Today I Learned
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- TIL that there are two types of earwax: wet and drywww.self.com Kind of Gross, but Did You Know There Are Actually 2 Types of Earwax?
Wait until you hear this.
> the type of earwax you have comes down in part to your skin type, Dr. Shapiro explains. People with oilier skin may have wet earwax, while those with drier skin tend to have dry earwax, she says.
> People of East Asian descent are more likely to have dry earwax, while wet earwax seems to be more common with everyone else
- TIL one of the oldest TV shows was simply called "Sea Stories" on the BBC, featuring Royal Navy Commander A.B. Campbell describing the personalities and places he had seen. No known footage exists.
aired from 1936-1937. if anyone has a copy pls lemme know
- TIL that some people do not have an inner voice and think in different nonverbal ways.humanities.ku.dk People without an inner voice have poorer verbal memory
The vast majority of people have an ongoing conversation with themselves, an inner voice, that plays an important role in their daily lives. But between 5-10 per cent of the population do not have the same experience of an inner voice, and they find it more difficult to perform certain verbal memory...
cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/2916897
> ##### This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot. > The original was posted on /r/science by /u/mvea on 2024-05-15 10:17:06+00:00.
- TIL China now has a 3 child policy.
Maximum, that is.
1 child policy from 1979 to 2015.
2 child policy from 2015 to 2021.
3 child policy since 2021.
>The announcement came after the release of the results of the Seventh National Population Census, which showed that the number of births in mainland China in 2020 was only 12 million, the lowest number of births since 1960, and the further aging of the population, against which the policy was born.[5] This was the slowest population growth rate China experienced.[6]
>Although the CCP government had high expectations for the new policy,[16] in a 2021 online poll conducted by the state media Xinhua on its Weibo account, using the hashtag #AreYouReady for the new three-child policy, about 29,000 out of 31,000 respondents stated they would "never consider it."[15]
- TIL the origin of the word 'dog' is an etymological mystery. (The same is true about the word 'squid' but obviously I already knew that.)www.dictionary.com Why Is “Dog” One Of The Great Mysteries Of The English Language?
A dog by any other name would still be man's best friend ... but we want to know where the word "dog" came from in the first place. Who knows?
See also: https://www.etymonline.com/word/squid
- TIL Many bronze age peoples forgot what stone age tools were, and thought discovered ones as some kind of mystical talismans or signs from a thunder godwww.theguardian.com When stone tools were considered lightning remnants – and weapons of the gods
Neolithic stone axes were known as thunderstones and thought to have magical powers
Also mistaken for fulgurite by the more naturalistically minded, apparently. Maybe most common in the Nordics, based on viking references?
Additional links: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/100810-thor-thors-hammer-viking-graves-thunderstones-science https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukonvaaja [Finnish]
- TIL Earthworms aren't native to the northern United States; they are a recent invasive species which does significant damage to boreal forestswww.outdoorlife.com Earthworms Aren't Native to Most of North America, and Now They're Threatening Boreal Forests
What could be more innocuous than an earthworm? Plenty. Non-native earthworms are damaging healthy soil, native plants, and carbon storage.
- TIL the American Conservapedia, among other atrocities, redirects Linux to GNU/Linux
I guess they have a quantum taste for GNU!
- TIL Most Explosives used by Hamas Are Unexploded Israeli Bombs Dropped on Palestinemedium.com Report: Most Explosives used by Hamas Are Unexploded Israeli Bombs Dropped on Palestine
Israel’s Reckless Disregard for Palestinian Lives
- TIL 40 states in the US charge you $20-$80 a day for being incarcerated in prison.
Very weird that I am so old and have literally never heard this mentioned in a TV show or book or movie or anything.
In four out of five states, if you go to prison, you are literally paying for the time you spend there.
As you can guess, this results in crippling debt as soon as you're released.
The county gets back a fraction of what they hold over your head the rest of your life until you commit suicide(or die naturally and peacefully with the sword of damocles hanging over your head).
$20-$80 a day according to Rutgers.
Counties apparently sue people and employ wage garnishment to get back the money that majority of people obviously cannot pay back.
