Today I Learned

[davenn]

YouTube has the scene I mean, but I can't link to it due to bad language.

dang, Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid are so young !

 

[zoobyshoe]

dang, Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid are so young !

Right? It's disorienting.

 

[Astronuc]

2013 Tahoe is reputed to have electric power steering

Aubrey McClendon’s car will tell whether he killed himself
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aubrey-mcclendon-s-car-will-tell-if-he-killed-himself-182023313.html

Vehicles, by contrast, don’t contain a box, per se. The data is captured by an airbag control module, which is more like a chip. All modern vehicles have such chips, but the data captured varies by manufacturer. And the modules aren’t fireproof, either. Many are made of aluminum; the one in a 2013 Tahoe is made of plastic.

Police have already said he was traveling well above the 40-mile-per-hour speed limit on the road, and that he had a chance to steer away from the bridge but didn’t. Other circumstantial evidence, such as a lack of prominent skid marks close to the bridge, also suggests suicide. “I’d say he aimed for that bridge support,” says Rusty Haight, director of the Collision Safety Institute in San Diego, who has examined photos and videos of the crash. “He was going into that bridge support. It’s the only thing in the area.”

 

[Psinter]

Today I learned how to make a funny smiley:


Result: http://imgur.com/jqpONKv

 

[davenn]

Today I learned how to make a funny smiley:


Result: http://imgur.com/jqpONKv

awesome :) well done

 

[Psinter]

awesome :) well done

Thanks!

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Today I learned yet again that Microsoft's "upgrades" aren't necessarily upwards compatible, and can be much worse than the version they replace.

In this case, opening old Publisher 2007 stuff in Publisher 2016 results in a somewhat messed up layout due to spacing changes, and various old options are simply ignored (for example converting pictures to grayscale). However, the most exasperating thing is that even in new documents the character spacing goes wrong if the text changes between regular, bold, italic or bold-italic within a line, in that the spacing for the whole line assumes whichever style was in effect for the first character in the output line. So, for example, if a line starts with regular text, any bold-italic text in the same line has characters which touch or even overlap! I have found a seriously time-wasting workaround, which is that if the normal space before the style change is replaced with a non-breaking space (Ctrl-Shift-Space) then the spacing correctly reflects the new style. However, that then messes up things if you need to change anything later because it prevents a line break between the words.

 

[jim hardy]

Wordperfect showed you the control characters.
For some reason that's anathema to Microsoft. So they killed Wordperfect.

My opinion- Prince of Mediocrity .
http://phoozer.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/how-much-money-does-bill-gates-have.jpg

Does any of their new stuff show control codes?

I got so frustrated with Word's invisible characters changing things on me that i went to local junkshop and bought a grocery sack full of mice for a dollar . When it got too much i'd just smash one.

 

[Hornbein]

they killed Wordperfect.

The age of monopoly has returned.

 

[Sophia]

Meet Marian Kotleba.

In yesterday's elections his party gained 8,05% votes and thus became 4th of unbelievable 9 parties who will make it into the Slovak parliament (most of them gaining around 6-8%).
Party named We Are Family with a leader who has 9 children with 8 women got 6.6%
For the first time in 26 years of democracy, Christian democrats will not be in the parliament.Time to use this emoji

Copyright @Psinter

 

[Hornbein]

Which party got your vote?

 

[Sophia]

Which party got your vote?

I voted for a capitalist party that protects rights of minorities. I am a socialist but I decided for this party because the leader is a very fine person who was not involved in any scandal in 20 years. He always speaks about his wife with love and they adopted an orphan girl. So in this case I took into consideration character, not a political programme.

 

[Hornbein]

I voted for a capitalist party that protects rights of minorities.

Which one? I'm partial to the Ordinary People And Independent Personalities party. I don't know what they stand for, but I like the name.

 

[Sophia]

Which one? I'm partial to the Ordinary People And Independent Personalities party. I don't know what they stand for, but I like the name.

