The thread of learning something new every day

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="457303" data-time="1413893701">
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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home'>https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home</a>
 
I've been watching this in my lunch break each day as a "learn shit every day" routine. Its fricking awesome, a bit like Bill Brysons history of everything, which I read religiously on the shitter for 2 years (just when shitting, I didn't spend 2 years straight in there).
 
Basically it explains the uniiverse from the start. Its great ammo for being in a discussion with someone who thinks the world is 6,000 years old. technically its aimed at high scholl / uni level, but it works on most levels. 
 
Its also done by, apparently, Bill Gate's favourite scientist.
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If you're dealing with people who think the planet is 6,000 years old, you're in the right territory

El Toro supremo

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="457303" data-time="1413893701">
<a class="bbc_url" href="https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home">https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home</a> 
I've been watching this in my lunch break each day as a "learn shit every day" routine. Its fricking awesome, a bit like Bill Brysons history of everything, which I read religiously on the shitter for 2 years (just when shitting, I didn't spend 2 years straight in there). 
Basically it explains the uniiverse from the start. Its great ammo for being in a discussion with someone who thinks the world is 6,000 years old. technically its aimed at high scholl / uni level, but it works on most levels. 
Its also done by, apparently, Bill Gate's favourite scientist.</blockquote>I am a fan of all things Bill Bryson and History of Everything in particular.......Only one of his books I didnt enjoy was his travel diary through Africa......clearly he did'nt want to be there..... 
On a completely different note......I have recently added the words 'clusterfuck' and 'fluffybunny' to my vocabulary......as used only on the Fern! 
Fluffybunny was really hard.......but I thought if its good enough for Sid......then who am I to resist...... 
The Big History link is brilliant....... Ties in perfectly with my cynical/ contrarian outlook on basically everything. I am trying to teach my son at the moment the simple principle of.....the more you know.....the more you know that you don't know! I am still trying to get all the bullshit out of my mind that we have been fed as gospel since childhood ( yeah....pun intended) I am hoping I can give my son a head start......

Stockcar86

Amazing craftsmanship:
 
http://vimeo.com/79369173
 
And this too

ACT Crusader

Today I learned about Heather McKay. I'd never heard of her until someone rang up talkback radio last night and mentioned her name. She is quite possibly the greatest ever female squash player in history. Only lost 2 matches in her career that spanned 20+ years. More amazing was that she had a 19 year stretch of being undefeated. Remarkable stuff.

Tim

<a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.gq.com/long-form/the-great-paper-caper">The great paper caper</a> <blockquote class="ipsBlockquote">Years of running drugs and boosting cars left Frank Bourassa thinking: There's got to be an easier way to earn a dishonest living. That's when he nerved up the idea to make his fortune. (Literally.) Which is how Frank became the most prolific counterfeiter in American historyâ€”a guy with more than $200 million in nearly flawless fake twenties stuffed in a garage. How he got away with it all, well, that's even crazier</blockquote>

Nepia

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="ACT Crusader" data-cid="458322" data-time="1414579242">
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Today I learned about Heather McKay. I'd never heard of her until someone rang up talkback radio last night and mentioned her name. She is quite possibly the greatest ever female squash player in history. Only lost 2 matches in her career that spanned 20+ years. More amazing was that she had a 19 year stretch of being undefeated. Remarkable stuff.
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It's a pity that her and Devoy's career didn't overlap - they might have had some mighty battles (or McKay might have just wiped the floor with her like she did everyone else, we'll never know).

Siam

I learnt about Dilworth School for the first time - never heard of it before, have you?
 
Was watching a doco about Ulster people influencing NZ (John Ballance, Bill Massey ex PM's with Ulster roots).
 
One bloke, James Dilworth made a ton of money years agao and set up a school for "boys in straitened circumstances" and it still operates today. Basically they admit boys from poverty stricken backgrounds and pay for everything at the school - boarding, classes, uniforms, food extra curricular etc. Sounds brilliant and all funded from the trust that Dilworth and his wife set up.
 
On the doco they interviewed Angus Taa'avao (Naki and Blues prop) who is an old boy. Said he loved the place.
 
