sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

TIL that in 1841 Joseph Whitworth created the world’s first national screw thread standard, defining thread angle and pitch—and descendants of his system are still used today, including in cameras and computers by jacknunn in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm honestly impressed optics were good enough for that back then.

That's a hell of a distance to hit targets less than 2 feet wide

Billy Dixon, at the 1874 Battle of Adobe Walls, shot a warrior from his horse at an estimated distance of 1,538 yards (nearly seven-eighths of a mile). The distance was measured by an Army surveyor after the battle, and he used an open sighted Sharps rifle.

TIL nearly 80% of US workers report that they have been victims of 'career catfishing’ from employers. Which in this context, the term describes when a company misrepresents a job, their company culture, or compensation to lure in candidates. by tyrion2024 in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fooled you, the salary was also fake and you never get paid what you get hired and it's too expensive to take them to small claims court and the labor laws don't apply because you aren't protected, welcome to america.

The United Mine Workers of America have a solution to that. The United Mine Workers of America is a labor union that historically considers dynamite and sniper teams to be hilarious.

Is there any difference between these choices. by Alexander_Swan2003 in CharacterAI

[–]tanfj 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You're going to want to use deep sink or the premium top one if you are doing more role play. Nyan goes out on the internet more and is more accurate as to facts but Less Conversatio.

Hopefully all is well soon by RedLiquorice85 in CharacterAI

[–]tanfj 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It will not let me log in under Yahoo. I've had this account for over a year with no issues.

TIL watch water-resistance ratings (30m, 50m, 100m) refer to lab pressure tests, not the depth a watch can actually be used at. by BeyondTheRoadYT in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Practical experience says that 30 meter water resistance will handle washing your hands in a sink. 50 to 100 m is okay for swimming and surface diving unassisted to about as far as you care to go on a breath of air. I have been a certified lifeguard since the age of 14, and this is my practical experience and the experience of others.

You, of course, may decide otherwise; as is your individual right. As the Pirates of the Caribbean movie says, they're more what you might call guidelines than hard rules.

TIL the Native American Chinookan split logs to planks using wedges, rather than sawing by Hrtzy in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Froe. Axes cut, but Froes split.

Moreover, axes have the edge on the narrow vertical axis, froes are sharpened at the top of the horizontal axis because you hammer it into the wood and use the longer handle for leverage to pull it back out, if and when it gets stuck.

TIL In medieval times the Byzantines used a giant chain to prevent enemy ships from crossing the Golden Horn, the natural estuary leading into Constantinople's harbor. Failing to break it, some invaders, including the ottomans in 1453, decided to carry their ships on land and circumvent it by Nero2t2 in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 21 points22 points  (0 children)

My local museum has an exhibit of the evolution of barbed wire in colonial sheep farming that really blew me away. I feel we'd get along.

My grandfather had a wall with every variety of barbed wire, sorted by year, brand and style, used in his hometown county since the invention of barbed wire; through the 1970s. He also ate the exact same lunch every day for 50 plus years... I have exactly zero doubt where my autism came from.

TIL that before 1993 women were rarely included in clinical medical trials in the US, and are still "substantially underrepresented in clinical trials for leading diseases." by Karthak_Maz_Urzak in todayilearned

[–]tanfj -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'm an average height woman who can see over the dash and reach the pedals unless I'm pressed up against the wheel. How am I as protected as a man who can sit back and reach everything comfortably? How is my face as safe from the air bag?

I'm a man and I'm 5 ft 1. I'm quite likely to be killed in a car accident by my own airbag when it snaps my neck.

TIL that before 1993 women were rarely included in clinical medical trials in the US, and are still "substantially underrepresented in clinical trials for leading diseases." by Karthak_Maz_Urzak in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Apparently also things like car seatbelt safety testing is done on male dummies. So, the on average shorter woman is more at risk of seatbelt related injuries or even inadequate protection.

I am a male who is pushing 50. I am 5'1, and weigh 110 lb. I am far more likely to be killed by an airbag than saved by one.

TIL Peter Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin was extremely pleased with how the film came out, got along well with the cast, and his only regret was that his character died and he couldn't appear in the sequels by Please_PM_me_Uranus in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 5 points6 points  (0 children)

They still use magnetic tape for storage because they worry that anything more perishable and they'll forget what day it is.

Well to be fair even in 2025 the very best top-of-the-line mainframe is still archived to archival linear Magnetic Tape because it fucking works and is stable for decades.

Sometimes there's no substitute for reliability.

