What's the most surprising fact you've learned in the last couple of weeks?
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@johncarlosbaez @BartoszMilewski
A few years ago I read that eyes evolved independently 7 times, but the current factoid seems to be more like 40 times, which is quite a difference.I'm also puzzled: there are books from the 1950s that refer to the pineal glad as a mystical "third eye" -- obvious nonsense, but where did they get that from, if the origin of the pineal gland as a kind of eye is a much more modern discovery?
@dougmerritt @BartoszMilewski - The Hindus have a tradition about a mystical "third eye", and Shiva is sometimes called the three-eyed lord. Later Descartes located the soul in the pineal gland. Maybe someone merged these ideas??? Worth checking out.
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At 50km altitude on Venus the temperature and pressure is similar to Earth
@drdrowland - neat! But the air is... nitrogen, I guess? I don't see a good way for human life to take advantage of the nice pressure and temperature, but I never was good at inventions.
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What's the most surprising fact you've learned in the last couple of weeks? I don't mind if it's quite technical. I just want to hear what you folks are being surprised by!
"Inside a jet engine, turbine blades are not just identical parts. Each one is uniquely measured, weighed and assigned a specific position. At speeds up to 18000rpm, the rotor experiences extreme centrifugal forces that multiply even the smallest weight difference."
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"Inside a jet engine, turbine blades are not just identical parts. Each one is uniquely measured, weighed and assigned a specific position. At speeds up to 18000rpm, the rotor experiences extreme centrifugal forces that multiply even the smallest weight difference."
@ghasshee - wow, I didn't know the planes I ride rely on handcrafted (or more precisely, individually machine-crafted) parts!
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@buo - I should learn what this *means*. I once almost knew what a Kalman filter is, and I know it's extremely important. But I don't know what a phase-locked loop is.
I love ODE, so this is embarassing! There's always room for progress.
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@drdrowland - neat! But the air is... nitrogen, I guess? I don't see a good way for human life to take advantage of the nice pressure and temperature, but I never was good at inventions.
@johncarlosbaez @drdrowland Geoffrey Landis has used this observation to propose both manned missions to Venus and colonization in Venus's atmosphere.
Breathable air is a decent lifting gas, as the atmosphere is mostly CO2 (quite a bit heavier than both N2 and O2).
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@johncarlosbaez @drdrowland Geoffrey Landis has used this observation to propose both manned missions to Venus and colonization in Venus's atmosphere.
Breathable air is a decent lifting gas, as the atmosphere is mostly CO2 (quite a bit heavier than both N2 and O2).
@isaackuo @drdrowland - I see, so colonizing it via air-filled balloon-like floating structures?
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@otacke - I don't know enough about these deer to be surprised! They sound like European or British deer to me. Do they have overlapping ranges?
@johncarlosbaez I don't know any specifics.
Until yesterday, I believed that a "Reh" (roe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_deer) was a female "Hirsch" (stag, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_deer). But apparently they are both deer, yet different species - and not to be confused with fallow deers. Took me only shy over 40 years to learn that. 
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@johncarlosbaez I don't know any specifics.
Until yesterday, I believed that a "Reh" (roe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_deer) was a female "Hirsch" (stag, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_deer). But apparently they are both deer, yet different species - and not to be confused with fallow deers. Took me only shy over 40 years to learn that. ️@johncarlosbaez Now I wonder what type of deer Bambi is.
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What's the most surprising fact you've learned in the last couple of weeks? I don't mind if it's quite technical. I just want to hear what you folks are being surprised by!
@johncarlosbaez That distilled water is completely safe to drink (contrary to what I learned in school)!
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What's the most surprising fact you've learned in the last couple of weeks? I don't mind if it's quite technical. I just want to hear what you folks are being surprised by!
One of the stars of Hacks is Laraine Newman's daughter.
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I was surprised to learn that there are small cleaner ants that clean bigger ants of a different species.
If one insect wants help with cleaning, why choose another smaller insect of the same family? One could imagine so many other willing arthropods.
Magnus (@magnus@mastodon.world)
Attached: 1 image Did ants learn this from cleaner fish? There are small ants that clean big ants without meeting any agression, just like small cleaner fish can clean sharks. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.73308
Mastodon (mastodon.world)
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Ancient Rome consumed lots of oil and they didn't reuse the large Dressel 20 amphora barrels. Monte Testaccio in Rome is a 'trash mountain' made of 53 million broken olive oil amphorae.
@maxpool - "53 milllion" is where I got surprised.
I wondered how long they dumped those amphorae there, so I looked it up on the Wikipedia article:
"Deposits found by excavators have been dated to a period between approximately AD 140 to 250, but it is possible that dumping could have begun on the site as early as the 1st century BC."
So, at least 110 years, but maybe over 250!
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What's the most surprising fact you've learned in the last couple of weeks? I don't mind if it's quite technical. I just want to hear what you folks are being surprised by!
@Lambo got here first with my top fact, so i'll go with this one:
transit operators in the u.s. are not authorized to question the pedigree of your 'service animal.'
as long as you identify the animal as such, you are permitted to bring it on the bus.
*any* animal.
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@buo - I should learn what this *means*. I once almost knew what a Kalman filter is, and I know it's extremely important. But I don't know what a phase-locked loop is.
I love ODE, so this is embarassing! There's always room for progress.
In phase locked loop output signal phase tracks input signal's phase. It's like automatic tuning, Frequencies synchronize through feedback.
Think tidal locking, or two pendelums in the same beam. I'm not sure 100% sure but I think Josephson effect is also like this.
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@Lambo got here first with my top fact, so i'll go with this one:
transit operators in the u.s. are not authorized to question the pedigree of your 'service animal.'
as long as you identify the animal as such, you are permitted to bring it on the bus.
*any* animal.
@saltywizard - what are the most crazy examples of service animals that have been recorded?
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@saltywizard - what are the most crazy examples of service animals that have been recorded?
i've heard local anecdotes about a pony on the bus, but i haven't researched national trends.
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i've heard local anecdotes about a pony on the bus, but i haven't researched national trends.
@saltywizard - I feel there should be YouTube videos about this....
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@isaackuo @drdrowland - I see, so colonizing it via air-filled balloon-like floating structures?
we will have to mine the surface for structural material
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@johncarlosbaez That distilled water is completely safe to drink (contrary to what I learned in school)!
@pschwahn - hmm, I never thought it was unsafe. It's just water, after all! But nobody ever told me otherwise. I wonder how common that belief is.
