Today I learned
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TIL that all those videos about the old Hollywood accent are absolute BS.
YouTube Video
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TIL of Waldorf schools
I mentioned to someone how I think there should be more hands-on learning in schools and he told me to look up Waldorf schools. Very interesting to say the least. Rudolf Steiner had very unique philosophies, some very weird or outright morally questionable, but some that I think were an appropriate reaction to the “thinking in the box” that is often dolled out in school.
The parts I agree with are that kids are taught engagement with crafts (eg, carving), music and creativity, an inquisitive exploration (reminds me of the Socratic approach), and an adaptive progression of subject matter that is based on the students’ individual levels. It reminds me a lot of the origins of the liberal arts being the skills a free person needed to engage the world, which included music and logic/rhetoric.
The parts I don’t really agree with are the pseudo-spirituality, the pseudo-science, and the racist parts of Steiner’s theory. I think I would need to do a thorough investigation of the specific school before I would consider sending my student there, but the philosophy definitely seems to meet some needs of students that are otherwise under-developed in the current school systems.
What are your thoughts?
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TIL that Gwyneth Paltrow is not just a harmless grifter
arstechnica.com Three women contract HIV from dirty “vampire facials” at unlicensed spaFive patients with links to the spa had viral genetic sequences that closely matched.
I never went as far as to defend Gwyneth Paltrow, but after her Hot Ones appearance I created a post (which I will link in the comments) where I suggested that she's done no more harm than male grifters and that the dislike of her as a person was primarily due to misogyny. That's before I learned about her promotion of these unproven "vampire facials". Now an unlicensed clinic performing this procedure has given at least three women HIV. You guys were right and I was wrong.
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TIL: Eating pine nuts can occasionally cause some people to experience a bitter or metallic taste lasting from a few days up to 2 weeks
> The symptoms normally disappear after several days and there are no adverse health effects.
> The cause of pine mouth has not been determined, but several researchers have indicated that a particular species and source of pine nut, Pinus armandii exported from the Shaanxi and Shanxi regions of China, may be responsible for causing the symptoms. This species of pine nut was previously only consumed locally and not widely exported for consumption as whole nuts.
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There are French controlled islands off the coast of Newfoundland (Canada)
…a self-governing territorial of France
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Vladamir Putin played the piano and sang 'Blueberry Hill' in English
YouTube Video
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I don't like the guy, I just found this on YouTube and decided to share it
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TIL There's a mostly herbivorous spider in Mexico and central America
> Bagheera kiplingi inhabits Mimosaceae trees, Vachellia in particular, where it consumes specialized protein- and fat-rich nubs called Beltian bodies. The nubs form at the leaf tips of the acacia as part of a symbiotic relationship with certain species of ants. The spiders actively avoid the ants that attempt to guard the Beltian bodies (their food source) against intruders. Although the Beltian bodies account for over 90% of B. kiplingi diet, the spiders also consume nectar and occasionally steal ant larvae from passing worker ants for food. Sometimes, they cannibalize conspecifics, especially during the dry season. > >Despite their occasional acts of predation, the spiders' tissues have been found to exhibit isotopic signatures typical of herbivorous animals, implying that most of their food comes from plants.[3][6] The mechanism by which they process, ingest, and metabolize the Beltian bodies is still unresearched. The vast majority of spiders liquefy their prey using digestive enzymes before sucking it in.
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TIL there is a monument to the peer review process in Moscow, Russia
www.nature.com Monument to peer review unveiled in Moscow - NatureCornerstone of modern science immortalized in concrete.
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TIL some cities (like NYC) pump nitrogen into their phone lines to keep water out.
hackaday.com Why Is There Liquid Nitrogen On The Street Corner?Any NYC hackers may have noticed something a bit odd this summer while taking a walk… Giant tanks of the Liquid Nitrogen have been popping up around the city. There are hoses that go from the…
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TIL only 3% of manufactured foods sold in the U.S. are deemed "healthy" by the Food and Drug Administration
www.cbsnews.com FDA to develop new "healthy" logo this year – here's what consumers could see, and which foods could qualifyThe FDA's new regulations are due to be published this year.
Raw foods such as fruits and vegetables are not part of this 3% because they are not manufactured.
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TIL the etymology of british isles names
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cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/25160716 >Pretty interesting video ...
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TIL about the concept of Weaponized Incompetence, a psychological concept wherein you strategically fail to perform something you don't actually want to do
This is illustrated by getting elected on a platform of erasing student loan debt and then pretending that you can't do anything about it, or claiming to be against genocide and drawing out or never performing the process of pulling financial and political support for an ally who's committing genocide.
