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.
FishOnABike wrote: » Which is why they are also called groundnuts.
server down wrote: » I’m pretty sure the banshee sound is the sound of a distraught cat.
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.
Capt'n Midnight wrote: » Irish wolves were nasty. Most wolves don't attack humans but the Irish ones did.
The_Valeyard wrote: » Waking up to the sounds of cats fighting outside your window, can be terrifying.
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.
Hector Bellend wrote: » Its just called a mickey then?
sharpey85 wrote: » July 19th was the day the ice age ended
Fourier wrote: » Let us get back to basics. What is "power" in your mind?
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?
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.
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.
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:
Grayson wrote: » I'm impressed that they have timetables that indicate the second a train is supposed to leave.
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)