this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

They have historically said aluminum in Canada too…

It’s not an American term. It’s literally what the British discoverer of the metal named it (after originally naming it Alumium), both because it resembled platinum as well as wanting to associate it with the more prestigious metal.

Aluminium is actually the “incorrect” way of spelling it anyway because it comes from the second neuter declination from Latin where -um is the correct way. Which is why you have plumbum (lead, Pb), argentum (silver, Ag), aurum (gold, Au), ferrum (iron, Fe), hydrargyrum (mercury, Hg), copper (cuprum, Cu), stannum (tin, Sn), molybdenum, lanthanum, and tantalum. Arsenic was originally arsenicum as well.

The second neuter declension from Greek is where you get -on elements like the noble gasses. Neon, krypton, argon, xenon, radon. And then helium, which by its Greek etymology should be helion instead of helium. Also Silicon, carbon, boron, and oganesson.

Oganesson by the IUPAC rules should actually be Oganessium, because the naming rules required all new elements to end in -ium regardless of properties. They ended up naming it oganesson because it falls in the noble gas group, even though it’s predicted to be a metallic solid at room temp and not a gas at all.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

I genuinely love this response. It's so detailed and in-depth that it makes me wish for a "Umm... Actually" Lemmy community.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 47 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If you're referring to "aluminium", Canadians don't use that. We use "aluminum" just like in the US.

[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] ripcord@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Also both Americans and Canadians use all the other iums. It's only that one we don't do.

It knows why.

[–] Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Because they decided to name things -ium to sound alike later down the road, even if it’s etymologically incorrect.

If we used the original etymologically correct names for elements we would also say plumbum, ferrum, argentum, aurum, cuprum, stannum, and hydrargyrum for lead, iron, silver, gold, copper, tin, and mercury respectively. Which is why their element symbols are Pb, Fe, Ag, Au, Cu, Sn, and Hg.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m pretty sure they say, “aluma-lum”

[–] moistclump@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We say alumi-num. Brits on the other hand say a-loo-min-ee-um.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s alumalum

In case link is broke, 2:59 is the timestamp.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

alumalum

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[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it would be adamantium-a

[–] lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 year ago

I don't see the connection between Wolverine and Adam Ant, he's British, not Canadian.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago