What did you learn today?
 

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.

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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/

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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.

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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.)

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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.

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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.

Re: What did you learn today?
 

I learned that Killer Gremlin is Greek

Re: What did you learn today?
 

Well played...well played.

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



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

Re: What did you learn today?
 

- 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.

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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

Re: What did you learn today?
 

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