May 20, 2009
What’s the last interesting (though perhaps trivial) thing you’ve learned?
This morning I discovered that the earliest plural of dwarf is dwarfs.
Dwarves was popularized by Tolkien.
What have you learned recently?
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
Unfortunately, whatever it is, since it’s trivial, I’ll only remember it in the middle of a conversation, when it will seem VERY important.
I can put down 24 wings (most of them were smothered in mango/habanero sauce) and a Tall Newcastle at Buffalo Wild Wings and still want more.
I think this shows me my tendency towards gluttony.
So, this was not a wonderful find, but an interesting, trivial find nonetheless.
The median starting salary for both a U Chicago and a Northwestern Law grad is 160k, which is more than I’ve ever made mowing lawns.
people call it the ‘funny bone’ because it’s the humerus bone. should i have known this?
Singapore is the worlds largest exporter of ornamental fish
(for Photoshop nerds only):
“Gaussian” (as in the “Gaussian blur”) is actually pronounced “GOWS-ian”, not “GAUZE-ian” (which is how most people say it).
That this guy (pastor in Arizona) was recently tased and beaten by border patrol for apparently no reason. And get this, he had a video camera with him when it happened. Here’s the YouTube footage. I’m not sure what to think of it yet because he’s somewhat of a controversial—and often annoying—personality online, but it sure looks like he got the raw end of this deal.
OpenSSL confuses Valgrind, yielding ostensibly spurious error reports which clutter tool’s output. Qt, on the other hand, is very Valgrind-happy.
You asked…
Tadpoles are almost impossible to pick up when dropped on tile floor.
This is only trivial if you are not a tadpole OR if you are not a parent of a little girl who loves frogs.
On a more encouraging note…tadpoles can survive being out of water for a good amount of time!
Exalt and exult are different words with quite different meanings.
A few days ago I learned that “You learn something new every day” is more than just a catch phrase. It’s true! I’ve been keeping track ever since.
Yesterday I learned that most Yiddish words we use in conversational English are actually considered expletives within the language. Oops!
That 32 oz of water is too much for a 4 yr old’s tummy! I would’ve figured that, but my 4 yr old definitely learned that!
I learned that it’s not the worst thing to clean up, though.
I learned that the middle section of the movie “Prince Caspian” bugs me quite a bit. Largely because it makes Peter and (to a lesser extent) Rheepicheep look foolish and boorish.
That the General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park is the largest living thing on the planet (and therefore in the known universe).
Where I live the word cat is a very, very, very bad word and should never be uttered.
That hippos can run up to 30mph on land. What?! Never woulda guessed. That’s pretty fast for all that weight on those short little legs.
That there are three ways to spell the word “dying.”
It’s “dying” if referring to the passing of life.
It’s “dieing” if referring to a die cast stamping process.
It’s “dyeing” if referring to the colorization process, as in tie dye.
That nobody really likes Coffee as much as Starbucks thinks they should.
That Coffee Snobbery is really just a Marketing Concept. Say its good long enough, look good doing, make it look like everyone should enjoy it, and use your knowledge of a product to belittle anyone who doesn’t like it and people will convince themselves that they need/like it.
That Leonard Nimoy made up the vulcan salute based on a Jewish blessing he saw once.
Goats eat weeds, Sheep eat grass.
I’ve learned that eight three and four year olds standing on stage in tutus do not have to know choreography in order to receive the loudest applause of the recital.
Jack Bauer’s soul is in danger!
Iceland is bankrupt.
Al-Quaeda and Hamas both developed from double-agent groups set up by U.S. intelligence to fight Soviet Russia and the PLO respectively.
This world’s in a stickier mess than I thought.
Adam screamed a lot as a baby and Kris gave his mom cards redeemable for free songs.
that Willow Creek Community Church actually set out to create and market a “homogeneous church”. i didn’t know that was the actual, above-board game plan. (gives me the creeps, but that is another story for another time.)
That New England, missiologically speaking, is an unreached people group. Only 1-3% of its population attend evangelical churches (just “attend”, mind you, not necessarily regenerate), and that Mormon Utah has a higher Christian population per capita than Rhode Island. Compare this to the South with 40-50%. Massachusetts is the national capital of academia, liberalism, feminism, and homosexuality. Anyone have a call to the mission field?
I learned that “good” production design on the new Terminator: Salvation film consists of unnecessary balls of fire periodically shooting out of pipes.
That the pot scraper that has been in my kitchen for 20 years is actually an edging tool for the bathroom tile.
the plural of platypus is spelled platypuses
When at rest, butterflies hold their wings vertically. Moths hold their wings horizontally when at rest.
The gap in Saturn’s A ring (called the Encke Division) is caused by the tiny moon, Pan.
