Today I Learned

[fresh_42]

We have queer, which has its roots in the German quer. It used to mean out-of-kilter or strange before being adopted as a term for homosexuality (it was used as a euphemism of sorts, but got "reclaimed" as an accepted term).

We have quer in all variations: Querbalken for a beam e.g. above a door, Querstraße for a street which goes of a main road to the side, newly "Querdenker" which is the euphemism people call themselves if they are against the given order, or the duty to wear masks, mainstream news, etc. I don't think that any of them ever thought (denken), Querlenker for the steering bar of a bicycle or a control bar, Querschnitt for a slice of something or a representative subset, Querung for crossing e.g. a river, and probably many more. Hence Querulant is simply another example of the many variations to quer (as in opposition to along).

 

[Ibix]

Querstraße for a street which goes of a main road to the side

Of all of those, I think English only has Queer Street, and it's an informal (and mostly archaic) saying meaning trouble - to be "up Queer Street" means to have had things go wrong.

 

[BWV]

there is a Mandarin translation of Finnegans Wake. It took eight years for the first third

https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-01-31/translating-untranslatable-finnegans-wake-chinese

 

[fresh_42]

Of all of those, I think English only has Queer Street, and it's an informal (and mostly archaic) saying meaning trouble - to be "up Queer Street" means to have had things go wrong.

I had a discussion with my sister today about the many words that cannot really be translated. My favorite examples are still "schweigen" and "sophisticated". "Schweigen" is an active verb, we decide to do something, namely being silent, but we are not silent. It is a decision, an act, and not a state. You cannot translate it. As you can't translate "sophisticated". You can translate all manifestations of it with varying adjectives, but you cannot get a hold on its universal property.

 

[Janus]

TIL how to convert a 3-D model into line-art in Blender in a few easy steps.
Example:
Start with a model, such as this one of a X-wing(shown here as a full render)

Create a new "Grease pen" object.
Apply the "line art" modifier to the Grease pen, assigning the model as the "source.
Make a couple of choices regarding line color, thickness, etc.
Render. That's it.
You might want to change the background, depending on what you are going for. For example, here I replaced the stars with a plain white background, which gives it a more "Drawn on paper" vibe.

There are a whole bunch of other options/settings you can use to optimize things, and you can remove any unwanted lines ( I see a couple in this example that could be cleaned up)

It's a neat alternative to photo-realistic renders and offers a bit more artistic flair.

 

[epenguin]

A funny word is window. While the English word is from "wind-open" and of Nordic and therewith Germanic origin, we use Fenster which is fully Latin: Fenestra.

Or "wind eye". Apparently it was first a hole in a roof.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/window

 

[fresh_42]

Or "wind eye". Apparently it was first a hole in a roof.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/window

It was also a hole in the wall. It took considerably long until window shields were established north of the Alpes. "eye" is a euphemism for holes. Open has a similar heritage and I wouldn't bet that "-ow" is from "eye" rather than from "open / offen".

 

[Klystron]

A funny word is window. While the English word is from "wind-open" and of Nordic and therewith Germanic origin, we use Fenster which is fully Latin: Fenestra.

English retains the Latin word for window in the technical word defenestrate, meaning to be thrown out of a window. Although the definition includes throwing any object from a window, I have only seen it used in English to describe a human body, with the connotation of an execution or bad accident.

 

[Frabjous]

First time I have heard this story

In March of 1694, L’Hospital wrote to Bernoulli, then back in Basel, offering him an annual pension of 300 livres in exchange for help with mathematical questions and a promise to send to L’Hospital mathematical results which L’Hospital could then publish under his own name. What today we call L’Hospital’s rule was sent by Bernoullli to L’Hospital later that year. In 1696, L’Hospital published the very first book on calculus, Analyse des infiniments petits, pour l’inteligence des lignes courbes, which Fred Rickey has translated as Analysis of the Little-Bitty-Guys for the Study of Curved Lines. Here is the first recorded mention of what today we call L’Hospital’s rule. Bernoulli’s lectures from 1691–92 would be published in 1922, revealing that much of L’Hospital’s book was first discovered by Bernoulli. In fact, after L’Hospital’s death in 1704 with Bernoulli now freed from his contract, he laid claim to L’Hospital’s rule as his own result.

from
Appendix to A Radical Approach to Real Analysis 2nd edition 2006 by David M. Bressoud

 

[dextercioby]

Johann Bernoulli just to be accurate, since there was also Jacob, his elder brother.

 

[Twigg]

TIL how to pronounce the name "Desiree". I saw it for the first time and thought it was some weird Gen Z name pronounced like "retiree"

 

[BillTre]

TIL that there are several species of nocturnal soft furred tree mice, in china, that are able to echolocate.
This adds to the list of those mammals (insectivorous bats and toothed whales) known to echolocate.

 

[atyy]

TIL that there are several species of nocturnal soft furred tree mice, in china, that are able to echolocate.
This adds to the list of those mammals (insectivorous bats and toothed whales) known to echolocate.

At least there won't be public suspicion on virologists for starting the next pandemic, it'll be neuroscientists.

