Today I Learned
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- TIL Costa Rica has had no military since 1949www.thesoldiersproject.org Why Doesn’t Costa Rica Have a Military & Since When?
Find the answer to, “Why doesn’t Costa Rica have a military?” and other relevant information, like when it ceased its standing Army
>The decision to demilitarize started from a proposal to put more money into education and healthcare by the then Defense Minister Edgar Cardona, who passed it to the Interior minister Alvaro Ramos and then, taken to the constitutional assembly by the provisional President at the time, Jose Figueres Ferrer.
>But even though Costa Rica has no Army, it has a special police force, officially called the Public Force of Costa Rica (Fuerza Pública). It was established in 1996 by the Ministry of Public Security to perform law enforcement, policing, and border patrol tasks. The force’s motto is “God, Fatherland, and Honor.”
>The Effects of Costa Rica not having an Army
>The budget previously dedicated to sustaining the Costa Rica Army is put into other aspects of the society like education and health care.
>This, in turn, allows for improved political, economic, and social stability. New schools and hospitals lowered the country’s infant mortality and heightened the literacy rate.
>Today, Costa Rica’s infant mortality rate is the second-lowest in the region, and the literacy rate is 98%. It also has a higher life expectancy, averaging 80 years old. So, overall, the standard of living has increased.
>In fact, in 2012, based on the Happy Planet Index, it was the happiest country in the world!
Population of 5 million.
- TIL "adrenalin" is a protected trademark owned by Endo International
> > > The following three lists of generic and genericized trademarks are: > > > > * marks which were originally legally protected trademarks, but have been genericized and have lost their legal status due to becoming generic terms, > * marks which have been abandoned and are now generic terms > * marks which are still legally protected as trademarks, at least in some jurisdictions > >
- TIL how much it clearly didn't stop at Aristotle and Alexander the Great
Source : « The Great Scientists: From Euclid to Stephen Hawking », from John Farndon
I.d.k. why i thought that Euclid, and perhaps also others, were around Plato or before, just wanted to share, what a time.
B.t.w., we know about ChatGPT, some about Sam Altman, but nothing about the researchers, and the same goes for every other technology, it's a choice of society 🤷(, causes&consequences).
Edit : Transcript :
> All the same, if anyone wanted a proper education, Alexandria in Egypt was the place to go, and here Archimedes went as a young man. At the time he was there, the city was the greatest centre of learning in the ancient world. Although the museum or university there was barely 20 years old – the city itself had been founded by Alexander the Great just half a century earlier – it already held an unrivalled library, containing at least 100,000 scrolls, including all of Aristotle’s priceless personal collection. It was here that the great Euclid taught geometry, that Aristarchus showed that the Earth revolved around the Sun, and that Hipparchus made the first great catalogue of constellations, categorizing stars in terms of their brightness. And it was here that, much later, Ptolemy wrote the Almagest, the most influential book about the nature of the universe for 1,500 years. Euclid was probably dead by the time Archimedes was there, but Archimedes undoubtedly met Eratosthenes, the brilliant thinker who measured the circumference of the world to within 4 per cent of modern figures, and made a measurement of the year’s length as precise as any until barely half a century ago.
- TIL about the Mikiphone, a portable wind-up phonograph invented in the 1920s that could be stored in a small case that could fit in your pocket.rarehistoricalphotos.com The 1924 Mikiphone: The World’s First Pocket Record Player
Back in the 1920s, long before modern gadgets took over our daily lives, a nifty little invention brought music to people’s pockets. This wonder of the past was called the Mikiphone, a pocket…
- TIL the score for Grosse Pointe Blank was composed by Joe Strummer of The Clash
> The film's score was composed by Joe Strummer, former member of the punk rock band the Clash; the film's soundtrack contains a number of popular and alternative punk rock, skaand new wave songs.
- TIL it’s the right of women of all ages to go topless wherever men can in the states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma, including all their cities.www.nbcnews.com Topless women win big as Colorado city drops ban
Officials in Fort Collins decided it's not worth the money to fight for its ordinance banning women from appearing topless in public.
- Best Warm-Ups for Beginner Voice Actors
You’ve stepped into the thrilling world of voice acting. Whether your thing is to state characters in vitality, recite audiobooks, or attack commercials, warming up your voice is essential.
Not as hard as it sounds — actually, it’s enough pleasurable. Below are some top warm-ups for newcomers, along with some particular stories to keep effects relatable.