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TIL there is a meat loving sea fleas that casually nibble on your skin at the beach but in rare sever cases it can cause real injuries
www.theguardian.com Australian teen just 'unfortunate' to be attacked by meat-loving sea fleasIt’s safe to go back in the water, says marine biologist who identified the miniature attackers as lysianassid amphipods
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TIL a woman delivered three minutes of Patton Oswalt's 9-minute Parks and Rec Star Wars filibuster speech at a real Michigan city council meeting in 2019.
www.deseret.com A Michigan woman delivered Patton Oswalt’s ‘Parks and Recreation’ ‘Star Wars’ rant to filibuster county meetingThis week, a woman from Livingston County, Michigan, followed Oswalt’s lead and delivered a portion of his nine-minute filibuster during a Livingston County Board of Commissioners meeting.
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TIL the smallest body in the solar system with rings is a small icy rock 160 mi (257.5 km) across. It may have a 3.73 mi (6 km) across moon.
gizmodo.com Something Is Messing With a Ring System Between Saturn and UranusThe smallest rings in the solar system, belonging to the centaur Chariklo, may be perturbed by a moon that's yet to be discovered.
>Chariklo is about 160 miles (257.5 kilometers) across and is one of the Centaurs, a group of icy bodies between Jupiter and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Chariklo is the largest of these small bodies, making it similar to a large boulder the size of a small boulder as far as superlatives go. Chariklo also boasts two rings, discovered in 2013 and recently observed by the Webb Space Telescope. > >Now, research published in The Planetary Science Journal suggests that a satellite may be confining Chariklo’s skimpy rings. “Planetary rings will naturally spread or disperse over time,” said Amanda Sickafoose, an astronomer at the Planetary Science Institute and the study’s lead author, in an institute release. > >“Chariklo exhibits two thin rings, a few kilometers in width,” Sickafoose added. “In order for the rings to stay this thin, there needs to be a mechanism to confine the material and prevent it from dispersing.”
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TIL Dane Cook holds the record for the longest set at the Laugh Factory at 7 hours and 34 minutes on January 2, 2008.
But was any of it actually funny?
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TIL the reason doorbells go "ding-dong" is because of Handel's opera The Messiah
Long story short, the classic "ding-dong" doorbell chime is the first two notes of the bells played Westminster Palace, which in turn are based on Handel's opera The Messiah. Read more about it, it's neat.
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TIL most ancient texts were read out loud and it was strange if someone read to themself
> Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics, manuscripts in Aramaic, Arabic, and Hebrew, the illuminated Christian Gospels, the Talmud, the Koran—with these forms and collections of writing came the expectation that a person would read them out loud and would, in a manner of speaking, conjure their reality. > In his book A History of Reading, Alberto Manguel points out that Aramaic and Hebrew, the “primordial” languages of the Bible, draw no distinction between reading and speaking. The same word stands for both. Buddhism and Hinduism also give an exalted place to the spoken word.
>The opening words of The Odyssey—“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story”—make this clear: The storyteller is acknowledging at the start that the tale he tells is not his own, and that he hopes for divine assistance in telling it well.
I think it is pretty interesting that people engaged with reading this way. The author of this article notes that it becomes a living story. This also had the benefit of reaching persons that could not read. I wonder if the content was remembered more vividly through both seeing and hearing the words.
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TIL Canadian Bacon is Not a Canadian Thing; Hawaiian Pizza, On The Other Hand, Is Invented in Canada.
YouTube Video
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Inspired by the video by Gem and Impulse from Hermitcraft. In the video, Impulse told Gem (a Canadian) that he had hawaiian pizza with canadian bacon on it; and Gem got really confused in what constitute a "Canadian bacon".
Apparently Canadian bacon is called "Canadian" because it is originally imported from Canada to New York. Not because it is popular or invented in Canada.
On the other hand, Hawaiian pizza is a true cultural amalgamation. It is invented by a Greek in Canada inspired by his experience cooking Chinese food. One of the culture it doesn't connect to is Hawaii, its name comes from the brand of pineapple the inventor was using.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_bacon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_pizza
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TIL that Sir David Attenborough is largely responsible for tennis balls being yellow (or green, depending on who you ask).
In 1967, Sir David Attenborough was in charge of BBC2’s coverage of Wimbledon. The event was being televised in color for the first time, and he decided to change the tennis balls from white to yellow for easier visibility when they crossed the white pitch lines. It caught on, and now almost all tennis balls are yellow.
