I bet you didnt know that

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Standman wrote: »

An interesting side note: Basque is the only surviving language in Western Europe to pre-date Indo-European - for reasons unknown it managed to resist the linguistic onslaught that overcame other Pre-Indo-European languages millennia ago, surviving to this day around the French & Spanish border. It's a language isolate, unrelated to any other known language. What was their secret, I wonder...

Korean is usually said to be a language isolate, although that is debated. If it is, it has more speakers than all other language isolates combined.

Dyr

Lady Haywire wrote: »

It's like Where's Wally in that video. Spot the person with a flower stuck in their butthole!

That particular painting is mental, everywhere you look there's weird depraved stuff

And it was painted to hang in a church

gozunda

Bambi wrote: »

I was obsessed with Hieronymous Bosches twisted art as a very young kid because we had a book of his illustrations in the house, I couldnt even read but the images in it fascinated me

It turned out his most famous and weirdest piece had an easter egg that remained hidden in plain sight for 500 years until a music student noticed it last yar, transcribed and recorded it: its a passage of eerie music that was written across a tortured humans arse. :eek:

It is believed that the earliest fragment of musical notation was found on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet, which includes instructions and tunings for a hymn honoring the ruler Lipit-Ishtar.

The title of oldest extant song, is possibly that referred to as “Hurrian Hymn No. 6,” an ode to the goddess Nikkal that was composed in cuneiform by the ancient Hurrians sometime around the 14th century B.C. The clay tablets containing the tune were excavated in the 1950s from the ruins of the city of Ugarit in Syria. Along with a near-complete set of musical notations, they also include specific instructions for how to play the song on a type of nine-stringed lyre.

“Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is considered the world’s earliest melody, however the oldest musical composition to have survived in its entirety is a first century A.D. Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph.” The song was found engraved on an ancient marble column used to mark a woman’s gravesite in Turkey. “I am a tombstone, an image,” reads an inscription. “Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.” The column also includes musical notation as well as a short set of lyrics that read: “While you live, shine / Have no grief at all / Life exists only for a short while / And time demands its toll.”

An adaption of Hurrian Hymn No. 6 ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tn9x-IDYcY

The Seikilos Epitaph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVYSrEuTP5A

Capt'n Midnight

Bambi wrote: »

That particular painting is mental, everywhere you look there's weird depraved stuff

And it was painted to hang in a church

And back then people would have known the meaning of the symbols.

Much has been lost because most people were illiterate and the literate didn't write down stuff that was common knowledge. This is why diaries from the past are so important, because we can second guess what everyone knew.

KevRossi

Inside the Shikotsu-Toya National Park, in the island of Hokkaidō, not far from the active stratovolcano, Mount Usu, there is a 400-meter tall volcanic peak called Shōwa-shinzan. Shōwa-shinzan is Japan’s youngest mountain.

It appeared on 28 December 1943 out of a wheat field accompanied by strong tremors and hot lava. As the molten magma broke through the surface, it uplifted the field and over the following two years the lava dome continued to rise until it reached a height of 398 meters.

Shōwa-shinzan erupted when Japan was fighting the Allies in the Second World War. The appearance of a volcano at a time when the entire country was in distress was taken as a bad omen by the superstitious folks. The authorities tried to hush it up and requested the locals to keep the mountain a secret. But Masao Mimatsu, a postmaster living nearby began observing and recording the volcano's progress. Because of Japan’s war effort, basic scientific materials were unavailable and Mimatsu had to improvise. The notes he took and the sketches he made of Showa-Shinzan are the only records available to geologists of this mountain’s formation.

Masao Mimatsu strung several fishing lines horizontally across two vertical beams at his post office. He observed the growth of the volcano through these strings—they acting as guide lines—and drew the profile of Showa-Shinzan at different times as the dome grew.

When he presented his data and sketches to the World Volcano Conference in Oslo in 1948, his work was praised by professional volcanologists. His papers were referred to as the "Mimatsu Diagram" and for them he received the First Hokkaido Cultural Award.