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/states-unfairly-burdening-incarcerated-people-pay-stay-fees
- TIL if The Bare Naked Ladies had $1m when the song was recorded, and parked it in S&P500, they'd be rich.
While $1m USD in 1988 is worth only $2.6m in 2024, if they just put it in the S&P 500 back then and left it there, it'd be worth over $44.6m today.
I don't know if the Dijon ketchup is really worth it.
- TIL: The Phrase “Death To America” Didn’t exist Before the CIA Overthrew the Iranian Government for Nationalizing their Oil in 1953medium.com The Phrase “Death To America” Didn’t exist Before the CIA Overthrew the Iranian Government for…
The U.S. Overthrow of Iran’s Democracy and the Rise of “Death to America”
- Today I learned an oil company prevented the rescue of contracted divers working on their pipe to save money.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_Petroleum_Holdings#Paria_Fuel_Trading_Company_diving_tragedy
Of course, there is no direct admittance of "we knew it would be cheaper to let them die."
Instead, they say "we had no legal obligation to rescue them." That's the answer for the people who were born yesterday.
Big oil truly is a disgusting thing.
- TIL George V Went Out Like John Belushi
Have been on a QI binge lately, so I've been learning all sorts of random stuff. Here's today's:
Stephen Fry: [Upon reading how Lord Dawson euthanized King George V] "Isn't that what a speed ball is? He's basically gone the same way as John Belushi"
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_V#Declining_health_and_death
> By 20 January, George was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with the words "The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close." Dawson's private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that George's last words, a mumbled "God damn you!", were addressed to his nurse, Catherine Black, when she gave him a sedative that night. Dawson, who supported the "gentle growth of euthanasia", admitted in the diary that he ended the King's life:
>> At about 11 o'clock it was evident that the last stage might endure for many hours, unknown to the Patient but little comporting with that dignity and serenity which he so richly merited and which demanded a brief final scene. Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers & keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end and injected (myself) morphia gr.3/4 [grains] and shortly afterwards cocaine gr.1 [grains] into the distended jugular vein ... In about 1/4 an hour – breathing quieter – appearance more placid – physical struggle gone
> Dawson wrote that he acted to preserve the King's dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that George's death at 11:55 pm could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than "less appropriate ... evening journals".
- TIL White Castle was the pioneer of fast food, not McDonalds99percentinvisible.org The White Castle System of Eating Houses - 99% Invisible
White Castle has its own take on fast food hamburgers. For starters, the patties are square, with five holes in each patty. And they’re small, too –- two-and-a-half inch sliders. Just big enough to fit into the palm of your hand. And since they’re steamed on a bed of onions, everything is infused wi...
Excellent listen throughout, but you can skip to 17:30 for competition with McDonalds.
- TIL about blindsight, a phenomenon by which visually blind people can apparently see or detect objects without using their visual cortex
It was a footnote in an article I read about a monkey using blindsight and that there had been several experiments with humans proving blindsight existed and that surprised me. As a footnote.
There have been several experiments that indicate people can see without using their visual cortex.
- TIL Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem Was An Anti-Communist CIA Operative who Kept the Feminist Movement From Discussing Class; only Gendermedium.com Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem Was An Anti-Communist CIA Operative who Kept the Feminist Movement…
Gloria Steinem, the woman who defied labels and blurred lines, is a case study in contradictions. Her life story reads like a spy novel…
- TIL about raisin juice concentrate - some truly Goldbergian food sciencewww.delightedcooking.com What is Raisin Juice? (with picture)
Raisin juice is a concentrated juice made of raisin extract. People use it both for cooking and as a supplement, and it's also a...
- The real reason men grow beardswww.bbc.com The real reason men grow beards
You might think all the facial hair you’re seeing on the street is a way of attracting a mate. It might not be so simple.
- Staples plan is to recycle nearly everything — and pay their customers for itwww.thecooldown.com Staples' new plan is to recycle nearly everything — and pay their customers for it
Staples has offered recycling services for over 15 years, and now it is expanding the program and rewarding customers for bringing in their old tech.
Check out the full list of what staples accepts now part of their expanded recycling programs.
https://www.staples.com/stores/recycling#workingtowardsabrightertomorrow
More companies should start to follow staples lead and offer return points for packaging and products that reach their end of life.
