Today I Learned

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Today I learned that cleaning a white hat can be done with bleach cleaner, but it’s important to rinse it before wearing it again. I also discovered that "oyster veneering," a woodworking technique from the late 1600s, is experiencing a minor revival despite its labor-intensive nature. Additionally, I learned that the factorial of 23 (23!) equals 25,852,016,738,884,976,640,000, which interestingly has 23 digits, a unique coincidence among factorials. I found out that medical specialists often spend less than 10 minutes with patients, and that watching TV can contribute to weight gain. Other insights included the fact that a kiss can transfer around 80 million microbes, and that bureaucracy can sometimes hinder employment opportunities. The discussion also touched on various trivia, such as the emotional sensitivity of barn owls and the complexities of gravitational lensing around black holes.
  • #6,051
TIL about this fun little video Mark Knopfler made about the Coyote from the Road Runner cartoons:

 
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  • #6,052
BillTre said:
TIL about this fun little video Mark Knopfler made about the Coyote from the Road Runner cartoons:


4:48, the dawning realisation on his face and then his claw just feeling around... I always feel so sorry for the coyote, but I can't stop laughing.
 
  • #6,053
T.I.L Asteroid comes down in Philippines. Astronomers were aware before it entered the atmosphere.

A BBC article here and video in the link.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c0jpl839z5qo
 
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  • #6,054
T.I.L. A little bit about BepiColumbo, https://www.esa.int/Science_Explora...est_images_yet_highlight_fourth_Mercury_flyby

One of the Mercury flyby images.

1725621316519.png
 
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  • #6,057
Screenshot 2024-09-17 at 9.20.08 AM.png
 
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  • #6,058
TIL that "havok" was in Old English a command to cease fighting and begin looting and pillaging.
 
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  • #6,059
Screenshot 2024-09-22 at 9.57.22 AM.png
 
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  • #6,060
BillTre said:
I can read that. I however failed to get past the first sentence of my niece's PhD in political geography.
 
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  • #6,062
Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders . One which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground.[151]
 
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  • #6,063
Today I learned that jazz bass viol player Cecil McBee lost his lawsuit against the Japanese line of trendy clothing that stole his name. He lost so badly he had to pay the court costs. This did however induce the company to never sell their clothing in the USA.

https://www.organissimo.org/forum/topic/13723-cecil-mcbee/

Twenty years after the lawsuit Cecil McBee clothing remains popular.
 
  • #6,064
TIL while listening to a podcast interview of Francis Collins (former NIH head)
that the cost of sequencing an individual human has gone from:
400 million dollars (the first human genome)
down to < $500.
 
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  • #6,065
Now if we could get that efficency in housing costs, that Million $ "mansion' would be $125.
 
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  • #6,066
BillTre said:
TIL while listening to a podcast interview of Francis Collins (former NIH head)
that the cost of sequencing an individual human has gone from:
400 million dollars (the first human genome)
down to < $500.
I saw that this January

2022_Sequencing_cost_per_Human_Genome.jpg

source page

I've been thinking about getting one done.
 
  • #6,068
I tried the long version, but couldn't get through more than 5 minutes of that computer pretending to be a narrator. :cry:
 
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  • #6,069
Today I learned that the expression for the velocity of a particle in Bohmian mechanics behaves properly under Galilean boosts (\dot{Q} \rightarrow \dot{Q}+v), which offers an extra explanation for its definition (and why you take the imaginary part).
 
  • #6,070
sbrothy said:
Today I learned that turtles can breathe using their butt.
I thought that was the craziest thing I ever heard but this one rivals it:

In Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia there's this bird, The Black Kite, (according to wiki: "the worlds most abundant species of Accipritdae") which is attracted to wildfires and spreads them by picking up burning twigs dropping them here and there (obviously to flush out prey).

As if there weren't enough problems we cohabit Earth with a pyromaniac species of bird!

Ain't nature just great?!

o0)


EDIT: Corrected spelling and grammatical errors.
 
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  • #6,071
sbrothy said:
picking up burning twigs dropping them here and there (obviously to flush out prey).
What do the experts believe it is -- hard wired instinct or learned culture?
 
  • #6,072
Swamp Thing said:
What do the experts believe it is -- hard wired instinct or learned culture?
Without having anything to back it up I'd expect it to be learned behavior. Most animals aren't too keen on fire so the prime mover must have been desperately hungry!

EDIT: To make it utterly ridiculous I wouldn't be surprised if the species was protected! Now wouldn't that just be a fireman's nightmare?!

But I'm only speculating here. For the fun.
 
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  • #6,073
Swamp Thing said:
What do the experts believe it is -- hard wired instinct or learned culture?
I don't know but instinctive behaviors can be much more complicated and subtle than one might expect.
 
  • #6,074
TIL:



https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/03/01/517785902/just-how-much-pee-is-in-that-pool said:
You know that sharp odor of chlorine from the swimming pool you can recall from earliest childhood? It turns out it's not just chlorine, but a potent brew of chemicals that form when chlorine meets sweat, body oils, and urine.

[...]

The scientists calculated that one 220,000-gallon, commercial-size swimming pool contained almost 20 gallons of urine. In a residential pool (20-by-40-foot, five-feet deep), that would translate to about two gallons of pee.

[...]

Apart from being gross, that's also a potential health hazard. Chlorine reacts with urine to form a host of potentially toxic compounds called disinfection byproducts. These can include anything from the chloramines that give well-used pools the aforementioned odor, to cyanogen chloride, which is classified as a chemical warfare agent. There are also nitrosamines, which can cause cancer. There's not enough evidence to say whether the nitrosamine levels in pools increase cancer risk, Blatchley says, but one study in Spain did find more bladder cancers in some long-term swimmers.

[...]

