I can’t claim this as a fact because Cracked isn’t a real good cite. But they posted that while belts have been around for a couple of thousand years it was only about a hundred years ago that somebody invented the belt loop.
I have to admit I’m a little skeptical. It seems to me a belt loop would be a pretty obvious thing and it’s not like it’s an idea that had to wait for technology to make it possible.
About a month ago I found out that the Dot Product and Cross Product of vectors so commonly used in basic Physics, which I dearly love because they both have such lovely Real-world applications and are so intuitive are, in fact, the same ones from Linear Algebra which I have never liked (though I got decent grades) when I was force fed them in High School and College.
Can such things be?
I’ve learned that the word “electrocution” is derived from “electro” and “execution”, and only refers to *death *by electric shock. Unless you die, you shouldn’t say you were “electrocuted”, just shocked.
It has instantly become my new favorite peeve.
I have annoyed the hell out of people with this correction. Welcome to the club.
I felt this way going through trig: sin, cos, et alia were boring as hell. Once I realized you could use them to easily plot polygons on screen, then became infinitely magical.
My son and I had the electrocution argument last week. OED says it can be fatal or not. The upstarts at Merriam-Webster say fatal only.
And I love hitting people with the Kurgan/Mr. Krabs bit. Clancy Brown was also in Buckaroo Banzai and The Green Mile.
Wiki says that the first recorded use of belt loops was 1922. IANAFashion Historian, but I can believe this. Before the industrial revolution, clothing was custom made. If something didn’t fit, it was because it was made for someone else, or the wearer had lost/gained weight and couldn’t afford to make another garment just because the current garment didn’t fit.
I can see that it wouldn’t be until most people were wearing mass manufactured clothing that you always needed something to make your pants fit your waist.
Change “Green Mile” to “Shawshank Redemption.”
Actually it’s a combination of the words electro and elocution. And the correct usage is to make a statement about being shocked.
“Pardon me, but I am being electrically shocked and I was wondering if you would be so kind as to unplug this appliance from the outlet? Mind you take care not to join me in my predicament as I am experiencing a fair amount of discomfort.”
Thanks. Need more coffee!
The thread immediately above this one reads:
Public masturbation ruled legal in Sweden
So there you go.
I just learned how to do present value of an investment in Excel. About damn time.
I just learned that a pill-bug (you know, the one shaped like a VW bus that rolls into a ball if you flick it?) is actually a crustacean.
I just learnt ALL sorts of tricks in PPT. Embedding pictures, Gifs and Youtube clips and manually animating each one is so 2012; now I’m importing online templates and putting my own material in place, with Custom Animation magic already there.
I watched a few Youtube clips on PPTs - "Oh so that’s what all those buttons are for!
Oh, I also learnt not to download free PPT to Video software from CNET 
I’m finding altered settings everywhere.
Awesome! That looks like it could also be the Zissou coat of arms.
68 kb ought to be enough for anyone.
Wombat poop is cube-shaped. And yes, I did google “wombat poop.”
I discovered this years ago and immediately realized that it was the key to my financial future … if I could just grow them to gigantic proportions, say, about the size of pigs, I could sell them as “land crabs” … all those legs! I could make a fortune!
Unfortunately, I have since learned of the existence of actual gigantic land crabs called “robber crabs” in the Pacific Islands, which would totally destroy my plans, as these crabs actually exist.
The robber crabs aren’t the reason your plan is stillborn…these are.
