What did you learn today?

[Acebot44]

In every day of our lives, we learn something new, and whether these factoids etch themselves into our brains, or we forget them as soon as we awake the next day, we were undeniably exposed to something which made us go "huh" for a second.

I'm interested in seeing what you all are learning. Whether it is something personal, technical, historical, mundane, exciting, or incredibly esoteric, I think that extra drop of knowledge wouldn't mind being shared.

So here is something I learned today.

Hellen Keller was a radical socialist, communist sympathizer, and openly praised the USSR....along with overcoming blindness and deafness. Most of what people learn about her covers simply the first 20-something years of her life, but for 60+ years later she lived a lifestyle that has never once been mentioned in the any of the history books I've read...and I'm a history major.

Also, I learned of the existence of the Motorola/Google/Verizon Droid. Will it be the jesusphone killer? We'll see. Being on the Verizon Network sure does help though.

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[ZebraRampage]

I learned to never have any hope that the Eagles will win a Super Bowl.

[Teuthida]

Today I learned:

- Bees are the smallest of birds, and are born from the bodies of oxen.

- Beavers are hunted for their testicles, and will castrate themselves to escape from a hunter.

- Hedgehogs carry away grapes on their sharp quills.

- Hyenas eat human corpses and can change their sex.

- Leopards are the result of mating a lion with a pard.

- The urine of the lynx hardens into a precious stone.

- Mice are born from soil.

- A panther's only enemy is the dragon.

- A peacock's flesh is too hard to cook.

- Pelicans can revive their dead young with their blood.

- Salamanders are so cold they can extinguish any fire.

- The sawfish has enormous wings and likes to race against ships.

- The spider is an aerial worm that takes its nourishment from the air.

- A unicorn can only be captured by a maiden.

- Weasels conceive at the mouth and give birth through the ear.

- Worms are born from flesh without intercourse.

My new favorite site: http://bestiary.ca/

[Swan]

That the phrase "balls to the wall" is another way of saying "balls deep"

[BreakABone]

I hate waking up early.

Nickeldeon has a new show that kind of looks interesting. It is about a group of High school (? I think) students who are actually a covert monster task force. I know it sounds run of the mill, but still interesting.

Also, Spongebob doesn't get a cold, he gets the squabbles or something.

And if you want to know, all 3 of these facts are related.

And just to be beneficial, here is a random fact via Google

If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

[KillerGremlin]

I learned that eating chili + whey protein = disaster.

I don't learn stuff, I formulate random critiques. What's with people who server vegetables with ranch dip at a party or gathering? I've been trying to get to the bottom of this one. When did carrots or celery sticks that you dip in ranch become a luxury food item? Is it considered a luxury food item? Do people just serve it to make the vegetarians and healthy people feel better? Is it to not offend people who think that eating the cheese, cracker and meat tray is bad for you? I eat carrots and ranch as a snack because it is a good source of fiber and potassium while being low on calories and overall it tastes really good for a health-conscious snack. I figure if you are gonna go with a vegetable type dish you should go with something healthy that is also exotic.

Also, I just learned that Firefox doesn't consider "gonna" to be a misspelled word.

[Angrist]

I just learned that the power logo can look like a smilie in the right lighting. (For a moment I thought somebody had carved a smilie into the power button.)

[BreakABone]

I learned that spell check is not mandatory at my job, a few of my favoritees

Fopward (R and P are across the board)
Appiontment and Gaol (both occur several different times)
Wrier, spojke and sugguested
General hitting the keyboard errors, but come on, spell check would have caught it!

And this is a supervisor.

[KillerGremlin]

People exhibit strange social behavior, just in general. Like at the gym there are water fountains. And they are in pairs, so each wall has 2 fountains. And actually it is one short and one tall fountain...to not discriminate against midgets I guess. (I haven't learned this first hand, but the worst part about being a midget is sniffing everyone's farts!).

Anyway, the majority of the people refuse to double up and use both fountains at the same time! A line will form behind one fountain while the second remains unoccupied. Now I have a few theories.

Theory One: People prefer the tall fountain despite the inconvenience of waiting. I still use the short fountain, and in fact as a common courtesy I fill up my water bottle at the short one. Despite the short fountain being short, it is still totally usable. I'm 6'1" and I can still comfortably drink from it. There is really no excuse not to use it unless you are like 8 feet tall.

