I bet you didnt know that

Capt'n Midnight

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

I'm afraid not. That's another myth. I know several internationally renowned Marine Biologists and this came up in conversation years ago. None of them had ever heard 'dork' used in reference to a whale's anatomy. Some internet myths say it only refers to a Blue Whale but that is equally incorrect.

On the other had this is exactly how Thagomizers got their name.

Capt'n Midnight

FishOnABike wrote: »

Which is why they are also called groundnuts.

Almond Flour could also be called that too.

sharpey85

July 19th was the day the ice age ended

New Home

July didn't even exist, back then.

Wibbs

server down wrote: »

I’m pretty sure the banshee sound is the sound of a distraught cat.

Or a fox. They can make horrendous screams and they can vary too, so even if you knew fox screams well, one being a bit creative could freak you out.

The_Valeyard

server down wrote: »

I’m pretty sure the banshee sound is the sound of a distraught cat.

Waking up to the sounds of cats fighting outside your window, can be terrifying.

Skylinehead

You would be subject to less radiation just underwater in a spent radioactive fuel pool than you are walking on the streets.

Wibbs

FishOnABike wrote: »

Polar bears can trace their family tree back to Ireland. Genetic evidence shows they are descended from Irish brown bears that lived during the last ice age.

And Irish bears are more related to Spanish bears than those in Britain. What happened it seems is that the early bears throughout Europe were all related and like Irish/Spanish/Polar bears. Then a new strain of genes took over the European bear population but in isolated areas like Ireland, the polar regions and the north of Spain the older populations continued on. For example Ireland was cut off by sea before Britain was, so the local bears were "trapped".

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Irish wolves were nasty. Most wolves don't attack humans but the Irish ones did.

Yep. Wolf attacks on people in mainland Europe were extremely rare(and many seem to have been wolf dog hybrids). This includes Britain. And again like the bears the Irish wolf was of a different genetic lineage and larger on average. Ireland was often referred to as the Land of Wolves. The Planters who came here were terrified of them and it's one main reason why the Irish Wolfhound came to survive. Cromwell of all people encouraged their breeding. Side fact: Irish wolfhounds are unusual among wolfhound breeds because they were bred to take on a wolf one to one. Generally wolfhounds were bred to work as packs against a single wolf. Wolves are much stronger than the vast majority of domestic dogs and would for example make quick work of a Pitbull, Mastiff or Rottweiler. The Irish wolfhound's size is present because of this. Luckily they're big daft oul softies, because if they weren't....

But yeah the medieval annals regularly report some poor bugger or other being "taken by wolves". Interestingly the same reports note that they were also very popular pets and the Brehon laws reflect this. Their aggression may have been part of this. Normally wolves are extremely timid and nervous and utterly useless as a pet. Maybe because the Irish wolf was less timid and fearful of humans(like dogs) maybe that's why they were more easily tamed? Aside part two, maybe the older strain that survived in Ireland was more like the original that was domesticated tens of thousands of years ago?

Side factoid part three: In American before the return of the horse with the European colonists, Native Americans used the dog as a pack animal.

Ipso

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Waking up to the sounds of cats fighting outside your window, can be terrifying.

Any time I've heard them I went cold, but seriously I was really surprised about the sound of a coyote and how they sounded like a human cry.

Lady Haywire

Ipso wrote: »

A bit off topic, but I wonder if the fairly recent survival of Wolves helped the banshee ghost story hang around. From hearing Coyotes in the US and how human they can sound, I wonder if the same thing happened with howling from Wolves.

I maintain that it's pine martins, they can really set a persons teeth on edge with their shriek. Plus they're really elusive so if you're walking alone at night and hear a screaming from above you.......I'd run like hell too

Esel

Hector Bellend wrote: »

Its just called a mickey then?

Only if it's a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus).

Capt'n Midnight

sharpey85 wrote: »

July 19th was the day the ice age ended

"Then finally 11,703 years before 2000 AD the climate flipped back into a warmer mode where it has remained ever since."

Personally I like to imagine it would have ended during the warmest part of the day.

So the ice age ended some time around 3pm on July the 19th 9,704 BC

No Dougal, they can't be that precise about the ice age!

Mountainsandh

server down wrote: »

I’m pretty sure the banshee sound is the sound of a distraught cat.

