You Learn Something New Every Day

[imoldernu]

I think this thread should take off!
If you learn something today, you should take time to share it with your friends.

Here's my contribution for today:

The average American watches 5 hours of TV per day.
Each hour of network TV includes 20 minutes of commercials.
That means 75 twenty four hour days of watching TV
And 25 twenty four hour days of watching commercials.
Networks conspire to time commercials to avoid switching.
Commercials are presented in "blocks" of from 6 to ten commercials/block.
Most movie oriented channels, time commercials to be short in the beginning of the show, and extra long towards the end.
Networks hate the Dish "Hopper"... perhaps legal action.
Netflix and streaming TV gaining in leaps and bounds over networks.

It's a major part of American Life... in transition.

But you knew that, didn't you?

 

[braumeister]

After my grandmother fell and broke her hip

Before anti-osteoporosis treatments, I had always heard that the most common scenario was that a person's hip would break first, causing the fall. People just assumed the two events happened in the reverse order.

 

[CoolChange]

It's impossible for a human to lick their elbow.

Please tell me that I am not the only one who immediately tried to prove this incorrect. (I failed; but, it still seems doable with more yoga and/or a longer tongue.)

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

Networks conspire to time commercials to avoid switching.
Commercials are presented in "blocks" of from 6 to ten commercials/block.
Most movie oriented channels, time commercials to be short in the beginning of the show, and extra long towards the end.

I remember when I was a kid, commercial breaks were relatively few and short. Like a one-minute commercial every 15 minutes or so. In fact, I've got the complete Beatles on Ed Sullivan appearances, with the complete one-hour Ed Sullivan Show episodes, with commercials of the time, and that's the case: a one-minute commercial every 12 or 15 minutes.

Today, it seems like the commercial breaks are about 4 or 5 minutes long, every 6 to 8 minutes. So I usually just DVR programs I want to watch and then fast-forward thru the commercials. I'll sometimes even do that for NFL games: I'll record one game while watching another, and then play catch-up later, fast-forwarding thru all the many commercial breaks.

Anyway, back to my original Shakespeare topic, then I'll move on. What got me on this Shakespeare kick was a PBS documentary I saw the other night, about the "Shakespeare Authorship Question." One of the things mentioned was that because so little is actually known about Will, virtually all biographies are full of conjecture. The film gave examples, such as sentences will contain: might have, could have, may have, must have, assuming, etc.

So I went back to a local library yesterday and browsed through about three biographies, and confirmed it. I jotted down other examples of conjecture that run throughout these Shakespeare bios: evidently; if he had; perhaps he...; it is impossible to say; it is likely; one might conclude; even if Will had...; x almost certainly; it is virtually certain; normally x would have; it is not known if...; and, this might well have been.

That's what I learned, and confirmed yesterday.

 

[David1961]

Please tell me that I am not the only one who immediately tried to prove this incorrect. (I failed; but, it still seems doable with more yoga and/or a longer tongue.)

You're not the only one. I tried it, too, when I first heard it.

 

[Meadbh]

I think this thread should take off!
If you learn something today, you should take time to share it with your friends.

Here's my contribution for today:

The average American watches 5 hours of TV per day.
Each hour of network TV includes 20 minutes of commercials.
That means 75 twenty four hour days of watching TV
And 25 twenty four hour days of watching commercials.
Networks conspire to time commercials to avoid switching.
Commercials are presented in "blocks" of from 6 to ten commercials/block.
Most movie oriented channels, time commercials to be short in the beginning of the show, and extra long towards the end.
Networks hate the Dish "Hopper"... perhaps legal action.
Netflix and streaming TV gaining in leaps and bounds over networks.

It's a major part of American Life... in transition.

But you knew that, didn't you?

American TV seems to have more commercials than TV anywhere else. I guess commerce makes the world go around. But it's one reason why I no longer watch TV.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

According to a factoid on an episode of Pawn Stars ("No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service"), FWIW, there are now 250,000 distinct words in the English language--more than any other language.

And Vic Flick was a (not too well-known) famous session guitar player, who played that legendary guitar lick in the James Bond movie Dr. No (and "Ringo's Theme" in A Hard Day's Night), among countless other well-known recordings. He had come into the pawn shop to sell his 1961 Strat, and got $55,000 for it!

 

[Alan]

Please tell me that I am not the only one who immediately tried to prove this incorrect. (I failed; but, it still seems doable with more yoga and/or a longer tongue.)

You're not the only one. I tried it, too, when I first heard it.

I tried as well. It reminded me that I have to do my {very painful} physio exercises today for my shoulder problem

 

[Pleeplus]

I learned that a horologist is a clock repair man. Who knew??

 

[redduck]

American TV seems to have more commercials than TV anywhere else. I guess commerce makes the world go around. But it's one reason why I no longer watch TV.

What do you watch instead?

 

[harley]

It's impossible for a human to lick their elbow.

