The "What I Learned Today" Thread

[my3labs]

Thanks to wikipedia, google, etc., I seem to learn something new everyday.
This is what I learned today:

Parthenogenesis

Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction in which females produce eggs that develop without fertilization. Parthenogenesis is seen in aphids, daphnia, rotifers, and some other invertebrates, as well as in some plants. Komodo dragons and sharks have recently been added to the list of vertebrates—along with several genera of fish, amphibians, and reptiles—that exhibit differing forms of asexual reproduction, including true parthenogenesis, gynogenesis, and hybridogenesis (an incomplete form of parthenogenesis).

The offspring of parthenogenesis will be all female if two like chromosomes determine the female sex (such as the XY sex-determination system), but male if two like chromosomes determine the male sex (such as the ZW sex-determination system), because the process involves the inheritance and subsequent duplication of only a single sex chromosome. The offspring may be capable of sexual reproduction, if this mode exists in the species. A parthenogenetic offspring is sometimes called a parthenogen. As with all types of asexual reproduction, there are both costs (reduced genetic diversity generated and susceptibility to adverse mutation) and benefits (reproduction without the need for a mate) associated with parthenogenesis.

Parthenogenesis is distinct from artificial animal cloning, a process where the new organism is identical to the cell donor. Parthenogenesis is truly a reproductive process which creates a new individual or individuals from the naturally varied genetic material contained in the eggs of the mother. A litter of animals resulting from parthenogenesis may contain all genetically unique siblings without any twins or multiple numbers from the same genetic material. In animals with an XY chromosome system where parthenogenic offspring are female, parthenogenic offspring of a parthenogen are, however, all genetically identical to each other and to the mother, as a parthenogen is homozygous.

The alternation between parthenogenesis and sexual reproduction is called heterogamy. Forms of reproduction related to parthenogenesis but that require the presence of sperm are known as gynogenesis and hybridogenesis.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

What did you learn today?

[Bowwowmeow]

Did you know that the term "parthenogenesis" is derived from the Greek myth about the goddess of wisdom, Athena, who sprung fully formed from her father Zeus' head? She was the goddess they dedicated the Parthenon to, hence the derivation of "parthenogenesis". :professor:

Today I learned of a new site from which I can design buttons for some of our skins.

[Gliondrach]

Good idea for a thread.

[my3labs]

[FONT=Papyrus][SIZE=3]Did you know that the term "parthenogenesis" is derived from the Greek myth about the goddess of wisdom, Athena, who sprung fully formed from her father Zeus' head? She was the goddess they dedicated the Parthenon to, hence the derivation of "parthenogenesis". :professor:

I did not know that.
I have this really cool book called "The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy". It's an alphabetical list, broken down into categories (Idioms, World Literature, World History, etc) of synopses of various facts, myths, etc.
It's an awesome book.

Example, under mythology & folklore:
Eros (ER-OS, EER-OS) (Roman Name Cupid"): A Greek and Roman god of love, often called the son of Aphrodite. He is better known under his Roman name. The word "erotic" comes from the Greek work "eros", which is the term for sexual love itself, as well as the god's name.

[my3labs]

I signed up for the Word of the Day email from dictionary.com

It's pretty cool. Every day I get an email with a different word, it's meaning, and examples of the use of the word.

[Oracl]

I signed up for the Word of the Day email from dictionary.com

It's pretty cool. Every day I get an email with a different word, it's meaning, and examples of the use of the word.
I have a feeling that BWM signed up for that, or something like it, a while ago. :rubchin: She posted some of the words and their meanings here, but I can't find the thread. :pouty: :bhead:

[Bowwowmeow]

It was something like that, and they kind of just quit on me after a while, and I don't get them anymore. I still have emails piled up though. I should put them here (http://www.thenakedvegan.net/showthread.php?t=456).
Don't forget folks, if you can remember who started a thread, you can click on their username and look at "find all threads started by" them. :D

[Oracl]

Don't forget folks, if you can remember who started a thread, you can click on their username and look at "find all threads started by" them. :D

:o I figured you had started so many threads that I would search by keyword, but I was informed that my search words were too short or something! :rolleyes: :pouty: :laugh:

[my3labs]

Wikipedia has a similar function where they'll send you a story or synopsis of something.

