I bet you didn't know that this thread would have a part 2

KevRossi

FAA Closure of US Airspace on 9/11

The flights that remain over US airspace at the very end are said to be a mix of fighter jets, UPS/FedEx-types (out west) that hadn't found a place to land yet, and a couple trans-oceanic stragglers.

From the Smithsonian:

"This animation was created by NASA using FAA air traffic control data from September 11, 2001. It shows the rapid grounding of air traffic across the US, and redirection of incoming international traffic, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Time is at lower left, number of planes in the air lower right.

At 9:06am, FAA issued a ground stop to all traffic not yet departed that would encounter NY airspace ["tier one"- NY, DC, Boston, Cleveland] . A series of rapid decisions followed, including redirecting inbound traffic away from NY and warning airplanes in the air of potential cockpit intrusion.

At 9:45am, FAA Command Center decided to close all US airspace for the first time in history. Within a few hours, all commercial air traffic was grounded. This animation is displayed in the National Air and Space Museum's "America by Air" exhibition."


https://twitter.com/pickover/status/1171758977341906944

Capt'n Midnight

KevRossi wrote: »

Within a few hours, all commercial air traffic was grounded.

Not all flights remained grounded though.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/opinion/the-great-escape.html

In addition, new evidence shows that the evacuation involved more than the departure of 142 Saudis on six charter flights that the commission is investigating. According to newly released documents, 160 Saudis left the United States on 55 flights immediately after 9/11 -- making a total of about 300 people who left with the apparent approval of the Bush administration, far more than has been reported before.

mzungu

The oldest webcam stream online today is The San Francisco FogCam, and has been operational since 1994.

KevRossi

The Irish Defence Forces currently have 9 helicopters and 16 airplanes, some of these are in use with the Gardai. 7 of the planes are capable of firing weapons.

Norway, which is only slightly larger than us in population has 72 F-16's, which are being replaced by 52 F-35's.
Slovakia is the country nearest in population size to us in the EU, is replacing it's current fleet of MiGs with 14 F-16s.

All part of their Cold War legacy and a reflection as to our own peaceful history (relative to other European countries).

Mollyb60

Found whilst looking for something else completely but I love this little fact about Alex Higgins that I'd never heard before:


"Written by Mike Sammes and Al Swain, "One-Four-Seven" is credited to Alex "Hurricane" Higgins; it was released by Cambar Productions for Solid Records Ltd. In spite of Higgins being at the height of both his powers and his popularity, it failed to chart, which is probably not too surprising considering how badly he sings; "Snooker Loopy," it ain't!

The title "One-Four-Seven" is derived from the maximum break; the highest break possible is actually 155 but this is contingent on the opponent playing a foul stroke and leaving a free ball, so is exceedingly rare. The song describes making a 147. In spite of his flair for the game, Alex Higgins never made a 147 in professional competition; the first Higgins to do this was the unrelated John Higgins, in January 2000."

Badly Drunk Boy

Mollyb60 wrote: »

Found whilst looking for something else completely but I love this little fact about Alex Higgins that I'd never heard before:


"Written by Mike Sammes and Al Swain, "One-Four-Seven" is credited to Alex "Hurricane" Higgins; it was released by Cambar Productions for Solid Records Ltd. In spite of Higgins being at the height of both his powers and his popularity, it failed to chart, which is probably not too surprising considering how badly he sings; "Snooker Loopy," it ain't!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSyXK0iVXN0

quickbeam

Mollyb60 wrote: »

Found whilst looking for something else completely but I love this little fact about Alex Higgins that I'd never heard before:

I think I can guess what you were Googling when you found that :P

Capt'n Midnight

Paddy Cow

KevRossi wrote: »

The Irish Defence Forces currently have 9 helicopters and 16 airplanes, some of these are in use with the Gardai. 7 of the planes are capable of firing weapons.

Norway, which is only slightly larger than us in population has 72 F-16's, which are being replaced by 52 F-35's.
Slovakia is the country nearest in population size to us in the EU, is replacing it's current fleet of MiGs with 14 F-16s.

All part of their Cold War legacy and a reflection as to our own peaceful history (relative to other European countries).

Norway has oil though, we have..........turf

mookishboy

Paddy Cow wrote: »

Norway has oil though, we have..........turf

Had Turf

Capt'n Midnight

When French postmen* wear clothes their left testicles are warmer than the right ones.