Once someone does pee in the pool, the only way to truly get rid of it is to replace the water. "It's not uncommon for water in a pool to go unchanged for years," Blatchley says, since many pool owners or operators just add water as needed rather than completely replacing it, which is more expensive.

And the longer water sits in a pool, the worse it gets, his research has shown. Over time, people add more chlorine to the water, which is converted to a form called chloride that builds up and encourages the formation of yet more disinfection byproducts.
 
  • #6,075
Today I learned that the first Republican party was formed in 1824. It lasted ten years before being absorbed by the Whigamores, who in 1860 were in turn blown away by the next Republican party.
 
  • #6,078
William Herschel was a decent composer

 
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  • #6,079
Today I learn that until the year 2000 the constitution of Switzerland prohibited absinthe.
 
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  • #6,080
Hornbein said:
Today I learn that until the year 2000 the constitution of Switzerland prohibited absinthe.

Yeah, over a century ago, absinthe got a bad rap around the world: partly from misinformation (false urban legends) and partly from disinformation by the wine industry (absinthe was cutting into their profits/revenue). It was outlawed in may countries (even in the US, long before prohibition). To this day, there's still a lot of misinformation out there.

Then, once all the misinformation/disinformation was debunked, politicians still didn't bother taking the laws off the books for approximately a century. It reminds me of some of those weird laws still on the books in some places like restricting which hours you can/can't hitch your horse to the post on a Tuesday (or similar).

Making it into a country's constitution is a more extreme example. 'Shame, since Swiss (style) absinthe is some of the tastiest. (Of course, it's not illegal anymore. But the change happened in relatively recent memory.)
 
  • #6,081
Screenshot 2024-10-21 at 11.39.43 AM.png
 
  • #6,084
Hornbein said:
Today I learned that the first Republican party was formed in 1824. It lasted ten years before being absorbed by the Whigamores, who in 1860 were in turn blown away by the next Republican party.
We had Whigs a few hundred years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whigs_(British_political_party)
 
  • #6,085
Screenshot 2024-10-26 at 8.43.04 AM.png
 
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  • #6,086
Human vs Animals Ultramarathon (100km)

- This video features a 100km ultramarathon race between animals and humans, revealing unexpected results. Previously, we showcased a 500-meter sprint where the cheetah triumphed. Here, we focus on long-distance efficiency.

We calculated each animal's time, factoring in rest, hydration, and feeding, using five reliable sources, including three research papers.

It's important to note that such a race has never taken place due to the complexities of animal behavior. While there have been many 35km races between humans and horses, horses have always emerged victorious.

Human efficiency is key in long distances, shaped by millions of years of evolution for hunting and migration. Our upright posture has allowed us to develop tools and improve our legs and feet for running. Human feet, with their unique arches, are designed for long-distance running.

Additionally, our superior sweating system helps us regulate heat during intense exercise, preventing overheating—a challenge for fur-covered animals.

Genetics influence endurance, but training and conditioning play a significant role in enhancing it. Watch this animation and find out which one of these amazing creatures comes out first!

 
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  • #6,087
jack action said:
[ MEDIA goz heer ]​
This is very cool, and highly relevant to a discusson I am having right now about persistence hunting in hominids. Unfortunately, I can neither get a link to it nor download it. Do you happen to have a linakble source?

Ah. Found it.
 
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  • #6,088
jack action said:

American Indians used to chase down game like this, before they got horses.
 
  • #6,089
Hornbein said:
American Indians used to chase down game like this, before they got horses.
I'd love a citation.
 
  • #6,090
Hornbein said:
American Indians used to chase down game like this, before they got horses.
Righhhtttt ... American Indians are SO much faster than cheetahs.
 
  • #6,091
Arctic huskies are durable, from a documentary I saw. I will try and find something concrete in terms of a citation
 
  • #6,092
DaveC426913 said:
I'd love a citation.
It was something I read maybe 50 years ago. I think it was a biography of Geronimo.
 
  • #6,093
phinds said:
American Indians are SO much faster than cheetahs.
Cheetahs can't run fast for very long. The general strategy of hunter-gatherer humans when pursuing game animals was not to outrun them, but to follow them and wait for them to get tired. In other words, greater endurance, not greater speed.

DaveC426913 said:
I'd love a citation.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01876-x
 
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  • #6,095
PeterDonis said:
Cheetahs can't run fast for very long. The general strategy of hunter-gatherer humans when pursuing game animals was not to outrun them, but to follow them and wait for them to get tired. In other words, greater endurance, not greater speed.
Yes, and had he said "hunt them down" I would have agreed. He said "chase" them down. I take "chase" to imply running.
 
  • #6,096
phinds said:
I take "chase" to imply running.
"Chase" doesn't necessarily mean "outrun". I think "chase them down" is perfectly consistent with the endurance running strategy described in the paper I referenced (and which I have seen described in other books and articles). Part of the strategy is to keep the animal scared so the animal keeps running and wears itself out; "chase" can describe that.
 
  • #6,097
DaveC426913 said:
Pity it's behind a paywall.
Yes, unfortunately I couldn't find a preprint or open access copy.
 
  • #6,098
For training some tribes would have a man jog fifty miles or so, then after another a few hours another man would set out to chase/track him down. Geronimo was smart so he'd skip the tracking and go direct to passes that the other man had to use and pick up the trail there.

Samuel Coleridge would walk thirty miles to get his mail. Today in Bali everyone has motorscooters so the young people are impressed if I walk a mile. They have never heard of such a thing.
 
  • #6,099
Hornbein said:
They have never heard of such a thing.
Called a "shanks pony", IIRC.
 
  • #6,100
phinds said:
Righhhtttt ... American Indians are SO much faster than cheetahs.
Winners never cheat. And cheetahs never win.
 
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