Today I Learned

[Nathanael]

Today I learned that @Evo is The Lady of Shalott

... the Lady of Shalott was forbidden to look directly at reality or the outside world; instead she was doomed to view the world through a mirror ...

Deep

 

[Stephanus]

Today I learned that @Evo is The Lady of Shalott

Deep

Gosh, you're right.

 

[Astronuc]

An asteroid with a core containing platinum said to be worth $5 trillion passed within 1.5 million miles of Earth on Sunday night as researchers drooled over the possibility of one day mining space for valuable minerals, according to Forbes.

Read more at http://www.grindtv.com/random/5-trillion-asteroid-passes-earth-amid-talk-of-mining-space/

 

[OmCheeto]

Read more at http://www.grindtv.com/random/5-trillion-asteroid-passes-earth-amid-talk-of-mining-space/

Reminds me of a post from a while back.

Ah! I don't think I finished the article:

Earth's Inner Fort Knox (discoverymagazine)
Searching for a pot of gold? Try the center of the Earth.
By Anne Wootton | Friday, September 01, 2006
...
Wood has calculated that 1.6 quadrillion tons of gold must lie in Earth's core. This may sound like a lot, but it is really only a tiny percentage of the core's overall mass—about one part per million. The core holds six times as much platinum, Wood notes, "but people get less excited about that than gold."

I didn't do the calculation for the platinum last time. hmmm... TIL that gold surpassed platinum in $/oz back in 2011.
Anyways, by my new calculations, the value of gold and platinum in the Earths core would yield ≈$44.4 trillion for every person on Earth.
Someone should let the Greeks know about this. Start digging!

 

[duhuhu]

Today I learned: Never trust a grad student to comment their code, or even give you the most up to date code that you need for the project...

 

[mfb]

All those asteroid values are pure phantasy. With the same logic, a cubic kilometer of average ground on Earth is worth more than a billion dollars, mainly from gold. Nobody wants to buy a square kilometer of desert (including the rights to dig away the top kilometer of it) for that price, however - because extracting that gold out of the cubic kilometer of dirt costs much more than a billion. Note: it costs more than a billion even here on Earth, mining an asteroid is orders of magnitude more expensive. Sure, the asteroids have a higher fraction of precious metals, but so do our gold ores on Earth.

 

[nsaspook]

Today I learned: I need a translator for 'English' in Scotland. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-33569027

 

[D H]

Today I learned that modern cars are hackable.

From http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/?mbid=social_twitter,

I WAS DRIVING 70 mph on the edge of downtown St. Louis when the exploit began to take hold.

Though I hadn’t touched the dashboard, the vents in the Jeep Cherokee started blasting cold air at the maximum setting, chilling the sweat on my back through the in-seat climate control system. Next the radio switched to the local hip hop station and began blaring Skee-lo at full volume. I spun the control knob left and hit the power button, to no avail. Then the windshield wipers turned on, and wiper fluid blurred the glass.

As I tried to cope with all this, a picture of the two hackers performing these stunts appeared on the car’s digital display: Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, wearing their trademark track suits. A nice touch, I thought.

Also today, I learned that a pair of Senators coincidentally introduced the http://blog.caranddriver.com/senate-introduces-automotive-anti-hacking-bill/. The Senators that introduced the bill have been quietly following the notices by hackers that they can make your car kill you.

My newest vehicle is a 2005. My best vehicle is a 2002, made out of cardboard. But at least it's not hackable.

 

[jim hardy]

see my signature...

 

[lisab]

I just passed the Spruce Goose on Sunday. It was the first time I'd ever seen it. I didn't stop, but saw it from the highway. I would have stopped, but traffic had been bad all day, which made me a bit cranky, and I wanted to get home asap.

View attachment 85948
file footage​

45°12'12.59" N
123°08'46.25" W
elev 159 ft

hmmm... I just learned that it still holds a couple of records:

The Hercules is the largest flying boat ever built and has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in history. [per wiki]​

Not today, but some day in the past - I leaned that the Spruce Goose is made almost entirely of birch.

I guess birch does not rhyme easily to make a catchy phrase.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

see my signature...

I don't understand what you mean.
Coherence in speeches and thoughts by old people is far more removed from that made by the young.

 

[jim hardy]

I don't understand what you mean.

I was commenting on the concept of a computer controlled automobile. I won't own one with throttle , brakes or power steering that are electronic. I won't ride Airbuses, either.

Coherence in speeches and thoughts by old people is far more removed from that made by the young.

Yes, one learns language when young..
Old folks allude to things that simply aren't in youth's experience base. I wish you'd seen the look on my grandchildrens' faces when they encountered my rotary dial telephone.
Recently i played a Mills Brothers record for son; he asked in dismay "Was this before they invented milkshakes ?"

old jim

 

[Silicon Waffle]

...
Old folks allude to things that simply aren't in youth's experience base. I wish you'd seen the look on my grandchildrens' faces when they encountered my rotary dial telephone.
Recently i played a Mills Brothers record for son; he asked in dismay "Was this before they invented milkshakes ?"

old jim

Good old man! I call you old, then you show me how old you are. :(

 

[OmCheeto]

Not today, but some day in the past - I leaned that the Spruce Goose is made almost entirely of birch.

I guess birch does not rhyme easily to make a catchy phrase.

