what I have learned today.

[Ham]

Inspired by driving back yesterday through c 900Km of freezing fog (a fun activity I can recommend to those of masochistic tendency) I now know what freezing fog is.

On the road, I was befuddled by the contradictory information lodged in my brain: Water freezes at 0^o and fog is water vapour. How, I asked myself could water vapour stay watery at -6^o?

It turns out that water needs something to freeze on, in the absence of which it remains liquid. Thus, providing a wondrous show of rime on the roadside vegetation, and depositing thick ice layer onto any car surface it could.

[Jakob W]

Cool. So is every snowflake formed around a speck of airborne dust, or is the inside of the cloud cold enough to cause spontaneous formation of ice crystals?

[mark]

Wikipedia tells us that each flake forms around a particle, unless the temperature is below -35C. Excellent article, actually.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake

[hatler]

Inspired by driving back yesterday through c 900Km of freezing fog (a fun activity I can recommend to those of masochistic tendency) I now know what freezing fog is.

On the road, I was befuddled by the contradictory information lodged in my brain: Water freezes at 0^o and fog is water vapour. How, I asked myself could water vapour stay watery at -6^o?

It turns out that water needs something to freeze on, in the absence of which it remains liquid. Thus, providing a wondrous show of rime on the roadside vegetation, and depositing thick ice layer onto any car surface it could.

One of my runs to the Alps (in December '88) was in a 6 pot Landy that had no heater matrix fitted. I had freezing fog from somewhere just a bit South of Calais for hours and the rime accumulation on the front of the vehicle was something to behold.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Mount Athos is the spiritual capital of the Orthodox Christian world

Women are not allowed within 500 metres of the shore, and even female animals are prohibited from walking on Mount Athos. This is because the Virgin Mary is said to have visited the peninsula and prayed to have it as her own.

So, Virgin Mary, a woman, prayed to have the peninsula as her own and now woman are not allowed within 500m of the place by the very church that venerates her?

Irony, much?

[T42]

Warning: Danger of Parthenogenesis Beyond This Point.

[hatler]

Mount Athos is the spiritual capital of the Orthodox Christian world

Women are not allowed within 500 metres of the shore, and even female animals are prohibited from walking on Mount Athos. This is because the Virgin Mary is said to have visited the peninsula and prayed to have it as her own.

So, Virgin Mary, a woman, prayed to have the peninsula as her own and now woman are not allowed within 500m of the place by the very church that venerates her?

Irony, much?

If you haven't already read From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple, I highly recommend it if your interest in the Orthodox church has been recently piqued.

[hatler]

Ooo yes, and also Patrick Leigh Fermor's posthumously edited and published The Broken Road.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Mount Athos is the spiritual capital of the Orthodox Christian world

Women are not allowed within 500 metres of the shore, and even female animals are prohibited from walking on Mount Athos. This is because the Virgin Mary is said to have visited the peninsula and prayed to have it as her own.

So, Virgin Mary, a woman, prayed to have the peninsula as her own and now woman are not allowed within 500m of the place by the very church that venerates her?

Irony, much?

If you haven't already read From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple, I highly recommend it if your interest in the Orthodox church has been recently piqued.

er, my disgust in their hypocrisy was recently tweaked.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Or anything else by Patrick Leigh Fermor, but not necessarily to learn about Orthodox Christianity (though that certainly gets a mention in Between the Woods and the Water, along with Greek Catholicism).

[hatler]

Mount Athos is the spiritual capital of the Orthodox Christian world

Women are not allowed within 500 metres of the shore, and even female animals are prohibited from walking on Mount Athos. This is because the Virgin Mary is said to have visited the peninsula and prayed to have it as her own.

So, Virgin Mary, a woman, prayed to have the peninsula as her own and now woman are not allowed within 500m of the place by the very church that venerates her?

Irony, much?

If you haven't already read From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple, I highly recommend it if your interest in the Orthodox church has been recently piqued.

er, my disgust in their hypocrisy was recently tweaked.

[fd3]

Teaching astrophysics for the first time today, found out about the history of astrometry and how the radius of the earth was determined by looking down wells.  Pretty cool ... but then you have to recalibrate for my interpretation of cool.

[Basil]

Your interpretation of cool sits well with me.   

[hatler]

That was a Greek chap wasn't it ?   About 2500 years ago ?

[T42]

Eratosthenes? Prime fella.

Anyway, wot I lurnt today was that pre- and maybe post-WW2 French bistros had a supply of writing-paper for the use of their clients. Simone de Beauvoir used to repair to the local bistro every time she wanted to write a letter, and mentions a barman telling someone "no, I can't give you writing-paper unless you order something".  People used to sit there writing all day, drinking coffee, eating lunch, dinner etc.  Nice work if you can get it.

