nation” exposed a design flaw in a model of 5400 rpm HDDs that laptop manufacturers liked to use.
We are part of a rhythm nation
We are part of a rhythm nation
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Re: TIL Thread: Today I learned...
I didn't know resonant frequencies were a real thing, I thought they were like just for comic books and stuff.