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Interesting Stuff Thread

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    #5732
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,104 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Sigh.

    'They thought it was a bomb': 9th grader arrested after bringing a home-built clock to school

    His surname and complexion may not have helped.

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #5733
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    He should have kept it under his hat.


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    #5734
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    The Igs are Out!

    http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34278595
    BBC wrote:
    Chemistry - Callum Ormonde (University of Western Australia) and colleagues, for inventing a chemical recipe to partially un-boil an egg.

    Physics - Patricia Yang (Georgia Institute of Technology, US) and colleagues, for testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds).

    Literature - Mark Dingemanse (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands) and colleagues, for discovering that the word "huh?" (or its equivalent) seems to exist in every human language - and for not being quite sure why.

    Management - Gennaro Bernile (Singapore Management University) and colleagues, for discovering that many business leaders developed in childhood a fondness for risk-taking, when they experienced natural disasters (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and wildfires) that - for them - had no dire personal consequences.

    Economics - The Bangkok Metropolitan Police (Thailand) for offering to pay policemen extra cash if the policemen refuse to take bribes.

    Medicine - joint award: Hajime Kimata (Kimata Hajime Clinic, Japan) and also Jaroslava Durdiaková (Comenius University, Slovakia) and her collagues, for experiments to study the biomedical benefits or biomedical consequences of intense kissing (and other intimate, interpersonal activities).

    Mathematics - Elisabeth Oberzaucher and Karl Grammer (University of Vienna, Austria) for trying to use mathematical techniques to determine whether and how Moulay Ismael the Bloodthirsty, the Sharifian Emperor of Morocco, managed, during the years from 1697 through 1727, to father 888 children.

    Biology - Bruno Grossi (University of Chile) and colleagues, for observing that when you attach a weighted stick to the rear end of a chicken, the chicken then walks in a manner similar to that in which dinosaurs are thought to have walked.

    Diagnostic medicine - Diallah Karim (Stoke Mandeville Hospital, UK) and colleagues, for determining that acute appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain evident when the patient is driven over speed bumps.

    Physiology and entomology - Awarded jointly to two individuals: Justin Schmidt (Southwest Biological Institute, US) for painstakingly creating the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, which rates the relative pain people feel when stung by various insects; and to Michael L. Smith (Cornell University, US), for carefully arranging for honey bees to sting him repeatedly on 25 different locations on his body, to learn which locations are the least painful (the skull, middle toe tip, and upper arm). and which are the most painful (the nostril, upper lip, and penis shaft).


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    #5735
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    ^^^

    He let a bee sting him on the mickey for science?


  • Options
    #5736
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    pauldla wrote: »
    He let a bee sting him on the mickey for science?
    There are some people whose dedication you have to admire. But not replicate.


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    #5737
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,136 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    I am trying to envision how the actual research into appendicitis and speed bumps was achieved.

    Ambulance driver: 'We have a call to bring in a suspected appendix'
    Researcher (sitting in cafe waiting for the call): 'oh goody, can I come?'


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    #5738
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    robindch wrote: »
    There are some people whose dedication you have to admire. But not replicate.

    Indeed. I note that the article specifies shaft, as opposed to other areas of the member, which presumably were also tested for comparison. I also presume he had to anger the bees in some way to provoke them to sting. :confused:


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    #5739
    oscarBravo
    Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,792 Mod ✭✭✭✭oscarBravo


    looksee wrote: »
    I am trying to envision how the actual research into appendicitis and speed bumps was achieved.