I didn't try, but it can be done. Similar situation to this:

A man walks into a bar has a few drinks and asks what his tab was. The bartender replies that it is twenty dollars plus tip. The guy says, "I'll bet you my tab double or nothing that I can bite my eye." The bartender accepts the bet, and the guy pulls out his glass eye and bites it.

He has a few more drinks and asks for his bill again. The bartender reports that his bill now is thirty dollars plus tip. He bets the bartender he can bite his other eye. The bartender accepts knowing the man can't possibly have two glass eyes. The guy then proceeds by taking out his false teeth and biting his other eye.

 

[Meadbh]

What do you watch instead?

News apps and websites, YouTube, Netflix.

 

[citrine]

I learned that you can make banana muffins with just ripe bananas and a box of yellow cake mix...no oil or eggs and it tastes awesome.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

I learned that certain expenses associated with my volunteer work with the Boy Socuts of America are tax deductible.

 

[FIYes]

This thread reminded me of being told as child that if you kissed your elbow then you would never get married. I tried to kiss my elbow but failed and I have been married for over thirty years now. It must have been true!

 

[redduck]

How to open a banana?

07-28-2009, 11:03 AM #1 Orchidflower
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post

Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,323


How to open a banana?
I just found this out, and was amazed how stupid we humans are. Did you know that the primate world opens bananas from the bottom of the banana and not at the stem? Try it. You'll find it's 1,000 times easier. And I'll guess that the vast majority of us still open bananas from the stem, so I guess this means monkeys are smarter than us humans?
__________________

I learned the above one day about six years ago. But, it doesn't work all that well. So, I've decided to no longer open bananas from the bottom. Wish I never learned it.

 

[REWahoo]

I learned the above one day about six years ago. But, it doesn't work all that well. So, I've decided to no longer open bananas from the bottom. Wish I never learned it.

Works great for me. Must be in the genes.

 

[Bestwifeever]

learned the above one day about six years ago. But, it doesn't work all that well. So, I've decided to no longer open bananas from the bottom. Wish I never learned it.

Hey, look at my avatar. I do peel a banana this way occasionally when I am with other people, because they all think it looks crazy, especially if you hold it by the stem end to eat it.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

According to a factoid on an episode of Pawn Stars ("No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service"), FWIW, there are now 250,000 distinct words in the English language--more than any other language.

IIRC, about 1/3 are Old French and 1/3 French. And 250,000 does not include jargon. We also steal from everybody.

 

[Alan]

Other than humans, dogs are the only animals who know where something is hidden when you point to it. ...or so DW tells me. She said that they demonstrated this on the program she was watching with a chimpanzee versus the dog. A treat was hidden under one of several cups. The human just had to glance towards the correct cup and the dog would flip it over to claim its treat. With the chimp, the human could enthusiastically point to the cup with the treat but the chimp invariably looked under the wrong one.

 

[harley]

Other than humans, dogs are the only animals who know where something is hidden when you point to it. ...or so DW tells me. She said that they demonstrated this on the program she was watching with a chimpanzee versus the dog. A treat was hidden under one of several cups. The human just had to glance towards the correct cup and the dog would flip it over to claim its treat. With the chimp, the human could enthusiastically point to the cup with the treat but the chimp invariably looked under the wrong one.

I think that means that chimps are the only animal smart enough to know that it can't trust humans.

 

[HFWR]

The average American watches 5 hours of TV per day.

Which explains in part the alarming dumbing down of Mericans...

 

[Alan]

Totally blind people can tell you if a light is on or off.

When mice were bred to have eyes but no rods or cones, ie totally blind it was found that they could still detect if it was light or dark, so they asked some totally blind people if they could tell if it was light or dark and they said no. They were then asked to guess and were 100% correct. (dark rooms, light on or off)

Turns out that are some light receptive cells somewhere in the eyes that detect light even though you don't consciously know. This comes from research into circadian rhythms.

 

[CoolChange]

Other than humans, dogs are the only animals who know where something is hidden when you point to it. ...or so DW tells me. She said that they demonstrated this on the program she was watching with a chimpanzee versus the dog. A treat was hidden under one of several cups. The human just had to glance towards the correct cup and the dog would flip it over to claim its treat. With the chimp, the human could enthusiastically point to the cup with the treat but the chimp invariably looked under the wrong one.

Dogs and elephants now: African Elephants Understand Human Gestures

And, that is my trivia for the day.

 

[rescueme]

DW/me were in a basic Chinese writing class last month (our latest trip; three weeks on the Mainland and a few days in HK).

What was most interesting to us is of the thousands of "character sets" in use, they are all made by just eight strokes of the hand. The strokes of Chinese characters fall into eight main categories: horizontal (一), vertical (丨), left-falling (丿), right-falling (丶), rising, dot (、), hook (亅), and turning (乛, 乚, 乙, etc.).

Our guide mentioned that one did not become proficient in the full use of all the characters (about 4000) until after a decade of study, on average.

Compare that with the 26-letter (or stroke) Latin alphabet that we use today.