Today I learned...

[Schism]

As if I needed another reason to loathe bananas.

Now I'm thinking of the hand banana ep from Aqua Teen. "Hey....you..."

 

[JLT]

I think the banana is the working man's fruit as long as the spiders have been killed. Well, perhaps it's a tie with apples.

"Highly deadly black tarantula..."
If you don't know Stan Freberg's classic take on the Banana Boat song, here it is in all its splendor:

 

[Louanne Learning]

Today I learned what a Celtic Carnyx (war horn) sounds like. This is what the Roman soldiers would have heard from their Celtic enemies

 

[Stuart Dren]

Today I learned about a 1982 article on the topic of surgeons who have lost digits, but still operate. 183 were surveyed. It's got some inspiring stuff in it:

Amputations Causes. Direct mechanical trauma accounted for 94 of the amputations, unspecified trauma for 39, and congenital defect for 2. Power saws and planers accounted for 20, lawnmowers 11, gears 4, bicycle sprockets 2, ring avulsions 2, and snowblowers 2. Others included a fan belt, tractor pulley, hedge trimmer, chipper, punch press, boat hoist, car door, com picker, and a washing machine wringer. One surgeon sustained his loss while water skiing, one from shark fishing, and one had his index finger bitten off by an orangutang.

Fig. 2. Hands of general and plastic surgeon who lost parts of five fingers to frostbite on German-Russian front in 1942. Long, ring. and small fingers of each hand have restricted motion and poor vascularity. He has had to give up the piano but performs surgery without difficulty .

Twenty-nine surgeons reported specific professional advantages to their loss. Two orthopaedists, five general surgeons, one vascular surgeon, and two obstetricians felt that the missing finger(s) and the resultant narrowing of the hand improved the hand's ability to reach into smaller spaces through shorter incisions and also improved their ability to do rectal, pelvic, and vaginal examinations.

One surgeon sensed that his patients with similar loss had a feeling of satisfaction "that their doctor is as dumb as they are. "

I'm not posting the direct link, because one of the photos therein is gnarly. I have the article and website name in the spoiler below.

Spoiler: Warning, GORE: contains black and white photo of surgery

If you google seattlehandandelbow Less than Ten — Surgeons with amputated fingers You'll find the PDF

 

[Rath Darkblade]

"Highly deadly black tarantula..."
If you don't know Stan Freberg's classic take on the Banana Boat song, here it is in all its splendor:

Sorry, but the lyric is "Hide de deadly black tarantula".

I've been listening to Stan Freberg for years. Among other things, I love his "St George and the Dragonet". (And also "Elderly Man River").

Here's another one:

"Makes a difference to the SHEEP!"

 

[JLT]

Sorry, but the lyric is "Hide de deadly black tarantula".

To think I've misheard that lyric all these years. Let's put it on the shelf with "There's a bathroom on the right" and "Love is a nose but you'd better not pick it."

I've been listening to Stan Freberg for years. Among other things, I love his "St George and the Dragonet". (And also "Elderly Man River").

He was a genius, and a huge influence on comedy.

 

[Schism]

Morality doesn't matter. Write whatever the hell you want.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Today I learned that towards the end of the 19th century up to mid-20th century, an “art colony” flourished in Leonia, New Jersey, drawing artists from all over the country.

Dubbed “the Athens of the East” around the turn of the century, its population increased between 1900 and 1930 from 800 to 5,350 people, the vast majority college-educated.

The colony reached its peak of more than 90 artists following World War I

'Athens of the East': Leonia was once a community teeming with artists

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Today I learned that towards the end of the 19th century up to mid-20th century, an “art colony” flourished in Leonia, New Jersey, drawing artists from all over the country.

An art colony drawing artists? Could they not do an odd landscape, or still life?

 

[Pending]

Very large snakes can eat alligators.

 

[Schism]

Very large snakes can eat alligators.

I remember reading that alligators have strong enough jaws to crunch cattle bones, but if you hold them together at the very ends, the jaws aren't strong enough to open. Something like that anyway.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Hungry teen-aged boys can eat alligators if no other sustenance offers itself.

 

[Trish]

Today I learned - just now in fact - that the masses will scream for an author to be put on a watch list...

When he's already been dead for 13 years.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

He was a genius, and a huge influence on comedy.

