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

fortwilliam

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It’s impossible to hum while holding your nose

Nope.

The spiny dogfish, a small species of shark which inhabits our waters and is well known to any angler is unlike almost any other shark in that it possesses a pair of venomous spines near the dorsal fin which are used defensively.

They undertake extremely long migrations, one dogfish was found to have travelled over 8000 kilometers being tagged off the pacific coast of Washington and recaptured off the coast of Japan.

They also have the longest gestation period of any vertebrate, lasting 22-24 months!

I was perhaps most surprised to learn that they have recently become a threatened species due to overfishing - in my youth fishing on the Shannon estuary and the Atlantic coast of Clare only c. 15 years ago they were by far the most ubiquitous species we’d catch. I haven’t been fishing in years so presumably things have changed in that regard, sad to see!

humberklog

Batrachotox wrote: »

I was perhaps most surprised to learn that they have recently become a threatened species due to overfishing - in my youth fishing on the Shannon estuary and the Atlantic coast of Clare only c. 15 years ago they were by far the most ubiquitous species we’d catch. I haven’t been fishing in years so presumably things have changed in that regard, sad to see!

I pulled a few in this (late) summer when mackerel fishing in N. Co. Dublin. Very annoying yokes, but yeah you've gotta be careful of the stingers at the back when unhooking them.


Apparently they used to be a popular fish in chippers and were called Rock Salmon, I've never seen it for sale myself though.

humberklog

humberklog wrote: »

I pulled a few in this (late) summer when mackerel fishing in N. Co. Dublin. Very annoying yokes, but yeah you've gotta be careful of the stingers at the back when unhooking them.


Apparently they used to be a popular fish in chippers and were called Rock Salmon, I've never seen it for sale myself though.

Yeah they’re very tough to handle alright, like a thick chord of writhing muscle!

And haha well I saw today that in an effort to shift eating preferences of Britons towards more locally available fish due to Brexit they’ll be rebranding a lot of their indigenous catch with more palatable names ala dogfish being called “rock salmon”

Realt Dearg Sec

humberklog wrote: »

I pulled a few in this (late) summer when mackerel fishing in N. Co. Dublin. Very annoying yokes, but yeah you've gotta be careful of the stingers at the back when unhooking them.


Apparently they used to be a popular fish in chippers and were called Rock Salmon, I've never seen it for sale myself though.

There's a reference to it in the Commitments movie when they're driving the band around in a chipper van and an old man asks "have ye any rock salmon?" And they respond "sorry, we only have soul!"

Man I love that movie.

New Home

retalivity

Fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole at the weekend on Irish poets & nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century...better than Eastenders.

WB Yeats was infatuated with Maud Gonne, and asked her to marry him 5 times between 1900 and 1910. She refused him each time and instead married John MacBride, and had one son Sean MacBride. Their marriage was a disaster and they divorced after 2 years. John was later executed for his role in the 1916 rising, whereas Sean later founded Clann na Poblachta and became minister for external affairs under De Valera.
Yeats proposed to Gonne again in 1916, who at this stage was 51 and addicted to cholorofom, and was again turned down. He then proposed to Maud's daughter Iseult Gonne, who was then 21 and the product of Maud and a French politician to reincarnate their dead son by having sex in his mausoleum. Iseult refused. and later eloped with 17yo writer Francis Stuart. Both embraced fascism, Stuart broadcast to Ireland fro Nazi germany on the greatness of Hitler, whereas Gonne was put on trial for harbouring Nazi agents in Ireland. Stuart later became head of Aosdana, which caused a furore due to his links to Nazi Germany.
Yeats died in France in 1939 at age 73. He was buried discreetly in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, with instruction to "dig me up in a year when everyone has forgotten, and plant me in Sligo.". His body was returned to Ireland by the Irish Navy, which by then was under the command of Sean MacBride, the son of his former nemeses/muse.

