Interesting Stuff Thread

Sulla Felix

Why does their size preclude an earth origin?

Hotblack Desiato

keane2097 wrote: »

Is the fact that no volcanoes have erupted in three years enough to say those organisms couldn't be hanging around up there for that long?

Mmm yeah that was the first thing I thought. Should be easy to prove a terrestrial origin, if so, using isotopic analysis.

Hotblack Desiato

Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

GAME OVER
INSERT COIN

darjeeling

robindch wrote: »

This is why I love Radio 4:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01h0lgf

And when they don't get it right, I love Radio 4 even more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JpNravrwZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0t56gLnkLU

joseph brand

Someone posted a comment on thejournal about a 'dung chair', (papal chair)used in the papal ceremony of a newly elected pope.

Apparently legend, maybe not? Anyway, 'I like stories'.

Pope Joan was a legendary female pope who allegedly reigned for a few years some time during the Middle Ages.

Most versions of her story describe her as a talented and learned woman who disguises herself as a man, often at the behest of a lover. In the most common accounts, due to her abilities, she rises through the church hierarchy, eventually being elected pope; however, while riding on horseback, she gives birth, thus exposing her sex. In most versions, she dies shortly after, either being killed by an angry mob or from natural causes. Her memory is then shunned by her successors.

Some versions of the legend suggest that subsequent popes were subjected to an examination whereby, having sat on a dung chair containing a hole called sedia stercoraria, a cardinal had to reach up and establish that the new pope had testicles, before announcing "Duos habet et bene pendentes" ("He has two, and they dangle nicely"),[2] or "habet" ("he has 'em") for short.

sephir0th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUe0_4rdj0U

joseph brand

Holy Freeloading! 10 Ways Religious Groups Suck on the Public Purse.

Religion is big business. There are lots of options (over 30,000 variants of Christianity alone), and if the scale is right it can pay really, really well. Creflo Dollar, founder of World Changers Church, has an estimated net worth of $27 million. Benny Hinn comes in at $42 million. Squeaky clean tent revival pioneer Billy Graham bankrolled around $25 million. Even Eddie Long who has been plagued by accusations of sex with underage male members of his congregation can count his bankbook in the millions.

Christianity spends an estimated $16 billion annually on the kind of marketing-service blend traditionally called “missionary work.”

Missionary work may include disaster relief or education with recruiting in the mix. An earthquake survivor might receive a solar-powered Bible to go with his rice and beans and sutures. A Hindu child might get free schooling, pencils and paper included, along with the message that the gods his parents worship are actually demons.

seamus

keane2097 wrote: »

Is the fact that no volcanoes have erupted in three years enough to say those organisms couldn't be hanging around up there for that long? Presume a microbiologist would know the answer but life turns up/survives in some very unexpected places.

I think this finding has been roundly criticised as being ridiculously premature.

I'm always curious as the frenzy that gets whipped by abiogenesis. It's a valid theory, fine, and would be a brilliant and interesting piece of the timeline puzzle to slot in, but it doesn't actually fill in any answers in the "origin of life" column, it just explains how life arrived on earth.

Whether the first biological organisms originated on earth or elsewhere is something of a side-show.

Though the abiogenesis theory does preclude that any attempt to theorise as to the conditions necessary to create life basically becomes an exercise in sticking your finger in the air. At least if we knew that abiogenesis did not occur, we can somewhat nail down the conditions which existed on earth around the time that life first appeared.

recedite

He doesn't know how the diatoms got onto his probe. Therefore he concludes that they have an extra-terrestrial origin.
Good for publicity certainly, but not very good science.

joseph brand

Lotus plants give off heat!

Dr. Roger S. Seymour and Dr. Paul Schultze-Motel, physiologists at the University of Adelaide in Australia, found that lotus flowers blooming in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens maintained a temperature of 86 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, even when the air temperature dropped to 50 degrees. They suspect the flowers may be turning up the heat for the benefit of their cold blooded insect pollinators.

