Things I Learned This Week

The list is somewhat small this week. I didn't do a good job of documenting this week. All but the first I actually learned yesterday.

• ZEROFILL numeric values in MySQL are implicitly UNSIGNED.


• Saccharin was discovered accidentaly when a scientist was working with coal tar derivatives and forgot to wash his hands.


• New Orlean's Lake Pontchartrain was named after France's chancellor, Minister of the Marine, and minister of finance under Louis XIV.


• Wootz was being created as early as 300AD (or maybe even 200BC). Apparently modern metallurgists have reproduced the procedure.