Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk

[aimeeandbeatles]

...I wonder how they get cars into Nunavut without any roads. Can you load cars onto an airplane?

 

[Synobun]

...I wonder how they get cars into Nunavut without any roads. Can you load cars onto an airplane?

You're asking this question after you already found the answer on Discord.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I actually posted it a few seconds before I saw your answer.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Anyways TIL they bring cars into Nunavut via Sealift (big cargo ships). It only runs for a few months of the year though.

 

[Takhisis]

Also that although there's a few roads in Nunavut, there's none connecting to other provinces or territories.

As a witty Canadian once said, ‘take the hint’.

 

[W|M]

The difficulty of importing goods into Nunavut is also why grocery store prices there are extremely high:

Spoiler :

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

As a witty Canadian once said, ‘take the hint’.

I'm having Nunavut!

 

[Kyriakos]

I got interested in finding out if Yugoslavia (when united) was larger than (current) Germany. It did seem to be a bit larger than Romania.
Indeed, it was larger than Romania (Yug was roughly 256.000 kilometers^2), but considerably smaller than current Germany (357.000 kil^2).
Then I checked Greece and England, cause they always seemed very close. Turns out Greece is a tad larger than England (131.000 k^2 to 130.000 k^2).

Greece stronk

 

[The_J]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin_City TIL Benin City lies in Nigeria. Not in Benin. It was the capital of the kingdom of Benin, which's territory does not overlap with modern Benin. In fact, Benin named itself after the kingdom, which has nothing to do with them.
Way to go people, couldn't be more logical.

EDIT: At least better than e.g. Western Benin lol.

EDIT2: The Encyclopedia Britannica says that it's named after the Bight of Benin, and not after the kingdom (as wiki says), which makes a bit more sense.

 

[Colon]

Nobody tell Greece.

 

[W|M]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin_City TIL Benin City lies in Nigeria. Not in Benin. It was the capital of the kingdom of Benin, which's territory does not overlap with modern Benin. In fact, Benin named itself after the kingdom, which has nothing to do with them.
Way to go people, couldn't be more logical.

EDIT: At least better than e.g. Western Benin lol.

EDIT2: The Encyclopedia Britannica says that it's named after the Bight of Benin, and not after the kingdom (as wiki says), which makes a bit more sense.

Ghana and Mali are also both named after pre-colonial West African kingdoms

 

[The_J]

It seems that Mali has some territorial overlap with the Kingdom of Mali, but yeah, seems for Ghana it's the same.
o_O

 

[Birdjaguar]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin_City TIL Benin City lies in Nigeria. Not in Benin. It was the capital of the kingdom of Benin, which's territory does not overlap with modern Benin. In fact, Benin named itself after the kingdom, which has nothing to do with them.
Way to go people, couldn't be more logical.

EDIT: At least better than e.g. Western Benin lol.

EDIT2: The Encyclopedia Britannica says that it's named after the Bight of Benin, and not after the kingdom (as wiki says), which makes a bit more sense.

And Kansas City is in Missouri and not Kansas. There is a lesser version of Kansas City in MO though.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

There's two cities right on the edge of Belgium and the Netherlands with a very confusing border.

 

[Phrossack]

Watched a video that turned out to be all in Dutch in the first half. It was kinda unsettling. Not because of the subject matter, which I couldn't really understand, but because the Dutch sounded so similar to English that my brain thought I should be able to understand it even though I couldn't. If a TV were playing a Dutch show and I wasn't watching or listening but just hearing it in the background, I'd probably assume it was English. It's an uncanny valley of language.

Plus, written down it looks like German that's been deliberately misspelled for meme purposes.

 

[The_J]

Dutch and German are the closest languages to English, and there's probably around 15% English vocabulary in the Dutch language (with 80% German, 3% French, and they have some words on their own ^^), so it all makes sense.
An English friend of mine said that he didn't have much issues learning Dutch, because it's so similar.

I also had some similar feeling like you, when I was sitting in a hotel having breakfast. The people next to me were talking, and I knew it wasn't English, German or Dutch, but it sounded really similar. I asked, it was Danish. Made sense too.
Another time I was having breakfast in a hotel in Scotland. I was wondering what the guys on the next table were talking, but didn't dare to ask, because I feared they'd say "English".

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Sometimes I come across something written in German and I can actually kind of half-understand it because some of the words are very similar to English.

 

[Phrossack]

Dutch and German are the closest languages to English, and there's probably around 15% English vocabulary in the Dutch language (with 80% German, 3% French, and they have some words on their own ^^), so it all makes sense.
An English friend of mine said that he didn't have much issues learning Dutch, because it's so similar.

I also had some similar feeling like you, when I was sitting in a hotel having breakfast. The people next to me were talking, and I knew it wasn't English, German or Dutch, but it sounded really similar. I asked, it was Danish. Made sense too.
Another time I was having breakfast in a hotel in Scotland. I was wondering what the guys on the next table were talking, but didn't dare to ask, because I feared they'd say "English".

The shared vocab wasn't really what I noticed, so much as the amazing similarity in cadence and accent. Every now and then the Dutch "g" sound or a rolled "r" would remind me this wasn't English, but the overall effect was still slightly like what I imagine a stroke would be like!

 

[Kyriakos]

Nobody tell Greece.

I am sure many care about the world-shaping glory that was ancient Benin

 

[Birdjaguar]

Dutch and German are the closest languages to English, and there's probably around 15% English vocabulary in the Dutch language (with 80% German, 3% French, and they have some words on their own ^^), so it all makes sense.
An English friend of mine said that he didn't have much issues learning Dutch, because it's so similar.

I also had some similar feeling like you, when I was sitting in a hotel having breakfast. The people next to me were talking, and I knew it wasn't English, German or Dutch, but it sounded really similar. I asked, it was Danish. Made sense too.
Another time I was having breakfast in a hotel in Scotland. I was wondering what the guys on the next table were talking, but didn't dare to ask, because I feared they'd say "English".

You should've asked them German or French.