Mimatsu also bought the entire land where the volcano stood using all of his savings so that he could study the volcano more thoroughly. Some say this happened when the volcano was still growing. Others say he bought the land after the volcano stopped erupting.

Whichever is true, Mimatsu became the owner of the volcano and to this day the volcano is on private property despite the Japanese government declaring it a natural monument of Japan—a rarity anywhere in the world.


A before and after of the field with the new hill:




What it looks like today




How Mimatsu drew the mountain, note his chin resting on the board that is attached to the wall of his house.



And what his sketches looked like, showing the progression of the volcano over a number of years.

KevRossi

This is Litla Dimun island in the Faroe Islands, the only uninhabited island in the archipelago. It has only sheep and birds and is very difficult to visit, only possible when weather and sea conditions are absolutely perfect.

You can visit the island around Midsommar for a party, but due to the risk of accidents, alcohol is forbidden.

Due to it's shape, sheer sides, height, shelter from some prevailing winds, precipitation and a number of other factors, it is often seen with a cloud 'hat'. This is known as a Lenticular cloud and they do not move, they remain stationary, sometimes for days.



It reminds me a bit of this famous portrait.

gozunda

KevRossi wrote: »

This is Litla Dimun island in the Faroe Islands, the only uninhabited island in the archipelago. It has only sheep and birds and is very difficult to visit, only possible when weather and sea conditions are absolutely perfect.

You can visit the island around Midsommar for a party, but due to the risk of accidents, alcohol is forbidden.

Due to it's shape, sheer sides, height, shelter from some prevailing winds, precipitation and a number of other factors, it is often seen with a cloud 'hat'. This is known as a Lenticular cloud and they do not move, they remain stationary, sometimes for days.



It reminds me a bit of this famous portrait.

Tbh you deserve a good 'kick up the arse' for that... :pac:

https://youtu.be/uaglEdB7CDs

BaZmO*

Speaking of Lenticular Clouds. Back in the summer of 2015, on a particularly hot day there were quite a few Lenticular Clouds hovering over Dublin. I was lucky enough to catch a time lapse video of one of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYBSMNR5RM

The Tetrarch

... this village on the north cost of Devon got its name from a novel.

Westward Ho! is noted for its unusual place name.
The village name comes from the title of Charles Kingsley's novel Westward Ho! (1855), which was set in nearby Bideford.
The book was a bestseller, and entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to develop tourism in the area.

StupidLikeAFox

90% of cheetah cubs die within the first month

Rubecula

polar bears are not white

4068ac1elhodqr

China built more skyscrapers in the year of 2018 than anywhere else in the world, or at any other time in history.

x88 buildings all measuring over 200 meters (anything under 650 feet really isn’t worth bothering with) went up in 2018.
That’s about x13 more completions than the mighty US this year.

Tell me how

Rubecula wrote: »

polar bears are not white

I was interested in knowing more.

Polar bears have white fur so that they can camouflage into their environment. Their coat is so well camouflaged in Arctic environments that it can sometimes pass as a snow drift. Interestingly, the polar bear’s coat has no white pigment; in fact, a polar bear’s skin is black and its hairs are hollow. They have a thick layer of body fat, which keeps them warm while swimming, and a double-layered coat that insulates them from the cold Arctic air.

Ubbquittious

Synsepalum dulcificum is a plant with berries that contain a protein that binds to taste receptors on the tongue and makes all sour things taste sweet for about an hour afterwards, though the berry itself doesn't have a strong taste.

It is unofficially banned in the US and Europe and a conspiracy theory exists that it was banned* in order to help out the sugar industry. In the EU it is on the list of 'Novel foods'. In order to remove it from the list one would have to apply at a national food safety authority to investigate it.

I contacted the Irish food safety authority and they told me that along with sending a load of documentation and application fee (< 1000eur I think) they could look for 'up to' 5000 eur from me in order to do their own investigation.

