#todayilearned — Public Fediverse posts

#TodayILearned that the tradition of giving mooncakes in #China has given rise to a sort of economic cycle in which slips of paper stand in for mooncakes, and companies make profits without selling a single box of mooncakes.

#Mooncakes #MooncakeBackedSecurity

#TodayILearned that the tradition of giving mooncakes in #China has given rise to a sort of economic cycle in which slips of paper stand in for mooncakes, and companies make profits without selling a single box of mooncakes.

#Mooncakes #MooncakeBackedSecurity

#TodayILearned that the tradition of giving mooncakes in #China has given rise to a sort of economic cycle in which slips of paper stand in for mooncakes, and companies make profits without selling a single box of mooncakes.

#Mooncakes #MooncakeBackedSecurity

#TodayILearned that the tradition of giving mooncakes in #China has given rise to a sort of economic cycle in which slips of paper stand in for mooncakes, and companies make profits without selling a single box of mooncakes.

#Mooncakes #MooncakeBackedSecurity

#TodayILearned that the tradition of giving mooncakes in #China has given rise to a sort of economic cycle in which slips of paper stand in for mooncakes, and companies make profits without selling a single box of mooncakes.

#Mooncakes #MooncakeBackedSecurity

Answering the earlier question, the Maldives is apparently the only country on Earth which considers Friday the first day of the week. #TodayILearned #TIL

Answering the earlier question, the Maldives is apparently the only country on Earth which considers Friday the first day of the week. #TodayILearned #TIL

Answering the earlier question, the Maldives is apparently the only country on Earth which considers Friday the first day of the week. #TodayILearned #TIL

Answering the earlier question, the Maldives is apparently the only country on Earth which considers Friday the first day of the week. #TodayILearned #TIL

Answering the earlier question, the Maldives is apparently the only country on Earth which considers Friday the first day of the week. #TodayILearned #TIL

Today I learned:

Before marking up emphasised passages in a text using italic type or bold type became a thing, there was rubrication: the practice of writing important passages and other parts of a text that required emphasis in red ink.

This did not only include cases we would use italic type for today, but also things like headings or initial letters in a line.

And occasionally, rubrication was used to mark up instructions, e. g. for a priest; the black coloured text would be the text to be spoken aloud, and the red coloured text would contain the instructions for the speaker.

Scribes would sit in their scriptorium (if they had one) and just mark up emphasised passages in red ink. Such scribes were called rubricators.

Some bible editions, called Red Letter Editions, used red ink to mark up words spoken by Jesus Christ specifically.

#til #todayILearned #bookbinding #books #writing #linguistics #history #typesetting #printing

#todayILearned that #AWSCloudFront does not automatically expose the Cache-Control HTTP header when creating a custom cache control policy. It will apply the policy to CloudFront... but unless you specifically configure it to share the Cache-Control header with the client it just won't. Thanks, Amazon.

TIL that modern toilet paper was invented around 1857.

But... a 'splinter free' version of it wasn't introduced until the early 1930's...

Yeah... you read that right... early toilet paper would have splinters in it.

Imagine wiping your arse and getting a splinter in ya chocolate starfish.

Try explaining that to the nurse...

#TIL
#TodayILearned

today i learned:

- ancient mesopotamians (assyrians, sumerians, babylonians) left records of 30 different kinds of cheese and 300 different kinds of bread

- the construction in the neighborhood which is impinging on us at school quite directly may in fact be completely unpermitted

- students wish people still wrote letters

#todayilearned

#TodayILearned that the Alsatian Wolf Dog is exactly the same dog breed as the German Shepherd. The Brits called them Alsatians after WW1 to avoid saying the word “German.”

Edit: WW1!

#dogs #english #etymology

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

#TodayILearned about this cute little guy, whose name is Andy Anaheim! http://anaheimhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2011/09/meet-andy-anaheim.html

#TodayILearned that “Loanword” isn’t a loanword, but a calque of German “Lehnwort”, which means “loan word”.

And “Calque” isn’t a calque, but a loanword from French “calquer”.

Also if you think about it, “loanword” is a misnomer because nobody is intending to give it back.