    I can (unfortunately) confirm that speed bumps (or, for that matter, driving through Tuam) have a similar effect on someone with a stent in their ureter :(


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    #5740
    Thargor
    Registered Users Posts: 17,883 ✭✭✭✭Thargor


    robindch wrote: »
    National Geographic sells itself. To climate-change deniers, Rupert Murdoch and the general Fox News hivemind. Viewers are not happy.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/viewers-vow-boycott-after-rupert-murdoch-buys-natgeo-cash-triumphs-over-conservation-conscience/
    Saw that on Reddit the day after I renewed for a year, never again :mad:


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    #5741
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,136 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    oscarBravo wrote: »
    I can (unfortunately) confirm that speed bumps (or, for that matter, driving through Tuam) have a similar effect on someone with a stent in their ureter :(

    I can well believe that, but I bet you didn't have someone in the ambulance taking notes and asking on a scale of 1 - 10 how painful the last bump was. :(


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    #5742
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,104 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    So in future instead of the doctor prodding your tummy if they think your appendix is on the fritz, will they sit you up straight and then wheel your trolley over a specially designed 'diagnostic course' :pac:

    I thought that was the best one, you do have to admire the lateral thinking behind it, and it's actually potentially very useful :)

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #5743
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,104 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    pauldla wrote: »
    Indeed. I note that the article specifies shaft, as opposed to other areas of the member, which presumably were also tested for comparison. I also presume he had to anger the bees in some way to provoke them to sting. :confused:

    Maybe bees don't like blaxploitation soundtracks.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q429AOpL_ds

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #5744
    joseph brand
    Registered Users Posts: 4,537 ✭✭✭joseph brand


    'God With Us' on a Nazi belt buckle.

    1069962.jpg


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    #5745
    MrPudding
    Registered Users Posts: 9,788 ✭✭✭MrPudding


    looksee wrote: »
    I am trying to envision how the actual research into appendicitis and speed bumps was achieved.

    Ambulance driver: 'We have a call to bring in a suspected appendix'
    Researcher (sitting in cafe waiting for the call): 'oh goody, can I come?'

    It was Stoke Mandevile hospital, the run in to it is littered with speed bumps, both in the estates you need to drive through to get to the site and then in the hospital ground itself. According to an article I read about this they questioned patients on arrival. The speed bump test was a negative indicator, it worked really well for spotting what wasn't appendicitis. They found no cases where someone with appendicitis didn't feel pain on the speed bumps. So, if you had suspected appendicitis bit did not feel pain on the speed bumps then it wasn't appendicitis. Pain on the speed bumps was not a sufficient diagnostic tool to prove appendicitis, as there were other potential causes.

    Actually a very cool study.

    MrP


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    #5746
    Kivaro
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,105 ✭✭✭Kivaro


    Eleven institutions collaborated on this awe-inspiring project: the tree displays the relationships between living things (2.3 million species of life–with creatures ranging from plants and microbes to dinosaurs and modern mammals) as they diverged from each other over a time span of 3.5 billion years.

    tree-of-life1.jpg

    More here: http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/2015/09/20/tree-life-evolution-interrelationships-3-5-billion-years/


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    #5747
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 17,849 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    Sigh.

    'They thought it was a bomb': 9th grader arrested after bringing a home-built clock to school

    His surname and complexion may not have helped.


    Dawkins has weighed in here, I think he is right

    http://gawker.com/priorities-confused-1731919698

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



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    #5748
    Shrap
    Registered Users Posts: 3,163 ✭✭✭Shrap


    silverharp wrote: »
    Dawkins has weighed in here, I think he is right

    http://gawker.com/priorities-confused-1731919698

    Sorry....you what now?! He's right?! Dear jaysus on a bike...how many 14 yr olds do you know? Serious question.

    My 14 yr old reckoned he'd invented the sandwich the other day. He argued his point thoroughly and nearly won. If it had have been a clock he'd "invented", I'd have fecking let him win. Dawkins comes across as the meanist spirited most pedantic aul curmudgeon that ever lived with his reaction. Speculating that the lad wanted to be arrested? HUGE, MASSIVE public relations disaster for him. When will that man ever learn? What a knob.


