Interesting Stuff Thread

mikhail · 05-06-2012 2:57pm

Gbear wrote: »

I've never liked the idea much and it'll never really be enough.

Viable, large scale storage is still a long way away.

I think we'd be better off waiting for technology to catch up than possibly wasting billions on projects like this.

We have the technology.

recedite · 06-06-2012 3:13pm

joseph brand wrote: »

Massive Energy Storage, Courtesy of West Ireland

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/massive-energy-storage-courtesy-.html?ref=hphp

I've heard Pat Kenny plugging this more than once on his TV and radio shows, but not a peep from the government or politicians. They have no problem throwing tens of billions at failed bankers and property developers, but this project struggles to raise €1.6 billion privately.
The basic principles/economics of it are; Pump the seawater uphill using electricity at off-peak tariffs, at night or in windy weather. Then in daytime or calm weather, reverse the flow and the pumps become generators. The process is only about 70-80% efficient. But off peak electricity sells for about 50% of peak rate.
So the 20-30% difference is your margin. The question for the moneylending beancounters is how long it takes at the 20% margin for payback of the capital costs. For those seeing the bigger picture however, the timescale is irrelevant because we are also looking at long term import substitution (of oil and gas) and immediate job creation; both very beneficial to this economy.

Turtwig · 06-06-2012 5:07pm

This is for those of you with those really high res screens and multiple monitors.

shizz · 06-06-2012 6:30pm

I always loved the idea of terraforming. Lets hope that we give it a go at some stage

Map of a terraformed Mars.

Turtwig · 06-06-2012 6:54pm

Indeed, that terraforming of Mars idea was the only bit of my chemistry textbook that I read at all with interest.

This Super Genius Heist, is just utterly fascinating and amazing! Set aside a half hour, grab yourself a cuppa and amaze yourself at a modern day mystery of intrigue and intellect.
(Sensationalism purely intended to get your lazy arse to click the link.:p)

Calibos · 06-06-2012 7:36pm

Its always going to be cheaper and easier to fix whatever the problem is here on earth than Terraform Mars which also has a tiny 1000 year life span before the lack of magnetic field lets the Sun strip off the 'New' Atmosphere.

shizz · 06-06-2012 8:15pm

Calibos wrote: »

Its always going to be cheaper and easier to fix whatever the problem is here on earth than Terraform Mars which also has a tiny 1000 year life span before the lack of magnetic field lets the Sun strip off the 'New' Atmosphere.

Well its fairly obvious that it's an expensive endeavour, the reality is the species is doomed if we stay on one planet only.

If it's possible to terraform it in the first place how would it be impossible to keep it "topped up", so to speak, and prevent that from happening?

Turtwig · 06-06-2012 8:44pm

shizz wrote: »

Well its fairly obvious that it's an expensive endeavour, the reality is the species is doomed if we stay on one planet only.

If it's possible to terraform it in the first place how would it be impossible to keep it "topped up", so to speak, and prevent that from happening?

But if we can terraform Mars then why wouldn't we just attempt to terraform Earth?

shizz · 06-06-2012 8:53pm

Jernal wrote: »

But if we can terraform Mars then why wouldn't we just attempt to terraform Earth?

Sorry I should of been more specific. I'm referring to an event that is out of our control such as an asteroid impact etc. Something which can wipe us out in an extinction.

Turtwig · 06-06-2012 9:02pm

shizz wrote: »

Sorry I should of been more specific. I'm referring to an event that is out of our control such as an asteroid impact etc. Something which can wipe us out in an extinction.

My apologies I should have still made that connection.

Turtwig · 06-06-2012 9:13pm

Disclaimer : I have not read the paper but the substance sounds interesting.

A Paper that claims deaf people have a better perceptual span than non-deaf people. In other words the non-deaf person's brain probably sees the letter "A" and maybe the "P"'s of "Paper". Whereas the deaf person is likely to see significantly more peripheral information, possibly the entire word. Cool eh?:)

recedite · 06-06-2012 9:35pm

Jernal wrote: »

This Super Genius Heist, is just utterly fascinating and amazing! Set aside a half hour, grab yourself a cuppa and amaze yourself at a modern day mystery of intrigue and intellect.

I see J.J. Abrams will be producing the movie (after he finishes the next Star Trek sequel).

Turtwig · 06-06-2012 9:50pm

recedite wrote: »

I see J.J. Abrams will be producing the movie (after he finishes the next Star Trek sequel).

Ah feck, now I know how it ends.

shizz · 06-06-2012 10:08pm

Jernal wrote: »

Ah feck, now I know how it ends.

I can only imagine how many lens flares the reflected/refracted light from the diamond will produce.

