Today I Learned

  • Thread starter Greg Bernhardt
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In summary: Today I learned that Lagrange was Italian and that he lamented the execution of Lavoisier in France during the French Revolution with the quote:"It took them only an instant to cut off this head and a hundred years might not suffice to reproduce it's...brains."
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Every day we learn new things. Sometimes it's just a small fact or realization. No matter how trivial or random, let's start recording our daily lessons.

Please start off with "Today I learned". Keep commentary to a minimum and just LIKE posts. I'll start!

Today I learned that you clean up a white hat by spraying some cleaner with bleach on it (rinse before putting it back on your head!)
 
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Today I learned that "oyster veneering", a wood working technique invented in the late 1600's in England but dropped after about 50 years as being just too damned labor intensive in addition to being a bit gaudy, is having a very slight revival these days presumably by people with too much time on their hands. I had thought it was just a historical curiosity.

I found this out when I did some research to make a slight update to the entry on oyster veneering in my woodworking glossary, here:

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_g_NO.htm
 
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  • #3
Today I learned that 23! is 25,852,016,738,884,976,640,000 which has, coincidentally, 23 digits. The same coincidence does not occur in any other factorial except 1!.
 
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  • #4
Today I learned that TV makes people more fat than they are in real.
 
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  • #5
zoki85 said:
Today I learned that TV makes people more fat than they are in real.
Yeah, but I've tried adjusting my personal aspect ratio and I'm STILL fat !
 
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  • #6
Today I learned that the list of threads similar to the "today I learned" thread is most hilarious.
 
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  • #7
Today I learned that a medical specialist will spend less than 10 minutes in the examination room with me. I also learned that after three minutes they start typing on the computer even if I am still talking. I did not learn if they can actually multitask.
 
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  • #8
Today I learned that I can make it across a swimming pool of more than 1 km in front crawling style without stopping to rest.
 
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  • #9
Today I learned how bloody expensive it is to get decent business suits
 
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  • #10
Today I learned 9 posts worth of mildly amusing and competely trivial information.
 
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  • #11
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:cool:

i+dream+of+jeannie.png


PS. After all these years, I still can't follow directions:(:(
 
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  • #12
Today I learned that "oyster veneering" is not a food-preparation technique.
 
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  • #13
Today I learned that "chasing the dragon" is slang for smoking heroin.
 
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  • #14
Today I learned the Linux error message: "eth0: UDP Checksum error" can mean the Ethernet cable is loose on the server NIC card.

DOH!
 
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  • #15
Today I learned what to do if a GENeco bus is out of fuel.
Bio-Bus-Press-1-1024x740.jpg
 
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  • #16
Today I learned that Muhammad Ali, although sentenced in 1967 to 5 years in prison for draft evasion, never served time in jail and his conviction was overturned on appeal in 1971.
 
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  • #18
Today I learned bureaucracy is a pain.

In essence a law passed to "protect employees" is causing them to be fired and prevents them to be rehired by any other employer. Thanks to the government and the National Academy of Science *sigh*
 
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  • #19
zoobyshoe said:
Today I learned that 23! is 25,852,016,738,884,976,640,000 which has, coincidentally, 23 digits. The same coincidence does not occur in any other factorial except 1!.
If you divide that number by 23 doesn't that mean that 22! Is a 22-digit number?
 
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  • #20
PeroK said:
If you divide that number by 23 doesn't that mean that 22! Is a 22-digit number?
Congratulations! You are correct. Also, 24! is a 24 digit number. It's a hat trick: 22!, 23!, 24! .
 
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  • #21
I learned the mtDNA is passed down from the mother mainly
 
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  • #22
Today I learned that my part time Hispanic housekeeper is not Hispanic. She is a Member of the Hopi Nation (Native American Indian) and a student at the University of Arizona.
 
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  • #23
Today I learned that Cambridge University is older than the Aztecs
 
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  • #24
Today I learned that under Similar Threads, there is a thread titled "I had sex today" the year 2005 (nasty times at PFoo)) :D...Gee! I miss Moonbear :(:L.
 
  • #25
Today I learned that a single kiss may transfer 80 million microbes!:rolleyes:
 
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  • #26
Greg Bernhardt said:
Today I learned that Cambridge University is older than the Aztecs
Certainly the Aztec empire, but I think the peoples were in the region in order to migrate into the valley which became the foundation for the empire.
 
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  • #27
Lisa! said:
Today I learned that a single kiss may transfer 80 million microbes!:rolleyes:
More details...please:k

Was that 80 million worth ?:eek:oo):cool:
 
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  • #28
Today I learned in this thread that a single kiss may transfer 80 million microbobes. Somewhere else today I learned that over a hundred people were killed in the Thammasat University Massacre.
 
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  • #29
Today I learned the things from Today I learned today.
 
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  • #31
Today I learned that Lagrange was Italian and that he lamented the execution of Lavoisier in France during the French Revolution with the quote:

It took them only an instant to cut off this head and a hundred years might not suffice to reproduce it's like.
 
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  • #32
jedishrfu said:
Today I learned that Lagrange was Italian and that he lamented the execution of Lavoisier in France during the French Revolution with the quote:
Today I learned even smart people like Lagrange can inappropriately use apostrophes.
 
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  • #33
lisab said:
Today I learned even smart people like Lagrange can inappropriately use apostrophes.

I see only one apostrophe, and my French is almost as bad as my Klingon, but I would guess that it was not his fault. Wiki seems to have fixed the error:

"Il ne leur a fallu qu’un moment pour faire tomber cette tête, et cent années peut-être ne suffiront pas pour en reproduire une semblable."
("It took them only an instant to cut off this head, and one hundred years might not suffice to reproduce its like.")

ps. Lavoisier named Oxygen.

pps. The wiki entry on his last days: Final days and execution
sounds very much like, um, right now.

ppps. Was that here, FB, or in a dream, where I theorized that the French were nice to us back then, because they knew we'd be here one day?

Never mind. It was on my sister's FB page, regarding her disgust of the images that U.S. kids were tweeting of their icky looking lunches. And then she commented on how healthy French children ate. And then, it happened...OmCheeto: I hope that you are aware, that France has the highest tax burden in the world. hmmm... I wonder if this is why the French, from our very beginning, as a country, sided with us. They went through what we are going through now, 200 years ago. Don't we have a castle in the north of France?
 
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  • #34
Today I learned how to address a cat:

But always bear in mind that he
Resents familiarityYou bow, and taking off your hat
Ad-dress him in this form: "O' cat!"

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/cats/thead-dressingofcats.htm

(I just now saw the musical "Cats" for the first time, in a TV production on PBS.)
 
  • #35
Today I learned how to fix my own mistake. You tear apart your work and start over

More work than I thought.
 
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