- TIL that 'Rocky' (1976) was inspired by the true story of Chuck Wepner, a local boxer from New Jersey who was set up for a dream fight with Muhammad Ali. Wepner quit his job to train full time.www.biography.com Chuck Wepner: Meet the Heavyweight Boxer Who Inspired 'Rocky'
Wepner's 1975 fight with Muhammad Ali motivated Sylvester Stallone to write the movie about a fighting underdog.
cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/2699121
> ##### This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot. > The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/L8_2_PartE on 2024-04-18 22:22:46. > > Original Title: TIL that 'Rocky' (1976) was inspired by the true story of Chuck Wepner, a local boxer from New Jersey who was set up for a dream fight with Muhammad Ali. Wepner quit his job to train full time, and against all odds, lasted 15 rounds with the champ. Stallone was in the audience. >
- TIL the Flag Famously Raised at Iwo Jima Was Raised Because a Commander Thought the First One Wasn’t Big Enough
The first flag was 54-by-28-inch vs the second being 96-by-56–inch.
>The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's. "To hell with that!" the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to obtain a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after Tuttle: "And make it a bigger one." — James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima
- TIL that Telefonicá sells 'anonymous' location data of their clients.www.heise.de Telefónica Deutschland will Bewegungsdaten von Mobilfunkkunden vermarkten
2012 hatte Telefónica Deutschland schon einmal Pläne präsentiert, Bewegungsdaten seiner Mobilfunkkunden zu versilbern. Diesmal soll es mit dem Segen von Datenschützern klappen.
TL;DR Some cellular cetwork providers triangulate your location and sell it to god knows who. And since real anonymous data is a lie, those who buy that data probably can tell who and where you are. Check if you can opt-out.
---
A while ago I went on a trip to Hamburg for a few days and I kept wondering how these bits of advertisement that keep comming though, even though I block pretty much everything, knew my location and just started recommending stuff in Hamburg. I did not share my location and only rarely even used any kind of tech those days.
So, I did a bit of research and stumbled upon an article (german, sorry) which basically said that the provider Telefonicá sells 'anonymous' location data of their clients.
Telefonicá not only has their own service, but also offers their service to Vodafone and PremiumSim for example. And no, it's not the data you give out by activating GPS tracking. They locate you by cellular triangulation. They of course do say, that the data is anonymous, but companies buying this kind of information are likely to already have a lot of other information and are able to conclude who this location data belongs to. Additionally I did not check if it is really location data only, but it wouldn't be hard to package that data with for example data about your phone: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/133427/can-cellular-network-providers-detect-the-phone-model-make-when-their-sim-is-act#:~:text=Network%20provider%20also%20accesses%20your,handset%20is%20valid%20to%20use.
Basically by simply having a contract with them or their partners, I accepted this. You can opt out. But it's not like anyone tells you about this.
For the folks in Germany - just send 'Abmelden' via SMS to 66866. (On this note, don't forget to trust no one on the internet and always double check these kinds of information. =)
For other folks - Sorry, didn't research much further.
- 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.
- TIL that up to 3.7% of pregnancies have misattributed paternity where the child (and possibly the mother) thought the father was someone elsewww.newyorker.com The Paternity Reveal
Fatherhood used to be a matter of faith. What changes when science makes it a matter of fact?
- Australians are 10x more likely to develop skin cancer than the average person
https://www.wcrf.org/cancer-trends/skin-cancer-statistics/
- TIL the dev of Iron Lung, an acclaimed indie horror game, faced significant backlash over increasing the price from $6 to $8www.ign.com Iron Lung Dev Says 'Go Pirate It or Something' in Response to Price Rise Backlash - IGN
The developer of hit indie horror Iron Lung, which mega YouTuber Markiplier is turning into a film, has told those who don’t agree with the game’s recent $2 price rise to “go pirate it or something”.
> > > Then, responding to those who have said he’s “only doing this for the money", Szymanski tweeted: “Yes, no fucking shit. I make games for a living. If I didn't want to earn money from them I wouldn't charge money for them.” > >
The game follows the premise of being trapped in an underwater submarine out of necessity to capture deep pictures.