So at least in theory 6 grand could have this berry unbanned from the whole of the EU for good. Yet nobody has ponied up the cash. Anyone want to have a go?


*The good news is that they're not completely banned. You can buy them from Brexit land or switzerland without much trouble on ebay if you want to try them https://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=miracle+berry&_sacat=0

The Tetrarch

Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious

8th February 2000, Scottish Cup, 3rd round
Celtic 1 - 3 Inverness Caledonian Thistle

I wrote that: A (very) occasional series in praise of the sub-editors' craft
Sub: Paul Hickson, The Sun.

"The headline came long before the final whistle. Caley were 2-1 up. It had looked like a straightforward evening. We expected Celtic to win, but it soon became obvious something big was happening. Celtic losing to a team nobody had heard of - or could even spell - that was the story.
The Scottish sports editor, Steve Wolstonencroft, mentioned the 60s headline used when Liverpool striker Ian Callaghan scored three goals against QPR. It went something like: 'Super Calli Scores a Hat Trick, QPR Atrocious.' I didn't know it. I hit back with 'Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious'.
The sports editor rang me up the next day. 'The whole country's talking about you,' he said. 'Oh dear,' I replied, 'What have I done?'"

[A play on Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! - Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews)]

Realt Dearg Sec

It's a great headline, but I still prefer the time England lost to Sweden and the headline was Swedes 1 Turnips 0.

Tabloids aren't all bad!

Rubecula

Tell me how wrote: »

I was interested in knowing more.

polar bears are brown skinned and the fur is transparent which gives the impression of being white.

SEE Arcturus maritimus on Wikipedia it should explain it better

Rubecula

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Synsepalum dulcificum is a plant with berries that contain a protein that binds to taste receptors on the tongue and makes all sour things taste sweet for about an hour afterwards, though the berry itself doesn't have a strong taste.

It is unofficially banned in the US and Europe and a conspiracy theory exists that it was banned* in order to help out the sugar industry. In the EU it is on the list of 'Novel foods'. In order to remove it from the list one would have to apply at a national food safety authority to investigate it.

I contacted the Irish food safety authority and they told me that along with sending a load of documentation and application fee (< 1000eur I think) they could look for 'up to' 5000 eur from me in order to do their own investigation.

So at least in theory 6 grand could have this berry unbanned from the whole of the EU for good. Yet nobody has ponied up the cash. Anyone want to have a go?


*The good news is that they're not completely banned. You can buy them from Brexit land or switzerland without much trouble on ebay if you want to try them https://www.ebay.ie/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=miracle+berry&_sacat=0

I think it is called Miracle fruit or something similar, I am sure it appeared on an episode of QI a few years back.

md23040

Saturday was a truly, horrible, dank and dark day but you should know that after the 15th of December the evenings begin to stretch. Today there is a one minute difference in the length of the evening before sunset compared to the day before.

The solstice is not until next week and although the evenings stretch slightly the mornings still have a comparatively later sunrise. The worm has turned.

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ireland/dublin

4068ac1elhodqr

md23040 wrote: »

Saturday was a truly, horrible, dank and dark day but you should know that after the 15th of December the evenings begin to stretch. Today there is a one minute difference in the length of the evening before sunset compared to the day before.

The solstice is not until next week and although the evenings stretch slightly the mornings still have a comparatively later sunrise. The worm has turned.

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/ireland/dublin

Also, there is a nice full moon on the 22nd 17:48, to increase the potential amount of evening atmospheric light.

Enjoy the rising/guiding star in the East (Venus) and welcome the 3 Kings (Orion's Belt) as the 'crown of thorns' dies (Sun's winter solstace), only to be reborn after 3 days (duration of solstace), before rising again.

If you have the cash for a large orb of sorts, there is a solar energy harvester available, that says it can perform on moonlight:



Pretty much zero maintence, just don't leave a a slice of bread under it for longer than 2sec as it will quickly become toast in mid-June. There will be +10hrs (t.17hrs) of daylight (of sorts) available then.