The sacred lotus begins heating as its flowers start to bloom. As the night air cools the petals, the flower takes in more oxygen and gives off more carbon dioxide, converting more carbohydrates to energy just as would a shivering animal to try to stay warm. Heat production tapers off after dawn as the sun takes over, maintaining the same toasty heat around the clock.

Warmblooded animals have an elaborate nervous and hormonal system to regulate their temperatures. How the lotus manages the same trick without this apparatus is unknown.

robindch

A ruler with a 'puter:

http://www.wired.com/design/2013/08/mit-ruler-draws-straight-lines-brings-them-to-life/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abtzr8fgt3Q

Brian Shanahan

ninja900 wrote: »

Watch Out For Homosexuals.

So the moral of the story is "don't be gay with older men, be gay with your friends"?

Also doesn't Jimmy look a bit old to be in school? As if he had an ulterior motive?

robindch

The science museum in Vancouver has gotten all creative for a current ad campaign:

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2013/08/the-amazing-ads-of-science-world/

PopePalpatine

Farts and Canada? What is this, Terrence and Philip? :pac:

Sarky

Curiosity Rover finds a surprising amount of water bound up in Martian soil:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/26/nasa-curiosity-rover-mars-soil-water

Interesting. Very interesting. Not proof of extraterrestrial life by any means, but it would mean an expedition to Mars wouldn't have to worry about bringing along tonnes of water...

gaynorvader

Sarky wrote: »

Curiosity Rover finds a surprising amount of water bound up in Martian soil:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/26/nasa-curiosity-rover-mars-soil-water

Interesting. Very interesting. Not proof of extraterrestrial life by any means, but it would mean an expedition to Mars wouldn't have to worry about bringing along tonnes of water...

This is actually incredibly exciting!

sbsquarepants

PopePalpatine wrote: »

Farts and Canada? What is this, Terrence and Philip? :pac:

Educational nonetheless - I mean who knew the SI unit for farts was the balloon?:D

Cabaal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24323934

Women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and producing children with clinical problems, according to a conservative Saudi cleric.

You can't make this **** up

Genghiz Cohen

Cabaal wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24323934



You can't make this **** up

Well.... they did.

robindch

Continuing a mild variation of a long tradition that stretches back into Roman times, the current High Priest of Rome has announced that two previous High Priests of Rome are to be deified.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24330204

pauldla

This is very cool. 3D printing in space.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24329296

Brian Shanahan

pauldla wrote: »

This is very cool. 3D printing in space.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24329296

You forgot to capitalise the ", IN SPACE!" bit.:p

robindch

More on that new island in Pakistan:

http://rt.com/news/island-earthquake-space-pictures-518/

recedite

Zalzala Jazeera is not a bad name for the new island, but to my mind Glorious Independent Republic of Turdistan would be so much better.

Cabaal

Cabaal wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24323934



You can't make this **** up

Isn't that what the priests said here about girls playing hockey though? some sh!te about the pelvis? So no sports allowed or only some other one I forgot now

Turtwig

bluewolf wrote: »

Isn't that what the priests said here about girls playing hockey though? some sh!te about the pelvis? So no sports allowed or only some other one I forgot now

Chrome and cloud bookmarks you gotta love it.:)
(And Ban, for providing us with this gem in the first place. )

kylith

robindch wrote: »

More on that new island in Pakistan:

http://rt.com/news/island-earthquake-space-pictures-518/

LESHP!

Pherekydes

Jernal wrote: »

Chrome and cloud bookmarks you gotta love it.:)
(And Ban, for providing us with this gem in the first place. )

That's a beaut!

Make sure all you good Irish (read catholic) girls stay off that pommel horse!

Isn't it amusing how McQuaid and other grandees of the time seem to have done far too much agonising over the pleasure girls would get from pommel horses and tampax?

Brian Shanahan

kylith wrote: »

LESHP!

Well I was thinking more along the lines of the gaping maw of Bel-Shamharoth.:D

Sarky

Rl'yeh tbh