Today I learned...

Let's just get this right, Urmas. This word " kalsarikännit ", does it actually mean "being drunk in your underwear whilst having laser eye surgery" ?


Finland.webp



or not? :p
 
nivrip said:
or not? :p
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What can I say? Could be... provided that there exists such a thing as on-demand, in-home laser eye surgery service.

:fool:

Methinks the first users of the word were business travelers — the kind of an evening when one does not have the energy/uege to go out... ends up staying in the hotel room, drinking (too much) beer and watching TV. Alone, wearing one's underwear.
 
TIL that New York was the US capital city for one year only, from 1789 to 1790, after which it transferred to Philadelphia.

I had always thought that it was never the capital. :)
 
Taffycat said:
TIL.... why Cashew nuts are not sold in their shells.

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Interesting! :nod: Makes you wonder how people started eating them in the first place... they must have had their fair share of illness before figuring out which part was harmful!
 
TIL of this fluke of navigation.


A FLUKE OF NAVIGATION!

The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the Master, Captain John Phillips, the result.


The ships position was LAT 0 S 31' N and LON 179 S 30' W. The date was 31 December 1899


“Know what this means? ”First Mate Payton broke in, “We are only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line.”


Captain Phillips was prankish enough to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime.


He called his navigators to the bridge to check and double check the ships position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark.


Then he adjusted the engine speed. The calm weather and clear night worked in his favor.


0






At midnight the Master ensured that the Warrimoo lay still on the equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line!


The consequences of this bizarre position were many. The forward part (bow) of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere and the middle of summer. The rear (stern) was in the Northern Hemisphere and in the middle of winter. The date in the aft part of the ship was 31 December 1899. Forward it was 1 January 1900.


This ship was therefore not only in two different days, two different months, two different years, two different hemispheres and two different seasons, but in two different centuries, all at the same time!

:D
 
TIL: After Brexit and the US election, Oxford Dictionaries declares “post-truth” word of the year

“Post-truth” beat out word of the year contenders that included “alt-right,” referring to extreme conservative views held by white nationalists; “Brexiteer,” a Brexit proponent; and “adulting,” or “the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks.”

The choice of “post-truth” over “adulting” is telling.
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