Theory Two: People who make the trip to the water fountain enjoy the slow paced relax time. The longer you wait at the water fountain the more time you have to rest between exercise. By forming an unnecessary line you can squeeze an additional 20 or 30 seconds of break time.

Theory Three: People can't manage the awkward situation of standing in a single line and making the decision of which fountain they are going to use. This is like watching people trying to go through double doors. People just get confused. Do I hold the door for the next person? Are they holding the door for me? What side should I enter? Do I go before this person or let him go first? (I wish people who walked and used doors adhered to driving rules, but I digress....)

Theory Four: People just don't like standing next to each other at the gym. Sure, you're sweaty, maybe you smell a little. I guess that could be a turn off.

Theory Five: People feel emasculated. This probably only applies to the males. There are some big buff guys at the gym who really make you feel insignificant when you stand next to them. You know...the guys with no necks who are disproportionately big in the upper body.

Finally, to conclude, why do girls wear make up and short shorts and these really tight and revealing beaters or tank tops to the gym? This is a pleasant but annoying distraction, and you can tell that it is all for show. This is the most misogynist and anti-feminist thing I am going to probably ever say, but I hope those girls get sexually harassed at the gym. And by sexually harassed, I mean starred at by the creepy Greek dude with a boner who grunts when he benches and makes love to the mirror while doing arm curls. Oh yeah baby.

[Swan]

I learned that Killer Gremlin is Greek

[KillerGremlin]

I learned that Killer Gremlin is Greek

Well played...well played.

This is pretty much me only I have a much smaller dong:

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/g/images/greek_zeusartem.1.lg.JPG

I just couldn't get those 12" Three Dog genes. :(

[Teuthida]

- Vodka can be made from potatoes.

- A rabid fan of Mary Shelly, Dorothy Baxter, wrote her own version of Frankenstein while in a mental institution. It was recently published under the title "Fucking Frankenstein."

- Irish immigrants carried over Halloween traditions to North America during the Great Famine of the 1840s.

- There's an old hypothesis that pubic hair exists to give babies something to hold onto.

[Acebot44]

I learned that if you cheat on your girlfriend, you best hope she's not part feline

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[Teuthida]

Vocal animals scare me. Keep thinking they'll revolt like in The Island of Doctor Moreau.

[Angrist]

Nice, except that was a male cat. Most probably.

[KillerGremlin]

I have a weird memory quirk where I cannot remember my locker number. I can remember it's location though. I have found a way to remember my number though. Say my locker is "25." I'll think to myself before leaving, "Square root of 25 is 5." Then when I am in the locker room I'll be like, "square root of 25, oh yeah!" Or like today I had 23 and though, "The Number 23...". Anyway, that seems to really help me commit the number to memory.

[Teuthida]

I finally learned why "Eskimo" (Esquimaux) is considered pejorative. It's considered to mean "eaters of raw meat". Though there seem to be two other unoffensive possible meanings: "snowshoe netter" and "people who speak a different language".

[Acebot44]

I learned that the legal consumption of alcohol tastes surprisingly the same as its illegal counterpart.

I also learned that Tuesday Night is Electro Night at the local college bar.

Lastly, I learned that the Dallas Stars used to be the Minnesota North Stars...surprised that tid bit of sports trivia never crossed my path before.

[Typhoid]

Don't get me started on pointless and random hockey knowledge. I know most of it from how many points a player got in a given year (unless it's an obscure player) and what arenas each team plays at barring a few in the East.



On that note, today I learned that when my cat scratches me accidentally, my skin gets irritated.

[Angrist]

I finally learned why "Eskimo" (Esquimaux) is considered pejorative. It's considered to mean "eaters of raw meat". Though there seem to be two other unoffensive possible meanings: "snowshoe netter" and "people who speak a different language".Yeah "eaters of raw meat" is so offensive because they never... oh wait.

Actually I don't know if they ever eat raw meat. And I've been saying Inuit in the last years. :)

A few weeks ago I learned that the often used term 'horeca' is short for hotel, restaurant and café. It's only used in Holland though.

