sektabox
sektabox t1_itlehmp wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in TIL that the famous author Thomas Pynchon has avoided publicity during his fifty-year career to the point that almost all known photos of him are from the 1950s. However, he voiced himself in two episodes of The Simpsons, where his dialogue consisted entirely of puns on the titles of his books. by IHad360K_KarmaDammit
Yes.
You read that correctly.
To make it even weirder, I offer my IT consulting services to a public library among others.
sektabox t1_iti9twf wrote
Reply to TIL that the famous author Thomas Pynchon has avoided publicity during his fifty-year career to the point that almost all known photos of him are from the 1950s. However, he voiced himself in two episodes of The Simpsons, where his dialogue consisted entirely of puns on the titles of his books. by IHad360K_KarmaDammit
Ha! Pynchon was the writer of my very serious interest when I was working on my master's thesis back in Poland, with a special focus on the concept of entropy in the English literature.
After I got my degree (in Canada), I gave up literature and I have to say, without much pride or shame, I've never read a single novel or any work of fiction since then. That was over 25 years ago, when I switched to computer science and that's been my field all that time.
Cool post. Brought back some memories.
sektabox t1_it9t6ry wrote
Reply to TIL that in 2005 burglars stole $71.6 million from a bank in Fortaleza, Brazil by setting up a fake landscaping company near the bank and digging a 256ft tunnel beneath two city blocks to the bank over 3 months. Neighbors noticed vanloads of soil removed daily but assumed it was business-related. by Lagavulin16_neat
A little flick about this:
sektabox t1_isvt164 wrote
Reply to comment by reptarcannabis in TIL In 1945, a mere 5 percent of France’s homes had a private, indoor bathroom by Chris_Hackett
Good old times in Paris when you had to play hop-scotch only around dog shit.
sektabox t1_isvsw9a wrote
Reply to comment by _Silver_Engineer_ in TIL In 1945, a mere 5 percent of France’s homes had a private, indoor bathroom by Chris_Hackett
Nope. That's just how it was.
There was one bathroom per floor for 3 apartments where I visited. Not the most comfortable experience.
sektabox t1_irbyrrn wrote
Reply to comment by Hot-Specialist-6824 in TIL the length of the US rail network is twice that of Europe by Pardon_my_baconess
> EU just over 1.6 mill sq miles
The OP title says "Europe" - not EU.
sektabox t1_irbymzt wrote
That is not true and the data in this article is bogus.
Using the article's data - US rail network is slightly longer, by about 20,000 km when compared to European Union. In this case it's 200,161 km vs 360,000 km. But the World Bank estimates the US rail system at 150K km.
But EU is not Europe. Countries that are not in EU are Ukraine, Russia, Norway, Switzerland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan [ (European parts), UK and a few Balkan countries.
I'm too lazy to do the research on all those individual countries, but nah, clearly not twice as long as in Europe.
sektabox t1_iy63g28 wrote
Reply to comment by NoThroWaAccount in TIL that Gresham College, an institution of higher learning in London, does not enroll students or award degrees, and instead hosts over 140 free public lectures every year. Since 2001, all lectures have been made available online. by Kurma-the-Turtle
I have been watching the for a few years now. All are good though some presentation styles are not the same as others, so YMMV. I haven't come across any with shockingly great multimedia presentation, but then, these are for those who don't fall for fancy cartoons with swooshing sounds every 5 seconds.