#english #etymology

#TodayILearned that the Japanese verb “to torment” or “to tease” is 嬲る (naburu). The main Kanji is written as a woman 女 surrounded by two men 男.

BUT! There is an alternative rendition: 嫐る (also pronounced naburu), whose Kanji is written as a man 男 surrounded by two women 女.

How’s that for equal opportunity?

#language #Japanese

What’s your favorite rendition for “torment”?

#TodayILearned that the cities of Cupertino, Saratoga, and Los Altos Hills in #California do not have their own police departments, and they pay Santa Clara County to have their Sheriff’s deputies do the policing in those cities.

This year, Santa Clara County has hiked their fees by around 35%. Cupertino’s bill went up from $18.6M last year to $25.3M this year, an increase of $6.7M that has to come from somewhere (probably taxes).

#sfba

https://sanjosespotlight.com/cupertinos-sheriff-contract-hike-upends-budget/

#TodayILearned that Ford never owned the trademark to “GT40”, even though that was what they called their car that won Daytona and Le Mans in the late 1960s. The brand was later trademarked in 1985 by Safir Engineering, and is now owned by Safir GT40 Spares in Cincinnati, Ohio.

When Ford planned the production of the new GT for 2006, they briefly considered calling it “GT44” because that’s how tall the new car was, but they ended up calling it “Ford GT” instead.

#cars @carspotting https://gram.social/p/carspotting/997024227359394821

https://www.fordracing.com/articles/enthusiasts/newsroom/2025/08/ford-gt-20th

#TodayILearned that there’s a (somewhat) annual week-long event in South Lake Tahoe #california for “stance cars” called Lake2o.

The next one starts next week, Aug 26–30.

#cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PkzN44Um_s

TIL
Hatte heute eine größere Rohdaten #Excel Tabelle, bei der in jeder Zeile zusätzlich zum Datum auch das Quartal angegeben war. Dieses wurde in der Datenquelle aber manuell eingegeben und war teils falsch🤷‍♂️

Ich wollte nach Quartal auswerten, wollte es also besser aus dem Datum herleiten. Es gibt Formeln JAHR oder MONAT, aber keine fürs Quartal

Falls das mal noch jemand braucht, so habe ich es gemacht:

=AUFRUNDEN((MONAT([Zellref Datum])/3;0)

#todayilearned #ExcelFormel #HeuteGelernt

#TodayILearned The longest consecutive stay at the summit of Mt Everest was 21 hours by Babu Chiri Sherpa in 1999. He brought a tent and remained awake, without supplemental oxygen, the entire time.

#TodayILearned that an industrial version of a paternoster elevator, called a “manlift” is still used. The device consists of a wide belt with steps and handholds built into it which travel simultaneously up and down on opposite sides of a pair of pulleys.

Not surprisingly, this device is pretty dangerous, and is not in use as much as it used to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kPOxeV2lzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI0klJJNLHA

TIL: Durch Zufall festgestellt, dass man im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Pflastern mit „Hansaplast Universal Wasserfest“ Touch-Bildschirme nutzen kann!

Auf dem Handy tippen, auf dem Tablet blättern und scrollen, PIN auf Kartenterminals eingeben, alles kein Problem!
😃👍

Mit Hansaplast „Classic“ und „Sensitiv“ ging das bisher nicht, auch nicht mit diversen Drogerie-Eigenmarken oder dem sonst von mir sehr geschätzten „Aluderm“ Zeugs von Söhngen 🤷‍♂️

#LifeHacks #todayilearned #LifeHack

#TodayILearned that the word “benzin”, used to mean “gasoline” or “petrol” in many languages around the world, came from the name of an aromatic gum from Java called “lubān jāwi” in Arabic (lit. “Javanese frankincense”). The word then traveled to medieval Catalan where it was rebracketed into “lo benjuí”. It then entered French as “benjoin”, and the rest is history. “Benzin” and other variants were used to name any number of things that produced a volatile or combustible vapor, including petroleum.

Interestingly, petroleum is called “bensin” in Java, and I never realized the term traveled around the world and returned full circle.

Video source: hxxps://www.facebook.com/reel/1709454410291684

Also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzoin_resin

#etymology #English

#TodayILearned what "findom" is.

To my immense disappointment, it has nothing to do with fins, nor finns, and instead is something a lot more disappointing.

