Today I Learned

[dimreepr]

2 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:

 a 52 year-old Canadian father of seven explains how he now identifies as a 6 year-old girl.

This says identifies.

Transgender is identifying as a different gender. 

Both this man, and the rest of the transgender community use the word "identifies"

So why is this different?

OK, one more time, why do you care?

[koti]

50 minutes ago, DrP said:

You should run for Llama.     

Dim is currently teaching the next Llama in between bike riding and pubs  

[DrP]

39 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:

 a 52 year-old Canadian father of seven explains how he now identifies as a 6 year-old girl.

This says identifies.

Transgender is identifying as a different gender. 

You and I both know he is NOT a six year old child.  MENTALLY however he might well 'identify' as being one. This does not mean he believes himself to be a six year old. He might well believe he is a woman (rightly or wrongly - I do not care and it is none of my business and don't care to get into that debate), but I would place money on him not actually believing he is 6 years old (as I said before - the article CLEARLY states that he wants to live as a six year old to recapture some lost chance at being a girl  -  NOT that he thinks he IS a six years old - which you keep saying he is claiming...  and so what if he is? - he could be mentally ill, again - none of our business).   

So for the last time -  you and I KNOW he isn't a six year old girl....  I might get into trouble for saying so, but hey whatever, I really do not care what he identifies as. Why do you? Why does it bug you so much?

I would guess it bugs you because you have friends and family that are homophobic (you might not think they are homophobic just because they hate/don't understand/take the piss out of gays and trans types/think gays are disgusting - but they clearly are)   -  someone has influenced you in your life to make you think that homosexuals are disgusting maybe? Maybe an uncle? A Father figure? A priest or brother or friend?   Maybe I am wrong and you came to your beliefs by your self  -  but you were probably influenced as this is how humans get most of their beliefs.

 

 

[dimreepr]

10 minutes ago, koti said:

Dim is currently teaching the next Llama in between bike riding and pubs  

It's a valuable lesson. 

[Velocity_Boy]

I learned that the Earth's actual magnetic North Pole is located at the southern extremis of our planet in Antarctica. And that..... yeah....the true magnetic South Pole is up very near the geographic North Pole.

WTF? I knew the poles flip every few hundred thousand years or so, and even how we discern this fact. And that the Pole flips are not even that high a deal. Other than remaking all those compasses. But how I never knew the noth-pole-is-magnetic south thing is kinda humbling. I learned this from a book I'm reading about our solar system when it mentioned Jupiter having it's magnetic and geographic poles at the same locus. Then the author mentioned us. Wow.

[Strange]

I learned that Google Translate does Latin (I thought I had checked this before). 

But it does a pretty crap job of it.

[koti]

Today I learned there is a hip hop music genre caused by and dedicated to benzodiazepine (Xanax) kids who abuse the prescription drug. California Lil Xan whos stage name derives from the drug, born 1996 peaked nr. 64 on the Billboard hot 100 in 2017 with one of his songs.

I remember reading short scifi stories in the 80’s with scenarios like that, we’re living in a cheap scifi short. 

[Itoero]

Today I Learned Toblerone has three types of chocolatebars according to the weight.

100g, 360g, 4,5kg

[John Cuthber]

1 hour ago, Itoero said:

Today I Learned Toblerone has three types of chocolatebars according to the weight.

100g, 360g, 4,5kg

Today I learned that I can't resist an argument*, and that they do a 150 gram bar too.
http://www.toblerone.co.uk/products/toblerone-milk/toblerone-milk-chocolate?c1=1834&c2=1847&p=3057

* OK I already suspected this

 

[Lyudmilascience]

peppers with four bumps are female and with three male. It makes me wonder what other kind of plants the gender is easily identified,I know of a lot where the female has spots and the male does not but sometimes they are so faint it is hard to tell. 

[John Cuthber]

4 hours ago, Lyudmilascience said:

peppers with four bumps are female and with three male. It makes me wonder what other kind of plants the gender is easily identified,I know of a lot where the female has spots and the male does not but sometimes they are so faint it is hard to tell. 

By the time it's a pepper, it's got fertilised seeds in it.
How is that going to be "male" in any traditional sense?

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gender-pepper/

[Itoero]

Today I learned vampire bats  can sense infrared to detect birds and mammals at night. Their entire nutrition relies on blood from mammals or birds.

