Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

Loki-L t1_jcfy3ck wrote

Reply to TIL that Nokia has been in business since 1865. by flightofthenochords

They are so old that back when they were founded it wasn't a Finnish company but a Russian one, because Finland had not yet become its own country, just a Grand Duchy that was part of the Tsarist Russian Empire.

They managed to a lot better for themselves once they became their own country.

15

Totschlag t1_jcfxs51 wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL the current record for the loudest NFL stadium is 142 decibels. Over 30 decibels greater than a sonic boom produced by a military fighter jet breaking the speed of sound by Noahb26

Best chants in sports? First off those are high school hockey chants in Minnesota you ripped off. Second the single best chant is Rock Chalk Jayhawk, no question. Third, those are embarrassing in terms of European chants too.

−1

ComfortableSock2044 t1_jcfpwsj wrote

Reply to comment by Artsy_traveller_82 in TIL that only Nintendo's founder knows what their name means. by johnmyster

The kanji don't necessarily always reflect meaning. For proper nouns, ateji are used which are chosen for pronunciation and not for meaning. Lots of Japanese companies use ateji and don't intend for any specific meaning.

So if they're saying only the owners know the meaning then it doesn't really matter what your friend says because your friend is only going off what's presented to him/her -- the kanji -- and we know they used ateji.

I'll break it down. Nintendo= 任天堂

任　to leave up to

天 heaven

堂 large room or a hall

Yes, i can see where your friend got the meaning, but that doesn't mean it was intended. Again, kanji used in proper nouns are ateji and don't necessarily have the meaning of the kanji. Below is a Wikipedia article dedicated to ateji

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ateji#:~:text=In%20modern%20Japanese%2C%20ateji%20(%E5%BD%93%E3%81%A6%E5%AD%97,man'y%C5%8Dgana%20in%20Old%20Japanese.

Source: I've been speaking Japanese for over 20 years, have lived there, and I've worked as a translator and interpreter amongst other bilingual jobs. Not a "weeb" or whatever new word you guys have developed for Japanophiles.

4

CornelXCVI t1_jcfndq4 wrote

Reply to comment by marmorset in TIL about Saint-Malo, Brittany. This city on the French coast has some of the highest tides in Europe, rising as high as 40 feet during parts of the year, and the water withdrawing hundreds of yards. A sea wall, built in the 17th century, protects the city from the tides. by marmorset

I'd understand if they put both metric and imperial in the english version, but why only feet? Altough there are a surprising number of translations (at the very bottom of the page), there are a massive amount of people that have english as a second language that don't use or understand the imperial system.

−2

marmorset OP t1_jcfkall wrote

Reply to comment by CornelXCVI in TIL about Saint-Malo, Brittany. This city on the French coast has some of the highest tides in Europe, rising as high as 40 feet during parts of the year, and the water withdrawing hundreds of yards. A sea wall, built in the 17th century, protects the city from the tides. by marmorset

The website is all in English, I suspect it's meant for American travelers. And 12 meters doesn't seem that high, but 40 feet is a lot.

2

marmorset OP t1_jcfjfop wrote

Reply to comment by Dawnawaken92 in TIL about Saint-Malo, Brittany. This city on the French coast has some of the highest tides in Europe, rising as high as 40 feet during parts of the year, and the water withdrawing hundreds of yards. A sea wall, built in the 17th century, protects the city from the tides. by marmorset

There are numerous pictures and even a time-lapse video online. I don't like traveling, but that's one place I'd like to visit, everything looks amazing.

2

PunkPint t1_jcfhkef wrote

Reply to TIL about Saint-Malo, Brittany. This city on the French coast has some of the highest tides in Europe, rising as high as 40 feet during parts of the year, and the water withdrawing hundreds of yards. A sea wall, built in the 17th century, protects the city from the tides. by marmorset

Tom Scott did a recent video where he talks about the geography of places with usually high tides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCrTsWtPVIY (go to 1:18 for the high tides bit)

5