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Interesting Stuff Thread

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    #2462
    sponsoredwalk
    Registered Users Posts: 3,038 ✭✭✭sponsoredwalk


    joseph brand wrote: »
    Teen solves Newton’s 300-year-old riddle

    http://www.canada.com/technology/Teen+solves+Newton+year+riddle/6685617/story.html



    Bloody smart arse! :pac:

    As is usual with sourceless, detailless, articles:
    One thing to point out is that he may not have actually solved the full problem as set by Newton. He hasn't found the equation of the trajectory in closed form (which I think was what Newton was most interested in), and he also hasn't found the position in closed form as a function of time. (This is all assuming my interpretation is right.)
    http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2877137&cid=40128799
    (Worth reading)
    I'd keep an eye on that thread.


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    #2463
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    He's Asian, that's all the evidence I need.


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    #2464
    joseph brand
    Registered Users Posts: 4,537 ✭✭✭joseph brand


    Insects covered in dew. :eek::eek:

    http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/natural-sciences/amazing-macro-photographs-insects-covered-dew/

    Example:

    a-sidlo-modre-orosene-1.jpg.644x0_q100_crop-smart.jpg


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    #2465
    joseph brand
    Registered Users Posts: 4,537 ✭✭✭joseph brand


    Polar bears' Irish ancestry exposed

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0707/breaking48.html
    Scientists have discovered genetic evidence that polar bears are descended from Irish brown bears that lived during the last Ice Age.

    The scientists, including experts from the US, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Russia and Sweden, extracted mitochondrial DNA from the teeth and bones of 17 bears found at eight cave sites across Ireland.


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    #2466
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    joseph brand wrote: »
    Polar bears' Irish ancestry exposed

    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0707/breaking48.html

    So we gave the world Polar Bears, then Thin Lizzy, then Bono, then Jedward....
    May Dawkins have mercy on us for what comes next....


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    #2467
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    Brown bears tend to differentiate into two types, depending on the habitat.
    A large type in open coastal and tundra areas, and a smaller type living inland in dense forests.
    Polar bears probably evolved from some ancient large coastal bears around Siberia, as they ventured further out onto the sea ice. During the Ice Age Polar Bears arrived in Ireland and hybridised with the local pre Ice Age, coastal type bears. Bears like these guys were most likely wandering around Ireland at that time. IMO the 10 specimens mentioned as being found in Ireland during the Ice Age are hybridised, with polar bear DNA. The original purebred coastal brown bears of Ireland probably died out in the severe conditions.
    As the ice retreated, the polar bears went back northwards. Forests reclaimed the Ireland, and with them came the smaller forest bears from southwest Europe, similar to those found on the continent today.
    Other links;
    http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF13/1314.html
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/07/07/technology-polar-bears-grizzly-hybrid-ireland.html
    "Grizzlies" in America are in the process of downsizing into forest bears, having descended from coastal bears which crossed from Siberia. It is all a bit complicated. :)


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    #2468
    joseph brand
    Registered Users Posts: 4,537 ✭✭✭joseph brand


    Animal experts name the top ten new species for 2012.

    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/24/top-10-species-2012

    The Sneezing monkey's face is a little creepy.
    Devil's Worm
    4/10 This tiny nematode is the deepest-living terrestrial multicellular organism on the planet. The species was discovered 1.3 kilometres from the surface, in the depths of a South African gold mine. It's able to survive immense pressure and high temperatures, and could have critical implications for finding life in the bellies of other planets.


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    #2469
    fitz0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,753 ✭✭✭fitz0


    joseph brand wrote: »
    Animal experts name the top ten new species for 2012.

    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/24/top-10-species-2012

    The Sneezing monkey's face is a little creepy.

    I think natural selection will have its way with the Sneezing Monkey. Raises an interesting question - should we preserve a species that would die out naturally?

    The Sneezing Monkey is obviously at a disadvantage with predators - it sneezes in the rain due to its flat nose, revealing itself to the local hunters who knew what to listen for and must sit with its head between its legs to protect its nose. Doesn't seem very well suited to survival if there are any serious predators around.


