Unknown known

Unknown knowns are the things that we know, but are unaware of knowing. The coining of the term is attributed to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek and it refers to the unconscious beliefs and prejudices that determine how we perceive reality and intervene in it. It is the Freudian unconscious, the “knowledge which doesn’t know itself.”

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Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.

Proverb
Tea fields in Japan

Tea fields in Japan

30 Story Hotel Completely Built and Finished in Fifteen Days

“The Journal of Recreational Mathematics published this remarkable magic square, composed by ‘a puzzlist who at the time was a prison inmate.’ The large 13 x 13 square is magic — that is, each row and column adds to the same sum — but so is each successive nested square, from 11 x 11 down to 3 x 3. The magic constant of each square is 10,874 smaller than the last. And every cell is prime.”

“The Journal of Recreational Mathematics published this remarkable magic square, composed by ‘a puzzlist who at the time was a prison inmate.’

The large 13 x 13 square is magic — that is, each row and column adds to the same sum — but so is each successive nested square, from 11 x 11 down to 3 x 3.

The magic constant of each square is 10,874 smaller than the last.

And every cell is prime.”

Bearded dragon playing a video game

(Source: youtube.com)

Space Shuttle Discovery

“An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiders webs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before, but they also reported that there were less mosquitos than they would have expected, given the amount of standing water that was left. Not being bitten by mosquitoes was one small blessing for people that had lost everything in the floods.”

“An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiders webs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before, but they also reported that there were less mosquitos than they would have expected, given the amount of standing water that was left. Not being bitten by mosquitoes was one small blessing for people that had lost everything in the floods.”

Perceptual adaptation (Wikipedia)

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One experiment in which Stratton conducted was when he wore a reversing telescope for a whole twenty four hours. To his disappointment, his vision was unchanged. Determined to find results, Stratton wore the telescoping glasses for eight days straight. By day four, his vision was upright (not inverted). However on day five, images appeared upright until he concentrated on them; then they became inverted again. By having to concentrate on his vision to turn it upside down again, especially when he knew images were hitting his retinas in the opposite orientation as normal, Stratton deduced his brain had reprocessed his vision and adapted to the changes in vision. After removing the glasses, “normal vision was restored instantaneously and without any disturbance in the natural appearance or position of objects.

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Ocelot kitten

Ocelot kitten

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