On the website the first line in the admissions criteria section is "Dilworth is a school for making good boys better - it is not a school for boys presenting with behavioural challenges."
 
Wonderful concept and still surviving in the modern day after over 100 years
 
Is it common knowledge to know about this school?

dogmeat

I know about it but then I nearly went there. I didn't cotton to the overt religious overtones

gollum

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="458352" data-time="1414624111">
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<a class="bbc_url" href="http://www.gq.com/long-form/the-great-paper-caper">The great paper caper</a> 

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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://longform.org/'>http://longform.org/</a>
 
I subscribe to this, its a site that collects the best long articles on the web every week (this one was on there), from New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ etc.
 
Has stuff like the articles that were turned into The Bling Ring, Into the Wild, 127 Hours. Its an awesome site to get articles to store away. I use it in conjunction with Pocket on my phone to store the articles for when I am astuck on a train or something.

Tim

Yep, I subscribe to its feed too (and use it with Pocket). In fact, it's where I got that article from. Great site. :)

Siam

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="dogmeat" data-cid="458403" data-time="1414654280">I know about it but then I nearly went there. I didn't cotton to the overt religious overtones</blockquote>
 
Ahh yes.The human paradox - that religious fervour and conviction so often results in utmost compassion through noble deeds simultaneously with war and bloodshed in equal manner

El Toro supremo

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Siam" data-cid="458453" data-time="1414697875">
Ahh yes.The human paradox - that religious fervour and conviction so often results in utmost compassion through noble deeds simultaneously with war and bloodshed in equal manner</blockquote>
Yeah but you must understand.......war is extremely profitable for those in power and using religion to fabricate an enemy is one of the tools of the trade. Successfull politics and religions are both based on creating fear and when the two converge......perfect storm. As with everyhting of this nature.....always follow the money trail. 
This article from Bill Bonner puts it in much better perspective. Ignore the reference to exact current events if you wish because the same principle applies universally. And to all governments.....not just the US. ( sorry its a bit long) 
War in the streets? 
Yesterday we were talking about the reaction to the murder in Ottawa of a Canadian soldier who was guarding a war memorial. 
There were 598 murders in Canada in 2011 (the most recent year we could find). As far as we know, not one registered the slightest interest in the US. But come a killer with Islam on his mind, and hardly a newspaper or talk show host in the 50 states can avoid comment. 
War in the streets of the West, was how the Wall Street Journal put it; the newspaper wants a more muscular approach to the Middle East. 
Why? 
After a quarter of a century...and trillions of dollars spent...and hundreds of thousands of lives lost...America appears to have more enemies in the Muslim world than ever before. Why would anyone want to continue on this barren path? To find out, we follow the money. 
Professor Michael Glennon of Tufts University asks the same question: Why such eagerness for war? 
People think that our government policies are determined by elected officials who carry out the nation's will, as expressed at the ballot box. That is not the way it works. 
Instead, it doesn't really matter much what voters want. They get some traction on the emotional and symbolic issues â€” gay marriage, minimum wage and so forth. 
But these issues don't really matter much to the elites. What policies do matter are those that they can use to shift wealth from the people who earned it to themselves. 
Autopilot 
Glennon, a former legal counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has come to the same conclusion. He says he was curious as to why President Obama would end up with almost precisely the same foreign policies as President George W. Bush. 
â€˜It hasn't been a conscious decision. [...] Members of Congress are generalists and need to defer to experts within the national security realm, as elsewhere.â€™ 
They are particularly concerned about being caught out on a limb having made a wrong judgment about national security and tend, therefore, to defer to experts, who tend to exaggerate threats. The courts similarly tend to defer to the expertise of the network that defines national security policy. 
â€˜The presidency is not a top-down institution, as many people in the public believe, headed by a president who gives orders and causes the bureaucracy to click its heels and salute. National security policy actually bubbles up from within the bureaucracy. 
â€˜Many of the more controversial policies, from the mining of Nicaragua's harbors to the NSA surveillance program, originated within the bureaucracy. John Kerry was not exaggerating when he said that some of those programs are "on autopilotâ€. 
â€˜These particular bureaucracies don't set truck widths or determine railroad freight rates. They make nerve-center security decisions that in a democracy can be irreversible, that can close down the marketplace of ideas, and can result in some very dire consequences. 
â€˜I think the American people are deluded... They believe that when they vote for a president or member of Congress or succeed in bringing a case before the courts, that policy is going to change. Now, there are many counter-examples in which these branches do affect policy, as Bagehot predicted there would be. But the larger picture is still true â€“ policy by and large in the national security realm is made by the concealed institutions.â€™ 
Calling the Ottawa killing â€˜warâ€™ not only belittles the real thing; it misses the point. There is no war on the streets of North America. But there is plenty of fraud and cupidity. 
Here is how it works: The US security industry â€” the Pentagon, its hangers-on, its financiers and its suppliers â€” stomps around the Middle East, causing death and havoc in the Muslim world. 
â€˜Terroristsâ€™ naturally want to strike back at what they believe is the source of their sufferings: the US. Sooner or later, one of them is bound to make a go of it. 
The typical voter hasn't got time to analyse and understand the complex motives and confusing storyline behind the event. He sees only the evil deed. 
His blood runs hot for protection and retaliation. When the call goes up for more intervention and more security spending, he is behind it all the way. 
And now, people who've never missed a meal in their lives are calling for more war. 
Why? 
Regards, 
Bill Bonner

