You've always wanted to know... useless information thread

[Nigel]

never saw either- thanks!

and yes, i got up, found toothpaste and measuring tape, found both.

you are correct; i was on the other end of the measuring tape quite a few times.

Amen to that! I frequently caught a mouthful of @&% from the old man when I didn't hold the tape steady!

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

it was usually that or, hold this flashlight for 4 hours while sitting under a car engine.

[44WeWantMore]

Back then, by four hours, your flashlight dims; I recommend a drop light.

[Nigel]

Haven't been to the grocery store in a while so will have to check this one out.

Loops On Grocery Carts


Yes, you can fit a lot of stuff in your grocery cart, but most people don’t realize that there are loops that help to frame the fold-out section of carts to help protect the items in your cart. With these loops, you can hang plastic bags that are carrying vulnerable items like eggs and bread that you don’t want to get squished by heavier items. Clearly, whoever designed grocery carts was well ahead of their time. In fact, even check out people who bag your groceries and put them in your cart may not even be aware of this neat function.



now you know

[Nigel]

According to the Bible, the chicken came before the egg.



If you pick up a Bible and flip to Genesis 1:20–22, you'll find the following: "And God said, 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.' So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'"

Therefore, according to Moses, who is credited with writing Genesis, God made birds first and the egg would have come afterward when those birds were "fruitful" and multiplied.

now you know

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

that's settled now. i dont want to hear anyone anymore query which preceded the other. thanks nigel!

while we are on the topic- i really don't like the saying you cant have your cake and eat it too. because you can. it's you can't eat your cake and have it too.

[youthathletics]

One that has long been a secret or made you scratch your head when standing in the lamp isle....what is the difference between a 120v and a 130v lamp? This link does a decent job at explaining. 130 Volt lamps are harder to find these days. They last much longer because the heat they produce is much less and when there are small power spikes that may go above 120v, the filament can handle it.

#KYK

[ardilla secreta]

According to the Bible, the chicken came before the egg.



If you pick up a Bible and flip to Genesis 1:20–22, you'll find the following: "And God said, 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.' So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'"

Therefore, according to Moses, who is credited with writing Genesis, God made birds first and the egg would have come afterward when those birds were "fruitful" and multiplied.

now you know

I just see two chicks making out. Kinky.

[Nigel]

According to the Bible, the chicken came before the egg.



If you pick up a Bible and flip to Genesis 1:20–22, you'll find the following: "And God said, 'Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.' So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'"

Therefore, according to Moses, who is credited with writing Genesis, God made birds first and the egg would have come afterward when those birds were "fruitful" and multiplied.

now you know

I just see two chicks making out. Kinky.

Please edit your comment AS and add 'not that there's anything wrong with it" (rather than kinky) bc you probably just offended somebody. You'll no doubt hear from them soon if you don't.

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

Why is someone caught "unawares", and not just unaware?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-a ... ares-usage

The practice is a holdover from Middle English, a case known as the adverbial genitive. Think of the way we add the letter to a time-related noun when talking about a repeated action or state: "works from home Tuesdays"; "mornings she gets a coffee at the market." The adverbial genitive is a relic of Middle English that, in addition to these examples, still turns up in such words as always and afterwards. The adverbial genitive ending is also responsible for giving us such words as amongst from among and besides from beside.

I must say- until this, i was largely unaware.

now you know.

[Kismet]

Listen to this young lady talk about proper use of an Oxford comma (as opposed to a regular ol' comma)



https://thewritepractice.com/why-you-ne ... rd-commas/

NYK the difference!! Grammarians rule!

[Nigel]

Listen to this young lady talk about proper use of an Oxford comma (as opposed to a regular ol' comma)



https://thewritepractice.com/why-you-ne ... rd-commas/

NYK the difference!! Grammarians rule!

Here's the song referenced in Kismet's article link

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

Listen to this young lady talk about proper use of an Oxford comma (as opposed to a regular ol' comma)



https://thewritepractice.com/why-you-ne ... rd-commas/

NYK the difference!! Grammarians rule!

i ONE THOUSAND percent agree, i will always use the oxford when presented. if you don't, it can only be more ambiguous. bravo.

a panda walks into a bar...

[RedFromMI]

(omitted)

i ONE THOUSAND percent agree, i will always use the oxford when presented. if you don't, it can only be more ambiguous. bravo.

a panda walks into a bar...

I actually had a small argument with my major professor years ago (1985) about the Oxford comma - which I used and he preferred not to. But since it was my dissertation he relented...

We also disagreed on how to make bus plural - I liked the preferred buses and he liked the now not preferred busses. What I don't remember is why the heck such a word was in a dissertation about atomic physics...

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

the example in the video is a good one, because it shows the worst case. https://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leav ... 1592402038

[Nigel]

The U.S. Air Force introduced Bob Ross to painting.