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

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

[koti]

I learned a few interesting things today from this public lecture by Nima Arkani-Hamed. The first 45 minutes are especially interesting as he gives an easilly digestible picture of modern particle physics and some interesting insights on symmetries, different aproaches to spacetime, updated Feynman diagrams and more:

 

 

[Itoero]

I learned that pit vipers have infrared sensing organs...so they can detect warm-blooded animals at night.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_viper

 

[CharonY]

On 7/5/2018 at 4:27 PM, John Cuthber said:

Today I learned that I can't resist an argument*, and that they do a 150 gram bar too.
http://www.toblerone.co.uk/products/toblerone-milk/toblerone-milk-chocolate?c1=1834&c2=1847&p=3057

* OK I already suspected this

 

While we are at it, they also come in 60 g as well as 360g. There are also 35g ones and the individual triangles (but no idea about the weight. Already consumed those).

18 minutes ago, Itoero said:

I learned that pit vipers have infrared sensing organs...so they can detect warm-blooded animals at night.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_viper

 

Aside from pit vipers, some members of the pythons and boas, also detect IR, but at lower sensitivity.

[Itoero]

I learned the Kermode bear is a rare subspecies of the American black bear living in the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia, Canada. Most Kermode bears are black but there are about 100-500 white individuals. So  they are white Black bears...often called spirit bears. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermode_bear

[Silvestru]

20 hours ago, Itoero said:

I learned the Kermode bear is a rare subspecies of the American black bear living in the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia, Canada. Most Kermode bears are black but there are about 100-500 white individuals. So  they are white Black bears...often called spirit bears. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermode_bear

This interests me greatly. Thank you.  

[Itoero]

Today I learned a group of crows is called a murder. It reminds me of 'The Birds' Hitchcock.  

http://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/why-is-a-group-of-crows-called-a-murder

 

Edited August 11, 2018 by Itoero

[Itoero]

Today I learned about marine heatwaves.

Those are periods of extreme warm sea surface temperature that persist for days to months and can extend up to thousands of kilometres. Some of the recently observed marine heatwaves revealed the high vulnerability of marine ecosystems and fisheries to such extreme climate events.http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0383-9

 

[koti]

Today I learned the difference between words „opiates” and „opioids” :

 “Opiate is a term classically used in pharmacology to mean a drug derived from opium. Opioid, a more modern term, is used to designate all narcotics, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain (including antagonists).^[1] Opiates are alkaloid compounds naturally found in the opium poppy plant Papaver somniferum.^[2] The psychoactive compounds found in the opium plant include morphine, codeine, and thebaine. All opioids, like opiates, are considered drugs of high abuse potential and are listed on various "Substance-Control Schedules" under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act of the United States of America”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiate

Edited September 13, 2018 by koti

[Itoero]

Today I learned about optogenetics. It's a biological technique that involves the use of light to control cells in living tissue, typically neurons, that have been genetically modified to express light-sensitive ion channels. It is a neuromodulation method that uses a combination of techniques from optics and genetics to control and monitor the activities of individual neurons in living tissue—even within freely-moving animals—and to precisely measure these manipulation effects in real-time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optogenetics

By shining with a laser in a mouse-brain, they can activate neurons and change the behavior.           Neuroscientists at Stanford University in California conducted their experiments on mice that were genetically engineered to have light-sensitive neurons in a brain region called the orbitofrontal cortex.https://www.nature.com/news/laser-used-to-control-mouse-s-brain-and-speed-up-milkshake-consumption-1.20995

[michel123456]

Today I learned what is the MWP-1a.

An abrupt increase of sea level ( between 16 meters (52 ft) and 25 meters (82 ft) in about 400–500 years) that happened between 13,500 and 14,700 years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltwater_pulse_1A

[StringJunky]

Today I learned that Ordnance Survey maps are named for the Board of Ordnance, who supplied military equipment and defending the realm, needed accurate strategic maps for the army.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-45007577

[koti]

Today I learned what AdS space is while reading a wonderfully led interview with Edward Witten.

[michel123456]

Today I learned aubout the ITER project. Hopefully tomorrow's energy.

see https://www.iter.org/

Quote

 

ITER ("The Way" in Latin) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today.

In southern France, 35 nations are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars.

The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER is crucial to advancing fusion science and preparing the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow.

ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy. ITER will be the first fusion device to maintain fusion for long periods of time. And ITER will be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials, and physics regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity.