TIL

Discussion, in general

Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Thu Mar 08, 2018 6:39 pm

I was watching my birds bathe, thought about how they never stink, and wondered "do birds sweat at all?"

Answer: no, but I also found this.

Since a bird’s body temperature is much higher than that of humans—a golden crowned kinglet was once found to have a body temperature of 111 degrees Fahrenheit—it’s doubly important for them to cool off in a hurry. Proteins that shuttle vital information to a bird’s organs begin to break apart at temperatures that are only slightly higher.

Huh, so do all birds really have higher body temperatures than mammals?

Answer: yes. Between 1.87°C (3.66° F) higher at night to 2.43°C (4.374° F) during the day, on average.

Some other fun facts:
  1. The smaller the bird the higher its body temperature, generally. Flightless birds also typically have lower body temperatures.
  2. Many birds can enter torpor, in which their body temperatures fall to 18–20°C (64.4–68°F).
  3. Some birds estivate, which is like hibernation for warm temperatures. In estivation body temperatures can drop as low as 4.5–7°C (40.1–44.6°C), which suggests that in avian estivation outside temperatures don't need to be particularly warm.
  4. Image
  • 6

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: TIL

Postby Absentia » Wed Mar 14, 2018 4:51 pm

The late Stephen Hawking was the only person to appear in an episode of Star Trek as himself (playing poker with Data on the Holodeck).
  • 9

User avatar
Absentia
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 1786
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:46 am
Location: Earth
Show rep

Re: TIL

Postby NathanLoiselle » Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:06 pm

Data starred as himself! Robots never act as someone else! They're incapable of acting.
  • 1

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: TIL

Postby 52xMax » Fri Mar 16, 2018 2:30 am

jbobsully11 wrote:TIL there’s a character in the ‘80s movie Troll named Harry Potter. (I first heard of the movie a while ago, but just found that out now.)


There's also a character named Homer Simpson in the novel Day of the Locust by Nathanael West. He was played by Donald Sutherland in the 1975 movie adaptation.
  • 4

"When in doubt... well, don't ask me!"
User avatar
52xMax
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 3058
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: In all the wrong places.
Show rep
Title: Salmon the Wise

Re: TIL

Postby Krashlia » Fri Mar 16, 2018 4:45 am

52xMax wrote:
jbobsully11 wrote:TIL there’s a character in the ‘80s movie Troll named Harry Potter. (I first heard of the movie a while ago, but just found that out now.)


There's also a character named Homer Simpson in the novel Day of the Locust by Nathanael West. He was played by Donald Sutherland in the 1975 movie adaptation.


President Snow, starring as Homer Simpson
  • 0

User avatar
Krashlia
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2155
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:44 am
Show rep

Re: TIL

Postby Typical Michael » Fri Mar 16, 2018 5:34 pm

TIL that Florida has a Department of Citrus.

Link where I found out.

I am not surprised by this (or that Florida specifically has a 3rd degree grand theft/felony law for citrus burgling if more than 2,000 individual pieces of fruit are burgled). More surprised that I didn't know about it.
  • 5

"Typical... Michael... is a ddddddddddddddddddddashing individual!!! *BC punches self in face*" - ButtChocolate

"I'm like Batman, but instead of helping people I'm awful." - CleverDick

"In fairness, I was the one who brought up the goats." - JamesT
User avatar
Typical Michael
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 2094
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:01 pm
Location: The Internet
Show rep
Title: ThingMaster

Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Fri Mar 16, 2018 7:35 pm

I knew about that because both my aunts who were living in Miami during the whole citrus canker thing had their citrus trees destroyed by the Department of Citrus. One aunt moved and they did it to her twice. The second time it was a beautiful old key lime tree that I never got to see.
  • 5

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: TIL

Postby NathanLoiselle » Sat Mar 17, 2018 12:59 am

Someone earlier claimed that birds don't smell. Well, they do have a sense of smell but we don't smell them cause they aren't smelly. Well, I'd like to counter that claim with "They so do! They smell sharp and unpleasant. So there!" :P
  • 1

