What did you learn today TIL

[psiberzerker]

I didn't even know that Krispy Kreme and Panera was the same people, until I read this.

Could we be entering the age of Reparations?  It might be worth staying alive to see that!

[_priapism]

I didn't even know that Krispy Kreme and Panera was the same people, until I read this.

Could we be entering the age of Reparations?  It might be worth staying alive to see that!

https://www.businessinsider.com/jab-holding-building-a-coffee-and-bagel-empire-2017-4

Krispy Kreme, Einstein Brothers, Panera, Keuring, Peet’s Coffees.  Amazing how money I’ve been giving to a German family I have never heard of, with a Nazi past.

[Katiebee]

Learn me something new today, Remmy.    Please tell me what this is...

It would appear to be a chicken with its head cut off, stuck on a never ending quest of trying to answer the age old question... which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Seriously, I have no idea what it means. I ran across it years ago and it just tickled my fancy... and I like having my fancy tickled. 

Remmy

It’s an abomination!!!!
 

[watcher1]

That the United States (read our tax dollars) has, to date, given Afghanistan $120 billion to rebuild its country.

In addition, Afghanistan's military budget is $6.5 billion per year of which the United States puts in $4.9 billion of that.

Afghanistan's revenue is only $5 billion a year. And their government is mostly corrupt.

I can think of a few things we here in the United States can do with all those billions of dollars.

[psiberzerker]

That the United States (read our tax dollars) has, to date, given Afghanistan $120 billion to rebuild its country...

I can think of a few things we here in the United States can do with all those billions of dollars.

I had no idea that we spent about as much as the country's own budget, just investing in it's military, but add that to the $Trillion we spent on it in the 00s alone, not to mention the mercenary war we didn't (Officially) fund there since the 70s, and yeah.

We could afford the Green New Deal.  Easily, if 1:  It wasn't coming from a Millennial Latina, and B:  We cared as much about our planet's future as we did about spreading "Freedom" with airstrikes, opium, and mercenary wars.

[Remington555]

I learned that one -- and only one -- county in my state will excuse day sleepers from jury duty.

I just happen to live in that particular county and I have officially been excused from jury duty next week. 

I spoke to the jury manager on the phone and he's the one that told me this is the only county that does it. He used to work a graveyard shift and learned first hand that, in his words, "You can force your body to stay awake, but you can't force your brain to function at a high level."

Works for me. I served on two juries before I became a day sleeper, and it was so boring it was all I could do to force myself to stay awake then.

Remmy

[watcher1]

That new evidence (DNA testing and pelvic examination) taken from the grave of Casimir Pulaski, Revolutionary War hero, discovered that he was an intersex, formerly known as a hermaphrodite.

[_priapism]

I read an article in the Washington Post that President James Buchanan was openly gay, known to be so, and despite some crude mockery, was accepted as such in Washington DC.

[psiberzerker]

New ways to decenter.

[Remington555]

I read an article in the Washington Post that President James Buchanan was openly gay, known to be so, and despite some crude mockery, was accepted as such in Washington DC.

Here's more speculation about President Buchanan

Remmy

[MissBarbara]

I read an article in the Washington Post that President James Buchanan was openly gay, known to be so, and despite some crude mockery, was accepted as such in Washington DC.

Here's more speculation about President Buchanan

Remmy

Talk about the possibility that James Buchanan was gay has been around for decades, and there's nothing new here.

What I find troubling is the fact that this article, and most others like it, succeed chiefly in perpetuating tired, old stereotypes about gay people, chiefly:

* A life-long bachelor must be gay.

* A man who never marries must be gay.

* A man who has a very close friendship with another man must be gay.

And he tops it all off with this whopper: "American society at that time was fairly liberal when it came to sexuality." The absurdity of that statement invalidates everything else he says in the article.

What's especially puzzling to me is that this article is excerpted from a longer article written by James Loewen, an historian whom I greatly respect. His book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" is as fascinating as it is groundbreaking, and his more recent book, "The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader," is a vital source for examining the role of slavery in the Confederate Secession. (tl/dr: Yes, the Civil War WAS caused by and fought over the issue of slavery.)

Was James Buchanan gay? I don't know, neither does anyone else, and, most likely, never will anyone else.

Does it matter? No, not at all.

Was James Buchanan the First Gay President. Again, no one knows. Marriage is the norm today, and marriage was incomparably more the norm in the early- to mid-19th century. "Being married" in 1840 was not necessarily an indication of heterosexuality, and for all we really know, several of his predecessors and successors were gay.

As a side note, James Buchanan is an interesting figure in one fascinating respect: He was, arguably, the most qualified and experienced man ever elected U.S. president, and he was, arguably, the worst U.S. president.

[psiberzerker]

I would also add "Must be gay" as the only option.  There's no Bisexuality, Polyamory, Asexuality...  J Edgar Hoover must have been a closet homosexual, because he likes pink sweaters...

We're talking about a time when Communist, and Homosexual were both grounds to revoke Security Clearance.  So the "Homo-hunt" was almost as bad as the search for Communist sleeper agents in our government. 

[watcher1]

That before the appearance of pregnancy test kits, the common method of the time for finding out if a woman was pregnant was for her to give a sample of her urine and then her urine was  injected into a toad. If that toad produced eggs, that meant the woman was pregnant. I am glad the development of the home pregnancy test brought everyone into the modern age.

[Athos_131]

Model trains sell awfully fast.

#Resist

[staci]

That before the appearance of pregnancy test kits, the common method of the time for finding out if a woman was pregnant was for her to give a sample of her urine and then her urine was  injected into a toad. If that toad produced eggs, that meant the woman was pregnant. I am glad the development of the home pregnancy test brought everyone into the modern age.

Do what??

I have no idea what the gestation period of a toad may be, my guess that even if it quicker than that of a human, a woman would not need the results to determine conception and may in fact have already delivered.

Is it April 1st again?

[RopeFiend]

I had to look it up myself.  I'd only ever heard of the rabbit test before home test kits became popular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_test

Wiki also briefly describes using African Clawed Frogs after the rabbit test lost popularity.

[ChirpingGirl]

I learned turning it off, then back on again actually can fix a problem. 

[MintJulie]

I learned turning it off, then back on again actually can fix a problem. 

Now if only my father would learn that.   I tell him that every time he calls me for PC/Ipad/Iphone support.

[psiberzerker]

It's called a Power Cycle, and it's literally the first thing you try, to the point that the IT crowd answered the phone that way for a reason.  Assuming "It" is a computer, or computerized machine like a Router, Printer, or Tvo.  Yeah, like 80% of the time it just needs a hard reboot to start over from scratch.

[_priapism]

It's called a Power Cycle, and it's literally the first thing you try, to the point that the IT crowd answered the phone that way for a reason.  Assuming "It" is a computer, or computerized machine like a Router, Printer, or Tvo.  Yeah, like 80% of the time it just needs a hard reboot to start over from scratch.

Tell that to the kids... LOL.  Their first response is to disconnect everything, scramble network settings, bang on things with a hammer...  Then call dad.