What I learned today!

[_MeDotOrg]

The official General Motors terminology for the holes in the front fenders of Buicks is Cruiserline Ventiports.

[_Markk]

Pretty cool...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bla ... -telescope

[_Res Ipsa]

Pretty cool...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bla ... -telescope

Cool, indeed.

[_Markk]

The "donut" is estimated to be 20 billion miles accross...that is just mind boggling, and when compared to the rest of space puts infinity into perspective...at least for me.

[_MeDotOrg]

This hideous monstrosity could have been the Golden Gate Bridge:



This was the bridge as it was originally proposed by its designer, Joseph Strauss. It was politely suggested the design was too fugly for words and asked that it be reviewed. The bridge as you see it today is the result of the input of 3 men: primarily Charles Alton Ellis, with additional input from Leon Moisseiff and Irving Foster Murrow, who decided to keep the primer shade known as International Orange as the color. Before Murrow's color suggestion, the Department of War was worried that war ships could crash into the towers and wanted the bridge painted yellow and black:



The Golden Gate Bridge appears designed from a single piece of cloth. It looks like the work of visionary Ayn Rand hero, rather than a committee design. But it's the other way around.

There was considerable opposition to the bridge. Southern Pacific Railroad, which ran the ferry service taking cars across the bay, filed over 2,000 lawsuits trying to halt its construction. The Department of War was worried that bombing the bridge could collapse the towers into the strait, blocking whatever portion of the Pacific Fleet was inside the harbor.

[Guest]

Today I learned about Eugene Schieffelin. He wanted to introduce all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to the United States. In 1890-91, he released a total of 100 European Starlings in Central Park. That original 100 grew to over 200 million starlings in North America. He was also responsible for introducing the House Sparrow to the U.S. The other birds of the bard didn’t catch on.

All the world’s a cage, and the men and women in it, but ornithologists.

http://thememorypalace.us/2019/03/sixty-starlings/

Thanks for the background! They are horribly damaging and invasive birds, which I learned shortly after getting married and visiting my sister in law, an avid birder and gardener, in a very rural part of upstate New York.

When I asked her what the 22 on the window sill was for, her response was a very matter of fact, "for getting rid of those ****** starlings."

Perhaps so, but even they can be quite endearing sometimes. See: Arnie the Darling Starling

This true story of a talking starling and the grandmother who raised him is as heartwarming a book as you will ever read - a new classic in the tradition of Rascal, Born Free, and That Quail, Robert.

When Margarete first came upon Arnie, he was just a familiar springtime sight: a baby bird lying helpless in the daisy patch. After unsucessfully trying to return him to the nest, she took him into her Texas home and raised him as carefully as she had raised her own child, teaching him to perch, to fly, even to talk. Arnie resisted all attempts to restore him to the wild, preferring steak and canned corn to worms, which frightened him, and even developing a taste for wine.

Most astonishing of all, he learned to talk and sing, and he had a remarkable influence on a number of lives. Lenny, the young drug addict, paused on the road to self-destruction, so enthralled by Arnie that he carried a dog-eared picture of him in his wallet. Suzanne, the Vietnamese refugee, learned from Arnie that wrong home can be a prison and fled to Colorado to start a new life. Margarete's grandson, Travis, who called Arnie "Superbird," gained a new respect for wild creatures, and even her three cats came to love Arnie as one of their own.

Arnie is full of life, laughter, and love. It is a completely irresistable book

It was one of the most touching animal stories I ever read. I think you would enjoy it.

If you like that book, you would probably also enjoy Alex & Me.

"You be good. I love you," were Alex's final words to his owner, research scientist Irene Pepperberg, before his premature death at age thirty-one on September 6, 2007. An African Grey parrot, Alex had a brain the size of a shelled walnut, yet he could add, sound out words, understand concepts like bigger, smaller, more, fewer, and none, and he disproved the widely accepted idea that birds possess no potential for language or anything remotely comparable to human intelligence. Alex & Me is the remarkable true account of an amazing, irascible parrot and his best friend who stayed together through thick and thin for thirty years; the astonishing, moving, and unforgettable story of a landmark scientific achievement and a beautiful relationship.

[_subgenius]

This hideous monstrosity could have been the Golden Gate Bridge:
...

speaking of San Francisco, how about this map of San Fran not being outdone by San Dan on street poop.

[_subgenius]

[_Chap]

The poor are so ruthless in their oppression of the comfortably off, aren't they? Why won't they just go away and leave us to enjoy life as we deserve?

I spend a lot of time in one city which has a fair number of street sleepers in certain places. However, the city has provided a large number of quite elegant looking toilet cabins in most districts. These cost nothing to use, allow 20 minutes of privacy to perform natural functions and to wash, and they are large enough to be accessed by the disabled. After that, the interior of the cabin is automatically washed and made ready for the next user. And as I can personally testify, they are used by many a fixed-abode citizen with a full bladder, not just by the homeless. I am happy to contribute to the very small proportion of local taxes that pay for this. Preserving the dignity of my fellow human beings, as well as the cleanliness of the city, is worth paying for.

As a result, I have never seen signs of human defecation in the streets. No doubt the world's richest country can do even better if it wants to.

[_Markk]

The poor are so ruthless in their oppression of the comfortably off, aren't they? Why won't they just go away and leave us to enjoy life as we deserve?

I spend a lot of time in one city which has a fair number of street sleepers in certain places. However, the city has provided a large number of quite elegant looking toilet cabins in most districts. These cost nothing to use, allow 20 minutes of privacy to perform natural functions and to wash, and they are large enough to be accessed by the disabled. After that, the interior of the cabin is automatically washed and made ready for the next user. And as I can personally testify, they are used by many a fixed-abode citizen with a full bladder, not just by the homeless. I am happy to contribute to the very small proportion of local taxes that pay for this. Preserving the dignity of my fellow human beings, as well as the cleanliness of the city, is worth paying for.

As a result, I have never seen signs of human defecation in the streets. No doubt the world's richest country can do even better if it wants to.

You have not been to California. When they put toilets here, they were used as a place to deal drugs and for prostitution.

I was at a red light at Los Angeles street and sixth, and a guy was crapping on the curb wrapped in a blanket and hid himself pretty well, then he threw the blanket off and wiped his rear in from of everyone.

I have seen countless people crap and pee in the streets of LA and other so ca cities. You have no idea what is going on...I tried to tell you guys a few years ago and you just blew it off, just wait until it comes to your town.