Today I Learned #3: There's a wiki for everything!

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Sofista said:
Wait, you've never seen Airplane!?
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I'd forgotten about that. But as I said... decades ago. The last time I watched a Harry Potter movie was last year. The last time I watched a Harry Potter video was less than 2 weeks ago. The last time I read a HP fanfic was less than half an hour ago.

And I've never been a fan of American sports anyway, unless it happened to be a specific figure skater (I used to enjoy watching Paul Wylie compete in the late '80s/early '90s).

Takhisis said:
Surely that cannot be the real Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
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Lots of actors and sports celebrities made cameos in those movies.

And don't call me "Shirley."

:p
 
Valka D'Ur said:
Lots of actors and sports celebrities made cameos in those movies.

And don't call me "Shirley."

:p
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My Dad says that the real Kareem Abdul-Jabbar doesn't help out on defence.
 
CKS said:
Kind of hard on people who are banned from giving blood.

When I was a young person, I sometimes felt guilty for not donating, but the donation events near me (I had no car) were always right before big sporting events I participated in. Then one wasn't, so I went to donate and discovered that I was banned from donating (due to mad cow disease paranoia) - I couldn't have donated at any of the past blood drives, either. I'm told they dropped this permanent bad because of COVID, but now I'm forbidden for other reasons.

I'm not interested in autographs, but this policy would make me grumpy.
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At the end, these things are health precautions, and I think it's better to feel bad not being able to donate because of this (well... at least I don't), than inability to make it at a convenient time, no?
 
I meant Heinlein's policy (of no autographs without blood donation) would make me grumpy.

I don't know enough about the situation to know if a permanent blood-donation ban for spending time associated with US military bases in Germany during the 80's was reasonable or not, but the speed at which it was dropped once COVID hit suggests to me that it wasn't reasonable. Historically and now, not all restrictions in the US have been grounded in science.
 
Unbelievably crazy. See here for just one take on the idea.
 
Most of the land-gain would be in Italy (Adriatic).

upload_2021-4-2_0-33-17.png


Sicily does look more hardcore.

Due to (even) higher salinity, there would be a lot less marine life (if any), but on the positive side it would be considerably more difficult for you to drown (floating).
 
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Oh wow, this is a crazy thing.
I like it :goodjob:.


TIL: Ship's wheels are actually rather "new", only being used from around 1700, apparently https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship's_wheel#History .
That means:
- Columbus didn't have one
- A big bunch of pirates didn't have one
That... I didn't expect that.
Guess I'll now pay more attention when watching movies about these reas.
 
Atlantropa looks very cool. I like it too.
 
hah , ı will beat it with my better understanding of a single guy . No doubt aware of this thing , a lone lunatic in the 1950s and 60s was talking in American universities to shoot down the Moon and adding the debris to Antarctica to increase landmass and solve the risks of the Cold War . Heard as a story on an aviation forum like years ago .
 
Film & tv actress Thandiwe "Thandie" Newton decided to return to her original name. Her name was changed (without her knowledge/consent?) early in her career. One can imagine some well-meaning assistant seeing "Thandiwe" and assuming it was a typo, with the W and the E being right next to each other on the keyboard/typewriter.

Thandiwe means "beloved." Wikipedia says it's Zulu, but another site said it was Shona. Both are significant populations in Zimbabwe, which is where Newton's mother is from.

The Shona are believed to have built Great Zimbabwe in their Late Iron Age, starting in the 11th Century BCE.

Zimbabwe is believed to be a portmanteau of the Shona words "dzimba" ("houses") and either "mabwe" ("stone") or "hwe" ("venerated"). If the Shona were poets, I think it's easy to imagine a deliberate double-meaning. "Dzimba-hwe" means "venerated houses", which can mean either homes or graves of important people (chiefs, nobles). A Portuguese officer in the 16th Century noted that the locals referred to the buildings as "symbaoe", meaning "court."

Speakers of Zulu can understand speakers of Xhosa, and vice-versa. Like Spanish and Italian, I suppose.
 
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00592-0
Adding is favoured over subtracting in problem solving
A series of problem-solving experiments reveal that people are more likely to consider solutions that add features than solutions that remove them, even when removing features is more efficient.
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Oh my... this is really interesting. It's good to be aware of that.
 
The_J said:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00592-0


Oh my... this is really interesting. It's good to be aware of that.
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The author of the article could have not given away the answer by the title. I mean how is one supposed to participate (privately) in this experiment now? Could have been vague in the title, eg "an interesting result in [...]" etc.

At any rate, some problems require first adding stuff (so as to then take them away by simplifying or altering). The famous π^2/6 result, for a specific infinite addition series, is a good example (stuff can be removed only once you get to something replaced by a known trigonometric identity).
 
Yil that the spanish national anthem has no prose/lyrics.
Obviously due to Spain including a few other states which want to be their own country; no reason to further rile them up.

At least the dutch national anthem reminds everyone that they are loyal to the king of Spain :)
 
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