48 replies to this topic

[Yuli Ban]

List of people who disappeared mysteriously: pre-1970

Most creepily:
 

Bobby disappeared during a fishing trip. A child found in the custody of William Cantwell Walters of Mississippi eight months later was ruled to be Bobby Dunbar by a court-appointed arbiter, and Walters was found guilty of kidnapping. The child grew up as Bobby Dunbar, had four children of his own, and died in 1966. In 2004, DNA tests proved that the child found was not related to Bobby Dunbar's brother, Alonzo.

In other words, some rich family lost their son, stole a poor family's son, and blamed the father for kidnapping. 

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

 
Quark star

A quark star is a hypothetical type of compact, exotic star, where extremely high core temperature and pressure has forced nuclear particles to form quark matter, a continuous state of matter consisting of free quarks.
Some massive stars collapse to form neutron stars at the end of their life cycle, as has been both observed and explained theoretically. Under the extreme temperatures and pressures inside neutron stars, the neutrons are normally kept apart by a degeneracy pressure, stabilizing the star and hindering further gravitational collapse. However, it is hypothesized that under even more extreme temperature and pressure, the degeneracy pressure of the neutrons is overcome, and the neutrons are forced to merge and dissolve into their constituent quarks, creating an ultra-dense phase of quark matter based on densely packed quarks. In this state, a new equilibrium is supposed to emerge, as a new degeneracy pressure between the quarks, as well as repulsive electromagnetic forces, will occur and hinder gravitational collapse.
 
If these ideas are correct, quark stars might occur, and be observable, somewhere in the universe. Theoretically, such a scenario is seen as scientifically plausible, but it has been impossible to prove both observationally and experimentally, because the very extreme conditions needed for stabilizing quark matter cannot be created in any laboratory nor observed directly in nature. The stability of quark matter, and hence the existence of quark stars, is for these reasons among the unsolved problems in physics.

[Yuli Ban]

Strange star

A strange star is a quark star made of strange quark matter. They form a subgroup under the quark star category.
Strange stars might exist without regard to the Bodmer–Witten assumption of stability at near-zero temperatures and pressures, as strange quark matter might form and remain stable at the core of neutron stars, in the same way as ordinary quark matter could. Such strange stars will naturally have a crust layer of neutron star material. The depth of the crust layer will depend on the physical conditions and circumstances of the entire star and on the properties of strange quark matter in general. Stars partially made up of quark matter (including strange quark matter) are also referred to as hybrid stars.
This theoretical strange star crust is proposed to be a possible reason behind fast radio bursts (FRBs). This is still theoretical, but there is good evidence that the collapse of these strange star crusts may be an FRB point of origin.

[wjfox]

"According to The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne, Miller's planet is shaped a little like a football, with one end constantly pointing at Gargantua. The waves are literally tidal waves, so it's not the waves coming toward you, it's the planet rotating under you and the fixed waves slamming into you. But because the planet doesn't rotate, the waves wouldn't slam into you. Fortunately, tidally locked planets can rock back and forth, and Thorne used this as a scientifically accurate loophole to explain tidal waves on a tidally locked planet. Also, because the water on Miller is mostly concentrated in the waves, you could have knee-high oceans, like the one shown in the film."

https://interstellar...Miller_(planet)

[Yuli Ban]

Multiple discovery

The concept of multiple discovery (also known as simultaneous invention) is the hypothesis that most scientific discoveries and inventions are made independently and more or less simultaneously by multiple scientists and inventors. The concept of multiple discovery opposes a traditional view—the "heroic theory" of invention and discovery.

Already knew of this; just wanted a link to remember it more easily.

[Yuli Ban]

Um....

 

 

TIL Salvador Dali was attracted to Hitler "“I often dreamed of Hitler as a woman. His flesh, which I had imagined whiter than white, ravished me…”

[wjfox]

TIL: Nuclear produces one-third of the emissions per unit of electricity when compared with solar.

 

https://www.world-nu...ate-change.aspx

 

 

[Erowind]

/\ Yes! Nuclear is really good. The only bad side I know of is that the outflow of water needs to go into a holding pond before returning to whatever river or body it comes from. I read a study once on how even though the water is cleaner than when it enters the plant the temperature can be so hot that it boils fish alive. One of the local plants in my state has killed millions of fish over its lifetime. Nuclear is mostly safe, oversights like this need to be accounted for as with any infrastructure. The plant developer knew this would happen and didn't build a holding pond because there was no environmental regulation requiring it and the cost of the pond was worth less than the environmental cost to them.

[wjfox]

On balance, I'm generally in favour of nuclear.

 

However, it's a lot slower to construct than solar/wind – and given the urgency of climate change, we need zero-carbon energy at the fastest possible rate.

 

Also, recent projects have seen massive cost overruns, e.g. Hinkley Point C in the UK.

 

Other issues include safety, waste management, nuclear material proliferation, and so on.

 

I think a new generation of small modular reactors is the way to go. Longer term, there's fusion.

[Yuli Ban]

TIL that the first first-person shooter, Maze, was created in 1973. It included features like corner peeking, AI bots, and 8-player online play. In fact, it was so popular that DARPA had to ban it from ARPANET because half of all network activity for a month was between players at MIT and Stanford.

[Yuli Ban]

Fun facts about the Mantis Shrimp....

[wjfox]

TIL: Most of New Zealand is actually submerged.

 

https://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Zealandia

 

 

 

 

 

[Yuli Ban]

What.

 

TIL about Whipping Tom of 1681, a nickname given to a serial spanker in London. He would wait for an unaccompanied woman, grab her, lift her dress and slap her buttocks whiles shouting "Spanko!" before fleeing. Vigilantes would dress in women's clothing and patrol the areas he was known to operate.

[Raklian]

What.

 

TIL about Whipping Tom of 1681, a nickname given to a serial spanker in London. He would wait for an unaccompanied woman, grab her, lift her dress and slap her buttocks whiles shouting "Spanko!" before fleeing. Vigilantes would dress in women's clothing and patrol the areas he was known to operate.

 

Whipping Tom and Jack the Ripper - two names to remember by when associating with London.

[wjfox]

 

 

 

 

[Yuli Ban]

TIL that in 1961 the cost per GFLOPS for computer performance was US$145.5 billion dollars adjusted to US 2013 inflation. As of 2017, the cost per GLOPS was US$0.03 cents. This enormous difference in cost comes out to be a %99.999999999979 decrease in cost per GLOPS over 56 years.

[wjfox]

https://en.wikipedia...rtragungsgesetz