Barn owls too, they sound creepy.
https://youtu.be/YwG15rXTdCI

I hear foxes all the time here in the country, some sound nearly like dogs, but some sound like a woman screaming.

sbsquarepants

Fourier wrote: »

Let us get back to basics. What is "power" in your mind?

The ability to bring about a physical change in something.

I'm thinking along the lines of energy conservation, you can't create it , you can't destroy it - but you also can't do anything without utilising it somehow, switching it from one of it's forms to another.

I can't see how space can be created without utilising some form of energy. To my mind if you don't do "something" then everything must stay the same, so therefore if there has been a change "something" has been done. My question is how can you do this "something" without the use of some energy source?

fergiesfolly

Lads, read the first few pages of this thread.
That's the kind of interesting fact we're looking for.
The last few pages here reminds me of the time I tried to read Ulysses. Me heads melting.
Maybe a new thread for all the space/time stuff.

sbsquarepants

By way of an apology -

The plant with the most painful sting in the world is the gympie gympie tree native to the rainforest of Australia. It's largely harmless to indigenous animals but to blow ins and also to people it can be agonising.
It's poison is so stable that it can still cause extreme pain years after been stung and there are even cases of 100 year old dried specimens causing the same agonising sting.
It has been compared to having boiling hot sulphuric acid spilled on your skin.
As an illustration of how painful it's sting can be, consider the case of a very unfortunate soldier during the 2nd world war who mistakenly used a gympie gympie leaf to wipe his bum - he eventually took his gun to his head to stop the pain!

valoren

sbsquarepants wrote: »

The ability to bring about a physical change in something.

I'm thinking along the lines of energy conservation, you can't create it , you can't destroy it - but you also can't do anything without utilising it somehow, switching it from one of it's forms to another.

I can't see how space can be created without utilising some form of energy. To my mind if you don't do "something" then everything must stay the same, so therefore if there has been a change "something" has been done. My question is how can you do this "something" without the use of some energy source?

I always think of this when thinking about conservation of energy.

Two hydrogen atoms under immense pressure from the force of gravity fuse together to make a a helium atom and in the process releases both thermal energy (heat) and radiation energy via a photon as an electromagnetic wave radiating at just under 300 million meters per second. 8 minutes later the energy carried by the EM wave reaches earth and it's energy is converted by a plant via photosynthesis into chemical energy. The energy in the plant is consumed by me and the chemical energy is digested and conserved in the atoms and molecules in my muscles. Standing on the tee, the energy in the muscle is potential energy, when I start my swing that potential energy is now at 'work' to create kinetic energy to enable me to make a swing. the golf ball is inert sitting on the tee. The forces acting on it are balanced per the first law of motion. The energy from my swing will now be transferred from my muscles through the club and when I make impact with the ball, the potential energy of the ball becomes kinetic energy. It is no longer inert as the force from the swing produces unbalanced forces within the mass of the ball and which cause the ball to experience an acceleration. At the same time, the impact also produces a pressure difference in the surrounding gas molecules which transfers the energy via a sound wave which travels through the air at 330 metres per second and will eventually dissipate via the inverse square law, the energy it is carrying getting absorbed by the surrounding matter in the environment. Friction (drag force) from the air acting on the golf ball will transfer the ball energy to the air molecules and eventually over a period of time through a combination of the force of gravity acting on the ball and the air molecules restoring the imbalance of forces acting on the ball the acceleration becomes negative at it's peak arc (where the gravitational energy is at a maximum and the kinetic energy becomes zero) and when it hits the ground the kinetic energy is converted to heat energy on the atoms and molecules that make up the ground, these charged particles thus become accelerated themselves and give off em waves in the infrared region of the spectrum which we can't see without equipment . When the ball comes to rest it now becomes inert and experiences zero acceleration but still has potential energy.

sbsquarepants

When I'm standing at the tee I'm usually thinking "this must be a bad dream, I fúcking hate golf!":D

Ineedaname

valoren wrote: »

I always think of this when thinking about conservation of energy.