Capt'n Midnight

There is important new information which suggests that Seqenenre-Taa-II, The Brave, (c.1558–1553 BC) who ruled Southern Egypt during the occupation of Egypt by the Hyksos may have been murdered:eek:

Realt Dearg Sec

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

There is important new information which suggests that Seqenenre-Taa-II, The Brave, (c.1558–1553 BC) who ruled Southern Egypt during the occupation of Egypt by the Hyksos may have been murdered:

I knew it!

Dufflecoat Fanny

retalivity wrote: »

Fell down a wikipedia rabbit hole at the weekend on Irish poets & nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century...better than Eastenders.

WB Yeats was infatuated with Maud Gonne, and asked her to marry him 5 times between 1900 and 1910. She refused him each time and instead married John MacBride, and had one son Sean MacBride. Their marriage was a disaster and they divorced after 2 years. John was later executed for his role in the 1916 rising, whereas Sean later founded Clann na Poblachta and became minister for external affairs under De Valera.
Yeats proposed to Gonne again in 1916, who at this stage was 51 and addicted to cholorofom, and was again turned down. He then proposed to Maud's daughter Iseult Gonne, who was then 21 and the product of Maud and a French politician to reincarnate their dead son by having sex in his mausoleum. Iseult refused. and later eloped with 17yo writer Francis Stuart. Both embraced fascism, Stuart broadcast to Ireland fro Nazi germany on the greatness of Hitler, whereas Gonne was put on trial for harbouring Nazi agents in Ireland. Stuart later became head of Aosdana, which caused a furore due to his links to Nazi Germany.
Yeats died in France in 1939 at age 73. He was buried discreetly in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, with instruction to "dig me up in a year when everyone has forgotten, and plant me in Sligo.". His body was returned to Ireland by the Irish Navy, which by then was under the command of Sean MacBride, the son of his former nemeses/muse.

My mother used to work for the stuarts in laragh wicklow I stayed there many times as a child. Lovely people very eccentric.

Mollyb60

Beauforts Dyke is a trench between Northern Ireland and Scotland where the British Army dumped all their unused explosives after the wars. It's a huge problem which you would think would put a stop to nonsense chat about a bridge or tunnel to join NI and Scotland. Who wants to be in a train passing through or over that?

secondrowgal

Been listening to “Something rhymes with purple” podcast. Apparently “bumpf” is a short version of “bum fodder”, which is useless printed information used as bog roll!

Capt'n Midnight

Mollyb60 wrote: »

Beauforts Dyke is a trench between Northern Ireland and Scotland where the British Army dumped all their unused explosives after the wars. It's a huge problem which you would think would put a stop to nonsense chat about a bridge or tunnel to join NI and Scotland. Who wants to be in a train passing through or over that?

https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/1995/11/10160509/bridge_150220web.jpg?width=778

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Fig. 2. Position of explosions recorded in Beauforts Dyke.

More discussion on the issues - like different rail gauges or the lack of a suitable railway on the UK site. High speed rail would mean laying new dual track over a distance of Dublin to Belfast.

Capt'n Midnight

The very first sensor to be used by the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence is being manufactured in Ireland.

Capt'n Midnight

The Mars rover's nuclear generator provides the same amount of power that car headlights use.

retalivity

The 'wind phone' is a disconnected phone in an old-fashioned phone box , set up by a Japanese artist at the bottom of his garden to help him 'talk' to his dead cousin. He used it as a space to meditate and talk to the deceased relative, and used it to help him grieve. After the 2011 tsunami and earthquake which hit the same region, the wind phone was opened to the public and was used by tens of thousands of people to 'talk' to relatives they lost in the tragedy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-48559139



An art group put one up in the dublin mountains in 2017 - it was destroyed within 2 weeks.

Wibbs

retalivity wrote: »

An art group put one up in the dublin mountains in 2017 - it was destroyed within 2 weeks.

Why am I not surprised by that.

mikhail

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The Mars rover's nuclear generator provides the same amount of power that car headlights use.