They are called bridge- hid.
The party that you mention doesn't have any solutions at all. All they do is criticise, gossip and argue. They will not be able to form a coalition with anyone.
Everyone is talking about early elections now and options that the constitution offers for this kind of critical situation. According to analytics, it is almost impossible to create a stable government in this situation. It's very probable that the state will collapse during our presidency of the EU which will begin in summer.
The only hope is that winning Smer will be able to find at least 3 coalition partners but possible candidates refuse to cooperate with each other.
Exciting!

 

[Hornbein]

T
The party that you mention doesn't have any solutions at all. All they do is criticise, gossip and argue. They will not be able to form a coalition with anyone.

Shades of Austria-Hungary!

Surely that how one would expect Ordinary People And Independent Personalities to behave. So at least they have truth in advertising.

They say that Bridge represents Magyar/Slovak cooperation. Is that so?

It seems to me that two partners for Smer would do it, for a total of three.

What is Network all about? Is it just a name?

 

[Sophia]

Shades of Austria-Hungary!

Surely that how one would expect Ordinary People And Independent Personalities to behave. So at least they have truth in advertising.

They say that Bridge represents Magyar/Slovak cooperation. Is that so?

It seems to me that two partners for Smer would do it, for a total of three.

What is Network all about? Is it just a name?

The problem is that anyone can have their own party. It was a result of post communist euphoria. If you can gain 10, 000 signatures hooray you have a party! And if you get 5%in elections you are in the parliament.
That's how We are family got there. The leader has absolutely no experience. In politics, he's just a local celebrity famous for having a new mother for his children every year. He makes a child, buys the mother a luxurious apartment and car, than leaves her and finds another woman. I guess people voted for him as a form of protest against the mainstream. But the thing is that yesterday he said that he doesn't wish to form a government. He will not form a coalition with anyone and will stay in the opposition.
The Network started as a promising project but it turned out that leader Prochazka is the same as all other politicians. What's more, he did not rule out cooperation with Fico and that's why he got a bad result.
In order to form a government, coalition must have at least 50% of votes together. Number 2 SAS will never accept Smer as a partner. No one will accept Nazi Kotleba. Most-hid can't work with nationalist SNS.
Common people could be with Network in theory, but they always argue so that would not last for long
So the situation is rather complicated.
They have 30 days to find a solution. As far as I understand, there will be another elections if they can't do it

 

[zoobyshoe]

Maybe you should start a party, Sophia.

 

[Sophia]

Maybe you should start a party, Sophia.

A brilliant idea! What about free pizza, 6 months of paid holiday and compulsory course in Advanced Physics for everyone? Would you vote for me?

 

[zoobyshoe]

A brilliant idea! What about free pizza, 6 months of paid holiday and compulsory course in Advanced Physics for everyone? Would you vote for me?

Well, it was all good till you got to "compulsory."

 

[Sophia]

Well, it was all good till you got to "compulsory."

You're right. I wouldn't be able to pass it myself lol

 

[Sophia]

Vocab time!

 

[Silicon Waffle]

Vocab time!

Without the context we won't know the distinction between envy and jealousy in this case. Simpson has a long tongue.

Here is the difference between them by the way.

 

[ProfuselyQuarky]

Today I learned that physical labor is called physical labor for a reason and that I'm much more suited for sitting down in front of this laptop with some mango carrot juice.

 

[Pepper Mint]

Today I learned many native speakers find it odd to hear someone say "I am an Irish" but not "I am an American". Interesting! Why is that though ?

 

[BornCane]

today i learned that Gottfried Leibniz was a German

mind blown

 

[mfb]

Which nationality did you expect?
The name is very German.

Today I learned: no one climbed Mount Everest (successfully) last year.
http://mentalfloss.com/uk/nature/37508/nobody-reached-the-top-of-mount-everest-in-2015

 

[BornCane]

Which nationality did you expect?
The name is very German.

