this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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Mildly Interesting

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This is for strictly mildly interesting material. If it's too interesting, it doesn't belong. If it's not interesting, it doesn't belong.

This is obviously an objective criteria, so the mods are always right. Or maybe mildly right? Ahh.. what do we know?

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An incomplete and infuriating list

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago

Two Portland neighborhoods built on cleared forest are called Sellwood and Moreland. When I heard they were named after people, I thought it was a joke. Further, Moreland was a real estate agent.

[–] HerrVorragend 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Diesel (Engine) - Rudolf Diesel

Mercedes-Benz - named after the daughter of Carl Benz

[–] SpaceNoodle 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You forgot the "unexpected" part.

[–] Plopp 2 points 5 months ago

Ok I've got one. The wheel, being named after Jimmy Wheel. I'm sure that's correct.

[–] ieightpi 10 points 5 months ago

This list is amazing and hilarious

[–] bigredgiraffe 9 points 5 months ago

This one was a surprise to me, Boolean (as in logic/algebra) is actually named after George Bool.

[–] mipadaitu 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowler%27s_position

"Sitting down" in a hospital setting is named after some dude, and that name is actually used in medicine.

[–] candybrie 5 points 5 months ago

It's more sitting up. You're going from laying to sitting with legs mostly parallel to the floor. Rather than from standing to sitting with calves mostly perpendicular to the floor.

[–] londos 7 points 5 months ago

At my old job we would order silicone oil from a company called ClearCo, who sell all forms of clear silicone products. Seemed obvious enough.

But wait! Founded by Frank Cleary and still run by Chris Cleary! With no acknowledgment at all of how funny that is!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Thomas Crapper, while he did not invent the crapper, designed several improvements to it still in use today.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

The Polaroid land camera was named after it's inventor, Edwin Land.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

Southern blot is a neat full circle:

The method is named after the British biologist Edwin Southern, who first published it in 1975.[3] Other blotting methods (i.e., western blot,[4] northern blot, eastern blot, southwestern blot) that employ similar principles, but using RNA or protein, have later been named for compass directions as a sort of pun from Southern's name.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago
[–] NickwithaC 2 points 5 months ago

The "web 1.0"ness of this website is so nostalgic, it's wonderful!

[–] PrimeMinisterKeyes 1 points 5 months ago

No love for Caesar salad or Nachos?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I had to make sure it had Outerbridge Crossing.

[–] Delphia 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You should hear the story of Jimmy Space.

One of the funniest things ever associated with Warhammer 40k. Even if you know nothing about Warhammer, even if you hate warhammer this clip from a podcast is still funny.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

You should hear the story of Jimmy Space.

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] stackPeek 1 points 5 months ago

I always had suspicion that the name "Erlang" came from a name, as at least in my country the name "Airlangga" (people usually shorten it like "Erlang") , is a pretty common name