The nuclear tech they use in space exploration isn't like a nuclear power plant. It's a lump of radioactive material that makes just enough heat to provide a trickle of power for decades.

On a similar point, I think the Voyager probes operate with something like 20W of power, so they're able to phone home from light-hours away with around the same power as the energy-saver bulb in your table lamp.

Skylinehead

mikhail wrote: »

The nuclear tech they use in space exploration isn't like a nuclear power plant. It's a lump of radioactive material that makes just enough heat to provide a trickle of power for decades.

On a similar point, I think the Voyager probes operate with something like 20W of power, so they're able to phone home from light-hours away with around the same power as the energy-saver bulb in your table lamp.

400W on the Voyagers. They're not expected to run out of plutonium until 2167, but they'll drop out of contact long before then.

BonnieSituation

Mollyb60 wrote: »

Beauforts Dyke is a trench between Northern Ireland and Scotland where the British Army dumped all their unused explosives after the wars. It's a huge problem which you would think would put a stop to nonsense chat about a bridge or tunnel to join NI and Scotland. Who wants to be in a train passing through or over that?

You'd know those proposals could only be suggested by people who have never been to the likes of Tor Head.

People talk about cancel culture a lot but I'd love to cancel any of the head-the-balls who bring this crap up every 6 months as a distraction for Unionists, by bunging them into the Dyke.

retalivity

BonnieSituation wrote: »

You'd know those proposals could only be suggested by people who have never been to the likes of Tor Head.

People talk about cancel culture a lot but I'd love to cancel any of the head-the-balls who bring this crap up every 6 months as a distraction for Unionists, by bunging them into the Dyke.

Or people who dont realise that the Mull of Kintyre on the other side is as remote a part of Scotland as you can get. Their is no railway there currently, the nearest station is either Oban or Arocher & Tarbert, both nearly 100miles away. And joining to either of those would mean a roundabout trip to Glasgow or more tunneling through scottish mountains and under loughs.

BonnieSituation

retalivity wrote: »

Or people who dont realise that the Mull of Kintyre on the other side is as remote a part of Scotland as you can get. Their is no railway there currently, the nearest station is either Oban or Arocher & Tarbert, both nearly 100miles away. And joining to either of those would mean a roundabout trip to Glasgow or more tunneling through scottish mountains and under loughs.

But of course. That's what I'm saying. Even if you ignore the (obvious) improbability on the Scottish side, look at the Irish side and then just give up.

There's a bloody reason that settlements in these areas are so sparse and remote and it wasn't for lack of "vim and vigour".

New Home

Capt'n Midnight

What it took to feed a warship

retalivity

Liam Cosgrave served under 4 different presidents during his 4 years as taoiseach, more than any other. By comparison Dev only served under 2 (and was the third himself), despite being taoiseach for 12 years over a 22 year span.

New Home

I can't remember is this was ever posted here before:

cdeb

Seems to be not true - https://factcheck.afp.com/false-claim-circulates-online-hangover-term-derived-historic-practice-sleeping-rope

The dangers of sharing Facebook images!

Quantum Erasure

Link

Vita nova

As if forest fires and loss of habitat wasn't enough.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46258616

Scientists say they have uncovered how and why wombats produce cube-shaped poo - the only known species to do so.

The Australian marsupial can pass up to 100 deposits of poop a night and they use the piles to mark territory. The shape helps it stop rolling away.

Despite having round anuses like other mammals, wombats do not produce round pellets, tubular coils or messy piles.

Researchers revealed on Sunday the varied elasticity of the intestines help to sculpt the poop into cubes.

"The first thing that drove me to this is that I have never seen anything this weird in biology. That was a mystery," Georgia Institute of Technology's Patricia Yang said.

mikhail

That's real ignobel prize territory.
"Nice to meet you. What do you do for a living?"
"I work at Georgia Tech"
"Wow, that's a top university. Do you do research?"
"Yes, I'm currently studying the shape of wombat poo. They're cubes. It's weird."