- TIL of the Great Auk, a northern hemisphere species similar to penguins that was hunt to extinction. Penguins are named after them.
>The great auk (Pinguinus impennis), also known as the Penguin or gare-fowl, is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus. It is unrelated to the Penguins of the southern hemisphere, which were named so after their resemblance to the northern species.
>...the auk foraged in the waters of the North Atlantic, ranging as far south as northern Spain and along the coastlines of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Ireland, and Great Britain.
>Early European explorers to the Americas used the great auk as a convenient food source or as fishing bait, reducing its numbers. The bird's down was in high demand in Europe, a factor that largely eliminated the European populations by the mid-16th century. Around the same time, nations such as Great Britain began to realize that the great auk was disappearing and it became the beneficiary of many early environmental laws, but despite that the great auk were still hunted.
>Its growing rarity increased interest from European museums and private collectors in obtaining skins and eggs of the bird. On 3 June 1844, the last two confirmed specimens were killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland, ending the last known breeding attempt.
>The word "penguin" first appears in the sixteenth century as a synonym for "great auk".[20] Although the etymology is debated, the generic name "penguin" may be derived from the Welsh pen gwyn "white head", either because the birds lived in New Brunswick on White Head Island (Pen Gwyn in Welsh) or because the great auk had such large white circles on its head. When European explorers discovered what today are known as penguins in the Southern Hemisphere, they noticed their similar appearance to the great auk and named them after this bird, although biologically, they are not closely related.[21]: 10
- TIL about Brandolini's Law: "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it."
Also knowns as the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle
- TIL American linguist Morris Swadesh compiled a list of words he deduced would be in a Proto-Indo-European language, the language that is the root of languages across Europe and Asia.
Have fun figuring out how to pronounce them though.
- TIL that this cartoonish piranha catching technique actually works
Video
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Tho I must admit that I would never get that close to the surface with my bare hands while doing this.
- TIL about Haitian Independence Debt
>The Haitian independence debt involves an 1825 agreement between Haiti and France that included France demanding an indemnity of 150 million francs in five annual payments of 30 million to be paid by Haiti in claims over property – including Haitian slaves – that was lost through the Haitian Revolution in return for diplomatic recognition. Haiti was forced to take a loan for the first 30 million,[a] and in 1838 France agreed to reduce the remaining debt to 60 million to be paid over 30 years, with the final payment paid in 1883.[1][2][b] However, The New York Times estimates that because of other loans taken to pay off this loan, the final payment to debtors was actually in 1947. They approximated that in total 112 million francs was paid in indemnity, which when adjusted for the inflation rate would be $560 million in 2022, but considering that if had been invested in the Haitian economy instead, it could be valued at $115 billion.[4][5][c]
>Restoration France's demand of payments in exchange for recognizing Haiti's independence was delivered to the country by several French warships in 1825, twenty-one years after Haiti's declaration of independence in 1804.[7][8] Despite several revolutions in France after that date (July Revolution, French Revolution of 1848, Paris Commune), successive governments, be they imperial, monarchist or republican, continued enforcing the debt and coercing Haiti to pay.[d] Haiti had to take a loan in 1875 to pay back the final portion of the original loan, and the bank that benefited most from this was Crédit Industriel et Commercial.[9] Even after the indemnity was paid, Haiti had to continue paying the other loans, and the government of the United States funded the acquisition of Haiti's treasury in 1911,[10] and in 1922, the rest of Haiti's debt was moved to be paid to American investors.[11] The New York Times states that it took until 1947 for Haiti to finally pay off all the associated interest to the National City Bank of New York (now Citibank).[10][12] In 2016, the Parliament of France repealed the 1825 ordinance of Charles X, though no reparations have been offered by France.[5] These debts have been denounced by some historians and activists as responsible for Haiti's poverty today and a case of odious debt.[3]
- TIL - HIPAA doesn't protect data from being shared between organizations without consent
YouTube Video
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It obviously protects against sharing data with e.g. your employer, but if a health provider chooses to make your data shareable, there are 2.2M authorized entities that can potentially access the data (identifiable health data).
Excerpt of the video description: Most people think that HIPAA means that their medical records are kept private. But what if I told you that HIPAA doesn’t protect your privacy at all?
This is our first video in a series about medical privacy, specifically looking at legislation that stripped individuals of the right to consent to medical data sharing.
We focus on what HIPAA actually is, how it came to allow our data to be shared without us even knowing, how we’ve been tricked into thinking we have privacy, and steps we can take to reclaim control of our medical data.
