TIL: Today I Learned

Frank

Frank

TI(Re)L - Punisher War Zone is the best comic book movie. It's still incredible.

Ray Stevenson is the best Punisher and Dominic West is wonderfully ridiculous.
 
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GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
fade said:
And now people pay for the privilege of running in one place for long periods of time.
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That was how I explained to my young cousins the value of doing homework/schoolwork on things they'd never use in actual adulthood. It's mental excercise. Think about going to the gym. Is anything useful or productive actually done? You pay money to run for a half hour without actually going anywhere, to pick up heavy things over and over and then put them back exactly where you got them. But you go to the gym, you do those things, you get stronger and faster. You may not need to know the exact facts or numbers your teachers are teaching you, but your brain needs the exercise in storing, processing, and retrieving the information on demand.
 
Tress

Tress

GasBandit said:
That was how I explained to my young cousins the value of doing homework/schoolwork on things they'd never use in actual adulthood. It's mental excercise. Think about going to the gym. Is anything useful or productive actually done? You pay money to run for a half hour without actually going anywhere, to pick up heavy things over and over and then put them back exactly where you got them. But you go to the gym, you do those things, you get stronger and faster. You may not need to know the exact facts or numbers your teachers are teaching you, but your brain needs the exercise in storing, processing, and retrieving the information on demand.
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I'm going to use this in my classrooms, thanks.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
That was how I explained to my young cousins the value of doing homework/schoolwork on things they'd never use in actual adulthood. It's mental excercise. Think about going to the gym. Is anything useful or productive actually done? You pay money to run for a half hour without actually going anywhere, to pick up heavy things over and over and then put them back exactly where you got them. But you go to the gym, you do those things, you get stronger and faster. You may not need to know the exact facts or numbers your teachers are teaching you, but your brain needs the exercise in storing, processing, and retrieving the information on demand.
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It's certainly a lot easier than explaining how FPGAs or neural networks work.

--Patrick
 
Null

Null

TIL that even if you tell the purchasing officer at the college that you're running low on supplies three weeks ago, you'll still run out before they order any.
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

Null said:
TIL that even if you tell the purchasing officer at the college that you're running low on supplies three weeks ago, you'll still run out before they order any.
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This is where we need an "agree" option instead of a "like".
 
figmentPez

figmentPez

Staff member
Making a smoothie with banana, avocado, and blueberries creates grey sludge. Tasty grey sludge, but it doesn't look very appetizing.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

figmentPez said:
Making a smoothie with banana, avocado, and blueberries creates grey sludge. Tasty grey sludge, but it doesn't look very appetizing.
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Avocado, banana, spinach, vanilla greek yogurt, milk (cow, almond, soy...whatever), and cinnamon. I had that for breakfast. It looks like thick green nastiness, but it is yummy.
 
drawn_inward

drawn_inward

TIL there is a program for analyzing RNA-seq data called Flux Capacitor. Nerds. I wanted to ask the speaker if the program requires "one point twenty one jigawatts (sic)". No one would have laughed so I didn't. Nerds.
 
Enresshou

Enresshou

drawn_inward said:
TIL there is a program for analyzing RNA-seq data called Flux Capacitor. Nerds. I wanted to ask the speaker if the program requires "one point twenty one jigawatts (sic)". No one would have laughed so I didn't. Nerds.
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That's the best part about biology, in my opinion: wacky names for random stuff. I LOVE that there is a gene called Technotrousers, and a binding interaction between two genes: one named Supervillin, one named Archvillin.
 
filmfanatic

filmfanatic

Enresshou said:
That's the best part about biology, in my opinion: wacky names for random stuff. I LOVE that there is a gene called Technotrousers, and a binding interaction between two genes: one named Supervillin, one named Archvillin.
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Don't forget the Thagomizer, the spikes on a Stegosaurus tail named after a particular strip from The Far Side.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

When my wife worked in the flocking department of a plastics plant, they named the machine that gives everything a static charge the "oscillation overthruster."

--Patrick
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
When I was younger I thought I'd write a story where a supervillain threatened the world with a doomsday weapon called the "molecular disassociator." Imagine my disappointment when I found there was already a rather mundane device using that name.

And then I read Ender's Game and realize somebody had beaten me to the concept when I was 6.
 
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