Today I Learned

Many of the cruise-friendly Caribbean countries have camouflage as their military uniform and so it's illegal to wear it in these countries.

Source : The Financial Times

I was reading about crescent shaped pits used to create farms in desert climates, and learned about Lazarote Island doing the same.

Most of the world's wine regions rely on at least 300mm of annual rainfall, but Lanzarote receives only about 150mm, and frequently less. Adding insult to injury, the island is routinely buffeted by intense trade winds from the northeast and must also contend with the calima, dust storms that kick up several times a year, sometimes lasting for days. Sand and soil from the Sahara get suspended in the hot, dry air, turning the sky an otherworldly sepia hue, and veiling the island with thick haze. When a calima rolls in, locals joke that someone must be playing soccer in Morocco.

Under these circumstances, farmers had no choice but to get creative. "From one day to the next, their fields were buried in ash, and everything they knew how to do had disappeared," says Nereida Pérez, the technical coordinator of Lanzarote wines' regulatory council. Their solution? Dig hoyos, or conical hollows, three meters wide by three to four meters deep. After planting their grapevines, they covered them with a thick layer of picón and girded the north-eastern side of each hoyo with a low semi-circular wall, built from lava stones.

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240418-the-ingenious-wines-birthed-from-black-volcanic-craters

Why didn't it succeed?

Concorde flights came to a screeching halt after only 27 years of operation on October 24, 2003. The reason? Excessive cost, high fares, and loud noise. On a regular flight, Concordes consumed 6,771 gallons of fuel, which quickly exceeded the profit made from the flight. In addition to that, only a total of 20 Concordes were built and no airline ordered them except for Air France and British Airways, who had to as they were state-run airlines at the time.

Oh, and a 2000 crash that killed everyone on board (109 people) and four people on the ground.

‘Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/31937984

The island was Epstein's primary residence,[4][14] and he called the island "Little St. Jeff".

In April 1998, a company called L.S.J. LLC purchased the island for $7.95 million, and documents showed that Jeffrey Epstein was the sole member of L.S.J

A temple was built on the island, it contained an image of the pope and Epstein.

Source (they also played the wrong anthem for Serbia) High five!

I have always gotten sore exactly two days after a workout. I just joined back to my gym, and had an intense workout on Monday. Today I would’ve made a penguin look like a prima ballerina with how stiff and sore I was/am. Thank deity for hot showers. I’m not looking forward to Friday. 😅

Weird place. I think I have shopped there maybe once or twice but don’t even remember this being a thing.

The Scanner Price Accuracy Code is a Canadian retail voluntary practice managed by the Retail Council of Canada and endorsed by the Competition Bureau. It was introduced in June 2002 as Canadian retailers were in the midst of updating their point-of-sale systems with barcode readers to "foster consumer confidence" with the new systems.

Full disclosure: I didn’t just learn about this today. I did just learn that it didn’t exist until 2002 which seems pretty late to start using barcodes.

Anyway, I have noticed a lot of stores have dropped out of the program or are bending the rules about what a posted price actually means (like if the price tag is on the shelf under the thing instead of actually on the thing). Sure, none of this is legally required — but still — don’t let them take this from you.

Your #zodiac sign tells you which stars were aligned with the sun, which basically means that these are the stars that were *not* visible (at night) when you were born (or when you're celebrating your birthday).

I think this is nonsense and that we should flip it around. I propose that from now on, all geminis are sagitariuses.

@til #Stellarium