Today I Learned

[berkeman]

But it turns out C02 is the biggest problem and there doesn't seem to be any practical solution.

The article I linked says outside air exchange is your best bet. Maybe add your air purifier in series with that outside air feed... And add a CO monitor please, just in case.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL about phytomining. Corn uses Si to make its leaves inedible. But corn cannot distinguish between Si and Ge, so it collects Ge in its leaves, too. Researchers have found even equal amounts on La.

 

[DrGreg]

Today I learned that (if Wikipedia can be trusted) the degree symbol ° originated in the 17th century as a "sexagesimal point" in base-60 numbers

E.g.

36‵‵‵25‵‵15‵1°15′2″36‴​

meaning$$ 36 \times 60^3 + 25 \times 60^2 + 15\times 60+ 1 + 15 \times 60^{-1}+ 2 \times 60^{-2} + 36 \times 60^{-3}$$Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal#Notations

 

[fresh_42]

Today I learned that (if Wikipedia can be trusted) the degree symbol ° originated in the 17th century as a "sexagesimal point" in base-60 numbers

E.g.

36‵‵‵25‵‵15‵1°15′2″36‴​

meaning$$ 36 \times 60^3 + 25 \times 60^2 + 15\times 60+ 1 + 15 \times 60^{-1}+ 2 \times 60^{-2} + 36 \times 60^{-3}$$Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagesimal#Notations

The German Wikipedia says the same but notes that the first known usage has been in 1569.
(Cajori, Florian: A History of Mathematical Notations. Dover Publications, New York 1993, ISBN 0-486-67766-4)

But they also added:

An alternative theory for the origin of the degree symbol says that it comes from an Egyptian hieroglyph, which represents the sun and means day.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradzeichen#Geschichte

 

[Astronuc]

AFP - Scientists have discovered what is believed to be the world's northernmost landmass — a yet-to-be-named island north of Greenland that could soon be swallowed up by seawaters.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210828-researchers-discover-world-s-northernmost-island

Ever been to Oodaaq? Oodaaq is some 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of the North Pole, while the new island is 780 metres (2,560 feet) north of Oodaaq.

I'm guessing part of the same land mass.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Oodaaq

Oodaaq Ø and other short-lived islets north of Greenland​

Abstract​

In 1978, a small island was discovered north of Kaffeklubben Ø, until then considered the most northern island on Earth. This island was named Oodaaq Ø. It was visited again in 1979, and in 1980 it was seen from Kaffeklubben Ø by members of the Sirius sledge patrol. Sirius searched for Oodaaq Ø again from 1981 to 1984 but did not find it. During the period from 1996 to 2008, the region was visited regularly and a number of new islets were discovered: the 1996 ATOW Island, KMS Island, 2001 RTOW Island, 83-42 Island, Stray Dog West Island and the 2008 Island. The islets are composed of gravel. We believe the area with islets is shallow, being a continuation of a coastal plain to the south. We suggest that the sea floor in the area is irregular and that the islets form by floes of sea ice that bulldoze material from the sea floor up above sea level. In some cases, perhaps all, the islets disappear when sea ice floes bulldoze sediment back below sea level. Alternatively, the so-called islets are just accumulations of gravel on sea ice.

Paywalled.
I don't get how gravel could get on top of sea ice.

 

[fresh_42]

I like the names, especially Kaffeeklubben! Who the heck brings that coffee?

 

[mfb]

Named after a club in a Danish museum, no coffee club on the island I fear. Has a bit of vegetation but not much else: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffeklubben_Island

 

[kyphysics]

 

[kyphysics]

Crazy

 

[fresh_42]

TIL I learned that even good old British humour counts as politics. I would have called it satire. I fear that even this post might be called politics.

 

[Borg]

After seeing candidates like Lord Buckethead, I didn't think there was a difference.

 

[kyphysics]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...r-covid-antibody-levels-in-study?srnd=premium

A study of almost 2,500 workers at a major Belgium hospital system found antibody levels among individuals who hadn’t been infected with the Coronavirus before getting two doses of the Moderna vaccine averaged 2,881 units per milliliter, compared with 1,108 units/mL in an equivalent group who got two jabs of the Pfizer shot.