[Teuthida]

Just learned that it's not easy to give yourself an even mohawk. Usually try it halfheartedly whenever I shave my head. This time actually tried...and yeah, bald again.

[KillerGremlin]

The Eskimos are like the Amish. I'll stop making fun of them when they get computers and Internet in their igloos.

[Teuthida]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2507/3680426427_be38c578c3.jpg

[KillerGremlin]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2507/3680426427_be38c578c3.jpg

Wow, they won't be leaving their igloo for a while. fap fap fap

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[Typhoid]

The Eskimos are like the Amish. I'll stop making fun of them when they get computers and Internet in their igloos.

(They have electricity)
But shh it's a secret.

[Angrist]

So it's the Inuit that cause global warming! The bastards. We should make sure they never eat raw meat again. :mad:

[BreakABone]

Raccoons have penis bones, and there is one on display at Union Hall.

The kid in a wheelchair in Glee is the kid that Michael and Dwight kidnap during Launch Party in season 4.

That Danny and Sam believe that fedoras are a Canadian thing.

[Teuthida]

Sometimes as long as 2 ft, fossilized bacula (penis bones) are often polished and used as a handle for knives and other tools. They're frequently sold as souvenirs to tourists by Alaska Natives, the only people permitted to hunt the walrus today.

...seems like everything I learn now has to do with Inuits.

Interesting.
The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins speculated in 2006 that the loss of the bone in humans, when it is present in our nearest related species the chimpanzee, is a result of sexual selection by females looking for signs of good health in prospective mates. The reliance of the human penis solely on hydraulic means to achieve a rigid state makes it particularly vulnerable to blood pressure variation. Poor erectile function betrays not only physical states such as diabetes and neurological disorders but mental states such as stress and depression.


A magic cross piercing is when two piercings form a cross through the glans of the penis.


...Inuits and penises..

[Angrist]

I discovered I'm not the only dutch one who's going to see Marit Larsen in Köln, Germany! There's another guy I know. So at least we can travel together.

[Typhoid]

I learned that Vans does not make fire-proof shoes.

[Acebot44]

Learned about this thing called Payday Assault. Its something that happens to illegal immigrants because they cannot apply for bank account, and are thus paid via cash or check for their work. If they get paid in check, they must cash it at some lowkey withdrawal service in their neighborhood and once they leave with cash in hand, get beaten up and robbed for their earnings. Being illegal immigrants, they have a fear of being deported for any reason so avoid filing charges with the police and thus the criminals go unpunished.

[BreakABone]

Learned about this thing called Payday Assault. Its something that happens to illegal immigrants because they cannot apply for bank account, and are thus paid via cash or check for their work. If they get paid in check, they must cash it at some lowkey withdrawal service in their neighborhood and once they leave with cash in hand, get beaten up and robbed for their earnings. Being illegal immigrants, they have a fear of being deported for any reason so avoid filing charges with the police and thus the criminals go unpunished.

We use to have something similar happen with teenagers in NYC during the summer. We have SYEP which is an employement group for youngsters, and everyone knew the pay schedule. So other kids would stand outside of cash checking places and waited for them to come outside and beat them up for their money.

They have since changed the system to giving the kids, an ATM/debit card in which their money is deposited.

[Swan]

That the going rate for a baby in Mexico is about $1500

[Fox 6]

That the going rate for a baby in Mexico is about $1500

Actually it was $1200. Also I hope it was at least American dollars.

[Fyacin]

Molecular orbitals.
Wooo
And I that I hate writing papers the day before they are due.
Wooo

[DeathsHand]

I learned something along the lines of by 4-5 months of age, babies realize basic principles of how the world works; things fall towards the ground if nothing is supporting them, things don't just "disappear" when they go out of view, etc.
And if you try to confuse them with 'magic' tricks, they'll get very confused and upset.
If they are even a few weeks older, they are actually able to rationalize what you're showing them, and get bored with the 'trick'.
But that if you anticipate their rationalization, and find a way to 'disprove' it (even though their assumptions that you're tricking them are correct), they will once again get very upset and confused.
"That's not what's supposed to happen!", they will think. But be unable to say.

Or so Psycho 201, with the help of Alan Alda, tells me...
It was all very cute and interesting.