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: TIL

Postby Absentia » Fri Mar 23, 2018 9:19 pm

The average South Korean adult drinks 13.7 shots of hard liquor in a week. That is more than double the average of the next closest country (Russia) and more than four times the average American intake.
  • 5

User avatar
Absentia
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 1786
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:46 am
Location: Earth
Show rep

Re: TIL

Postby Krashlia » Sat Mar 24, 2018 3:33 am

Absentia wrote:The average South Korean adult drinks 13.7 shots of hard liquor in a week. That is more than double the average of the next closest country (Russia) and more than four times the average American intake.


Alcohol concentration?
  • 1

User avatar
Krashlia
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2155
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:44 am
Show rep

Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Sun Mar 25, 2018 7:18 pm

When Brenda Spencer, one of the first school shooters and the inspiration for the song "I Don't Like Mondays" told her father she was depressed and asked to be admitted to a mental hospital, he refused. And when she asked for a radio for Christmas he gave her a gun and 500 rounds of ammunition instead, which she believed was because he wanted her to kill herself.

Someone give this man a father of the year award.
  • 6

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Sun Apr 01, 2018 7:41 am

Degus apparently practice autofellatio.

The following video depicts the practice and is NSFW unless you work at a zoo or a vet or something; click at your own risk.

Or you can just take my word for it.
  • 0

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: TIL

Postby cmsellers » Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:32 am

Some Muslims from Spain seized St. Tropez, and for almost 100 years they had a little pirate state from which they'd conduct raids as far as Switzerland. Then they kidnapped a very important monk, and the neighboring Christians got all their forces together in order to expel them.
  • 1

User avatar
cmsellers
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9316
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:20 pm
Location: Not *that* Bay Area
Show rep
Title: Broken Record Player

Re: TIL

Postby 52xMax » Mon Apr 02, 2018 6:39 am

I've been familiar with Superman's backstory ever since I have use of memory, but I just realized that I didn't know the name of his birthplace, as I can't really recall any piece of media (comic books or otherwise) where they mention it.

So I went on a little wiki trip and I found out about Kryptonopolis, which I'm pretty sure I would remember if I had heard the name before. It was the second largest city in Krypton after Kandor, the planet-state's capital (because in fiction other planets are always inhabited by monolithic cultures with a single government and they all share the same values, often also a single ecosystem).

Following Brainiac's abduction of Kandor (tl;dr: he shrunk the city and put it in a bottle, the same way he did to countless cities from other civilizations), the capital was moved to Kryptonopolis, which, incidentally is an anglicisation (hellenization?) of its true kryptonian name, which is very hard to pronounce to us, but it pretty much translates to Krypton city.

After Jor-El and Lara find out about the impending destruction of the planet, they send their baby Kal-El to a planet that not only sustains kryptonian life, but also gives them extraordinary abilities because fuck it, why not? Jor-El's brother, who lives in Argo city, does the same with his teenage daughter Kara...oh, and Jor-El first tests the rocket on the family dog Krypto, and you know the rest of the story.
  • 4

"When in doubt... well, don't ask me!"
User avatar
52xMax
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 3058
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: In all the wrong places.
Show rep
Title: Salmon the Wise

Re: TIL

Postby jbobsully11 » Wed Apr 04, 2018 6:04 am

Relative to its size, the state of Kansas is flatter than a pancake.

Four day later edit: I never knew the names of the even-numbered songs in this video (I knew two of the others, and had never heard three of the songs).
  • 5

Crimson847 wrote:In other words, transgender-friendly privacy laws don't molest people, people molest people.

(Presumably, the only way to stop a bad guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law is a good guy with a transgender-friendly privacy law, and thus transgender-friendly privacy law rights need to be enshrined in the Constitution as well)
User avatar
jbobsully11
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 3644
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:22 pm
Location: not the outskirts of nowhere anymore, NJ, USA
Show rep
Title: The Chronically Underemployed

PreviousNext

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests

cron