Not sure about "genius". (Stan Freberg made some derogatory songs about rock 'n roll, so it just goes to show that everyone gets it wrong sometimes). But he was very astute, and had a great understanding of marketing and how it can be used to sell anything - even bad things. (See, for instance, "The Old Payola Roll Blues"). ‘Watch out with that sharp stick, man!’

He wasn't ahead of his time, just very insightful and "silenced" by the Powers That Be (e.g. what happened to "Green Chri$tma$").

 

[Schism]

The Riddler cheated on his school tests. If you're that smart, why even bother? Just to prove that you can? Actually I looked this up a while go, and just re-remembered for some reason. Could be wrong but I'd rather be wrong because I misremembered, than constantly rely on google. Keeps those neurons nice and...well, not completely decayed anyway.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Wondering if fantasynamegenerators.com does card games too, and, yep... I should have known better than to wonder.

Kittens and Creatures was one of them. I don't know why I find that hilarious, but I do.

 

[JLT]

The Riddler cheated on his school tests. If you're that smart, why even bother? Just to prove that you can?

I've been reading a few books lately on forgeries, cons, and hoaxes. And aside from the usual motivation of money, there's a strong thread of exactly what you mentioned: the joy of fooling those who are expert in their fields. They get a thrill in passing off your creation as genuine, and even more of a thrill in having "experts" authenticate the work and declare it the real thing. Very often, the hoaxers don't have any monetary interest in it at all, just the satisfaction of having their work taken as genuine.

Another common thread is that many of the targets of these hoaxers...the ones who buy the fakes...are ones who really, really, really want to believe that the articles are genuine. When you pay a half a million dollars or pounds or euros or whatever for a painting, you often become blind to those things that may prove the painting to be a forgery. The more money is at stake, the blinder the buy becomes.

 

[Schism]

I've been reading a few books lately on forgeries, cons, and hoaxes. And aside from the usual motivation of money, there's a strong thread of exactly what you mentioned: the joy of fooling those who are expert in their fields. They get a thrill in passing off your creation as genuine, and even more of a thrill in having "experts" authenticate the work and declare it the real thing. Very often, the hoaxers don't have any monetary interest in it at all, just the satisfaction of having their work taken as genuine.

Another common thread is that many of the targets of these hoaxers...the ones who buy the fakes...are ones who really, really, really want to believe that the articles are genuine. When you pay a half a million dollars or pounds or euros or whatever for a painting, you often become blind to those things that may prove the painting to be a forgery. The more money is at stake, the blinder the buy becomes.

That makes me think of the show "White Collar" haven't seen that in ages but the main character liked to do things just to prove that he could.

 

[Iain Aschendale]

I've been reading a few books lately on forgeries, cons, and hoaxes. And aside from the usual motivation of money, there's a strong thread of exactly what you mentioned: the joy of fooling those who are expert in their fields. They get a thrill in passing off your creation as genuine, and even more of a thrill in having "experts" authenticate the work and declare it the real thing. Very often, the hoaxers don't have any monetary interest in it at all, just the satisfaction of having their work taken as genuine.

Another common thread is that many of the targets of these hoaxers...the ones who buy the fakes...are ones who really, really, really want to believe that the articles are genuine. When you pay a half a million dollars or pounds or euros or whatever for a painting, you often become blind to those things that may prove the painting to be a forgery. The more money is at stake, the blinder the buy becomes.

Like those folks who own Hobby Lobby who paid umpteen million for forged biblical artifacts. A friend of mine is a biblical historian who was furious when she learned they'd illegally bought the "antiquities" but just cackled when it was revealed they were fake.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Like those folks who own Hobby Lobby who paid umpteen million for forged biblical artifacts. A friend of mine is a biblical historian who was furious when she learned they'd illegally bought the "antiquities" but just cackled when it was revealed they were fake.

That's nothing new. What about all those folks in medieval times who paid loads of money for fake relics?

This is why I love this scene (from the first Blackadder):

(The scene doesn't include when they talk about fake curses and fake blessings. You could get a curse for half-an-egg that said "Dear Enemy, I hope something unpleasant happens to you, like an onion falling on your head." On the other hand, you could get a curse signed by both Popes and it would cost four ducats, that would say "Dear Enemy, may you turn orange in hue" etc.

Did they work? 'Course they did. Really? Nah. But the idea of cursing your enemy is truly Older Than Dirt. Archaeologists have found curse plates that date all the way back to ancient Egypt).