Today I learned: no one climbed Mount Everest (successfully) last year.
http://mentalfloss.com/uk/nature/37508/nobody-reached-the-top-of-mount-everest-in-2015

well i thought he was English...because of his rival with Newton and at the time many scientists were probably only aware of only scientists in their countries

or am i mistaken

for example, was Newton's Principia only known in UK or throughout all of continental Europe when it was released

 

[zoobyshoe]

well i thought he was English...

He did travel to England, and met members of the Royal Society. Halley was the one who showed him some papers by Newton.

 

[Hornbein]

Did you know LaGrange was Italian?

 

[BornCane]

Ed Witten is a genius and is often called Einstein's Successor , and the "World's Greatest Living Theoretical Physicist"

makes me wonder what would happen if Witten got in a discussion of physics with this man

I would pay to see that discussion...

 

[mfb]

well i thought he was English...because of his rival with Newton and at the time many scientists were probably only aware of only scientists in their countries

or am i mistaken

for example, was Newton's Principia only known in UK or throughout all of continental Europe when it was released

Communication was certainly harder than today, but still, scientists heard of each other.

@BornCane: There are some technical challenges to such a discussion since 1988.

 

[Hornbein]

at the time many scientists were probably only aware of only scientists in their countries

Certainly not. The post was perfectly adequate.

 

[nsaspook]

Today I learned that auto-correct can save you from more than just an embarrassing spelling error.

https://blog.knowbe4.com/hackers-spoil-their-1-billion-cyberheist-with-a-typo

The hackers initiated a series of money transfer requests after stealing credentials the Bangladesh bank uses to authorize electronic money transfers. They used the stolen creds to send more than 30 money transfer requests to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, asking them to transfer the funds from the Bangladesh Bank’s account to organizations in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. One of these organizations was called the Shalika Foundation, but the crims misspelled the word “foundation” as “fandation” in the wire transfer, and that was the one that raised the red flags.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/uk-announces-language-test-for-immigrants-misspells-language/

 

[mfb]

LONDON -- Britain's Home Office officially announced Friday new languange requirements for foreign nationals applying to remain in the U.K. on spousal visas.

That was deliberate, right? Right?

 

[Ibix]

That was deliberate, right? Right?

Look at the screen shot carefully. This did the rounds in the UK a few weeks ago...

 

[mfb]

Yes I know. We have a news about misspelling "language" when requesting a language test, and that news misspelled language.

 

[Ibix]

I thought you had introduced the new typo. I didn't like to comment on a mentor's spelling. Now I've followed the CBS link I see it wasn't you, and I share your sentiment.

Unless they're subscribers to the old Usenet courtesy of always including a spelling/grammar error in any post complaining avout someone else's spelling/grammar?

 

[DrGreg]

Yes I know. We have a news about misspelling "language" when requesting a language test, and that news misspelled language.

Further evidence to support Muphry's[/PLAIN] law.

 

[Ibix]

Today I learned that dogs in the UK must be microchipped (have an implanted microchip identification) from April 6th this year.

Relevance to the current topic? I found this out in a thread on another forum titled "Did you know that you only have four weeks to get your dog microwaved?" The thread was predictably hilarious. My favourite was somebody claiming to have a cooker spaniel.

 

[BornCane]

Today i learned that Wolfgang Pauli developed a close relationship with Carl Jung, and both delved into the esoteric and mystical world

Both developed an obsession with the number 137

How can such a logical mind like Pauli become friends with such a crackpot as Carl Jung

 

[jim hardy]

How can such a logical mind like Pauli become friends with such a crackpot as Carl Jung

??

i rather enjoyed "Man and his Symbols"
at least the half of it he wrote. Marylouise von Franz's second half of the book i found impossible to follow.

Today i learned there's a book of their correspondence. Five years ago i couldn't find one...

uh oh, another for the "Read Me" pile.