00:00 The State of Medical Privacy is a Mess 02:29 What is HIPAA 07:39 How Your Data is Shared 12:10 The Illusion of Privacy 14:48 What Can We Do 22:16 We Deserve Medical Privacy
We deserve privacy in our medical system. Our health information is sensitive, and we should be allowed to protect it. Even while we fight for better medical privacy, please always prioritize your health.
Special Thanks to: Twila Brase, Rob Frommer, and Keith Smith for chatting to us!
List of doctors who have opted out of the surveillance system: https://jointhewedge.com/
Twila's website: https://www.cchfreedom.org/patient-toolbox/
Do you want to fight the system and lead a suit against medical data collection? Contact the Institute for Justice: https://ij.org/
Keith Smith's Surgery Center: https://surgerycenterok.com/
Brought to you by NBTV team members: Lee Rennie, Cube Boy, Sam Ettaro, Will Sandoval and Naomi Brockwell
Edit: changed the title to something that isn't misleading
- TIL about Aviation biofuel
>Biofuels are biomass-derived fuels from plants, animals, or waste; depending on which type of biomass is used, they could lower CO2 emissions by 20–98% compared to conventional jet fuel.[4] The first test flight using blended biofuel was in 2008, and in 2011, blended fuels with 50% biofuels were allowed on commercial flights. In 2023 SAF production was 600 million liters, representing 0.2% of global jet fuel use.[5]
>Aviation biofuel can be produced from plant or animal sources such as Jatropha, algae, tallows, waste oils, palm oil, Babassu, and Camelina (bio-SPK); from solid biomass using pyrolysis processed with a Fischer–Tropsch process (FT-SPK); with an alcohol-to-jet (ATJ) process from waste fermentation; or from synthetic biology through a solar reactor.
>SAF technology faces significant challenges due to feedstock constraints. The oils and fats known as hydrotreated esters and fatty acids (Hefa), crucial for SAF production, are in limited supply as demand increases. Although advanced e-fuels technology, which combines waste CO2 with clean hydrogen, presents a promising solution, it is still under development and comes with high costs. To overcome these issues, SAF developers are exploring more readily available feedstocks such as woody biomass and agricultural and municipal waste, aiming to produce lower-carbon jet fuel more sustainably and efficiently.[7]
- TIL about hair traps
I feel like an idiot for not knowing about these.
Every 2-3 months I have to snake out our shower drain with a 25' snake. Giant PITA.
After some web searches, I stumbled across these hair trap devices. They come in both external and internal configurations. Many different types to choose from.
I purchased an internal one, installed it, and am going to give it a try. In theory I can just pop it out and clean it instead of snaking the pipes. Folks tell me they work well. If this one doesn't work I'll try another type. They are fairly inexpensive.
- TIL what an Ortholinear Keyboard iswww.howtogeek.com What Is an Ortholinear Keyboard, and Should You Use One?
What is an ortholinear keyboard, anyway?
I'm just a newb when it comes to high grade keyboards, but these things look wild, and I kind of want to try one.
- TIL the name of computer "bugs" stuck around because a moth got stuck in a computer component in 1947americanhistory.si.edu Log Book With Computer Bug
American engineers have been calling small flaws in machines "bugs" for over a century. Thomas Edison talked about bugs in electrical circuits in the 1870s.
But how did this name originally come into place in engineering??
- You can go from Cuiabá (Mato Grosso, Brazil) all the way to the sea, over 2800km, by river boat
I've been reading a book on the Paraguay War, Maldita Guerra, and it mentioned how Solano Lopez (then Paraguay's dictator) planned to invade Mato Grosso and possibly take Cuiabá. Trips upstream from Assuncion to Cuiabá at that time would usually take 12+ days on steam ships.
What really surprised me is that this kind of information was supposed to be taught back when I was in school.
- Some unions have staff which are also unionized and have experienced union-busting by those employing unions.www.iheart.com The UAW Staff Purge - It Could Happen Here | iHeart
<p>Mia talks with Alex Chan, an organizer for the UAW, about the union's attempts to break her staff union and how it hurts both UAW organizers and the workers they organize.</p> <p>Follow the UAW on socials: @UAWstaffunited</p><p>See <a href='https://omnystudio.com/listener'>omnystudio.com/listener...
- TIL about the 2018 Samsung fat-finger error, in which an employee of Samsung Securities mistakenly distributed shares worth US$100 billion to employees.
