Today I Learned

[collinsmark]

Winners never cheat. And cheetahs never win.

Oh, man. Where's that groan emoji we've been asking for.

 

[pinball1970]

Oh, man. Where's that groan emoji we've been asking for.

I think a @phinds wolf is required.

 

[phinds]

"Chase" doesn't necessarily mean "outrun". I think "chase them down" is perfectly consistent with the endurance running strategy described in the paper

No argument that that is a valid use, but it's just not the one I thought of right off.

 

[jbriggs444]

Oh, man. Where's that groan emoji we've been asking for.

I keep hoping for a dad badge.

 

[Tom.G]

American Indians used to chase down game like this, before they got horses.

I'd love a citation.

Thanks. Pity it's behind a paywall.

A bit of research found a page with links to much supporting information for the article. About 2/3 of the way down this page:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01876-x#auth-Eug_ne-Morin-Aff1-Aff2

Cheers,
Tom

p.s. The trick is to follow the link to the Author(s), where there is often much supporting documentation.

 

[symbolipoint]

T.I.L. --- Maritime Work Songs were or still are called "Sea Shanty"; the plural naturally being "Sea Shanties".

The part of the terminology "Shanty" comes from Chanter, a french word related to "sing".

I knew of a couple of these, and when reading the "Sea Shanty" part of the descriptions my mind just moved past that and I only focused on the music. Suddenly the terminology gives much clearer meaning to this type of music.

 

[Orodruin]

T.I.L. --- Maritime Work Songs were or still are called "Sea Shanty"; the plural naturally being "Sea Shanties".

The part of the terminology "Shanty" comes from Chanter, a french word related to "sing".

I knew of a couple of these, and when reading the "Sea Shanty" part of the descriptions my mind just moved past that and I only focused on the music. Suddenly the terminology gives much clearer meaning to this type of music.

The word chant also exists in English. Also with the same root (ultimately tracing back to the Latin cantare - to sing).

 

[haushofer]

T.I.L. --- Maritime Work Songs were or still are called "Sea Shanty"; the plural naturally being "Sea Shanties".

The part of the terminology "Shanty" comes from Chanter, a french word related to "sing".

I knew of a couple of these, and when reading the "Sea Shanty" part of the descriptions my mind just moved past that and I only focused on the music. Suddenly the terminology gives much clearer meaning to this type of music.

In Dutch we call these choirs also "Shanty koren". They're quite popular among older men :P

 

[symbolipoint]

T. I. L., a couple of words, seeming to mean the same thing:
Bowdlerization, and Expurgation
This is what some literary, dramatic, and performance artists/writers will do to make part of their work less objectionable for women and children (or for other people having sensitivities).

I had known of the concept for a while but never had known the vocabulary for this kind of treatment.

 

[Hornbein]

T. I. L., a couple of words, seeming to mean the same thing:
Bowdlerization, and Expurgation
This is what some literary, dramatic, and performance artists/writers will do to make part of their work less objectionable for women and children (or for other people having sensitivities).

I had known of the concept for a while but never had known the vocabulary for this kind of treatment.

Thomas Bowdler immortalized himself by daring to publish an expurgated version of Shakespeare.

 

[pinball1970]

T.I.L. Iconodiagnosis is a process of medical analysis that looks for clinical signs of medical disorders and diseases in artwork.

I was aware of paintings by Rubens which had women with breast disease.

This today

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-experts-michelangelo-depicted-breast-cancer.html

A few others here.

https://epos.myesr.org/poster/esr/ecr2011/C-0504/results

 

[DaveC426913]

My first reaction was, of course, how does anyone know they're painting accurately? Surely, it's largely fiction.

"This Flemish painter is one of the main Baroque artists, who belonged to realism style in painting. The realist painter aims at painting everything the eye can see. Particularly, the female breast was constantly depicted in his pictures."

I did not realize realism literally meant "paint what you see".

 

[pinball1970]

My first reaction was, of course, how does anyone know they're painting accurately? Surely, it's largely fiction.

"This Flemish painter is one of the main Baroque artists, who belonged to realism style in painting. The realist painter aims at painting everything the eye can see. Particularly, the female breast was constantly depicted in his pictures."

I did not realize realism literally meant "paint what you see".

