Admit your ignorance - things you've only just realised/learned

[Andy in Germany]

I discovered today (after working here for 20 years) that if you sign a job contract (Vertrag) and want to withdraw your agreement you need a new contract breaking off the previous contract. (Aufhebungsvertrag).

A client asked for advice today and I hadn't a clue; fortunately I have an excellent admin team backing me up, and they did know this...

 

[matticus]

It was actually a few years ago I found out but still staggers the mind that 70,000 years ago the solar system had 2 stars not 1. Scholz star passed through our solar system at the outer edges. It's quite possible it had its own number of planets that would have passed through our system too. I also realised then that stars travel fast at speeds it would be very difficult for us to emulate and the stars are moving all the time so the 3 to 4 billion years of life on this planet is more surprising when you think how many other stars passed through the solar system in those billions of years that could have caused collisions and disruptions to orbits.

Also 70,000 years ago the human population was almost wiped out. It's believed it fell to as low as 2,000 people due to super eruptions.

I feel with better mathematical models this will be revisited in the future and made into a more detailed discovery.

I've just remembered now I think about it I think Scholz star is a binary system so there would have been 3 stars in the solar system.

That's a great factoid - astronomical in fact!

It's another brick in the wall for my theory on alien life: the massive number of lucky breaks and coincidences that led to humanity evolving is enormous. And science seems to discover more every year!

I do think it's feasible that there IS no-one else out there. (even though that's counter-inutitive in an "infinite" universse). Certainly no-one else out there, and close enough to ever communicate with us.

 

[Beebo]

It was actually a few years ago I found out but still staggers the mind that 70,000 years ago the solar system had 2 stars not 1. Scholz star passed through our solar system at the outer edges. It's quite possible it had its own number of planets that would have passed through our system too. I also realised then that stars travel fast at speeds it would be very difficult for us to emulate and the stars are moving all the time so the 3 to 4 billion years of life on this planet is more surprising when you think how many other stars passed through the solar system in those billions of years that could have caused collisions and disruptions to orbits.

Also 70,000 years ago the human population was almost wiped out. It's believed it fell to as low as 2,000 people due to super eruptions.

I feel with better mathematical models this will be revisited in the future and made into a more detailed discovery.

I've just remembered now I think about it I think Scholz star is a binary system so there would have been 3 stars in the solar system.

It’s very interesting but it hardly passed through the solar system. It came within 0.8 light years of the sun. Which is close but still a huge distance away.
To put that in context Pluto, right on the edge of the solar system is 5 light hours from the sun.
So it was about a 1000 times further away that Pluto and was a dwarf star so probably too dim to be seen with the naked eye.

 

[presta]

I've been driving for more years than I care to remember, but it was only last year someone pointed out to me that the fuel pump symbol on your dashboard has a little arrow to indicate which side of the vehicle the fuel filler is on - DOH!

View attachment 637697

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vupgBykQnko

 

[presta]

I must have been in my late 20s or early 30s before I discovered that other people make eye contact when they're talking. I don't, I look at people's mouths. It must have been another 20 years before I discovered that's a trait associated with Asperger's syndrome.

Ask The Family quiz used to have a round in which contestants had to recognise photo's of celebs with their eyes blacked out, I was quite good at that, but recognising people wearing a covid mask is another matter. I once had a girlfriend with central heterochromia, but I didn't notice it until we'd being together for a month or two.

 

[Speicher]

I must have been in my late 20s or early 30s before I discovered that other people make eye contact when they're talking. I don't, I look at people's mouths. It must have been another 20 years before I discovered that's a trait associated with Asperger's syndrome.

Ask The Family quiz used to have a round in which contestants had to recognise photo's of celebs with their eyes blacked out, I was quite good at that, but recognising people wearing a covid mask is another matter. I once had a girlfriend with central heterochromia, but I didn't notice it until we'd being together for a month or two.

I have "hazel" eyes, and looking up central heterochromia, seems very similar. I never knew that!

 

[Blue Hills]

I have plenty of clothes with both a back-of-the-neck label and an inner LH label.

I am feeling rather smug because the LH side label is something i've been aware of all of my adult life.

your dad took you aside on your 18th?

 

[Blue Hills]

There's no such creature as an apath.

Fired by the other thread on old phrases from esteemed family members, my mind dredged up:

"you silly/daft apath".

I had always for some odd reason as a kid imagined that an apath was a somewhat slow/dim creature, something like a sloth that spent a lot of time idly hanging around.

Of course turns out it's spelled apeth and is a contraction of halfpenny.

Either I'm particularly dim or maybe imaginative - have imagined one or two other entirely non existent words.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

There's no such creature as an apath.

Fired by the other thread on old phrases from esteemed family members, my mind dredged up:

"you silly/daft apath".

I had always for some odd reason as a kid imagined that an apath was a somewhat slow/dim creature, something like a sloth that spent a lot of time idly hanging around.

Of course turns out it's spelled apeth and is a contraction of halfpenny.

Either I'm particularly dim or maybe imaginative - have imagined one or two other entirely non existent words.

No you are not imagining it and needn't have a mental health check.

My late Mum used to say "you silly apath" - never gave much thought as to what it meant.

Edit: just told Mrs SD this and she said she knew that. She's not just a pretty face.

 

[Blue Hills]

thanks spokey - good to see that the cchat mental health check/reassurance service is still serving society.

 

[Time Waster]

I was in my 40s before

I must have been in my late 20s or early 30s before I discovered that other people make eye contact when they're talking. I don't, I look at people's mouths. It must have been another 20 years before I discovered that's a trait associated with Asperger's syndrome.

Ask The Family quiz used to have a round in which contestants had to recognise photo's of celebs with their eyes blacked out, I was quite good at that, but recognising people wearing a covid mask is another matter. I once had a girlfriend with central heterochromia, but I didn't notice it until we'd being together for a month or two.

I figured out that if you're pointing to the right hand side of your face to indicate there's something on someone else's right hand side of their face they'll automatically touch their left hand side. Why? I pointed to the right hand side! Didn't make sense to me.

I now know that mirroring is normal and what I do isn't. Suits me I'll not change it's just too right for me my way.

Eye colour is something I simply don't notice. I also work on block colours when I do notice. That's brown, green or blue. It seems others have about 20 colour options for eyes.

We're all very different when it all comes down to it. 7 billion or so unique people in the world.

 

[Bazzer]

I've been driving for more years than I care to remember, but it was only last year someone pointed out to me that the fuel pump symbol on your dashboard has a little arrow to indicate which side of the vehicle the fuel filler is on - DOH!

View attachment 637697

And I understood that if the arrow was not present, the filler cap was on the side of the gauge.

 

[Blue Hills]

And I understood that if the arrow was not present, the filler cap was on the side of the gauge.

must admit I never noticed this in the cars I drove - mind you they were all company cars and I treated them badly.
To be honest, if a driver didn't know which side their car filled (unless a rental) I'd be worried about getting anywhere near them - inside or out.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

It was only recently I discovered that we only ever see one side of the moon.

 

[Blue Hills]

It was only recently I discovered that we only ever see one side of the moon.

well I certainly didn't know this - what's going on on the other side:? - what's it trying to keep from us?