TIL: Today I Learned... (Join in!)

[LadyTevar]

TIL the difference between baking soda and baking powder

*sigh*
Yes. Both of those are leavening agents to make baked goods rise.
Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate) combined with an acidic liquid, like buttermilk, makes CO2 which causes the cake to rise properly.
Baking POWDER is both sodium bicarbonate AND the acid (citric acid usually). It just needs heat to start producing CO2.

Adding Baking Powder to a recipe already using buttermilk or another acid overpowers the sodium bicarbonate and it doesn't rise.

That particular cake was thrown in the trash as it was the consistency of bread pudding due to underbaking.

[Broomstick]

Adding Baking Powder to a recipe already using buttermilk or another acid overpowers the sodium bicarbonate and it doesn't rise.

Heat and moisture - so keep your powder dry until you're ready to use it.

[LadyTevar]

TIL:

My niece is having a baby boy! (gender reveal party today)

[His Divine Shadow]

I learned you can cook pretty well in a masonry heater if the electricity is expensive (current price 35c/kWh) and you don't wanna fire up the oven.

[Broomstick]

Like cooking on an old-style hearth. What is old is new again.

We've been extraordinarily fortunate in my area with warmer than usual weather - except, of course, that means climate change is real. So... not much heating cost so far. I could have done without the 100 kph winds we've had these last two days, which have highlighted every crack and chink in my home. Time to get up the window plastic to seal off the worst of it, and repair the doorsweep.

If the newer pattern holds, though, we should have an arctic air mass flop down over us at some point this winter. The cold doesn't last as long as it did 30 or 40 years ago but it can still be just as intense when it does get here.

I'll try not to whine about it, as I know heating costs, even if they have risen compared to last year, are still lower here than in most other places.

[bilateralrope]

One of the sounds owls here can make sounds very similar to a small dog in distress.

[The_Saint]

Today Last night I learned that cut resistant gloves are in no way puncture resistant when dealing with blackberry thorns.

[LadyTevar]

Today Last night I learned that cut resistant gloves are in no way puncture resistant when dealing with blackberry thorns.

There is a big difference between cuts and punctures, which is why even D&D has stats for Slashing vs Stabbing. It's very hard to make something that protects against both, because cuts are movement-based (a drawn line across) while punctures are a single point of contact (all energy on that one contact point).

Which is why the SCA Fencing community does demonstrations on how easy it is for even an epee to cause damage if the safety tip is missing. It's scary how little pressure it takes to stab a watermelon.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Today Last night I learned that cut resistant gloves are in no way puncture resistant when dealing with blackberry thorns.

There is a big difference between cuts and punctures, which is why even D&D has stats for Slashing vs Stabbing. It's very hard to make something that protects against both, because cuts are movement-based (a drawn line across) while punctures are a single point of contact (all energy on that one contact point).

Which is why the SCA Fencing community does demonstrations on how easy it is for even an epee to cause damage if the safety tip is missing. It's scary how little pressure it takes to stab a watermelon.

TIL that many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing.

[LadyTevar]

Today Last night I learned that cut resistant gloves are in no way puncture resistant when dealing with blackberry thorns.

There is a big difference between cuts and punctures, which is why even D&D has stats for Slashing vs Stabbing. It's very hard to make something that protects against both, because cuts are movement-based (a drawn line across) while punctures are a single point of contact (all energy on that one contact point).

Which is why the SCA Fencing community does demonstrations on how easy it is for even an epee to cause damage if the safety tip is missing. It's scary how little pressure it takes to stab a watermelon.

TIL that many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing.

Yep, many swords are designed for both. PROTECTION against both is the hard part.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

There is a big difference between cuts and punctures, which is why even D&D has stats for Slashing vs Stabbing. It's very hard to make something that protects against both, because cuts are movement-based (a drawn line across) while punctures are a single point of contact (all energy on that one contact point).

Which is why the SCA Fencing community does demonstrations on how easy it is for even an epee to cause damage if the safety tip is missing. It's scary how little pressure it takes to stab a watermelon.

TIL that many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing.

Yep, many swords are designed for both. PROTECTION against both is the hard part.

Now I'm going to have to look up the effectiveness of swords vs armour

[LadyTevar]

TIL that many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing.

Yep, many swords are designed for both. PROTECTION against both is the hard part.

Now I'm going to have to look up the effectiveness of swords vs armour

Chain mail -- good against slashing but a strong thrust can break through.
Lamellar -- good against slashing, but thrusts can go between plates.
Plate -- good against slashing and thrusts, unless it hits a spot not covered by plate (ie any gaps needed for movement).

None of these were much good against Bashing/Mass weapon damage (clubs, warhammers, maces, axes). There was an archeology report of a grave containing a grown man whose hip bone was utterly destroyed, and bone chips found the lower ribs on the opposite side. Supposedly the blow that killed him came from a mace swung in a low arc, connecting on the upswing. It could also have been a flail.

[Batman]

Downside of phyiscs: even if your armour is utterly indestructible (impossible outside comics miracle materials and mostly even with them) all the momentum and kinetic energy of the attack has to go somewhere, and without miracletech like inertial damping or outright magic, that somewhere is going to be the body of the wearer. And humans aren't all that physically resilient.

