Today I Learned

[Silicon Waffle]

I've been under weather (just for a common cold) these days and got some drugs prescribed to take. I then learned about ciprofloxacin (http://www.drugs.com/ciprofloxacin.html) along with many other things (i.e takers get sunburned more easily, taking it with caffeine is a bad choice as it may increase caffeine's effects in our brain etc.). It Makes my day!

 

[OmCheeto]

Today, I learned via Facebook, that my former employer had successfully completed a pretty significant Kickstarter type campaign:
$1,000,000,000 to find the cure for cancer. (Yes. That's a billion dollars.)

That made me curious about Kickstarter campaigns, and what people were funding.
I think I've only donated to a couple, the most recent of which, was the solar sail project, being run by the Planetary Society, which yesterday reached $1,000,000 [ref]

Anyways, here are the top ten things, that people think are worthy of funding, along with the cancer and solar sail project, for perspective:

cure cancer:                $1,000,000,000

smart watch:                   $20,000,000
beer cooler:                   $13,000,000
another smart watch:           $10,000,000
card game:                      $8,800,000
videogame console:              $8,600,000
ipod/walkman device:            $6,200,000
fictional movie:                $5,700,000
children's educational program: $5,400,000
video game:                     $4,200,000
another video game:             $4,000,000

interstellar space exploration: $1,000,000

[ref to Kickstarter rankings]

 

[gleem]

Today I learned that there are not four but five basic tastes. sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Umami is the taste of glutamates. The tongue has special glutamate receptors. It is described a a sensation of "furriness" on the tongue.or a pleasant "brothy" or "meaty" taste. Umami foods include fish, vegetables, aged cheese. It interacts with salt. Low salt food with no umami do not taste as good as low salt foods with umami.

 

[Borg]

Today I learned that there are not four but five basic tastes. sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Umami is the taste of glutamates. The tongue has special glutamate receptors. It is described a a sensation of "furriness" on the tongue.or a pleasant "brothy" or "meaty" taste. Umami foods include fish, vegetables, aged cheese. It interacts with salt. Low salt food with no umami do not taste as good as low salt foods with umami.

The airlines have known about this for some time - why in-flight food tastes weird. Search the article for the word umami and you will see why people tend to order Bloody Mary's more often on aircraft.

 

[OmCheeto]

The airlines have known about this for some time - why in-flight food tastes weird. Search the article for the word umami and you will see why people tend to order Bloody Mary's more often on aircraft.

hmmmm... from your article:

A study found that people eating to the sound of loud background noise rated food as being less salty and less sweet than those who ate in silence. Another twist: to those surrounded by noise, food surprisingly appeared to sound much crunchier.

Although I am not afflicted by it, I've heard that many people are annoyed by loud, obnoxious children in restaurants.
Could it be possible that the children's screaming actually makes the food taste bad?

Anyways... I actually learned the following yesterday, but had already used up my TIL card, but it has to do with smell, so I thought I'd share it:

CBS Evening News, Scott Pelley interviewing NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly
​

Scott Pelley; "What does the ISS smell like"?
Scott Kelly; "Antiseptic and garbage".
Scott Pelley; "What does space smell like"?
Scott Kelly; "burning metal".
(edited for brevity)
​

But then I was thinking, did he open the front door of the ISS to get a whiff? How (not) on Earth can you smell space?
I'm guessing he was smelling the air, in one of the docking air lock chambers, after it was exposed to the vacuum of space, and re-pressurized.

 

[epenguin]

How to torpedo one's career - Nobel Prize-winning scientist says he was forced to resign
http://news.yahoo.com/nobel-prize-winning-scientist-says-forced-resign-125443022.html

Career in the sense of honorary Professorship. It's not sunk yet though, a lot of scientists, Nobels, Richard Dawkins, Colin Blakemore, colleagues and ex-colleges have spoken up in defence of his real character and a report by someone present has corrected the overall impression of his talk. The University may reconsider its position next month.

His mistake IMO was not to realize there are always Enforcers and what we in the UK call professional offence-takers around and a public man cannot let himself go for a second in anecdotal musings or humour that might be used against him.

 

[zoobyshoe]

...what we in the UK call professional offence-takers...

Andre alerted me to the fact there is a more formal name for this:

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

After reading this guy's remarks I have to express dismay at the people who got bent out of shape by it.

Political correctitude is the new fad social meme and younger and younger kids are being indoctrinated.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-seinfeld-political-correctness-will-800912

 

[lisab]

TIL: Thomas Jefferson 'constructed' a book in the latter years of his life by cutting and pasting with a razor and glue numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus excluding all mentions of supernatural and miracles. The book is called The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled.

