Today I Learned

[OmCheeto]

So that's why Facebook went down yesterday! Something like matter meeting antimatter?

After Facebook came back up, I became curious, and learned that Twitter has a Facebook account.
The odd thing was, that Twitter has ≈16,000,000 followers on Facebook.
Since I use both mainly for "news", it seemed like the equivalent of reading the Wall Street Journal to find out what is happening with the New York Times.

Likewise, Facebook has ≈13,500,000 followers on Twitter.

It really makes no sense to me, whatsoever.

 

[OmCheeto]

TIL that congressional hearings began with a Founding Father raising his hand to say, “Investigate me!” - Robert Morris

However, nobody has provided an explanation for how such a wonderful word — maladministration — vanished from the political lexicon.​

I agree. That is a wonderful word.

 

[Tom.G]

Today I Learned that the Google home page sends two encrypted packets to Google every time you leave their home page. This occurs even if you enter the new web address in the adress field without invovling Google at all. Tracking where you go? I haven't tried it on their other pages such as News.

 

[pedro the swift]

Today I learned that I don't know as much as I thought I did!

 

[jim hardy]

This occurs even if you enter the new web address in the adress field without invovling Google at all. Tracking where you go?

Somebody is.
I got spam for products related to anything i looked up until i learned to set up email filters.
My default search engine is now duckduckgo. They claim to not tell marketers where you've been

 

[BillTre]

The midge larvae I found that recently invaded one of my paramecia culture (I grow them to feed baby fish) were probably predating upon the paramecia which explains the reduction in the paramecia population.
Midges are extremely very small flies that are commonly found in fish rooms and are commonly found in drains.
Turns out their larvae can be pretty efficient predators as shown in this Science magazine video I recently found.

 

[WWGD]

I found these two social hacks to be useful :

1) don't ask someone about something they don't know. Most will resent you because this will bring up a deficiency and they will connect this discomfort with you. Of course it is not always easy to tell, but better to err by caution. Conversely, to make someone feel good about themselves and about you, ask them about something they are knowledgeable about.

2)Substitute ( or, more accurately, rephrase) the use of "sorry" by expressing gratitude to the party you're expressing your regrets*. Instead of : Sorry I am being slow understanding this, say : Thanks for your patience in waiting for me to get up to speed.

Apologizing too much makes one seem weak.

* Doesn't apply to real apologies, but to the more casual use of sorry, e.g., sorry for being late, slow.

 

[mfb]

don't ask someone about something they don't know

What do you expect to get from such a question anyway?
If you know that the person cannot help you you won't ask for help, obviously. If the person might not know the answer but still provide some help (telling you who to ask, or where to look in more detail, or whatever) then you can focus on that help.
If you don't know that the person doesn't know the answer: Well, bad luck.

 

[WWGD]

What do you expect to get from such a question anyway?
If you know that the person cannot help you you won't ask for help, obviously. If the person might not know the answer but still provide some help (telling you who to ask, or where to look in more detail, or whatever) then you can focus on that help.
If you don't know that the person doesn't know the answer: Well, bad luck.

Well, I meant to say be thoughtful about this. People ( most people) resent displaying their lack of knowledge or lack of competence, which is brought up when they are asked to do something they don't know how to do. I asked a subway /metro employee an engineering-related question even though she was not an engineer. She was surly and upset. I have had similar responses when asking under these conditions.

 

[jim hardy]

TIL how deadly is moisture around a keyboard.
This morning I got a few drops of rain on this old laptop and the keyboard quit recognizing most keystrokes.
So i shut it down with power button and dried it in the oven at maybe 115F.
Now a d and f give no response
s gives s
g gives two characters gt
h gives two characters hy
q gives two characters q.
w gives w , e gives e, r gives r,
t gives two characters gt,
and so on .
some key someplace toggles INSERT function.