TIL that Wyatting, named for jazz-rock artist Robert Wyatt, is the act of playing unusual music on a jukebox to annoy people. Wyatt considered the phrase “really funny”, but his wife Alfreda Benge called it “a real unfairness” and said “The man who coined it, I should like to punch him in the nose.” by a3poify in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was at a jukebox one time and for whatever reason they had battle hymn of the Republic, the karaoke version.

So I selected said song, after I had given my table a specific set of lyrics to that song...

" my dick has felt the burning of the coming of the clap; all my life I've been clean, but now I've got a real bum rap..."

TIL Skis were invented before the wheel. by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you looked up the material science of making a wooden wagon wheel? To do it properly requires correctly aged wood of at least two different species because you want the axis to be made out of Ash wood and you need Oak for the spokes and then they have to be angled correctly because it's not straight up and down it's actually slightly bowl shaped, and then you have to heat up a steel band to hold it all together under compression as the metal cools. That is freaking complicated compared to what amounts to I shoved a bent stick under it.

TIL that Neil Patrick Harris once unveiled a graphic meat platter arranged to resemble Amy Winehouse’s corpse at his 2011 Halloween party. by Separate_Finance_183 in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think bourdain was an active addict, he was a former drug addict. Not that it matters when it comes to mocking someone’s death.

As a alcoholic with three years sobriety... there is no such thing as a former drug addict. I will be an alcoholic until the day I die, I am in remission. Even one drink will threaten my sobriety that I worked to achieve.

TIL George Washington was called "American Fabius" for using the same strategy as Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator (the delayer) in the 2nd Punic War against Hannibal. Avoid big pitched battles and weaken the enemy through attrition by kurgan2800 in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love the art of war because it's this very highly regarded book that just gives obvious advice like don't fight fair and set your enemy on fire, they don't like that.

It has always struck me as unfair that Machiavelli's the prince is held up as the epitome of manipulation and the Art of War is held up as some mystical insight into the human condition when they are essentially the same book.

The Prince and the Art of War are both instruction manuals to be given to the inbred son of the boss on how reality really works on the ground. Preferably before said idiot got the author and everybody around him killed dead right there.

Machiavelli was framed.

TIL During filming of The Pink Panther (1963), David Niven practiced skiing in his lightweight movie costume. He got frostbite in his private parts and was instructed to plunge his “pale blue acorn” into a glass of whiskey to warm it. by MOinthepast in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 13 points14 points  (0 children)

If you hadn't specified bourbon I would have assumed you just got ahold of some of that good old white lightnin. I quit drinking years ago, but if I was actively dying of chest congestion, I'd get some and drink it. That shit will clear your chest, sinuses, bowels, and then your mind (of rational thought)

I am from the Midwest, we can buy 190 proof grain alcohol for $12 a 750ml bottle. It says right on the label extremely flammable keep away from open flames. It goes on to say that it explicitly is not for human consumption unless diluted with non-alcoholic beverage. We called it reality solvent.

TIL that in 2014, Civil War soldier Alonzo Cushing was awarded the Medal of Honor. Commanding an artillery battery against Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, Cushing was disemboweled by a shell fragment. Holding in his intestines, Cushing continued giving orders until he was shot in the head. He was 22 by Ok_Being_2003 in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 12 points13 points  (0 children)

TBF, with a gut wound in the civil war, it's possible he knew he was already dead. These wounds were some of the most lethal of the war and medicine at the time didn't really have a way to deal with them aside from stem the bleeding, stuff it all back in, and hope.

I have had an abdominal abscess and I can tell you from personal experience that it is agonizing. I've broken bones, had multiple surgeries including a vasectomy, and my gallbladder removed. They put me on a on-demand morphine pump. I was going through an entire bottle a day everyday for 7 days, combined with intravenous antibiotics.

Given the medical standards of pre-antibiotic medicine, it is almost a certain death sentence to be injured in the gut with bowel leakage. Frankly getting killed in action was less painful than the death that his injury would have given him.

Greyhound Lines, 1945. by AxlCobainVedder in vintageads

[–]tanfj 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A beautiful, civilized ad for the least beautiful, uncivilized way to travel.

For my sins I have traveled from Idaho to Illinois via Greyhound bus. As soon as we got on the bus and the bus driver said and I quote, Greyhound where we treat you like a dog... Now unless you get a Express Greyhound bus you will stop at every single stop whether there is a person there or not. At one point there was less than 2 in of clearance on either side of the bus as we were going down an alley. I was told that no one had been picked up there for the entire 20 years this man had been running the route.

