Today I Learned

[jtbell]

Today I learned that in baseball, if the batter hits the ball over the outfield fence in fair territory, it's not necessarily a home run.

 

[fresh_42]

Today I've learnt, no better, I have just found and can't still close my mouth over this surprise.

First a language problem. I was looking for an English term. Google translate gave me "tease", another dictionary had "sobstuff", "tear jerker" and now it comes: "schmaltzy song". WHAT? They really transported this into English? Unbelievable, however, better than Blitzkrieg.

Now as you know what it's about, namely one of the most "schmaltzy songs" and the most famous grammar mistake in German music history, you can imagine what kind of song this is. And ... I've just found a version from Metallica! Incroyable! And the worst of all: neither transformed into heavy metal nor translated into English.

How about adopting another word: fremdschamen = feeling ashamed but for the deeds of strangers.

 

[jim hardy]

So, what schmaltzy song were you describing ? Teenangel ?

 

[Craftek_Ana]

Today I learned "SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon and then land on a bouncy house".
Theoretically sounds outlandish, giant parachute could be possible? Lost on bouncy house.

Goodnight everyone.

 

[mfb]

Not the upper stage, just the payload fairing. Here is an image of it, it has two halves around the payload to protect it in the atmosphere.
The "bouncy house" was an earlier concept that didn't get realized. The default option is now a big net on a ship. The ship is not available this time, so they will just land it softly in the water with a parachute.

Edit: Just saw the tweet. Unclear if that is a joke...
The second stage will deploy the satellite in a highly eccentric orbit, not very suitable for bringing it back in a controlled way. A balloon to speed up deorbiting? I can imagine that.

Edit2: Look like this statement is for missions after TESS.

 

[StoneTemplePython]

First a language problem. I was looking for an English term. Google translate gave me "tease", another dictionary had "sobstuff", "tear jerker" and now it comes: "schmaltzy song". WHAT? They really transported this into English? Unbelievable, however, better than Blitzkrieg.

Now as you know what it's about, namely one of the most "schmaltzy songs" and the most famous grammar mistake in German music history, you can imagine what kind of song this is. And ... I've just found a version from Metallica!

Blitzkrieg, btw, is a Metallica song. A pretty good one for workouts.

What song were you looking up? Maybe (their cover of) Turn The Page?

 

[Craftek_Ana]

Not the upper stage, just the payload fairing. Here is an image of it, it has two halves around the payload to protect it in the atmosphere.
The "bouncy house" was an earlier concept that didn't get realized. The default option is now a big net on a ship. The ship is not available this time, so they will just land it softly in the water with a parachute.

Edit: Just saw the tweet. Unclear if that is a joke...
The second stage will deploy the satellite in a highly eccentric orbit, not very suitable for bringing it back in a controlled way. A balloon to speed up deorbiting? I can imagine that.

Ha! Your edit was also exactly my thought process as well! Interested to know on how they will plan to pin point it's exact landing spot to set up the landing "bouncy house". Speaking of pin, also interested in knowing how to avoid it perforating it. Sounds like a net may be a better idea, if at all feasible.

 

[fresh_42]

So, what schmaltzy song were you describing ? Teenangel ?

Funny fact: Although the misplaced and removable "c" has survived the conversion, there also has been inserted a new "t", which doesn't exist in the original. Strange. The literal translation would be greasy.

What song were you looking up? Maybe (their cover of) Turn The Page?

None of those. It was a German song, sung in German and basically with the original arrangement, i.e. not made metal, which also exist. I would link them, but I think there have been copyright issues, which is why we had to close the music thread. "marmor stein und eisen bricht heavy metal version" should bring up the list on youtube. And "bricht" is grammatically wrong.

 

[OCR]

So, what schmaltzy song were you describing ? Teenangel ?

Mark Dinning - Teen Angel

... ↓↓

She went back for a ring? What a goober!

^♫Just sweet sixteen, and now you're gone... they've taken you away...
I'll never kiss your lips again... cause they're still on the traa-aa-ain... ooooh, ooooh, ooooooh...^♫

Lol... actually though, I've always liked that song... .

.

 

[jim hardy]

The literal translation would be greasy.

Ahh ! Hence this from Webster's...

Langauge is fascinating.

old jim

 

[fresh_42]

Langauge is fascinating.

Btw., Schmalz is also (rarely) used as a synonymous for money, esp. when it's used to make things work (= oil), i.e. for corruption.

 

[mfb]

♪ Marmor, Stein und Eisen brechen, ♫ aber unsere Liebe nicht. ♪

Nope, doesn't work (grammatically correct, but doesn't rhyme any more: Marble, stone and iron will break, but not our love).

♪ Marmor, Stein und Eisen brechen, ♫ lass uns Liebe besprechen. ♪

I'm not convinced (grammatically correct, rhymes, but lost the message: Marble, stone and iron will break, let's talk about love).

♪ Marmor, Stein, ja, alles bricht, ♫ aber unsere Liebe nicht. ♪

That would work: Marble, stone, well, everything breaks, but not our love.

 

[jim hardy]

To tune of Liebestraum ?

 

[fresh_42]

To tune of Liebestraum ?

That would be far too much of an honor!

 

[Ibix]

Unbelievable, however, better than Blitzkrieg.

What's wrong with Blitzkrieg? It's literally "lightning war" and means a rapid assault, too fast for your enemy to get their defences deployed to meet it. Isn't that its original meaning? Or are you complaining that it's also shortened to Blitz and used to describe the WWII bombing campaign against Britain? I agree that's a misuse of the term as I understand it.