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    #2470
    Galvasean
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭Galvasean


    Next time someone asks you for a transitional form:
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120523-tetrapod-walk-flopped-nature-science-ichthyostega/


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    #2471
    ShooterSF
    Registered Users Posts: 8,824 ✭✭✭ShooterSF


    joseph brand wrote: »
    Animal experts name the top ten new species for 2012.

    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/24/top-10-species-2012

    The Sneezing monkey's face is a little creepy.

    Amazing to think Adam sat and named every last one of them (including some with names from TV Shows created millennia later!) only for god to hide them on us again. Lucky he lived around 1000 years, a good chunk must have been just naming animals!


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    #2472
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Next time you think your job sucks take a picture of your workplace then take a look at this self portrait of a person's workplace and go. "Yep, my job sucks."

    (And yes blue and whoever elses dares complain I am breaking the page for this one. :p)
    124415main_image_feature_380a_ys_full.jpg


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    #2473
    Bannasidhe
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 19,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭Bannasidhe


    ShooterSF wrote: »
    Amazing to think Adam sat and named every last one of them (including some with names from TV Shows created millennia later!) only for god to hide them on us again. Lucky he lived around 1000 years, a good chunk must have been just naming animals!

    Even more amazing is how many he gave Latin names to...


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    #2474
    Dades
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 25,558 Mod ✭✭✭✭Dades


    joseph brand wrote: »
    Animal experts name the top ten new species for 2012.

    http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-05/24/top-10-species-2012

    The Sneezing monkey's face is a little creepy.
    That sneezing monkey thing has got to be a hoax. I'm not buying it.


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    #2475
    fitz0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,753 ✭✭✭fitz0


    Jernal wrote: »
    Next time you think your job sucks take a picture of your workplace then take a look at this self portrait of a person's workplace and go. "Yep, my job sucks."

    (And yes blue and whoever elses dares complain I am breaking the page for this one. :p)

    That's how you do a self portrait. No cheap bathroom mirrors and duck face for astronauts.


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    #2476
    ShooterSF
    Registered Users Posts: 8,824 ✭✭✭ShooterSF


    Bannasidhe wrote: »
    Even more amazing is how many he gave Latin names to...

    :) Well it's that or God made him sit through the tedious task and then hid loads of animals until people had long forgotten the original name Adam gave them. Bit of a dick move by god but it's not beyond his character. I can just imagine how that conversation went down in heaven a few millennia later;

    "You made me name all these stupid things for what again? Asshole."

    And then what about all the animals we never even rediscovered until they were extinct? That's extra nasty.


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    #2477
    Delirium
    Moderators Posts: 51,733 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Why Is Memory So Good and So Bad?
    What did you eat for dinner one week ago today? Chances are, you can’t quite recall. But for at least a short while after your meal, you knew exactly what you ate, and could easily remember what was on your plate in great detail. What happened to your memory between then and now? Did it slowly fade away? Or did it vanish, all at once?

    Memories of visual images (e.g., dinner plates) are stored in what is called visual memory. Our minds use visual memory to perform even the simplest of computations; from remembering the face of someone we’ve just met, to remembering what time it was last we checked. Without visual memory, we wouldn’t be able to store—and later retrieve—anything we see. Just as a computer’s memory capacity constrains its abilities, visual memory capacity has been correlated with a number of higher cognitive abilities, including academic success, fluid intelligence (the ability to solve novel problems), and general comprehension.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



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    #2478
    MagicMarker
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 32,865 ✭✭✭✭MagicMarker


    shizz wrote: »
    Yeah the movie really was a disappointment. Left out so many things that made the book great.
    Dades wrote: »
    Don't mind those splitters. The movie is just a movie and the book is a book. Different media, different treatment.

    I know they changed the "reveal" at the end of the movie, but it worked okay, too.

    Well I'm going to start on the book tomorrow so it better be bloody good! Thankfully I've forgotten a lot of the movie so the book won't be as spoilerfied.


