Today I Learned #4: Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

[Kyriakos]

TIL (well, a couple of days ago): The sistine chapel is not in the St. Peter's Basilica.
I guess I should have known.
Still got to see both, so no consequences from this .

Took you a while :S
I was iirc 14 when I saw those.
Also the fontana di trevi, which is somewhat less imposing - and keepers collect the coins anyway.

 

[The_J]

Oh, I found that one also impressive.
Just all the street vendors.... this year's "fidget spinner" is some rubber pig, which makes a squeaking sound when thrown to the ground. The trevi fountain will always make an "eeeeeeehhhh" sound in my dreams -_-.

Did you have a long wait to get in?

Not very long, for both.
For the Vatican museums I had a timed entry ticket bought before, and I was inside within less than 10 minutes.
For the St. Peter's Basilica, I read online that it can take 2h, in worst cases 4. I showed up on a Friday around 11h (wanted to send post cards from the Vatican post office), and the line looked like it was moving fast enough. Took me only 50 minutes, which I was quite happy with.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Vatican museums

Anything interesting to see there?

"Throwing Trevi Fountain coins has become a popular tradition for tourists exploring central Rome. As one of Rome’s most popular free attractions, the fountain attracts thousands of guests every hour, leaving an estimated 3,000 euros ($3150) every day.

Approximately, the fountain rakes in a whooping 1,250,000 euros ($ 1,321,000) euros annually, which all goes to charity. The coins are collected daily when the waters are shut down to allow for collection and cleaning. All the money retrieved is sent to Caritas, a Catholic charity that redistributes the funds to assist the poor, sick, and underprivileged locals."

 

[The_J]

Anything interesting to see there?

Na, nothing at all.



Besides the usual Roman and Egyptian stuff, I found the more specialzed sections more intereseting. That includes a gallery of wall hangings, depicting Italian areas, and the papal garage, with all the old popemobiles. The first paining of a camera was also interesting.
One of the most visited museums on the planet, for a good reason.

 

[Darsnan]

It still doesn't seem right...

View attachment 691845

I like this explanation better:

TIL that the lighthouse my wife and I booked for a night is actually haunted. Here is how the Inn is advertised:

Fun Things To Do On Pei | West Point Lighthouse Inn & Museum | O'leary

West Point Lighthouse Inn & Museum with 2 rooms located directly in the Tower of our Lighthouse as well as a contemporary Inn with 11 rooms. Stay, Dine, Shop, Relax and really get to know what West Point is all about. You can also come and visit our museum daily ( 9am--9pm) . Breathtaking sunsets

www.westpointlighthouseinn.com

And here is also how its advertised:

West Point Lighthouse Ghost Hunt & Sleepover, PE, Canada | Haunted Rooms America

Join Haunted Rooms America for a chilling night at the West Point Lighthouse, a beacon of spectral activity on Prince Edward Island. Do you have the courage to undertake a lone vigil in the historic lighthouse tower, where the apparition of "Lighthouse Willie" has been seen and mysterious voices...

www.hauntedrooms.com

Should be an interesting evening!

D

 

[Kaitzilla]

Approximately, the fountain rakes in a whooping 1,250,000 euros ($ 1,321,000) euros annually

I should build a fountain!

 

[Birdjaguar]

Let us know if you see Willie!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

TIL a brief overview of medieval guilds, which is a useful jumping off place for more research (my King's Heir story has guilds as a major aspect of the storyline and backgrounds for many of the characters).

Modern History TV is one of the most interesting YT channels I've come across. Much of the content has to do with the daily life of a knight, but there's lots of other general information about life in medieval times.

 

[Arakhor]

Jason Kingsley (the narrator) seems to be an interesting fellow. He also runs the Rebellion Developments video game and publishing company.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Jason Kingsley (the narrator) seems to be an interesting fellow. He also runs the Rebellion Developments video game and publishing company.

Not only that - he's done a film about a knight on a quest (based on the Holy Grail, I think). There's also a "making of" video about it. Honestly, sometimes it seems like that guy just stepped out of the 14th century. He's amazing.

There was one episode where he was explaining crossbows, had a guest on who's an expert on those, and I ended up spending a couple of evenings watching videos about crossbows. And then I realized that there are several scenes in my King's Heir story I need to rewrite, because of how much I got wrong.

He gets very hands-on with some things, putting his horses through the paces that a horse would learn for jousting, experimenting with making rushlights, soap, pottage, demonstrating the different types of cloaks and chainmail, and so much more.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

While browsing Civ5 mods on the workshop, I came across this: one of the munition rounds used by the Indian Arjun tank is called the 'PCB'

Spoiler :

Penetration Cum Blast (PCB)

 

[r16]

Spoiler :

it provides the laughs at least since 2016 . Even if it would be still as dangerous if it wasn't given some "manly" name intentionally . Now that it is also a bomblet , delivered as a cluster munition it might have an internal explosion before contact to accelarate some parts of it to breach concrete . See , it suddenly becomes less "manly" . So it is large in volume as a tank round and you will run out all the laughter by the time you get to fire it on bunkers . Excellent to protect yourself in the Parliament of a proud country with thousands of years of tradition where the most elevated of certain orders roam the streets totally naked .

 

[Birdjaguar]

TIL: The top two most understood expressions world wide: make your guesses!

Spoiler :

#1 is OK
#2 is Coca Cola

 

[Kaitzilla]

TIL: The top two most understood expressions world wide: make your guesses!

Spoiler :

#1 is OK
#2 is Coca Cola

I thought #1 was an old Native-American hand gesture?

**Edit**
Wait, everyone used it? The ancient Greeks too?
Historians need to do some work and figure this out.

 

[GenMarshall]

I’ve learned that there’s a term I’ve been experiencing as of late during my self-reflection of the past decade (and would explain why I’m skeptical of Project 2025): Outrage Fatigue.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I’ve learned that there’s a term I’ve been experiencing as of late during my self-reflection of the past decade (and would explain why I’m skeptical of Project 2025): Outrage Fatigue.

Project 2025 is just Christian fascism written down for all to see.

 

[GenMarshall]

Project 2025 is just Christian fascism written down for all to see.

I’ve encountered the term, outrage fatigue, recently. Which feels best describes the state that I am in right now. Basically, in a nutshell, is that I’ve been burnt out from the outrage content pumped out from the right (the trolling & flaming from leftists is also a factor in it as well).

I know it’s fundamentalist authoritarian Christian fanfic. Not to get into rants territory, what most don’t understand and is frustrating me is that my outrage fuel tank is empty right now.

 

[Narz]

Better to be fatigued of outrage than addicted to it.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I’ve encountered the term, outrage fatigue, recently. Which feels best describes the state that I am in right now. Basically, in a nutshell, is that I’ve been burnt out from the outrage content pumped out from the right (the trolling & flaming from leftists is also a factor in it as well).

I know it’s fundamentalist authoritarian Christian fanfic. Not to get into rants territory, what most don’t understand and is frustrating me is that my outrage fuel tank is empty right now.

Outrage has few benefits and should be engaged infrequently.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Project 2025 is just Christian fascism written down for all to see.

There are people in my province who think it's great and wish we could do that here.