Cockroaches can hold their breath for up to 40 minutes, told to me by a friend after trying to kill cockroaches via drowning.
We are getting new neighbors next door – a “young, nice couple” that is living together but engaged.
(So says the old neighbor on his way out.)
That radishes in deck boxes (for early season salads) will dry out even more quickly than you’d think, (even though they were just watered yesterday) when there’s a warm wind blowing. Lots of water thrown in their little faces very quickly helps.
that upside down “e” thing is called a schwa.
sidenote: it is not included in all font families.
I learned that Texas probate law is complicated, but not so much so that it is scary to someone writing her first will.
That Harriet Tubman suffered from narcolepsy after being hit in the head by a thrown two-pound weight. Amazingly she escaped from slavery with this medical condition and helped many others to escape as well.
I learned that geocaching originated from letterboxing, which dates back to the 1800s.
Tuberculosis is cannot be spread by affected individuals under the age of 10 because they can’t cough deep enough to expel the germs.
My son (just adopted from Ukraine) is currently hospitalized with positive TB. I’m learning a lot.
About an hour ago, at the vet’s office, I learned that heartworms are caused by mosquito bites.
It’s quicker to get to Premium Plaza (a shopping mall in Medellin, Colombia) if you get off at the Industriales metro station than if you get off at Exposiciones.
I just learned that spelling does matter to Abraham Piper.
It takes a force equal to four pounds of dynamite to rip open the belly of a whale.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/wild/3464/Overview/?source=4003#tab-Videos/06221_00
You can use banana peels to whiten your teeth.
I learned last week that a steer, although not technically a bull anymore, still has the tendancy to charge at you if you are in his pen.
That my thighs will not get smaller just by wishing they would.
The complex etymology of “betwixt”
That Sioux Falls is a friendly, affordable, yet sophisticated city growing and prospering in this down economy and that someone moving from Chicago suburbia is actually behind the 8-ball in moving there, real estate-wise.
That a 10 month old is stronger (pound for pound) than an ox.
That discovery is quite relevant to me Abraham…
haha
I’m a blacksmith who forges Tolkien inspired swords. many “Dwarven” swords as well.
But a discovery?
Today I learned that being brutally honest with a friend wither makes or breaks the friendship. literally!…
Our local thrift shop is not allowed to sell empty liquor bottles even if they are unlabeled, antique, atypical and really groovy.
After watching the movie Dresden, I learned that American novelist Kurt Vonnegut was a survivor of the Allied fire bombing of the city. Together with other POWs and his German guards, they locked themselves inside a meat freezer and survived the inferno outside. He wrote Slaughterhouse-Five about his experience.
The difference between a flying termite and a flying ant. Both swarm with the first rain(s) of the year and the pest guy explained the difference to me when I called him in a panic.
This is not as trivial here in Florida as it might be someplace else, because the difference is one of “oh well, there are bugs in the pool that need to be cleaned out” and “we need to have the house treated to the tune of $1000+ to keep our walls and roof from being quickly and systematically (if a bit randomly) devoured over the next several months”
Your eyes have four drains, called puncta, through which tears (which are constantly renewed) exit. If you have a problem with very dry eyes, doctors can put plugs in your puncta so that your tears stay in your eyes instead of draining.
That grammar lesson appears as one of my favorite lines from Into the Woods (Agony reprise):
CINDERELLA’S PRINCE
It’s no sicker
Than your thing with dwarves.
RAPUNZEL’S PRINCE
Dwarfs.
CINDERELLA’S PRINCE
Dwarfs…
RAPUNZEL’S PRINCE
Dwarfs are every upsetting.
I’m learning how to fit pointe shoes (toe shoes to the uninitiated). And the Gaynor Minden has a really short box and no wings, and the shank is made out of a synthetic plastic, as opposed to redboard like most pointe shoes. That is just a fraction of the trivial information I now have stored in my brain about pointe shoes.
Zippers. A moment’s haste, and a lifetime’s regret.
I learned recently that wolverines are the only animals that will kill for pleasure.
and also that I am part of the christian population in Mormon Utah, that is larger than that of New England
It takes 17 good impressions to undo 1 bad impression.
In the Chicago area, they have signs for “speed humps” and “senior citizen crossings.”
@jessica
Hopefully those signs aren’t placed too near each other …
Same thing with “elvish,” if I remember correctly. I think the original word was “elfish,” but then Tolkien came along.
I just figured out that “Golf Cart X-ing” signs (for example) mean “crossing,” not “exiting,” as I’ve mistakenly believed for most of my life.
I believe the original plural form was ‘dwerrow(s)’. Hence the dwarvish name for Moria, Dwerrowdelf.