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

TIL Enigman is back after a mysterious absence. Nice to see you, E-man!

 

[mfb]

Today, I learned via Facebook, that my former employer had successfully completed a pretty significant Kickstarter type campaign:
$1,000,000,000 to find the cure for cancer. (Yes. That's a billion dollars.)

Where? Apparently not on Kickstarter itself.

 

[OmCheeto]

Where? Apparently not on Kickstarter itself.

Where? Obviously, wherever my former employer exists.
Which is somewhere near where I exist.
I haven't moved, yet.

 

[jtbell]

Today I learned that "to shoop" means "to Photoshop", i.e. "add something to an image that wasn't there before."

 

[Enigman]

TIL Enigman is back after a mysterious absence. Nice to see you, E-man!

Nice to see you too, lady Green! Interwebz been acting up and I had to disconnect from the hive mind for a while.

 

[Lisa!]

TIL how to make detox drink!

 

[Pythagorean]

TIL that independence day festivities aren't so bad, but they're not so great either.

 

[Stephanus]

A little elaboration: suppose that at CERN in Geneva a particle is accelerated to 0.99999c in the direction of Lyon. Does that contract the distance between Geneva and Lyon?

Today I learned that LHC is the biggest machine in the word to study the smallest thing in the universe.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned the average person eats about a pound of bugs per year:

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/how-many-bugs-eat-every-year.htm

 

[Pythagorean]

Today I learned the average person eats about a pound of bugs per year:

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/how-many-bugs-eat-every-year.htm

5 fruit flies in an 8 Oz orange juice has got to be a nice little nutrient bump. Probably healthier than all that sugar in the orange juice itself.

 

[Priyank]

Today I learned that it is very difficult to think about an innovative idea, but its very astonishing when the idea strikes our mind automatically.

 

[zoobyshoe]

5 fruit flies in an 8 Oz orange juice has got to be a nice little nutrient bump. Probably healthier than all that sugar in the orange juice itself.

Yeah, OJ is jam-packed full of sugar.

I'd eat bugs if everyone else did, but they don't and but no one sells them.

 

[OmCheeto]

Today I learned the average person eats about a pound of bugs per year:

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/how-many-bugs-eat-every-year.htm

My sister used to pick potato bugs off the sidewalk and eat them, when she was about 1 yo.

Today I learned that people keep them as pets, and they can live up to 3 years.
I also learned lots of other things about them.
I would share those things, but it's kind of a rabbit hole of complexity, which after about 2 hours, makes you wish you'd never started.
There is a lot of silliness involved with the classification of beasts, big and small, IMHO.
For example, crustaceans, simply means, that the beasts have "crusty", or hard-shelled bodies.

 

[thankz]

that's nothing, my little brother put super-glue in his penis when he was little

 

[epenguin]

Today I learned that the common woodlouse is called 'potato bug' in some parts.
Never heard that before.

 

[Pythagorean]

Today I learned that the common woodlouse is called 'potato bug' in some parts.
Never heard that before.

My daughters call them roly-polies. My youngest lIkes to name them and bring them in the house.

 

[OmCheeto]

Today I learned that the common woodlouse is called 'potato bug' in some parts.
Never heard that before.

I've heard them called a few of those "other" names, and I was always; "What are you talking about"?

I'm familiar with the term onomatopoeia, which is a word which phonetically mimics the sound of the thing described, but is there a visual analogy?

My mom called them "Sow bugs". She was from Germany. I'm guessing that the name translates to: "Bug shaped like a fat pig".

 

[jim hardy]

is there a visual analogy?

Icon ?

 

[WWGD]

Yeah, OJ is jam-packed full of sugar.

I'd eat bugs if everyone else did, but they don't and but no one sells them.

Try some cricket nutrition bars:
http://chapul.com/

 

[zoobyshoe]

Try some cricket nutrition bars:
http://chapul.com/

Wow, those charts make cricket protein the clear winner.

Still, those bars are expensive. $3.00 for a 1.9 oz candy bar? I'll pass.

 

[WWGD]

Wow, those charts make cricket protein the clear winner.

Still, those bars are expensive. $3.00 for a 1.9 oz candy bar? I'll pass.

I don't mean to be alarmist, but given population growth, we may have no other viable long-term source of protein. We may be passing the costs out somewhere in the system when we pay $4-5 for a burger or even $10+ for a steak.

 

[nsaspook]

I don't mean to be alarmist, but given population growth, we may have no other viable long-term source of protein. We may be passing the costs out somewhere in the system when we pay $4-5 for a burger or even $10+ for a steak.

I think there was a movie about an alternative source.

 

[WWGD]

I think there was a movie about an alternative source.

Yes, but Soylent Green is people!