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TIL that holding a left mouse button pressed over a youtube video, speeds it up x2 until you release the button
Is this a common knowledge? Is this an old feature? I accidentally found about it few days ago.
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TIL that shirt buttons are on the right for men, but on the left for women.
Men’s buttons are on the right to make it easy to do up with one hand for right-handed people.
When buttons were invented, only the wealthy wore them. Wealthy women had maids who would do the buttons up for them, and so the buttons are on the left so that they are easier for someone facing you to do up.
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TIL about Robert Richards, a Du Pont heir who avoided jail time after sexually abusing his 3 year old daughter
www.forbes.com How A Du Pont Heir Avoided Jail Time For A Heinous CrimeRobert Richards, an heir to the DuPont company, was convicted of raping his daughter in 2009. He served no jail time, leading many to wonder if his wealth influenced the ultimate sentencing.
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TIL - the .ch country code is for Switzerland.
www.swissinfo.ch Facts about SwitzerlandOutside perceptions of Switzerland are replete with clichés and stereotypes, from alphorns to Heidi. Here’s what you might not know.
"The Helvetii, a Celtic tribe who battled Julius Caesar, gave their name to the Swiss territory. The Latin name for the country, Helvetia, still appears on Swiss stamps. The letters CH appearing on Swiss cars and in internet addresses stand for the Latin words Confoederatio Helvetica, meaning Swiss Confederation."
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TIL the Ancient Romans could have played D and D because they (and the Egyptians) invented the 20-sided die.
www.roger-pearse.com A Roman rock-crystal icosahedron (20-sided dice) in the LouvreHere’s a pretty image that floats around the web: It’s ancient, and an icosahedron – a 20-sided dice. The Musée du Louvre twitter account (@MuseeLouvre) posted further images of w…
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TIL the opera song used in recent Google Chrome ads was originally composed for the 2015 Steve Jobs biopic
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TIL that a year after an officer pleaded guilty to lying to a judge to get the warrant to search Breonna Taylor's apartment, no one involved has served a day of jail time
Kelly Goodlett admitted that police did not have the evidence that they presented to a judge in order to get the warrant, including fabricating testimony from the postal inspector that a known drug dealer was sending packages to that house. Goodlett has been convicted and is free while awaiting sentencing. Joshua Jayne, Kyle Meany and Brett Hankison are charged with various crimes surrounding the false testimony and are awaiting trial. They have had their trials pushed back multiple times each. It has been over three years since Breonna Taylor was murdered by police and even those who admitted to crimes are still free.
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TIL a fleet of electric taxi cars was first introduced to London, UK in 1897
We've gone full circle
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TIL The sunrise/set duration changes throughout the year
This forum answer included these cool graphs and a good explanation.
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/12824/how-long-does-a-sunrise-or-sunset-take/13053#13053
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TIL South Carolina grows more than twice as many peaches than Georgia
www.statista.com Leading peach producing U.S. states 2022 | StatistaThis statistic shows the peach production in the United States in 2022, by state.
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TIL - Laboratory experiments show that bacteria really do eat and digest plastic
www.sciencedaily.com Bacteria really eat plastic: Laboratory experiment shows that bacteria really eat and digest plasticThe bacterium Rhodococcus ruber eats and actually digests plastic.
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TIL of "feedback" where the pork industry intentionally feeds dead disease-infected piglets and their feces to adult breeding pigs
www.vox.com The pork industry’s forced cannibalism, explainedA new investigation exposes the stomach-churning practice that goes into making your bacon.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/2879916
> TL;DR for the title: > > > Employees [from this investigation] can be seen removing the intestines of dead, disease-infected piglets and mixing them with piglet feces in a blender — a mixture to be fed to the adult breeding pigs — causing one worker to gag. > > > > The practice, called “feedback,” is common in the pork business (or “controlled oral exposure” in industry jargon). > > The article itself goes into more depth about all the horrific things in the pork industry such as these > > > The pork industry has pushed pigs to their biological limits, leading to many bizarre practices beyond feedback, many of which are inhumane. To name one example recently in the news: There are horse farms that impregnate horses, extract their blood for a serum, abort their pregnancies, and then sell the serum to pig farms to induce puberty in young female pigs and produce larger litters. Holden Farms, like most pig breeding farms, confine pregnant pigs in gestation crates, cages so small they can’t turn around for practically their entire lives. >