Today I Learned

[fresh_42]

Zwiebel is onion. Zweibel has no meaning. It is unclear whether her name came from switching the vowels or, e.g., from the word Zweifel, which means doubt.

 

[Astronuc]

TIL about "silo gas," unfortunately from an accidental death of a agricultural worker. I don't know the details, but apparently he didn't start a blower/ventilator before entering a silo or storage container and was overcome by the gas inside, perhaps a combination of CO₂ and NO₂. The sad story emphasizes the need of proper safety training.

https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/forage/silo-gas-and-silo-fillers-disease/

Increased nitrates as a result of the dry growing season are a concern not only for livestock but for humans as well. Weeds and corn are naturally high in nitrates. Nitrate levels in corn are extremely high after a rain following a dry period. High levels of nitrates increase the potential for silo gas and silo-filler’s disease. A first step for reducing the nitrate level in forages for silage is to cut the plant higher than normal.

• Shortly after green plant material is ensiled, oxygen (O₂) gets used up by the crop and bacteria, and the crop begins to ferment. Some bacteria, that normally use oxygen, will use nitrates in the crop instead producing nitric oxide (NO), a non-lethal gas. As nitric oxide leaves the silage, it combines with oxygen from the air producing nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).
• Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is heavier-than-air, and toxic to humans and animals. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) has a yellowish-reddish brown color with an acrid, bleach-like smell. However, with all the other things around a silo, smell is not a reliable indicator.

 

[collinsmark]

[...] The sad story emphasizes the need of proper safety training. [...]

Indeed. I grew up in America's heartland, although not on a farm (I was a city boy). But my childhood friend's father worked in the grain silo industry most of his life. So my friend's father was an expert on silos, you could say.

And apparently, from what I was led to believe, there are several weird and unexpected ways do die in a silo. Many are almost certain without following safety precautions. Some are rather gruesome.

And when one first learns about silo dangers, it's surprising to hear. I mean, from the outside they don't look intimidating at all: just big, round, happy buildings. But seriously, safety first when it comes to grain silos. Seriously.

[Edit: I'm including grain bins together with grain silos above (I didn't distinguish between the two). Technically, bins and silos are different things, but they look pretty similar and are usually parts of the same system.]

 

[DaveC426913]

All I know about the perils of grain silos I learned from Harrison Ford in 'Witness' (1985).

 

[jack action]

TIL about "silo gas," unfortunately from an accidental death of a agricultural worker.

Around here, it is the manure pits that are disastrously fatal. The sad part is when one person dies, there is usually a second fatality from the person who sees the passed out person and then go into the pit to try to rescue them.

Quebec coroner warns of danger after couple dies from asphyxiation from manure gas on farm​

 

[gmax137]

When I was working in electric power plants the companies took these issues very seriously. Entry into tanks, pits, etc was governed by "confined space entry" procedures. Anyone doing this had to be trained and qualified. The air gets tested before anyone goes in. The main thing I remember all these years later is the part about seeing a coworker in trouble. Basically, don't attempt a rescue by yourself. There are people onsite with scott air packs, let them do their job... so they don't have to pull two bodies out.

 

[DaveC426913]

Around here, it is the manure pits that are disastrously fatal. The sad part is when one person dies, there is usually a second fatality from the person who sees the passed out person and then go into the pit to try to rescue them.

Quebec coroner warns of danger after couple dies from asphyxiation from manure gas on farm​

Well, TIL.

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that France enjoyed a military coup in 1958.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1958_crisis_in_France

 

[sbrothy]

… reading about laser beamsplitters, about the concept of FTIR:

Frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR)

Isn’t that just a lovely concept?!

 

[sbrothy]

Again, I didn't exactly learn about this today but I was reminded about it by the mention of ice crystals in this thread:

I Thread 'Are There Two Suns? Exploring the Phenomenon of Sun Dogs'

Oct 8, 2025

• Fastmamon
• Nature of light Optical activity Sunlight
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Other Physics Topics

• 

Initially I couldn't find it because the proper term is:

Shock Diamonds

I think it's pretty cool.

