I bet you didnt know that

deise08 · 08-11-2017 1:12am

enfield wrote: »

The 'pincers' on a earwigs bum is for folding his wings.

Speaking of pincers., you can tell the sex of an earwig by them. Males have the rounded ones, females have the straight ones. Also only female flies buzz .. The males are silent.

Realt Dearg Sec · 08-11-2017 1:59am

Evade wrote: »

Quazzie wrote: »

Kilometer

The base unit of distance is metre.

Wouldn't the base unit of weight then be the gram?

Evade · 08-11-2017 2:26am

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Wouldn't the base unit of weight then be the gram?

You'd think that since it has a prefix, but no.

The base units are:
Metre (m)
Ampere (A)
Second (s)
Kelvin (K)
Mole (mol)
Candela (cd)
Kilogram (kg)

If you want to define 1 of any of the other units you use formulae that involve multiplying and dividing 1 of the above units.

Eg a force of 1 Newton (N) = 1 kg x 1m /1s^2

So using the gram as the base would mess up those calculations.

It would have fit the naming scheme better if what we call a kilogram was called a gram.

retalivity · 08-11-2017 10:02am

The length of a metre was also defined as 1 ten millionth of the distance between the north pole and the equator in 1793.
It was later refined as the distance travelled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458th of a second, which is what its standard is today

ArnoldJRimmer · 09-11-2017 6:34am

Just watched an interview with Sean Astin and discovered that he's the adopted son of John Astin, who played Gomez in the Addams family TV series. His mother Patty Duke claimed that entertainer Desi Arnaz Jr (son of Lucille Ball) was his real dad, but in the 90's he undertook a blood test that proved that Michael Tell, a music promoter, was his biological father. He only undertook the blood test after meeting a relative of Michael, who claimed they were related

sbsquarepants · 09-11-2017 10:59am

From todays curiosity app.

The number zero was "invented" in ancient India. Obviously the concept of nothing has been known since forever but the mathematical concept of zero zero was really only defined sometime around the 3rd or 4th century. It spread from India to the Muslim world where the familiar 0 symbol was known as sifr.
When it in turn made it's way from the Muslim world to Europe with the coming of the Moors, sifr became anglicised to cypher. The church however were horrified by the whole thing and seeing it as the work of the devil it was promptly outlawed, but due to it's fairly undeniable usefulness, merchants etc. continued to use it but had to do so in disguised form and hence the word cypher became synonymous with code.

Gerrup Outta Dat! · 09-11-2017 10:41pm

Although now being used as an irreligious term, X-mas originally just started out as an abbreviation for a religious term as Χ (Chi) is the first letter of Christ in Greek.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 09-11-2017 10:49pm

Gerrup Outta Dat! wrote: »

Although now being used as an irreligious term, X-mas originally just started out as an abbreviation for a religious term as Χ (Chi) is the first letter of Christ in Greek.

Yes, the Greek for Christ is Χριστός. The X, or Chi, the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet.

pawdee · 09-11-2017 11:06pm

Squirrels can't fart.

Wibbs · 09-11-2017 11:16pm

And the Chi Ro(XR, though it looks like a P in Greek) symbol/letters were a very early Christian theme*. As was the fish that you sometimes see on the backs of Christian cars. Again from the Greek Ichthys(sp? spellcheck keeps giving me itches

). I being the first letter of Jesus in Greek, Iesus? - *Aside*, in Islam Jesus is Isa, which shows they were influenced by the Greek, rather than the Jewish sources which would have been his actual name Yeshua**. - The Ichthys continues in that vein, so Jesus(i) Christ( c) and the rest IIRC is Son of God, or the Saviour, can't quite recall which TBH.

*Speaking of the Chi Ro, likely one of it's most elaborate representations is to be found in Trinity College Dublin in the Book of Kells.

When it came to intricacy and ornament those guys weren't screwing around. On that note the Book of Kells appears to have been made by six or seven hands. It was a book to be venerated and displayed rather than read from as words(in Irish vulgate Latin) are left out of the original and there are repetitions. A goodly chunk of it is missing sadly. The cover would have been incredibly ornate made from precious metal and semi precious stones. Lost when it was reported stolen by Vikings, only to be later found abandoned in a bog IIRC minus the covers. Some of the pigments came from far away. The ultramarine blue for example would have come all the way from present day Afghanistan. A few years back another Early Irish Christian booklet was found that had sheets of papyrus(from where we get the word paper, though a very different material) which originated in the Middle East, so even that far back trade brought all sorts of things across big distances.

** a few times in the Christian New Testament he's compared to and considered to be the returning prophet Joshua, because of how close the names were.

sunny2004 · 10-11-2017 8:40am

pawdee wrote: »

Squirrels can't fart.

Please tell me this isn't just hot air and back up the statement with links ?

I know I'm goin to regret this, and oddly enough never forget it

Adventure1 · 10-11-2017 1:24pm

Susie Dent is 52

server down · 10-11-2017 1:28pm

sbsquarepants wrote: »

From todays curiosity app.

