Things you were shockingly old when you learned

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bring back the Burger King Rodeo burger and have a special where it's served with cowboy coffee

mh, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 16:14 (eight months ago) link

i learned abt "raptures of the deep" surprisingly young bcz there was a cousteau book with nice pictures in my school library -- i doubt i read the main text particularly closely but there was a very striking photo of an underwater board attached to a rope with a kind of wild scribble on it, which was the enraptured final signature of cousteau's colleague (name long forgotten) as he proved to the world he had beaten some specific diving record (details also forgotten); sadly by then this fellow was so blissed-out on nitrogen that he forgot to continue to hold his facemask to his mouth, so that by the time they got down to him or pulled him up or whatever he had entirely drowned

this made a STRONG IMPRESSION on me! never give yr life for some dumb diving rercord! (or indeed go diving at all 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽)

nevertheless i was fascinated by how chaotic that scribbled sign-off looked, that guy was OUT OF IT :(

mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 17:06 (eight months ago) link

the sound of the "jungle" from old movies and cartoons isn't monkeys, as i had always thought, it's kookaburras!

Kookaburras: Australia's Wilhelm Scream

Hideous Lump, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 17:13 (eight months ago) link

Lol

Tommy Gets His Consoles Out (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 17:35 (eight months ago) link

xxp

there is a measurement of "rapture of the deep" side effects that some divers call Martin's Law. Which is for every extra 50 ft you descend is like drinking a martini on an empty stomach. I was reading an account of a diver who got snagged on cables and died. They were still barely conscious when another found them in trouble but couldn't get them free and tank was running low. So they risked death themselves by "getting bent" with a dangerous fast ascent to the surface to raise the alarm and then back down again to decompress. The diver who died was apparently an arrogant dick and went down with lots of tools hanging from a tool belt that the rest of the party called "suicide snags" or something like that. But he had such a big rep and was such an unapproachable dick, nobody dared have a word with him about them.

vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 17:39 (eight months ago) link

lol martini's law I meant

vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 17:42 (eight months ago) link

i would simply drink an actual martini on an empty stomach while descending no feet

mark s, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 18:07 (eight months ago) link

two feet is enough to lose under the influence of martinis

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 18:12 (eight months ago) link

xxp

that's a much more sensible option than asphyxiating while hopelessly tied up by a spider's web of cables in a dark deep sea wreck location known as Gimbel's Hole!

vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 18:13 (eight months ago) link

also Gimbel almost died and had to be carried up unconscious whilst making the hole!

vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 8 August 2023 18:14 (eight months ago) link

A Gimbel is just a Martini but with an onion instead of olive

Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, 8 August 2023 18:20 (eight months ago) link

that "mare's nest" is an actual expression and not just some random user name

budo jeru, Friday, 11 August 2023 00:12 (eight months ago) link

Lol

The Original Human Breadbox (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 11 August 2023 04:24 (eight months ago) link

That Marie and Pierre Curie's daughter, Irene, also won a Nobel Prize.

Monthly Python (Tom D.), Saturday, 19 August 2023 20:30 (eight months ago) link

Nepo baby

Josefa, Saturday, 19 August 2023 20:34 (eight months ago) link

that when Bosch's Garden of Earthy Delights is folded up, it has a painting on the outside depicting the creation of the Earth.
you can see some of the weird shapes starting to emerge, neat!

https://i.imgur.com/KspW8V9.jpg

( X '____' )/ (zappi), Sunday, 20 August 2023 00:41 (eight months ago) link

The fold behind the arm/shoulder on a US bike jacket or field jacket is called a bi-swing.
I was looking up what it was called cos I was designing a jacket and thinking I'd incorporate a pair into the design. So thought I'd see if I could find a pattern for it.
It allows more arm movement/stretch.
I think it had been incorporated into some casual suit type jackets in the mid 20th century as well as things like golf jackets.

Stevo, Sunday, 20 August 2023 07:36 (eight months ago) link

I just learned that Long Cool Woman isn’t by CCR, but the Hollies. I have heard this song one hundred million times in my life.

I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 03:15 (eight months ago) link

I only fairly recently learned why 'elevator pitch' is called that. Previously I interpreted the 'elevator' as meaning 'taking the pitch to the next level'.

Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 08:41 (eight months ago) link

the "tera" in like terabyte is the same as the tera in teratology

it means monster!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Eric_Hall.jpeg

mark s, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 13:15 (eight months ago) link

time for YOU to learn that this guy^^^ is who the song "killer queen" was written about

mark s, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 13:16 (eight months ago) link

AKA 'cowboy coffee'... also how traditional New Orleans coffee was made, using egg whites to settle the grounds

egg shells, not whites

andrew m., Wednesday, 23 August 2023 14:40 (eight months ago) link

monster monster queen wouldn't have the same ring to it

vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 14:44 (eight months ago) link

Egg shells also used to fine (clarify) wine for hundreds of years.

il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:03 (eight months ago) link

eggshells or eggs… or fish-skin!

https://khymos.org/2010/08/04/norwegian-egg-coffee/

mark s, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:12 (eight months ago) link

isinglass?

you're a sick man, Buddy Rich (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:13 (eight months ago) link

yep! also used in beer, along w/"irish moss" which iirc is a kind of seaweed

out-of-print LaserDisc edition (sleeve), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:14 (eight months ago) link

The only thing I ever directly heard of being made of isinglass is curtains.