So right now I'm using it with a usb keyboard plugged into the side... at least i know it's not software (can't blame this one on Windows)

Will disassemble and try a cleaning the keyboard in a day or two.

Wish me luck ?

old jim.

 

[pinball1970]

TIL how deadly is moisture around a keyboard.
This morning I got a few drops of rain on this old laptop and the keyboard quit recognizing most keystrokes.
So i shut it down with power button and dried it in the oven at maybe 115F.
Now a d and f give no response
s gives s

and so on .
some key someplace toggles INSERT function.

So right now I'm using it with a usb keyboard plugged into the side... at least i know it's not software (can't blame this one on Windows)

Will disassemble and try a cleaning the keyboard in a day or two.

Wish me luck ?

old jim.

Q.uestion

W,hy gthe oven?

I gthyink you may need gto gtegt new keyboard Jim

 

[Rive]

Wish me luck ?

Get some bags of desiccant somewhere and put them in a hermetic bag together with your (switched off) laptop for some days. If you do that fast it spares you a new keyboard.
Since you already used it for some time it is likely that you will have to replace the keyboard (keeping wet electronics powered means a lot of hygroscopic salts building up on the PCB, making any resistive contacts/switches common in small keyboards hectic).

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Will disassemble and try a cleaning the keyboard in a day or two.

If you get to the point where you expect to throw it away, you could try a generous application of WD-40 first, sloshed around inside. It's worked for me at least a couple of times in the past (although by then I'd already obtained a replacement for the water-damaged device).

 

[Klystron]

TIL how deadly is moisture around a keyboard.
This morning I got a few drops of rain on this old laptop and the keyboard quit recognizing most keystrokes.
So i shut it down with power button and dried it in the oven at maybe 115F.
...
Will disassemble and try a cleaning the keyboard in a day or two.

Wish me luck ?

old jim.

Good Luck, O-Jim! May the goddess Fortuna hold you tightly to her bosom!

Seriously, please do not put electronics in an oven. Jets of compressed air should displace moisture with less component damage; or the desicant suggestion posted above.

 

[pinball1970]

Good Luck, O-Jim! May the goddess Fortuna hold you tightly to her bosom!

Seriously, please do not put electronics in an oven. Jets of compressed air should displace moisture with less component damage; or the desicant suggestion posted above.

Hair dryer not oven

 

[fresh_42]

Why is it a Euclidean space, but a Noetherian ring? What's the rule?

 

[BillTre]

What's the rule?

Spelling is weird.
Use a computer spell checker.

 

[fresh_42]

Spelling is weird.
Use a computer spell checker.

As Hammond organs became more popular in the seventies (they were still quite big at the time), an employee of a store for music instruments told me, that he actually had customers how thought there is a little drummer in that machine. In this sense:

The spell checker in my machine doesn't know Emmy. Crétin!

My workaround is Wikipedia for technical terms. It has also the advantage, that different language versions often add additional information!

 

[OCR]

So i shut it down with power button and dried it in the oven at maybe 115F.

Seriously, please do not put electronics in an oven.

Hair dryer not oven

Now, post a picture of your laptop. . . in a hair dryer. .

.

 

[nitsuj]

Today I learned that one of Canada's provinces will be creating legislation that makes organ donation an opt out deal. after brain death? only adults? I don't know the details, legislation not yet written

Never knew such a thing existed nor thought of the concept previously. Apparently it's a thing in parts of Europe.

I like it. and hope the province I'm in will enact the same.

 

[collinsmark]

Why is it a Euclidean space, but a Noetherian ring? What's the rule?

The suffix -ian is the more common (e.g., Mathematician, Gaussian, physician). But there are exceptions, (e.g., Argentinean, and as you mention, Euclidean). There's even other exceptions that end in just -an (e.g., Elizabethan).
As @BillTre mentions: better use a spell checker.

This is mostly unlike German where once you know the rules, spelling is straightforward. As I'm told from German students who have studied English, "There are no German Spelling Bees. Everybody would win."

