Today I learned... (Post interesting facts.)

**lightnight** · by **lightnight** » 9 May 2016, 20:15

Derek wrote:There is a definitive link between schizophrenia and religious delusions, but only in Christian nations. Schizophrenics in other cultures fixate on other matters such as shame, slander, and communal paranoia. What does that say about us? Is it a function of our self-indulgent society that causes people to mix up religious ethos with egotistical delusions of grandeur and/or persecution? Are our nuts just not as capable of feeling ashamed? Is that why everything is so weird in America?

In some muslim populated countries, schizophrenics are often thought to have been possessed by some jinn (which can be demonic or not) and taken to spiritual healers instead of some institution that can actually help them. Can't say anything about other cultures because I don't know much.

**Brenden** · by **Brenden** » 9 May 2016, 20:28

Mystery wrote:The English version of the mermaid is rusalka in Russian folklore

Not really. The origins and narrative purposes of these two mythic creatures are very different. Rusalki are like (fresh)water fairies.

Also, it's a Slavic myth, not just Russian.

**Muspelli** · by **Muspelli** » 27 May 2016, 03:37

Varg Vikernes, black metal pioneer, has an active Youtube channel.

**Paragon** · by **Paragon** » 4 June 2016, 15:29

TIL the gene that allows us to metabolize alcohol is 10 million years old.

Lots of online articles are of course hyperbolizing that we've been purposely making booze for millions of years, but that's dumb. At that point, our ancestors hadn't yet diverged from those of the chimpanzees.

**Brenden** · by **Brenden** » 4 June 2016, 16:58

Paragon wrote:TIL the gene that allows us to metabolize alcohol is 10 million years old.

Lots of online articles are of course hyperbolizing that we've been purposely making booze for millions of years, but that's dumb. At that point, our ancestors hadn't yet diverged from those of the chimpanzees.

Could be that it allowed our common ancestors to safely consume fermented fruit, and so had more food options for survival.

I feel like I've seen videos of chimps tipsy on fermented fruit, too. :lol:

**Muspelli** · by **Muspelli** » 7 June 2016, 11:22

I just learned Hillary Clinton really does keep hotsauce in her purse, likely in the same place she keeps her folksy Kentucky accent.

**Paragon** · by **Paragon** » 12 June 2016, 05:58

TIL that as per the rules of the Writer's Guild of America, a writing team is considered as a single writer. Their names are listed together with an ampersand (&) to denote this - that they collaborated to create a single work.

Meanwhile, if you see an "and", that denotes that the writers listed worked separately on the script. For example, if someone wrote a script and it was so shitty that they had to bring in someone else to fix it... their names would be listed with "and".

This post was deleted by Tony on 8 July 2016, 23:10. **Reason:** *Troll* Top

This post was deleted by Tony on 8 July 2016, 23:10.
Reason: Troll

**Sullivan** · by **Sullivan** » 16 July 2016, 19:44

Cockles are a kind of shellfish, which would have been good to know before my mother, who has a severe shellfish allergy, ordered a plate of trout garnished with them.

**poolerboy0077** · by **poolerboy0077** » 16 July 2016, 19:49

Sullivan wrote:Cockles

Stop being obscene. This is a family friendly forum.

**Brenden** · by **Brenden** » 17 July 2016, 08:37

poolerboy0077 wrote:
Sullivan wrote:Cockles

Stop being obscene. This is a family friendly forum.

**rxxli** · by **rxxli** » 10 August 2016, 00:23

Americans (and pretty much everyone non-European) do not (or did not) use the Scart connector/standard. OMG.
The thing is pretty much obsolete these days - most people do not use it anymore. But pretty much all new TVs still have the thing for connecting older devices.

**Brenden** · by **Brenden** » 10 August 2016, 07:53

rxxli wrote:Americans (and pretty much everyone non-European) do not (or did not) use the Scart connector/standard. OMG.
The thing is pretty much obsolete these days - most people do not use it anymore. But pretty much all new TVs still have the thing for connecting older devices.

I was very confused by Scart when I fist moved over here. Before HDMI, we used tulip connectors in North America, and even had ones which split the video into three colour signals and supported HD up to I believe 1080i.

**rxxli** · by **rxxli** » 10 August 2016, 11:24

Brenden wrote:I was very confused by Scart when I fist moved over here. Before HDMI, we used tulip connectors in North America, and even had ones which split the video into three colour signals and supported HD up to I believe 1080i.

I've never heard of RCA jacks being called tulip connectors before.

RCA composite video connectors are pretty common as well, but not as much as scart.

What you are mentioning here is the component video. Or more specifically YPbPr. You can find that on most new equipment as well. But the beauty of scart is that it supports component RGB, component YPbPr and composite video signals. All in one big ugly connector.

**René** · by **René** » 10 August 2016, 11:41

rxxli wrote:But the beauty of scart is that it supports component RGB, component YPbPr and composite video signals. All in one big ugly connector.

And audio! It was the HDMI of its time.

**xyz72** · by **xyz72** » 10 August 2016, 13:13

Scart brings back memories of 90s and early 00s video games for me. If a plug can be nostalgic, then this one is it.

**yagyug** · by **yagyug** » 13 August 2016, 13:12

Aladin is from China, Riverdance started out as an intermission act at Eurovision, and Oreos are somehow dairy free.

It has been a rollercoaster of a day.

**xyz72** · by **xyz72** » 13 August 2016, 13:53

yagyug wrote:Aladin is from China, Riverdance started out as an intermission act at Eurovision, and Oreos are somehow dairy free.

It has been a rollercoaster of a day.

Wanna hear a really crazy one? Fortune Cookies are originally something Japanese Americans came up with and were only adopted by Chinese restaurants when the US started putting Japanese people into internment camps.

**yagyug** · by **yagyug** » 14 August 2016, 11:44

xyz72 wrote:
yagyug wrote:Aladin is from China, Riverdance started out as an intermission act at Eurovision, and Oreos are somehow dairy free.

It has been a rollercoaster of a day.

Wanna hear a really crazy one? Fortune Cookies are originally something Japanese Americans came up with and were only adopted by Chinese restaurants when the US started putting Japanese people into internment camps.

That's nuts! On a similar note (though it might not be relevant to people outside Australia :shrug:

) Dim Sim's aren't from China. They're considered the iconic Chinese food in Australia (to the point that a racist slur for Chinese people is to call them a Dim Sim), but they were actually made in Australia, and they're relatively unheard of in China.

Similar thing with tikka masala, invented in Scotland apparently. :blargh:

**Brenden** · by **Brenden** » 30 August 2016, 12:19

TIL you can eat the fruit of fuchsia plants.

And my newest fuchsia somehow got a few flowers pollinated, so now I've got a few tiny little purple berries to try. :awesome:

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