The late Bob Ross, the host of The Joy of Painting, was known for being a soft-spoken artist with a signature hairstyle and a stunning talent for painting dreamy landscapes filled with happy trees. But he might not have ever been the painter we came to adore if he hadn't been in the U.S. Air Force, according to an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. While rising to the rank of Master Sergeant, Ross was also able to take a painting class, and he was inspired by the scenery in Alaska where he was stationed. The state's landscape would often pop up in his work throughout his artistic career.

now you know.

[Brooklyn]

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

why do tv sitcom houses always have the same living room setup with the swinging kitchen door? https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... comHousing

No matter the context (time period, wealth of the occupants, etc.), it's usually built open-plan, so there's no separation between the two rooms, other than perhaps an island or breakfast bar. If there is a wall separating the two, there is either no door in the doorway, or the door swings in both directions. If there's a dining room, it's just another extension of the kitchen-living room zone — a dining table off by itself on one side, with maybe a chandelier hanging over it.

The front door is almost always stage leftnote and, unlike the majority of houses, opens directly into the living room/kitchen, with no hallway. With a front door opening into the main living space, a character (or vehicle) can barge in with no warning, for dramatic or comedic effect. Also, inhabitants won't have to leave the scene if they're letting someone in.

At this point the familiarity of the layout may be a useful tool to acclimate new viewers, but it would have originated (and continues to flourish) as a side-effect of the multiple-camera system.

and why does the exterior never correspond with the interior?

When shown in establishing shots, often the outside doesn't bear any resemblance to the inside, with different arrangements of windows and doors. Sometimes the house will have way more rooms inside than would be plausible for a house the same size as the one used for the exterior shots.

similar to the above- probably because of sweeping shots for multiple characters: http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2014/03/d ... tcoms.html

Directing multi-camera shows can be a challenge. You have four cameras going simultaneously trying to cover all the action as a scene is played out in front of a studio audience. You figure, well just have a camera assigned to everybody. But what if there are more than four people in a scene? And what if they move around? And wouldn’t it be great to have some wide shots so the viewer would have some sense of geography? And if there are more than four people and some of them aren’t talking, wouldn’t it be nice to have close-ups of them too to capture their reactions? How about variety so every close up is not the same size? And how close should the close-ups be?

now you know.

[ChairmanOfTheBoard]

there's currently almost 7.6b people alive on earth.

but how many ever lived altogether???

https://www.prb.org/howmanypeoplehaveeverlivedonearth/

Since then, more than 108 billion members of our species have ever been born, according to estimates by Population Reference Bureau (PRB).

Given the current global population of about 7.5 billion (based on our most recent estimate as of 2019), that means those of us currently alive represent about 7 percent of the total number of humans who have ever lived.

of course, there are incomplete records, estimates, questionable data, but it's all we have.

now you know.

[Nigel]

The History of Broccoli

As far as vegetables are concerned, broccoli is a bit divisive–people either love it or hate it, but its history as a preferred source of food and nutrition has existed since the Roman Empire.

Like the artichoke, broccoli is essentially a large edible flower. The stalks and flower florets are eaten both raw and cooked and have a flavor reminiscent of cabbage, though broccoli is also related to kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.

Although some cooks do enjoy them prepared in the manner of chard or kale, the bitter leaves are usually discarded in preparing broccoli for a meal. Depending on which type of broccoli you get, though, their taste can range from mild to extremely bitter.

From Discovery to Commercial Farming
Broccoli, botanically known as Brassica oleracea italica, is native to the Mediterranean. It was engineered from a cabbage relative by the Etruscans—an ancient Italian civilization who lived in what is now Tuscany—who were considered to be horticultural geniuses. Its English name, broccoli, is derived from the Italian word broccolo, which means "the flowering crest of a cabbage," and the Latin brachium meaning arm, branch, or shoot.

Broccoli has been considered a very valuable food by the Italians since the Roman Empire, but when first introduced in England in the mid-18th century, broccoli was referred to as "Italian asparagus."

There are records of Thomas Jefferson, who was an avid gardener, experimenting with broccoli seeds brought over from Italy in the late 1700s, but although commercial cultivation of broccoli dates back to the 1500s, it did not become a popular foodstuff in the United States until Southern Italian immigrants brought it over in the early 1920s.

Due to the many ways it can be cooked, as well as all of the health benefits, broccoli has tripled in consumption over the past 30 years.

Varieties and Nutritional Contents of Broccoli
The large head and thick stalk broccoli we are most familiar with is Calabrese broccoli (named after Calabria, Italy), although it is typically labeled simply as broccoli. Even though it is available in stores year-round, it is a cold-weather crop. There is another variety that features several thin stalks and heads called sprouting broccoli, and you may also come across Romanesco broccoli, which is tightly packed in a cone shape and is bright green in color.

If you like broccoli, you may want to try broccolini, also called baby broccoli, which is a cross between broccoli and kale, or you might find broccoflower, a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, an appealing snack if you're a fan of both of these flowering vegetables.

No matter which variety you get, broccoli is rich in calcium and has anti-oxidant properties which help prevent some forms of cancer. The same sulfur that can cause gas from over-cooked broccoli also has beneficial antiviral and antibiotic properties.

NYK