The number zero was "invented" in ancient India. Obviously the concept of nothing has been known since forever but the mathematical concept of zero zero was really only defined sometime around the 3rd or 4th century. It spread from India to the Muslim world where the familiar 0 symbol was known as sifr.
When it in turn made it's way from the Muslim world to Europe with the coming of the Moors, sifr became anglicised to cypher. The church however were horrified by the whole thing and seeing it as the work of the devil it was promptly outlawed, but due to it's fairly undeniable usefulness, merchants etc. continued to use it but had to do so in disguised form and hence the word cypher became synonymous with code.

Merchants and presumably educated mathematicians who would often be clerics. I doubted the Church banned the zero story immediately and could find no evidence of it.

razorblunt · 10-11-2017 1:40pm

deise08 wrote: »

Speaking of pincers., you can tell the sex of an earwig by them. Males have the rounded ones, females have the straight ones. Also only female flies buzz .. The males are silent.

Female of the species makes the most noise?

Well colour me surprised!

razorblunt · 10-11-2017 1:42pm

Danny Glover's daughter in Lethal Weapon, when he was "too old for this shít", is now older than he was in that film.

VW 1 · 10-11-2017 2:52pm

server down wrote:

Merchants and presumably educated mathematicians who would often be clerics. I doubted the Church banned the zero story immediately and could find no evidence of it.

I thought it strange it was invented so late, how did the Greeks make as much progress in mathematics without representing 0 or its equivalent at some point?
Fascinated to know if it is in fact true.

quickbeam · 10-11-2017 3:32pm

razorblunt wrote: »

Danny Glover's daughter in Lethal Weapon, when he was "too old for this sh, is now older than he was in that film.

Glover, born 1946, film released 1987 was only 41 when he was "too old for this sh!t!! FML!!

mzungu · 10-11-2017 5:23pm

quickbeam wrote: »

Glover, born 1946, film released 1987 was only 41 when he was "too old for this sh!t!! FML!!

Meaning that when he was "five days from retirement" in Lethal Weapon 3 in 1992, he was still a sprightly 46 years of age. Being a cop in LA is cushy number.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 10-11-2017 5:31pm

VW 1 wrote: »

I thought it strange it was invented so late, how did the Greeks make as much progress in mathematics without representing 0 or its equivalent at some point?
Fascinated to know if it is in fact true.

A lot of their progress was in geometry but they didn't advance much in algebra- the Arabs did that. Perhaps the lack of a zero really held them back.

sbsquarepants · 10-11-2017 5:45pm

server down wrote: »

Merchants and presumably educated mathematicians who would often be clerics. I doubted the Church banned the zero story immediately and could find no evidence of it.

I don't know to be honest, I just parroted the app. It says it was banned in Florence, in the time of the crusades???

server down · 10-11-2017 5:46pm

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

A lot of their progress was in geometry but they didn't advance much in algebra- the Arabs did that. Perhaps the lack of a zero really held them back.

The greeks really were the founders of Algebra - geometric algebra is algebra, the Arabs added something to it, over time but they invaded part of the world that had algebra of course.

The dispute rages on in Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra

11-11-2017 1:32am

The expression "If looks could kill..." was coined by Bram Stoker.

"If ever a look meant death - if looks could kill - we saw it at that moment"

- Dracula, Chapter 16.

NIMAN · 11-11-2017 3:27am

quickbeam wrote: »

Glover, born 1946, film released 1987 was only 41 when he was "too old for this sh!t!! FML!!

He was 41 in Lethal Weapon 1, but she is now 56.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 11-11-2017 5:45am

Northern Ireland are the smallest nation ever to reach a football World Cup Quarter Final.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-11-2017 1:05pm

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ended.

11,000 people were killed or wounded on that day. More than during the invasion of France on D-Day.

Fourier · 11-11-2017 1:48pm

Probably one few people know, but the Big Bang Theory does not describe the origins of the universe, i.e. it doesn't state that the universe began in the big bang. It just says that 13.7 billion years ago the universe was roughly pea-sized and too hot for most particles to exist and that this pea rapidly expanded.

What the universe was like before this expansion, or how old it really is, is not described by the theory.

Capt'n Midnight · 11-11-2017 2:00pm

^^^^

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

- Douglas Adams

New Home · 11-11-2017 2:02pm

^^^

42.

(Sorry, but I had to do it, you forced my hand, Capt'n).

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 11-11-2017 3:27pm

Fourier wrote: »

Probably one few people know, but the Big Bang Theory does not describe the origins of the universe, i.e. it doesn't state that the universe began in the big bang. It just says that 13.7 billion years ago the universe was roughly pea-sized and too hot for most particles to exist and that this pea rapidly expanded.

What the universe was like before this expansion, or how old it really is, is not described by the theory.

There's also a theory that the universe, as we know it, is just one iteration of it as it will eventually expand fully then collapse back to the singularity , explode and expand again the way it has done several time already.

Ineedaname · 11-11-2017 3:31pm

Fourier wrote: »

Probably one few people know, but the Big Bang Theory does not describe the origins of the universe, i.e. it doesn't state that the universe began in the big bang. It just says that 13.7 billion years ago the universe was roughly pea-sized and too hot for most particles to exist and that this pea rapidly expanded.

What the universe was like before this expansion, or how old it really is, is not described by the theory.

The Big Bang theory says the universe began as a singularity which by definition has a size of 0.

I bet you didnt know that

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