Mine is this little tidbit about Khaki’s from https://www.heddels.com/2019/05/history-khaki-anything-drab/

“Tried and tested by all the major powers, khaki-dyed, lightweight cotton twills became the de facto uniform for any colonizing power. If you were going to ship your boys abroad to pillage and conquer someplace in the Southern Hemisphere, khaki was your go-to color.”

  • Wahots@pawb.social
    2·
    4 months ago

    Those fake astroturf fields and yards people are installing are actually quite toxic. In addition to heating plastic to high temperatures and baking it under powerful UV light each summer, the plastics and rubbers used for them are usually from sources like car tires which are full of PFAS to resist fires, wear, UV, etc. Those leach into surrounding areas whenever it rains.

  • Billegh@lemmy.world
    1·
    4 months ago

    That thing’s been in a butt. Almost certainly. Possibly mine. I can neither confirm nor deny. Good luck.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
    1·
    4 months ago

    During the War on Terror, there was a much-publicized fact that your own household furnishings were much more likely to kill you than terrorist.

  • truite@jlai.lu
    1·
    4 months ago

    How pineapples grow amazes me. Ofc if you’re from a place where pineapples grow, it probably sounds dumb, but I learnt that late in my life. Look:

    A pineapples plantation.

    Focus on a single pineapple, which grows on long leaves, on a long stem, alone, with other leaves on its head.

  • Etterra@discuss.onlineEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Some antique toasters gracefully lifted your toast, perfectly browned, rather than popping them up like it’s trying to give you a heart attack.

    • PhilipTheBucket@quokk.auEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago

      Which brings us to just one of those bizarre US things, “artificial flavor” versus “natural flavor” is totally arbitrary and random. It’s based on which molecule, not what the source is, so you can have “natural flavors” that came from a massive stainless steel tank and will kill you if you touch them in pure form without the proper protective gear, or “artificial flavors” that come from squeezing beaver ass glands.

      Edit: Every word of this post is wrong. Literally every one. I think I read a book decades ago that told me this, maybe I remembered it wrong, but anyway according to the internet of today it’s different and I’m a big dummy.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
            0·
            4 months ago

            The synthetics are usually inferior to natural products if you’re going high-end. There’s probably thousands of individual compounds in ambergris. Similarly, I’m guessing if you go for really bougie raspberry flavouring it’s more likely to use castoreum.

            • Semester3383@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              4 months ago

              I guess that I would have thought that you could isolate those individual compounds, and then reproduce them, rather than hoping that you can find a lucky ball of whale puke.

              I dunno, I’m pretty sure I’m not their target audience.

              • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
                1·
                4 months ago

                In theory you could, although I’d guess it’d be an incredible amount of work, and might cost more in the end. Most attempts at replicating natural flavours and scents have historically been unconvincing, although some of the recent stuff has been incredible.

                I wonder if there’s any food scientists on Lemmy.

  • leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl
    0·
    4 months ago

    “Blue lights on train platforms in Japan have been shown to reduce the chance someone will jump in front of a speeding train. In fact, one study in the Journal of Affective Disorders found blue lighting reduced suicide attempts by 84%. It’s believed blue registers as a calming color, associated with the sky and sea, which may be soothing to people in distress, according to Psychology Today.”

    I guess people who keep using blue-light filter glasses at end of work will miss this.