Today I Learned

[Stavros Kiri]

Let me put it this way:

I recently made a joke about American (writing even the most obvious things in instruction manuals) and Chinese (eating everything) stereotypes. Another mentor complained and requested to remove it. Looks as if those standards do not apply to German stereotypes! And this was neither the first nor will it be the last case!

That's not what I meant. It seems there was a typo in my post. I just edited (see last sentence) ...
[I just implied that Germans do actually survive the joke ... ]

 

[fresh_42]

It was bad. Too bad to even answer. The "ü" was the closests it came to real German.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

It was bad. Too bad to even answer. The "ü" was the closests it came to real German.

Point taken. And I think the whole "funniest joke issue" is exaggerated. But my comment meant no offense to anyone [it was just humorous] , I hope you realize that.

 

[fresh_42]

Sure. I was simply angry that joking about things put in the microwave as an American stereotype was criticízed while joking about sausages or language are not! Some people judge things very differently depending by whom it was said!

 

[Stavros Kiri]

Sure. I was simply angry that joking about things put in the microwave as an American stereotype was criticízed while joking about sausages or language are not! Some people judge things very differently depending by whom it was said!

Sometimes it happens. I try to be objective and impartial as well.

 

[Klystron]

John Cleese of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fame seems to relish poking fun at Germans at the same time parodying strong anti-German sentiments at home, historical residue of the first half of the 20th C.

I am reminded of a German language movie set in post-Soviet East Germany, later developed as a TV series, where high-school seniors facing bleak prospects during and after Unification, recite acknowledgment of German overreach in Modern History class in grim sing-song rote. Yes, the ex-GDR students recite, terrible events occurred long before we were born. Now we must adjust to capitalism after being educated by socialists.

 

[mfb]

They had said between 2019 and 2022. Any idea when in 2020 it is beginning?

Second quarter is the best estimate, but the Chinese rarely make fixed launch dates far in advance.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

Second quarter is the best estimate, but the Chinese rarely make fixed launch dates far in advance.

Thanks

 

[Drakkith]

TIL that, in 2009, there was an unprecedented infestation of Orb Weaver Spiders at the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore, MD. A study into the infestation estimated the spider population at greater than 100 million spiders.

http://www.entsoc.org/PDF/2010/Orb-weaving-spiders.pdf

 

[BillTre]

TIL that the word "conglobation" describes when an animal rolls itself into a ball, like a trilobite, three-banded armadillo, pill bug, or hedgehog.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

TIL that the word "conglobation" describes when an animal rolls itself into a ball, like a trilobite, three-banded armadillo, pill bug, or hedgehog.

Hi Bill:

Very interesting word. However, I found several online dictionaries all giving essentially the same definition which is not quite as constrained as your definition.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/conglobationConglobation

gathered together into a spherical shape.​

Example: conglobation of gravel and sand, 1697.​

Regards,
Buzz

 

[fresh_42]

Today I learned that Kant wrote a book "Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens" in 1755 in which he described the building of planets which is more or less still valid today. Unbelievable.

 

[BillTre]

Unbelievable.

You could say you Kant believe that.

 

[fresh_42]

You could say you Kant believe that.

Actually I do. I always thought that he only dealt with philosophy. I was surprised to hear that he has written something about astronomy, the more as he never left his hometown as far as I know. But he has studied Newton.

 

[Ibix]

Today I learned that the painter Jackson Pollock, famous for producing paintings by splashing paint on to the canvas was nicknamed Jack the Dripper.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

TIL that a word I have been using since pre-teen years has a different definition than I have always thought.
The word is "propaganda". I have always though that the word meant false information spread for political or other public purposes.

TIL

https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda​

This is just the most complete discussion of the word I have seen, but other online dictionaries agree that falseness is not needed for something to be propaganda. The word would also apply to advertizing to sell products, even if the ad has no false information.

 

[Borg]

I have always though that the word meant false information spread for political or other public purposes.

I wouldn't entirely give up on your original understanding. Even when telling the truth, it still places a heavy emphasis on selective information. Half a truth isn't very truthful.

