LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY

I try to learn something new every day. Tell us what you learned today

Sometimes in my work I get emails from our overseal=s clients and they mention "colis" when talking about their shipments. As I didn't quite know what they meant I googled it so today I learned that

COLIS is a french word which means parcel or package.

http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/soupschilistews/r/lentildahl.htm
this is a recipe for dahl....its something i heard mentioned today in a video on facebook. it was a cnn video of a man who quit his job in fancy hotel restaurant to feed and help the starving in his hometown. he mentioned one of the things he makes for them is dahl. since i'm reading a book by roal dahl i thought it was weird. so i looked it up....the recipe above is what it is!

My great grandfather was a great believer in learning something new every day. He said you learn right up to the day you die, because on that day you find out if there really is a heaven or a hell and which one you're headed for.

I learned how to use the word picture bar today. I can replace one comic or picture with another one saved as a jpeg on the flash drive now. Now the ones that won't copy/paste into Word can still be saved for printing when they're really good ones.

today I learned a new part of my job, following up on quotations in the company website

I'm learning lots of new things on my job as well out of necessity, because we recently lost two administrators in my department. It's interesting, but it makes for a very hectic time at work...

oh bc are they piling on the other people's work to you guys?

hmm...i learned what a 'conk' (or 'conker') was today. here i'd been reading all this British books and watching British shows for decades and never really knew what it was. and its pretty much what i thought it was....a sort of rock on a string. really its a horse chestnut if i remember what i read.

I learned what a kirtle is. I've seen the word used and knew it was a type of medeivel gard . I was reading a historic romaance and came across the word so decided to look it up.

eye implants are made of coral.
a friend's dad died yesterday and he's been remembering little things and telling stories about him off and on. i just read the one about his dad's left eye and he explained that after trying various things they replaced it with an implant and that the implants are made of coral!

I've learned that they use ground up sterilized coral as a base for bone glue for hip implants and spinal fusions.

I learned that for a 30th anniversary the traditional gift is pearl. the modern gift is diamonds. As I can neither afford pearls or diamonds I will have to give my cousin and her husband something different for their anniversary. Their daughter is holding a surprise party for them.
This is the cousin who has me over for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year. She was my roommate until she got married, so I'm pretty close to her.

I've been way into pearls lately, so I've found that you can get some very reasonably priced freshwater pearls. It's the saltwater cultured pearls that cost the big bucks. But I don't know what you could get a couple that would have pearls in it. For a lady, yes. I'll have to think on this...

you can take the pearl thing to mean more than just actual pearls that you can string up. how about something pearlize? and diamonds..hmm....there are the ones made from coal and there's the shape diamond;)

i used to be into old school (graduated,string and hand knotted) pearls in college. i had a nice old pair handed down to me i wore every day at college for a couple years then the string finally broke and i lost most of them:( i miss those days when i could wear my vintage clothes and pearls and even my little (not for keeping the hands warm) gloves!

I'd come across the name "fitz"a couple times in my reading lately and looked it up. "Fitz"was originally derived from the french "Fils" (or son) and in Norman times was put in front of a father's name to denote son of ---, this was when surnames were beginning to come in- it's much like the Mac in scots names or the O'in irish, or the son at the end of Norse names (ericsson).
In later times it was used to denote the illigitimate offspring of kings and princes, etc (Fitzroy, )

Diamonds - how about baseball diamonds, as in tickets to a game? Well, on second thought you could probably buy a strand of pearls for what it would cost to send a couple people to a game these days...

Minor league baseball games are reasonably priced, and in my estimation, much more accessible and fun than major league ones.

i was thinking the same thing (plus i don't think its worth the major big bucks it costs to see any of the teams around here).....there are some great minor leagues around here and there's always fixing up some little goody bag and a schedule for even a little league or HS game;)
i'm all for unusual and thought out gifts....before i was able to get yarn to make baby blankets for showers i made up a box for mom that included a piggy bank with a penny inside for the baby (so they never will be w/o money )and a rubber glove i stuffed with something (either cotton balls or kleenex) with note about how moms always need an extra hand;)

i can't say i've learned anything for days...sorry....nothing new has gotten into this brain!

