TIL

Discussion, in general

Re: TIL

Postby Krashlia » Thu Jul 05, 2018 1:18 pm

52xMax wrote:
iMURDAu wrote:It's not just age it's engine hours. 15 years of that coupled with poor maintenance seems like it would cause catastrophic engine failure with rods going flying like they were shot out of a cannon.


Clearly Italian auto mechanics are inferior to Cubans

Spoiler: show
Image


This is a picture taken in 2014 of a Street in Havana. Some of these cars are over seventy years old, and have been working as taxis ever since before the embargo.


I don't know much bout Cuba. But I hope this won't change in these post-embargo times.
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Re: TIL

Postby Aquila89 » Thu Jul 05, 2018 5:40 pm

The embargo is still in place. Obama loosened some business restrictions, but Trump reversed that.
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Re: TIL

Postby Krashlia » Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:14 pm

Thus preventing me from indulging my vanity and getting a suave Cuban roadster. What an ass.
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Re: TIL

Postby jbobsully11 » Fri Jul 06, 2018 1:48 am

TIL There’s a building in England that acts like a wind tunnel and has caused several injuries since it was built in 2007.
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Re: TIL

Postby Absentia » Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:02 am

On top of all the other things he's famous for, Ben Franklin wrote a short essay entitled Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc. in 1751. This essay is one of the earliest major works in the study of demographics, and directly influenced the more famous works of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus, among others.
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Re: TIL

Postby Aquila89 » Fri Jul 06, 2018 11:11 am

Looking at the essay: TIL that Ben Franklin thought that Swedes and most Germans aren't white.

the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth.
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Re: TIL

Postby Krashlia » Fri Jul 06, 2018 1:36 pm

Aquila89 wrote:Looking at the essay: TIL that Ben Franklin thought that Swedes and most Germans aren't white.

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the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth.


TIL Ben Franklin thought that Swedes and Germans would ugly up the continent in sufficient numbers.

EDIT:
Darnit, now I can't help but imagine Ben Franklin in the colonial version of /pol/, giving out "Black pills" and lamenting the fact that "It's too late for the Colonies. The German Huns have won."
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Re: TIL

Postby Malfeasinator » Tue Jul 10, 2018 2:49 pm

Today I learned that all self-help advice is pure (spoiled for not safe language)
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horse shit.

Step one, on one particular page, was "Get Positive." Look, if I could just "get positive", I wouldn't need this advice in the first place. I was hoping there'd be some steps in between here and "get positive." Maybe there should be a guide for the guide.

So let's look that up. "How to be positive." Oh, shit, Wikihow even has pictures. Dope. This should totally work.

Step 1. "Accept what you are." FUCK A DUCK.

fuuuuuu

Okay okay, calm down, maybe there's a guide for the guide for the guide. Let's just look this shit up.

Found one. 12 Ways To Accept Yourself. Okay. 12 sounds like the correct number of steps. I might be wrong. I don't know. I've never really tried to accept myself before and honestly have no idea how many steps it's going to take. Fingers crossed. Opening the tab. Let's see where this goes.

Step 1. "Set an intention." Already did that, didn't I? I mean that's why I'm here? Okay, let's just move on to the next one because we have OBVIOUSLY nailed this.

Step 2. "Celebrate Your Strengths." CHRIST ON A STICK-

If I could just celebrate shit at whim I'd already be positive.

I guess it's another thing to look up.

I'm going to have to be even more basic than that, though, because I don't even know what my strengths are, in the first place. So I'm going to be looking up "how to identify your strengths" or something along those lines.

Step 1."Understand Your Abilities" FUCK FUCK FUCKING FUCK GOD DAMN IT MOTHERFUCKING SHIT I HATE THE INTERET

Okay, I give up. Fuck all this motivational shit. I'll just fire up the old spite machine. That'll do it for me.
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Re: TIL

Postby IamNotCreepy » Tue Jul 10, 2018 3:24 pm

I've found that the best step you can do to "Get Positive" is to "fake it 'til you make it."

Just pretend you are a positive person, and do the things a positive person would do.

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote:No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.


This can be used in your favor.
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Re: TIL

Postby iMURDAu » Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:58 pm

Why do you have to be "positive" to help yourself?

You won't even be approaching a positive mindset until you see results right?

Start by solving problems. Break them down and work on them.

I do recommend holding yourself in high regard. If you don't respect yourself it's likely nobody else will.
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Re: TIL

Postby NathanLoiselle » Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:36 pm

TIL that I can pay $60 for two cellphones. Mind you they're BYOP and that's only for 6 months where it'll rise up to a horrible $80. But hey I can live with that. We tried to get my wife a new phone because her old one is crap but we weren't able to do that yet.
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Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Mon Jul 16, 2018 8:18 pm

I do not know if y'all know who Cole Porter is, but he was a major composer of traditional pop songs and showtunes back in the day. I am familiar with him because musicians I follow invoke him as basically an icon of traditional American music culture, as in the Susan Werner song "Maybe if I Sang Cole Porter."

This may not be surprising to some of you giving his involvement in so many musicals, but it also turns out that he was like an eight on the Kinsey Scale.
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Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Tue Jul 17, 2018 9:29 pm

In Thailand, if you initiate a court case against your parents or grandparents, your case will be dismissed and you will be flogged for being an ingrate.
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Re: TIL

Postby Absentia » Tue Jul 17, 2018 10:54 pm

cmsellers wrote:In Thailand, if you initiate a court case against your parents or grandparents, your case will be dismissed and you will be flogged for being an ingrate.


The bit about flogging is from the ancient law, not the one currently in force.
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Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Sun Jul 22, 2018 8:14 am

There are times when I am first in line at a light wanting to make a left turn and there is a long line of traffic ahead of me where I am tempted to gun the light and make my left turn. Especially because in Austin, it is incredibly common that the person in the other direction is also making a left turn and just cannot be assed to signal for it. However I never do it, because while I am an aggressive driver, I am also a cowardly driver, and do not do things that feel like they will get me killed.

TIL that that maneuver actually has a name: "the Jersey Jump."
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