[Kim]

Anyway, wot I lurnt today was that pre- and maybe post-WW2 French bistros had a supply of writing-paper for the use of their clients. Simone de Beauvoir used to repair to the local bistro every time she wanted to write a letter, and mentions a barman telling someone "no, I can't give you writing-paper unless you order something".  People used to sit there writing all day, drinking coffee, eating lunch, dinner etc.  Nice work if you can get it.

Thereby conclusively answering the question of what people used to do before they invented WiFi...

[ElyDave]

Inspired by driving back yesterday through c 900Km of freezing fog (a fun activity I can recommend to those of masochistic tendency) I now know what freezing fog is.

On the road, I was befuddled by the contradictory information lodged in my brain: Water freezes at 0^o and fog is water vapour. How, I asked myself could water vapour stay watery at -6^o?

It turns out that water needs something to freeze on, in the absence of which it remains liquid. Thus, providing a wondrous show of rime on the roadside vegetation, and depositing thick ice layer onto any car surface it could.

Bubbles are the same, they need soemthing to nucleate on, typically the microscopic imperfections and impurities on the surface of the glass.

Not sure where you are but a few years ago round here we had freezing fog for days in a row.  Just going out to empty the bins you'd end up with frost on your jumper.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Anyway, wot I lurnt today was that pre- and maybe post-WW2 French bistros had a supply of writing-paper for the use of their clients. Simone de Beauvoir used to repair to the local bistro every time she wanted to write a letter, and mentions a barman telling someone "no, I can't give you writing-paper unless you order something".  People used to sit there writing all day, drinking coffee, eating lunch, dinner etc.  Nice work if you can get it.

Thereby conclusively answering the question of what people used to do before they invented WiFi...

Plus ca change... But whereas wifi is arguably easier for writing, it's less versatile: you can't doodle on it, wrap sandwiches in it, smoke it or wipe your arse with it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The scary thing though is that the hipster on the next table might actually be the next Simone de Beauvoir or Jean-Paul Sartre.

[andyoxon]

That it's worth searching the day you were born on google images, if you've not before.    Did it for the first earlier; some interesting stuff: newpaper pages, cartoon strips, comics, etc etc.   

[Kim]

Not to buy cheap no-name 3.5mm jack plugs.

I was expecting dubious tolerances, an outer shell made of cheese, or a strain relief that didn't.

What actually happened was the tip of the plug broke off inside a socket.  The socket in question being the one in barakta's phone, rather than anything that could be opened up to access the socket from the rear or easily replaced.

Miraculously, with a fair bit of fucking about with assorted sharp implements and harsh language, I was eventually able to retrieve the broken bit.  Without damaging anything (apart from barakta's hand, which should grow back) *or* resorting to adhesives.

[Ruthie]

Not to buy cheap no-name 3.5mm jack plugs.

I was expecting dubious tolerances, an outer shell made of cheese, or a strain relief that didn't.

What actually happened was the tip of the plug broke off inside a socket.  The socket in question being the one in barakta's phone, rather than anything that could be opened up to access the socket from the rear or easily replaced.

Miraculously, with a fair bit of fucking about with assorted sharp implements and harsh language, I was eventually able to retrieve the broken bit.  Without damaging anything (apart from barakta's hand, which should grow back) *or* resorting to adhesives.

Mine broke off inside the car's CD player.  Had to GAMI to sort it out and it was never the same again.  So I sold the car.

[Kim]

Mine broke off inside the car's CD player.  Had to GAMI to sort it out and it was never the same again.  So I sold the car.

That's the same trick my parents used when they got fed up listening to ABBA's Greatest Hits.

[Bledlow]

Inspired by driving back yesterday through c 900Km of freezing fog (a fun activity I can recommend to those of masochistic tendency) I now know what freezing fog is.

On the road, I was befuddled by the contradictory information lodged in my brain: Water freezes at 0^o and fog is water vapour. How, I asked myself could water vapour stay watery at -6^o?

It turns out that water needs something to freeze on, in the absence of which it remains liquid. Thus, providing a wondrous show of rime on the roadside vegetation, and depositing thick ice layer onto any car surface it could.

Bubbles are the same, they need soemthing to nucleate on, typically the microscopic imperfections and impurities on the surface of the glass.

Not sure where you are but a few years ago round here we had freezing fog for days in a row.  Just going out to empty the bins you'd end up with frost on your jumper.

Back in the days when I didn't shave my face I often got frosted foliage in winter.

[ElyDave]

Starting reading my new book today - The Philosophy of Mathematics.   Learned the proof of Pythagoras theorem, very simple and elegant but I'd never thought about it before.

I think the first couple of chapters would even be accessible by my daughter