[ZebraRampage]

I learned that I should eat more before I go on bike rides. I guess I knew this, but I still went on a ride with not much in me.

[BreakABone]

Writing a psychosocial is not fun when you are with clients maybe once or twice a week, and if you don't interact with them that much due to school or sleep.

[Acebot44]

Molecular orbitals.
Wooo
And I that I hate writing papers the day before they are due.
Wooo

So I was talking to one of my roommates about this randomly last night, and she was saying that the concept of electron orbitals is taught in lower division chem classes, even though its not necessarily completely true. Its simply taught in order to get the students to understand certain concepts, but as you advance in the chem classes you take, you learn more about how electrons actually teleport, and you begin to try to solve the equations to predict where they teleport to...or something like that.



Anywho, got a question for the folks from cold areas of the world. When you go to a party when its snowing or very chilly, what do you do with your coats/jackets? In SoCal, it stays around 65 or a bit lower during the winter time, so there isnt much need for something more than a light sweater, but I've found it annoying to even keep that on during a big party, as it get hot really quick. So what do you all do with your jackets? Are there coat rooms? Do you hold them in your hand? Wrap around your waist? Leave em on? I dunno...

[Bond]

Anywho, got a question for the folks from cold areas of the world. When you go to a party when its snowing or very chilly, what do you do with your coats/jackets? In SoCal, it stays around 65 or a bit lower during the winter time, so there isnt much need for something more than a light sweater, but I've found it annoying to even keep that on during a big party, as it get hot really quick. So what do you all do with your jackets? Are there coat rooms? Do you hold them in your hand? Wrap around your waist? Leave em on? I dunno...
Normally the host of a house party dedicates one room as a "coat room."

[BreakABone]

Anywho, got a question for the folks from cold areas of the world. When you go to a party when its snowing or very chilly, what do you do with your coats/jackets? In SoCal, it stays around 65 or a bit lower during the winter time, so there isnt much need for something more than a light sweater, but I've found it annoying to even keep that on during a big party, as it get hot really quick. So what do you all do with your jackets? Are there coat rooms? Do you hold them in your hand? Wrap around your waist? Leave em on? I dunno...

Yeah generally coat areas and what have you.

The problem is going to public place. Some have coat check areas, which are priced. Others have nothing so you have to hope you get either like a booth or some area where you can rest your stuff where you sit.

I once left my stuff at a bar (drunk warmth took me home), didn't retrieve it for like 2 months.

[Vampyr]

I usually leave my coat in the car, just in case there isn't anywhere to put it. No matter how cold it is, it probably won't hurt you to run like 20 feet to the house/store/restaurant.

[Typhoid]

Today I learned (rather remembered) that the CFL has a dumb (yet in this case good) rule about the standings- the crossover.


The second-place team from each division hosts the third-place team in the division semifinal, unless a fourth-place team from one division finishes with a better record than a third place team in the other.

So now the BC Lions - the westernmost team in the CFL, is playing in the Eastern Conference because we did marginally better than a team in the East.

I am now a fan of this rule.

[Angrist]

I usually leave my coat in the car, just in case there isn't anywhere to put it. No matter how cold it is, it probably won't hurt you to run like 20 feet to the house/store/restaurant.That's the best idea I've heard all week. :) Thanks.

[Acebot44]

Today I learned I can browse and post on GT pretty easily via my mobile browser.

Also, recently I learned that if you say "Beer Can" in a British accent, it sounds the same as saying "Bacon" in a jamaican accent

[Angrist]

I've learned how it goes when you stay up all night. If you have something important to do, it's ok. As soon as the sun comes up, you somehow lose your weariness. Very weird. :confused:

[gekko]

Today I learned the nutrition facts on Pepsi products are garbage. Take their numbers for 8oz (1 serving) and the numbers for 20oz (2.5 * 8). Numbers don't match.

[KillerGremlin]

Today I learned the nutrition facts on Pepsi products are garbage. Take their numbers for 8oz (1 serving) and the numbers for 20oz (2.5 * 8). Numbers don't match.

Your first mistake was drinking that nasty sewage, Pepsi.

[Vifaddy09]

get a normal one painted and fit it

where did you get the alloy tank where your washer bottle should be

[Bond]

I am going to shoot someone...