Today I learned...

I learned I have an immaculate ability to accidently press the X button on my browser and close out all my things.

Thankful for the restore button.
 
The correct way to take melotonin, too bad I took too many.
 
Today I learned why saffron costs a little bit more than some other spices. I knew of it as spice that was valued all over the world throughout time, and that it was especially prized in antiquity for colorants in clothing, and for medicine and to season food with--which it is still used for today. I ocassionally buy it because it is considered very healthy, and said to be good for the treatment of vision, depression, high blood pressure and heart disease and many other ailments.

The reason why it's considered a luxury spice however is because it's one of the more labor-intensive ones to extract. It is not harvested in the spring while many things are in bloom, instead the crocus that makes saffron comes from reaches maturity between September and October, and it's at that time saffron is harvested. It has a short window of time to be picked within during the fall also. The crocus--which is an enchanting purple flower, must be plucked after a few hours of the blossom opening, otherwise the stigma of the plant will dry up and become unusable. The color and flavor are all in the stigma. You pick the flower, remove it's stigma and then dry it, and there are your ruby red saffron threads to use as you desire. There's only three threads within one flower though, and I heard from a farmer from India who grows saffron that 55 pounds of flowers are needed to produce half a kilogram of dried saffron.
 
I thought for my entire life the song "At Last" by Etta James was called "Atlantis". I went as far to search "Atlantis, my love has come along" and was confused about why I couldn't find it.
 
The term mentor, as in someone you trust and admire who teaches and helps you, comes directly from The Odyessy.

In Homer's Odyssey, Athena the Goddess of justice, virtue and truth appears to Odysseus to give advice and help him and his family. She also guides her favorite Greek in Homer's Illiad, but one of the many disguises the immortal goddess takes in the Odyssey is a character literally named Mentor, who was an old friend of Odysseus and looked after his son while he was away at war. It's in this guise of the wise old man that Athena takes Odysseus' boy under her wing, and tells him how to find his lost father.

It's kinda cool I think how our word for a helpful, experienced soul who we learn from and makes us better is a throwback to this ancient Greek poem.
 
I learnt about the centuries-long process through which people in France melted down Latin words into modern-day French, by softening most consonant and vowels into oblivion.
 
More noticing random useless stuff.

But I think if someone deletes the account they had on pokecommunity, I can't see who liked the post. But it still displays the post as having a "like".

I was checking one of my posts from two years ago, which displayed a like. However I couldn't see anything until I liked the post myself to get my username displayed.
 
Today I learned that if you interact with the hole the Team Rocket guy made when he broke into the house in Cerulean CIty, it'll have text that says, "TEAM ROCKET made a way out!" I learned this information when I was watching Mah-Dry-Bread's most recent Challenge video. No one has ever covered this before, so this is new information to me.
 
Today I learned that the ancient Egyptians didn't use vowels in their writing system, they only had characters to represent consonants. I became aware of this when I tried to spell my name using the hieroglyphic alphabet. The Egyptians did say vowel sounds aloud, they just didn't write with them.

There's a good equivalent for the first letter of my name S, it's a hieroglyph that looks like a shepherd's crook, but there isn't a parallel to A, the next letter of my name. So I have hit a wall at just the second the letter.

I can do a couple of things. I either drop the A altogether and move onto translating the next letter, M which is a Hieroglyph that looks like an owl. Or I can try to use a different character where the A would be, and attempt to reproduce a slightly similar sound.

There's not an equivalent to this in the modern English alphabet, but the Egyptians have a hieroglyph called an ayin that looks like an outstretched arm. It's kinda like a gasp or swallow, but some Egyptologists will use this as a symbol to communicate an "ah" sound.

So I could insert a notation for that between my stave and owl.
 
Today I learned that [user]VisionofMilotic[/user] has hands-down the best TIL posts. Always so informative and interesting!
 
Today I learned if you interact with the machine that frees the Lake Trio from Team Galactic's clutches also has interaction dialogue.
Apparently, if you interact with the machine after they're free, it will say: "You have already pressed the button. Leave now." Or something to that extent.

I've been watching a lot of challenge videos on Youtube lately, so I'm learning a lot of rather stupid, mundane Pokemon facts that pretty much aren't useful for anyone, lmfao.
 
Today I learned how to say this mantra.

Om Shri Maha Lakshmi Namah

These are sacred words for prosperity, and associated with the Goddess of fortune Lakshmi. I am relaxing right now by looking at beautiful art and iconography showing this Hindu goddess seated on her lotus throne, crowned and riding across the heavens alongside her husband Vishnu, guided by Garuda, king of birds.
 
Thanks to psychologytoday.com i learned what "honey moon phase" means.

I thought it was just another word for when a married person goes on vacation.
 
Today I learned that ravens are not always black. There are rare cases of "white ravens". Typically ravens look so shiny and black like a night sky, but due to a genetic mutation the offspring of some ravens have reduced melanin and their feathers don't gain the dark pigment of their parents, resulting in ravens that are white, and to me look irridescent like pearls. Sometimes they are more of light citrine or blonde color with just the hint of gold. Ravens that are white due to albinism are said to have red eyes, whereas as a leucistic white raven is distinguished from it with blue eyes.

[PokeCommunity.com] Today I learned...

The poet Ovid wrote that the raven was once actually white like a swan, but Apollo turned it's feathers dark. Maybe Ovid saw one of these unusual ravens to inspire his verse?
 
Last edited:
Today I learned that it was Thursday. Yikes. I have no idea where Wednesday went? I legit thought it was Wednesday today and wrote Wednesday in my notes at work and was surprised when a coworker wished someone a happy weekend when they left (they don't work Fridays) and I just didn't get it for many moments. The shock.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top