Today I learned

Evans was all over Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary, efficiently keeping the machine running in so many ways: fetching food, and cigs, writing down lyrics during songwriting sessions, somehow coming up with an anvil for Maxwell's Silver Hammer, arranging for George Harrison to get new shoes, and on and on. Hard to understand why none of the Beatles attended the funeral, though George Martin did show up.

I always assumed since it was a desiccant it might dry up my insides and kill me, but it seems like that’s not the case.

It interprets Tolkien's text as if it was written from the point of view of the victors (which happen to be the Elves, Gandalf, and Aragorn).

This explanation from the alternative version's author is great!

I am Australian and have always known it exclusively as the American term “ladybug”. Never heard of ladybird before.

Having been a sailor for 40 years, I am better at "red&green" than "left&right", and I always knew that red was on the left and green on the right (duh, obviously).

When I was young, my dad (also a sailor) even made a point of mounting one red and one green grip on my bicycle handlebar; of course I did the same with with boys' bikes.

Well, today I learned that this is called "Region A", and the Americas and a few other countries are called "Region B" where the red&green is reversed: red is on the right (and green on the left)!

To make things even weirder, navigational lights are not reversed in Region B.

Mind blown.

Another note, it likely could have survived hitting the iceberg had it not turned to avoid it (it had no chance of avoiding it but turning meant the rivets took the full load of the collision).

The Berber Queen who defied the Caliphate: Al-Kahina and the Islamic Conquest of North Africa

Seventh-century North Africa would see the rise of a warrior queen named al-Kahina. Who was she and how was she able to wage a war against the Umayyad Caliphate?

After their unification under the banner of Islam and the rule of the caliphs in Medina, the Arabs embarked on a series of spectacular conquests during the 7th and 8th centuries. By the mid-8th century, they created an empire that encompassed the territories between the Iberian Peninsula in the west to Norther India and Central Asia in the East Morocco's 🇲🇦 Indigenous Berber women play a prominent role in their culture.

For example, the story of Kahina, the pre-Islamic female warrior, is still very much alive in Berber culture and nowadays is used by the youth as a symbol of Berber language and culture. Kahina is remembered for her acts of bravery and her clairvoyant ability to lead her people against the Arab invasions in the 7th century CE. She surmounted the masculine monopoly of military enterprise to become a legend and the only uncrowned ‘she king’ in Moroccan history. Kahina, whose name means ‘priestess’ or ‘prophetess’, was born in the Aures Mountains in Algeria in the 7th century; the exact date is unknown.

During her lifetime, Arab generals began to lead armies into North Africa, preparing to conquer the area and introduce Islam to the local peoples. Kahina directed a determined resistance to the invasions. Around 690, she assumed personal command of the African forces, and under her aggressive leadership, the Arabs were forced to retreat.

When a brandnew sub opens on another Lemmy instance, your instance doesn't know about it, thus you can't search for it from your own instance.

TIL how to "tell" my instance that this remote sub exists.

• Go to "Communities" in the Lemmy Web Interface
• Search for [email protected]. For example [email protected]
• Now do another search for "todayilearned"
• Done. The sub is now searchable for everyone on your instance and you can subscribe to it.

Today I learned about the term Photic Sneeze Reflex. For me it's very mild and actually kind of advantageous. When I feel a sneeze coming on but it begins to fade I can make it happen by looking directly at a bright light.

I had no idea that not everyone can do this, between 18-35% of people. Also for some it is entirely detrimental, resulting in sneezing fits.

Less obvious to the present, but 'servant' comes from 'bread eater' and 'lady' comes from 'bread kneader'

Where does the name come from?

It was nameless for a long time, but I wanted to keep with the fediverse tradition of naming projects after animals. I was playing that old-school game Lemmings, and Lemmy (from motorhead) had passed away that week, and we held a few polls for names, and I went with that.

https://lemmy.ml/post/70319

Stolen from /u/UralIveGotTonight from Reddit, but it's a real TIL for me.