EDIT: OK, that thread took up a lot of space.

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that Borders bookstores got their start in my home town of Ann Arbor Michigan. Dominos Pizza also got their start there in a store the size of a closet, and the first hatha yoga lecture/class in the USA was given at the Ann Arbor YMCA by Satish Iyengar.

 

[Borg]

TIL about Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). I am generally comfortable with my Microsoft OS and need it for some things that are only available on there. However, setting up an Anaconda environment for my AI work is a horror show in Windows - Linux is a far better choice for maintaining and running python for AI work. Now, I have the best of both worlds without having to have two separate OS configurations. The WSL system runs natively and can mount the same drives so I don't have to partition between the two either.

I'm planning on buying a new computer in the next year and I was really torn about the OS choices until now.

 

[Hornbein]

According to Graham Nash, Jimi Hendrix was unbeatable in playing the game of Risk.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL what I already kind of knew.

There's One Super Predator in Africa That Instills More Fear Than Lions​

"Lions are the biggest group-hunting land predator on the planet, and thus ought to be the scariest," conservation biologist Michael Clinchy from Western University in Canada said in 2023.

But in over 10,000 recordings of wildlife on the African savannah, 95 percent of the species observed responded with far more terror to the sound of an entirely different beast. This animal isn't even technically an apex predator. It's us: humans.

pop science: https://www.sciencealert.com/theres-one-super-predator-in-africa-that-instills-more-fear-than-lions
paper: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1003161

 

[Hornbein]

Brain cells grown from the late composer Alvin Lucier’s blood generate sound.

 

[fresh_42]

I have no idea whether this is true, but it is a nice and somewhat plausible explanation.

Where does the belief that witches rode broomsticks actually come from?

According to a leading theory, witches in the Middle Ages used the ergot fungus or plants like belladonna and mandrake to make hallucinogenic ointments and brews, which they consumed as part of their rituals.
Shakespeare depicts witches concocting a batch of the potion in Macbeth. Although the drugs could be taken orally, the effects were better and faster when absorbed through the skin or other mucous membranes (also avoiding the stomachaches that oral ingestion could cause).

The best way to absorb the whole thing through the skin was to apply it to a warm, moist area, such as the armpit or the mucous membranes between the legs.

So they coated a smooth, rounded piece of wood with the brew and then placed it in the warm, moist area. A broomstick worked particularly well for this delicate endeavor.

It's not hard to imagine why some referred to this practice as "riding a broomstick," especially since the resulting hallucinations often included a sensation of flying.

Source: a FB feed, the link was gone when I revisited the page to copy the URL. The author comments with a funny pun about menstrual pads that cannot be translated.

 

[Borg]

https://www.history.com/articles/why-witches-fly-on-brooms

 

[OmCheeto]

The best way to absorb the whole thing through the skin was to apply it to a warm, moist area, such as the armpit or the mucous membranes between the legs.

Reminds me of the 'chubbyemu' short I watched the other day.
@ 1:22 in the video he shows a chart where the scrotum absorbs 42 times the amount absorbed through the ventral forearm.

 

[gleem]

So these analgesic patches like SOLANPAS actually work. Thinking about it, the patches introduce the medicine at the site of the pain instead of having it circulate throughout the body where it is not needed..

 

[DaveC426913]

The best way to absorb the whole thing through the skin was to apply it to a warm, moist area, such as the armpit or the mucous membranes between the legs.

So they coated a smooth, rounded piece of wood with the brew and then placed it in the warm, moist area. A broomstick worked particularly well for this delicate endeavor.

It's not hard to imagine why some referred to this practice as "riding a broomstick," especially since the resulting hallucinations often included a sensation of flying.

What's hard to imagine is just how SFW that idiom is, when history could have fixed it forever as oh so, so much more NSFW.