19 Comments
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Deb M's avatar

Recently I was in an art workshop. As a mixed media artist I keep packages of baby wipes on hand and since I am casual about closing the tops they tend to dry out. At the workshop one of the first things the leader suggested to us was to keep the packages stored “upside down” with the opening on the bottom. I did not discover this tip myself but did have one of those “ I was today’s years old” little moments. Hand slap to forehead! I love it when this happens.

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Kathlyn's avatar

I’ll be stealing that trick for the makeup remover wipes I so infrequently use!

I often preface teaching comments with, “I know this is probably obvious to some of you, but I had to be shown it”.

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JP Clark's avatar

I discovered I am absolutely rubbish at maths and ordered enough compost for a garden three times the size of mine. I also discovered I have a short temper when it comes to lifting heavy objects.

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Kellan's avatar

BIG mood

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Ann H's avatar

Okay, this is ridiculous and trivial, but I made this four ingredient (sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, cream and ritz crackers) lime "pie" the other day and it was terrific. A Serious Eats recipe, even. Felt like I was cheating, but in a good way. https://www.seriouseats.com/minute-lime-cracker-pie-recipe

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Negar Kamali's avatar

My latest discovery is that when the English wanna write the URL of German websites, they use a combination of "ue", "oe", and "ae" instead of those unique letters in German which are "ü", "ö", and "ä".

Pardon me, i can't write how these unique letters are pronounced otherwise my comment would become longer.

P. S.: I've been learning German for a few months.

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Kellan's avatar

Today, while in the process of scheduling a bunch of social media stuff for next week while I'm gonna be camping, I discovered self-packing cheese:

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/nestle-cheese-single-plastic-waste

... okay, I don't think it ACTUALLY packs itself? But the packaging is, itself, made of cheese. & it keeps the cheese nice. & then, when you're done with it, it biodegrades. & that's REALLY AWESOME.

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Paul's avatar

Legging a canal boat under a bridge in the mid-1800s. Involved lying on your back and pushing on the underside of the bridge or side instead of the boat being drawn by horses along the towpath! Wikipedia has pictures if you are interested.

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Doreen McRae's avatar

I was reading QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter and found out that photons are different sizes depending on what colour they are. Since Richard Feynman wrote it, I must believe it. Reading the book is a tough slog because I tend to start thinking as I'm reading, slowing the process considerably.

It started with the double slit experiment which has been annoying me for over fifty years. And now so many things to watch and read.

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Karen Davis's avatar

I discovered that your tongue is connected to your toes through your fascia.

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Cindy O’Dell's avatar

That when you take an art class involving paint, you suddenly see the world differently when you go for a walk. Blues aren't just blue and greens aren't just green. Worth the price of the class even if you never frame the art.

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Ronald Turnbull's avatar

About 55 years ago I discovered a theorem about ellipses. Draw two overlapping ones so they have four shared points. Draw the six lines between pairs of those, and among their crossings you generate three new points, ie a triangle. Now go back and draw the four shared tangential lines (lines that just touch both ellipses without cutting into them). The four tangents intersect at six points, and between the point pairs there are three new lines apart from the four tangents you already drew. Those three lines are a triangle. And they're the same triangle as the one you drew before.

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Claire Donaldson's avatar

Diet coke and mentos? You put how many mentos in? I am one of today's 10,000 and would like to do this experiment

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Lisa Abend's avatar

Me too!

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Michael Jensen's avatar

The Marine Travelift, which is used to lift very large boats out of the water.

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Jane Fisher's avatar

"...the tedious self-sabotage of comparing our insides to the external appearances of strangers..."

I've never seen this expressed better or more succinctly. Can I count this as a lucky discovery?

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Doreen McRae's avatar

I have another discovery that I feel quite giddy about! There is a gene that causes a bent little finger, known as clinodactyly. I always thought it was because my mittens were too tight when I was small (Canadian here). Now I know that it wasn't the mittens, that clinodactyly is a real thing and I have it. And I still hate tight mittens 60+ tears later.

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Steph Weiss's avatar

Your post reminded me of a day, several years ago, when I had the pleasure of entertaining my nieces. I had recently read about and ordered a couple of Foldscope paper microscopes, so we collected things that the girls thought might be interesting (flower petals and leaves), and a sample of watery crud from a puddle. We found some wiggly Rotifera in the pond water, and the girls then created their own experiment: “Can we discern different people’s hairs under a microscope?” (Yep!)

Highlight of the day was them recounting their experiments and ‘discoveries’ to mom, dad, and grandparents over dinner (where I was also crowned Aunt of the Year [despite the younger child’s accidental tumble into the puddle while collecting our sample]).

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Martin's avatar

Yes I love to discover things, it provides a certain joy that we get when we visit a new town or country- the unknown and the enquirer spirit of the explorer!

But I love discovering new things in the Bible, which should have also been obvious but just seem to evade me for the past 40 years of reading it!

The latest thing I discovered was the complexity and fundamental structure of the Jubilee and how important it should have been in Israel and the entire world.

God’s Jubilee system provided the major foundation for the religious, legal, judicial, social welfare, banking, town planning, agricultural, natural environment and cultural structure of the entire nation! This great law provided a practical demonstration of how the mind of God works, and His role as creator, provider and ruler of his people.

Here is the post if you want to understand it in some depth:

https://friendswithgod.substack.com/p/pentecost-and-the-jubilee

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