That's funny. I own 4 boats built by the Burchcraft Boat Company of Aberdeen Washington.
They are all made out of Douglas Fir.
The company got its name from the founder, Loren P. Burch.
Though, I was in correspondence with one of the Burch family from Minnesota, and he sent me an 1885 census bureau listing which included Loren, and his surname was listed as Birch.

hmmm... google google google

TIL that it doesn't really matter how you spell it.

Burch is an English surname that most likely originated in Hyndley Birch, Rusholme, Manchester, England^{[citation needed]}. The origins of the name can be traced back as far as 1500. Burch is also likely a variation of Birch being derived from one who resides at or near a birch-tree. "John at the birch," etc.
...

 

[OmCheeto]

I was commenting on the concept of a computer controlled automobile. I won't own one with throttle , brakes or power steering that are electronic. I won't ride Airbuses, either.

I was thinking the same thing yesterday, when I saw the article. I'm never flying again.

Yes, one learns language when young..
Old folks allude to things that simply aren't in youth's experience base. I wish you'd seen the look on my grandchildrens' faces when they encountered my rotary dial telephone.
Recently i played a Mills Brothers record for son; he asked in dismay "Was this before they invented milkshakes ?"

old jim

This reminds me of a story someone told me just a few years back, when I gave him a ride home in my brand new pickup truck. (It has zero fancy options):

He had rented a car, and had his two little kids with him.
They asked him where the button was, to make the windows go down.
He said there was no button, but there was a thing sticking out of the door, which you had to turn.
He said they spent the rest of the trip cranking, making the windows go up and down, laughing, all the way to their destination.


TIL that the first "power window" was introduced in 1940:

History
Packard introduced the first power windows in the 1940 Packard 180 series. This was a hydro-electric system.

hydro-electric!

 

[OmCheeto]

I thought the largest airplane ever built was the Spruce Goose, but today I learned it was a Russian cargo plane:

Weird. Are you psychic? Or did you know something was going on?

TIL, just moments ago actually, that:

Legendary mogul Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, a gigantic historic wooden airplane whose fate was mired in a financial dispute, will permanently stay in Oregon. [ref]
​

 

[thankz]

fixed a 42" flatscreen I found in the trash, 5 bucks for the service manual, 40 for the part, now I got a working tv.

 

[Astronuc]

Handmade Tree Grows Over 40 Different Types of Fruit (For Real)

https://www.yahoo.com/makers/crazy-tree-grows-over-40-different-types-of-fruit-124789282795.html

Very cool!

 

[Borg]

Handmade Tree Grows Over 40 Different Types of Fruit (For Real)

https://www.yahoo.com/makers/crazy-tree-grows-over-40-different-types-of-fruit-124789282795.html

Very cool!

I think that I remember seeing that project a few years ago. Nice to see it coming to 'fruition'.

 

[lisab]

Today I learned there is a volcano with a fantastic name: Kick 'em Jenny. And it's getting close to erupting !

 

[OmCheeto]

TIL that Richard Feynman's second wife divorced him on the grounds of... mathematics?

per wiki on his personal life:

He married a second time in June 1952, to Mary Louise Bell of Neodesha, Kansas; this marriage was unsuccessful:

He begins working calculus problems in his head as soon as he awakens. He did calculus while driving in his car, while sitting in the living room, and while lying in bed at night.
—Mary Louise Bell divorce complaint​

 

[zoobyshoe]

TIL that Richard Feynman's second wife divorced him on the grounds of... mathematics?

Yeah, that was a very unfortunate marriage for Feynman. She completely failed to appreciate him for what he was.

I suppose that goes both ways, though, because Feynman should have realized that before he married her. That is: he failed to appreciate she had no clue about the importance of his work.

 

[Silicon Waffle]

But her complaint polished his name successfully.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned: According to the show "Tree House Masters" (Animal Planet) Alexander Graham Bell wanted the standard greeting when answering the phone to be "Ahoy!"

 

[Astronuc]

I learned about an organization (Turquoise Mountain) in Afghanistan, which is attempting to rebuild infrastructure and support traditional crafts.
http://turquoisemountain.org/

http://turquoisemountain.org/projects

http://turquoisemountain.org/old-city

Peace be upon them and us.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned the Japanese word, hibakusha.

It's bad enough to be a hibakusha, but there are 165 known double-hibakushas. Absolutely the worst luck ever: wrong place at the wrong time twice in a row.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I thought the largest airplane ever built was the Spruce Goose, but today I learned it was a Russian cargo plane:

And today I learned this Russian plane won't be the world's largest plane for much longer:

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/stratolaunch-soon-largest-plane-world-133041433.html

They are building a yet more ginormous craft to help launch rockets into space.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned Chin Shi Huang Ti, First Emperor of China, claimed sole ownership of the personal pronoun "I". No one else was permitted to refer to themself as "I" thereafter.

 

[Enigman]

Today I learned Chin Shi Huang Ti, First Emperor of China, claimed sole ownership of the personal pronoun "I". No one else was permitted to refer to themself as "I" thereafter.

We, Equality 7-2521, have sinned.

 

[wukunlin]

Today I learned some companies in Taiwan calculated salary for graduates using English test results, grades in university and... university ranking
I'm glad I graduated from a highly ranked university but geez, having your salary partially decided by something that happened at least 4 years ago kinda sucks