TIL: Today I Learned

[Farm Boy]

That is very much not what I was thinking had happened, but makes more sense.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Whippits kill...

Whip it good!

It's not too late.

 

[Borachio]

Whippits kill...

Nope. I don't think they do. At least nothing bigger, or faster, than a hamster.

Actually, come to think of it, whippets are pretty quick. But they're definitely not known for being attack dogs.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Apparently tossing coins into an aircraft engine for good luck may not be the best way to ensure a safe flight....
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40421811

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

TIL Karl Polanyi lived in Pickering, Ontario. Didn't expect my former small city residence would host an academic of such a caliber.

Also, Mike "Deus Volt" Pence has a rabbit called Marlon Bundo.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

So after they get rid of Trump, there will be a First Rabbit in the White House?

Poor rabbit.

I wonder - have there been any calls for Trump to get a dog? It's usually considered that a president or his family should have some kind of pet, isn't it?

 

[Takhisis]

I really don't want any petting from El Donald.

 

[Broken_Erika]

There is a Cow calf that looks like Gene Simmons
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40797526

 

[Lexicus]

IIt's usually considered that a president or his family should have some kind of pet, isn't it?

They do, its name is Don Jr

 

[Chukchi Husky]

So after they get rid of Trump, there will be a First Rabbit in the White House?

Poor rabbit.

I wonder - have there been any calls for Trump to get a dog? It's usually considered that a president or his family should have some kind of pet, isn't it?

 

[Kyriakos]

Finally, something good from Germany?

The German-American team of geneticists seems to have disproved that theory. The 10 skeletons from Minoan Crete owe about three-quarters of their genes to the European “first farmers” of the Neolithic, with the rest coming from an influx of people thought to have wandered over from Iran and the Caucasus in 4000BC or so.

More importantly, they are closely related to the later Mycenaeans, who differ only in about a tenth of their DNA, which may derive from a Eurasian steppe tribe that flooded down into Greece at the end of the Bronze Age.

Alissa Mittnik, a molecular biologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, one of the paper’s authors, said there was evidence of a strong continuity between both civilisations and today’s Greeks. “Modern Greek people are very closely related to the Mycenaeans and Minoans,” she said. “That was one of the very interesting findings.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...s/news-story/1d5ff80bde3dac9cc715bfc820639f32

 

[Cutlass]

TIL that there is a US national park within the borders of Canada. http://www.fdr.net/getting-here.php

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The map calls it an "international park."

 

[Cutlass]

Yes, both countries participate in the running of it. But still, weird.

 

[Ferocitus]

TIL that Burchell's zebra is the only subspecies of zebra which may be
legally farmed for human consumption in the UK.

 

[Kyriakos]

Til that one of the orc bosses in WH video games is called "Gitstompa". And his backstabbing orc antagonist calls him - no surprise - a stupid git.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

TIL "Hooman" and "Doshman" are legitimate names in Farsi.

 

[Kyriakos]

TIL about The Manticore (Martichoras/Androphagos)

Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 3. 45 (trans. Conybeare) (Greek biography C1st to 2nd A.D.) :
"Apollonios [a C1st A.D. Greek philosopher who travelled to India] asked the question, whether there was there an animal called the Martikhoras (Manticore); and [the Indian sage] Iarkhas (Iarchas) replied : ‘And what have you heard about the make of this animal? For it is probable that there is some account given of its shape.’
‘There are,’ replied Apollonios, ‘tall stories current which I cannot believe; for they say that the creature has four feet, and that his head resembles that of a man, but that in size it is comparable to a lion; while the tail of this animal puts out hairs a cubit long and sharp as thorns, which it shoots like arrows at those who hunt it.’ . . .
And larkhas answered his questions thus: ‘. . . I never yet heard in this country of an animal that shoots arrows.’"

Apparently the Manticore (Martichoras/Androphagos, which means man-eater) was the indian tiger, if we go by Ctesias' accounts that it was hunted by groups of men, often on elephants, and it tended to attack, kill, and eat men. Its colour also seems to fit.

 

[Arakhor]

That's a bit boring, but seems accurate enough (less the spiny tail, of course).

 

[Kyriakos]

That's a bit boring, but seems accurate enough (less the spiny tail, of course).

The spike-hairs being shot as arrows may signify some lost beast which was mostly a huge spider