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

[Takhisis]

TIL that this means "I love you" not "the devil".

The difference is in whether you stretch out the thumb or not, man. And, as EgonSpengler says:

 

[Kyriakos]

Justinian II, the "slit-nosed", was the original version of Enrico Dandolo.
Dethroned and having had his nose cut off with a cleaver, as punishment (and also out of the expectation that this would mean he could never return as emperor) he was exiled to Crimea. But later returned and took the throne again, to have his revenge. Dethroned again after a bloodbath, he was decapitated this time
But Andronikos Komnenos had a far worse end. And he deserved it - he was so brutal against the people themselves that he enabled the pitiful Angeloi to come to power (those soon responsible for the pretext for the fourth crusade). As punishment, he was given to the crowd, who took their time in killing him. The byzantine historian and chronographer, Nikitas Choniates, mentions that at some point the maimed and dying Andronikos spoke to his tormentors to say: "Why do you keep striking at a cane already broken?"

He did usurp the throne, killing the legitimate heir to Manuel Komnenos, as well as their immediate family.

 

[Ferocitus]

The difference is in whether you stretch out the thumb or not, man. And, as EgonSpengler says:

Judging by the colour of the fingers, it could also indicate chlorosis, exogenous copper, resolving ecchymosis, drugs, green textile dyes, green tattoos, apocrine and eccrine chromhidrosis, hyper biliverdinemia, chloromas, use of green dyes during tube feeding in patient with multiorgan failure, Pseudomonas infections, and Wells' syndrome in its second stage.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31896406/

 

[Valka D'Ur]

This is more of a "today I realized" than "learned"... but TIL/R that I seem to get a lot more writing done on my medieval adventure fanfic when I'm listening to South American panflute/quenacho music. The tempo seems to help me write faster.

So I'm hoping Fabian Salazar does as many livestreams in April (when the next Camp NaNoWriMo event is) as he's been doing in the past couple of weeks (usually it's just Saturday and Sunday but lately there have been others, sometimes 3-4 times/week).

 

[Takhisis]

Oh yes, background music can help or hinder a lot.

 

[r16]

ı am ashamed to just have learned that we are at war with San Marino on the ltalian Peninsula . You know being a militarist and all that . Seems they sent volunteers to the Great War but were not invited to the peace conferences . Things noticed only in 1935 when some Turk went up there to investigate the local flora and was denied entry . No particular issues , one also learns either their first or only goal in (international) football was scored against us , too ...

edit: Spelling issues .

 

[EgonSpengler]

TIL that transport of goods or passengers within a given country by a carrier of another country is called "cabotage."

TIL that Section 27 of the U.S. Merchant Marine Act of 1920 - known as the Jones Act - requires that goods transported between U.S. maritime ports be carried on a ship constructed in the U.S., operated under a U.S. flag, owned by a U.S. company, and crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. This has the effect of making maritime trade between U.S. ports unreasonably expensive. Ever been to Hawaii? Ever wonder why everything is so expensive? This is why. It's virtually a domestic trade embargo against U.S. states and territories that are not reachable by rail and highway. According to Investopedia, "A study released by the New York Federal Reserve in 2012 found that the cost of transporting a shipping container to Puerto Rico from the mainland was twice as high as shipping the same container from a foreign port."

TIL that oil produced in the middle of the United States and piped to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico is exported to other countries because it's too expensive to transport it by ship to either the East or West coast, because of the Jones Act. Those East and West Coast states instead import oil from other countries.

 

[warpus]

TIL that this means "I love you" not "the devil".

Yeah I'm pretty sure any girl I walk up to and direct this gesture at will think I'm a metalhead (or a crackhead) and am not in fact confessing my love for her.

Is this regional?

 

[MaryKB]

Why would you even confess your love to someone who doesn't know you well enough to know what you mean?

 

[r16]

in Turkey we used to have a National Holiday of Cabotage , the right to sail our own merchantships in our territorial waters . It is miserable to be a semi colony or whatever .

 

[Takhisis]

TIL that transport of goods or passengers within a given country by a carrier of another country is called "cabotage."

TIL that Section 27 of the U.S. Merchant Marine Act of 1920 - known as the Jones Act - requires that goods transported between U.S. maritime ports be carried on a ship constructed in the U.S., operated under a U.S. flag, owned by a U.S. company, and crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. This has the effect of making maritime trade between U.S. ports unreasonably expensive. Ever been to Hawaii? Ever wonder why everything is so expensive? This is why. It's virtually a domestic trade embargo against U.S. states and territories that are not reachable by rail and highway. According to Investopedia, "A study released by the New York Federal Reserve in 2012 found that the cost of transporting a shipping container to Puerto Rico from the mainland was twice as high as shipping the same container from a foreign port."