We quite happily steal words from other languages - schadenfreude and zeitgeist are well known, even if not exactly used every day.

 

[fresh_42]

We quite happily steal words from other languages

Well, Blitzkrieg is quite martial, that's all. Not really a friendly word. I guess adoption and adaption occur in every language. With words that make sense, there is no problem. One of the favorite words of an American grown up friend of mine is "schweigen". It cannot be translated without changing its meaning, and the other way around it's "sophisticated". However, it becomes annoying if there is no need to and it's just because it's hip to say it, here in English. No survey on tv or the internet in which people are requested "voten Sie jetzt" (vote now). The alien conjugation alone is terrible. I know the Russian have adopted "Butterbrot" (the German version of a sandwich) and "Schlagbaum", this red and white bar at boundaries where travelers are stopped by customs officers. From the Russian language we adopted "Bistro" for a diner, which means quick. And the Huguenots brought many French words with them, e.g. we say Trottoir for a sidewalk, or Kanapee for sofa, but also Couch. As @jim hardy has said:

Langauge is fascinating.

 

[mfb]

And the Huguenots brought many French words with them, e.g. we say Trottoir for a sidewalk, or Kanapee for sofa

You'll find these in a few regions only - mainly close to the French border and in Switzerland.
Couch has a French origin as well, but came to Germany via the English language.

We quite happily steal words from other languages - schadenfreude and zeitgeist are well known, even if not exactly used every day.

Kindergarten!

 

[fresh_42]

You'll find these in a few regions only - mainly close to the French border and in Switzerland.

The border isn't close but we do have quite a few French settlements in the area and even a church from Huguenots in my town. E.g. people say Atschö here for good-bye, which clearly once had been adieu. And some names are still of French origin. The traces of the Huguenots are all around here. It isn't the neighborhood to the border, rather the persecution of French protestants under Loius XIV.

 

[Stephenk53]

Today I learned that the Today I learned thread is still alive.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL Do not buy a French camembert if the text on the box contains the word "aromatique" if you do not have a separate fridge for it.

 

[Bystander]

separate fridge for it.

... , and a separate house for the separate fridge.

 

[DrGreg]

Today I learned about two features of the Windows interface that have been around since Windows 7 but I never heard of before.

• If you try to drag a window as far as you can off the left or right side of the screen, it will resize to fill half the screen when you release the mouse.

• If you "shake" a window (mouse-down on the title bar and rapidly drag from side-to-side), all the other windows will be minimised. Shake the window again and the others reappear.

 

[nitsuj]

Microsoft has an addin for excel called fuzzy lookup; it compares data points between two (or more i think) tables. it will output a "match" of a reference data point from the table(s) being referenced and computes a value between 0 and 1 representing the "similarity"

Column1 Column2 Similarity
tomato tomatto 0.9488

 

[BillTre]

TIL that I can get a life sized model of a human skull, with a brain inside, for only $14.50!

 

[lekh2003]

TIL that Eugen Goldstein did not know that canal rays were protons and that he thought it was related to the ether. This is contrary to all of the crap we are learning in school about how he discovered the proton and was so great for knowing that the proton had a lower charge to mass ratio. TIL that this is not true and that Wily Wein and JJ Thomson did most of this work.

 

[BillTre]

TIL that there are at least two facebook group on isopods (mostly known to people as pill bugs), mostly as pets and for selling them.
In my ingnorance of pill bug diversity I didn't realize there was such variety of small morphological differences and colors.
They also have mutants like albino.
This is a lot like fish groups.

However they seem to lack any information on one of the more interesting isopods (a fish tongue eating parasite).

 

[jtbell]

TIL that Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL that Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish.

As far as I've experienced, they are home in basically every culture. The meat might differ, and often they are wrapped in pasta dough and cooked, and they have different names, but in the end they all are the same.

There is a certain region here, where meat in pasta have a very funny (unofficial) name: Herrgottsbescheißerle. It's difficult to translate, but it means "screws the Lord". They are basically pelmeni, just German instead of Russian. The name came from the Middle Ages and they were eaten during lent, although forbidden. But as they were hidden behind the dough, the Lord couldn't see it.

Even grilled meatballs have a couple of different names in Germany alone, depending on the region. I think it's a bit like apple-pie: everybody has it.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Today I learned that NEWS is an acronym for Notable Events, Weather, and Sports.

 

[Borg]

Today I learned that NEWS is an acronym for Notable Events, Weather, and Sports.

Darn, I thought that it was points on a compass.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Damn, I thought that it was points on a compass.

I posted too quickly. I saw a bunch of sources saying this so I thought it was right. Webster dictionary tweeted to the contrary.

 

[Borg]

I posted too quickly. I saw a bunch of sources saying this so I thought it was right. Webster dictionary tweeted to the contrary.

That's OK, Snopes didn't like either of our thoughts - https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/news-2/.

 

[dabunting]

Yeah, but I've tried adjusting my personal aspect ratio and I'm STILL fat !

Today I learned that TV makes people more fat than they are in real.

Showing fatter people in ads makes them more attractive to the majority of us who are fat.

 

[Craftek_Ana]

Today I learned that NEWS is an acronym for Notable Events, Weather, and Sports.

Well I'll be damned. Did not know this, TIL.. lol

 

[nitsuj]

Well I'll be damned. Did not know this, TIL.. lol

that's because it's not true lol