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"Did you know?" Teach me something, GAF

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The Lamp

Member
I'm sure there are lots of people on GAF who are experts, experienced, or at least knowledgeable about a thing or two that may not be common knowledge.

This is your chance to teach the me/rest of us something cool that you know about. This can be from your education, your job, your hobbies, or whatever. It can be how to make the perfect pancake, a grammar mistake people don't think about, something about a historical figure, "life-hacks", or a science concept for example. It can be simple or complicated.

I like learning, and I've learned some cool stuff, but none of us can learn everything so let's share our knowledge!

I'll start off with a couple of things.

Bananas and apples are not "fresh" at the store
Bananas%20Ecuador%20Brand.jpg

Apples are usually months old by the time you buy it at the fruit stand. Bananas are also old. They keep them in humidity-controlled refrigerators and often spray a ripening agent on the bananas right before they put them out at the stand in the grocery store (maybe that's why they go bad so quickly?).

A liquid can boil and freeze at the same time
the_triple_point_the_moment_when_wa_1560473190.gif


Matter changes state (liquid, solid, gas) when it reaches the right combination of temperature and pressure. Water, for example, for atmospheric pressure (1 atm), boils at 100 degrees Celsius and freezes at 0 degrees Celsius. We know this. Change the pressure, and the necessary temperatures for this to occur changes as well. That's why things boil at different temperatures if you live at higher altitudes.

Well, there is a sweet spot combination of temperature and pressure that can cause a pure substance to boil and freeze at the same time. For this temperature and pressure combination, called the triple point, the matter prefers to coexist in liquid, solid, and gas states all at once!

The sky is not that blue.
blue-sky-thinking-014.jpg

Oxygen and Nitrogen make up most of our atmosphere, and they like to scatter the white light from the sun. Higher energy light is scattered more, and that's why the sky is normally blue as opposed to red. It's actually more violet than it is blue, however, it's ultraviolet and we can't see that.
 
Did u know, u can save a bunch of money by switching to geico? Lol

I have nothing, but I didnt know about the boiling/freezing substance. Crazy.
 

terrisus

Member
This is your chance to teach the me/rest of us something cool that you know about. This can be from your education, your job, your hobbies, or whatever. It can be how to make the perfect pancake, a grammar mistake people don't think about

"teach the me?"
(You want "teach me/the rest of us").

I may possibly be a language prescriptivist >.>
 
I have lots of random tidbits but they only seem to come up when something reminds me of one.

For example, my roommate's nose bled a shitton the other day. Did you know that you're not supposed to tilt backwards? You're supposed to tilt forwards. Tilting back causes the blood to pool and damage the tissue back there.

(Learned this from an athletic trainer.)
 
Did you know? The best way to learn how to take good photos is to look at good paintings.

Did you know? People often say that modern art is meaningless, but what they are observing is merely art awkwardly adapting its vocabulary to suit contemporary needs.

Did you know? Asuka was in fact the best girl.
 
You aren't gonna get Ebola, calm your tits. It isn't easy to get, you have just as good of a chance of contracting HIV. Stop watching sensational news.
 
I try to avoid learning new bits of trivia if I can, unless it's gonna be relevant to me. The more I learn, the more I learn how much I've still yet to learn, and that bothers me. If the inside of a circle represents my knowledge, its circumference represents how much I know that I don't know. Increase one, increase the other.
 

VeeP

Member
Eating out with friends decreases depression, and is known to cheer people up. So if your feeling sad hit up a friend, grab a burger or something.
 

terrisus

Member
I try to avoid learning new bits of trivia if I can, unless it's gonna be relevant to me.

Because at this point in time you already are aware of all the categories/types of information that are going to be relevant to you...


Eating out with friends decreases depression, and is known to cheer people up. So if your feeling sad hit up a friend, grab a burger or something.

What if your depression is due to some combination of:
Lack of money
Eating problem
Lack of friends
Social anxiety
Food allergy
Ethical treatment of meat used in food
 
Telling trivia is like telling jokes, for me. I know a shit-ton but I can't conjure one up on demand very well. However, if it's tangentially related to a conversation, I'll have everyone rolling their eyes.
 

Hop

That girl in the bunny hat
Did you know? There's no such thing as a fish. Things that we commonly group together as fish may have less in common with each other, in an evolutionary sense, than with humans or birds or anything else. And their biologies can be so divergent that "fish" is not considered a proper grouping in systematic biology. To a scientist, the word is meaningless.
 
