Today I Learned

TIL that the furnace used to keep glass molten while being blown is called a glory hole.

Please admire this list of glory holes for beginners, masters, and gaffers.

 

TIL that we really still don't know what the fuck a fossa is. (No seriously, I went looking for the latin name and every single source has a different one D: )

 

Today I finally found the movie quoted in Evil's TOY's Colours Out of Space and Illusion (maybe a few other songs? But definitely those two)

It's The Abyss.

 

TIL that the reason why I was that weird kid who liked brussel sprouts and spinach is probably at least in part because I had a pretty much perpetual headcold as a kid. (I am allergic to cats and dogs. We have always had cats and/or a dog in the family; the only time I'm reasonably sure that my family didn't have a furry pet is when I was between 'newborn' and 'four or five' and we hadn't yet moved out of our tiny apartment in Toronto. I didn't get allergy tested until 6th grade, and I think mom got me a carton of otc allergy meds as soon as she realized that I was perpetually congested and why.)

Kids can normally taste bitter flavours much more strongly than adults, but sinus congestion mutes your sense of taste (because what you taste actually relies pretty heavily on olfactory ability) so if you don't have much sense of smell, you're going to taste the basic 'salty/sweet/bitter/sour' and it's going to be turned down to, like, 3. So I could tell that brussel sprouts and spinach were strong flavours, and my mom was steaming them or boiling them like everyone else did in the 90s, but it wasn't an unpleasant sort of strong.

 

TIL that not only do young kangaroos in human care immediately jump into any offered bags, RSPCA officers rescuing wild adults will often stick them in GIANT HESSIAN SACKS to help them feel calmer/safer. That's including the males, who depending on species, can weigh between 145 - 200lbs. I just watched three people lift a snoozing sack into the back of a van. I love animal rescue shows.

(I don't know whether it's more hilarious or adorable, that the marsupial instinct of pouch=safety is so strong you get the animal version of a hypermasculine heavyweight boxer still liking the feel of being close to their mum <3 )

 

Double post, but - TIL that badgers bury their dead.

 

Jean Auel wrote 3600 pages of ridiculously-detailed prehistoric fiction, had a character whose totem was the saiga antelope, and yet it was only today that I learned that a saiga antelope looks like this:

Spoiler: the most hilarious face

 

Saiga antelope are a gift.

 

An em-dash is called an em-dash because it is based off the length of the font's letter m, m generally being the widest letter.

 

TIL there is a beastie called the red-lipped batfish

Spoiler: image

 

That this exists:

https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor

 

That people do put jelly on hot dogs and do not have to be HIGH to DO something like that.

 

TIL how to pronounce chassis and I'm so angry bc now it doesn't look like a word, let alone sound like one. >:C

 

when i learned how to spell yacht i was irrationally angry for several days afterwards

 

TIL that sitting oddly in a chair is a sign of a couple brainweirds. Apparently allistics and neurotypicals don't feel the need to pull their feet up on the chair or sit crosslegged with their knees propped on the armrests or anything.

 

I sit with one leg folded under me and my parents tell me to "sit like a human" when I do it :/

 

Tbf i would like to See some actual like sources on this besides anecdata because there are a whole number of reasons for chairs to be uncomfy (up To and including 'chair not sized to Person') so i'm like #doubt.
(Plus chairs are a relatively recent and local invention invention which also explains while it's so easy to fuck up your posture in one...)

 

I’ve had autistic friends do this with the explanation that they don’t like to touch the chair back

Pulling the knees up to the chest is a relatively common self-soothing behavior

And dyspraxia or low muscle tone, both of which are common among autistic people, sometimes shows in unusual posture in general

So does it automatically mean you’re autistic? No. Is it something that seems to crop up in people who are autistic? Yes.

I went digging for studies but no one cares apparently.

 

There's nothing irrational about that.

 

TIL that baby toucans look like somewhat judgemental muppets and I can't stop laughing.