 

[kyphysics]

Amazon Prime Day is upon us. I found this interesting, sad, and gross:

“People are running through stop signs, running through yellow lights. Everybody I knew was buckling their seatbelt behind their backs because the time it took just to buckle your seatbelt, unbuckle your seatbelt every time was enough time to get you behind schedule,” said Adrienne Williams, who drove for an Amazon DSP from November 2019 to July 2020. . .

Drivers told us that poor routing practices have led them into dangerous situations and left them no time to find a bathroom.

“Now that’s why some people are urinating in cups and everything and plastic bottles,” Williams said. “They just kind of leave them which is definitely disgusting, getting into the vans the next day and seeing somebody’s pee bottle sitting behind the seat or sitting in the cup holder.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/21/dri...ressures-of-delivering-for-an-amazon-dsp.html

 

[rsk]

Amazon Prime Day is upon us. I found this interesting, sad, and gross:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/21/dri...ressures-of-delivering-for-an-amazon-dsp.html

Your amazon drivers always deserve a good review (if amazon in your country asks for this) and probably a tip as well.

(There were stories in the press about drivers who received less than perfect reviews being obliged to do extra training and sometimes losing their jobs. )

I try to avoid amazon as far as possible. Buying from independent sellers on ebay who use other delivery methods - even sometimes regular post - is an alternative.

 

[kyphysics]

Your amazon drivers always deserve a good review (if amazon in your country asks for this) and probably a tip as well.

Most of my deliveries are positive, but I've had some bad ones occasionally too.

For example, it's raining and I posted a big sign to put the package inside a cooler on the front porch, so as to avoid getting it wet. The person literally put the package an inch from my cooler, where that big sign was posted. I know they are allowed to put it into my cooler, b/c I've asked for that before many times and it's always done. This one time it's raining hard and the driver puts it outside (literally about an inch or less from the sign and cooler).

I've had a huge item that was fragile come in a smashed box with the bottom opened up. Not sure if it was the driver's fault to be fair...but that was a bad delivery for me.

 

[Twigg]

Yeaaaah, if I had to pee in a bottle to keep my job, I'd feel like punting the packages at the houses.

I'm curious here: why is it that amazon's treatment of its workers is so much worse than other delivery services? Are the profit margins for amazon and, say, UPS that different?

 

[kyphysics]

This is scary:

The number of Americans who are homeless has increased in each of the past five years, according to government data, and for the first time more than half of homeless adults are living not in shelters but in tents or sleeping bags outside. There has yet to be a nationwide homelessness count since the start of the pandemic, but a quarter of Americans now report being at “imminent risk” of losing their homes, and cities up and down the West Coast say they are overwhelmed by an unprecedented rise in homeless people, hazardous encampments and related trash.

This month, as Portland announced plans to start removing more camps, the city said it has gone from having an average of about six large encampments before the pandemic to what it now estimates to be more than 100.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/12/homeless-camps-portland/

 

[rsk]

Scary and sad. We have lost our way as a species I think :(

 

[KingGambit]

Today I learned watched that what "Theory of Everything" means is the combining of the four forces.
- Gravity
- Electromagnetism
- Strong force
- Weak Force
I mean, I've known this four forces years ago, and I've heard about this TOE, but just yesterday I leaned that it's the combination of the four forces.
Not "learned" is the right word. Because I still have no idea about the combining of these forces.
But I can imagine that 200 years ago before Faraday people didn't know that electricity and magnetism were actually the same force. I just take electromagnetism for granted.
And if this guy, Kaku san, and also Einstein, Hawking (and may be Brian Greene?) try to understand the universe by reducing everything into four forces only, I can't help thinking that 2000 years ago Aristotle tried to reduce the world into four elements.

"In 15,000 years we have invented nothing!" - Picasso on cave painting in southern France.

​

​

 

[KingGambit]

Today I learned that LHC costs ten billions dollars!

LHC is the biggest machine on Earth to study the smalest thing in the universe??
Phew... Those scientists, they really know how to spend money, eh.

 

[rsk]

LHC was an utter steal compared to the 37bn sterling spent on a test and trace system which didn't work.

 

[DaveC426913]

I'm curious here: why is it that amazon's treatment of its workers is so much worse than other delivery services? Are the profit margins for amazon and, say, UPS that different?

I kind of wonder if they're in "loss" mode, or whatever the term is. Their goal is to dominate the world of online delivery - to do so, they need to be fast and utterly ubiquitous, which implies desperate and unsustainable. Presumably they will happily "burn" the goodwill of their emps as "fuel".

 

[Keith_McClary]

Presumably they will happily "burn" the goodwill of their emps as "fuel".

Just until the robots are ready.

 

[kyphysics]

I kind of wonder if they're in "loss" mode, or whatever the term is. Their goal is to dominate the world of online delivery - to do so, they need to be fast and utterly ubiquitous, which implies desperate and unsustainable. Presumably they will happily "burn" the goodwill of their emps as "fuel".

They're profitable finally (since 2015), but still have largely the same philosophy of investing profits back into growth.

AWS is a cash cow and their fastest growing segment, while their online delivery/retail business might be sort of mature now. Only so many brick and mortar stores they can completely wipe out...it's still happening, but they may be getting closer to their limit.