 

[fresh_42]

"There are no German Spelling Bees. Everybody would win."

I seriously doubt that! Apart from notoriously bad students, there are also things you cannot hear, e.g. doubled letters can not necessarily be heard. And there are difficult words and exceptions, too. "ui" in Duisburg is pronounced "ü", the "oe" in Soest is just a long "o", etc. But it is easier compared to English. My favorite example is from G.B. Shaw: "ghot" is pronounced "fish", gh as in laugh, o as in women, and t as in nation.

 

[mfb]

V can sound like F or W - even when followed by the same letters (Vogel, Vogesen). For spelling this means you have to know when to use F and V, or W and V. "Fogel" and "Wogesen" would be pronounced the same but these words don't exist.
"aa" and "ah" are both just a long a, similar for e and o and u.
Then you have some imported foreign words that come with an unusual spelling.

 

[fresh_42]

V can sound like F or W - even when followed by the same letters (Vogel, Vogesen). For spelling this means you have to know when to use F and V, or W and V. "Fogel" and "Wogesen" would be pronounced the same but these words don't exist.
"aa" and "ah" are both just a long a, similar for e, o and u.
Then you have some imported foreign words that come with an unusual spelling.

We have a double u?

 

[atyy]

Why is it a Euclidean space, but a Noetherian ring? What's the rule?

http://hull-awe.org.uk/index.php/Shakespearean_-_Shakespearian_-_Shaksperean_-_Shaksperian
Noetherean looks good to me.

 

[mfb]

We have a double u?

Good point, didn't find words with a "uu" as long u. There are words that have two u, like "Vakuum", but they are in separate syllables then.
Although... technically we have a Doppel-u.

 

[davenn]

That Lake Baykal in eastern Russia is home to the world's only fresh water seal

 

[fresh_42]

There are words that have two u, like "Vakuum"

But this one is not pronounced with a long "u" but as "u" twice which doesn't serve as an example for unheard letters.

 

[Klystron]

That North America has two main bear species: brown, known as grizzlies, and more common black bears. The smaller black bears often climb trees. Cubs may even nest in trees for safety from larger predatory males and grizzlies. Bears exhibit a wide range of behavior and intelligence, adapt to local food sources and terrain. Bears often plant their rear foot in or near front paw prints while walking or running; can sit, stand and walk on rear legs like hominids.

When observed by humans in daylight or at close range, people say "Look, a bear.". If paw prints show individual claw marks and clear quadrupedal walking, people say, 'Look, bear paw prints." When samples -- hair, scat, dead bodies -- are collected and analyzed, it is always from bear or other common mammals.

When dark or observation obscured, when prints are combined or compressed or unclear, or a large mammal is glimpsed through thick foliage or driving snow, then people exclaim, "Look, Bigfoot! (or Sasquatch or Yeti or some expression for Bear-Person). 'Bigfoot hunters' cannot lose. Anything unexplained is evidence of giant apes. All hard evidence gets waved away as bear.

My guess is that scientists and rational people accept this fantasy to help preserve bear habitat.

 

[mfb]

But this one is not pronounced with a long "u" but as "u" twice which doesn't serve as an example for unheard letters.

Yes, that's what I mentioned directly after mentioning the word.

Concerning Bigfoot: The lack of good pictures despite nearly everyone having a camera made it quite clear that there is no such thing.

 

[Klystron]

Concerning Bigfoot: The lack of good pictures despite nearly everyone having a camera made it quite clear that there is no such thing.

So true. Photos that are not outright hoaxes are invariably black bears up a tree or walking uphill away from the camera. Several scientists collaborated on a geographical study. "Sasquatch" reports directly correlate with known bear habitat. Always.

The exciting TIL idea I found on wikipedia is that fossil evidence indicates bears migrated to North America at roughly the same times and using the same land bridges as early humans.

