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Interesting Stuff Thread

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    #842
    checkyabadself
    Registered Users Posts: 471 ✭✭checkyabadself


    "Ireland is a catholic country"......

    Interesting thread in After Hours......

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056009933


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    #843
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    World's Smallest Frog:
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/photogalleries/100825-new-species-pea-size-frog-science-pictures/

    borneo-tiny-pea-sized-frog-penny_25009_600x450.jpg

    Fully grown too!


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    #844
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    Anyone else get the feeling that the smaller a frog is the more it looks like it has dedicated it's existance to bringing about your personal demise.....?

    Just me?


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    #845
    ColmDawson
    Registered Users Posts: 1,001 ✭✭✭ColmDawson


    strobe wrote: »
    Anyone else get the feeling that the smaller a frog is the more it looks like it has dedicated it's existance to bringing about your personal demise.....?

    Just me?
    To me it just looks tasty, possibly cola flavoured.


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    #846
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    "How Monkeys Mirror Human Irrationality"

    http://scientopia.org/blogs/thisscientificlife/2010/08/10/laurie-santos-how-monkeys-mirror-human-irrationality/

    Haven't got around to watching this yet, but it looks interesting. If somebody has 20 mins to spare, do please do have a look at it and let us know if it's any good! The title looks promising :)


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    #847
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    A nice, albeit morbid, tribute to Hitchens.

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


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    #848
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    You think Velociraptor is scary? Wait 'til you meet the Uber-raptor!


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    #849
    ColmDawson
    Registered Users Posts: 1,001 ✭✭✭ColmDawson


    robindch wrote: »
    "How Monkeys Mirror Human Irrationality"

    http://scientopia.org/blogs/thisscientificlife/2010/08/10/laurie-santos-how-monkeys-mirror-human-irrationality/

    Haven't got around to watching this yet, but it looks interesting. If somebody has 20 mins to spare, do please do have a look at it and let us know if it's any good! The title looks promising :)
    Two minutes in and she's mentioned cringe-video depository FailBlog and used the word 'awesomer'.

    It does seem like interesting stuff though, so I'll let her away with it.:P


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    #850
    ShumanTheHuman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 50 ✭✭ShumanTheHuman


    Sensible take on RE in the Guarniad by Dr "Death" Evan Harris
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/political-science/2010/aug/27/science-teaching-religious-education-re


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    #851
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    airmaxshoes wrote: »
    [...]
    Three minutes from first post to permaban -- a new forum record!


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    #852
    goingpostal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 858 ✭✭✭goingpostal


    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0901/1224277972829.html?via=mr

    Vincenzo Browne putting the boot into Diarmuid Martin's hypocrisy, among other targets.


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    #853
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,484 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    i don't see where he accuses him of being a hypocrite?


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    #854
    Ush1
    Registered Users Posts: 11,461 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/animal-camouflage.htm/printable

    Thought this was pretty cool. How animals develop camouflage I think is one of the most amazing areas of natural selection.


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    #855
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 5,121 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Religion-Weighted-Flow.jpg
    Taken from elsewhere - don't know the source.


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    #856
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    how are you supposed to read it Pg? Anyone? I can't seem to figure it out.


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    #857
    amacachi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 23,316 ✭✭✭✭amacachi


    strobe wrote: »
    how are you supposed to read it Pg? Anyone? I can't seem to figure it out.

    Just look at the colours and size of the circles. The CoE circle at birth seems to split almost in two between CoE and no religion at present. Roman Catholic loses a fair amount to irreligion but not to other denominations, non-Christians seem to stay fairly consistant while irreligion loses few of the people born into it and gains mainly from Christian religions.


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    #858
    mikhail
    Registered Users Posts: 3,863 ✭✭✭mikhail


    strobe wrote: »
    how are you supposed to read it Pg? Anyone? I can't seem to figure it out.
    The circles are colour coded by religion. These are labelled on the right.

    The areas of the circles on the left are proportional to the percentage of people who were brought up in that particular religion (or lack thereof).

    The areas of the circles on the right are proportional to the percentage of people who currently identify as that particular religion.

    The lines in between show who moved from what to what. Thicker lines mean more people moving.

    Oh, and the circles are ordered by the predominance of each group.

    The notable thing is that the only group to have significant gains over time is atheism. Relatively few people convert to a different religion. Also, the CoE loses a huge percentage of its members to atheism.


