Today I Learned

[Janus]

If you want to get into a twist over pronunciation, try Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen."

Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen
Thank you for all the joy and pain

A problem that arises when is comes to languages that are not native to you is that, not only do they have sounds that can be hard to properly form, they are sometimes even hard for your ear to distinguish, so you even hear it as the nearest equivalent in your language.

 

[DaveC426913]

TIL a CR2032 battery is 20mm in diameter and 3.2mm thick. A CR2025 is 2.5mm thick.

All CR batteries follow this naming convention.

 

[DaveC426913]

TIL:

 

[Borg]

Lol. I've been trying to figure out how to do something like that for years.

 

[BillTre]

 

[Hornbein]

View attachment 368994

Helium is "abundant on Earth's surface"? He must mean the crust or something like that.

 

[DaveC426913]

Helium is "abundant on Earth's surface"?

 

[sbrothy]

... that the the site lacks a thread for general complaints and grievances (Not directed at the site itself mind, and with good reason because where would it stop?).

It's just that I like to learn by reading and more and more it seems like I'm forced to watch some kind of video.

Sorry for the rant. Nothing funny here.

PS: Oh yeah, and I'm bored.

 

[DaveC426913]

... that the the site lacks a thread for general complaints and grievances

There used to be a 'things that really bug you' thread.

Start a new one: "Things that should not be a thing in the 21st century".

- having 12 different clocks in my life, all of which tell a different time
- toasters that take, like, ten minutes to toast - my beard grows faster than that!

 

[sbrothy]

There used to be a 'things that really bug you' thread.

Start a new one: "Things that should not be a thing in the 21st century".

- having 12 different clocks in my life, all of which tell a different time
- toasters that take, like, ten minutes to toast - my beard grows faster than that!

Yeah, but no. I'm not going to be the guy who starts a trainwreck of that caliber!

EDIT: Although from your 2 examples I can see a good deal of comedy before it runs full power into Godwin's Law.

 

[BillTre]

 

[sbrothy]

View attachment 369050

You must be joking.

 

[BillTre]

You must be joking.

Yeah. Meant for the lame joke thread.

 

[BillTre]

Here is a weird one:
I have heard of "Butt breathing" in hibernating water turtles when I was a kid (I had several pet turtles). They stay underwater when hibernating, their metabolic demands drop. Gas exchange through their intestinal epithelium can then fulfill their gas exchange needs.

This won an IgNobel Prize in 2024.
https://scienceblog.cincinnatichild...dea-from-2024-moves-closer-to-real-treatment/

 

[OmCheeto]

Here is a weird one:
I have heard of "Butt breathing" in hibernating water turtles when I was a kid (I had several pet turtles). They stay underwater when hibernating, their metabolic demands drop. Gas exchange through their intestinal epithelium can then fulfill their gas exchange needs.

...
This won an IgNobel Prize in 2024.
https://scienceblog.cincinnatichild...dea-from-2024-moves-closer-to-real-treatment/
...

I wonder how many covid lives this could have saved if such devices were mass produced. Seems rather simple, yet brilliant.
I wonder if they will win the Nobel Prize for their research. I think that would be a first: IgNobel and Nobel prizes for the same thing.

 

[DaveE]

Here is a weird one:
I have heard of "Butt breathing" in hibernating water turtles when I was a kid (I had several pet turtles). They stay underwater when hibernating, their metabolic demands drop. Gas exchange through their intestinal epithelium can then fulfill their gas exchange needs.

View attachment 369058
This won an IgNobel Prize in 2024.
https://scienceblog.cincinnatichild...dea-from-2024-moves-closer-to-real-treatment/

View attachment 369059

All they did was show that you could put unoxygenated perfluorocarbon liquid in someone's butt for 60 minutes without undo harm. No effectivity study yet (maybe in pigs?). Sounds great as a SM post but this is sooo not ready for prime time.

 

[Demystifier]

What was only Imaginary until recently, now is Real. That is, now I=R. Hence, an anagram of PUTIN is TRUNP.

 

[Hornbein]

The Wizard of Oz's name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.

 

[symbolipoint]

The Wizard of Oz's name is Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.

A search in DDG also confirms that.

 

[sbrothy]

.... that I have been the victim of a myth which goes that the reason the ancient Romans relied on a human slave economy was that they hadn't invented proper horse collars/halters, but simply threw a rope around the animals neck which obviously made it extremely ineffective for pulling, in effect asphyxiating itself.

Thinking about it it simply sounded too stupid. I think it's a fact that they didn't exactly perfect horseshoes but the truth is, I'm sure, more complex. Conquering other "countries" and kidnapping random people on the street was easy methods to swell the slave ranks in those times.

For those complaining about helicopter parents and children using too much screen time here is an interesting blog post. With no cure for Tetanus, no antibiotics and the extremely high infant mortality, it was hardly fun.

I also seem to remember more than one emperor having to sell their bodies as adolescents on their way towards power (Wasn't Julius Cæsar on of them?). Also, funny enough, the sexual morals in ancient Rome split more along the penetrator and the penetree, where the last was looked down upon.

What goes on in Japan I have no idea.

The reason I was thinking about it is that I had a conversation today about the human/horse use and the economy in Ancient Rome. I had to admit it was probably more complicated than I tried to make it.

 

[gmax137]

TIL that some railroad companies use "road slugs" -- locomotives without diesel engines. The road slug relies on the generator of its "mother" engine.

This from the video

which documents the recent derailment near Toledo OR. @Astronuc if you havent seen this one you may find it interesting.

 

[Astronuc]

@Astronuc if you havent seen this one you may find it interesting.

Yes, I've seen some videos of the derailment. Pretty stunning. The locomotives stayed on the trestle.

I hadn't seen that video, but I saw earlier videos when it first happened. I was curious about the cause - possibly a broken rail, a broken wheel or axle, or some shift in the gauge. The video indicates a broken rail near the east switch that became lodged under the slug. It's interesting that it mentions 'the broken rail was dragged by the slug, which would mean two break points if the rail was actually displaced along the trestle. The rail had to have broken under the unit just ahead (PW 3571) of the slug, then caught by the slug, which then managed to derail on the trestle. From the video, it looks like workers were replacing stock rather then a switch point rail.

It looks like they took GP38 3571 off the opposite end (east/south end) of the trestle. There is a comment about the right rail is overturned, ostensibly looking south or the direction of travel. The train was headed from Toledo east/south to Albany, Oregon. The derailed locomotives and slug were the last three units of 6 units (see the video below). The first three units made it across. The 4th unit had front truck on the rail, wit the trailing truck derailed; rail could have broken under the trailing truck which derailed, or the derailment happened with the slug, which then caused 2571 to derail.

Portland & Western Railroad (PNWR, https://www.gwrr.com/pnwr/) is one of the Genesee and Wyoming, Inc shortlines.



The video at 4:28 shows the right stock rail and right switch point are missing, either of which might have been removed by crew after the freight cars were moved back into the yard. The switch points are only about 10-20 feet or 3-6 m from the trestle.

 

[eraserclam]

Today I learned that Einstein was just as confused as I am about quantum entanglement, and I still kept reading.

 

[BillTre]

Here is a convincing explanation of what happened with Amelia Earhart.
The guy is someone who investigates accidents for insurance companies.
Lots of circumstantial evidence.