TIL: Today I Learned

[Takhisis]

It obviously should be Drontheim.

 

[Lohrenswald]

slick reference bro

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

TIL blue milk was real.

(Also that Stanford social science presenters drone on and on with little aid of visuals, much to the chagrin of this visual learner.)

 

[Ajidica]

TIL that my city in suburban Minnesota will be having a three way election this fall between a Teahadist-turned-Trumpist who has never been in office before, a lesbian from Hawaii, and a transgender farmer.
The zero-budget campaign advertisements are going to be awesome.

 

[Phrossack]

TIL that my city in suburban Minnesota will be having a three way election this fall between a Teahadist-turned-Trumpist who has never been in office before, a lesbian from Hawaii, and a transgender farmer.
The zero-budget campaign advertisements are going to be awesome.

But I thought lesbian farmers were taking over America? What caused this rift between lesbians and farmers?

 

[Takhisis]

TIL the USA still has not retified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

 

[Zkribbler]

TIL the USA still has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

TIL that there is a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

 

[Lohrenswald]

So I just found out Russia had elections last week or so

before:

Spoiler :

after:

Spoiler :

Voter turnout roughly 48 %

 

[Takhisis]

TIL that there is a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

 

[Zkribbler]

Ray Bradbury wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick.

 

[Traitorfish]

TIL I learned that Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest man-made structure on Earth for around two hundred and forty years in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, until its spire collapsed in a storm.

Now, I'm not surprised that the standard claim that the Great Pyramid were unsurpassed until the Eiffel Tower is untrue, but I honestly didn't expect it to be beaten by a provincial cathedral in an English market-town.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

There was a trend at the time in England where everyone wanted their cathedral to have the tallest spire in England. Most of them I think did collapse because the architecture of the cathedrals couldn't support such high spires. The current tallest spire in England is Salisbury Cathedral.

 

[Traitorfish]

Pays not to overdo it, I suppose. Canny, those Salisbury folk, playing for the long game.

edit: Hey, you can "like" posts now. Fancy.

 

[Zkribbler]

That's why I'm proud to be a conservative: free-thinker, defender of all that involves changing minds.

"Conserve" means to preserve; that's about the furthest thing from "change" there is.

The vote in the Second Continental Congress to declare independence from England was 12-0 because the conservatives who controlled NY couldn't bring themselves to do anything more than abstain. The conservative slave owners refused to modify their oppression and thereby brought about the civil war. Conservatives have fought women's suffrage, labor unions, the Civil Rights movement, environmentalism, gay marriage, renewable energy, stem cell research, etc. If something involves change, conservatives are against it.

 

[Zkribbler]

The FBI has capture its Most Wanted female fugitive: Brenda Delgado. My reaction to seeing her wanted poster: "She is cute!'

I should be ashamed of myself. ops: I'm not, but I should be.

 

[Takhisis]

That was in April, man…

 

[Zkribbler]

Now, I'm not surprised that the standard claim that the Great Pyramid were unsurpassed until the Eiffel Tower is untrue, but I honestly didn't expect it to be beaten by a provincial cathedral in an English market-town.

The Washington Monument was in there too, for about three years. IIRC, it was surpassed by a church spire somewhere in eastern Europe.

TIL: If you're buried in Venice, it will only be for about 10 years. The city's only cemetery is crowded, so bodies are routinely disinterested; the bones are cleaned ith wine, and placed into an ossuary.

 

[Lexicus]

The Washington Monument was in there too, for about three years. IIRC, it was surpassed by a church spire somewhere in eastern Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_..._of_world.27s_tallest_freestanding_structures

Incorrect. The Monument was there for 5 and surpassed by the Eiffel Tower.

Now, I'm not surprised that the standard claim that the Great Pyramid were unsurpassed until the Eiffel Tower is untrue, but I honestly didn't expect it to be beaten by a provincial cathedral in an English market-town.

The Great Pyramid held the top spot for a lot longer than anything else on there - nearly 3,000 years. What an inauspicious end to its reign.

 

[Arakhor]

Today I learnt that the UK, France and/or Germany are in Eastern Europe.

Fun fact about the Pyramids - Cleopatra VII, paramour of Julius Caesar and last of the Ptolemid pharaohs, lived closer in history to us than to the Pyramids over which she ruled.

 

[Yeekim]

TIL: The claim that Tallinn's St Olaf's church was for a while tallest building in the world is disputed and probably wrong

According to some sources it was the tallest building in the world from 1549 to 1625, but this claim is controversial: one account of the final rebuilding states the church was formerly "ten fathoms" higher, but paintings depict a spire similar in proportions to the current one; moreover, several different fathoms were in use in Estonia at the time and it is uncertain which was meant. After several rebuildings, its spire is now 123.7 meters tall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Olaf's_Church,_Tallinn