Today I Learned

  • Thread starter Thread starter Greg Bernhardt
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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.
  • #901
fresh_42 said:
He died in jail. However ##^{197}Hg## decays to gold :cool:

He went on the lam to Italy. He was captured, returned to Munich, served four years for the alchemy gig, got out of prison, passed bad checks, and eventually was sent back to jail.
 
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  • #902
Hornbein said:
He served four years for the alchemy gig, got out of prison, passed bad checks, and eventually was sent back to jail.
I can't believe it. They made a movie about his life.
 
  • #903
The Nazis were quite interested in the occult, symbolism and ancient philosophies.
And then during the cold war, there were experiments in paranormal phenomena on both sides.
 
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  • #904
Today I learned that explorer Alexander Humboldt -- Humboldt county is named after him -- cut open his back and inserted wires into the slots. He had discovered the battery, but much to his later regret didn't realize it.
 
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  • #905
Hornbein said:
Today I learned that explorer Alexander Humboldt -- Humboldt county is named after him -- cut open his back and inserted wires into the slots. He had discovered the battery, but much to his later regret didn't realize it.
Sounds like the earliest documented case of reefer madness. Now I know how Humboldt State got its name!
 
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  • #906
Today I learned that you can be sacked from work (part-time without contract) without boss even telling you. Other people will want to say good-bye to you because you won't come next week. oooohhhh Didn't boss tell you? :DDDDDD
 
  • #907
Sophia said:
Today I learned that you can be sacked from work (part-time without contract) without boss even telling you. Other people will want to say good-bye to you because you won't come next week. oooohhhh Didn't boss tell you? :DDDDDD
I think either part-time or full time or freelance job in a company does need a contract at least in my area. It can be suspended based on the contract agreement specified from the start. So for a full time contract, a laborer in my area can also cancel it himself with some notification sent to HR department 4-8 weeks before he can leave the company officially.
 
  • #908
Silicon Waffle said:
I think either part-time or full time or freelance job in a company does need a contract at least in my area. It can be suspended based on the contract agreement specified from the start. So for a full time contract, a laborer in my area can also cancel it himself with some notification sent to HR department 4-8 weeks before he can leave the company officially.

I was trying to tell that I got sacked today and my boss didn't even tell me. Other teachers at the kindergarten told me that we will not see each other again because the manager fired me :) New teacher will come next week. :)
The reason is that I wasn't able to manage discipline and kids were running wild. I don't deny it, of course it is true. But the manager could at least have the decency to tell me about that.
 
  • #909
Sorry to hear that...
 
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  • #910
Sophia said:
I was trying to tell that I got sacked today and my boss didn't even tell me. Other teachers at the kindergarten told me that we will not see each other again because the manager fired me :) New teacher will come next week. :)
The reason is that I wasn't able to manage discipline and kids were running wild. I don't deny it, of course it is true. But the manager could at least have the decency to tell me about that.
Oh, I am really sorry about that. I totally misunderstood your post. I would probably contact or directly meet the manager to ask for some clarification if I were you.
 
  • #911
Sophia said:
The reason is that I wasn't able to manage discipline and kids were running wild. I don't deny it, of course it is true. But the manager could at least have the decency to tell me about that.
I'm sorry to hear that. (Not that the children were running wild, but that you were sacked in such a way.) From some of your other posts I got the impression you are a kind person, maybe the children took advantage of that. In any case, good luck finding something new soon!
 
  • #912
Fortunately, I have other work too, making me 75% employed, so this isn't so bad. This kindergarten thing was just part time. I am not even a teacher by profession. That's why I got these problems with managing the kids. I'm just too soft. But the whole situation and manager's behaviour is kind of a shock.
Of course I am going to discuss this, even calling the authorities because there were some illegal things going on. I still wasn't paid for last 2 months. I demanded payment even before I discovered that I am fired but she told me she is in a hospital giving birth to a baby. She was really pregnant but that doesn't explain no money for November. I won't let it be. If I don't get the money next week they'll get a visit from some officials and they won't like it.
 
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  • #913
I learned that my new jeep wrangler with small MT tires can handle insane hills and mud.

