Welcome to the July “Today I Learned” thread, an opportunity for anyone to share something they found fascinating about a topic of interest. Cake is about having “Better Conversations,” and the more you know about a topic the more you can enjoy new conversations as a reader or participant.

A few posting guidelines for everyone’s benefit:

In your post,

• Add the topic covered at the top of your post.

• Provide an explanation for why you found it fascinating.

• If sharing quotes, please provide a link to your source.

• Please refrain from sharing YouTube videos to this thread: posts to this thread containing links to videos will be hidden from all. (If you want to share a #TIL that requires a YouTube video, you should create a separate conversation to do so.)

Medicine

I found this fascinating because it contradicts my world view of how fluids or medication can be delivered to the body. What other medical “facts” are untrue or more nuanced than I would have imagined?

“The doctors decided to insert a second I.V. line, using the intraosseous method, which infuses medicine directly into the patient’s bone marrow. Smith told me later that ‘really large patients are difficult, because it’s really hard to find I.V. access. So I suggested going through the humeral head’—the top of the arm bone. ‘I’m standing there, with my camera view, going, Bring his arm over, lay it across his belly, then feel here, and right in the middle is where you want to go.’ ” (Source)

Further Reading

Vaping isn't nearly as safe as teens want to think it isOne in eight high school seniors participate in vaping on a daily basis according to a recent study and as a whole, it appears to be getting more and more popular among young people. Teens seem to ...cake.co

<><><>

Mathematics

I have a strong interest in recreational maths and this factoid (see image at the end of this post) brought a smile to my face when I saw it—imagine the time and energy it took to discover these relationships! I wonder if they were found through paper and pencil trials or if someone programmed a search algorithm to run on a computer and find intriguing relationships.

Further Reading

Using Math, How Many of the 16 Movies Can You Identify?I think I solved two of them. Can anyone beat that?www.cake.co

<><><>

Cake Panel: "How do you make Maths Fun?"Welcome to all of our panelists and to everyone who's following the conversation on Cake. Our panelists have a passion for recreational mathematics and by the end of this panel I hope you do as ...www.cake.co

<><><>

Space

As a writer, I’m always intrigued by “What If” storylines:

What if you were the last man alive (Kyle XY)?

What if you would die if you weren’t blindfolded (Birdbox)?

What happened on the last day that humans were all still on planet Earth?

“November 2, 2000 was the last time all humans were on the planet together. Since then at least one person has remained on the international space station.” (Source)

Further Reading

Yikes, the astro photographs with Space X satellites in them look really badThere aren't many satellites yet but as they streak across the sky they appear super bright in the photos. Yuck. What will happen when there are 12,000 of them and Amazon starts launching theirs? ...cake.co

<><><>

Is Jupiter trying save us or kill us?I came across this article about how Jupiter has been flinging comets toward earth. For the longest time, scientists have thought Jupiter has acted as a shield, protecting our planet, but now it ...cake.co

History

Today I learned...that a play was written (and performed in NYC last year) in response to the confused racism of Hamilton. And that it was funded in large part by Toni Morrison. The play is titled, “The Haunting of Lin Manuel-Miranda,” written by Ishmael Reed (recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship).

Ishmael Reed Tries to Undo the Damage 'Hamilton' Has WroughtHis new play, The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, is an extremely earnest attempt to show Miranda the many errors of his blockbuster musical.www.thenation.com

In "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda," Ishmael Reed Revives an Old DebateThe play's brusque, polemical energy feels like a throwback to a different time-perhaps to an earlier version of multiculturalism, one that aspired to trouble the mainstream rather than enter it.www.google.com

cute animals

I learned that if you are looking for a fix of cuteness on Instagram, you may be “Rick-rolled” into reading a caption of how the cute animal is going extinct due to climate change. (Source)

Further Reading

H/t @Victoria

Okapi, Quetzals, Ibis, and other incredible species on display at the Bronx ZooThe Bronx Zoo is one of the largest zoos in the US simply by area - 265 acres - and I think I walked across most of it today! It's also the headquarters of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which ...cake.co

<><><>

Would you have a Llama at your wedding? Apparently it's a thing!When I saw the headline "'Llamas are the trending thing in the wedding industry' says Victoria photographer" I had to click through to check it ...www.cake.co