The results, published Monday in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggested the differences might be explained by the:

• higher amount of active ingredient in the Moderna vaccine -- 100 micrograms, versus 30 micrograms in Pfizer-BioNTech
• longer interval between doses of the Moderna vaccine -- four weeks, versus three weeks for Pfizer-BioNTech

Found this interesting. Wondering how we should interpret this from a practical standpoint. If you had a choice, say, to go back in time and choose between Moderna vs. Pfizer, would this news make you lean more toward Moderna at all? The following was mentioned as well:

Moderna’s vaccine was associated with a two-fold risk reduction against breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections compared to Pfizer’s in a review of people in the Mayo Clinic Health System in the U.S. from January to July. The results were reported in a separate study released ahead of publication and peer review on Aug. 9.

 

[jack action]

TIL:
An Incredible Move: The Indiana Bell Telephone Building Rotation in 1930

​

 

[Hornbein]

Oodaaq Ø and other short-lived islets north of Greenland​

View attachment 288264
Paywalled.
I don't get how gravel could get on top of sea ice.

It isn't on the ice. It's piled up on the sea floor.

 

[Keith_McClary]

It isn't on the ice. It's piled up on the sea floor.

What do they mean by:

Alternatively, the so-called islets are just accumulations of gravel on sea ice.

"Sea ice" means floating ice that froze on the sea (+ some snow).

 

[Hornbein]

What do they mean by:

"Sea ice" means floating ice that froze on the sea (+ some snow).

It says there are two alternatives. I'd say the gravel on top of ice has got to be wrong.

 

[baruch60610]

Today I learned that "chasing the dragon" is slang for smoking heroin.

Originally, it was smoking opium...

 

[fresh_42]

TYL: "Things you have to cope with on German Autobahns." (Just in case you erroneously think you could try on holiday.) We are trained.

 

[DaveC426913]

It says there are two alternatives. I'd say the gravel on top of ice has got to be wrong.

The debris is almost certainly not deposited on the surface, it is surely left on the surface as snow melts (or sublimates) off.

Here in the Great White Slush, we see this effect all the time on winter roadsides.
Snowplows plow the snow off the roads, leaving three foot high banks. The banks start off pristine white, but as the snow melts away, the debris that's intermixed does not. Instead it accumulates thicker and thicker on the surface until the banks are black with it.

At that point, covered in a protective layer of grit, the snow banks virtually stop melting. But subsequent snowfalls or plowings accumulate; the new snow overlays the debris, then melts, and the new debris is simply laid down on the ever-thickening crust.

In the frozen artic who knows how old the surface of those islands could be. They could have been cycling through this process for centuries, millennia.

 

[DaveE]

TYL: "Things you have to cope with on German Autobahns." (Just in case you erroneously think you could try on holiday.) We are trained.

What are those yellow flashing lights I see sometimes on the corners of the cars? Do we have those on our cars in California?

 

[fresh_42]

Yellow flashing lights translate to "attention!" We use them to warn other drivers, e.g. at the end of a traffic jam to slow down in time, or in case of accidents, or if we have to stop at locations where it is forbidden or not supposed to stop.

 

[DaveC426913]

Yellow flashing lights

on the corners of cars, he said.

 

[DaveE]

Yellow flashing lights translate to "attention!" We use them to warn other drivers, e.g. at the end of a traffic jam to slow down in time, or in case of accidents, or if we have to stop at locations where it is forbidden or not supposed to stop.

I guess I'll need to work on my delivery then, maybe some open mike nights.

Unless they've change it, the law in California for emergency flashers was, when I learned it, that you can only use them when the vehicle is stopped. Which was stupid from the outset and ignored (or unknown) by everybody. That removes lots of useful circumstances that can improve safety.

 

[fresh_42]

I guess I'll need to work on my delivery then, maybe some open mike nights.

Unless they've change it, the law in California for emergency flashers was, when I learned it, that you can only use them when the vehicle is stopped. Which was stupid from the outset and ignored (or unknown) by everybody. That removes lots of useful circumstances that can improve safety.

If you are approaching a traffic jam and see a Porsche in the rear view mirror from far, you better use them.

 

[berkeman]

Unless they've change it, the law in California for emergency flashers was, when I learned it, that you can only use them when the vehicle is stopped. Which was stupid from the outset and ignored (or unknown) by everybody. That removes lots of useful circumstances that can improve safety.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&sectionNum=25251.

California Vehicle Code - VEH
DIVISION 12. EQUIPMENT OF VEHICLES [24000 - 28160] ( Division 12 enacted by Stats. 1959, Ch. 3. )

CHAPTER 2. Lighting Equipment [24250 - 26106] ( Chapter 2 enacted by Stats. 1959, Ch. 3. )


ARTICLE 7. Flashing and Colored Lights [25250 - 25282] ( Article 7 enacted by Stats. 1959, Ch. 3. )


25251.