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    #2479
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭recedite


    koth wrote: »
    Why Is Memory So Good and So Bad?
    Could be then, that if labels and appearances are important to you, you will find it easier to recall peoples names and faces.


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    #2480
    joseph brand
    Registered Users Posts: 4,537 ✭✭✭joseph brand


    Man holds up bank for $1. (Didn't want the money, just needed to go to jail for healthcare). Land of the free?


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8593782/Robber-holds-up-bank-for-just-one-dollar.html
    "If it is called manipulation, then out of necessity because I need medical care, I guess I am manipulating the courts to get medical care."

    Life sure seems cheap in the US. Unlike their healthcare. "Suck it up!"

    Ahh, what would us Europeans know, we're all Commies and Socialists.


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    #2481
    smokingman
    Registered Users Posts: 3,739 ✭✭✭smokingman


    An article about one gaming journos attempt to "gamify" religion.
    Interesting coming from someone who had a strict religious upbringing and who is still "faithful" but disconnected from dogma.

    I don't think she quite gets it though but good read nonetheless.

    http://kotaku.com/5883361/the-rules-of-religion-and-why-the-next-one-just-might-be-a-game


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    #2482
    joseph brand
    Registered Users Posts: 4,537 ✭✭✭joseph brand


    Neil Armstrong's interview and running commentary on The Moon Landing.

    http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/


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    #2483
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Pfft, never happened here's the proof. (Previously unseen footage from inside Gov crony depts.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MOnehCOUw


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    #2484
    Corkfeen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,940 ✭✭✭Corkfeen


    This is rather cool.
    Look at this image created by NASA. It shows Earth's night sky in 3.75 billion years, with the Milky Way on a head-on collision with Andromeda, our neighbor galaxy. The destruction of our galaxy as we know it will be so beautiful.
    http://gizmodo.com/5914702/earths-sky-will-look-mindblowingly-crazy-375-billion-years-from-now?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_twitter&utm_source=gizmodo_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow


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    #2485
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,285 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Oh crap. I thought we were going to get at least five billion years (until the Sun burns out).

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #2486
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    ninja900 wrote: »
    Oh crap. I thought we were going to get at least five billion years (until the Sun burns out).

    Meh, I'll bet the odds of a destructive planetary or star collision is around 6.5%.


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    #2487
    Gbear
    Registered Users Posts: 12,775 ✭✭✭✭Gbear


    ninja900 wrote: »
    Oh crap. I thought we were going to get at least five billion years (until the Sun burns out).

    Will our galaxy destroyed? It makes intuitive sense but there's an awful lot of empty space between solar systems in our galaxy.. surely every star won't be destroyed?


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    #2488
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Gbear wrote: »
    Will our galaxy destroyed? It makes intuitive sense but there's an awful lot of empty space between solar systems in our galaxy.. surely every star won't be destroyed?

    Nope all that usually happens is a really awesome gravitational rearrangement. Collisions are exceptionally rare.


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    #2489
    The Mad Hatter
    Registered Users Posts: 4,718 ✭✭✭The Mad Hatter


    Jernal wrote: »
    Nope all that usually happens is a really awesome gravitational rearrangement. Collisions are exceptionally rare.

    I don't suppose you'd have any links to what this would look like sped up?


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    #2490
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,285 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Jernal wrote: »
    Meh, I'll bet the odds of a destructive planetary or star collision is around 6.5%.

    There's NO PROOF it's that high, and in the last ten years it's been ZERO.

    Fingal County Council are certainly not competent to be making decisions about the most important piece of infrastructure on the island. They need to stick to badly designed cycle lanes and deciding on whether Mrs Murphy can have her kitchen extension.



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    #2491
    Turtwig
    Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    The Mad Hatter wrote: »
    I don't suppose you'd have any links to what this would look like sped up?

    I can do you one better : Felicia Day + Graphic Explanation.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjRJeaNtxN4


    More from the Spitzer crew (for the kids).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOLJXNM4C8k

    (Check out the vids with Sean Astin too:))



    Yeah, Spitzer is pretty awesome. It's so sad when you consider all the love people give Hubble and probably aren't aware of this beaut of a telescope.


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