The word for the fruit orange came before the color orange which is why red-breasted robins are called that despite being orange-breasted.
 

Ketch

Member
Did you know the mass of Jupiter is more then any other planet in our solar system plus the sun combined? It's fuckin big.

Edit: wait not the sun duh. It's more then all the other planets in our solar system combined though.
 
Yes.

And you are aware that something you learn as "trivia" now might become relevent information to you later?

I'd rather spend my time learning practicalities that are applicable now and forever.
By the way, you're being way too argumentative over an idle comment that wasn't meant to be taken all that seriously. No one's bashing on your right to learn or your placed value of learning. :p
 

DrkSage

Member
I have a lot of them but I only remember them when talking about something that's related to it. For example the banana and sky tidbits reminded me of the following:

Bananas are aphrodisiacs and birds can see the true color of the sky, because they're able to see light near the ultraviolet range.
 
George Washington, as many other colonists at the time, was appalled by the Boston Tea Party and thought England should have received reparations for the loss of revenue.

The word for the fruit orange came before the color orange which is why red-breasted robins are called that despite being orange-breasted.

Additional color tidbit - Homer was either color blind or was not aware of the concept of blue so would often refer to blue things, such as the sea, as the color of wine.
 

terrisus

Member
I'd rather spend my time learning practicalities that are applicable now and forever.
By the way, you're being way too argumentative over an idle comment that wasn't meant to be taken all that seriously. No one's bashing on your right to learn or your placed value of learning. :p

It's a discussion topic. I was discussing something.

But, carry on.
 

terrisus

Member
Did you know the mass of Jupiter is more then any other planet in our solar system plus the sun combined? It's fuckin big.

Edit: wait not the sun duh. It's more then all the other planets in our solar system combined though.

I was going to say... >.>
 
You know oil paintings take decades to truly "dry." It's oil, it don't dry at all. It solidifies, and if not handled correctly during the process of painting (too much spirits or thinner, or not waiting the proper amount of time before putting another layer of paint if you're process is glazing), it will crack and pieces of it can even fall off. It's important not to fuck up!

True story.

aged-cracked-030.jpg

Didn't say they still can't be beautiful, even with damage.
 

Piano

Banned
Eating out with friends decreases depression, and is known to cheer people up. So if your feeling sad hit up a friend, grab a burger or something.

Or it makes me feel worse because I have to act "normal".
Depends on the friends.
 

Curiocity

Member
Did you know? The best way to learn how to take good photos is to look at good paintings.

Did you know? People often say that modern art is meaningless, but what they are observing is merely art awkwardly adapting its vocabulary to suit contemporary needs.

Did you know? Asuka was in fact the best girl.
I like all of these things. Good post 3/3 true.
Did you know that the reason we have "gut" feelings and instincts is because of the Greek concept that emotions spring from the kidneys/adrenals? Also the word for "guts" is "splahgnos" which is amazing
 

zeemumu

Member
There was once a disease called the dancing plague. It was exactly what it sounds like and killed dozens of people.
 

Paskil

Member
If you live in the US and you are having trouble making ends meet, or just feel like you need help, you have the right to apply for public assistance programs. Depending on your income, expenses, and assets, you might qualify for expedited foodstamp benefit issuance. Regardless, every state is required to make an eligibility determination within 30 days of your application filing date (depending on the programs). The date you submit your application is the date from which you would receive benefits, if you qualify. You could potentially qualify for $16-$194 per month, as a household of one in foodstamps.
 

toxicgonzo

Taxes?! Isn't this the line for Metallica?
Did u know, u can save a bunch of money by switching to geico? Lol

I have nothing, but I didnt know about the boiling/freezing substance. Crazy.
C'mon give some real advice.

You can save 15% or more on your car insurance by fleeing the scene of the accident
 

MTE

Member
Did you know?: Pine nuts are gathered from fallen tree matter, and shelled by hand. That's why they're so expensive.
 

MTE

Member
If you tap your knuckles on a concrete wall, it's your bones making the noise, not the wall.
 

Pepiope

Member
What if your depression is due to some combination of:
Lack of money
Eating problem
Lack of friends
Social anxiety
Food allergy
Ethical treatment of meat used in food
Eat in the dumpster of a vegan restaurant with the rat you just befriended.
 

DrkSage

Member
Sperm is 80% fructose (sugar)
You can bite off your finger as easy as biting a carrot.
Cockroaches can live up to 10 days without their head
All spiders are venomous with the exception of one family
 
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