(a) Flashing lights are permitted on vehicles as follows:

(1) To indicate an intention to turn or move to the right or left upon a roadway, turn signal lamps and turn signal exterior pilot indicator lamps and side lamps permitted under Section 25106 may be flashed on the side of a vehicle toward which the turn or movement is to be made.

(2) When disabled or parked off the roadway but within 10 feet of the roadway, or when approaching, stopped at, or departing from, a railroad grade crossing, turn signal lamps may be flashed as warning lights if the front turn signal lamps at each side are being flashed simultaneously and the rear turn signal lamps at each side are being flashed simultaneously.

(3) To warn other motorists of accidents or hazards on a roadway, turn signal lamps may be flashed as warning lights while the vehicle is approaching, overtaking, or passing the accident or hazard on the roadway if the front turn signal lamps at each side are being flashed simultaneously and the rear turn signal lamps at each side are being flashed simultaneously.

(4) For use on authorized emergency vehicles.

(5) To warn other motorists of a funeral procession, turn signal lamps may be flashed as warning lights on all vehicles actually engaged in a funeral procession, if the front turn signal lamps at each side are being flashed simultaneously and the rear turn signal lamps at each side are being flashed simultaneously.

<<snip>>

 

[Ibix]

on the corners of cars, he said.

On an old forum I used to read someone's signature was "Use your turn signals! You people act like it's sharing information with the enemy!"

 

[BillTre]

From a fun movie I like:

 

[Borg]

I was trying to figure out where that came from and eventually ran across this one.

 

[BillTre]

I was trying to figure out where that came from and eventually ran across this one.

It is from the movie "Shoot Em Up".


Lots of guns, lots of shooting.

 

[fresh_42]

TIR (ecognized), that it is a very thin line that prevents us from even more people trying to prove conjectures in number theory. Wiles was able to decrease the number of FLT provers, so they seemingly all ran over to Collatz. However, there are many more unproven, and very easy to phrase conjectures. But they use $\equiv$ and $\mod n$ instead of $=$. So it's literally a thin line that prevents us from people who try to prove, e.g.
$$
p \in \mathbb{P} \Longleftrightarrow \sum_{k=1}^{n-1}k^{n-1} \equiv -1 \mod n
$$

 

[Stavros Kiri]

TIL our Sun switches magnetic poles every 11 years.

Finding that out is a little like being a biology enthusiast for decades and then one day discovering the existence of rodents.

Thus, the (plus, minus, plus) full-cycle polarity period is actually 22 years ...

Also the age of some trees on the Earth is actually reflected via the 11 year cycles ... (with equal number of homocentric rings/circles inside their trunk core [1 circle for every 11 years of age] ...) !

Another not commonly known intersting solar phenomenon/property is Sun's differential rotation (e.g. the period of rotation at the equator is not the same as at the poles ... [~25 vs 38 days ...]) ...

What are these rodent things?

What is a Sun? [Never heard of it! ...]

As far as being embarrassed about not knowing something, for the first sixty years of my life I thought Jupiter wasn't visible to the naked eye.

Myself I thought (was expecting, based on relative sizes) that Jupiter would seem a lot bigger than it does ...
[Kind of disappointed when first saw it (back in the 80s ...) ..., but still surprised I never wondered or looked for it earlier! ... (having noticed only the Moon as huge ... ...) - turns out I was wrong twice! ... So, don't worry!]
(After all, it turns out it's relatively pretty big though! ... [can't complain now ...])

 

[BillTre]

TIL that there is a

radiodont Cambroraster falcatus, so named because its head carapace is similar in shape to the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.

It lived in the Cambrian period (time of first widespread complex animal fossils).
The head carapace is like the large shell on a crab (as seen from above).

 

[kyphysics]

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/officials-health-care-rationing-spread-idaho-79895419
Idaho is rationing care amid COVID. Tough decisions.

 

[Hornbein]

Today my 72 year old brain learned just how correct my 25 year old brain was, about how pretty this picture was and still is

View attachment 174187

PS. After all these years, I still can't follow directions:(:(

A Swedish genie is a bit of a stretch, but what the heck.

My fave bit is when she spoke in Farsi. But it didn't last.

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that influenza was spread through the air.

Duh.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I am divorced and do a lot of dating. When meeting someone new, I always insist on a coffee date for a first meet. After getting catfished a number of times I learned not to commit to an expensive dinner or similar until I know if the person online is who they say they are. Most women are fine with that as it protects both of us. But I made a very rare exception to the coffee date rule when I met my current girlfriend a year ago. I had a good feeling about her and asked her out for a nice dinner on our first date.

