Today I Learned

Greg Bernhardt · Nov 20, 2014

Every day we learn new things. Sometimes it's just a small fact or realization. No matter how trivial or random, let's start recording our daily lessons.

Please start off with "Today I learned". Keep commentary to a minimum and just LIKE posts. I'll start!

Today I learned that you clean up a white hat by spraying some cleaner with bleach on it (rinse before putting it back on your head!)

phinds · Nov 20, 2014

Today I learned that "oyster veneering", a wood working technique invented in the late 1600's in England but dropped after about 50 years as being just too damned labor intensive in addition to being a bit gaudy, is having a very slight revival these days presumably by people with too much time on their hands. I had thought it was just a historical curiosity.

I found this out when I did some research to make a slight update to the entry on oyster veneering in my woodworking glossary, here:

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_g_NO.htm

zoobyshoe · Nov 20, 2014

Today I learned that 23! is 25,852,016,738,884,976,640,000 which has, coincidentally, 23 digits. The same coincidence does not occur in any other factorial except 1!.

zoki85 · Nov 20, 2014

Today I learned that TV makes people more fat than they are in real.

phinds · Nov 20, 2014

zoki85 said:

Today I learned that TV makes people more fat than they are in real.

Yeah, but I've tried adjusting my personal aspect ratio and I'm STILL fat !

Bandersnatch · Nov 20, 2014

Today I learned that the list of threads similar to the "today I learned" thread is most hilarious.

edward · Nov 20, 2014

Today I learned that a medical specialist will spend less than 10 minutes in the examination room with me. I also learned that after three minutes they start typing on the computer even if I am still talking. I did not learn if they can actually multitask.

Medicol · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned that I can make it across a swimming pool of more than 1 km in front crawling style without stopping to rest.

wukunlin · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned how bloody expensive it is to get decent business suits

Nikitin · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned 9 posts worth of mildly amusing and competely trivial information.

RonL · Nov 21, 2014

Today my 72 year old brain learned just how correct my 25 year old brain was, about how pretty this picture was and still is

PS. After all these years, I still can't follow directions:(:(

jtbell · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned that "oyster veneering" is not a food-preparation technique.

Greg Bernhardt · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned that "chasing the dragon" is slang for smoking heroin.

nsaspook · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned the Linux error message: "eth0: UDP Checksum error" can mean the Ethernet cable is loose on the server NIC card.

DOH!

nsaspook · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned what to do if a GENeco bus is out of fuel.

PeroK · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned that Muhammad Ali, although sentenced in 1967 to 5 years in prison for draft evasion, never served time in jail and his conviction was overturned on appeal in 1971.

nsaspook · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned what Goofy would look like as a skeleton.

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/skeletons-famous-cartoon-characters/

Edit: Fix broken link.

Monique · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned bureaucracy is a pain.

In essence a law passed to "protect employees" is causing them to be fired and prevents them to be rehired by any other employer. Thanks to the government and the National Academy of Science *sigh*

PeroK · Nov 21, 2014

zoobyshoe said:

Today I learned that 23! is 25,852,016,738,884,976,640,000 which has, coincidentally, 23 digits. The same coincidence does not occur in any other factorial except 1!.

If you divide that number by 23 doesn't that mean that 22! Is a 22-digit number?

zoobyshoe · Nov 21, 2014

PeroK said:

If you divide that number by 23 doesn't that mean that 22! Is a 22-digit number?

Congratulations! You are correct. Also, 24! is a 24 digit number. It's a hat trick: 22!, 23!, 24! .

vincentm · Nov 21, 2014

I learned the mtDNA is passed down from the mother mainly

edward · Nov 21, 2014

Today I learned that my part time Hispanic housekeeper is not Hispanic. She is a Member of the Hopi Nation (Native American Indian) and a student at the University of Arizona.

Greg Bernhardt · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned that Cambridge University is older than the Aztecs

RonL · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned that under Similar Threads, there is a thread titled "I had sex today" the year 2005 (nasty times at PFoo)) :D...Gee! I miss Moonbear :(:L.

Lisa! · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned that a single kiss may transfer 80 million microbes!

Astronuc · Nov 22, 2014

Greg Bernhardt said:

Today I learned that Cambridge University is older than the Aztecs

Certainly the Aztec empire, but I think the peoples were in the region in order to migrate into the valley which became the foundation for the empire.

RonL · Nov 22, 2014

Lisa! said:

Today I learned that a single kiss may transfer 80 million microbes!

More details...please:k

Was that 80 million worth ?

oo)

jollyunclejoe · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned in this thread that a single kiss may transfer 80 million microbobes. Somewhere else today I learned that over a hundred people were killed in the Thammasat University Massacre.

nsaspook · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned the things from Today I learned today.

Medicol · Nov 22, 2014

RonL said:

More details...please:k

...oo)

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/single-kiss-can-transfer-80-million-bacteria

jedishrfu · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned that Lagrange was Italian and that he lamented the execution of Lavoisier in France during the French Revolution with the quote:

It took them only an instant to cut off this head and a hundred years might not suffice to reproduce it's like.

lisab · Nov 22, 2014

jedishrfu said:

Today I learned that Lagrange was Italian and that he lamented the execution of Lavoisier in France during the French Revolution with the quote:

Today I learned even smart people like Lagrange can inappropriately use apostrophes.

OmCheeto · Nov 22, 2014

lisab said:

Today I learned even smart people like Lagrange can inappropriately use apostrophes.

I see only one apostrophe, and my French is almost as bad as my Klingon, but I would guess that it was not his fault. Wiki seems to have fixed the error:

"Il ne leur a fallu qu’un moment pour faire tomber cette tête, et cent années peut-être ne suffiront pas pour en reproduire une semblable."
("It took them only an instant to cut off this head, and one hundred years might not suffice to reproduce its like.")

ps. Lavoisier named Oxygen.

pps. The wiki entry on his last days: Final days and execution
sounds very much like, um, right now.

ppps. Was that here, FB, or in a dream, where I theorized that the French were nice to us back then, because they knew we'd be here one day?

Never mind. It was on my sister's FB page, regarding her disgust of the images that U.S. kids were tweeting of their icky looking lunches. And then she commented on how healthy French children ate. And then, it happened...OmCheeto: I hope that you are aware, that France has the highest tax burden in the world. hmmm... I wonder if this is why the French, from our very beginning, as a country, sided with us. They went through what we are going through now, 200 years ago. Don't we have a castle in the north of France?

jtbell · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned how to address a cat:

But always bear in mind that he
Resents familiarityYou bow, and taking off your hat
Ad-dress him in this form: "O' cat!"

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/cats/thead-dressingofcats.htm

(I just now saw the musical "Cats" for the first time, in a TV production on PBS.)

mcknia07 · Nov 22, 2014

Today I learned how to fix my own mistake. You tear apart your work and start over

More work than I thought.

Today I Learned

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