What did you learn today?

[maryam]

I learned that while an Altoids tin is the perfect size to discreetly hold two or three tampons in your purse, you should really really really wash it out first to be sure all that super fine minty dust is gone first. REALLY!

That dust gets into everything, including itty bitty holes in tampon wrappers. Thank the deity I don't like cinnamon Altoids!

Originally Posted by maryam

I learned that while an Altoids tin is the perfect size to discreetly hold two or three tampons in your purse, you should really really really wash it out first to be sure all that super fine minty dust is gone first. REALLY!

That dust gets into everything, including itty bitty holes in tampon wrappers. Thank the deity I don't like cinnamon Altoids!

Reminds of when I picked up the antiseptic hand-wash instead of the lube ...girl was not a happy bunny

[WingsOnFire]

Ilearned that my tonsils can pucker from sour gum.

[Kobi]

Today, I learned the book and 1950's movie version of Cheaper By The Dozen was written by 2 children (out of the 12) of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth.

The Gilbreths were efficiency experts who contributed to the study of industrial engineering in fields such as motion study and human factors. Today, we know this as ergonomics.

Lillian Moller Gilbreth has come to be known as "the Mother of Modern management."

In addition to being the mother of 12, was also an inventor, author, industrial engineer, industrial psychologist, and educator. She invented the step-on trash can, the improved electric can opener, the egg keeper and butter tray in refrigerators and the waste water hose in washing machines.

Lillian Gilbreth was also an industrial engineer for General Electric and worked on improving kitchen designs i.e. the proper height for stoves, sinks, and other kitchen fixtures.

So cool.

[Kobi]

If you're in the Midwest, your summer might have a very crunchy soundtrack: The sounds of hordes of cicadas emerging from the Earth, chirping and whizzing and sexing and dying after more than a decade underground. That isn't to say that people around the rest of the United States aren't hearing the same thing on a smaller scale.

That's because cicadas spend most of their long, long lives (the longest of any known insect) underground, and some species emerge periodically -- once every 13 or 17 years. When broods sync up, things get loud -- which is what's happening right now in the Midwest.

In the latest video from It's Okay to be Smart, Joe Hanson explains why you should be more in awe of the insects than annoyed with them: They're actually doing some pretty impressive math -- though it's not on purpose -- and it's a really smart evolutionary tactic.

By coming out in literal droves, cicadas are able to survive -- er, at least for the handful of weeks it takes them to reproduce -- even though basically everything wants to eat them. Birds can go to town on the emerging cicadas and still leave plenty over to lay eggs.

That's where the prime numbers come in. Why 13 and 17 years? By living life in the prime, cicadas can minimize the number of times their big debut coincides with the birth year of a predator. If they'd "picked" a number divisible by another number, they'd link up with predators who were born at those intervals way more often -- and the predators could adapt to follow cicada lifecycles even more closely, shifting so that they had their babies right when cicadas showed up to provide an endless food source.

But 17 years (and even 13 years) is a long time for just about any bird or lizard, so they've got no chance of hitching their carts to the cicada's brood. And by coming out every 17 years instead of every 16, the cicadas also avoid sync-ups with predators who have 2-year and 4-year reproductive cycles, too.

Very cool.

[C0LLETTE]

I learned that when you lend your car to your kids...you need to walk around and inspect it when they bring it back.

[kittygrrl]

Just read a great article on "secrets of the pelvic floor"
Food for thought