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.
  • #1,081
Sophia said:
What also irritates me is the privileges that android apps demand. I want to play a game, why would it need all my contacts and media and camera?

"You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." -- Scott Nealy, CEO Sun Microsystems.
 
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  • #1,082
Hornbein said:
Today I learned that Facebook demands government ID to sign up.
This wasn't true when I joined, and I haven't been asked to re-apply or anything.

Going to the "sign-up" page, I don't see any box or anything for government ID. Do you encounter this after the first page? What are you supposed to do, attach a scan of your drivers license? Some of my friends seem to have more than one profile.
 
  • #1,083
zoobyshoe said:
What are you supposed to do, attach a scan of your drivers license?

Yes.

I have read that Facebook may at any time shut down your account and demand ID.
 
  • #1,084
Hornbein said:
Yes.

I have read that Facebook may at any time shut down your account and demand ID.
Where did you read that?
 
  • #1,085
zoobyshoe said:
Where did you read that?
Nevermind. I googled and there's lots about it. It started in 2013.
 
  • #1,086
Today I learned (or rather, re-learned) that my wristwatch doesn't account for leap years. I had to bump the date back from March 3 to March 2.
 
  • #1,087
jtbell said:
Today I learned (or rather, re-learned) that my wristwatch doesn't account for leap years. I had to bump the date back from March 3 to March 2.
Oh, right! I forgot to adjust my sundial!
 
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  • #1,088
jtbell said:
Today I learned (or rather, re-learned) that my wristwatch doesn't account for leap years. I had to bump the date back from March 3 to March 2.

It would be easier to wait 14,000 years for it to correct itself. But that's impractical.
 
  • #1,089
The world's longest scheduled commercial flight.
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-longest-flight-lands-auckland-060409884.html
The service from Dubai to Auckland covered 14,200 kilometres (8,824 miles), according to industry website airwaysnews.com, pipping Qantas' 13,800-kilometre Sydney-Dallas route launched in 2014.

It said the route was also the longest in duration, with passengers set to spend 17 hours 15 minutes in the air during the return leg from Auckland to Dubai.
Then I have to ask, "Why!?"
 
  • #1,090
Amsterdam has a beach, that was a bit surprising.
 
  • #1,091
Astronuc said:
The world's longest scheduled commercial flight.
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-longest-flight-lands-auckland-060409884.html
Then I have to ask, "Why!?"

Would you rather make a stop and sit around in an airport for hours? Not only that, you take the risk of a delay causing a missed connection.

You might layover in a worthwhile place, but airlines don't like that. Often the total cost doubles.
 
  • #1,092
What's a little corruption?
Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s third-largest oil exporter, with Exxon Mobil Corp. driving production. But no one knows exactly how much oil revenue the country has — President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo refuses to disclose his earnings.
http://www.ozy.com/acumen/the-filthy-rich-spanish-speaking-african-country/63117

Meanwhile - Aubrey McClendon, 56, Ex-Chief of Chesapeake Energy, Dies in Crash a Day After Indictment
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/b...ron-dies-in-crash-a-day-after-indictment.html

He founded Chesapeake Energy and went big into fracking. By many measures he was extraordinarily successful. "But late Tuesday, he was indicted on federal bid-rigging charges accusing him of conspiring to suppress prices for oil and natural gas leases. On Wednesday morning, he died in a crash in Oklahoma City after his car hit a bridge at high speed. Mr. McClendon, 56, was to have appeared in court later in the day."

All police have so far said is that he had ample room to avoid hitting the concrete abutment.

It is too early to tell, but it would seem he may have committed suicide rather than face prosecution.

There is such a thing as too successful.
Under Mr. McClendon’s leadership, Chesapeake and a handful of other companies transformed the face of energy in the United States, turning the country from an energy importer to an exporter and pioneering hydraulic fracturing in newly explored shale fields with ample global financing.

In the end, they produced a glut of natural gas that sent Chesapeake and several other companies to the brink of bankruptcy as gas prices collapsed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/b...onspiracy-in-oil-and-natural-gas-bidding.html
 
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  • #1,093
Astronuc said:
It is too early to tell, but it would seem he may have committed suicide rather than face prosecution
or committed suicide for some other reason, failed relationships and hard drug addiction are common.
 
  • #1,094
rootone said:
or committed suicide for some other reason, failed relationships and hard drug addiction are common.
The timing would argue against alternate motivations.
 