A hydrogen atom and a helium atom under immense pressure from the force of gravity fuse together and release both thermal energy (heat) and radiation energy via a photon as an electromagnetic wave. 8 minutes later the energy carried by the EM wave reaches earth and it's energy is converted by a plant via photosynthesis into chemical energy. The energy in the plant is consumed by me and the chemical energy is digested and conserved in the atoms and molecules in my muscles. Standing on the tee, the energy in the muscle is potential energy, when I start my swing that potential energy is now at 'work' to create kinetic energy to enable me to make a swing. the golf ball is inert sitting on the tee. The forces acting on it are balanced per the first law of motion. The energy from my swing will now be transferred from my muscles through the club and when I make impact with the ball, the potential energy of the ball becomes kinetic energy. It is no longer inert as the force from the swing produces unbalanced forces within the mass of the ball and which cause the ball to experience an acceleration. At the same time, the impact also produces a pressure difference in the surrounding gas molecules which transfers the energy via a sound wave which travels through the air at 330 metres per second and will eventually dissipate via the inverse square law, the energy it is carrying getting absorbed by the surrounding matter in the environment. Friction (drag force) from the air acting on the golf ball will transfer the ball energy to the air molecules and eventually over a period of time through a combination of the force of gravity acting on the ball and the air molecules restoring the imbalance of forces acting on the ball the acceleration becomes negative at it's peak arc (where the gravitational energy is at a maximum and the kinetic energy becomes zero) and when it hits the ground the kinetic energy is converted to heat energy on the atoms and molecules that make up the ground. When the ball comes to rest it now becomes inert and experiences zero acceleration but still has potential energy.

Not to be pedantic but Hydrogen fuses into helium not with it.

Also light takes 8 minutes to reach earth from the suns surface. Light produced in the core can take anything up to a million years to get there.

david75

Ipso wrote: »

A bit off topic, but I wonder if the fairly recent survival of Wolves helped the banshee ghost story hang around. From hearing Coyotes in the US and how human they can sound, I wonder if the same thing happened with howling from Wolves.

It’s weird that they don’t play more of a part in folklore. You’d imagine they would.

Realt Dearg Sec

fergiesfolly wrote: »

Lads, read the first few pages of this thread.
That's the kind of interesting fact we're looking for.
The last few pages here reminds me of the time I tried to read Ulysses. Me heads melting.
Maybe a new thread for all the space/time stuff.

I strongly disagree, really like Fouriers posts on the topic. Also if you have any questions about Ulysses I'm more than happy to help!

sbsquarepants

Me too. I've been struggling to understand this shít for ages - when I find someone who can help I latch on like a limpet!:)

Kat1170

The world's strongest known material is limpet teeth.

A study found that the overall odds of waking up during surgery is about one in 19,600. In Ireland in 2011 there were 8 cases reported of people waking up during anesthesia.
http://www.nationalauditprojects.org.uk/NAP5report - full study for those who are nervous about anesthesia.

diomed

A Japanese rail company apologised because a train left the station 20 seconds early.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42009839
Our trains are always on time. :rolleyes:

Grayson

diomed wrote: »

A Japanese rail company apologised because a train left the station 20 seconds early.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42009839
Our trains are always on time. :rolleyes:

I'm impressed that they have timetables that indicate the second a train is supposed to leave.

stimpson

Grayson wrote: »

I'm impressed that they have timetables that indicate the second a train is supposed to leave.

I remember being in Holland in the 90's and there was a big clock in each station and the train would come to a stop as the second hand hit 12, so apparently it's not that hard to do (except here)

Buford T. Justice XIX

stimpson wrote: »

I remember being in Holland in the 90's and there was a big clock in each station and the train would come to a stop as the second hand hit 12, so apparently it's not that hard to do (except here)

The problem here seems to getting the trains going in the first place :pac:

Neil Armstrongs space suit was made by a company best known for making bras.

The International Latex Company's original spacesuit design was a disaster and roundly rejected by NASA, but a rogue group of that company's designers worked non stop for weeks and presented NASA with a revised design, which then went into production.

The International Latex Companys best known subsidiary was called Playtex - a major manufacturer of womens underwear, their most successful product was called The Cross Your Heart Bra which was launched in 1954 and is still sold today.

From this monstrosity :



To this masterpiece :

valoren

In 2006, an Australian man attempted to sell New Zealand by listing it on eBay.

The bidding has gone up to $3,000 before eBay noticed he didn’t actually have the sale rights for the country and shut the bidding down.