 

[Borg]

TIL that there is something called GPS Rollover that occurred Saturday.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL that there is something called GPS Rollover that occurred Saturday.

Where are the doomsday prophets when you need them?

 

[Ibix]

Where are the doomsday prophets when you need them?

Lost due to a GPS failure, I imagine.

 

[DrGreg]

Where are the doomsday prophets when you need them?

Delayed by unforeseen circumstances.

 

[fresh_42]

Cool!

 

[DrGreg]

I have long known that "xyzzy" is a magic word that can sometimes elicit the response "Nothing happens", Explanation: Xyzzy (computing)

Today I learned it has another use, as a nmemonic to remember how the vector cross product is defined: $c_x = a_y b_z - a_z b_y$. Once you have the $x$ component, the others are obtained by cyclic permutation of the indices. Further details: Xyzzy (mnemonic)

 

[fresh_42]

TIL that there is such a thing as a musical isomorphism.

 

[BillTre]

Tangentially related to the "New Meat Free Hamburger" thread, I saw today that Carl's Jr. is going to be trying out a cannabis burger (CBD, not THC).

It will be called the Rocky Mountain High: CheeseBurger Delight burger.
It will be available only in Denver (as in John), Colorado, and only on April 20 (4/20).
The active ingredient will be in the sauce.

 

[jim hardy]

It will be called the Rocky Mountain High:

Wow. Do i love puns...

A friend of mine has about a thousand acres of south facing mountaintop 40 miles West of Denver, around 9600 ft elevation, already permitted for renewable electric power and with water rights. I'm hoping a grower decides that'd be a good site for a mega-greenhouse.

 

[Klystron]

I have long known that "xyzzy" is a magic word that can sometimes elicit the response "Nothing happens", Explanation: Xyzzy (computing)

Today I learned it has another use, as a nmemonic to remember how the vector cross product is defined: $c_x = a_y b_z - a_z b_y$. Once you have the $x$ component, the others are obtained by cyclic permutation of the indices. Further details: Xyzzy (mnemonic)

Your post reminds me of a small desert town near the southern border between Nevada and California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zzyzx,_California familiar to drivers on Interstate route 15.

 

[fresh_42]

Today I found a real error on a mathematical Wikipedia page for the first time. I always thought you cannot go wrong reporting mathematical facts, but obviously you can.

 

[Tom.G]

Well, to get a true impression, sometimes you have drop the first letter of Wikipedia.

 

[fresh_42]

Well, to get a true impression, sometimes you have drop the first letter of Wikipedia.

But I like Iggy!

 

[davenn]

This one deserves to be in here as well as the joke thread ...

 

[pinball1970]

Today I found a real error on a mathematical Wikipedia page for the first time. I always thought you cannot go wrong reporting mathematical facts, but obviously you can.

what was it?

 

[fresh_42]

what was it?

A non associative algebra is a baric algebra if and only if it has an ideal of codimension one.
+
More generally it can be shown that Lie algebras cannot be baric algebras.

This sounds reasonable each on its own, but what about solvable Lie algebras which do have an ideal of codimension one? E.g. $\mathcal{A} = \langle X,Y\,|\,[X,Y]=Y\rangle$.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baric-Algebra

 

[mfb]

Why didn't you fix it?

The page hardly gets attention, the last content change was done 2008.

 

[fresh_42]

Why didn't you fix it?

The page hardly gets attention, the last content change was done 2008.

I tried for short but didn't find an entry point. I also assume that some additional condition was missing and since there was no reference to "it can be shown" I gave up. A correction meant work to do, although I think I have the book where it's from. But mainly, it was because I didn't manage to figure out how to make adjustments.

 

[mfb]

There is an "edit" button (or "Seite bearbeiten" in German). The syntax is a bit different from forums but the basics are easy to learn. Or use the discussion page. Don't worry about the formatting - others will take care of it if there is a problem. Fixing content errors is more important.
Otherwise the error will stay in there and confuse more readers.