No those guys wanted to represent life, that is why Leonardo was so keen on anatomy, if he knew what was underneath the skin he could represent it better on canvas. That did not change until the 19th Century with guys like Van Gogh.

Impressive that those old masters could paint a breast showing a slight tumor, puckering and distortion due to the underlying mass twisting and pulling the breast up and or to the side.
So accurate that modern Oncologists can make a decent diagnosis.
They had a helping hand with some back ground info on the subjects, whether they died or survived for months or years after.

 

[BillTre]

Don't forget Van Gogh's missing ear.
Don't paint what you don't see.

 

[pinball1970]

T.I.L. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-arecibo-observatory.html

"In December 2020, Arecibo's reflector dish collapsed after some of its support cables snapped, leading the National Science Foundation (NSF) to decommission the observatory......

According to the report, the collapse was due to weakened infrastructure caused by long-term zinc creep-induced failure in the telescope's cable sockets and previous damage caused by Hurricane Maria."

Used in the film "Contact."

 

[Hornbein]

I looked into it at the time. The telescope wasn't exciting anymore so they couldn't get the funds to maintain it. Toward the end it could go at any time so it was too dangerous to maintain at all.

"In December 2020, Arecibo's reflector dish collapsed after some of its support cables snapped, leading the National Science Foundation (NSF) to decommission the observatory......

The reflector dish was dug out of the mountains so it couldn't collapse. It will be there for decades if not centuries. The detector pod was suspended over the dish with cables. It crashed down into the dish when the cables snapped. Fortunately for voyeurs it happened during the day and a drone caught the initial cable parting.

 

[DaveC426913]

Fortunately for voyeurs it happened during the day and a drone caught the initial cable parting.

Somebody was pretty prescient having that drone in the air at just the right time.

 

[skyshrimp]

TIL, microplastics have been detected in human brains.

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/s...ormation-likely-affecting-weather-and-climate

 

[Hornbein]

TIL, microplastics have been detected in human brains.

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/s...ormation-likely-affecting-weather-and-climate

Who knows? It could be an improvement.

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that Russian composer Mussorgsky's first name was Modest.

 

[pinball1970]

TIL that Russian composer Mussorgsky's first name was Modest.

I always thought it was Pronounced Mow-dest (see python below) but it is simply Modest as we would use as an adjective.

Monty Python Decomposing composers 2.23 Michael Palin pronunciation

 

[pinball1970]

43 monkeys bred for research escape from a lab in South Carolina

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-monkeys-south-carolina-lab-ceo.html

“The Rhesus macaques made a break for it Wednesday after an employee at the Alpha Genesis facility in Yemassee didn't fully lock a door as she fed and checked on them, officials said.”

Not the first time.

"In 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture fined Alpha Genesis $12,600 in part after officials said 26 primates escaped from the Yemassee facility in 2014 and an additional 19 got out in 2016."

 

[Borg]

South Carolina

 

[pinball1970]

South Carolina

corrected

 

[Hornbein]

Alpha Genesis

They trying to breed a new human race?

 

[pinball1970]

They trying to breed a new human race?

Anything with a Greek letter sounds sciency/cool.

Genesis is used for everything, like "organic."

 

[pinball1970]

They trying to breed a new human race?

The facility have actually lost a total of 88 monkeys in 8 years.

Imagine taking your dog to Kennels with that history?

"Don't worry Sir, statistically speaking, we only lose around 11 dogs per year and most of those we persuade to come back."

 

[BillTre]

Monkeys are much more cunning and manipulative than dogs and cats.
At least they weren't wild caught. They would be much more likely to host pathogens, like in The Hot Zone.
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Hot_Zone/8VzvrNj8W2gC?hl=en&gbpv=0

 

[Hornbein]

The Endurance, the three-masted barkentine that carried Ernest Shackleton and his 27-man crew to Antarctica in 1914, was crushed by pack ice and swallowed by the Weddell Sea. Today I learned that in 2022 the wreck was found on the ocean floor.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/explorers-found-lost-ship-shackleton-endurance

 

[BillTre]

Last week I learned:
There are grapple trucks in Florida to remove debris from hurricanes. They are like moving vans plus a trailer with a grabbing device in the middle.
The debris is collected by property owners and put out n the curb.
I was visiting my sister in the Tampa area (Bradenton) where they were hit with two hurricanes (one the eye went over them) and another hurricane in adjacent areas. There is yet another that may get there also.

debris pile

truck loading shots

 

[Astronuc]

A while ago, I learned that Unicorns are variables that cannot be understood as they are anomalous and cannot be accounted for in a reliable fashion.

