Today I learned...

[JT Woody]

This morning i learned that ZA is the abbreviation for South Africa.... and that the Z is "Zuid" which is "South" in Dutch.
To be be clear, I already knew about Dutch colonizing South Africa.... but it was my first time seeing the abbreviation. My website stats tell me the countries that visit my website, and has the abbreviations. "ZA" and "KH" stood out to me because I didnt know what countries those were

Also, this morning i learned that "KH" is Cambodia

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Today I learned that Princess Alexandra of Britain was deaf but became a fashion icon. And Queen Victoria tried forbidding her from hunting, to which she, of course, didn't listen and hunted anyway because... she could.

Even after the birth of her first child, Alexandra continued to socialise much as before, which led to some friction between the Queen and the young couple, exacerbated by Alexandra's loathing of Prussians and the Queen's partiality towards them.

She adapted to her hearing loss, and sources suggest Queen Victoria even learned to fingerspell to communicate with her. Alexandra also supported the deaf community through charity.

Alexandra was highly popular with the British public. Funds that she helped to collect were used to buy a river launch, called Alexandra, to ferry the wounded during the Sudan campaign, and to fit out a hospital ship, named The Princess of Wales, to bring back wounded from the Boer War. During the Boer War, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, later renamed Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, was founded under Royal Warrant.

Alexandra's husband, Albert Edward (nicknamed "Bertie"), was Victoria and Albert's eldest son. His parents, especially Victoria, wanted him to be as learned as Albert himself, but Bertie was not an intellectual. At age six, Edward embarked on a rigorous educational programme devised by Albert, and supervised by several tutors, who frankly overloaded him with information but never helped him understand it. (His schooling began at 8am every day and didn't finish until 8pm). He was not allowed play sport or socialise with his peers. Later on in life, he would reminisce sadly: "I never had a childhood."

Although Bertie was not a diligent student—his true talents were those of charm, sociability and tact—Benjamin Disraeli described him as informed, intelligent and of sweet manner. But sadly, his upbringing is a good example of how not to raise a child.

 

[JT Woody]

Today i learned.... that @Homer Potvin is right.

Day 4 as Manager, and i am dealing with a rodent infestation, plumbing/bathroom issues, tertiary staff division and criss departmental discord, and pigeons roosting above the front door

(No actual library stuff yet)

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Yeesh. Good luck getting all that fixed, JT Woody! I wonder what the previous manager was doing ...

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Today i learned.... that @Homer Potvin is right.

Day 4 as Manager, and i am dealing with a rodent infestation, plumbing/bathroom issues, tertiary staff division and criss departmental discord, and pigeons roosting above the front door

(No actual library stuff yet)

Could be worse: you could still be at your old job.

 

[JT Woody]

Could be worse: you could still be at your old job.

This is true!
I also ran into one of my old bosses from that job last week at a conference

 

[CatrionaGrace]

This is true!
I also ran into one of my old bosses from that job last week at a conference

Did you hold out your arms, cross your index fingers, and scream, "BACK!"

 

[JT Woody]

Did you hold out your arms, cross your index fingers, and scream, "BACK!"

I wish!
Oh well... maybe next time

 

[Link the Writer]

This is true!
I also ran into one of my old bosses from that job last week at a conference

I'd have thrown a bag of dog turd at his face going, 'THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YE!'

 

[Louanne Learning]

Today I learned a couple of things about Beatrix Potter (July 28, 1866–December 22, 1943):

In her little-known scientific studies, Potter made the discovery that lichens are part algae and part fungus, with a sprinkling of bacteria—three kingdoms of life in a single organism, “not warring for dominance but working together to make it one of the most resilient life-forms in nature and a keystone of many ecosystems.” (Linnaeus had classified lichens as plants.)

Also - her 1913 book The Tale of Pigling Bland was a childhood favorite of George Orwell’s and became one of the key inspirations for his allegorical masterwork Animal Farm.