[Bowwowmeow]

My head is broken. :flush:
That's what you call the potty when you live on a boat. :boat:

Anyway, my Dad is a cheapska. . . I mean very frugal and wise with his money, and he wanted me to get a cheap manual-pump model. I don't want to spend $500.00, but I don't want to mess around and get one that doesn't work with my system, so I was holding out. Turns out I was not only right about sticking with the same model I've got, the manual types have leather diaphragms in the pumping mechanism. :mad:

You really can leave no stone unturned in your quest for vegan living. Imagine putting animal products in a toilet. Now I'm wondering whether landlubber toilets have animal parts in them. :shakehead:

[paul]

Sorry to hear your heads broken,the toilet over here seam to be full of plastic bits,no animal parts.

[Gliondrach]

They even use leather in the making of bagpipes. That's why I no longer play mine. The neighbours must miss them.

[1vegan]

As far as I know, most if not all land toilets use rubber.

I once did a repair of a manual toilet pump, and can't recall that it had leather in it?

[Bowwowmeow]

I've been reading "The Mucusless Diet Healing System", written by Arnold Ehret a little over a hundred years ago. In it, he states the most interesting view that the source of our modern cultural compulsion to consume animal flesh was, in part, a reaction of religious people to the Darwinian view of mankind being related to fruit and leaf eating primates. I've never thought of that before; the myth of Man the Carnivore being established by Creationists to counter Darwinian theories of evolution.

[Oracl]

That is very interesting. :rubchin:

[Tails4wagging]

Yes, wouldnt surprise me.. Typical arragance of our species..

[thevegantwins]

Today I learned that emetophobia is a fear of vomiting. Not only did I learn that word but I also found out that there is a message board for sufferers of emetophobia and that Mr. TVT has emetophobia. After being together 12 years, I just found out he has a fear of vomiting and I vaguely remembered that there was an actual phobia for this so he asked me to look up the name and voila, my new knowledge. :thumbsup:

[Bowwowmeow]

I've got that too. That's why there are no vomit smilies here. I can't even look at smilie puke. :o

[Gliondrach]

I fear nothing. I'm just a typical hero-type.

[Fauxmage]

I got a free yo yo from the Sequoia Gem and Mineral Society on Sunday. We won't be discussing how many years I've been going to their annual show. :whistle:

I haven't yo yoed since I was in grade school. We won't be discussing how many years ago that was either. http://www.thesaucyvegan.com/images/smilies/Smilies/0002Smile%202.gif

I never actually found out I was truly ambidextrous til I was in my twenties. If you aren't an utter lefty, it isn't the sort of thing you might easily discover about yourself. :bhead:

What's this got to do with what I learned today? Today I learned that, although I haven't yo yoed since before I was a teenager, I am as good at yo yoing with my left hand as my right, at the very first try. Which is actually not bad at all. I can even walk the dog. It came back just like riding a bike. :bicycle:

But that it appears to have come back to my left hand as well as my right, when I never yo yoed with my left hand as a child, is very very weird. Especially since it took me a few tries before I got the feel for it at all, while using my right hand. :dizzy:

I just thought everyone would be extremely fascinated to know this. :p

[Gliondrach]

Yes, it was fascinating. Probably one of the most fascinating things I've learned today. I only woke up a few hours ago, though, and didn't learn anything at all for the first few hours.

[nagev]

I agree with Gliondrach. It was fascinating. I recently woke up and beyond me not having any brown sugar for my oatmeal, I haven't learned much. :)

[Bowwowmeow]

Today I learned that a bloodhound can track a scent trail for a hundred miles.

[nagev]

Today I learned that a bloodhound can track a scent trail for a hundred miles.

Was this from reading?

[Gliondrach]

A typical bear has a sense of smell many times more sensitive than that of a blood hound. A cave bear has a sense of smell many times more sensitive than that of a typical bear.

[Bowwowmeow]

Was this from reading?
Yes, I wanted to look up bloodhounds online after that stray one showed up.

[Bowwowmeow]

I learned that the great big clumps of evergreen plant life growing on the branches of lots of the oak trees around here, that are now exposed by the falling of the deciduous oak leaves, are actually mistletoe.

[Bowwowmeow]

Today I learned, while listening to a James taylor recording of The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), that he changed the line that goes "everybody knows, a turkey and some mistletoe..." to "everybody knows, some holly and some mistletoe". :)

So I looked him up, and he does seem to be a vegetarian, though I always take all those "famous vegetarian" lists with a grain of salt. Changing that lyric was a good thing though.

