Today I learned... (TIL)

digitalscream

Last week, I learned that sometimes it's harder to lose a dog than a human, when the dog's really special.

Today (well, yesterday really) I learned that it's OK to think about getting another dog without it feeling like a replacement for the one you've just lost.

TinLip

jonnyburgo said:

Ive learned that by trimming my bush I've added a good 1.5 cm to the length of my widge.

Ah yes, the ole Optical Inch.

jonnyburgo

TinLip said:

jonnyburgo said:

Ive learned that by trimming my bush I've added a good 1.5 cm to the length of my widge.

Ah yes, the ole Optical Inch.

effectively doubling it's size

Grunfeld

TIL that the Moscow tube system consistently uses male announcers to tell passengers that the train is heading towards the centre, and female announcers for trains heading out of town.  And on their equivalent of the Circle line:  males for trains heading clockwise; females for anti-clockwise. 

I really hope that's as useful in practice as I reckon it would be. 

jd0272

WezV;473096" said:

On tea,leave the bag in as long as you want, swirl it as much as you want... But never squeeze!!

Guilty as charged..

Flink_Poyd

Another postion for the pentatonic, oh and most of my ideas for making extra money are more difficult than I thought.

thumpingrug

Thats Jamie Olivers idea for cooking toast in a hot dry frying pan, works.  Buts whats the point?

And sweet chilli sauce makes ANY savoury food better.

Handsome_Chris

thumpingrug said:

Thats Jamie Olivers idea for cooking toast in a hot dry frying pan, works. 

Doesn't that knacker the toaster?

speshul91

That after slicing my finger open putting a new belt on the drier hurts but having to batter the back cover with a hammer to stop the fan hitting it is satisfying

EricTheWeary

A) Costa don't replenish their loo roll enough.
having some spare paper napkins in your coat pocket can be a good thing.
:o3

chillidoggy

"These toilets are regularly inspected by the management," signs are a load of bullshit.

thecolourbox

Today i learnt that in a leap year, the extra added leap day is the 24th, not the 29th

Oh and that in the US, January is both Stalker Awareness Month AND Co-dependency Month

breakstuff

TIL our Persian cat doesn't like her lady garden combing.

EricTheWeary

thecolourbox said:

Today i learnt that in a leap year, the extra added leap day is the 24th, not the 29th

Oh and that in the US, January is both Stalker Awareness Month AND Co-dependency Month

that thing about the 24th was on QI. I didn't understand it at all!

Nitefly

EricTheWeary said:

thecolourbox said:

Today i learnt that in a leap year, the extra added leap day is the 24th, not the 29th

Oh and that in the US, January is both Stalker Awareness Month AND Co-dependency Month

that thing about the 24th was on QI. I didn't understand it at all!

 I was hoping you were going to explain it.

EricTheWeary

Looked it up. It is very complicated. We now have the Gregorian calender, previously we had the Julian calender and before that an earlier version of the Julian calender ( up to 45BC). The first version of the Julian calender had February as 28 days but the entire year was only 355 days so an extra (13th) month was added inbetween February and March every few years so that the months would catch back up with the seasons. On those years February was shortened to 24 days to give the extra month a few more so 24th February marked leap year if you were a Roman. There are a lot of traditions around 29 February and leap year and in some countries the 24th is still used to mark leap year.
That's as good as I can decipher. Without a transcript of the show to hand IIRC I think QI rather fudged the explanation.

Nitefly

Aha, makes a sort of sense I guess - thank you!

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Romans tried to sort out the months/seasons thing by having alternative 31 /30 day months, starting from March, so July (named for Julius Caesar) would be 31, and August (named for Augustus Caesar) would be 30.  

And it would have made 366 days per year, so they would have lost one in Feb. 

But Emperor Augustus said "If Julius is getting 31 days, I want 31 as well!", thus buggering up the plan.

Probably apocryphal, but diverting...

EricTheWeary

I think Easter and most of the Muslim festivals are based around the Julian calender ( the post 45BC version I guess) which is why they vary each year in our Gregorian calendars. I think when the Gregorian was brought in the Vatican had to agree the dates of all the Christian festivals but couldn't agree on Easter ( this may be rubbish BTW !) so it stayed Julian.

littlegreenman

I still wonder why the leap-year babies of the world haven't collectively risen up to protest this. 1 birthday pressy every 4 years? That's gots to be some kind of oppression!

Surely the retailers of the world can come together and find some sort of alternative "other day" for the poor souls to have instead?

Nitefly

TIL that Easter Sunday is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.