I love my job sometimes
 
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  • #915
Sophia said:
Crazy modern marketing art :cool: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35320373

In Seminyak, Bali there's a wedding altar inside the shape of a cut diamond.

The-Diamond-Chapel.jpg


It sort of reminded me of a Star Trek space shuttle launch pad. I felt it would be way too hot inside.

15379760902_f267271a2d_z.jpg


But if that floats your boat, it's available. Beats the slipper, if you ask me.
 
  • #916
I like the diamond better, too. The slipper is too vulgar for my taste.
 
  • #917
I find diamonds to be vulgar. I love the idea, but I don't care for the slipper or diamond designs.
 
  • #918
Hornbein said:
... a Star Trek space shuttle launch pad.

Lol... not even close... :oldtongue:
 
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  • #919
Sophia said:
That's why I got these problems with managing the kids. I'm just too soft.
Big, big BS. It is ok to let children run wild as you expressed it. To discipline them at this age is wrong, although widely spread.
However, it does not excuse your boss from being such an ... that he didn't tell it personally.
 
  • #920
OCR said:
Lol... not even close... :oldtongue:

It's a solar power concentrator. They found out that subspace drive coarsened the granularity of the Klein-Gordon field, creating long-lasting chronosynclastic infibulae. So Starfleet Command went to solar power.
 
  • #921
Hornbein said:
So Starfleet Command went to solar power.

Dammit ... I'm always the last one to get informed! ... :oldgrumpy:And they knew I'd found a work around for that... :headbang:
They found out that subspace drive coarsened the granularity of the Klein-Gordon field, creating long-lasting chronosynclastic infibulae.
 
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  • #922
OCR said:
Dammit ... I'm always the last one to get informed! ... :oldgrumpy:
Keep your ears open and your eyes on the mark. (Rules of Acquisition #7)
 
  • #923
fresh_42 said:
(Rules of Acquisition #7)

Lol... :blushing:
 
  • #924
Boolean Boogey said:
I find diamonds to be vulgar. I love the idea, but I don't care for the slipper or diamond designs.
For me building churches of such shapes is an oxymoron.
A slipper or diamond shaped church is like a hamburger shaped gym.
 
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  • #925
Sophia said:
For me building churches of such shapes is an oxymoron.
A slipper or diamond shaped church is like a hamburger shaped gym.

They aren't churches, they are wedding chapels.

In Bali weddings are presided over by a priest but never take place in the temples.
 
  • #926
Hornbein said:
In Bali weddings are presided over by a priest but never take place in the temples.
Seems they know why. Very cautious people.
 
  • #927
According to Wikipedia, Alexander Graham Bell mistranslated a paper that had been written in German by Hermann von Helmholtz. This misunderstanding led Bell to the invention of the telephone.
 
  • #928
Hornbein said:
According to Wikipedia, Alexander Graham Bell mistranslated a paper that had been written in German by Hermann von Helmholtz. This misunderstanding led Bell to the invention of the telephone.
Mysteries at the Museum has a segment on Antonio Meucci, who is considered one of the leading contenders for having invented the telephone before Bell. The story they tell, is that Meucci personally submitted the telephone to some engineering firm (or something) but, since he could hardly speak English, he wasn't able to make clear what it was for. He gave them a working model to examine, but they shelved it and forgot about it. However, it turns out young Alexander Graham Bell was an employee of that firm.

Unfortunately, the same story is not repeated either in the wiki on Bell or in the one on Meucci. The implication is that Bell actually plagiarized the invention wholesale from this obscure inventor. I'd like to find the original source of the story.
 
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  • #930
fresh_42 said:
I have the impression that, when there's no money being disputed, the actual history probably gets sorted out. Tesla conceded that another inventor had probably beat him by a couple years in inventing the induction motor. However, the other guy was not trying to claim any of Tesla's earnings from it, and also was not claiming Tesla stole the idea. Additionally, Faraday conceded that an American inventor had demonstrated mutual inductance before he did. Here, again, though, there was no money at stake. These big invention disputes seem only to arise when the winner stands to make a lot of money.
 

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