[Gliondrach]

I learned that I need longer arms. My computer monitor stopped working yesterday. It had been giving trouble for a few days. It would suddenly go off for a second and then come back on. It wouldn't come on today. Luckily, I had a spare one. I've had the old one since 2002 and it was second-hand then. It came with my first computer, which was also second-hand. It has a 13 3/4 inch screen. The newer one has a 15 3/4 inch screen. It seems huge and is much too close. But I can't move it further back because there's no room and I can't move the keyboard further away from it. They are on a small table and take up the whole surface. I will need to sort something out because my eyes are getting tired staring at the screen. It's like being in a front seat at the cinema. And it's also too bright but the brightness/contrast control buttons don't seem to work. I'll have to try to do it by going into the controls of the computer later.

[Bowwowmeow]

Aw that sounds very tiresome. I hope you can get it sorted to your satisfaction.

[Gliondrach]

I've looked on the control panel, at the display functions, but there's nothing there to change the brightness or contrast. I'll have a look at the monitor's buttons tomorrow in the daylight. A menu thing comes on the screen but nothing happens when I press the button to select or change things. :no:

[gabbles]

Is there anything else you could put the keyboard and mouse on?

[Gliondrach]

No. I would need another table of about the same height.

[Gliondrach]

About two years ago, when I was walking with a stick, I managed to hurt the tendon in my right thumb. I often had to stand leaning heavily on the stick when my legs were about to give way and most of the weight went on to the base of my right thumb. This caused some form of tendonitis and I developed what is known as snapping thumb or trigger thumb. If I began to open or close my thumb it would only move smoothly for a very short distance and then suddenly snap open or closed - whichever way I was moving it at the time. It was quite alarming and worrying. I read that the usual treatment was injections or surgery. So I made a splint out of rolled up paper and put that over my thumb each night when I went to bed. I kept it tight by putting an elastic band round it. After a few weeks my thumb was cured.

I now have a snapping forefinger on my right hand. It came on a few weeks ago and is sometimes worse than at other times. Sometimes it moves smoothly. It seems to be worse first thing in the morning. I thought that I might be sleeping in such a way as to put pressure on the finger. But I've noticed slight pain at the base of the finger on the pad on the palm. I think it must have been caused by the static holds I was doing to improve my tuck plance. I would lean as far forwards as I could to put more pressure on the base of my fingers. That area would get sore whilst I was putting pressure on it but would be all right after I took the pressure off. I am going to put a paper splint on my finger when I go to bed. I will continue the tuck planche practice when my finger is better but will need to have some padding under my hands. My carpet is very thin and offers no padding. I might use a folded towel.

[Gliondrach]

I put a paper splint on my finger last night. It was so tight it wouldn't allow my finger to bend at all. My finger was a bit sore when I woke up this morning but hasn't been snappy today. I think I will put an elastoplast over the joint tonight. It will stop the finger bending fully but will allow it to bend a bit.

[Bowwowmeow]

Ow that sounds painful. :(

[Gliondrach]

I haven't used a splint since that time. My finger is getting better.


I don't know if these are true but I didn't know about them:

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'


Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.

[lexybee91]

I learnt that people enjoy making me cry :/ x

[Gliondrach]

Try not to let them.

[lexybee91]

It's hard when they say i'm a bad pet owner and am going to kill my animals through ignorance and neglect! :( If they said i'm a fat bitch I could deal with that but to say that an AR Activviest and vegan would harm an animal... wtfxx

[Gliondrach]

Do they say this about your guinea pigs?

[lexybee91]

I rescued three bunnies from a breeder who was going to kill them. They were incredibly obesce and she'd obviously neglected their physical needs.

They said if i didn't surrender them to a rescue I would end up killing them. xx

[Gliondrach]

Perhaps they meant well. Or perhaps not. Are the bunnies on a diet now? Rescues often have too many to look after to give them all the individual attention they need.

[lexybee91]

I like to think they meant well and expressed their concern in a way that lacked tact. Rescues do an admirable thing but I agree I don't like offloading to them, the buns are unfortunately in rescue. I was persuaded and i do hate arguments:( xx

[Gliondrach]

You could always go along to see the bunnies to reassure yourself that they are doing well.

[lexybee91]

(laptop over heated)I phoned them this morning and shall phone again tomorrow! It might be more convinient for them if I say could you up date me weekly, at your leisure.. :)