Recent comments in /f/todayilearned
L0gical_Parad0x t1_jaoiw2d wrote
Reply to comment by IveGotDMunchies in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Life didn't give us lemons, we gave lemons life.
IveGotDMunchies t1_jaohpf2 wrote
Reply to TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
"If life gives you lemons turn it into lemonade"
Lemons are not natural but a product of hybrid breeding by humans
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jaoc533 wrote
Reply to comment by meat-juice in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Wow -- thanks for the origin of "jib". So many terms come from sailing, but, did not know the "jib" started with noses and THEN the leading sail on a boat. But, I get that it does look like a nose on a schooner.
meat-juice OP t1_jao9sgn wrote
Reply to comment by Fake_William_Shatner in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
>Would that be tremendous luck and/or lots of people with money who like the cut of your jib?
And the jib was a person's nose... but before that, it was the sail on a ship lol.
greenknight884 t1_jao9865 wrote
Reply to comment by kokopilau in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
See also: "Just a few bad apples"
DirtyDanTheManlyMan t1_jao8ofc wrote
Crabs are bottom feeders, they eat anything that doesn’t fight back
WorldsGreatestPoop t1_jao83mk wrote
Reply to comment by zachzsg in TIL Crabs will capture and eat baby Sea Turtles after they hatch. by TheMadhopper
Give them sardines instead of endangered turtle. It’s a once a year event so I don’t think any species relies on it like Bears gorging on salmon for the winter.
zachzsg t1_jao727e wrote
Reply to comment by WorldsGreatestPoop in TIL Crabs will capture and eat baby Sea Turtles after they hatch. by TheMadhopper
Couldn’t this potentially cause issues for the species that rely on the hatching of sea turtles for food?
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jao5p2y wrote
Reply to comment by meat-juice in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
And, it's featured in the movie of the same name by Terry Gilliam.
TIL: Baron von Munchausen was an actual story before the movie.
TheCloudFestival t1_jao5kot wrote
Reply to TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Yes, and no.
The 'boot straps' story itself is a reworking of a passage from 'Baron Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia', a 1785 novel written by Rudolf Erich Raspe, and based on the real Prussian baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen, a war general renowned for telling completely unbelievable but very entertaining tall tales.
At one point during the book, Baron Munchausen accidentally rides his horse into a swamp, becoming trapped, with him and his steed sinking fast.
With no obvious way out, and everything he could grab out of reach, Munchausen somehow manages to lift himself and his horse out of the swamp by grabbing his own ponytail and pulling himself and his horse up and out of the mire.
This is why in philosophy, all epistemologies (systems of thinking) are said to fall into the Munchausen Trilemma, in which once one reasons to their most basic components, said epistemologies ultimately support themselves by themselves in one of three ways.
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jao5k53 wrote
Reply to comment by AtebYngNghymraeg in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Yes, but without the shoelaces. Those tended to mangle the floppy drive.
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jao5exg wrote
Reply to comment by meat-juice in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
"You only need three things to be a success!"
And what are those?
"Hard work and sticking to a worthy goal."
That's two. Most people do that for at least three rounds of not being promoted.
"Right, the third is a special something."
Would that be tremendous luck and/or lots of people with money who like the cut of your jib?
"Well, don't tell everyone the secret -- it's so EASY."
Fake_William_Shatner t1_jao4zvx wrote
Reply to TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Well, back in those days we had a thing called "common sense." Now, that fell outta style with the newfangled age of Whippersnappers.
Today, we find that a lot of the things we learned not to trust, are now things people have fallen for hook, line and sinker.
In addition, and in conclusion, the straps on boots these days are of inferior quality and they just can't be trusted for the task of self levitation even if you had the grip strength.
bolanrox t1_jao34jo wrote
Reply to comment by DaveOJ12 in TIL the "Nokia Tune" was originally composed in 1902 by Spanish guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega, part of a piece called "Gran Vals" and was the first identifiable mobile phone ring tone by mantolwen
makes you wonder almost if it was intentional? like Yelling Freebird at a Blue man Group show.
vaxxtothemaxxxx t1_jao2mmi wrote
Reply to comment by WorldsGreatestPoop in TIL Crabs will capture and eat baby Sea Turtles after they hatch. by TheMadhopper
Programs do that.
Godtiermasturbator t1_jao2ipz wrote
TheCloudFestival t1_jao2ffj wrote
Reply to comment by mantolwen in TIL the "Nokia Tune" was originally composed in 1902 by Spanish guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega, part of a piece called "Gran Vals" and was the first identifiable mobile phone ring tone by mantolwen
I'd argue that it doesn't work well in the piece. Every other motif and phrase in the song is definitive, clearly ending on the final beat of the bar, but for whatever reason Tarrega left that one motif, and only that motif in the whole piece, to trail off into nothing. It just seems a strange decision in my mind, and rather frustrating to listen to, despite it otherwise being a rather wonderful piece of guitar music.
Ah well, horses for courses and all that!
meat-juice OP t1_jao1wi0 wrote
Reply to comment by WaterChi in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
This was my outrage as well... We should all admit that it rarely works in the Horatio-Alger-way we think it does
meat-juice OP t1_jao1tch wrote
Reply to comment by Raaka-Kake in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Yes, pulling himself and his horse out of the swap by his pigtail haha.
mantolwen OP t1_jao1a4i wrote
Reply to comment by TheCloudFestival in TIL the "Nokia Tune" was originally composed in 1902 by Spanish guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega, part of a piece called "Gran Vals" and was the first identifiable mobile phone ring tone by mantolwen
Yes it works fine in the piece but not on its own.
TheCloudFestival t1_jao17s2 wrote
Reply to TIL the "Nokia Tune" was originally composed in 1902 by Spanish guitarist and composer Francisco Tárrega, part of a piece called "Gran Vals" and was the first identifiable mobile phone ring tone by mantolwen
However, the motif from the original piece lacks the final note included on the Nokia tone, which makes it rather jarring to listen to.
Raaka-Kake t1_jao12dk wrote
Reply to TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Rudolf Erich Raspe wrote Baron Munchausen in 1785, which includes the said act.
kokopilau t1_jao0sqv wrote
Reply to TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
The meaning of the idiom changed to almost the opposite. Concrete thinking evolving language.
AtebYngNghymraeg t1_janz5kf wrote
Reply to TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Which is also where we get the idea of "booting" a computer.
IveGotDMunchies t1_jaojyin wrote
Reply to comment by L0gical_Parad0x in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
...that is what my comment was addressing. Upvote i guess