The Thin, Wild Mercury Rising (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:20 (eight months ago) link

A Gimbel is just a Martini but with an onion instead of olive

Hope I'm not being overly pedantic but is a martini with an onion not actually a Gibson?

henry s, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:22 (eight months ago) link

an isingimbel is a coffee martini made with onion skins

mark s, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:23 (eight months ago) link

AKA 'cowboy coffee'... also how traditional New Orleans coffee was made, using egg whites to settle the grounds

egg shells, not whites

― andrew m., Wednesday, August 23, 2023 9:40 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

actually, you can use the egg white. same concept as using an egg white to clarify homemade stock.

budo jeru, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:53 (eight months ago) link

sorry i see we've already covered that

budo jeru, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 15:59 (eight months ago) link

an isingimbel is a coffee martini made with onion skins

Looking through the bent backed bumbershoots

The Thin, Wild Mercury Rising (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:03 (eight months ago) link

I had no idea isinglass was so interesting tbh. Also I had no idea it existed so

aeronimo is mad againe (Hunt3r), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:46 (eight months ago) link

the "tera" in like terabyte is the same as the tera in teratology

it means monster!

🖼


Did we ever discuss the scientific community getting together in November to agree on new prefixes for v large or small numbers

Grandall Flange (wins), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:48 (eight months ago) link

An electron’s mass is about one rontogram, Jupiter weighs two quettagrams and the diameter of the observable universe is one ronnameter. This is what representatives from 100 countries at the General Conference on Weights and Measures decided on Friday as they adopted four new SI unit prefixes.

Metrologists and metric system enthusiasts can rejoice as there are now official prefixes for extremely large things – ronna and quetta (1027 and 1030) – and for very small stuff – ronto and quecto (10−27 and 10−30).

This is the first time in over 30 years that the CGPM added to the prefixes for the International System of Units (SI) after it approved zetta, yotta, zepto and yocto in 1991. While the last change was aimed at chemists who wanted to express units in the Avogadro’s number range, this year’s update is driven by the need for big numbers in digital information. Data scientists are already using prefixes at the top of the range – yottabytes, for example – so a new one was urgently needed.

‘It was high time,’ said Richard Brown from the UK’s metrology institute, the National Physical Laboratory, in an interview with the Associated Press. Brown, who proposed the change, explained that the names had to start with the letters r and q, the only ones not taken yet by other symbols or prefixes in the metric system. ‘There’s a precedent that they sound similar to Greek letters and that big number prefixes end with an a, and smaller numbers with an o,’ Brown told the Associated Press.

There are now no more letters in the Latin alphabet left in case more prefixes are needed, but this likely won’t become a problem anytime soon.

Grandall Flange (wins), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:49 (eight months ago) link

The superscript didn’t c&p properly obv that should say 10^27 &c

Grandall Flange (wins), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:51 (eight months ago) link

"Originally 'quecca' had been suggested for 10^30 but was too close to a profane meaning in Portuguese"

mark s, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:58 (eight months ago) link

how many lottabytes in a fuckobyte?

mark s, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 16:58 (eight months ago) link

not using "lorra" is Cilla erasure

you're a sick man, Buddy Rich (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 17:00 (eight months ago) link

Hellabytes

The Thin, Wild Mercury Rising (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 23 August 2023 17:01 (eight months ago) link

look forward to this being a round on UC next series

kinder, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 18:26 (eight months ago) link

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dwlxl9

Dan Worsley, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 18:28 (eight months ago) link

I think I must have known this at some point but I'd forgotten that Murdoch no longer owns Sky

Alba, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 19:39 (eight months ago) link

The only thing I ever directly heard of being made of isinglass is curtains.

Only time I've ever heard of these is in "Surrey With the Fringe on Top", wtf are they?

fetter, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 20:28 (eight months ago) link

I just learned that Long Cool Woman isn’t by CCR, but the Hollies

still unclear to me whether her dress is black or red #protomeme

mookieproof, Wednesday, 23 August 2023 22:34 (eight months ago) link

OK now I understand what "monster, monster" is, I only ever saw it as that skit in the Fast Show and was quite baffled, which I suppose anyone else would be by a skit saying "megalo megalo" or something.

Stoop Crone (Trayce), Thursday, 24 August 2023 00:49 (eight months ago) link

ps on isinglass, at first i was 'huh that's saruman's place did tolkien take the name from some proto-germanic script about fish bladders? because of course he would.'

aeronimo is mad againe (Hunt3r), Thursday, 24 August 2023 02:27 (eight months ago) link

_The only thing I ever directly heard of being made of isinglass is curtains._


Only time I've ever heard of these is in "Surrey With the Fringe on Top", wtf are they?


The only time anyone has ever made mention of “surrey…” in my entire life was in Twin Peaks. are you Bob?

butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Thursday, 24 August 2023 11:18 (eight months ago) link

Bob Weinstock?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mbCuFn3EH4

budo jeru, Thursday, 24 August 2023 21:06 (eight months ago) link


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