MagicMarker · 07-06-2012 8:57am

I actually didn't mind the lens flare in Star Trek, I thought it was used to good effect. But then I watched Super 8, where the lens flare was beyond ridiculous at times, and now when I watch Star Trek again it pisses me off.

Pompey Magnus · 07-06-2012 3:11pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-52AI_ojyQ

CerebralCortex · 07-06-2012 3:53pm

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-52AI_ojyQ

A young Bricktop?

Hotblack Desiato · 07-06-2012 9:43pm

recedite wrote: »

The question for the moneylending beancounters is how long it takes at the 20% margin for payback of the capital costs. For those seeing the bigger picture however, the timescale is irrelevant because we are also looking at long term import substitution (of oil and gas) and immediate job creation; both very beneficial to this economy.

If we're really serious about reducing oil and gas imports we should just go nuclear.

Return on capital is very important, whether private or public capital, and the fact that we've put money into other black holes doesn't justify another potential black hole. If we want to spend a billion and get guaranteed return on investment, just build Dart Underground already.

I haven't seen anything to convince me that Spirit of Ireland is anything other than a fanciful proposal whose sums don't quite add up. I've never heard them address the issue of salt leaching into the groundwater, either. The Romans knew all about salting the land of their enemies...

Gbear · 07-06-2012 10:17pm

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-52AI_ojyQ

Ah right.

I went to school in France for 4 years (Yay! Secular education!:)) and the discrepancy between the 2 systems left me completely baffled for a few years until the standard Irish short system usurped it again when I came back home.

robindch · 08-06-2012 11:58am

The order in which colors got their names:

Empirical Zeal wrote:

In Japan, people often refer to traffic lights as being blue in color. And this is a bit odd, because the traffic signal indicating ‘go’ in Japan is just as green as it is anywhere else in the world. So why is the color getting lost in translation? This visual conundrum has its roots in the history of language.

http://www.empiricalzeal.com/2012/06/05/the-crayola-fication-of-the-world-how-we-gave-colors-names-and-it-messed-with-our-brains-part-i/

The Mad Hatter · 08-06-2012 12:02pm

robindch wrote: »

The order in which colors got their names:

Empirical Zeal wrote:

In Japan, people often refer to traffic lights as being blue in color. And this is a bit odd, because the traffic signal indicating ‘go’ in Japan is just as green as it is anywhere else in the world. So why is the color getting lost in translation? This visual conundrum has its roots in the history of language.

http://www.empiricalzeal.com/2012/06/05/the-crayola-fication-of-the-world-how-we-gave-colors-names-and-it-messed-with-our-brains-part-i/

I didn't check the traffic lights because - well, I don't drive, but the "go" lights for pedestrian crossings in Tokyo are blue.

robindch · 08-06-2012 12:20pm

Hmm... a couple of minutes with google suggest that at least some pedestrian lights are teal:

But the majority of links and images returned by google suggest that most Japanese traffic lights are the regular green, yellow and red:

http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/japanese-traffic-lights-red-yellow-blue/
http://trafficsignal.jp/~iida/hiro_ledall.htm
http://ozphotos.wordpress.com/2010/04/14/traffic-light/

Am awaiting an email back from a Japanese friend to confirm (not that this invalidates the point of the article above

)

The Mad Hatter · 08-06-2012 4:33pm

Oh! Er, I'd have described the above as blue, but then I'm colour blind, so that probably hampers my argument.

I haven't read the article yet as I'm on the move, but I'll give it a look if I have time when I get home.

oldrnwisr · 08-06-2012 4:39pm

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-52AI_ojyQ

I'm not sure I fully get where these guys are coming from. They seem to be awfully bogged down in the etymology of the words rather than their current accepted use. So what if billion was originally supposed to mean bi-million? Also, even though I'm a massive Douglas Adams fan, even I think that the idea of reintroducing milliard and billiard is cracked.

IMHO, as someone with a science background who works in IT, there is actually a nice synchronicity between the short system and SI prefixes. I mean incrementally, the short system proceeds in the same way as the SI system so the short system becomes a useful tool for explaining scientific and technical concepts to a lay audience, look at either of Brian Cox's Wonders series, for example.

oldrnwisr · 08-06-2012 4:57pm

robindch wrote: »

But the majority of links and images returned by google suggest that most Japanese traffic lights are the regular green, yellow and red:

There definitely seem to be some blue traffic lights around in Japan but most of them seem to be green. I asked a friend of mine who works in Japan and he said that there seems to be some generational difference between referring to traffic lights as blue and green.