This often confuses folks from sunny countries here, when they are woken at 04:30hrs by an increase in short wavelength blue morning light, altering melatonin levels.

Carry

What will future archaeologist make of our current civilisation when they start digging?
Well, the most common findings will be ... chicken bones.

Currently there are 23 billion chickens in the world, at least ten times more than any other bird species, 40 times more than the ubiquitous sparrow.

Humans eat yearly more than 65 billion chickens. Given that there are approx. 7 billion people on this planet that's nearly 10 chicken per year/person - mathematically, but considering vegetarians and/or simple poverty we in the more affluent world eat certainly more.

The poor chicken is the most exploited creature in the world. Originally a jungle bird from South East Asia we managed to enlarge the birdie to fivefold of it's original size and crippled it such that it's no longer capable to live (or survive) outside farms.




On another note: Female Tungara frogs prefer for sexual encounters males that live in a city than their country fellows. The mating calls of the city lads are more complex than those of the country yokes. Make of that what you want ...:D



All filched from that bloody science news letter I subscribed to. I mean, the world is amazing, but I get easily distracted by, say, the sex life of Tungara frogs.

Capt'n Midnight

Carry wrote: »

What will future archaeologist make of our current civilisation when they start digging?
Well, the most common findings will be ... chicken bones.

What's weird is that they will notice that lots of animals go extinct at the same time.

Only one conclusion

Paddy Cow

Carry wrote: »

What will future archaeologist make of our current civilisation when they start digging?

Unless the internet goes kaput, they won't have to go digging. Absolutely everything is online. Imagine if aliens out there managed to pick up our internet somehow and they thought that people like Katie Price and the Kardashians are representative of our civilisation. They'd never come! :pac:

Ipso

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Unless the internet goes kaput, they won't have to go digging. Absolutely everything is online. Imagine if aliens out there managed to pick up our internet somehow and they thought that people like Katie Price and the Kardashians are representative of our civilisation. They'd never come! :pac:

Just hope they don't read any comments sections.

raze_them_all_

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Unless the internet goes kaput, they won't have to go digging. Absolutely everything is online. Imagine if aliens out there managed to pick up our internet somehow and they thought that people like Katie Price and the Kardashians are representative of our civilisation. They'd never come! :pac:

Oh if they are on the Internet they'll come loads

Tell me how

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Unless the internet goes kaput, they won't have to go digging. Absolutely everything is online. Imagine if aliens out there managed to pick up our internet somehow and they thought that people like Katie Price and the Kardashians are representative of our civilisation. They'd never come! :pac:

Ipso wrote: »

Just hope they don't read any comments sections.

I saw someone say recently that the opinions of the aliens over the last 20 years would have been along the lines of

1998: "What is this interesting place?"
2003: "I wonder could we visit?"
2008: "Things look like they've gotten a bit weird."
2013: "We are going nowhere near there!"
2018: "Maybe we should actually do something?"

Paddy Cow

Ipso wrote: »

Just hope they don't read any comments sections.

What would they make of our legal system? People in the UK can get arrested and face jail for making a mean comment on twitter but someone with 50 previous convictions get a valium and hug because they had a disadvantaged childhood.

mzungu

An apple, potato, and onion all taste the same if you eat them with your nose plugged. Our sense of taste is 80% made up of our sense of smell. If you were to blindfold yourself and plug your nose, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them.

Squall Leonhart

mzungu wrote: »

An apple, potato, and onion all taste the same if you eat them with your nose plugged. Our sense of taste is 80% made up of our sense of smell. If you were to blindfold yourself and plug your nose, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them.

I think Srameen disproved this somewhere earlier on the thread

Paddy Cow

mzungu wrote: »

An apple, potato, and onion all taste the same if you eat them with your nose plugged. Our sense of taste is 80% made up of our sense of smell. If you were to blindfold yourself and plug your nose, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them.

I don't buy it. My 20% sense of taste would be able to tell between apple and onion. Plus you'd know from the texture