 

[Drakkith]

TIL that a word I have been using since pre-teen years has a different definition than I have always thought.
The word is "propaganda". I have always though that the word meant false information spread for political or other public purposes.

TIL

https://www.britannica.com/topic/propaganda​

This is just the most complete discussion of the word I have seen, but other online dictionaries agree that falseness is not needed for something to be propaganda. The word would also apply to advertizing to sell products, even if the ad has no false information.

Huh. I've never really associated 'false' information with propaganda. I just see it as very, very biased information/advertising/whatever. Just look at all the propaganda posters and ads from WW2 here in the states. They never really lied to you, they just had a very patriotic spin.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

false information

I wouldn't entirely give up on your original understanding. Even when telling the truth, it still places a heavy emphasis on selective information. Half a truth isn't very truthful.

I've never really associated 'false' information with propaganda. I just see it as very, very biased information

Truth or falseness have nothing to do with it. Based on the etymology of the word, 'propaganda' means 'the spreading of a certain "philosophy" or point of view' (usually, inevitably, in a biased way - no matter whether true or false ...) [(Latin) Propagare = Spread, Propagate].

 

[gleem]

Today I learned that the Sandia National Lab supercomputer ASCI Red was the first computer to exceed 1TFOPS in 1997. It occupied 2500 sq ft. and cost $55M. In 2016 Sony introduced the PlayStation 4 pro weighs about 10 lbs. with comp rate of 4.2 TFOPS and costs less than $400. In the next 20 years will we be able to put one in our pockets?

 

[mfb]

In the next 20 years will we be able to put one in our pockets?

Why waiting that long?

 

[gleem]

Once (if) Musk's AI company develops the computer brain interface we won't even need a monitor or VR glasses. Do you remember the TV series "Caprica" with its popular VR experience. Might be a lot closer than we think.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

Once (if) Musk's AI company develops the computer brain interface we won't even need a monitor or VR glasses. Do you remember the TV series "Caprica" with its popular VR experience. Might be a lot closer than we think.

Let's see the VR [how it goes] first ...

 

[fresh_42]

Once (if) Musk's AI company develops the computer brain interface we won't even need a monitor or VR glasses. Do you remember the TV series "Caprica" with its popular VR experience. Might be a lot closer than we think.

We are already at the stage that certain establishments like discos offer a chip implant for "easier" paying etc. I think before we will have a one-chip-for-all solution, we will run around with as many chips as there are brands we use. Could be fun to watch searching for and reading the right one!

 

[Ibix]

Having made a silly joke about the etymology of "off the wagon" as an expression for relapsing into alcoholism (or at least starting drinking again), I looked it up. TIL that the US used to have water wagons for watering unpaved roads to keep down dust. On the water wagon became slang for only drinking water, and off the (water) wagon its antonym.

And here I thought Lennie Briscoe coined the phrase.

 

[WWGD]

We are already at the stage that certain establishments like discos offer a chip implant for "easier" paying etc. I think before we will have a one-chip-for-all solution, we will run around with as many chips as there are brands we use. Could be fun to watch searching for and reading the right one!

I will keep mine in my shoulder.

 

[WWGD]

I haven't met a single one of those who like to " tell it like it is" who is also willing to " hear it like it is". The desire for truth goes ' poof' all the sudden.

 

[Stavros Kiri]

I haven't met a single one of those who likes to " tell it like it is" who is also willing to " hear it like it is". The desire for truth goes ' poof' all the sudden.

And you just learned that?! ...

 

[nitsuj]

today I learned the plural for forum is...fora

 

[WWGD]

today I learned the plural for forum is...fora

Thanks to you I learned something...fora change !

 

[BillTre]

Time to rename PF!

 

[Drakkith]

today I learned the plural for forum is...fora

Yes, but what do you call a flock of moose?

 

[Tom.G]

Yes, but what do you call a flock of moose?

A herd.

 

[256bits]

Yes, but what do you call a flock of moose?

A campground, which makes sense, since the suffix "en" performs a transitive, and certainly the stay at a campground is of transitive nature.
http://www.flockamoosen.com/index.html

 

[collinsmark]

Time to rename PF!

Hmm. Physics Fora. Physics Fora.

It does have sort of a ring to it.