Kivaro · 08-06-2012 11:52pm

At least if you are using it as your password on LinkedIn.
Apparently, it's among the top 30 leaked passwords used on the hacked site:

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-linkedin-passwords-jesus-dragon-20120608,0,230904.story

joseph brand · 09-06-2012 2:19am

Mach 20!! :eek::eek::eek:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0423/DARPA-hypersonic-glider-skin-peeled-off-says-Pentagon

An unmanned hypersonic glider likely aborted its 13,000 mph (20,920 kph) flight over the Pacific Ocean last summer because unexpectedly large sections of its skin peeled off, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said Friday.

Delirium · 09-06-2012 12:37pm

100 year old study that was deemed too shocking to be released at the time, has recently been unearthed

The study shows that penguins engaged in homosexual sex, necrophilia, as well as the rape and killing of females/children.:eek:

Nodin · 09-06-2012 2:47pm

koth wrote: »

100 year old study that was deemed too shocking to be released at the time, has recently been unearthed

The study shows that penguins engaged in homosexual sex, necrophilia, as well as the rape and killing of females/children.:eek:

"Happy Feet III - This time they're diggin up yo momma"

Calibos · 09-06-2012 7:37pm

[David Attenborough]....and here we see a pair of Emperor Penguins. They are one of the few creatures that can survive the Antarctic Winter. The one on the left of your screen is called Caligula and the one on the right is called Nero......[/David Attenborough]

sephir0th · 10-06-2012 11:49am

koth wrote: »

100 year old study that was deemed too shocking to be released at the time, has recently been unearthed

The study shows that penguins engaged in homosexual sex, necrophilia, as well as the rape and killing of females/children.:eek:

recedite · 10-06-2012 12:55pm

ninja900 wrote: »

I haven't seen anything to convince me that Spirit of Ireland is anything other than a fanciful proposal whose sums don't quite add up. I've never heard them address the issue of salt leaching into the groundwater, either. The Romans knew all about salting the land of their enemies...

The bedrock in the area is supposed to be impervious to water. Anyway, as the valleys are right next to the sea, and with the amount of rainfall there, any salt is only going to go one way; down to the sea. I don't think we need worry too much about desertification in Mayo.
Sums depend on their inputs. If you included the benefits of import substitution and jobs, or input projected future fossil fuel prices instead of current ones, things change.
Nuclear power stations require a very large population base to be viable; we are better off building an interconnector and importing any nuclear power from the UK. The job is in hand already.

Delirium · 11-06-2012 8:50am

Human bones grown from fat in laboratory

Scientists have grown human bone from stem cells in a laboratory.

The development opens the way for patients to have broken bones repaired or even replaced with entire new ones grown outside the body from a patient's own cells.

The researchers started with stem cells taken from fat tissue. It took around a month to grow them into sections of fully-formed living human bone up to a couple of inches long.

Mark Hamill · 11-06-2012 1:05pm

koth wrote: »

Human bones grown from fat in laboratory

So whenever someone says "I'm not fat, I'm big boned" they are actually telling the truth.

MrPudding · 11-06-2012 1:47pm

Mark Hamill wrote: »

So whenever someone says "I'm not fat, I'm big boned" they are actually telling the truth.

In the words of the great Denis Leary "you aren't big boned. Dinosaurs were big boned, you're fat."

MrP

robindch · 11-06-2012 1:52pm

^^^ In the words of Billy Connolly, "Water retention? Nah, it's chocolate biscuit retention".

Sarky · 12-06-2012 5:31pm

Anyone with an interest in biochemistry or microbiology is pre-programmed to laugh at this

joseph brand · 14-06-2012 11:55am

Each of us is home to about 100 trillion microscopic life forms — a figure that's about 10 times higher than the number of cells in the human body. In a 200-pound adult, these organisms can weigh a combined 2 to 6 pounds.

10,000 types may choose to make Homo sapiens home, the scientists found.

Some spots on the body, such as the mouth, are rain-forest-like in their diversity, inhabited by a rich community of bacteria that is fairly similar from one person to the next.

/reaches for mouthwash.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-bacteria-20120614,0,6726004.story

shizz · 14-06-2012 12:06pm

joseph brand wrote: »

/reaches for mouthwash.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-bacteria-20120614,0,6726004.story

In one small but dramatic example of what might one day be routine, Finnish researchers reported in March that patients with recurring Clostridium difficile infections recovered after fresh fecal material from healthy donors was transplanted into their guts.

Seems like poo transplants are the future haha

Genghiz Cohen · 14-06-2012 1:41pm

Back and forth... forever...

