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

[Valka D'Ur]

It must have been strange to have musicians in brothels. They probably played random stuff, like popular folk or arrangements of songs of the day.

You need to watch more Bonanza. Some of the saloon girls had a "room upstairs" and there was always a piano downstairs because the customers liked music, or one of the men would want to dance with the woman he'd picked out before they went upstairs.

Pretty much the same idea at the establishments in that show that really were brothels (no pretense).

I'd imagine it's the same in RL places.

 

[Broken_Erika]

TiL that when cats get heat stroke they pant like dogs. I spent over an hour last night with my aunt trying to cool down one of her cats.

 

[Samson]

TiL that when cats get heat stroke they pant like dogs. I spent over an hour last night with my aunt trying to cool down one of her cats.

It is humans that are the outlier here, in that most animals have to pant because they are covered in fur/feathers and sweating is not an efficient way to evaporate water under such insulation.

 

[Zkribbler]

I'd imagine it's the same in RL places.

In RL, the saloon was in one building; the cathouse(s) in another.

 

[Samson]

TIL that there are quite a few people on CFC that know what brothels are like.

 

[Takhisis]

They're a city improvement in some mods, right?

 

[Samson]

They're a city improvement in some mods, right?

That may inform one as to their existence, but not how the music is usually organised.

 

[Kyriakos]

That may inform one as to their existence, but not how the music is usually organised.

I saw the word "brothel" in that Chechov story, so I had to look it up

 

[Valka D'Ur]

TiL that when cats get heat stroke they pant like dogs. I spent over an hour last night with my aunt trying to cool down one of her cats.

Poor kitty.

I hope she (your aunt) wasn't upset with you because of the cat who died.

In RL, the saloon was in one building; the cathouse(s) in another.

In my life, the word "cathouse" means something entirely different. Maddy has a cathouse; it's a house-shaped part of her cat tree, and she can either crawl inside it for a private little nap or on top of it so she can look down on me and feel superior (and she used it to look out the window in the old apartment; I haven't set it up near a window here yet).

Not that she needs to be on top of it to feel superior. I'm 4 feet taller than she is, but she still feels superior even when sprawled on the floor.

TIL that there are quite a few people on CFC that know what brothels are like.

Only vicariously, through the magic of TV and YouTube, in my case (mostly Bonanza, The Borgias, and Outlander). And of course brothels are also staples of historical fiction, whether Roman murder mysteries or medieval/Tudor novels.

I've included one in my NaNoWriMo project, only because it's necessary for one of the characters to be found in one; it's what will help his wife secure a divorce in a time period where women usually weren't allowed to petition for divorce, because of a rather strict clause in the marriage contract he hadn't thought would ever be enforceable.

 

[Arakhor]

Not that she needs to be on top of it to feel superior. I'm 4 feet taller than she is, but she still feels superior even when sprawled on the floor.

Aren't cats generally less than a foot off the ground? Are you measuring her from head to tail instead?

 

[amadeus]

There’s a PlayStation 5?

News to me!

Yeah, I don’t check new game stuff so much anymore. Especially since I haven’t been in hardly any electronics stores for the last year and a half.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Aren't cats generally less than a foot off the ground? Are you measuring her from head to tail instead?

I'm approximating. Besides, I'm not that tall myself. But I can measure Maddy for you, if she sits still long enough, and if she doesn't decide to play with the tape measure.

Of course she's longer than a foot from nose to tail. The only cats who aren't are kittens, but even they can really stretch out when they want.

 

[amadeus]

https://www.glessnerhouse.org/story-of-a-house/2016/8/28/a-brief-history-of-the-humble-window-screen

Little appreciated, but very useful!

 

[EgonSpengler]

TIL that the explosion of Mount Tambora in 1815 led to the invention of the bicycle.

When the eruption of the volcano resulted in the "Year Without Summer" in Europe, which caused a famine, many folks had to euthanize their horses, because they couldn't feed them and/or to eat them. A German invented a wheeled device that he thought could replace the horse for personal transportation. He called it a "Laufmaschine", but it's sometimes called a "velocipede", "dandy horse", or "hobby horse." It looks a bit like a bicycle without pedals, but it functions more like a scooter, where you propel yourself with your feet and then coast for a bit. The early ones were made of wood, steel and leather, and weighed ~50 lbs / 23 kg. Then in the 1860s, a French engineer decided to put a crank and foot pedals on it. Et voila. Eruption of Mt. Tambora -> bicycles.

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TIL that the can opener followed the tin can by a couple of decades. For a long time, cans of food had to be opened with a hammer and chisel, a hatchet or a bayonet (canned food was initially invented for armies on the march). In many places, where civilians weren't carrying entrenching tools around with them, the shop owner would open the can for you when you bought it, and you'd carry it home open.

p.s. The design of the can itself is pretty much unchanged. The only real innovations in food cans has been the "pull to open" pull-tab, the material the can is made of, and the machinery that can produce, fill and seal vast numbers of cans. If you found a food can from 1840 with the label removed, you'd just think it felt a little heavy.

 

[The_J]

I recently had to open a can with a hammer and a screw driver. It felt so improvised. Now I can say that was "old school".

 

[EgonSpengler]

I recently had to open a can with a hammer and a screw driver. It felt so improvised. Now I can say that was "old school".

Like Grand-Pappy used to do it in the trenches!

 

[Kyriakos]

Like Grand-Pappy used to do it in the trenches!

 

[EgonSpengler]

TIL the Giant Short-Faced Bear, which lived in North America, may have been the largest mammalian predator to have ever lived. A study of remains estimates that the upper third of the population were 900+ kg (1,900+ lbs). The largest existing specimen is estimated at 957 kg (2,100 lbs). The bears might have stood 1.8m (5' 11") while on all fours, and possibly 3.7m (12') while on their hind legs. Riverbluff Cave in Missouri features claw marks in the rock, believed to be from a Short-Faced Bear, that are 4.6m (15') off the floor. The bear's long limbs indicate its running speed probably exceeded that of contemporary bears. The bear is believed to have gone extinct ~11,000 years ago. And, yes, if you're wondering, there were humans in N. America around that same time.

Artist's rendering, with a light supper for scale.

Spoiler :

And here's the American Cave Lion, a contemporary of the Short-Face Bear, beside its diminutive cousin, the modern African lion. (American Cave Lions are estimated to have been 25% larger than modern African lions.)

Spoiler :

 

[Samson]

TIL that the Bank of England holds £739bn of gilts, equivalent to 35% of the UK’s national debt. Who owes what to who there I do not understand.

 

[amadeus]

BEHOLD!

The Cycloped.

A British inventor's 1829 design to show forever that the horse was superior to the steam engine, by running the horse on a treadmill.

The Cycloped was entered into a locomotive engine contest for the construction of the Liverpool-Manchester railway. The Cycloped performed poorly, its horse crashing under its weight through the wooden planks and becoming the first vehicle to be disqualified.