 

[dlgoff]

today I learned the plural for forum is...fora

I was beginning to get worried that "Forums" wasn't a real word. So I checked my word processor's dictionary;
(plural fo·rums or fo·ra [fáwrə]).
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

I feel better now.

 

[fresh_42]

I was beginning to get worried that "Forums" wasn't a real word. So I checked my word processor's dictionary;
(plural fo·rums or fo·ra [fáwrə]).
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

I feel better now.

Latin declination is quite rare in English, even if the nomen is Latin, in my opinion. E.g. my spell checker doesn't alert me on weird constructions like forums, indexes, statuses, post scriptums, or similar strange plurals.

 

[Bystander]

I was beginning to get worried that "Forums" wasn't a real word. So I checked my word processor's dictionary;
(plural fo·rums or fo·ra [fáwrə]).
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Still wouldn't bet on that.

 

[dlgoff]

Latin declination is quite rare in English, even if the nomen is Latin, in my opinion. E.g. my spell checker doesn't alert me on weird constructions like forums, indexes, statuses, post scriptums, or similar strange plurals.

I consider you the language expert here; even with English. Heck, I didn't learn to read English until I was in college. Reason: I had hearing issues until about the 4th grade. Phonics ... what the heck is that; they all sounded the same to me. Even now there are words that I pronounce wrong. Also being dyslexic didn't help. I think maybe one reason I liked Math and Physics was that following equations was much easier than reading since I think in pictures.

 

[dlgoff]

Still wouldn't bet on that.

"Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved." was added when I copy and pasted from the dictionary. I should have deleted that line as I knew a comment would come. Damn Microsoft.

 

[Ibix]

I was beginning to get worried that "Forums" wasn't a real word. So I checked my word processor's dictionary;
(plural fo·rums or fo·ra [fáwrə]).
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2005 Microsoft Corporation[/color]. All rights reserved.

Still wouldn't bet on that.

Indeed. The © & (P) implies they just copied and pasted, probably from Wikipedia.

 

[Rive]

Even now there are words that I pronounce wrong.

Imagine the office of an international company where the official language is English, yet nobody there has English as native language: so everybody is desperately trying to recall all the lessons and figure out some common basis for understanding mostly based on written English (even worse: written technical English) and the native language of his own...

Imagine this keep on boiling for a decade.

Now, that's like how we are

 

[strangerep]

[...] yet nobody there has English as native language: [...]

Many decades ago, I and some of my colleagues were trying to understand a technical manual for some Japanese equipment. It was written in what we called "Jinglish" (Japanese English).

The strangest thing is that if one of us was to read the manual aloud, simulating a thick Japanese accent, and punctuated with lots of "and..ah...", the content became easier for the others to understand. Go figure.

(True story.)

 

[gmax137]

I worked in Japan for a few months back in 2011. Most of the Japanese engineers had some English. I'm sure they made fun of our accents, though we were limited to "arrigato" and "ohio, gozaimass." The "residual heat removal system" was a real tongue twister for them.

We would get English translations of regulatory requirements, some of these we couldn't figure out. We asked the Japanese engineers if they could explain one of them. The first guy got the original Japanese version, puzzled it over, then called a colleague over, then another, pretty soon there was a huddle of six or eight engineers. The final consensus? "It is very difficult to say just what this means."

 

[BillTre]

TIL that these exist:

Nice idea, I think.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Today I learned that an 8 inch square cake baking pan has almost exactly the same volume as a 9 inch round one of the same depth. My wife had the former but the recipe called for the latter, so she asked me to calculate the difference, which turned out to be less than 0.6%. We'll soon discover how well it works.

 

[WWGD]

Hmm. Physics Fora. Physics Fora.

It does have sort of a ring to it.

Physics Fora Dults.

 

[Bystander]

Physics Fora Dults.

Careful, careful.

 

[BillTre]

TIL there are bridges in India made of living tree roots:

Very cool. I want one.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL there are bridges in India made of living tree roots:

Very cool. I want one.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Watson! Bill is a nickname which points to North America, maybe Australia or New Zealand. Now none of them has a (sufficiently hot and wet) climate where such trees would grow. I conclude: no bridge for you, Bill.