Mastodawn

#TodayILearned that the Romanian word for "eagle" is "vultur."

#TodayILearned that the vampire bat (1774) was named for the mythological vampire (1732) and not the other way around. https://www.etymonline.com/word/vampire

Vampire - Etymology, Origin & Meaning

"spectral being in a human body who maintains semblance of life by leaving the grave at… See origin and meaning of vampire.

etymonline

Jason Pettus

1d ago

#TodayILearned (thanks to the Thomas Pynchon intro in the edition I'm reading) that George Orwell's main aim when writing "1984" was not to criticize Stalinism itself, but rather to criticize the mainstream British liberals in the Labour Party who embraced Stalinism during World War Two.

Fawn with a fuse 5d ago

TIL that you can use the inside of milk cartons for intaglio printing.
#todayilearned
#printing
#trynewstuff

Programming N' Language 6d ago

So Malay (Bahasa Melayu) and Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) are closely related, mutually intelligible, standard varieties of the Malay language?!

#TodayILearned #LanguageLearning #AsianLanguages #Dictionariez

Harrison Feb 5

How to Drain a Water Heater

https://harrisongg.com/how-to-drain-a-water-heater #Todayilearned

How to Drain a Water Heater - @harrisongg

I got a new water heater about a year ago, so it was time to drain it. I found this video that has a lot of good tips: The whole process took less than an...

Alan Feb 4

Just learnt Mat Damon went to Harvard (but didn't graduate) #TodayILearned

Dadmin Feb 1

TIL before #AgeVerification #SocialMedia was a public social hub were you could find interresting people, discuss ecological, political or gender queer topics or just enjoy cat content without VPN or ID 🙄
#TodayILearned #TIL

https://noc.social/@todayilearned/115995873341363833

Today I learned (@todayilearned@noc.social)

TIL before 9/11, US airports were public social hubs where you could walk to the gate, eat at food courts, and watch planes without a ticket or ID. https://www.npr.org/2021/09/10/1035131619/911-travel-timeline-tsa #til #todayilearned https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1qszj9b/til_before_911_us_airports_were_public_social/

Noc.Social

Rado

Jan 31

#todayilearned that, in 2010, the colombian army wrote a pop song and concealed a #morsecode message inside it, as a way to communicate with hostages and tell them that they'd be freed soon

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Better_Days_(Natalia_Gutierrez_Y_Angelo_Song)

the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVCE-mH3PdM

visualization of the message: https://youtube.com/shorts/z2MyN0zbWGI

TruckDriver 🇺🇸 🚛 🍽Jan 31

Ah! "Road slugs" I've seen them before but never knew what they were called or their purpose. I always thought they were rolling fuel tanks for the locomotive...

Thanks for sharing!

#railfan
#todayIlearned
#til