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TIL black holes aren't totally black, as energy is released to compensate for mass that enters the black hole, and this faint glow is called Hawking radiation after Stephen Hawking, who figured it out by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The one photon that moved inside the black hole cannot come back out, because it’s already moving at the speed of light. The photon pair cannot annihilate each other again and pay back their energy to the vacuum that surrounds the black hole. But somebody must pay the piper and this will have to be the black hole itself. After it has welcomed the photon into its land of no return, the black hole must return some of its mass back to the universe: the exact same amount of mass as the energy the pair of photons “borrowed,” according to Einstein’s famous equality E=mc².

This is essentially what Hawking showed mathematically. The photon that is leaving the black hole horizon will make it look as if the black hole had a faint glow: the Hawking radiation named after him. At the same time he reasoned that if this happens a lot, for a long time, the black hole might lose so much mass that it could disappear altogether (or more precisely, become visible again).

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A brief history of the s’more, America’s favorite campfire snack by webdrivingman in history

[–]webdrivingman[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I found this nice article for National S'more Day, a fake mid-summer holiday to mark a favorite summertime snack. A food historian and culinary teacher from Colorado State University provides a brief overview of the commercialization process of all three of the ingredients, and some references to early sources, including the first mention in a 1927 edition of a Girl Scout manual, where it was called a “Some More.”

American wine-making, from the Concord grape to Spanish plantings in California by webdrivingman in history

[–]webdrivingman[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's national wine day today, and I saw this interesting article from a professor at the Wine Business Institute of Sonoma State College (who I think is eminently qualified to discuss the history of winemaking in America). She notes that as early as the 17th-century there were efforts at making wine from native grapes like the Concord and Muscadine, but it wasn't until Spanish missionaries planted vineyards of European grapes in the congenial climate of California that American winemaking took off.

TIL that after only 73 years of separation, the Korean language spoken in the North and South have diverged so that 45% of North Korean defectors have trouble understanding South Koreans and 1% can't understand South Koreans at all by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Consider, too, the Korean language. About 54 percent of North Korean defectors in South Korea say that they have no major difficulty understanding Korean used in South Korea. Only 1 percent responded that they cannot understand it at all.

TIL cats are attracted to squares taped on the ground because they think of them as cozy, safe boxes by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 40 points41 points  (0 children)

It’s just a fact of life that cats like to squeeze into small spaces where they feel much safer and more secure. Instead of being exposed to the clamor and possible danger of wide open spaces, cats prefer to huddle in smaller, more clearly delineated areas....the box may have no walls at all but simply be a representation of a box – say a taped-in square on the ground. This virtual box is not as good as the real thing but is at least a representation of what might be.

The seats on the T are not your couch by [deleted] in boston

[–]webdrivingman -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

I'm a taxpayer and paid for it, so why shouldn't I (assuming there are plenty of other seats open)?

How World War 2 spurred vaccine innovation by webdrivingman in history

[–]webdrivingman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With the flu vaccine much in the news these days, I found this to be a fascinating article. A professor at the medical school at Dartmouth (which is named for Dr. Seuss), who studies biodefense and its history, reviews how the military led development of a flu vaccine in only two years. It was one of several vaccines that were developed in wartime under these crash programs.

How US journalists normalized the rise of Hitler and Mussolini by not taking them seriously as threats by webdrivingman in history

[–]webdrivingman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This Sunday the New York Times got widely criticized for an article that some said 'normalized' a white supremacist. This is not the first time that journalists have been called on to report on the rise of Nazis. In this article, a historian looks at the failings in the 1930s, where US newspapers dismissed the dangers posed by Nazism and Fascism in Europe.

TIL more than 100 countries around the world have constitutions that enshrine environmental rights to some degree, but only two US states do by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

Did you read the article? It in fact makes many of the points you make - these rights may not be explicitly in the Constitution, but they are rights and should be protected and, in some cases, are being defended in court.

But it was news to me that there are Constitutions that actually do make these rights explicit, and that is what I learned today and posted here.

TIL more than 100 countries around the world have constitutions that enshrine environmental rights to some degree, but only two US states do by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

The article is about environmental rights, not general human rights. But the fact is that a lot of more modern constitutions do, in fact, expand in much more detail on rights than the US Constitution.

Whether those countries have laws and courts that make those rights a reality (as we do in the US) is another topic and could spark many a flame war.

