I learned that "archivolt" is the name for archivolts, the things that surround an tympanum.

Yesterday, I learned that Brandon de Wilde, who played the central character in the movie HUD (a culturally important modern Western film), was the kid in the classic Western film Shane.

I learned that some geckos are pretty much indistinguishable from moss and lichens:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:POTD/2022-12-11

I learnt that buying new windscreen wipers is not cheap for my car O_O

I also learnt how to gouge out an eye in my krav maga class. THE MORE YOU KNOW

The Danube River begins behind an Aldi distribution warehouse. I mean as an American I would find the parking lot of a Daimler factory pretty funny, but Aldi will do.

I got bored last night and followed the path of the Danube River on Google Earth from the Black Sea to its headwaters.

Isn't a Costco at the headwaters of the Missouri?

No, but there is a small creek in Wyoming that splits and flows to both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which I suppose makes half of North America technically an island.

Hydrologists disagree with you, gopher27.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_of_the_Danube
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Chapel,_Furtwangen

Although those are really poor articles in terms of citations, ha ha

@David - for real?

Today I learned:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Ocean_Pass

@JECE....In the town of Donaueschingen, the Berg River and the Brigach River come together behind an Aldi distribution center and the Danube River begins. This is much as the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River come together around downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River, right by where Three Rivers Stadium used to stand.

Ah, I see what you're getting at. Hydrologists still disagree with you, though. ;-)

The Wikipedia article did not. It clearly says that the Danube River begins when those two "streams" join, which happens at a bridge between a water treatment facility and an Aldi distribution center.

Are there any Frenchies in the house? The Guardian newspaper just told me that the color which is called "Burgundy" in the English-speaking world is called "Bordeaux" in France. Is this true? If so, then I have learned that thing today.

Translation for Burgundy is Bourgogne, a region in Center/East of France that produce a wine of that color. Bordeaux is a city in South West; produces wine as well but not related to Burgundy..

Yep, both different wines. Bordeaux is not a colour.

I learnt something today:
even if Burgundy means Bourgogne (far from bordeaux), the translation of the colour burgundy is indeed bordeaux in French.
French prefered to refer to the wines in Bordeaux area while English chose to refer to the Burgundy s ones. French from Quebec use the word bourgogne while we use bordeaux to describe the same colour.

English from America use the word burgoyne to describe gentlemans johnny.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Saratoga

Not to be confused with presenters bamber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamber_Gascoigne

I did not even know those were wine references

gopher27: Admittedly, I have not studied hydrology to know with certainty the correct terminology, but the confluence of two rivers cannot be the ultimate source of river.

Otherwise the search for the source of the Nile would have ended at Khartoum.

@JECE....I never used the word "source".

That's true.

Whoah, so Burgundy means Bourgogne which is far from Bordeaux but Burgundy is also Bordeaux in French. But Bordeaux produces Burgundy wine which in that case must be Bourgogne wine.

I learnt today more about a paper I am writing on Einsteins theory of Special Relativity may we discuss this?

Today, I learned that the Australian Shepherd was developed in the US from dogs brought to California by the Spanish, and it bears no resemblance to any dog breed known in Australia at the time that the breed was recognized in the US.

The American Revolution functionally ended when a joint American and French army surrounded and forced the surrender of General Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown. The Boston Tea Party and many of the other events leading to the start of the American Revolution were protests against the Townshend Acts, which were drafted by Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Townshend to make of lost revenue resulting from a 25% reduction in the tax on agricultural land in Great Britain to curry favor with the lower gentry upon whose electoral support the then current government depended.

**I learned today that General Cornwallis's mother was the eldest child of the second Viscount Townshend**, the famous "Turnip" Townshend whose popularizing of the Norfolk System of Four Field Crop Rotation dramatically increased crop yields in Britain and likely played a significant role in kicking off the industrial revolutions. This is significant because Charles Townshend of the Townshend Acts was the second son of the third Viscount Townshend, who was the second child and eldest son of the second Viscount. Therefore, the man who lost the American Revolution was the first cousin of the man who did more to cause the American Revolutions than nearly any other man.

For added color, the second son (and third child) of the second Viscount Townshend was the father of Thomas Townshend, who served as Home Secretary under Pitt the Younger after the American Revolution. In that capacity, he enacted a plan to deport British criminals to the far side of the world. For his service to the nation, he was elevated to the House of Lords initially through the third creation of an extinct title as the Baron Sydney and was later elevated again to become the first Viscount Sydney.

So three first cousins, who were all the grandsons of one of the most important (but largely forgotten) figures of modern history, started the American Revolution, lost the American Revolution and then responded to the loss of the American Revolution by leading the creation of Australia.

For bonus points, the second Viscount Townshend outlived the grandmother of these three men, and his second wife was the sister of his long time political ally Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain and the man who donated #10 Downing Street to serve as the Prime Minister's residence.

A group of cobras is called a quiver of cobras.