It's been interesting to see shopping centers and strip malls pop up or get transformed with the same types of non-Amazonable businesses (and non-outsourcable ones): salons; cafes/restaurants; gyms; child care/play gyms; discount stores (from clothing to general dollar stores); movie theaters; pet stores; niche stores - like cigars or comic book stores; and the like.

Big box stores like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, etc. are fighting back and surviving/thriving in part by turning their own back storage areas into fulfillment centers and doing local delivery. This big box store strategy/pushback will be interesting to observe in the decade ahead.

 

[kyphysics]

As Parents Forbid Covid Shots, Defiant Teenagers Seek Ways to Get Them​

​

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/health/covid-vaccine-teens-consent.html

Increasingly, frustrated teenagers are searching for ways to be vaccinated without their parents’ consent. Some have found their way to VaxTeen.org, a vaccine information site run by Kelly Danielpour, a Los Angeles teenager.

The site offers guides to state consent laws, links to clinics, resources on straightforward information about Covid-19 and advice for how teenagers can engage parents.

“Someone will ask me, ‘I need to be able to consent at a vaccine clinic that is open on weekends and that is on my bus route. Can you help?’” said Ms. Danielpour, 18, who will begin her freshman year at Stanford in the fall. . .

Recently, Dr. Mobeen H. Rathore, a pediatrics professor at the University of Florida medical college in Jacksonville, told a patient whose mother refused consent that she couldn’t get the Covid vaccine until she turned 18, three weeks hence.

“She got vaccinated on her birthday,” Dr. Rathore said. “She sent me a message saying that was her birthday gift to herself.”

I was surprised by the stories in this piece of teens fighting with parents over wanting to get vaxed. It's a part of the pandemic I hadn't really heard much or thought about. It can be easy to forget about how young people, who are statistically less likely to have major complications from the virus, are experiencing things and their views on vaccination.

I think I had assumed it wasn't something they worried a lot about and that they just went along with whatever their parents' decided. It's interesting to see this teen vs. parent vax choice dilemma and the legal rights involved. Probably more than anything, I was just encouraged to also hear of young people being conscientious about the elderly and other vulnerable people around them. Some cite wanting the vaccine to go out and party with their friends, but others mention wanting to protect those around them.

I'm glad for stories like this. It sheds light on things I don't hear much about.

 

[pinball1970]

As Parents Forbid Covid Shots, Defiant Teenagers Seek Ways to Get Them​

​

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/health/covid-vaccine-teens-consent.html

I was surprised by the stories in this piece of teens fighting with parents over wanting to get vaxed. It's a part of the pandemic I hadn't really heard much or thought about. It can be easy to forget about how young people, who are statistically less likely to have major complications from the virus, are experiencing things and their views on vaccination.

I think I had assumed it wasn't something they worried a lot about and that they just went along with whatever their parents' decided. It's interesting to see this teen vs. parent vax choice dilemma and the legal rights involved. Probably more than anything, I was just encouraged to also hear of young people being conscientious about the elderly and other vulnerable people around them. Some cite wanting the vaccine to go out and party with their friends, but others mention wanting to protect those around them.

I'm glad for stories like this. It sheds light on things I don't hear much about.

This is good in one way and kind of crazy in another.

Should not this be the other way round? Silly know-it-teenagers on social media and conspiracy websites arguing that it’s a hoax?
The parents, whose education and life experience far outweighs that of their offspring explaining that the scientists actually know what they are doing?
That this thing is real, dangerous and there is a reason why we do not have polio and smallpox anymore?

 

[mfb]

There are plenty of parents who grew up in a world largely free of smallpox and polio now - but the anti-vaccination nonsense is far older than that.

TIL: The English Wikipedia article about tau has 100*tau views per day (627/day, 100 tau = 200 pi =~ 628).

 

[fresh_42]

There are plenty of parents who grew up in a world largely free of smallpox and polio now - but the anti-vaccination nonsense is far older than that.

TIL: The English Wikipedia article about tau has 100*tau views per day (627/day, 100 tau = 200 pi =~ 628).

Tau what?

 

[BWV]

TIL: The English Wikipedia article about tau has 100*tau views per day (627/day, 100 tau = 200 pi =~ 628).

Funny thing its the same 628 people each day

 

[DaveC426913]

Tau what?

In case this is a sincere question: Tau is a constant, equal to 2*pi.

 

[DaveC426913]

Hey! Today is Tauday!

 

[diogenesNY]

Of all of those, I think English only has Queer Street, and it's an informal (and mostly archaic) saying meaning trouble - to be "up Queer Street" means to have had things go wrong.

In the US, a similar usage applies in the sport of boxing, from at least the early 20th century to the present:

'Holy cow! After that right uppercut by Jones, Smith has been left on Queer Street.'

--diogenesNY

 

[fresh_42]

YIL that peanut butter can well be used to thicken sauces.

 

[Borg]

I use it in a homemade salad dressing - one tablespoon of olive oil, one of balsamic vinegar, and a small dab of peanut butter. Stir until consistent and drizzle on the salad.