Things that make you go "Hmmmm…"

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kladner

I still find it amazing that just about any word-combination-topic can pull up pertinent answers. Near-instant access to knowledge is a wonderful tool, and great privilege.

I used the search parameters

aftreburners takeoff

(yes, I mipsplepped "afterburners" but Google searched on the correctly-spelled word)

The first 7 hits were YouTube videos. The eighth was a Wikipedia article about afterburners. The ninth was the one I posted the link to.

I am reminded of something science historian James Burke said in "The Day the Universe Changed" (the episode "A Matter of Fact.") He said that the invention of printing "took away our memories." What he meant was, before printing, human knowledge was largely committed to peoples' brains. He described the sort of bizarre associations that might be used to solidify memories. When printing came along, it became possible to commit many facts to print, and people no longer relied as much on remembering things they could look up.

I mention this because, with the advent of the Internet and search engines, it's so easy to look things up, the tendency to commit things to memory is probably being eroded all the more.

Alas, the art of critical thinking seems also to have largely gone by the boards. Yes, there's a lot of information out there, but misinformation and delusions are also easy to come by. Without the ability to winnow the chaff from the wheat, the information is effectively useless.

[xilman]

Went out to buy cream today and have a question. Ordered by viscosity I found half-cream, single-cream, whipping-cream and double-cream. Why isn't the third in that list "sesqui-cream"? Makes much more sense to me than the canonical nomenclature.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by xilman

Went out to buy cream today and have a question. Ordered by viscosity I found half-cream, single-cream, whipping-cream and double-cream. Why isn't the third in that list "sesqui-cream"? Makes much more sense to me than the canonical nomenclature.

According to the Wikipedia page on Cream, in the UK the following are legally defined, with minimum milk fat content as indicated.

Sterilized half cream 12% (The entry for "Half cream" doesn't have a minimum milk fat content.

Cream or single cream 18%

Whipping cream 35%

Double cream 48%

So I'm not sure what the "half- single- double-" nomenclature refers to. It's obviously not milk fat content! Perhaps it refers to whatever process is employed to separate the cream from the milk. Non-homogenized milk will separate if simply allowed to stand -- the fat will rise to the top.

I don't have viscosity tables handy, but by experience, the richer the cream (i.e. the higher the fat content), the thicker it is. I don't know precisely how viscosity varies with fat content.

BTW whole milk has a 3.5% milk fat content.

Also BTW -- my mom noticed right away that "ultra-pasteurized" whipping cream does not whip like the "ordinarily" pasteurized stuff had. But finding heavy or whipping cream that hasn't been ultra-pasteurized seems less than easy.

[ewmayer]

Now that I'm on the wrong side of 50, as part of my latest physical my doctor prescribed a colon test. Thankfully she gave me option of the colonoscopy (more accurate but, erm, rather more invasive) and one of those home-poop-test (fecal occult blood test) kits, with the option of still doing the former should the latter indicate anything potentially worrisome.

And here I thought I was done filling out little ovals on standardized test forms. Ha, ha, feco-calligraphy with those little sample brushes lends new meaning to "Using a number 2 pencil". :)

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

And here I thought I was done filling out little ovals on standardized test forms. Ha, ha, feco-calligraphy with those little sample brushes lends new meaning to "Using a number 2 pencil". :)

Did you hear about the constipated mathematician?
He worked it out with a pencil.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

And here I thought I was done filling out little ovals on standardized test forms. Ha, ha, feco-calligraphy with those little sample brushes lends new meaning to "Using a number 2 pencil". :)

The possibilities are endless, as this article shows!

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

The possibilities are endless, as this article shows!

Mark Z., as in the founder of Fecabook?

[retina]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Mark Z., as in the founder of Fecabook?

Fecebook.

https://thedailywtf.com/images/19/q1/e347/Pic-3.png

[Dr Sardonicus]

The following jumped off the screen, from the February 7 On this day in history:

In 1971, women in Switzerland gained the right to vote through a national referendum, 12 years after a previous attempt failed.

[Dr Sardonicus]

I happened to notice the following in "On this day in history" for February 15:

In 1798, a feud between two members of the U.S. House of Representatives (meeting in Philadelphia) boiled over as Roger Griswold of Connecticut used a cane to attack Vermont's Matthew Lyon, who defended himself with a set of tongs. (Griswold was enraged over the House's refusal to expel Lyon for spitting tobacco juice in his face two weeks earlier; after the two men were separated, a motion to expel them both was defeated.)

Rep. Lyon has two other distinctions: He is one of the very small group of those elected as US Representatives for more than one State (in his case Vermont and Kentucky).

He is also the first (and AFAIK only) US Representative to be re-elected while incarcerated. Perhaps the unjustness of the law under which he was imprisoned had something to do with it. Whether the nature of his offense has any relevance now is more than I can say.

According to The Life of Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont and Kentucky,

He participated in an infamous floor brawl with Representative Roger Griswold of Connecticut, and was eventually imprisoned for violating the Sedition Act in 1798, after accusing President John Adams of having "an unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp." While he railed against the unpopular legislation from his jail cell, Vermont voters re-elected him.

[kladner]

From The Intelligencer:

Heartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a great point

Look, the only national emergency is that our president is an idiot.

—Ann Coulter