Nepia

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="458435" data-time="1414676092">
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<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://longform.org/'>http://longform.org/</a>
 
I subscribe to this, its a site that collects the best long articles on the web every week (this one was on there), from New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ etc.
 
Has stuff like the articles that were turned into The Bling Ring, Into the Wild, 127 Hours. Its an awesome site to get articles to store away. I use it in conjunction with Pocket on my phone to store the articles for when I am astuck on a train or something. 
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Cheers, I've bookmarked that!

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="gollum" data-cid="458435" data-time="1414676092"><a class="bbc_url" href="http://longform.org/">http://longform.org/</a> 
I subscribe to this, its a site that collects the best long articles on the web every week (this one was on there), from New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ etc. 
Has stuff like the articles that were turned into The Bling Ring, Into the Wild, 127 Hours. Its an awesome site to get articles to store away. I use it in conjunction with Pocket on my phone to store the articles for when I am astuck on a train or something.</blockquote>
 
Cheers for that, I think you posted it before but it must have not migrated from my old computer a couple of years ago. I hope my family don't plan on trying to converse with me this weekend , I have reading to catch up on.

NTA

I learned how to get around paywalls today.

dogmeat

I learned you can never truly please a woman. I learn this every day but somehow every night I seem to forget.

gollum

Over the weekend I learned how to technically surf the net from a different country.

Donsteppa

I've learnt of a new resource for stirring next time some idiot starts yelling SHEEPLE at you for generally believing scientists and members of the medical profession: <a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/category/infographics/all-natural-banana-and-other-fruits/'>http://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/category/infographics/all-natural-banana-and-other-fruits/</a>
 
Exhibit A:
 
<img src="http://www.senseaboutscience.org/data/images/SAS_-Dose_Makes_The_Poison_FINAL_1.png" alt="SAS-Dose_Makes_The_Poison_FINAL_1.png">
 
 
Exhibit B:
 
<img src="http://www.senseaboutscience.org/data/images/Chemicals/Chemicals_Infographic_Apples_LoveHearts_web.png" alt="Chemicals_Infographic_Apples_LoveHearts">
 
Exhibit C:
 
<img src="http://jameskennedymonash.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/ingredients-of-an-all-natural-kiwi-poster-2.jpg?w=604&h=853" alt="ingredients-of-an-all-natural-kiwi-poste">

NTA

Something I'd like to learn: what does this grey area on google maps represent in the UK? There are a couple of them, and I can't find a description of it when I zoom in.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.google.com.au/maps/@51.4056812,-1.0293918,10z'>http://www.google.com.au/maps/@51.4056812,-1.0293918,10z</a>

Tim

Shigella (bacillary dysentery, the primary diarrhoeal disease of World War 1), isolated from a British soldier who died from it in 1915, was found to be resistant to penicillin and erythromycin despite pre-dating their discovery by man.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61789-X/fulltext'>http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61789-X/fulltext</a>

The Silver Fern

The thread of learning something new every day