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    #859
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    Stephen Hawking says universe was not created by God


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    #860
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Genghiz Cohen wrote: »
    Stephen Hawking says universe was not created by God

    NewScientist has a review of the book online. They also have a piece about the Media (as usual) inaccuracy which claims that Hawkins was searching for God's actual mind when he wrote "A Brief History of Time" e.g the Guardian Article above. As is typical of NewScientist when dealing with distortions of science by the media they usually add in some humour to highlight their point.
    Likewise, in 2001 I interviewed Hawking and he made a telling remark underlining how he was not religious. He told me: "If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed. If you like, you can say the laws are the work of God, but that is more a definition of God than a proof of his existence."

    And in a piece by him that I edited in 2008, he described how he attended a conference on cosmology at the Vatican, where the pope told the delegates they should not inquire into the beginning of the universe itself, because that was the moment of creation and the work of God.

    Hawking joked, "I was glad he didn't realise I had already presented a paper at the conference investigating precisely that issue: I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the inquisition like Galileo."


    Right as for Hawkins well he seems to be putting his faith in M Theory. His perspective is interesting though. He doesn't think we'll ever find a theory of everything (TOE) because all we have done is made window approximations into the universe and although they will be never be complete, they will allow us to have an almost completed incomplete jigsaw of reality.

    The BIG PROBLEM about this viewpoint of Hawkins is folks are going to ask "But where do these "laws" come from?" and not even bother their arses to realise that M Theory would actually explain that i.e they probably won't read the book and will just rely erroneously on their own intuitive senses regarding what Hawkins is saying.


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    #861
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Tiger found in woman's luggage
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/photogalleries/100826-baby-drugged-live-tiger-cub-luggage-smuggling-bangkok-pictures/


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    #862
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Who likes robots?

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5349770802105160028#


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    #863
    goingpostal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 858 ✭✭✭goingpostal


    http://secweb.infidels.org/article820.html

    Excellent article about the futility of prayer that I read today.


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    #864
    Pushtrak
    Registered Users Posts: 4,640 ✭✭✭Pushtrak


    Win.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLQ66EzEuk8


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    #865
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    World's most dangerous shark in plot to assassinate Obama:
    http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/09/eight-foot-shark-in-potomac-river.html


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    #866
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    This has to have been posted in this thread, but I'm just finally getting around to reading Dawkins ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' which references the Hillis Tree in the chapter on molecular genetics.

    So of course I had to have a look at it myself.

    http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/tree.pdf

    You can see from this who our closest living cousins are, from a sample of about 3000 species anyway. You're going to have to zoom in quite a bit!

    I may actually have to get this printed and put up on the wall! :)


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    #867
    liamw
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,780 ✭✭✭liamw


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    This has to have been posted in this thread, but I'm just finally getting around to reading Dawkins ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' which references the Hillis Tree in the chapter on molecular genetics.

    So of course I had to have a look at it myself.

    http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/tree.pdf

    You can see from this who our closest living cousins are, from a sample of about 3000 species anyway. You're going to have to zoom in quite a bit!

    I may actually have to get this printed and put up on the wall! :)

    These lucky SOBs only have like 3 common ancestors back to the beginning

    Pyrodictium occultum
    Thermoproteus tenax


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    #868
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    This has to have been posted in this thread, but I'm just finally getting around to reading Dawkins ''The Greatest Show on Earth'' which references the Hillis Tree in the chapter on molecular genetics.

    So of course I had to have a look at it myself.

    http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/tree.pdf

    You can see from this who our closest living cousins are, from a sample of about 3000 species anyway. You're going to have to zoom in quite a bit!

    I may actually have to get this printed and put up on the wall! :)

    Cool. Why do fungi get their own section seperate form the other plants anyone?


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    #869
    Coriolanus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,879 ✭✭✭Coriolanus


    strobe wrote: »
    Cool. Why do fungi get their own section seperate form the other plants anyone?
    Yahoo! Answers wrote:
    Fungi are a group of organisms and micro-organisms that are classified within their own kingdom, the fungal kingdom, as they are neither plant nor animal. Fungi draw their nutrition from decaying organic matter, living plants and even animals. They do not photosynthesize as they totally lack the green pigment chlorophyll, present in green plants.
    Apparently they're not plants at all!


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    #870
    strobe
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,872 ✭✭✭strobe


    Nevore wrote: »
    Apparently they're not plants at all!

    I see... This is why this is one of my favourite threads on boards. Learn something new every day.


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    #871
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Species of lizard caught in transition between egg laying and birthing live young:
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100901-science-animals-evolution-australia-lizard-skink-live-birth-eggs/

    So next time someone asks for an example of a currently living transitional form in the wild this is your best example.


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