Broadening the mind, learning something new (Anders Jacobsen's blog)

August 16, 2004

Broadening the mind, learning something new

Always eager to keep learning new stuff, I find Wikipedia to be a treasure trove of new tidbits to learn. Quality controlled through the communal wiki process, one is never guaranteed that everything is always right, but the contents are comprehensive and generally very well researched.

Tidbits from random reading the last weeks:

Dual gauge railways: allowing railway tracks of different gauges to share the same alignment, costs can seemingly be reduced. Dual gauge can take the place of two separate sets of tracks (having two rails each), and replace it with one set of track, with 3 rails. This allows one rail less for the stretch of the dual gauge line, however, there are other complications and costs, which usually offset any savings.
Icarus: In Greek mythology, the son of Daedalus, who built wings of feather and wax to escape emprisonment on Crete.
IATA 3 Letter Airport Codes: Did you know? "The codes are not quite unique: 323 of these possible 17,576 codes are used by more than one airport."
Peerage of the United Kingdom: Why English upper class people are so pontsy. Did you know that the ranks of the peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, and Baron? I didn't. Anyway. Now you know...

:-)