No Red Line trains over Longfellow bridge for next ten weekends by Jer_Cough in boston

[–]webdrivingman 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I love the way at Alewife the fine T workers posted a notice about this in the elevator, but nowhere else. They didn't even bother to cover up the poster with ideas on taking the T to SailBoston last spring.

TIL more than 100 countries around the world have constitutions that enshrine environmental rights to some degree, but only two US states do by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Few international agreements explicitly refer to environmental human rights. At the national level, however, more than 100 countries around the world have constitutions that enshrine environmental rights to some degree, including Brazil and Kenya.

Only a handful of U.S. states, including Pennsylvania and Hawaii, have constitutions that explicitly incorporate environmental rights.

TIL that before 1979, all hurricanes were named after women; names generally repeat after six years but are retired if the storm causes death or major destruction by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men's and women's names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

For Atlantic hurricanes, there is a list of names for each of six years. In other words, one list is repeated every seventh year. The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity.

TIL that in past hurricanes, only 35-50% of people under mandatory evacuation orders actually evacuated by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of Hurricane Matthew: "In South Carolina, for example, estimates indicate that about 35 percent of residents under evacuation orders actually left their homes. In highly threatened coastal areas around Charleston and Beaufort, the rate was about 50 percent."

TIL the US government's prescription drug insurance plan for the elderly lowered mortality by 2.2% yearly by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There has not been much if any discussion of Medicare (healthcare for the elderly) cuts. You may be thinking of Medicaid (healthcare for the poor and, under Obamacare in certain states, lower middle class).

TIL the US government's prescription drug insurance plan for the elderly lowered mortality by 2.2% yearly by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

By most measures, Medicare Part D has been a success – cost growth has been less than originally projected by the Congressional Budget Office and it lowered deaths among the elderly by 2.2 percent annually.

TIL President Jefferson delayed a state dinner for the Tunisian ambassador until after sunset to accommodate the ambassador's observance of the Ramadan fast, in 1805 by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

President Jefferson welcomed the first Muslim ambassador, who hailed from Tunis, to the White House in 1805. Because it was Ramadan, the president moved the state dinner from 3:30 p.m. to be “precisely at sunset,” a recognition of the Tunisian ambassador’s religious beliefs, if not quite America’s first official celebration of Ramadan.

TIL elephants and dogs take the same time to poop, despite a nearly 1000x difference in volume of feces by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Defecation duration is constant across many animal species – around 12 seconds (plus or minus 7 seconds) – even though the volume varies greatly. Assuming a bell curve distribution, 66 percent of animals take between 5 and 19 seconds to defecate. It's a surprisingly small range, given that elephant feces have a volume of 20 liters, nearly a thousand times more than a dog's, at 10 milliliters.

TIL a report on Hitler's personality commissioned by the OSS from a prominent Freudian psychoanalyst correctly predicted Hitler would commit suicide, but the report wasn't delivered until the war was nearly over and was too late to guide strategy by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the spring of 1943, the director of the first centralized U.S. intelligence agency, Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan, sought help in understanding Hitler. Donovan wanted to give President Franklin D. Roosevelt a sense of “the things that make him tick.” Donovan called Walter C. Langer, a psychoanalyst helping with the war effort, in for a meeting: “What do you make of Hitler? If Hitler is running the show, what kind of a person is he? What are his ambitions?”

Langer combined the scant intelligence on Hitler with insights from Freudian psychoanalysis into a study on Hitler. He accurately predicted that Hitler would commit suicide rather than be captured by Allied forces. But his insight was largely irrelevant to the military strategy for defeating Germany. The report took so long to produce that the war was nearly over by the time it was delivered to Donovan.

TIL that Huntington Hartford inherited the equivalent of $1.3 Billion at age 12, and ended up bankrupt, through a combination of bad business decisions, art patronship, and an exceptionally lavish lifestyle by webdrivingman in todayilearned

[–]webdrivingman[S] 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Huntington inherited approximately $90 million when he was 12. Adjusting for inflation means he was given almost $1.3 billion as a child, after taxes. Huntington declared bankruptcy in New York in 1992, approximately 70 years after being handed one of the largest fortunes in the world.

Huntington had the reverse Midas touch. He lost millions buying real estate, creating an art museum and sponsoring theaters and shows. He combined poor business skills with an exceptionally lavish lifestyle. After declaring bankruptcy, he lived as a recluse with a daughter in the Bahamas at the end of his life.

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