Interesting Stuff Thread

Turtwig

Another NASA Curiosity AMA.

Knex*

Sagan's Pale Blue Dot in cartoon form.

http://zenpencils.com/comic/100-carl-sagan-pale-blue-dot/

robindch

A bunch of lads whip out their massive equipment for the birds:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/REP4S0uqEOc

Sarky

Some pretty impressive progress on cybernetics here:

Harvard researchers create human/rat brain interface.

TheChizler

CERN have ALMOST confirmed theories that explain the universe beyond the standard model, a step closer to finding the perfect model that explains the universe. I like to think that basically every cool science fiction thing from the last 50 years is now possibly possible...

http://phys.org/news/2013-07-experimental-physics-standard.html

Sarky

You can almost hear the religious folks looking for another little hidey-hole for God to live in.

TheChizler

Sarky wrote: »

You can almost hear the religious folks looking for another little hidey-hole for God to live in.

I was going to say!

Bannasidhe

Sarky wrote: »

You can almost hear the religious folks looking for another little hidey-hole for God to live in.

May I suggest Uranus.

Turtwig

Waterspout in Galway.

endacl

Jernal wrote: »

Waterspout in Galway.

Repent!! The end is nigh!! Very fcukin' nigh!!!

Turtwig

endacl wrote: »

Repent!! The end is nigh!! Very fcukin' nigh!!!

I know what you're thinking. Abortion bill passed. Gay marriage being talked about. God's angry. Veryyy angry.

FouxDaFaFa

Oh, God.

It's happening.

kylith

Jernal wrote: »

Waterspout in Galway.

Well, sheeet...

FouxDaFaFa wrote: »

Oh, God.

It's happening.

Very disappointed by that film, I must say.

Sarky

Jernal wrote: »

Waterspout in Galway.

I see the place is falling apart without me.

endacl

Sarky wrote: »

I see the place is falling apart without me.

It'll be flippin' sharks with lasers in waterspouts next.

Hotblack Desiato

We're not the only country with cowardly politicians.

UK court of appeal washes hands of euthanasia issue

Politicians, not judges must decide if the United Kingdom’s ban on helping the terminally-ill to die should change, the Court of Appeal in London has ruled, rejecting cases taken by a man paralysed by a car crash and the family of another unable to move after a stroke.

robindch

Selfish traits not favoured by evolution, study shows:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23529849

Turtwig

Smithsonian experts on the Apollo program recently did an AMA on reddit.
Gold mine of info!

Mardy Bum

robindch wrote: »

Selfish traits not favoured by evolution, study shows:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23529849

Ayn Rand cheerleaders heads explode.

Dave!

Was collecting my aunt from her house in Ballyfermot the other day. Her neighbours were leaving their house at the same time, and I noticed the woman was wearing Muslim garb. The aunt says she's marrying the man (a Muslim), and so has converted.

But interestingly, she says the bride-to-be's mother also has to convert to Islam! Or at least is being requested to by the husband.

I gather she's trying to, but I can imagine that wouldn't come too easily to an old woman in her 70s from Ballyfermot...

kylith

I am continually surprised that Irish women would want to convert to Islam.

robindch

BBC cuts the amount of religion it broadcasts:

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/07/bbc-reduces-the-amount-of-religion-it-broadcasts

NCC wrote:

The BBC has published its annual report which shows that the amount of time devoted to religion on the various BBC platforms has reduced over the past year. In the 2012/2013 period BBC1 broadcast 99 hours of religion as opposed to 102 hours in the previous year. The only channel to show a rise in the number of hours of religious broadcasting was BBC2 which went up from 27 hours in the 2011/2012 period to 47 hours in the latest period. BBC4 showed a significant drop from 53 hours last year to only 5 hours this year. On BBC Radio the number of hours devoted to religion went down from 1,211 last year to 975 hours this year.

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "It is good that the BBC is taking notice of its audiences at last — who according to its own research don't regard religion as an important genre and hardly ever watch it. This small reduction in hours is welcome, but it still represents an awful lot of religion." Mr Sanderson said that it wasn't clear whether the BBC's figures included such things as the church service for Margaret Thatcher's funeral (which was broadcast in full) or the service of thanksgiving for the anniversary of the Queen's coronation. These appear to be extra to the official religious figures in the annual report. Mr Sanderson said he welcomed a more imaginative approach to religion and a more critical examination of it. "It is impossible to ignore the part that religion is negative."

sephir0th

robindch wrote: »

Selfish traits not favoured by evolution, study shows:

There's a false dichotomy between 'selfish' and 'co-operative' traits. Both adaptations are favored by evolution in the right circumstances or situation.

Gbear

Stephen Fry has written an open letter to Cameron, Lord Coe and anyone else that might have a say in taking part in the Winter Olympics in Russia.

http://www.stephenfry.com/2013/08/07/an-open-letter-to-david-cameron-and-the-ioc/single-page/

Could do with the same for the 2 world cups coming up after Brazil - Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, although the people in FIFA don't try to hide that they're greedy ***** only in it for the money so I doubt any headway can be made there.

Mardy Bum

Great article by Steven Pinker about science and the ill conceived manner it is view on by some.

b318isp

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Great article by Steven Pinker about science and the ill conceived manner it is view on by some.

As usual, an excellent and well balanced article by Pinker, and this sums up my thoughts exactly of the maturing of humanity:

Quote: "Most of the traditional causes of belief—faith, revelation, dogma, authority, charisma, conventional wisdom, the invigorating glow of subjective certainty—are generators of error and should be dismissed as sources of knowledge."

Sarky

Some really good points in there. I'd love to see a university throw caution to the wind and create a digital humanities department.

Bannasidhe

Sarky wrote: »

Some really good points in there. I'd love to see a university throw caution to the wind and create a digital humanities department.

Hello - working on it.

http://dahphd.ie/faculty/ucc/

Sarky

Anonymous data junkie hacks half a million computers to create the most accurate map of the internet yet.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/this-is-most-detailed-picture-internet-ever

Interesting to see usage vary over the time of day. Is it just me or does the US not peak as high as most of Europe? I'd have thought it'd be at least equal. Maybe it's because vast areas of the US are dustbowls?

recedite

Sarky wrote: »

Is it just me or does the US not peak as high as most of Europe?

Americans are paranoid about security, and this bot required an internet connection with no password. India and coastal areas of China and South America seem to be the hotspots.