I've learned that microwave prices have really gone up in the last 20 years! And they don't make them with dials anymore either.......................I miss my microwave. It died earlier this week. I'd had to over 20 years and it was used when I got it as a gift. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

I'm thinking along the lines of some art glass, a vase or a basket, iridized (pearlescent?).

I learned a new craft , or at least the rudiments of it, Chilkat weaving, which is a type of weaving developed by the Chilkat tribe in Alaska. The loom they use is not the traditional loom you see where the warp threads are held top and bottom, for the weft threads to be woven through .
with chilkat weaving the warps are held by the top, in strand bunches, whilte the bottom dangles free. The weft threads are plaited through the warp threads by hand, every two threads, it is a long process. I learned the basics of two strand and three strand weaving, but we didn't have time to actually learn how to weave a design into the piece.
Jorge made each of us little looms, and they were hung from chairs set on top of the tables. I want to continue to try to weave this way, but can't think of any plae to hold the loom, so I'm going to ask Jorge (who is in charge of the education programs at the Museum) to build me a little stand to hold the loom.
below is some examples taken from a "real"class my teacher Evelyn Vanderloop taught.

http://www.sitnews.net/1002news/102402_chilkat_vanderhoop.html

while watching Dr Oz found out that human kidneys are a lot higher up your back than people realize. its in the back of your ribs as opposed to down at the back of your pelvis. (now...what is down there that give us pain??)

I learned that about the kidneys when I was so sick in 2005. I had kidney failure at the time and they were always poking around up around my ribcage.

Jeane, what's lower down to give us pain is the ovaries.

Interesting weaving technique Lovekitties.

don't know if this counts or not..but i was watching Celtic Thunder's new special the other night and they did a song at the end that was just so fun and funny i memorized the chorus right off the bat. i found the lyrics tonight (sent them to Marek cuz his band "Big Paws" might be able to use it if they don't already). here's the lyrics....(the only changes from the version i heard are they say "children" instead of 'critters' (for me its easier to fit in but that's probably because its how i learned it) and they put "now" after the "anything they got".

By Bill Staines
All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
And some just clap their hands, or paws
Or anything they got.

Listen to the bass, it's the one on the bottom
Where the bullfrog croaks and the hippopotamus
Moans and groans with a big to-do
The old cow just goes MOOOOO

The dog and the cat pick up the middle
While the honey bee hums and the cricket fiddles
The donkey brays and the pony neighs
And the old coyote howls

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
And some just clap their hands, or paws
Or anything they got.

Listen to the top where the little birds sing
On the melody with the high note ringing
The hoot owl hollars over everything
And the jaybird disagrees

Singin' in the night-time, singin' in the day
Little duck quacks, and he's on his way
The possum ain't got much to say
And the porcupine talks to himself

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
And some just clap their hands, or paws
Or anything they got.

It's a simple song of livin' sung everywhere
By the ox and the fox and the grizzly bear
Grumpy alligator and the hawks above
Sly raccoon and the turtle dove.

All God's critters got a place in the choir
Some sing low, some sing higher
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire
And some just clap their hands, or paws
Or anything they got.

Welp i learned that the song i was talking about last night was written by a guy who lives in NH....he's really interesting...one of those guys who was in the folk scene back in the way back of the early 60s, And he still does concerts all over the place all year long. (though none around here...there's one in NJ this year) Here's his website if anybody would like to read more..
http://www.acousticmusic.com/staines/bsbio.htm
There is also a kids book of the song that looks really cool...i swear i've seen it at our store and am going to try to remembe to look for it this week.

THanks for posting that.

today I learned the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom

the UK is England, Scotland and Wales
GB is England, Scotland , Wales and Northern ireland. The reason Northern Ireland is not in the UK is that it is not part of the Island of consisting of England, Scotland and Wales but is part of the island of Ireland