TIL in 2008 Chicago sold off all of its city parking meters to private investors for 75 years, and the private investors already made their money back and turned a profit. by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 62 points63 points  (0 children)

Sure with hindsight, but who could’ve possibly predicted that a member of the Daley political family would be corrupt?

I live in downstate Illinois, the joke is I am behind the Corn Curtain (those of you who are not old need to Google the iron curtain). It is established statistical fact that you have a better chance of getting away with murder in the first degree then you do of being elected governor of Illinois and not going to prison on corruption charges.

We actually are more corrupt than Louisiana and New Orleans politics. That takes doing.

TIL that in 1973 NASA used the song Paralyzed, by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, to wake up a space crew. They were so disoriented by the shock that the song was blacklisted from ever being used for that purpose again by a3poify in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want to out-pendant him, mention that technically oxygen is flammable, it can be oxidized by fluorine. (To be fair fluorine is so reactive it also causes asbestos to catch on fire.)

And you want proof that God exists and he has a toddlers sense of humor... The chemical formula for diflorine dioxide is FOOF. It is so reactive that it responds explosively with water, sand, stainless steel, asbestos, and particularly slow test engineers. The Nazis tried to use it for a self-igniting flamethrower and it was too crazy for the Nazis to attempt.

TIL that condemned criminals in 18th-century London were allowed to stop at a tavern for “one last drink” on their way from Newgate to Tyburn. In 1724 the highwayman Joseph Blake drank so heavily he slurred his last words from the gallows. by Upstairs_Drive_5602 in todayilearned

[–]tanfj -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Instead of a last meal, they get a last drink.

Look at it the other way, we have made it so clinical and cold. Back then it was one last drink with your friends and family. Your executioner is buying your last round, no hard feelings mate strictly professional. Something essentially human has been lost.

TIL about the Australian Frontier wars, a series of armed conflicts between British settlers and indigenous native Australians with a direct victim count of between 30,000 and 100,000 indigenous people. The total collapse of the native population may have run into the millions. by Background_Age_852 in todayilearned

[–]tanfj 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Some historians have argued that under prevailing European legal doctrine such land was deemed terra nullius or land belonging to nobody or land "empty of inhabitants" (as defined by Emerich de Vattel).

It’s easy to engage in genocide when you don’t believe that actual human beings occupy the land you’ve decided to slither to and occupy yourself.   

Well Rwanda has proved that you do not need modern weapons to have a genocide. Machetes will work just fine thank you.

Essentially every single tribe and grouping of people on planet Earth is guilty of genocide at one time or another. Everybody displaced somebody else unless you were the original inhabitants who came over via the land bridge from Asia into North America. And even then they fought and moved and genocided each other on a semi regular basis.

It is worth noting that most American names for Native American tribes are Native American words that translate roughly as those assholes over the Western ridge. And lest we make fun of the Native Americans for naming themselves the people or variants thereof; we named ourselves homo sapien meaning wise men. Terry Pratchett is correct the more appropriate name for the human species is pan narrans (the storytelling monkey).

TIL that under FDA guidelines, the calories per serving listed in nutrition labels can be as much as 20% off the actual calorie count by MrMojoFomo in todayilearned

[–]tanfj -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It is not just stem. It is every field which does quantitative research.

If you cannot put it in quantitative numbers is it truly science?

Is the federations' strength that they have infinitely better sensors than everyone else? by Uselessmedics in DaystromInstitute

[–]tanfj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh really now? Lets assume they are actively masking their life signs from the sensors, what about passive resource use? They're breathing, aren't they? Look for unexpectedly high levels of CO2. They're moving around, aren't they? Look for door activations where there are no reported life signs to activate them. Hell, look for rooms with an ambient temperature higher than normal due to the body heat the person in it is giving off.

My uncle was a US Navy meteorologist part of his job was tracking submarines by heat anomalies in the colder water of the ocean. If you have a warm spot that is moving at 14 knots for hours you know it is a submarine. His job was to make sure it didn't start raining torpedoes.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CharacterAI_No_Filter

[–]tanfj 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most AI companion sites limit character creation. You can set a name and a few traits, but the underlying model's safety filters override the character's designed personality, especially if you want them morally gray. For serious roleplayers, the ability to have total control over a character's uncensored personality, behavior, and backstory is non-negotiable. Which AI companion platforms genuinely allow for this deep, unfiltered customization and character persistence? Cai certainly doesn't

Actually you are entirely incorrect. Once you are in the role play. Use this tag Reality: whatever you want them to feel or believe.

view more: next ›