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New to me Facts and Ideas in February 2024

By Justin G. on 24MAR04MON

My new fact finding has slowed down a bit. Still, there have been some interesting and new to me facts in the past month.

Week 6

Began on 24FEB05MON .

• Clouds form around feldspar particles. Well, maybe not all clouds. 60% of the Earth’s surface is feldspar. That’s a lot of feldspar. Via Damn Interesting.
• The glymphatic system is recently (2010s) discovered and related to our need to sleep. Via Hacker News comment.

Week 7

Began on 24FEB12MON .

• The best way to store avocados for a long time, months, without them ripening is on the tree. Via Scope of Work.
• Chaucer is to blame for Valentine’s Day being about romance instead of epilepsy and bees.

Week 8

Began on 24FEB19MON .

• I learned about Nilometers¹ via the Fall of Civilizations² podcast.

Week 9

Began on 24FEB27TUE .

• Leap day is at the end of February because ancient mythology³ set the beginning of the year at the start of spring, so the end of February was the end of the year. Plus other reasons. Via Damn Interesting.
• AT&T has applied to not be required to provide land line telephone service in parts of California.

1. A related concept is the hunger stone which I recall stumbling across before. ↩

2. This url has non-ascii characters (𓅓). I hope it works. If not: https://fallofcivilizationspodcast.com/. ↩

3. The Romans. ↩

Email me the cool facts you've learned lately. Or a correction.

Posted: 24MAR04MON in Notes.

Tags: fascinating-facts.

Related: fascinating-facts New to me Facts and Ideas in April 2024, New to me Facts and Ideas in March 2024, New to me Facts and Ideas in January 2024, Fascinating Facts, December 2023.

Back references: none.

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