  • #1,095
  • #1,096
Astronuc said:
The world's longest scheduled commercial flight.
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-longest-flight-lands-auckland-060409884.html
Then I have to ask, "Why!?"
To get from Auckland to Dubai.
My longest flights so far were 13 hours - plus three hours at an airport and 1.5 hours for a connecting flight. I would have happily skipped the airport part (to make it worse, the second flight went a bit back - a direct connection would have been shorter than 13 hours).
The 17 hour flight probably replaces something like 13 hours flight, then some hours on an airport, then 5 hours more flight. Okay, you can stay a day somewhere in between, but then you need an additional day.

jim hardy said:
There are cars driven with joysticks (like those used for computer games) already. Mainly for disabled people, I think, but apparently it works very well.
 
  • #1,097
Today I learned ...

Dress whites vs dress blues?
They are seasonal, with the white uniform worn in summer and the blue in winter

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xlp1/v/t1.0-9/12799292_915201871927797_1804319214450464339_n.jpg?oh=b2364c95b365cad78c52d6af5ac93d80&oe=5759FBC9&__gda__=1465600219_4e43f8c6b10d3eaa400ef5876a126e4fDave
 
  • #1,098
That poster reminds me of a Jack Nicholson line from the movie, The Last Detail. Those familiar will know what I'm talking about.
 
  • #1,099
zoobyshoe said:
That poster reminds me of a Jack Nicholson line from the movie, The Last Detail. Those familiar will know what I'm talking about.
Don't think I have seen that one
 
  • #1,100
davenn said:
Don't think I have seen that one
YouTube has the scene I mean, but I can't link to it due to bad language.
 
  • #1,101
zoobyshoe said:
YouTube has the scene I mean, but I can't link to it due to bad language.

dang, Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid are so young !
 
  • #1,102
davenn said:
dang, Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid are so young !
Right? It's disorienting.
 
  • #1,103
jim hardy said:
2013 Tahoe is reputed to have electric power steering

Aubrey McClendon’s car will tell whether he killed himself
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aubrey-mcclendon-s-car-will-tell-if-he-killed-himself-182023313.html
Vehicles, by contrast, don’t contain a box, per se. The data is captured by an airbag control module, which is more like a chip. All modern vehicles have such chips, but the data captured varies by manufacturer. And the modules aren’t fireproof, either. Many are made of aluminum; the one in a 2013 Tahoe is made of plastic.

Police have already said he was traveling well above the 40-mile-per-hour speed limit on the road, and that he had a chance to steer away from the bridge but didn’t. Other circumstantial evidence, such as a lack of prominent skid marks close to the bridge, also suggests suicide. “I’d say he aimed for that bridge support,” says Rusty Haight, director of the Collision Safety Institute in San Diego, who has examined photos and videos of the crash. “He was going into that bridge support. It’s the only thing in the area.”
 
  • #1,104
Today I learned how to make a funny smiley:


Result: http://imgur.com/jqpONKv

jqpONKv.png
:partytime:
 
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  • #1,105
  • #1,106
davenn said:
awesome :) well done
Thanks! :blushing:
 
  • #1,107
Today I learned yet again that Microsoft's "upgrades" aren't necessarily upwards compatible, and can be much worse than the version they replace.:headbang:

In this case, opening old Publisher 2007 stuff in Publisher 2016 results in a somewhat messed up layout due to spacing changes, and various old options are simply ignored (for example converting pictures to grayscale). However, the most exasperating thing is that even in new documents the character spacing goes wrong if the text changes between regular, bold, italic or bold-italic within a line, in that the spacing for the whole line assumes whichever style was in effect for the first character in the output line. So, for example, if a line starts with regular text, any bold-italic text in the same line has characters which touch or even overlap! I have found a seriously time-wasting workaround, which is that if the normal space before the style change is replaced with a non-breaking space (Ctrl-Shift-Space) then the spacing correctly reflects the new style. However, that then messes up things if you need to change anything later because it prevents a line break between the words. :oldgrumpy:
 
  • #1,108
Wordperfect showed you the control characters.
For some reason that's anathema to Microsoft. So they killed Wordperfect.

My opinion- Prince of Mediocrity .
http://phoozer.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/how-much-money-does-bill-gates-have.jpg

Does any of their new stuff show control codes?

I got so frustrated with Word's invisible characters changing things on me that i went to local junkshop and bought a grocery sack full of mice for a dollar . When it got too much i'd just smash one.
 
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  • #1,109
jim hardy said:
they killed Wordperfect.

The age of monopoly has returned.
 
  • #1,110
Meet Marian Kotleba.
kotleba16.png

In yesterday's elections his party gained 8,05% votes and thus became 4th of unbelievable 9 parties who will make it into the Slovak parliament (most of them gaining around 6-8%).
Party named We Are Family with a leader who has 9 children with 8 women got 6.6%
For the first time in 26 years of democracy, Christian democrats will not be in the parliament.Time to use this emoji
mqNJsQe.png

Copyright @Psinter
 

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