kind of a cross-post from the pets thread, but TIL that 95% of the freckles i have are not actually freckles! they are lentigines, same as the speckles on my kitty's snoot!
In Canada, Rice Krispies are not automatically gluten-free. Nor are most "you'd think this wouldn't have gluten in it" cereals, actually. This is because Canada and the UK add bran malt to most cereals as a nutrient supplement, which is something that dates back to the start of the Industrial Era when urban working class UK kids needed nutritional supplements like whoa and they wanted to make sure it was something they wouldn't have to fight with the kids to get into them. (In fact, malt was added to cod liver oil to try and make it more palatable! And this is why Ovaltine and other malted powder mixes were so common too.) There is a gluten-free variant of Rice Krispies, but it's the brown rice "specially gluten-free" version. I also learned that in the US, adding malt to cereal isn't as much of a thing.
TIL that "warranty void if removed" stickers are actually bogus in the united states! the stickers are legally meaningless, and it is illegal for a manufacturer to void the warranty if you open a device. https://ifixit.org/blog/11748/warranty-stickers-are-illegal/
TIL that for some mysterious reason there was fake tile linoleum under the fake wood linoleum in my apartment's kitchen. Who does that.
I remember that my parents found the same thing when they went to redo the floors in their previous house. It did, at least, explain why there was about an inch of difference in the height between the kitchen floor and the dining room floor that was nominally connected to the kitchen: whoever'd done the kitchen floor had just kept layering new lino over top of the old stuff, without removing anything.
on the plus side: very kind to your below-floor neighbours who won't have to hear you walking around all the time?
TIL that hitting an iceberg may have sunk the Titanic, but the fact that it had been on fire since leaving port probably didn't help. There was a coal fire below decks, which was causing damage to the bulkheads, and since coal fires are super hard to put out, they decided to put the coal where it would do the least structural damage: in the furnaces for the engines. And what happens when you put extra coal into the engine furnaces? The ship goes faster. Which makes it harder to turn. Which makes it harder to dodge icebergs.
TIL that while fire seems to be the now standard method for trying to destroy the Gavle goat, the big wooden Swedish Yule goat, a few times early on it was destroyed via other methods including hitting it with a car. Two times it just collapsed, possibly not deliberate.
I was about to do a goof about barefoot contessa, and googled her for information. Little did i know i would discover Ina's previous line of work as a nuclear policy analyst for Richard Nixon. What the f u c k
I wrote a detailed essay once on all the factors that led to the Titanic sinking, and managed to miss this one, so TIL my research on the subject was not as thorough as I'd thought!
According to the article, the info about the coal fire had been buried on purpose by the investigatory board that looked into why the Titanic sank. Probably because hitting an iceberg is Unavoidable Tragedy, but setting sail when you've got an active coal fire in the bunkers that is causing structural damage to the bulkheads is Blatant Negligence that would see a much deeper investigation by an outside body into why the ship had been allowed to set sail under those conditions, which probably would have resulted in a lot of people going bankrupt because of lawsuits.
TIL there's a species of spider with a genus name which means ''good eyebrows" (euophrys) and it makes me very happy
TIL that when a business misspells or makes some other grammar mistake on their advertising, its usually a legit marketing strategy to attract customers in to correct you, and once theyre there youve already gotten their attention so selling stuff is easier