 

[collinsmark]

Today i learned that Wolfgang Pauli developed a close relationship with Carl Jung, and both delved into the esoteric and mystical world

Both developed an obsession with the number 137

How can such a logical mind like Pauli become friends with such a crackpot as Carl Jung

Yeah, the fine structure constant. 'Pretty close to 1/137, but at Pauli's time, nobody knew the precision.

Well, we all make mistakes. I've made a bunch of 'em! (I'm not proud of my mistakes. But as long as I learn something in the process, I find my mistakes somewhat palatable. It's better than the alternative of missing out on the learning.)

 

[strangerep]

How can such a logical mind like Pauli become friends with such a crackpot as Carl Jung

Because Pauli had a severe breakdown and Jung was his psychotherapist. The most logical of minds can be defeated by anxiety, delusion, schizophrenia, etc.

(Indeed, today I learned a little more about the mental instability of Wolfgang Pauli, who I had previously only heard of as being a very smart A-hole. Evidently, one must be wary of very smart, arrogant, manic, A-holes.)

 

[Hornbein]

Today i learned that Wolfgang Pauli developed a close relationship with Carl Jung, and both delved into the esoteric and mystical world

Both developed an obsession with the number 137

How can such a logical mind like Pauli become friends with such a crackpot as Carl Jung

Is it possible Wolfgang Pauli knows something you don't?

 

[BornCane]

Is it possible Wolfgang Pauli knows something you don't?

dont you think its odd that such a legendary physicist, one of few founders of Quantum Mechanics along with Heisenberg, Born, De Broglie, and others.

would be obsessed with numerology

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Today I learned that a simple majority voting method is not the most "fair".

Hi @TheDemx27:

I was unable to find in the cited article

http://zesty.ca/voting/sim/​

any discussion of "simple majority voting".

What did you mean by this?

Regards,
Buzz

dont you think its odd that such a legendary physicist, one of few founders of Quantum Mechanics along with Heisenberg, Born, De Broglie, and others would be obsessed with numerology

Hi @BornCane:

You might also find it interesting that Arthur Stanley Eddington believed that the fine structure constant was exactly 1/137.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington​

Regards,
Buzz

50-0-50 rule in psychology that pertains to personality and intelligence.

Hi @Pythagorean:

I recall (with some uncertainty) that I first read about this "rule" in Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works. As I remember it, the rule applies to only personality traits rather than intelligence. If you can cite a reference that applies the rule to intelligence, I would very much like to see it.

Regards,
Buzz

"I may not know everything, but I know which books to find the answer in".

Hi @OmCheeto:

I cannot remember where to find the relevant quote, but the quote above reminds me of something I read somewhere. People commonly used to have memory abilities which today would seem fantastic. Then came the printing press.

Regards,
Buzz

I didn't like its clockface because one of the numbers seemed wrong: it was different from what we'd been learning at primary school.

Hi @NascentOxygen:

I think what may have been disturbing is that many clocks with Roman numerals use "IIII" rather than "IV". Someone once explained to me that this was because "IV" had some ecclesiastical significance, and the church did not what "IV" on the clocks. I never tried to check if this was correct, so it might not be the real explanation.

Regards,
Buzz

What, then, do you suppose the most despised art is?

Hi @zoobyshoe:

I am uncertain about what criteria should be used to measure the degree of "despised". Are you perhaps thinking about a world survey asking people if they despise various forms of art?

I would guess that only people who had seen/heard/tasted/smelled a form of art would have an opinion, and they despised the art form they would likely avoid experiencing it again. (I can think of several examples for each of the four senses I listed, but not for tactile art. Ah, how about the art of sex? I would guess that is likely to be the least despised.)

Regards,
Buzz

I thought it was funny some would make a muscle out of an onion.

Hi @thankz:

I agree. They should be using spinach.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye#Spinach .​

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Where the conscious goes, the subconscious must follow.

