You learn something new everyday: what did you learn today?

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That there are these dangerous blister beetles being found in bagged salads in local grocery stores. And only a few days before that they recalled a store brand of hummus because of harmful bacteria.

Every week a food that's supposed to be healthy turns out to be diseased or full of toxic insects or venomous spiders. I guess the companies don't really care about people getting sick or even dying, they just want our money, and eventually we'll have to grow all our own crops like it's the Middle Ages. How am I going to do that in an apartment building in a city? It will probably cost even more than buying vegetables. My dad grows a garden in the summer but it's still not enough to get us through winter. Guess I'll just eat cookies and chips and candy instead. Everything we eat will kill us eventually so it may as well be stuff that tastes good.

Coincidentally I was talking with some of my coworkers, one of whom was from a Chinese-speaking (Mandarin-speaking?) background, a few days ago about some delicious crabs. He said "crab" sounded exactly like "crap" to him. I never thought they sounded similar myself. Could this mean that maybe in Mandarin 'b' and 'p' are not distinguished from each other? I should have asked him about that. Maybe next time.

Then I realize that some people here on WP think Asperger's sounds like "ass burgers". So what does that mean?

just that "burgers" is a more familiar sound to most americans.

I read that they're banning "mermaiding" in public pools in Edmenton. Memaiding is simply people swimming while dressed in a mermaid costume. They believe the tail of the costume is too restrictive and can lead to drowning. Some people are reacting to thins like the country's being run by Nazis.

I dunno, don't mermaids normally live in salt water?

I also read that there's this lake in Colorado where people are releasing their pet goldfish. They want people to stop doing this because the fish are an invasive species and could destroy the lake's ecosystem. I read that goldfish can live for years and years but they usually die young because people don't have a clue how to care for them, which I think is cruel and stupid. My brother knows a lot about caring for pet fish, so I'll bet he feels the same way.

I heard on "coast to coast" radio last night, that a big data security firm called tiversa is in cahoots with the FTC to monopolize data security for businesses and extort money from small businesses using its buddy the FTC to lean on said small companies with gov't lawsuits. google it. I did not know the degree of evil there in DC was quite so high.

That there is a rare breed of cat called a toyger, bred to look like a tiger. It looks like this:

I learned that the surface area of a sphere with a radius of 10 is approximately 1256.6370614359173.

Oh, and I learned that geometry is fecking boring. yeah, f**k school

I've learned that I can't run away from my cyber problems. I've learned that I can't stay away from WP forever. I'm also in the process of learning to ignore posted comments and questions that I don't like.

yep, i'm guessing that's the case. most mandarin P's tend to be aspirated [pʰ] and contrast with B, which is [p], or sometimes in some syllables, unstressed.

i'd be interested to hear what he says if you do ask i'm just an indoeuropean.

jk1 wrote:

maybe the two sound get muddied up in quicker speech, or in the middle of a syllable.



loppest of tels

That a species of carnivorous wasp that's just been discovered has been named after the dementors in Harry Potter, due to their feeding habits supposedly being similar to the foulest creatures on the planet. They inject their prey with a venom that renders them immobile and in a "zombie-like" state, as if they had just sucked out their soul.

But since their favorite prey is the cockroach, these wasps might not be so bad after all, although being stung by one of them must be pretty nasty.

Seems a lot of newly discovered animals are being named after popular culture these days. There's that glass frog that looks uncannily like Kermit with bulgy, sad-looking white eyes and black pupils...

That blood will appear green around 30 feet underwater because red light is nonexistent at that point.

that people in general will never cease to amaze me with their strangeness

That guacamole is poisonous to hamsters.

that something can always be improved, if not by oneself than by others.

That Wendy's burgers suck.
Today I had one for the first time in a while and it wasn't worth the time of day, nor was it cheap.
They used to be decent, though never awesome, burgers.

The benefits of having a duodecimal (base-12) number system, over our present decimal (base-10) number system. There's even a neat way of finger counting. I'm convinced of the merits, although a wholesale conversion is probably too costly in practice, unless it's accompanied by another equally revolutionary conversion.

Basic introduction: http://io9.com/5977095/why-we-should-sw ... ing-system