TIL about Clarke's three laws, the most famous of which is the third: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The first two are:
1.When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2.The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke, the famed sci-fi author who penned these laws, is probably best known for co-authoring the screenplay to 2001: A Space Odyssee
They're using walking (region alpha) vs biking (region beta) region as an analogy: "paradoxically" you'll reach some further distances earlier, based on your choice of mode of transport. Which wouldn't work in my case cause I'll take the bike to the grocery store down the street. At any rate, your "choice" of defense mechanism influences your rate of recovery, is what they're trying to say
TIL about the region-beta paradox, the psychological phenomenon that people can sometimes recover more quickly from more distressing experiences than from less distressing ones
This appears counterintuitive; people typically predict intense states to last longer. The hypothesized for this disconnect is that, intense states trigger psychological defense processes that reduce the distress, while less intense states do not trigger the same psychological defense processes and, therefore, less effective attenuation of the stress occurs.
Damn, will I have to make another post?!
TIL about silbo gomero, the "Gomeran whistle" historically used on the Canarian island of Gomera to communicate over large distances
Silbo gomero is a whistled register of Spanish that is used to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island and is generally used for public communication such as event invitations or PSAs. A speaker of Silbo Gomero is sometimes called a silbador ("whistler").
Silbo Gomero is a transposition of Spanish from speech to whistling. The oral phoneme-whistled phoneme substitution emulates Spanish phonology through a reduced set of whistled phonemes. In 2009, UNESCO declared it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
My favorite kind
Boy do I have a post for you!
I will steal this))
I can relate to the queasiness BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
Damn, good point. Couldn't come up with a counter-example so just copy/pasted off of Wikipedia verbatim lmao Look out for tomorrow's TIL when I look up what that type of locomotion is called lol
Actually, I'm really at a loss at what to call this paraphyletic group; tetrapods come to mind but they technically still include snakes...
TIL about the three types of locomotion in terrestial vertebrates: plantigrade, digitigrade and unguligrade
In plantigrades (e.g. humans, bears, most rodents), the entire sole of the foot touches the ground, in digitigrades (most carnivores, most birds), the heel is off the ground and unguligrades (ungulates) walk on hooves.
TIL the Scottish term for counter-clockwise is widdershins
Literally, it means to take a course opposite the apparent motion of the sun viewed from the Northern Hemisphere. Widdershins is cognate with the German widersinnig, i.e., "against" + "sense". The opposite of widdershins is deosil, or sunwise, meaning "clockwise".
Fair enough, thought of converting it to 100k but was too lazy lol
Fair enough. The data is presented very weirdly. I changed the post
You're very welcome
TIL that Alabama has by far the highest amount of death row inmates by capita of any US state
There are just over 2,000 DRIs in the entire US, 46 of which are women. Alabama is leading the list with >300 inmates per 10M inhabitants.
Also confer this very topical article
TIL about Planet Nine, a hypothetical ninth planet in the outer region of the Solar System.
This hypothesized ninth planet (not you, sorry Pluto) might explain the unusual commonalities of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs) 100s of AU from the sun. These ETNOs (such as dwarf planets and sednoids) have remarkably aligned orbits, suggest the existence of an undiscovered celestial body, dubbed Planet Nine, influencing them gravitationally.
Appealing or appalling? Big difference.
This goes in the "no shit" pile of research Still good to have confirmation
The main reason it went extinct...
You'll have to elaborate on that
I'm glad you like my choice of words :3
TIL about Silphium, aka laser, a plant that was used as a panacea in antiquity and the first species in recorded history to go extinct
The plant's exact identity is unknown to this day, since it went extinct in Roman times. It was a major cash crop of Cyrene, Libya, and even depicted on coins. It was used as seasoning, perfume, aphrodisiac, contraceptive and abortifacient. The last specimen was supposedly given to Emperor Nero.
TIL that "G.I." originally referred to galvanized iron
6 December 2023 A G.I. is an American soldier, and G.I. is used as an adjective denoting things related to the U.S. military. The term came into its own during World War II, but its origins go back somewhat further. G.I. started out as a U.S. military abbreviation for galvanized iron. A War
TIL that "G.I." originally referred to objects made from galvanized iron from WWI on, before it was reinterpretated as "government issue ", and by WWII, applied to American soldiers.