Boy, I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder...Oh...yikes
- TIL the theme to Sanford and Son has lyrics. And they were sung by Ella Fitzgerald
YouTube Video
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I get a song stuck in my head and end up having to look up everyone who ever covered it. This one is one of the weirdest I've encountered.
- TIL that copulation among noisy miners (an Australian bird) is a frenzied communal event, incubation is by the female only and up to twenty male helpers take care of the nestlings and fledglings
So the title info is cribbed from the Wikipedia link which I looked into after noticing a few fledglings in a park being fed by half a dozen mature birds. Very communal creatures.
- TIL the penduline tit (shut up) makes a nest with a fake entrance to trick predatorshasanjasim.online This Cunning Bird Creates a Fake Entrance to Its Nest to Trick Predators - Hasan Jasim
Have you ever heard of a bird that could outsmart a predator with a simple architectural trick? The penduline tit, a small, unassuming avian, has mastered the art of deception. Its nests, intricately woven and pear-shaped, are more than just homes—they’re fortresses of cunning. A Nest with a Twist T...
- TIL Disney's Star Wars Hotel was a massive waste of time
YouTube Video
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I'm only an hour into this person's 4 hour(!) review/criticism of the Star Wars hotel and am baffled at how poorly this was handled.
- TIL that climbing the full height of Everest means starting at sea level
> Climbers typically ascend only part of Mount Everest's elevation, as the mountain's full elevation is measured from the geoid, which approximates sea level. The closest sea to Mount Everest's summit is the Bay of Bengal, almost 700 km (430 mi) away. So to approximate a climb of the entire height of Mount Everest, one would need to start from this coastline, a feat accomplished by Tim Macartney-Snape's team in 1990. Climbers usually begin their ascent from base camps above 5,000 m (16,404 ft).
It’s obvious once you think about it, but at what point would you consider it in daily life?
- TIL: males have 25% more neurons in the visual cortex than femalesmedicalxpress.com The eyes have it: Men do see things differently to women
The way that the visual centers of men and women's brains works is different, finds new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology of Sex Differences. Men have greater sensitivity to fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli, but women are better at discriminating between colors...
> > > The eyes have it: Men do see things differently to women > ========== > > > > The way that the visual centers of men and women's brains works is different, finds new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Biology of Sex Differences. Men have greater sensitivity to fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli, but women are better at discriminating between colors. > >
- TIL about Sebastian Münster's 1540 map of the Americas, the first one to show that North and South America were connected by an isthmus and the first to call it 'The New World.'
More info here: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/ruderman/catalog/mz230kn1495
- TIL there was an attempted coup of Montenegro in 2016 to prevent it from joining NATO
>It is believed that the plot was designed as a last-ditch attempt by the Montenegrin pro-Serbian and pro-Russian opposition to prevent Montenegro's accession to NATO,[5] a move stridently opposed by Russia's government that had issued direct threats to Montenegro concerning such eventuality.[6][7][8][9][10] This theory was re-affirmed by the court verdict handed down in 2019.[11]
>On the eve of 16 October 2016, the day of the parliamentary election in Montenegro, a group of 20 Serbian and Montenegrin citizens, including the former head of Serbian Gendarmery Bratislav Dikić, were arrested;[12][13] some of them, along with other persons, including two Russian citizens, were later formally charged by the authorities of Montenegro with an attempted coup d'état. In early November 2016, Montenegro's special prosecutor for organised crime and corruption, Milivoje Katnić, alleged that "a powerful organisation" that comprised about 500 people from Russia, Serbia and Montenegro was behind the coup plot.[14] In February 2017, Montenegrin officials accused the Russian 'state structures' of being behind the attempted coup, which allegedly envisaged an attack on the country's parliament and assassination of prime minister Milo Đukanović.[15][16]
- TIL School shootings in America date all the way back to the 1700swww.k12academics.com History of School Shootings in the United States | K12 Academics
1700s The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, where four Lenape American Indian entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine o...
- TIL The man that shot Ronald Reagan is a YouTube musician who claims he's the victim of "cancel culture"nypost.com Exclusive | John Hinckley Jr., who once tried to kill Ronald Reagan, claims he is a victim of ‘cancel culture’ after concert nixed: ‘Keeps happening’
Would-be assassin-turned-folk singer John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to kill then-President Ronald Regan in 1981, was scheduled to perform at the Hotel Huxley in Naugatuck, Connecticut on March 30…
Dude has like 45k subs on YouTube. Fucking weird.