  • Options
    #5749
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    Its a clock that looks like a bomb.
    I don't think the kid bought it that way and disassembled it. I think he created it, so he's not a fraud.
    Dawkins could still be right in assessing the kid's motivation though. I suspect some mischievous intent, and if so, the authorities have played right into his hands. I'm guessing he's a hero among his classmates right now, and rightly so.. :D


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    #5750
    Shrap
    Registered Users Posts: 3,163 ✭✭✭Shrap


    recedite wrote: »
    Its a clock that looks like a bomb.
    I don't think the kid bought it that way and disassembled it. I think he created it, so he's not a fraud.
    Dawkins could still be right in assessing the kid's motivation though. I suspect some mischievous intent, and if so, the authorities have played right into his hands. I'm guessing he's a hero among his classmates right now, and rightly so.. :D

    Do we yet have a picture of the actual clock? Because as I recall, clock parts actually look quite messy outside of a manufactured box. I can make a bomb-looking item out of my youngest's makey-makey kit combined with his various robot thingies that still need soldering together, but I'm very sure I can't make a working clock. Really, if he was proud of his clock - why wouldn't he bring it to school and show teachers? My kid would be showing everyone from the bus driver to the canteen woman.

    Can't we let the lad be a kid? The 'murican police took that away from him but we don't have to, and Richard Dawkins would have had a whole lot more sense not to as well. I actually don't think it's particularly classy to speculate on the boy's motivation or whether he meant it to look like a bomb.


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    #5751
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 17,849 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    Shrap wrote: »
    Sorry....you what now?! He's right?! Dear jaysus on a bike...how many 14 yr olds do you know? Serious question.

    My 14 yr old reckoned he'd invented the sandwich the other day. He argued his point thoroughly and nearly won. If it had have been a clock he'd "invented", I'd have fecking let him win. Dawkins comes across as the meanist spirited most pedantic aul curmudgeon that ever lived with his reaction. Speculating that the lad wanted to be arrested? HUGE, MASSIVE public relations disaster for him. When will that man ever learn? What a knob.

    it depends on the facts , so far the ones ive heard are that the clock didnt have a battery so had to be plugged in and thats what he did in his english class and set the alarm to go off. When he was challenged he went all passive aggressive and didnt ask his engineering teacher to vouch for him and he did all this on the first school day after "9/11".

    we will see I guess

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



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    #5752
    Shrap
    Registered Users Posts: 3,163 ✭✭✭Shrap


    silverharp wrote: »
    it depends on the facts , so far the ones ive heard are that the clock didnt have a battery so had to be plugged in and thats what he did in his english class and set the alarm to go off. When he was challenged he went all passive aggressive and didnt ask his engineering teacher to vouch for him and he did all this on the first school day after "9/11".

    we will see I guess

    Ooooh. I had seen none of that. Ok, yes a judgement call that maybe a clever 14 yr old could wind up an adult with. Will reserve judgement till I know more. Probably Dawkins should too though :(


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    #5753
    Michael OBrien
    Registered Users Posts: 533 ✭✭✭Michael OBrien


    Shrap wrote: »
    Ooooh. I had seen none of that. Ok, yes a judgement call that maybe a clever 14 yr old could wind up an adult with. Will reserve judgement till I know more. Probably Dawkins should too though :(

    Add to that that his mechanical engineering teacher warned him NOT to show it to other teachers as it would alarm them. So he had to plug it in, set the alarm, and have it in a pencil case that just happened to look like a briefcase with a timer, in his English class, which served zero purpose other than to gain attention.
    Plus his father is big into the idea of islamophobia in America. Add all this to it JUST happened on that particularly sensitive day and the kid went very quite when first questioned, never mentioned the ONLY teacher that would vouch for him, the engineering teacher.
    However the next day he had loads of info to share, after the arrest.
    I do think there is more to it than people are letting on.