How to Be a Lichen: Adaptive Strategies for the Vulnerabilities of Being Human from Nature’s Tiny Titans of Tenacity

When I was a child, little delighted me more than the magical green garlands draping from the pine trees, which I made into wreaths and mustaches to roam the mountains of Bulgaria as a miniature Or…

www.themarginalian.org

Beatrix Potter, Mycologist: The Beloved Children’s Book Author’s Little-Known Scientific Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms

“Imagination is the precursor to policy, the precondition to action. Imagination, like wonder, allows us to value something.”

www.themarginalian.org

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Back in the medieval period when I was in college, there were only two kingdoms with some growing speculation that mycorrhiza might constitute a new kingdom. Now there are-what?- five or six, depending on which system one accepts.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I taught six - two prokaryotic = Eubacteria and Archaebacteria, and four eukaryotic = Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia

 

[DLC]

Nekonomics

 

[Iain Aschendale]

Animal, vegetable, mineral.

“Some kind of slow mineral existence. Call it what you will. An areophany of rock. Besides, who is to say that these rocks don’t have their own kind of slow consciousness?”
-Michel, from Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson

 

[Naomasa298]

It's life, Jim.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Today I learned that the first president of the Continental Congress was called Payton Randolph. (He sounds to me like an American football player, but never mind).

Also, the Committee who wrote the Declaration of Independence was:
- Thomas Jefferson (the junior guy - and like all committees, he did all the work)
- Ben Franklin
- John Adams
- Roger Sherman, senator for CT
- Robert Livingston, senator for NY

But no-one ever remembers Sherman and Livingston. *shrug* I guess if you hail from CT and your name is Roger Sherman, you're bound to be forgettable.

And when did they vote on independence? July 4th, 1776 -- right? Nope, the official vote was actually on July 2nd (and only finalized two days later).

Having said that, yes: the Declaration was a case of "liberty for me, not for thee", given that most of the population was indigenous and 20% of the people were enslaved. Having said that, in Jefferson original Declaration, he did say that slaves ought to be freed. The longest passage in the original Declaration said that the people who suffered and were enslaved should have rights and liberties, the same ones that British Americans were fighting for. But the first American Congress cut that out of the Declaration.

And what about women? Of all the colonies in 1776, only one allowed women to vote: New Jersey. (Hooray for NJ!) In the aftermath of the Revolution, NJ passed a law that said that women who had enough property (like men) could vote if they wanted to. That right was taken away in the early 19th century, but for about 20 years, women could vote in NJ.

Anyway, don't mind me ... just a few random facts about the USA before it became the USA.

 

[JLT]

but I suppose if you can afford a few million for a piano you can probably afford the space it would need too. And the fanboy nature of rock and roll and guitar heroes that isn't necessarily as passionate in the piano world.

Whereas most pianos here in the US can't even be given away once you're tired of them. And I had to junk a 100-year-old reed organ that was in my family because there were no takers for it. Electronic pianos, which are infinitely more portable, don't need to be tuned, and can be set to produce many simulations of other instruments, have pretty much taken over the field.

I'd further suggest that piano players are likely to use the house equipment rather than rock in with their own, which makes it less identifiable with any particular artist.

True. When Vladimir Horowitz performed a concert in New York, he'd go to the offices of Steinway and Sons beforehand and play whatever of their top line they had in stock at the moment. He'd select the best one of the litter and then have it shipped to the concert venue. I don't know if "Played once by Vladimir Horowitz" made for a selling point when the piano was finally up for sale, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

 

[Louanne Learning]

Today I learned that a group of ladybugs is called a loveliness.

 

[JLT]

Today I learned that a group of ladybugs is called a loveliness.

View attachment 682

That would be very sweet, if you were not an aphid.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Entomologists call a group of aphids a colony. Should I wish to invent a collective noun, a plague of aphids would surely be in the running.