#todayilearned that #llm companies aren't just wasting energy and water, but their scraper bots now mess with #FOSS forges
I am furious
https://thelibre.news/foss-infrastructure-is-under-attack-by-ai-companies/
I don't know HOW I managed to miss this when it happened, but #TodayILearned that IBM sold their entire laptop division to Lenovo in 2005, after finally admitting 30 years after starting that they had lost the home consumer market, by outsourcing their operating system (Windows) to a third party (Microsoft) that could sell it to anyone else, rather than develop their own. They changed most of the computer names, but kept "ThinkPad" since it had such a stellar reputation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquisition_of_the_IBM_PC_business_by_Lenovo
TIL where the word "algebra" comes from!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Jabr
#math #mathematics #linguistics #todayILearned
#TodayILearned that the original "dogs playing poker" painting was done in 1894 by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, one of 17 related images commissioned by the cigar company Brown & Bigelow for use in their advertisements. The ad was immensely popular, which is what led to the thousands of knockoffs that have been reproduced since.
https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/dogs-playing-poker-painting/
Fascinating thread. #TodayILearned about the Ethiopian Regiment. https://mastodon.social/@Deglassco/114383768257728499
#TodayILearned that Vatican City has a "national football championship," but that in most other situations it would be more like an intermural league -- a team just of Swiss Guard, a team just of local police, a team just of museum guards, etc.
#TodayILearned that the term "Vatican" has nothing to do with Catholicism, but rather that the first Catholic church in Rome happened to be located in a neighborhood in the city the Roman Empire called Vatican Hill.
#TodayILearned that for the thousand years the pope owned most of central Italy, these states naturally had their own vast and complicated aristocracy. After their actual power was done away with by Italy's unification, the pope still granted the titles for political power around Vatican City, but the Second Vatican Council got rid of them for good. Popes can still technically grant titles, but they're considered a "personal gift" and not recorded in the official acts.
#TodayILearned that Italy has a special agreement with Vatican City where they apprehend, try, and incarcerate any Vatican criminals on the city-state's behalf, since Vatican City itself has no prison. They also made a deal with the EU that lets them mint their own euro coins.
#TodayILearned that the Swiss Guard (originally a mercenary group the pope hired to protect him, then in the 1500s made the Vatican's official security) still requires its soldiers to be Swiss citizens, under a special deal the Vatican has had for centuries with the Swiss government.
#TodayILearned that Vatican City is officially a monarchy, with the pope as its uncontested king; but that the city-state in reality is run by a six-person congress of cardinals hand-picked by the pope, and a president of this congress also picked by him. It also has a Secretary of State that handles all foreign affairs for the papacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Commission_for_Vatican_City_State
#TodayILearned of this sequel to "One Froggy Evening" in which it is revealed that Michigan J. Frog has existed throughout time! https://youtu.be/ocelMXOHJeE?si=lhqdoMS5esex-sVH
administered by Maxwell?
Post from @todayilearned: TIL that the death of a Pope used to be confirmed by tapping a silver hammer on his head and calling out his baptismal name three times. Nowadays, an electrocardiogram is used instead.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-death-what-happens-next-funeral-conclave/
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1k4i6nj/til_that_the_death_of_a_pope_used_to_be_confirmed/
image with no description.
#TodayILearned that #javascript will happily iterate over empty elements caused by splitting a string in a way that causes no good output. The solution is to filter out empty values. But really, JavaScript language designers, if the split results in no usable elements, why not just return an empty array? What is the reasoning behind returning an array with empty values if they're all empty?
Hmmmm, Never heard this one before either.
post from @todayilearned: TIL the easter bunny and easter eggs were not pagan but a christian concept, and that the hare symbolises mother Mary and the coloured eggs the blood of Jesus | i was mistaught at elementary school |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1k45g2s/til_the_easter_bunny_and_easter_eggs_were_not/
image with no description.
#TodayILearned that there was a myth that the wings on the rear of the 1959 Chevy Impala (you know, the squinting Batman-looking one) generated unsafe amounts of lift at speed. In 2006, Motor Trend Classic magazine busted that myth by putting the car into a wind tunnel and concluded that “the only way to make these fins produce lift is to drive backwards.”
It took 47 years, but myth busted.
#cars #classicCars #vintageCars
Video:
https://www.motortrend.com/videos/0_ekjpwehw/feature-1959-chevy-impala-wind-tunnel-test-video/
#TodayILearned that April 18, 2025 was the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride through Boston.
This projection on Boston’s Old North Church couldn’t be more apt.
Source: hxxps://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1k2ldt3/bostons_old_north_church_on_the_250th_anniversary/
#TodayILearned that "thesaurus" simply means "collection," from the Latin "thesaurum." When Peter Roget created one of the first-ever English-language compendiums of synonyms, people started calling it "Roget's Thesaurus of Synonyms," which eventually got shortened to "Roget's Thesaurus," which then got shortened to simply "thesaurus," which is why this is now a general term for any book of synonyms.
Today I learned about Control-S and Control-Q… better late than never, I guess 
And just got me thinking about that helpful “scroll?” at the bottom of my ZX Spectrum after printing a screenful of content in BASIC…
#TIL #TodayILearned #Terminal #shell #suspend #ControlS #CtrlS https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk/114354742870242559
#TodayILearned that there is another sort of prequel to Stephen King's #DarkTower series called "The Little Sisters of Eluria".
Guess I should set aside some time to dive back into the world of Gilead.