EDIT: Just realized, in case people read that into it, I should clarify:

No, I do not take offense with people selling sexual acts of, or content of themselves and consenting partners.
It is legitimate work, and should be compensated fairly, etc.

But the whole concept of sexually dominating someone via money rubs me the wrong way.

#TodayILearned ... that there's a #HillFigure map of #Australia, and that the map is, like real Australia, the wrong way up.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/jVwuBY2hcqRNhZgF8

#ChalkFigure #TIL

I always thought it was "gotcha" and not gacha.

#todayilearned #TIL #videogames

Ich habe Ratschen-Spanngurte, bei denen ist auf einer Seite ein schwarzer Streifen eingewebt, damit man besser sieht, welche Seite oben ist und ob der Gurt verdreht ist. Fand das immer ganz praktisch.

Weil ich das für die Klemmschloss-Gurte meines #Lastenrad auch wollte habe ich etwas gebastelt.

Einfach zwei passgenaue Schlitze in eine Pappe und davor ein mittiges Loch für einen Edding. Stift aufsetzen und langsam durchziehen. Wie lang's hält wird sich zeigen 🤷‍♂️
#LifeHack #TIL #TodayILearned

Combined Public Service Announcement and Today I Learned: if you have `CLICOLOR=1` on macOS, if you do an `ls` of a directory which is inside iCloud Drive, evicted files (i.e., those that cannot be immediately used, but need to be downloaded first from iCloud) show with a grey background… see below:
First, both files are in iCloud, but not locally available. They have a dotted cloud icons in the iCloud Status field of the Finder window, and a greyed background in the output of the `ls` command.
Second, the `cssday.pdf` file shows a filled circle with a down arrow as part of their iCloud Status, which represents the "Keep Downloaded" option (i.e., the file has been downloaded and is locally available), while the other file keeps the dotted cloud icon. In that case only the `Screenshot…` file is shown as grayed out in the output of `ls`.

#PSA #PublicServiceAnnouncement #TIL #TodayILearned #iCloudDrive #Terminal #CLICOLOR

After years of running `ls` commands to figure out where a symlink was pointing, today I found out about the readlink1 command:

https://man.openbsd.org/readlink

#TodayILearned
#CommandLineWizardry
#TechnicalJiggeryPokery

After years of running `ls` commands to figure out where a symlink was pointing, today I found out about the readlink1 command:

https://man.openbsd.org/readlink

#TodayILearned
#CommandLineWizardry
#TechnicalJiggeryPokery

After years of running `ls` commands to figure out where a symlink was pointing, today I found out about the readlink1 command:

https://man.openbsd.org/readlink

#TodayILearned
#CommandLineWizardry
#TechnicalJiggeryPokery

After years of running `ls` commands to figure out where a symlink was pointing, today I found out about the readlink1 command:

https://man.openbsd.org/readlink

#TodayILearned
#CommandLineWizardry
#TechnicalJiggeryPokery

After years of running `ls` commands to figure out where a symlink was pointing, today I found out about the readlink1 command:

https://man.openbsd.org/readlink

#TodayILearned
#CommandLineWizardry
#TechnicalJiggeryPokery

Spoiler Alert: The break-up of AT&T in the early 80's directly lead to the development of UTP. I did NOT know that when I woke up this morning!

#retrocomputing #til #todayilearned #retronetworking #theserialport #clabretro

TWISTED: The dramatic history of twisted-pair Ethernet https://youtube.com/watch?v=f8PP5IHsL8Y

Today I learned that in Python you can print a floating point number with thousands separator and no floating point part with the f-string formatter `:integer_digits,.0f`.

For instance:

```python
print(f"{1234567891*1.1:15,.0f}")
```

prints ` 1,358,024,680`, while

```python
print(f"{1234567891*1.1:15,f}")
```

prints `1,358,024,680.100000`.

It also properly rounds up or down numbers, which is great.

#TIL #TodayILearned #Python #FStrings #FloatingPoint #ThousandsSeparator

Today I learned about https://www.luvly.se/ an ideal city ev. So ideal, you can charge the battery in your flat, because it's removable !

#TIL #TodayILearned #MiniEV #CityEV #EV