TIL that had I insisted on a coffee date first like I normally do, she never would have gone out with me.

 

[jack action]

TIL about the rooftop racetrack of Fiat’s Lingotto factory:

The manufacturing plant’s assembly line itself was unusual, and the test track was an integral part of it. Production started at the ground floor and continued sequentially up through the upper floors. As each floor passed, the cars approached their final shape until they emerged as a finished product at the rooftop where they were ready for testing.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

TIL that people in the food tech world actually talk about the thermodynamics of a sandwich.

So just what is the R value of bread... and the heat capacity and thermal conductivity of mayo?

 

[Hornbein]

Reggae star Peter Tosh was able to ride a unicycle.

 

[Hornbein]

In Japan students are not allowed to ride automobiles to or from school.

The students clean the school. There are no janitors.

 

[Astronuc]

In the US in 1940, coal cost $2.36 per ton, and diesel fuel was $.0436 per gallon.
https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/trnm1114.pdf

From Trains, August 1, 2016, 1939’s big breakthrough: The FT

Seventy-five years ago (in 2016) on Nov. 25, 1939, Electro-Motive Corp.’s FT demonstrator diesel locomotive No. 103 left its birthplace at the company’s La Grange, Ill., plant. Nobody, not even its builders, knew what the new creation could do. True, the 17-year-old Electro-Motive had been a pioneer in diesel propulsion for railroad use, having built a successful line of self-propelled passenger cars (doodlebugs), diesel switchers, and diesel passenger locomotives. But the new FT would make the company’s fortunes soar. No. 103 became the prototype for, in the words of Trains Editor David P. Morgan, the world’s first standardized, mass-produced line of diesel freight locomotives with “no equal in railroading.” The tour was more experiment than demonstration. The builder’s tone was, “We’d like you to help us find out just what we’ve got here.” They learned that the locomotive not only could pull record tonnage in record time while using half the fuel of a steam locomotive but it also needed minimal maintenance and had excellent reliability in all kinds of weather. It was equally adept at hauling passengers as it was freight. By the time the FT returned to La Grange in October 1940, 83,764 miles later, the diesel locomotive revolution had begun its meteoric rise. Sixteen of the railroads that hosted the FTs ordered them as soon as possible after the tour. Many roads on the trip that didn’t buy FTs later became big EMC customers; based on the tests, eight other railroads bought FTs for a total of 1,096 units. By 1947 the now-Electro-Motive Division of General Motors was cranking out four to six diesel locomotives a day. It’s appropriate in this 75th anniversary year of that fateful tour that the original FT, No. 103, is still with us. After a career of lugging freight on Southern Railway, No. 103 was donated in the early 1960s to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. The locomotive, “the diesel that did it,” took a place of honor during this year’s “Streamliners at Spencer” festival, celebrating the sleek, smooth look of early American diesel locomotives. Norfolk Southern is repainting the unit at its shop in Chattanooga, Tenn., before returning it to the museum St. Louis. No. 103 is a prized artifact in the history of American railroad technology, one of the true forces of technological change.

 

[berkeman]

In Japan students are not allowed to ride automobiles to or from school.

Yikes. What do they do when it rains?

 

[gmax137]

What do they do when it rains?

Japan has more umbrellas per capita than anywhere else I've ever been.

 

[Hornbein]

Yikes. What do they do when it rains?

Use umbrellas and rain clothes.

Tokyo is full of abandoned umbrellas. Recently I passed a convenience store that had thirty of them in their trash.

There are abandoned bicycles all over the place. When people move there is often no practical way to take the bike, so they are left behind. You can buy a new one for $140 so it isn't a big deal.

Many people don't oil their bike's chain. They get caked with rust. I feel like starting a League for Prevention of Cruelty to Bicycles.

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was of the Bahai' faith.

In related news (which I didn't learn today) Tina Turner belongs to a fringe Buddhist sect while Prince was a Jehovah's Witness.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Today I learned that jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was of the Bahai' faith.

In related news (which I didn't learn today) Tina Turner belongs to a fringe Buddhist sect while Prince was a Jehovah's Witness.

Tom Cruise and John Travolta are Scientologists

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that Chick Corea didn't write Spain. (He did co-write it.)

Yesterday I learned that John Denver didn't write Take Me Home Country Roads. (He did co-write it.)

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that nobody wrote "In America the poor think of themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." It is a highly condensed and paraphrased extract from a book review by John August.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

YIL where we get tartaric acid and cream of tartar.