#randomgoogling — Public Fediverse posts

'Gourmet' or 'Gourmand'?—Merriam-Webster Dictionary

#RandomGoogling #TIL
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/gourmet-vs-gourmand-usage-difference

I was curious why there's a
"c" in "indict"; so, I looked it up. Fascinating. Apparently, not everyone does spell it that way.

#Etymology #RandomGoogling
https://www.etymonline.com/word/indict

Etymology of handkerchief by etymonline

#RandomGoogling #Etymology
https://www.etymonline.com/word/handkerchief

The lifetimes of main sequence stars therefore range from a million years for a 40 solar mass O-type star, to 560 billion years for a 0.2 solar mass M-type star.—Swinburne University of Technology

#RandomGoogling
https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/m/main+sequence+lifetime#:~:text=The%20lifetimes%20of%20main%20sequence,solar%20mass%20M%2Dtype%20star.

Never having been on any extended travel by train, I Googled whether train tracks are banked on turns.

Yes. In fact, they are.

#RandomGoogling

Why are keys on keyboard called as 'keys' and not 'buttons'?
#RandomGoogling
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-keys-on-keyboard-called-as-keys-and-not-buttons

There Used to Be Six More Letters in the English Alphabet!—Bryce Gruber, Reader's Digest

#RandomGoogling
https://www.rd.com/list/there-were-six-more-letters-in-our-alphabet/

How do PC keyboards work for languages where there are more than 26 letters/characters?
#RandomGoogling
https://www.quora.com/How-do-PC-keyboards-work-for-languages-where-there-are-more-than-26-letters-characters

Why Some Cheeses Need A Wax Rind And Others Don't—Chris Sands, Food Republic

#RandomGoogling
https://www.foodrepublic.com/1479365/why-cheese-needs-wax-rind/

Daisy chain—A.Word.A.Day, Wordsmith.org

#RandomGoogling #Etymology
https://www.wordsmith.org/words/daisy-chain.html#:~:text=noun%3A%20An%20interlinked%20sequence%20of,French%20chaine%2C%20from%20Latin%20catena.

I wonder why proposals in committees or government forums are called "motions".

#RandomGoogling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_%28parliamentary_procedure%29?wprov=sfla1

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/motion_n?tl=true

Inspired by a recent post by @infobeautiful about Mercator map distortion https://vis.social/@infobeautiful/113278039092776886

Map projection—Wikipedia

#RandomGoogling #Cartography #GeometricProjection

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

Pictograms, Ideograms and Logograms.—charlottemartindesigns #blog

#RandomGoogling #Anthropology #VisualCommunication #Language
https://charlottemartindesigns.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/pictograms-ideograms-and-logograms/

Today in #RandomGoogling:
Bananas are always bent due to a phenomenon known as negative geotropism
Once developed, instead of growing towards the ground, bananas turn towards the sun. The fruit continues growing against gravity, giving the banana its familiar curved shape.

https://www.australianbananas.com.au/pages/all-about-bananas/mind-bending-facts#:~:text=Bananas%20are%20always%20bent%20due,banana%20its%20familiar%20curved%20shape

Confirming my suspicion—rice wine isn't technically a wine because it's made from grain, not fruit.
#RandomGoogling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_wine

Hmm… according to the Interwebs, Uijeongbu, South Korea is a real place.

#RandomGoogling #IYKYK #TIL

Today in #RandomGoogling…

Dictionary.com says it is "future-proof" with a hyphen instead of without one and instead of "future proofed".

Although—Cambridge actually has booth hyphenated versions. Go figure? 🤷‍♂️

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole this morning reading and untangling the whole who stole from whom thing with Macross and Jetfire of the Transformers. What a convoluted mess!

#RandomGoogling

Me, just now…
"Does Keiko Agena play drums in real life?"
#RandomGoogling

Thing I Googled this morning for no apparent reason…

Is the other Carpenter still alive?

Spoiler: Yes.

Also 💔. His sister was only 32.

#RandomGoogling

There you go…

All 24 Stephen King Cameos, From It 2 To The Simpsons—Chris E. Hayner, GameSpot

#RandomGoogling

https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/all-24-stephen-king-cameos-from-it-2-to-the-simpso/2900-3016/#1

Stephen King’s Best Cameos, Ranked—Maria M., MovieWeb

*I would have included Rose Red.

#RandomGoogling
https://movieweb.com/stephen-king-best-movie-cameos-ranked/

Why is it so difficult to find names of widespread preChristian European religions that aren't given to them by Christians? What did they call themselves and their own religion in their own words?

#RandomGoogling #Frustration

Day 12: Honoring Michigan's First People - United Way for Southeastern Michigan

#RandomGoogling

https://unitedwaysem.org/equity_challenge/day-12-honoring-michigans-first-people/#:~:text=Michigan%20was%20historically%20inhabited%20by,Ottawa)%2C%20and%20the%20Potawatomi.

TIL that the voice of Norm's wife on Cheers was the voice of George Wendt's actual wife.

#RandomGoogling

https://www.metv.com/stories/norms-wife-appears-just-one-time-on-cheers-kind-of

Doing some random rabbit holing… Matzah balls seem to have originated in the 19th century. Gefilte fish seem to have originated in the 14th. How did they ever have seders before then? Those are the best parts.
#RandomGoogling #Cuisine #JewishCuisine

Royal "we"—Grammarist

I searched for the origin of this phenomena.

There is some debate. Some articles suggest it's centuries older than this article suggests, but this seems to be the more commonly accepted answer.

#RandomGoogling

https://grammarist.com/usage/royal-we/

"'Orient' or 'Orientate'?
Does 'orientate' have an unnecessary extra syllable? Yes. Does that make it not a real word? No."—Dictionary.com

#RandomGoogling #Linguistics
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/orient-or-orientate-is-it-a-real-word

Interesting conversation on Quora: Do fruit plants all share a common ancestor or did multiple fruit plants emerge due to convergent evolution?

#RandomGoogling
https://www.quora.com/Do-fruit-plants-all-share-a-common-ancestor-or-did-multiple-fruit-plants-emerge-due-to-convergent-evolution

New tomato, potato family tree shows that fruit color and size evolved together—Gail McCormick, Pennsylvania State University

#RandomGoogling #Science #Evolution
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-tomato-potato-family-tree-fruit.html

TIL that there are multiple Canadian provinces and territories larger than the US state of Texas.
#RandomGoogling #NotSurprised