What is something interesting you discovered or learned about recently?

I learned about the defence strategy of the Baltic states:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsdGJrpC5tA

I just learned the origin of the term liberal arts. It dates back to Plato. There were two collections of components in the liberal arts – the trivium was for language skills .and was considered more fundamental. Its three components were logic, grammar and rhetoric. The remaining components were in the quadrivium , which consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.

Outside the liberal arts were the mechanical arts, which before the rise of science, were not as highly regarded as the liberal arts.

I learned that if you are constipated that pre-wiping sometimes helps.
Also that farting usually means that one will have to go number 2 soon.
Also there is a world wide sand shortage for making concrete.
Also that it’s called the armor of God , not armor of Christ.

I think the most interesting thing I have is that I am trying to learn Chinese. Not sure if it is Mandarin or Cantonese, it is from Duolingo. Fascinating stuff.

I learned that Montgomery, Alabama had a beautiful system of public parks and pools and a zoo but when they were told they had to desegregate them all, they closed them down instead.

Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT work by assigning numerical, dimensional coordinates to words and then running complex calculations to produce a response based on the proximities of the coordinates. Source

That Hitler sent lawyers to the US in 1935 to study the Jim Crow era laws and form the basis the third reichs race laws.

I learned that Bézier curves are fundamentally quadratics.

I discovered the “Smith” chart for engineering reference with electronic waves.

During the Napoleonic wars Napoleon preferred using muskets for his infantry because of rapid reloading. The British also had rifles which were slower to reload but far more accurate.

I learned that senior staff working for the Chinese government go into semi-retirement at age 55 to let younger workers take on the responsibilities before fully retiring at age 60.

I found out that the new Exorcist movie I paid for to stream is a total piece of crap while a movie from a few years ago that I had been ignoring and could watch for free which I did is actually good! The movie The Lodge featured Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough.

I learned today what an anklet is and some traditions related to how and where they are worn.
Link

I learned that Japanese people in ancient time had developed an entire system for exorcism. When a person was deemed possessed by a demon, a specialized exorcist was called in. The exorcist then got a young woman or man beside him as some kind of “vessel” for the demon to be transferred into. Once the demon was transferred into the other body, that was when the exorcism really began.

Now here is the interesting part: the exorcist didn’t do the exorcism himself, but summoned an entity to do the deed for him. That entity was a demon itself but was converted to the “good law” and now kind of served as a servant for the exorcist. According to the old writings, the exorcist seemed to let that demon possess him so that he could gain power to do the exorcism. After the exorcism was done, the exorcist always asked the possessed how they felt.

They even wrote an entire manual for that! This kind of exorcism blows The Exorcist down the water!

The people in northern Wales are absolutely delightful.

Medieval fire arrows were actually real,
but they were not used in open warfare, because they are quite complex and expensive to make.
They also had an aspect of chemical warfare in addition to their incendiary nature.

No more “No Mow May”.

As my friend Leah said…

“No mow May is not as good of an idea as we thought!

It was originally established in the UK, which has a completely different growing season than we do in Wisconsin. It does not take into consideration, the different climates throughout the world.

Also, the grass gets so high that it can cause problems once you do mow it for the rest of your season. Also, when you mow it, it’s best to leave your grass clippings to fertilize the grass. Clippings are way too long to actually be as much use to fertilize your lawn.

The last reason is that bees get used to going back to the same spots. Once you mow your lawn, the bees lose food sources.

You are much better off in the long run to plant small patches of wild flowers in your lawn to support the bees season.”

Zoo management since they don’t take wild animals out of the wild any more.

Saw my first bufflehead ducks this morning and learned about their migration pattern.