Science marches on.


* small sample size

ohnonotgmail

We are closer in time to a T-Rex than a T-Rex was to a Stegosaurus.

sbsquarepants

On a similar theme - the song "come on Eileen" by Dexies Midnight Runners was number one closer to the end of WW2 than today.


Note: Seen this on twitter the other day, may or may not be true!

Fourier

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

When French postmen* wear clothes their left testicles are warmer than the right ones.


Science marches on.


* small sample size

If you read the literature quoted in that there's actually a small community of scrotal researchers who disagree with each other. Funny to think of people going "That Jansen's new paper claims the left ball is 0.2C hotter, I'll fúcking show him"

Ipso

Fourier wrote: »

If you read the literature quoted in that there's actually a small community of scrotal researchers who disagree with each other. Funny to think of people going "That Jansen's new paper claims the left ball is 0.2C hotter, I'll fúcking show him"

They made a balls of it.

RiderOnTheStorm

Raconteuse wrote: »

Recently learned that the red M&M in the ad is voiced by the guy who voices Fry in Futurama i]Billy West[/i, which is no surprise... but the goofy yellow M&M is voiced by the guy who played the psycho neo nazi in Oz and the sadist teacher in Whiplash i]J K Simmons[/i. A fact that I really enjoy.

....quote from another thread so Raconteuse gets credit.....

Capt'n Midnight

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

We are closer in time to a T-Rex than a T-Rex was to a Stegosaurus.

Carry

Wind patterns.

Actually it's nothing I know about or can explain, it's just something I want to share:

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-29.38,36.52,553

This thing is always on in one tab while I'm working and need a thinking break, it's absolutely mesmerising and in a way calming to watch.
You can enlarge or minimize, or move the view and click on a point to see how strong the wind blows.

Currently there seems to be a hurricane moving towards Bermuda, the South of Greenland looks quite windy, too. Ireland is quiet, but we already know that...

VandC

I've seen this link before but had forgotten it, thanks for sharing it again.

I had heard before (and I'd imagine this is the very basic level and wouldn't explain typhoons, hurricanes etc) but wind is caused by air moving from an area of high pressure to low pressure.

Made so much sense when I heard it, but I'm sure I'll be corrected (happy that it happens as I can learn too and love this thread for doing it)

cj maxx

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Cheers, that made me laugh:)

Fourier

In an amazing connection between two posts above I should say you can prove mathematically that there is always a cyclone somewhere on Earth due to the Hairy Ball theorem.

VW 1

Fourier wrote: »

In an amazing connection between two posts above I should say you can prove mathematically that there is always a cyclone somewhere on Earth due to the Hairy Ball theorem.

Please do expand, I'm intrigued

Working class heroes

VW 1 wrote: »

Please do expand, I'm intrigued

It’s on your head, unless you’re bald.

mikhail

VW 1 wrote: »

Please do expand, I'm intrigued

You can't comb a hairy ball flat without making a cowlick somewhere (unless there's a bald spot). Proven mathematically. It also pops up in electromagnetics, where one of the consequences is that you can't make an antenna that sends the same amount of power in every direction.

Capt'n Midnight

Fourier wrote: »

In an amazing connection between two posts above I should say you can prove mathematically that there is always a cyclone somewhere on Earth due to the Hairy Ball theorem.

Thanks to the Coriolis effect, and mid latitude and Hadley cells there's always movement in the air.

On the planet Neptune there's winds of up to 2,400Km/hour, but only in the upper atmosphere.

Big Nasty

Great drying weather though!

New Home

You'd need strong pegs, though.

RiderOnTheStorm

In 1968, the world population was 3,557,000,000. Today, the world population is 7,217,000,000 and grows by over 200,000 daily...... So if you are over 50, the world population has doubled in your lifetime.

Capt'n Midnight

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

In 1968, the world population was 3,557,000,000. Today, the world population is 7,217,000,000 and grows by over 200,000 daily...... So if you are over 50, the world population has doubled in your lifetime.

7,713,468,100 +/- because 7.2 billion was a few years ago

Population has tripled since 1950 give or take.

projections are that it will level off at 11 Bn by 2100

Buford T. Justice XIX

A rare spotted Zebra was seen (or spotted) in the Masai Mara in the last few days.

https://www.wtap.com/content/news/Rare-spotted-zebra-photographed-in-Africa-560788231.html