what I have learned today.

[Mr Larrington]

I'm fairly sure that's Victorian for 'pr0n'

Probably showing their ankles, the brass huskies brazen hussies!

[Cudzoziemiec]

That before ladybirds were called ladybirds, they were called ladycows. And that the 'lady' comes from a connection between the seven spots and the Seven Pains of Our Lady. In some languages they have names like 'Mary's beetle'.

I suppose this means that just as they are not birds or cows (nor true bugs, it turns out) the ones with different numbers of spots aren't really ladies!

[PeteB99]

That before ladybirds were called ladybirds, they were called ladycows. And that the 'lady' comes from a connection between the seven spots and the Seven Pains of Our Lady. In some languages they have names like 'Mary's beetle'.

I suppose this means that just as they are not birds or cows (nor true bugs, it turns out) the ones with different numbers of spots aren't really ladies!

In Norfolk they're called Bishy Barnabys after a local Bishop who had red and black vestments

[matthew]

Today I have learnt the difference between "Reveille" and American military morning bugle call and "Rouse" the British military morning bugle call, sometimes called Reveille. Fortunately Rouse is much easier to play and I found out for I played Last Post and "Reveille".

[geraldc]

From last night's pub quiz.

Which colour smartie has a different flavoured chocolate from all the others?

(click to show/hide)

Orange, it tastes of orange!

[Jakob W]

IIRC it's because the orange ones are made with orange chocolate rather than because of any property of the shell.

[Katie]

If your AeroPress hasn't formed a proper seal when you turn it upside down, things get messy.

By things, I mean a large quantity of kitchen, the crotch of your jeans, the insides of the closed kitchen cupboards…

[Mrs Pingu]

If you spread a pancake half with Nutella and half with peanut butter, and then fold it along the line between the two, roll it up and eat it, it's tastes like what I imagine being in heaven feels like.

I love my job.

Oh yum, that sounds almost as good as the chocolate and chestnut puree pancake I buy in Val d'Isere

[Jurek]

If you spread a pancake half with Nutella and half with peanut butter, and then fold it along the line between the two, roll it up and eat it, it's tastes like what I imagine being in heaven feels like.

I love my job.

Oh yum, that sounds almost as good as the chocolate and chestnut puree pancake I buy in Val d'Isere

First World Problem Thread is
<-------------------------------- Thataway 

[Ham]

That Robert Orben exists

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robert_orben.html

[tiermat]

Gotham, the village in Notts, is directly linked to Gotham City, of Batman fame.  This is due to it's reputation, in the Middle Ages, of being a village of lunatics.

[Legs]

Gotham, the village in Notts, is directly linked to Gotham City, of Batman fame.  This is due to it's reputation, in the Middle Ages, of being a village of lunatics.

...but of course it's not pronounced the same (Goat'em)

[Kim]

Oddly every time I've been through Gotham I've seen someone on an electric bike.

[Mr Larrington]

Gotham, the village in Notts, is directly linked to Gotham City, of Batman fame.  This is due to it's reputation, in the Middle Ages, of being a village of lunatics.

That has triggered a memory of a tale in one of my early reading books of the people of Gotham, Notts, pretending to be mad in order to make the lackeys of The Man go away and leave them in peace.  It was probably an allegorical reference¹ to the Vietnam Police Action.  Man.

1: Lie.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I was on a personal safety course yesterday, and the facilitator guy told us that the thing about knowledge is, if you're in the know, you've got the edge.

[Tim Hall]

I was on a personal safety course yesterday, and the facilitator guy told us that the thing about knowledge is, if you're in the know, you've got the edge.

Was he from Unthinkable Solutions? Or maybe he was played by Ricky Gervais. Either way, did you manage not to laugh?

[jsabine]

I was on a personal safety course yesterday, and the facilitator guy told us that the thing about knowledge is, if you're in the know, you've got the edge.

Was he from Unthinkable Solutions? Or maybe he was played by Ricky Gervais. Either way, did you manage not to laugh?

Please tell me that someone managed to respond with a straight face and tell him they'd always thought that if they were in the know, they were on a ledge.

[Ham]

That the Chief Design Officer at Apple comes from Chingford and went to Newcastle Poly

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/11988396/Jony-Ive-interview-The-story-of-the-Apple-Pencil.html

[Cudzoziemiec]

That Maria Curie, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Irene Joliot-Curie and Ada Yonath never actually existed. In fact, old Skłodowska-Curie was doubly nonexistent. Or so a local 'news' site would have me believe.

Dorothy Hodgkin, Chancellor of the University of Bristol (1971 to 1988), was the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize for science. She remains the only woman to have received this award.

Oh, and that there is a "Nobel Prize for Science". 

[clarion]

I was on a personal safety course yesterday, and the facilitator guy told us that the thing about knowledge is, if you're in the know, you've got the edge.

Was he from Unthinkable Solutions? Or maybe he was played by Ricky Gervais. Either way, did you manage not to laugh?

Please tell me that someone managed to respond with a straight face and tell him they'd always thought that if they were in the know, they were on a ledge.

That was my comment on FB. 

[Andrij]

More confirmed than learned, to be honest:  I posses too much crappe. 

I've tossed out loads of stuff recently.  Even once I shift all the boxen of stuff I'm storing for a friend who had to suddenly return to Singapore (not ideal in a one bedroom flat) there are still too many TPoC.
Apologies for drifting into Grumble/FWP territory.

[mcshroom]

That if you divide a mass of Ura stuff into spheres of diameter 'x', or cubes of side 'x', the pile of stuff you have has the same total surface area.

[Ruthie]

That my mate Ian has had a hair transplant, and that's why he has such great hair.

Could've knocked me down with a feather!

[Legs]

That if you divide a mass of Ura stuff into spheres of diameter 'x', or cubes of side 'x', the pile of stuff you have has the same total surface area.

Yep, 6V/x

[Andrew]

That Adam Purple was quite an incredible chap. An unsung inspiration.

thevillager.com/2015/09/15/adam-purple-legendary-gardener-84-is-dead-was-biking-across-williamsburg-bridge/