TIL that oil produced in the middle of the United States and piped to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico is exported to other countries because it's too expensive to transport it by ship to either the East or West coast, because of the Jones Act. Those East and West Coast states instead import oil from other countries.

The natural question arises: why does the US Congress not change such an obviously harmful law?

 

[warpus]

Why would you even confess your love to someone who doesn't know you well enough to know what you mean?

This sounds like a trick question. Nobody knows me that well!

 

[EgonSpengler]

The natural question arises: why does the US Congress not change such an obviously harmful law?

First, at least some of the reasons for it in 1920 still exist today. Allowing "cabotage" would likely mean the loss of many jobs in US shipping. It would probably also impact rail and trucking in places where shipping would make more sense if it weren't so expensive. Second, however dumb a system is overall, there are always people who've figured out how to thrive under it in the meantime, who will defend the status quo, even if any objective evaluation would clearly favor change. Why doesn't the US change it's clearly broken and stupid healthcare system? Because there are people who are making gobsmacking amounts of money off it being incredibly stupid, and if it was less stupid, they'd lose all that money. In this case, governments or companies who'd made arrangements to import goods from elsewhere, or who are doing well under the current system, would oppose repealing the law. Anyway, the people it's hurting the most are brown and speak Spanish and don't have representatives in Congress who can vote. Some percentage of Americans don't even realize Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. I forget who it was, but Rosie Perez recently had to gently remind some public figure that Puerto Ricans living in New York City are not "immigrants."

EDIT: Ah, here it is. It was a Deadline Hollywood article about West Side Story (2021) which referred to the movie's Puerto Rican characters as immigrants. I also see something about Kimberly Guilfoyle referring to her own mother, who's from Puerto Rico, as an immigrant. Deadline issued a retraction and apology. I don't know about Guilfoyle.

 

[Takhisis]

Ah, yes, people who are poor and/or non-white getting screwed is always a side bonus but an enticing one.
And yes, complicating things gives rise to middlemen and other ‘mediators’ who can carve out niche businesses is also one of those side businesses for bureaucrats, and, yes, vested interests can stop it.

It's depressingly similar to here. It's almost as if the United States of America were, in fact, part of the continent of America.

Should've guessed it.

Some percentage of Americans don't even realize Puerto Rico is part of the U.S.

Which technically it kindof isn't, because as the Supreme Court of the United States once famously ruled, it's part of the US to outsiders but a foreign country to the U.S. of A., i.e. a colony.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Aren't PR, Hati and Cuba the same country?

 

[EgonSpengler]

TIL that Canadian actress Katheryn Winnick and American actresses Vera & Taissa Farmiga are Ukrainian. Winnick is from Toronto and the Farmigas are from New Jersey; their parents all emigrated from Ukraine (Winnick and Vera Farmiga are in their 40s, so their parents must have left Ukraine while it was still part of the USSR). Winnick's family even spoke Ukrainian at home, and I suppose she's probably still conversational in it, if not completely fluent. Not sure about the Farmigas. French actress Olga Kurylenko is also Ukrainian, and spent much of her childhood there. I think I assumed she was Russian. I think I did know that Milla Jovovich and Mila Kunis were Ukrainian. Kunis and her husband Ashton Kutcher have raised millions already, although I read elsewhere that raising money for humanitarian aid is the easy part - actually getting it to people who need it may be another thing entirely.

(photos)

Spoiler :

It seems like there are a lot fewer famous Ukrainian men in American/Canadian/English-language pop culture. With a quick Google search, I recognize Mark Ivanir and David Vadim from supporting roles, here and there. Vadim played villains in The Americans and Daredevil. And I know Eugene Hutz from Gogol Bordello.

Spoiler :

 

[GinandTonic]

Don't forget the Klitchko brothers. You dont want to meet people with this many world boxing belts...

When they've got an AK and a grudge

 

[EgonSpengler]

Don't forget the Klitchko brothers. You dont want to meet people with this many world boxing belts...

When they've got an AK and a grudge

That's right, I didn't think to look at athletes. Vitali Klitchko is the mayor of Kyiv now. I think there have been other Ukrainian boxers on the international stage, but boxing's not a sport I follow much. Folks of a certain age might remember Oksana Baiul, a gold-medal figure skater, and Andriy Shevchenko, a soccer/football player. I remember him from the 1998 Champions League, when Dynamo Kiev made some noise. I think he won a Ballon D'or a few years later.

 

[Kyriakos]

They would have been good hoplites, but with current tech are they really significantly more useful than other soldiers?

 

[GinandTonic]

They would have been good hoplites, but with current tech are they really significantly more useful than other soldiers?

Normally it may not be relevant, but if your city is under siege it's nice to know your Mayor was undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in the last decade. Not important as such, but nice to know.