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    #5754
    Shrap
    Registered Users Posts: 3,163 ✭✭✭Shrap


    Michael OBrien wrote: »
    Add to that that his mechanical engineering teacher warned him NOT to show it to other teachers as it would alarm them. So he had to plug it in, set the alarm, and have it in a pencil case that just happened to look like a briefcase with a timer, in his English class, which served zero purpose other than to gain attention.
    Plus his father is big into the idea of islamophobia in America. Add all this to it JUST happened on that particularly sensitive day and the kid went very quite when first questioned, never mentioned the ONLY teacher that would vouch for him, the engineering teacher.
    However the next day he had loads of info to share, after the arrest.
    I do think there is more to it than people are letting on.

    Ah right. That should teach me to follow up on an initial story before opening my beak, but it probably won't :o


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    #5755
    Michael OBrien
    Registered Users Posts: 533 ✭✭✭Michael OBrien


    Shrap wrote: »
    Ah right. That should teach me to follow up on an initial story before opening my beak, but it probably won't :o
    Don't beat yourself up, I was in the same position, I thought he was just doing his homework and was unfairly arrested.
    But it was not homework, or any assignment, at all. Just out of the blue, he turns up with a fake briefcase pencil case, possible countdown clock, that is set to go off in his English class, tied shut with a cord, because he admitted he did not want it to looking "too suspicious". Then when things go wrong, he acts completely surprised by the whole thing, keeps his mouth shut, acts cagey and his own sister (18) is there to photograph him in handcuffs, and they have hashtags set up immediately and his father is on the media circut.
    The police have said that the reporting is unbalanced but they cannot reveal more because of the student privacy rules, that the family could waiver, but they refuse to.


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    #5756
    MrPudding
    Registered Users Posts: 9,788 ✭✭✭MrPudding


    Michael OBrien wrote: »
    Don't beat yourself up, I was in the same position, I thought he was just doing his homework and was unfairly arrested.
    But it was not homework, or any assignment, at all. Just out of the blue, he turns up with a fake briefcase pencil case, possible countdown clock, that is set to go off in his English class, tied shut with a cord, because he admitted he did not want it to looking "too suspicious". Then when things go wrong, he acts completely surprised by the whole thing, keeps his mouth shut, acts cagey and his own sister (18) is there to photograph him in handcuffs, and they have hashtags set up immediately and his father is on the media circut.
    The police have said that the reporting is unbalanced but they cannot reveal more because of the student privacy rules, that the family could waiver, but they refuse to.

    In other news. I took the yellow cover off a banana and invented a piece of fruit. I wish I was still at school so I could show my teacher.

    MrP


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    #5757
    Michael OBrien
    Registered Users Posts: 533 ✭✭✭Michael OBrien


    MrPudding wrote: »
    In other news. I took the yellow cover off a banana and invented a piece of fruit. I wish I was still at school so I could show my teacher.

    MrP
    MIT needs you to visit them asap. NASA would probably also be delighted to fund your trip to Mars. You deserve it all. Impressed. :)


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    #5758
    Shrap
    Registered Users Posts: 3,163 ✭✭✭Shrap


    Michael OBrien wrote: »
    MIT needs you to visit them asap. NASA would probably also be delighted to fund your trip to Mars. You deserve it all. Impressed. :)

    In all fairness, a dumb priest never got a parish *.


    *Oh, I've been wanting to use that phrase here for SUCH a long time!!


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    #5759
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 17,849 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    "Muhammad Syed is an ex-Muslim and President of the Ex-Muslims of North America. He spent a few minutes with Seth Andrews in conversation about his former faith."

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDIR3GhXszo

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



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    #5760
    silverharp
    Registered Users Posts: 17,849 ✭✭✭✭silverharp


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TZzznMefcg

    A belief in gender identity involves a level of faith as there is nothing tangible to prove its existence which, as something divorced from the physical body, is similar to the idea of a soul. - Colette Colfer



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    #5761
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,104 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Michael OBrien wrote: »
    I do think there is more to it than people are letting on.

    Indeed, but that didn't stop an AH thread appearing with 150+ posts ranting about how Dawkins is (and, somehow, therefore, atheists in general are) evil/nasty/wrong/arrogant as usual :rolleyes:

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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