# What did you learn today (which was common knowledge to others)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 7, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343 "2013-01-07T14:53:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/1 "2013-01-07T14:53:36Z")
This morning I learned that tidal locking, the phenomenon that keeps the moon’s orbit and rotation synchronized with Earth’s in such a way as to keep one side of the moon (mostly) permanently turned away from the Earth, is actually a very common phenomenon in our Solar System (and presumably other star/planet/moon systems). I mentioned this to a couple of my friends, and their reactions were more along the lines of, “Um, yeah, and the grass is green and the sky is blue. So what?” than the expected, “Oh, really? That’s interesting!” So apparently I must have cut class the day we covered that particular fact. Any other examples of “discovering” something that amazed you, only to find that it was more or less common knowledge? ---
**Author:** ![Quarter\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f475e1/32.png) [@Quarter\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quarter_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/2 "2013-01-07T23:36:57Z")
Okay, that’s a new one for me. And if I mentioned that to my friends I would get some blank stares for a few seconds before the conversation continued as if I hadn’t said a thing. I don’t hang around scientific types, I guess. Mine didn’t happen today but during the holidays while I had family over as we were cooking, my aunt got down my canister of Morton salt which had a chunk of salt that had solidified together in this Texas humidity. “It’s supposed to pour even if it’s raining.” she says. Huh, I always knew that was on their box but never thought about it actually meaning something about the product. Well duh, that makes more sense than having some random old cliche as a product motto. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/3 "2013-01-08T00:59:30Z")
Unix Password Change requests are usually handled by whoever’s doing Remedy tickets, rather than whoever’s handling Unix issues, because the requests are Remedy tickets assigned to us, and the fact that it involves Unix is secondary. Well, everybody else on the team knew it… ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/4 "2013-01-08T01:40:21Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Unix Password Change requests are usually handled by whoever’s doing Remedy tickets, rather than whoever’s handling Unix issues, because the requests are Remedy tickets assigned to us, and the fact that it involves Unix is secondary. > > Well, everybody else on the team knew it… Ah, Remedy. I actually miss it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/5 "2013-01-08T10:41:40Z")
Females have wet dreams too. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15866636#post15866636](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15866636#post15866636) Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/6 "2013-01-08T15:09:01Z")
Suddenly, every message on my VoIP voicemail at work made the sender sound stone drunk, even the test message I left myself. When I asked cow-orkers if they were having the same issue I was informed that, by pushing a certain button on the keypad we had the capability to slow down or speed up messages. Apparently, I inadvertantly hit the magic button and slowed down all my messages. No one could remember which button did what, I had to figure that out on my own. As it turns out 4 slows messages down, 6 speeds them up. Play time! ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/7 "2013-01-08T15:21:21Z")
I did not know Notre Dame was in Indiana. I really did not know. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/8 "2013-01-09T10:43:58Z")
I didn’t know the dark side of the moon was where the sun don’t shine. I always thought it was the Earth’s shadow. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/9 "2013-01-09T11:28:24Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Females have wet dreams too. > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15866636#post15866636](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15866636#post15866636) > > Who knew? Oh, I’d say that quite a few females knew about this. Any woman who hasn’t had a dream which includes an orgasm is certainly missing out on one of life’s pleasures. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/10 "2013-01-15T15:07:47Z")
Spring onions are different from onions??? Ok there are many pairs of plants I’ve always wondered if they were the same or not: Ginger and old ginger? Colours of capsicum? Baby corn? ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/11 "2013-01-15T17:06:18Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > I didn’t know the dark side of the moon was where the sun don’t shine. I always thought it was the Earth’s shadow. Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > [**The far side**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon) should not be confused with the “dark side” (the hemisphere that is not illuminated by the Sun at a given point in time), as the two are the same only during a full moon and, during a new moon, the near side is the dark side. Both the near and far sides receive (on average) almost equal amounts of light from the Sun. However, the term “dark side of the moon” is commonly used poetically to refer to the far side. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-learn-today-which-was-common-knowledge-to-others/646343/12 "2013-01-15T17:11:56Z")
There is no dark side of the moon. Matter of fact, it’s all dark.