Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned that vexillology is the study of flags.

 

[The_J]

I think you need to watch more The Big Bang Theory .

 

[Arakhor]

Today I learned that vexillology is the study of flags.

I'm vexed that you didn't know that!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned about government cheese.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Although I already knew about the Irvings' monopoly on the media in New Brunswick, today I learned that it was actually investigated by the Canadian Senate:

Even the Canadian Senate has examined the issue; a report from the Senate in 2006 on media control in Canada singled out New Brunswick because of the Irving companies' ownership of all English-language daily newspapers in the province, including the Telegraph-Journal. Senator Joan Fraser, author of the Senate report, stated, "We didn't find anywhere else in the developed world a situation like the situation in New Brunswick."[23] The report went further, stating, "the Irvings' corporate interests form an industrial-media complex that dominates the province" to a degree "unique in developed countries." At the Senate hearing, journalists and academics cited Irving newspapers' lack of critical reporting on the family's influential businesses.[24] In 2015 the Telegraph-Journal published editorials arguing against reconsideration of the tax concessions granted to Irving Oil, without acknowledging the conflict of interest.[25] In 2016, coverage of Saint John Common Council advocacy for higher taxation of Irving Oil's refinery was notably absent from the newspaper, despite extensive coverage in CBC and other news outlets.

Also, they're one of the largest landowners in the United States.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Irving owns the coast.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

TIL about the application Character Map which comes standard on Windows machines. It allows you to type any Unicode character and I had too much fun looking through all the symbols.

A two tentacled octopus. A duopus? ᴥ
Looks like some sort of pastry ֎
Interrobang (its actual name)‽
Evil smiley face☻
If you really don't want to type 1/4 there is a symbol for that ¼
‴Triple quotes is apparently a thing‴
The craziest looking B ever. ₿
This looks kinda like a Bat'leth to me ﴾

Older keyboards and typewriter keyboards had keys for fractions. It's annoying that modern keyboards don't.

Triple quotes are easily doable by typing the apostrophe three times.

Today I learned that Canadians can request the flag that flew on Parliament Hill...if they don't mind waiting over a hundred years.

Yep. There was an article about that on CBC some time back. People are requesting them for their children or grandchildren now. Hopefully the child or grandchild appreciates it.

Today I learned that vexillology is the study of flags.

I misread that as "vexology" - the study of how to annoy people.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned that Belgians once tried to train cats to deliver the mail. It was unsuccessful.

Throughout history, carrier pigeons have been used to deliver mail, as well as horses, camels, dogs and even reindeer (in Alaska). Back in 1876, members of the Belgian Society for the Elevation of the Domestic Cat thought: ‘why not cats?’ Here is the story of how cats came to deliver the news in a city in Belgium.

The society trained 37 domestic cats to deliver mail in the Belgian city of Liège. Waterproof bags containing letters were tied around the felines’ necks and they were driven out into the countryside, miles away from their homes. One of the cats arrived home within five hours and the others all found their way back within 24 hours, according to a report in the New York Times from March 1876.

The society was very pleased with this result and proposed to set up a system of regular communications between neighbouring towns, using their feline companions. Why this scheme never came to fruition remains a mystery, but it possibly had something to do with it being more efficient to drive around delivering letters yourself instead of tying them to a cat’s neck, leaving it in a field and hoping it will make its way back home!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Today I learned that Belgians once tried to train cats to deliver the mail. It was unsuccessful.

I guess it never occurred to them that the cat might have been killed, eaten, caught by whatever they used to tie the letters on and strangled to death, stolen, or just decided to go chase a mouse instead.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Or that the cat just didn't want to deliver the letter.

 

[The_J]

Same issues for carrier pigeons, but that still works .

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned about the barium beefsteak meal. Doctors use it to see how long it takes someone to digest a meal.

No idea if it's always beefsteak though.

 

[Ajidica]

I guess it never occurred to them that the cat might have been killed, eaten, caught by whatever they used to tie the letters on and strangled to death, stolen, or just decided to go chase a mouse instead.

We all know what cats really want to do:

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Today I learned about the barium beefsteak meal. Doctors use it to see how long it takes someone to digest a meal.

No idea if it's always beefsteak though.

Barium swallows are disgusting.

 

[amadeus]

Apparently there are quite a few terms to refer to a clergy house. We always called it the parsonage, which seems to at least be a Lutheran thing.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Apparently there are quite a few terms to refer to a clergy house. We always called it the parsonage, which seems to at least be a Lutheran thing.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/parson

More Episcopalian than Lutheran I think.

I grew up near a manse which is Scottish Calvinist.

 

[Colon]

Today I learned that Belgians once tried to train cats to deliver the mail. It was unsuccessful.

Based on what you posted: it actually does seem to have been succesful?

 

[Hrothbern]

TIL that a magnificant palace has been found 3 km South of Jerusalem's Old City and probably dating from the 7th-8th century BC.
The palace was probably destroyed with the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The remains were neatly burried for yet unknown reasons.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54006773

 

[Synobun]

TIL that a magnificant palace has been found 3 km South of Jerusalem's Old City and probably dating from the 7th-8th century BC.
The palace was probably destroyed with the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The remains were neatly burried for yet unknown reasons.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54006773

Keeping in the monsters.

 

[Hrothbern]

Keeping in the monsters.

The demons Salomo controlled