Things you were shockingly old when you learned

I just learned that recently also! From a friend who had just read the new behind-the-scenes account, Opposable Thumbs, by Matt Singer. It sounds like a great read.

The Council of Trent took place in Trento, Italy, and had nothing to do with the River Trent.

Lad testing by Sandoz included testing toxicity on elephants. One died in minutes according to Albert Hoffman in LSD My Problem child. He doesn't say much more at that point other than toxicity level 0.06mg/kg which he'd had to work out per weight of the elephant.
Like are elephants so common in Swiss society in the 1940s that you can use them as test animals. Are vegans ok taking acid if it was initially tested on animals. Acid is toxic in doses of fractions of a gram,elephant given 0.297g.
Hadn't realised it was toxic so wonder what lab accidents have caused.
Mind like blown

I think the Hoffman memoir turned up in the bibliography of Bear the Owsley Stanley biography. It gets quite technical or chemical in places.

The Council of Trent took place in Trento, Italy, and had nothing to do with the River Trent.

wait till you hear about the Diet of Worms.

comment I was making was about LSD testing I corrected an autocorrect and obviously missed a 2nd one.

Hoffman just talks about toxic level used on elephant without giving further details as to when and where butfiggure he's talking about is also true of Tusko an elephant experimented on in the US in 1962 to research a phenomena called musth, more on that here https://www.illinoisscience.org/blog/lsd-and-the-elephant/

Hoffman was running through some statistics related to animal tests it appeared he had made when he started talking about this elephant without giving further background.
Book is pretty interesting.

using an elephant as a demonstration was some weird thing for a number of years! I guess if something can kill an animal that large, think about what it could do to you

I believe Edison used an elephant to demonstrate how his alternating current, which he had patented and wanted to roll out (and make $$) as a power grid was demonstrated as safe compared to the bad and dangerous direct current, which they used to kill an elephant in a public demonstration

Often times in TV/books/movies/etc writers invoke "strong enough to kill a horse," which imo for some reason sounds less horrific than elephant.

xp It was the other way around, Edison was a proponent of DC (despite evidence that AC was a better alternative). In any event, the execution of Topsy the elephant was organized by the publicist of Luna Park. The "war of the currents" was earlier, and Edison was tangentially involved in promoting "dangerous" AC as a good way to execute prisoners.

whoops. thanks for the correction

The only reason that's fresh in my mind is that I just listened to a book on the topic of the "war of the currents." It was truly bizarre, and the execution of the elephant was horrific--although it was a successful film (produced by the Edison Company) in kinetoscope arcades for years afterwards.

a shockingly old tale

I only know about the whole Tesla/Edison/Topsy thing because of Bob's Burgers, rather embarrassingly.

An elephant is a dreadful thing to waste so surprised people can think they have them to spare.
Really odd that Hoffman gives no background other than numerical statistic.
Aren't they supposed to be intelligent creatures like whales are. Which gives a further reason not to just waste them.

that there's a real place called Penzance, and it's in England. i just thought it was what a weirdo lite opera man would make up as a name for some pirates to be from

It's in Cornwall. Which I think was at one point a separate people. I still never made it there. I think I was just about to head down to the Elephant Fayre when I got invited on my first trip to Ireland.
Yeah thinking how many lifts I could do it in hitching.

Must have 2 festivals confused was it the goat fair? Looks like Elephant Fayre ended in 1986 not 90.

Tarantara

Turns out that not only is Talia Shire Francis Ford Coppola's sister, she's also Jason Schwartzmann's mother! I honestly don't have a clear picture of the Coppola acting dynasty in my head, it seems to encompass most of Hollywood.

lol I just learned that two days ago, my friend told me

And Nic Cage is Coppola's nephew!

that one i did know

I knew most of that stuff but don’t worry, I am sure there’s plenty of stuff I’ll be shocked to learn coming down the pike.

Talia Shire was also married to composer David Shire, who composed the score to The Conversation

Talia and Francis' father, Carmine, was a composer (scored Apocalypse Now among many many others)

I love all this stuff tbh

David Shire is good new info, thanks

Reading about Nic Cage’s dad now, Dr. August Coppola.

you guys are gonna laugh at me but i don't care. it just dawned on me YESTERDAY that XTC were telling me that the world was...round.

to be fair, though, not all u.k. BISCUITS are round. there could be some confusion there...

You're not alone, Scott.

Things you were shockingly old when you learned

oblate spheriod (earth) vs prolate spheroid (american football) vs sphere (soccer ball) vs wtf are you eating for cookies (cookie)

i mean if a baked good is shaped closer to earth it might be a donut hole.

haha, i never saw that post of yours! yeah, it makes sense though.

Charles and Ray Eames who designed the Eames chair were not brothers but a married couple

like Rufus and Chaka Khan

I thought Rufus morphed out of the American Breed who had the Original hit with Bend Me, Shape Me. Song went on to be a hit for Amen Corner.
First l.p. by Rufus was pretty good. Denim cover photo.

the other day:

maria: you know that on a car there is a tiny arrow next to the little fuel pump on the gas gauge to show you which side the fuel cap is on, right?

me: uhhhh, of course i knew that what do you take me for?

Along those lines, I only recently learned that the control boxes with the button you press to cross at uk pedestrian crossings have a little knob on the underside that starts spinning when the lights change, so visually impaired ppl can feel when it’s safe to cross

Er, what?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkWhIQPff-M

Yep, check it next time! I know some of them also beep but not all

I only know this because of my nephew who loves to feel for the twirly thing at the lights

28 years old he is stew

About the same time as I learned about the twiddly knobs on the underside of the control boxes, I also learned that they are now putting the red/green man on the same side of the road as you when you're waiting to cross, not the other side. The idea is that if you're not staring at the man on the other side of the road you're more likely to be aware of cars.

feel the little knob

this morning: the etymology of courtesy, which of course refers to behavior that is worthy of a court. i think i must have known this at some point and then forgot, since the norbert elias book i'm re-reading is heavily annotated by past me.

my kids used to think the little twirly knob was a hack to make the light change quicker and no amount of explanation would dissuade them

absolutely fucking floored by this knob news lads, never even dreamed such a thing was possible

Out of context bait

snap

> absolutely fucking floored by this knob news lads

where were you all in 2015 when it was first mentioned?

gazing raptly at the green man across the road as we stepped happily out into the traffic

Ray Parker Jr. plays the guitar solo on Stevie Wonder "Maybe Your Baby"

The Nice were formed to back up PP Arnold.