Sarky · 14-06-2012 1:42pm

So Human Centipede is actually a health documentary?

swampgas · 14-06-2012 4:58pm

Interesting Grauniad article about Barbara Arrowsmith-Young

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/12/barbara-arrowsmith-young-rebuilt-brain

How Barbara Arrowsmith-Young rebuilt her own brain
She realised that part of her brain was not functioning properly so she devised a series of cognitive exercises to develop it. The results changed her life – and now she has helped thousands of children with learning disabilities

sh__93 · 15-06-2012 2:15am

robindch · 15-06-2012 12:45pm

Nowt to do with anything A+A, but hey, that's what this thread is all about

Anyhow, here's the story:

A nine-year girl in a primary-school in Scotland has been blogging about her school lunches, with the support of her school, teachers, parents etc. She's been comparing of what they serve there with the piccies of much tastier and healthier school + university lunches from around the world, sent in by her world-wide readership. She's also collecting for a local charity, Mary's Meals, which operates in 16 countries and encourages kids to go to school by providing meals there.

The blog was so successful at pointing up the crappiness of the school's food that she was congratulated recently by Jamie Oliver, then yesterday, hauled into the principal's office and told that the local district council had instructed her to stop blogging.

Blog - http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/
Donate to Mary's Meals - http://www.justgiving.com/neverseconds

Meanwhile, in the real world, the story has gone viral:

Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/15/girl-photos-school-meals-blog
Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149787/Back-seconds-School-dinner-blog-gets-million-hits-year-old-author-inundated-global-meal-pictures.html
Wired - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/neverseconds-shut-down/
etc.

One word - Respect!

shizz · 15-06-2012 12:54pm

robindch wrote: »

Nowt to do with anything A+A, but hey, that's what this thread is all about Anyhow, here's the story:

A nine-year girl in a primary-school in Scotland has been blogging about her school lunches, with the support of her school, teachers, parents etc. She's been comparing of what they serve there with the piccies of much tastier and healthier school + university lunches from around the world, sent in by her world-wide readership. She's also collecting for a local charity, Mary's Meals, which operates in 16 countries and encourages kids to go to school by providing meals there.

The blog was so successful at pointing up the crappiness of the school's food that she was congratulated recently by Jamie Oliver, then yesterday, hauled into the principal's office and told that the local district council had instructed her to stop blogging.

Blog - http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/
Donate to Mary's Meals - http://www.justgiving.com/neverseconds

Meanwhile, in the real world, the story has gone viral:

Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/15/girl-photos-school-meals-blog
Daily Mail - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149787/Back-seconds-School-dinner-blog-gets-million-hits-year-old-author-inundated-global-meal-pictures.html
Wired - http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/neverseconds-shut-down/
etc.

One word - Respect!

What a lovely blog for her to do. It's a shame that she is told to stop. I don't see how they can though? Also, surely by telling her to stop showing their dinners they are agreeing that they aren't the may west?

robindch · 15-06-2012 2:02pm

Around the same time that the story goes to number one on the BBC, the district council reverses its decision to ban her:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800

...and the donations are coming in thick and fast.

joseph brand · 17-06-2012 3:58pm

How To Grow A Planet 1/3 Life From Light (BBC 2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX_Wo0xSfcg

Only 20 mins into it and I'm finding it fascinating.

Delirium · 19-06-2012 9:00am

Death Thoughts Boost Belief In God Among Christians & Muslims But Not Atheists, Study Shows

Thinking about death makes Christians and Muslims, but not atheists, more likely to believe in God, new research finds, suggesting that the old saying about "no atheists in foxholes" doesn't hold water.

Agnostics, however, do become more willing to believe in God when reminded of death. The only catch is that they're equally as likely to believe in Buddha or Allah as the Christian deity, even though all the agnostics in the study were American and thus more likely to be exposed to Christian beliefs.

oldrnwisr · 19-06-2012 3:25pm

I'm sure that there are a lot of YouTube fans here, but sometimes it's hard to separate the good stuff from the Justin Bieber videos. So someone has gathered together links to all the best videos on evolution, creationism, religion and atheism into one website:

The Best Videos on Evolution

Awesome resource!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX45gTu5UpQ

shizz · 19-06-2012 10:40pm

Moons tides affect humongous atom smasher, too

The world's largest atom smasher has tides, it turns out.

The moon, which pulls Earth's seas in and out with its gravity, similarly affects the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, requiring physicists to make periodic adjustments to the extremely sensitive machine.

The collider is a 17-mile (27 kilometers) ring buried underneath Switzerland and France, where protons are sped up and then crashed into each other to produce spectacular explosions that give rise to exotic particles. These collisions only occur when the beams of protons are finely tuned to intersect in just the right spots; such fine-tuning includes taking into account everything, including the moon, that affects the precise geometry of the setup.

"We all know the moon creates tides," Indiana University physicist Pauline Gagnon wrote on the particle physics blog Quantum Diaries."This happens because the moon pulls on the ocean as it circles around the Earth. The Earth crust feels the same pull, but since water is much easier to move than the Earth crust, almost nobody ever notices the small Earth deformations. But the LHC operators do because the accelerator is both very large and very precise."

see link for more....

Interesting Stuff Thread

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