Things you were shockingly old when you learned

you can have 2 different numbers on the same mobile phone. Took me a minute to work out why my new phone had slots for 2 sim cards and that is the reason. Is that widespread now?

also that phones no longer open to let you swap batteries etc. previous phone was several years old so opened so you could change battery, put sim and memory card in slots within phone. new one had a tray that could be popped out.

That a band like Dry Cleaning would be playing in Argentina. Not sure if that reflects an opening up of the touring map or if this is more exceptional. Really not familiar with the amount of non-massive bands that tour South America but very surprised to see a live set by them from there and there is one up on Dime.
Like do indie like bands tour there now.

Seems to be some video of the show circulating though an upping to youtube has been removed.
Also seeing they played Chile too

The word "czar" or "tsar" is a Russian derivation of the German "kaiser," which itself is a derivation of "Caesar." I believe the American usage of the word "czar" (as a politically appointed head of something) is actually unique to America, and may have started getting used more often under Roosevelt as a exotic/foreign-sounding word perhaps less likely to raise the hackles of Americans wary of authoritarian titles/implications.

It's not unique to the US we've got dozens of them over here.

I think I missed that, but maybe it's unique to the US and UK, then. I wonder if the term went into circulation in both places at the same time or for the same reason?

czar is only one way to find out

I'm surprised that the etymological derivation isn't more directly from Latin but there are several centuries between first noted usage and the Roman Empire.
Also since I think the first version of the word I saw was Czar it might be more obvious that way since it just looks like a mispelling which could be phonetic through usage or something.

Dragonball Z = dragon balls

iirc in Japan "Z" is a symbol for evolution or ultimate or something like that.

yeah, and when Toriyama added the Z to the already well-established DragonBall series, it was marking a substantial shift in the aesthetic/emphasis. it's not a "balls" thing, afaik.

Growing up in the UK in the 70s it was normal to have separate hot and cold water taps. I was shockingly old when I learned that this wasn't the norm in other countries.

It’s very common in other countries

working with international students in the UK, this is absolutely one of the top complaints they have, it is not normal outside the UK.

I assume the main alternative is to have a single outlet with separate hot and cold controls which means that you can mix the heat of water that comes out. Not sure if I saw that before i visited the US for the first time in the mid 70s but it does seem like a basic practical solution for use.

things i was *this old* when i learned em = the term "czar" in US political usage goes back fully 100 years (= even more than me), to woodrow wyatt's appointment of bernard baruch as "industry czar" (war-related co-ordination of mobilisation etc etc, mamagerial revolution birth-of-the-technocracy stuff): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czar_(political_term) <-- less clear from wikipedia and its citations is whether this formula was used immediately (in 1916 or 1918) or only in considerable retrospect

FDR also liked to appoint czars and so did nixon and so did obama -- and it came across into the UK in the third-way era (blair of course lol; alan fkn sugar got to be one)

(in uk i think the papers preferred "tsar" to "czar")

Separate taps are common in Portugal, I'll boldly tackle this binary by suggesting it might be common in some parts outside the UK and uncommon in others.

it was v common in my old flat but is uncommon in my current one

Croisant munching, latte sipping single tap users.

The separate taps thing was pretty standard in New Zealand, though I’m assuming only in older builds now

many, many years ago, a school caretaker caught me drinking from a warm tap at school, and he told me I shouldn't do this because there was a dead pigeon in the rusty old water tank above. Even though he was obviously pulling my leg, it was still a very important lesson!

yeah, remember it being pointed out a few different times and places that hot water came from standing tank and cold more straight from external supply. So more likely to come across dead things in supply that fed hot water. Therefore don't drink from there.

it's just that other countries if you can afford to travel then your house almost certainly doesn't have victorian plumbing

I thought the separate taps thing is a building code standard in the UK, like the giant grounded electrical outlets and light bulb sockets and gently curving motorways. There for some (possibly outdated) solid engineering reason.