Hi @jim hardy:

I don't think I can learn the above. I have a bias that the subconscious can be creative. In such cases, the conscious will follow the subconscious.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Sometimes, some otherwise intelligent persons make some pretty stupid comments.

Hi @Astronuc:

I confess I am somewhat sympathetic with the fired Nobel laureate. I agree the remarks were stupid, but the stupidity is the kind often seen with Asperger types. I am guessing his remarks are more of a confession related to personal experiences or conversations than a general bias.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[OmCheeto]

Hi @OmCheeto:

I cannot remember where to find the relevant quote, but the quote above reminds me of something I read somewhere. People commonly used to have memory abilities which today would seem fantastic. Then came the printing press.

Regards,
Buzz

Today I relearned that the printing press was invented around the year 1440.
I would imagine that it took a while for the idea to catch on, and therefore books of knowledge wouldn't start to be common for another 100 years or so.
Might make an interesting research project, to find the relative abundance, of what we now consider really smart people, before and after the period of invention.

Oh, never mind. Here's what I came up with, based upon the businessinsider.com list of the the 40 smartest people of all time, throwing out all the people born within the last 100 years:

0360 Hypatia
0391 maybe the year the Library of Alexandria was destroyed (not from the list, but from my very shallow research)
1440 Gutenberg Printing Press
1452 da Vinci
1473 Copernicus
1473 Thomas Wolsey
1564 Shakespeare
1564 Galileo
1583 Hugo Grotius
1643 Newton
1646 Leibniz
1688 Emanuel Swedenborg
1694 Voltaire
1707 Euler
1749 Goethe
1773 Thomas Young
1777 Gauss
1806 John Stuart Mill
1822 Rudolf Clausius
1822 Francis Galton
1831 Maxwell
1856 Tesla
1867 Curie
1879 Einstein
1887 Ramanujan (my addition to the list)
1898 William Sidis
1904 Nathan Leopold
1906 Ettore MajoranaI'm guessing from the list that:

a. Hypatia was a book worm.
b. da Vinci, Copernicus, and Thomas Wolsey were surrounded by smart people
c. everyone else, as Newton once kind of inferred, read everyone else's books, and expanded on it.
​

I included Ramanujan, as, IMHO, Mathematics is a science where you can just sit down, and from the age of 4, without any help, expand upon it, all by your lonesome.

ps. Full names indicate that I have no idea, whatsoever, what these people are famous for.
pps. Greg one day indicated that we have members from every nation now. I wonder what their lists of "smartest people" would look like:

Hello! Didn't some guy over here invent "Al Gebra!"? And didn't someone over here invent the "zero"? Ever tried to do maths without a zero?
Um... One of our oldsters invented gunpowder, about 1000 years before your smarties were even born. Just sayin...​

 

[Ibix]

ps. Full names indicate that I have no idea, whatsoever, what these people are famous for.

I know some of them and looked up the rest (Wikipedia research only, so you pays your money and takes your chances).

• Thomas Wolsey - Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York, and an advisor to Henry VIII (I had to look him up - I knew his name and rank, but no more).
  
• Emanuel Swedenborg - created (yet) another Christian sect. My Dad was a lapsed member; I think his death put a significant dent in the surviving membership.
• Thomas Young - defined Young's[/PLAIN] modulus, the measure of elasticity.
• John Stuart Mill - a Scottish philosopher, a leading proponent of Bentham's school of utilitarianism. Also, of his own free will, on half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.
• Rudolf Clausius - a thermodynamicist. The Clausius-Clapeyron equation is the thing I know him for.
• Francis Galton - I had to look him up (then kicked myself a bit). He's famous for regression to the mean and coining the word eugenics.
• William Sidis - I had not heard of him, but apparently he was an American child prodigy.
• Nathan Leopold - another child prodigy I had not heard of. Famous for murdering a child.
• Ettore Majorana - physicist/mathematician - developed the Majorana equation describing Majorana fermions, fermions which are their own anti-particle. Disappeared under mysterious circumstances.