Every Day is a Learning Day

[easthammer]

"I along with a handful of regulars do the daily quiz on here. Each day I learn something, true that by the end of the week, I have forgotten half of it! Occasionally you come across things that truly surprise you. Not something you had forgotten it but something truly novel. This week, courtesy Zico, one thing I learned is that a Cubit is based on the measurement from the length of the middle finger to your elbow ( around 18 inches). I just didn't know that. That got me thinking maybe a thread to share just one interesting fact a day might be .... well interesting. Now it is not my suggestion to repost questions and answers from the quiz thread, nor to post pure opinions ( for example the other day I discovered that Tesco Finest Frozen Chips are far Superior to McCain's - now that is just my opinion and as is common practice on here writing FACT after that wouldn't make it one. And certainly don't post your opinion or what you think are facts relating other posters - there is at least 50 other threads where that is done...FACT (see what I mean ;) Ok I'll start off with something I learn't from a crossword this week, and this in the light of me having a 46 year old daughter named Emma. Neither of us knew: Pip Emma is slang for in the afternoon (pm) dating from WW1 signaling protocols. Ok what have you learnt thats new to you?"

[lab]

When you have a steak cooked rare it is not blood you may see leaking it is a product called MYOGLOBIN . Found this out only recently .

[Hello Mrs. Jones]

Worldwide 4.7 billion photos are taken every day. This year nearly 2 trillion will be taken.

[claret on my shirt]

Apart from the Uk and the Nordics every European family can trace its lineage back to Charlemagne on the matrilineal line.

[BRANDED]

Everything in life is random and you encounter luck. In between enjoy yourself as much as yoi possibly can.

[Alfs]

"Zeb, have you watched My Octopus Teacher? It's a brilliant doc about a relationship built between a man and an octopus (not that kind!) As for the thread, a Golden Ferret, which sounds like a gay practice, is holing your ball from the bunker, which sounds like a gay euphemism."

[zebthecat]

"Nurse Ratched 9:30 Thu Oct 26 Unsurprisinlgy I am similar in what sets me off down the learning route. I never knew that but it is fascinating. Octopuses fascinate me as they are so alien. They have threee hearts, copper based blood unlike pretty much every other animal that is based on iron and have nine brains; one for each limb and one in their head to coordinate things. Unless the central brain intervenes the tentacles can do their own thing investigating. They are clever at problem solving too and are one of the few creatures apart from us who decorate their dens just for hell of it. You have to wonder what they could do if they weren't so short lived. Mind you it has worked for them as a plan and will still be around once us big brained humans have wiped ourselves out. My work as a software developer is great at keeping an old git still sharp as every day is, indeed, a learning day given how fast the technology changes. It was javascript animations today. A silly thing but it is good to learn it."

[Nurse Ratched]

?üßê

[gph]

I thought bries' blocks were a by-product of the cheese industry...

[Nurse Ratched]

"I recently watched an adaptation of Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. Central to the story is the issue of a legacy left by a John Harmon, who became very wealthy from his 'dust mounds' business. The series didn't offer any exposition on how it was/is possible to become wealthy from owning giant mounds of dust, so I turned to Google. Harmon's dust mounds were the result of the first organised domestic refuse collections, the dust/cinders being left over from all the coal that was being burned for heat, cooking and manufacturing in Victorian cities. The men were called Dustmen and they used dustcarts, hence the origin of the terms we still use today for general waste collection. I'm probably really thick, but I had never before made the connection. A lot of the dust was sold to manufacture bricks. Another word for dust/cinders was 'breeze' (various spellings, same pronunciation). Hence breeze blocks, or (American) cinder blocks. Apparently the deceptively large area of London currently containing Kings Cross Station and its industrial surroundings, was once the site of massive dust mounds which became an environmental hazard even the Victorians baulked at. When the dust mounds were cleared, King's Cross and the wider industrial site was built. This is why I don't have a husband. Well that and being ugly. ?üôÇ"