The main discoverer of penicillin, Alexander Fleming, had a VERY unusual hobby: he would “paint” crude reproductions of classic paintings on petri dishes using bacteria.
:eek:
That while thirst demands immediate attention, hunger can wait. If a person gets really thirsty, they will stop whatever they are doing to take a drink. And will drink any liquid available (water, booze, urine, blood, swamp slime, whatever). But people can ignore hunger and have to be on the verge of total starvation before they’ll eat things like rotted meat, live insects, or (in a nod to Stephen King) themselves.
There is a model of car in Britain called the Shooting-Brake.
Apparently it’s like a two door station-wagon. Not quite a Hatchback, not quite (what the Brits call) an Estate.
The use of ellipses in writing is considered ignorant on SDMB… (Oops)! I am addicted to them! I am gonna taper off as best I can. I can’t go cold turkey, but I do admit I have a problem!
That someone thought a good name for an Apple computer store in the UK was Stormfront. I just walked past it today and did a full double take.
Surely these people have been on the internet.
I used to draw smiley faces or my initials. My supervisor was not an art lover.
Was it nekrosis or nekros? I ask because a lot of Japanese medical words are borrow words from German – they are the ones they got their info about western medicine from during the Meiji period and Babelfish says Nekrose is German for Necrosis.
I just found out that if a lobster loses its claw, it will grow a new one. I knew certain species of crabs did this, but I had no ideas about lobsters. I’m 45 years old and grew up in Maritime Canada. My father also did not know.
^Cool!
So I just leave it on the plate? It’ll be like a lobster buffet!
I learned that there is such a thing as prescription-ground scuba masks! I love to swim but can’t see a damn thing at the beach, thanks to my vision being 20/200 without my glasses. Getting a prescription mask opened a whole new world for me.
In the late 19th century, stoner was a slang term but it did not have its modern meaning. Back then, a stoner was a married woman who kept her original last name. The term derived from Lucy Stone, a women’s rights leader who kept her last name after marrying Henry Blackwell in 1855.
True but bear in mind a *vast *number of activities involve the release of dopamine. It has many functions within the brain and the wider nervous system.
Two very common misconceptions are that dopamine is just a pleasure chemical and that if two experiences both involve the release of dopamine then those experiences are “really” the same.
I’ve noticed something similar; sometimes I will binge on a new song, and just listen to it over and over. I know it’s weird listening to it for the 10th time in a row, but I can’t help myself.
However, when I binge in this way, the song has a low lifespan. Once I can tear myself away from it, it’s done, and I may never enjoy hearing it again 
Sounds suspiciously like a factoid. Any cite for that one?
No, I read it in a mystery book. But people will stop an important task to take a drink, but will ignore hunger.
I just learned that Hugh Hefner hired Jazz ("colored) bands to play at his clubs long before it was considered “proper.” Much as I wasn’t a fan of the man, that took cajones.
Giving this a bump.
Today I learned that sea snakes are amphibious. I knew they were air breathers, but they can also crawl on the land. In fact, they have to come onto land to digest their food, otherwise they become sluggish in the water and become prey for other predators.
A bit of a niche topic here…
I just learned how to make an amazingly precise and simple drill bit in minutes out of some bits of drill rod (a.k.a. silver steel).
Anyone who works with metal will tell you that traditional twist drills wander. This is definitely the case, and I always thought that the only way to get an accurate hole was to drill it undersized and then ream it out with a reamer.
Then I heard about making a “D bit” on a machinist forum and started digging deeper.
Apparently everyone knows how to make these, and it only takes a few minutes on a grinder to make one, followed by a few minutes with a torch to harden it.
Last week I made a few and drilled the most amazing holes in aluminum, brass, and cast iron for the project I’m working on.
I just discovered that when you travel on a UN passport, neither the city nor nation of your birth are indicated. A unique passport in colour and style, plus some very interesting stamps indeed. But no nationality listed whatsoever!
My great grandmother was named Margaret, but hardly even knew that it WAS her name for many years, on account of everybody had been calling her Pearl for as long as she could remember.
Because of The Merchant of Venice, right? 
I have lived in the Bergen County NJ area for over 30 years. I currently work in Teaneck, New Jersey.
I just found out that Teaneck, New Jersey was the first town in the entire United States of America to voluntarily integrate their public schools. Wiki cite
I know this is over a year old now, but hey, we’re all still learning stuff, right?
Anyways,
Today I learned that IKEA is technically a charity, and it’s all run as a complex tax evasion scheme. They’ve been under investigation by the EU since at least 2017, apparently.
Relevant article: Ikea Is A Nonprofit, And Yes, That’s Every Bit As Fishy As It Sounds