[Lord Revan]

In theory you could build an armor that would be proof against maces, but it would be so heavy it would be impractical. That's the thing there an armor is always a compromise between protection and the practical needs of the user.

It's also why armor disappeared from at around 1600s until World War I guns became too powerful for it to be practical to armor people against it.

[The_Saint]

Today Last night I learned that cut resistant gloves are in no way puncture resistant when dealing with blackberry thorns.

There is a big difference between cuts and punctures, which is why even D&D has stats for Slashing vs Stabbing. It's very hard to make something that protects against both, because cuts are movement-based (a drawn line across) while punctures are a single point of contact (all energy on that one contact point).

Which is why the SCA Fencing community does demonstrations on how easy it is for even an epee to cause damage if the safety tip is missing. It's scary how little pressure it takes to stab a watermelon.

Exactly

To be fair I well know the difference, I just had a vain hope of finding better gloves. I didn't have a lot of faith they'd be actually puncture proof but I had hope from their construction that they might be marginally better than the leather gloves I was previously using.

Fun bit of personal history, I have been on the receiving end of a sword stab from a rider performing a horse-mounted charge (an accident while demonstrating historic military skill-at-arms) and it didn't do anywhere near as much damage to my hand as I was expecting (likely due to a combination of the rider attempting to shift the sword point and me trying to whip my hand out of the way).

[LadyTevar]

Exactly

To be fair I well know the difference, I just had a vain hope of finding better gloves. I didn't have a lot of faith they'd be actually puncture proof but I had hope from their construction that they might be marginally better than the leather gloves I was previously using.

Fun bit of personal history, I have been on the receiving end of a sword stab from a rider performing a horse-mounted charge (an accident while demonstrating historic military skill-at-arms) and it didn't do anywhere near as much damage to my hand as I was expecting (likely due to a combination of the rider attempting to shift the sword point and me trying to whip my hand out of the way).

Yeouch! Good reflexes, getting as far out of the way as you were able.
You'd probably have to get hockey gloves to have the thickness to protect from thorns. And that will only work because the padding is thicker than the thorn is long

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Exactly

To be fair I well know the difference, I just had a vain hope of finding better gloves. I didn't have a lot of faith they'd be actually puncture proof but I had hope from their construction that they might be marginally better than the leather gloves I was previously using.

Fun bit of personal history, I have been on the receiving end of a sword stab from a rider performing a horse-mounted charge (an accident while demonstrating historic military skill-at-arms) and it didn't do anywhere near as much damage to my hand as I was expecting (likely due to a combination of the rider attempting to shift the sword point and me trying to whip my hand out of the way).

Yeouch! Good reflexes, getting as far out of the way as you were able.
You'd probably have to get hockey gloves to have the thickness to protect from thorns. And that will only work because the padding is thicker than the thorn is long

Believe it or not, those aren't thorns. They're actually prickles!

[Batman]

TIL there's a difference between thorns and prickles. So far I thought all the stabby bits on plants are thorns.

[Raw Shark]

TIL there's a difference between thorns and prickles. So far I thought all the stabby bits on plants are thorns.

I find it effective to just use "stabby bits" as a catch-all term, because that's the result as far as my flesh goes. It's like the plant version of the signs you might see on some properties that say, "I don't call 911. I call Smith and Wesson." Do I really care exactly what kind of S&W this guy is bringing to bear on me? No I do not.

[Raw Shark]

At least farmers can be reasoned with. I've gotten away with my skin plenty of times I had a weapon pointed at my face with a simple, "Hey sorry man, just passing through." Sometime they were like, "Imma follow you the whole way," and sometimes it was like, "Okay, keep moving."

[Zwinmar]

For gloves for moving barbed objects : https://www.militarygloves.com/barbed-wire-handler.html something like that would help, though we found they were just annoying to move concertina wire with.

[LadyTevar]

For gloves for moving barbed objects : https://www.militarygloves.com/barbed-wire-handler.html something like that would help, though we found they were just annoying to move concertina wire with.

Concertina wire is supposed to be annoying and dangerous to move, it's meant to disrupt movement across a battlefield.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

At least farmers can be reasoned with. I've gotten away with my skin plenty of times I had a weapon pointed at my face with a simple, "Hey sorry man, just passing through." Sometime they were like, "Imma follow you the whole way," and sometimes it was like, "Okay, keep moving."

How do you get yourself into such situations so regularly?

[EnterpriseSovereign]

For gloves for moving barbed objects : https://www.militarygloves.com/barbed-wire-handler.html something like that would help, though we found they were just annoying to move concertina wire with.

Concertina wire is supposed to be annoying and dangerous to move, it's meant to disrupt movement across a battlefield.

It is also used in non-military settings, such as when used in prison barriers, detention camps and riot control.

[LadyTevar]

For gloves for moving barbed objects : https://www.militarygloves.com/barbed-wire-handler.html something like that would help, though we found they were just annoying to move concertina wire with.

Concertina wire is supposed to be annoying and dangerous to move, it's meant to disrupt movement across a battlefield.

It is also used in non-military settings, such as when used in prison barriers, detention camps and riot control.

Which again, is there to disrupt and prevent movement.