Seperate taps, in my mind, is definitely a UK thing. The other two countries I've lived in (France and Australia) don't have them.

Mixing valves are an early 20th century invention, but didn't become commonly used for sinks until the 1960s in the US. I've lived in multiple US homes that didn't have them.

Also don't drink from a hot water tap because it's an ideal breeding ground for bacteria in the warm sections of pipe.

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/aFrankZa_WakaJaw_CoverAr_3000DPI300RGB1000394594-820x820.jpg

gently curving motorways

is this as opposed to ramrod straight motorways, or motorways with insanely sharp bends?

the bacteria in the warm pipe kills and eats the bacteria from all the dead pigeons *slaps roof of header tank for meme purposes*

Also don't drink from a hot water tap because it's an ideal breeding ground for bacteria in the warm sections of pipe.

This is why I let the hot water run until it's 100°C and then proceed to drink from it.

I assume the main alternative is to have a single outlet with separate hot and cold controls

It's one handle. All the way to the left is hot. Pointing it to 10 o'clock is kinda hot. Straight up is warm, and the same positions to the right give you the same kind of cold water.

Unless you're talking about shower knobs, in which case, yeah, your guess is as good as mine.

I've mentioned it before but at work the two kitchens on our floor each had mixer taps but they were mounted on different sides of the sink. so pulling the handle all the way towards you got freezing cold water in the one kitchen but boiling hot in the other.

also must point out that a lot of the cold water also comes from a feed tank, see that episode of Fawlty Towers. kitchen tap (and toilet cisterns!) are generally rising main and potable

“Mixer tap” is the kind of phrase I imagine Alan Partridge murmuring approvingly when touring a prospective rental

Change of topic, sorry, but I only learned yesterday that "buttermilk" in French is called "babeurre"

Considering "I speak French" and "I cook regularly in a country where ingredients are plainly labelled in French" this surprised me that I didn't know that

I’ve never heard that before either tbh

They rarely if ever use it, is probably why

The French I mean

Never heard that one either, but I am not quite as close to the language as you two gentlemen. Perhaps I can email your compatriot Sund4r, fgti, and see what he has to say. Come to think of it, there was recently another, Québécois, word we discussed recently.

Un œuf miroir. Have you come across that one?

Btw, we tried a French language subboard but it failed. Wonder if we have at least a French vocab thread on this borad.

The other two countries I've lived in (France and Australia) don't have them.

tell that to the two taps with separate faucets still in my childhood bathroom sink to this day 😠

It's one handle. All the way to the left is hot. Pointing it to 10 o'clock is kinda hot. Straight up is warm, and the same positions to the right give you the same kind of cold water.

tell that to the two taps either side of the faucet installed in my current flat in March 😠

Yep, I know oeuf miroir. I just LIKE "babeurre", it's cute. I'm getting into "homemade ranch dressing" so I'm using more buttermilk

I remember bathroom sinks in a couple of my first apartments with two taps, and, you could buy a thing to attach to them to combine them. This was in Pennsylvania, houses probably from the early 1900s.

Which, it looks like you can something similar on UK Amazon.

> gently curving motorways
> is this as opposed to ramrod straight motorways, or motorways with insanely sharp bends?

In the US prairie, for sure. We're always falling asleep at the wheel.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Streeter,+ND+58483/@46.3914495,-98.7884629,8.96z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x52d0ee94ba40fb4b:0x5836a15a6c2f81a5!8m2!3d46.657026!4d-99.3582177!16zL20vMHlycXk

Sic, you're not really 😠 about this, are you?

tbf my kitchen/bathroom sinks had separate taps until circa five years ago

the bathtub taps remain separate, and glitchy

My guess is that seperate taps were common everywhere until the 60s, at which point all countries other than the UK gradually switched to the single tap. My feeling is that the UK is pretty much the only country left where it's common. For reasons unknown.

https://em-content.zobj.net/thumbs/320/samsung/45/angry-face_1f620.png

classic sic

classic sic