From a report, "Viability of Energy and Fuel Sources for Interstellar Travel; Design and Feasibility of the Construction of Manned Interstellar Space Shuttles "

 

[Borg]

A while ago, I learned that Unicorns are variables that cannot be understood as they are anomalous and cannot be accounted for in a reliable fashion.

LOL. My boss calls me his unicorn. Makes more sense now.

 

[pinball1970]

British accents explained and illustrated (Manchester is accurate- older generation)



I was very impressed with this so went looking for American accents- the video is time stamped.

 

[WWGD]

TIL that there are at least eight levels of minor league baseball.

You'd likely be surprised there are different types, levels of Baseball leagues in places like India, Spain, Israel, Bulgaria.

 

[Hornbein]

I was very impressed with this so went looking for American accents- the video is time stamped.

I lived in Chapel Hill North Carolina. People didn't have accents with the major exception of the hill folk who have extreme accents. Very nasal, not a drawl.

My best friend is from the South, born in North Carolina, lived in Atlanta. No accent at all.

 

[pinball1970]

Chapel Hill North Carolina

Bart Ehrman territory, one of my intellectual heroes

 

[pinball1970]

TIL

In early November, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory used the fastest supercomputer on the planet to run the largest astrophysical simulation of the universe ever conducted.

https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/2024/11/1...-simulating-the-universe-in-the-exascale-era/

Article in phys.org here with the video of the simulation

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-frontier-bar-simulating-universe-exascale.html

 

[Astronuc]

TIL,

"Forest" to the Normans meant an enclosed area where the monarch, or sometimes another aristocrat, had exclusive rights to animals of the chase and the greenery ("vert") on which they fed. It did not consist only of trees but included large areas of commons such as heathland, grassland, and wetlands, productive of food, grazing, and other resources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_Forest

William the Conqueror, a great lover of hunting, established the system of forest law. This operated outside the common law, and served to protect game animals and their forest habitat from destruction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_forest#Forest_law

 

[jack action]

I'm always impressed by CGI-less solutions used in cinematography; so simple, yet so effective:

​

 

[BillTre]

I'm always impressed by CGI-less solutions used in cinematography; so simple, yet so effective:

View attachment 354190

​

Wonder if the camera guy got an acting credit for that.

 

[jack action]

Wonder if the camera guy got an acting credit for that.

But which character? Morpheus' bottom part?

 

[Hornbein]

TIL John Hinckley Jr. was released in 2016.

 

[jtbell]

TIL about snow doughnuts.

 

[skyshrimp]

TIL that it's legal to buy marmoset monkeys in the UK. There is a law that will come into effect in April 2026 where a license will be required. There are other monkeys available online here on a website called Petsloo. There are over 600 ads of monkeys for sale on that site without paperwork. You can just buy them like they were goldfish with prices starting at £200. You can just imagine all the clowns that will purshase one without doing any research for their needs.

 

[BillTre]

You can just imagine all the clowns that will purshase one without doing any research for their needs.

The same happens with fish owners.

Monkeys can have some nasty diseases that humans can get.

 

[Astronuc]

TIL some details about setting freight shipping rates on US railroads. Some of it, I already new, but the enclosed video gives an insider's insight.

Understanding Railroads - Making a Rail Rate​

 

[skyshrimp]

TIL, diammonium phosphate (DAP) that is used as a yeast nutrient is also added to cigarettes as a nicotine enhancer.

 

[DaveE]

TIL about this weird volcano that produces low temperature black lava that turns white when exposed to water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natrocarbonatite

 

[skyshrimp]

TIL that may sodas/soft drinks contain ascorbic acid and sodium benzoate. When combined in solution and exposed to either UV light, heat, or stored for a long time, they form benzene, which is a Group 1 carcinogen. Long term exposure to benzene is linked to leukemia, bone marrow damage, aplastic anemia, immune system suppression and infertility.

Benzene makes up a significant portion of the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke.

 

[pinball1970]

T.I.L.

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-scientists-negative-quantum.html

There is a pre-print in the article