Today-I-Learned on Stefano Chiodino

Pirate treasures are fiction

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The idea of pirate treasure derives from a single incident involving William Kidd in 1699. Kidd was about to be arrested, but before confronting the authorities he buried his treasure on Gardiners Island. He first asked permission to John Gardiner, the island’s owner, who later handed over the treasure to the authorities.

This is the whole history of pirate treasure. It inspired Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which almost single handedly created the modern image of pirates.

Source: How To, by Randall Munroe

Why are plants green?

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Most of the sun’s energy is in the green wavelength, however that’s exactly what the plants bounce back, as chlorophyll of type a and b absorbs light in the red and blue spectrum.

It was thought that collecting too much of the available wavelength could harm the plant (think of how hot black surfaces can become). However it has recently been discovered that plants are trying to optimise for a steady flux of energy, because flickers in the energy collected can cause energy failures or tissue damage.

In the long run evolution selects for performances, but also stability.

Source: Reddit /r/til

Ref: https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-are-plants-green-to-reduce-the-noise-in-photosynthesis-20200730/

North Korea is a necrocracy

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Kim Il-sung died in ‘94, but it’s been nominated eternal President of the Republic, making the country’s system a necrocracy.

Source: Reddit /r/til

Ref.: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/necrocracy

RAS Syndrome

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I recall a friend complaining about “PAT test”, because PAT already stands for Portable Appliance Test, so adding test at the end was redundant.

I’ve eventually came across the RAS syndrome, which is a self-referential name for this problem.

Other common cases of RAS syndrome are PIN and VIN numbers, ATM machine, HIV virus, LCD display.

Acronyms suffering from RAS syndromes are widely accepted as the redundancy adds clarity.

Skeuomorph

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A skeuomorph is an object that maintained design cues that have become non functional. For example the tiny handle on maple syrup bottle is to retain the distinctive appearance of the much bigger jugs maple syrup was once stored in. Other examples are many icons on modern mobile phones and computers, light bulbs in the shape of candles, etc.

Source: Googling for the reason why maple syrup bottles have a tiny handle.

Monocote vs dicot plants

Sun, 07 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Dicots and monocots differs on several more features other than the one that gives them their names: the number of cotyledon (leafs) in their embryo. Monocots have parallel veins in their leafs, which usually means elongate leafs as well, complexly arranged vascular system, fibrous roots, and floral parts usually in multiple of three. Dicots have a network of branching veins, a vascular system arranged in rings, a taproot system (a long main root), and floral parts usually arranged in multiple of four or five.

Source: Coursera’s Understanding Plants - Part II: Fundamentals of Plant Biology Week 2 2.1 Plant organs.

URL: https://www.coursera.org/learn/plant-biology/lecture/4927r/2-1-plant-organs

Plasmodesma

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Plasmodesma is a narrow thread of cytoplasm that passes through the cell walls of adjacent plant cells and allows communication between them.

Source: Coursera’s Understanding Plants - Part II: Fundamentals of Plant Biology Week 1 1.7 The vacuole and plasmodesmata

URL: https://www.coursera.org/learn/plant-biology/lecture/gwRmz/1-7-the-vacuole-and-plasmodesmata

Xylem

Fri, 05 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Xylem are tubes that allows water and substances to go through a plant. They are made of cells that die through apoptosis (programmed cell death). This process thickens the side walls, remove the top and bottom ones, and progressively kills the cell, leaving a tube of all those cell walls in their place.

Source: Coursera’s Understanding Plants - Part II: Fundamentals of Plant Biology Week 1 1.8 Vascular tissue - xylem

URL: https://www.coursera.org/learn/plant-biology/lecture/jZRR7/1-8-vascular-tissue-xylem

Fundamental attribution error

Wed, 20 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Fundamental attribution error is the tendency for people to attribute far too much importance to personality rather than situations.

Source: Coursera - Yale’s Introduction to Psychology https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-psychology/lecture/Urm4G/attribution

A life is valued 10 million dollars

Sun, 26 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the USA the value of a life has been estimated to be worth 10 million USD. This was initially much smaller, being just what a person would earn for the rest of his life, in average. It was later adjusted to reflect what a human life is worth, other than just work, by calculating how much the market values the danger of more risky job to be worth, but also what is it worth to their dears.

Source: Planet Money podcast, episode “Lives vs the economy”.

Conjunction fallacy

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Conjunction fallacy occurs when it is assumed that specific conditions are more probable than a single general one.

Source: Rationality Course

Via: Harvard

URL: 45 minutes in https://harvard.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a780e65f-e1d0-47a2-97c4-ab3b0140edfb

Alkaline battery

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

To produce an Amazon basic alkaline battery may require 100 times more energy than what the battery can actually produce.

Source: The Verge

Via: Apple News

Asia after World War Two

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

After the Second World War forecasts were that Asia was going to be a trouble area because it was poorer that Africa and without the same amount of resources. Turned out that labour force and education can overcome that.

Source: Masters in business podcast

Probability can be subjective

Wed, 22 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

If I flip a coin and look at the result in secret, being heads, then the chances that it’s heads it’s 100% for me, but 50% for everybody else.

Source: Rationality Course

Via: Harvard

URL: 32 minutes in https://harvard.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=a780e65f-e1d0-47a2-97c4-ab3b0140edfb