Interesting Stuff Thread

FouxDaFaFa · 02-11-2012 04:23PM

My biology teacher showed us a similar chart back in secondary school and I remember being fascinated by it.

Little did I know she was brainwashing me into believing in evolution!

joseph brand · 04-11-2012 02:30PM

Anyone remember this cartoon from 1989? 'Once upon a time . . . . Life'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6myuX4ubWRQ

Here's the IMDb link.

Not sure what age group it's for, but I'll try it out on my son who's 7. It might be slightly more educational than Ben 10.

Just discovered that the director Albert Barillé also did a series, 'Once upon a time . . . . Space' and 'Once upon a time . . . . Man'.

Here's the opening credits for 'Once upon a time . . . . Space'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN2wLbNYnHI

Sulla Felix · 04-11-2012 06:06PM

Reminds me of that cartoon about the human body. Little white blood cells were soldiers or something, brain cells were dressed up in white coats etc.

joseph brand · 04-11-2012 08:45PM

Sulla Felix wrote: »

Reminds me of that cartoon about the human body. Little white blood cells were soldiers or something, brain cells were dressed up in white coats etc.

I'm pretty sure you're describing the cartoon I have linked above?

There's a crowd of red blood cells carrying bubbles of oxygen on their backs.

Sulla Felix · 04-11-2012 09:39PM

joseph brand wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you're describing the cartoon I have linked above?

There's a crowd of red blood cells carrying bubbles of oxygen on their backs.

Sorry, I misunderstood your post. I thought your thing was a standalone cartoon film, not a series.

eoin5 · 04-11-2012 10:14PM

joseph brand wrote: »

Anyone remember this cartoon from 1989? 'Once upon a time . . . . Life'.

I've been trying to remember the name of that for ages, cheers

magicbastarder · 07-11-2012 07:01PM

BBC nixes any potential for discovering intelligent extra-terrestrial life:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-11-07/brian-cox-bbc-feared-aliens-might-breach-editorial-guidelines

pauldla · 08-11-2012 04:03PM

'Earth-like' planet could support life

An Anglo-German team of astronomers has discovered a new planet orbiting a nearby sun at just the right distance for an Earth-like climate that could support life.
The team actually found three new planets orbiting the star 44 light years away, but only one of them is in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, the band around a sun where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1108/breaking50.html

Dades · 08-11-2012 04:44PM

Those article always annoy me a bit as they never clarify the word "habitable" to mean specifically life such as we have on earth.

Sarky · 08-11-2012 05:16PM

How many "habitable" planets is that discovered now?

And have they heard of Jesus..?

pauldla · 09-11-2012 02:44AM

Sarky wrote: »

How many "habitable" planets is that discovered now?

And have they heard of Jesus..?

Wait until they get here to tell us about their gods. That's when the fun really starts.

Hotblack Desiato · 09-11-2012 02:47AM

They still haven't found Kolob yet though. Damn atheistic scientist types.

fitz0 · 10-11-2012 01:38PM

http://www.heikegani.com/

This is an Irish based site you all might find interesting. It collects interesting articles and such related to cosmology, science and such.

Here's Carl Sagan on the crab the site is named after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLwtpahwJJ8

ShooterSF · 11-11-2012 12:56AM

Some fascinating points about the US Presidential election system after the fact that makes it seem ridiculous!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUS9mM8Xbbw

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

dmw07 · 11-11-2012 12:02PM

ShooterSF wrote: »

Some fascinating points about the US Presidential election system after the fact that makes it seem ridiculous!
]

The first video while interesting and informative is a little misleading. The electoral college was not set up because they only had horses in those days (A simple explanation), it was set up so mob rule did not vote for things that where bad for the country as a whole.

America is a republic and not a democracy as we might think. It does not elect who the people want, it elects who is best for the country.

It was set up that way so that it could not be manipulated by a mob of idiots...but it doesn't always work.

robindch · 11-11-2012 01:41PM

dmw07 wrote: »

The electoral college was not set up because they only had horses in those days (A simple explanation), it was set up so mob rule did not vote for things that where bad for the country as a whole.

I believe that the electoral colleges were originally made up of wealthy individuals, folks from academia and others who had a strong interest in maintaining stability, at the possible expense of accountability. As the video points out, the popular vote, per-state would indicate a preference to the electoral college, but the latter were generally free to cast their votes for candidates as they wished (though I believe a lot of that discretion no longer exists). Most states cast all of their electoral college votes for a single candidate, but I believe there are a still a few states which allocate their electoral college votes proportionally.

All in all, it's a strange voting system which could really do with some updating.

11-11-2012 04:58PM

robindch wrote: »

I believe that the electoral colleges were originally made up of wealthy individuals, folks from academia and others who had a strong interest in maintaining stability, at the possible expense of accountability. As the video points out, the popular vote, per-state would indicate a preference to the electoral college, but the latter were generally free to cast their votes for candidates as they wished (though I believe a lot of that discretion no longer exists). Most states cast all of their electoral college votes for a single candidate, but I believe there are a still a few states which allocate their electoral college votes proportionally.

All in all, it's a strange voting system which could really do with some updating.

It's a couple of hundred years since there were more than a couple of votes cast against what should have been. 2 states distribute their votes so that the winner gets 2 (the votes the state has for having 2 senators) and the rest go to the winner of each congressional district. They don't "still" do it, they brought it in relatively recently.

Hotblack Desiato · 11-11-2012 07:03PM

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1110/breaking15.html

300972_1.jpg?ts=1352659777

A suspected prankster has been regaling motorists with pro-choice and pro-cannabis messages in Blackrock, Co Dublin today.

An electronic sign of the type normally used to give traffic directions was placed at the side of the Rock Road near Booterstown Avenue and is broadcasting messages to passing motorists.

The sign reads “Against Abortion?”, before changing to “Then Don’t Have One”.

Other messages displayed on the board include "Legalise Abortion" and "Legalise Weed".

Obliq · 12-11-2012 09:33AM

Saw that alright - we're definitely looking at the same facebook pages

Did you check out the link to how surprisingly easy it is to hijack a digital road sign? http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fjalopnik.com%2F5141430%2Fhow-to-hack-an-electronic-road-sign&h=IAQHexq3b

Not that I'd EVER condone it of course......

Hotblack Desiato · 12-11-2012 08:21PM

Hardly, I have *.facebook.com/* in my browser's content blocker. :cool:
Saw it on the IT homepage.

Don't know if your link refers to it

but the first one I heard of was in the US where they put up 'UFO Crossing Ahead' and 'Klaatu Barada Nikto'
http://www.zug.com/live?func=view_thread&thread_id=64475

Obliq · 12-11-2012 11:23PM

ninja900 wrote: »

Hardly, I have *.facebook.com/* in my browser's content blocker. :cool:
Saw it on the IT homepage.

Ha! Oops - I wholeheartedly apologise for assuming facebook usage. Yes, it's crap. Blocking it is indeed much cooler :cool:

Don't know if your link refers to it but the first one I heard of was in the US where they put up 'UFO Crossing Ahead' and 'Klaatu Barada Nikto'
http://www.zug.com/live?func=view_thread&thread_id=64475

That's a good one. No, the fb link didn't refer to this but actually tells you the default password though, and how to reset the sign to default if they changed the password.

sephir0th · 12-11-2012 11:49PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOk0fGYf5g4

Hotblack Desiato · 13-11-2012 12:12AM

Obliq wrote: »

Blocking it is indeed much cooler :cool:

It means no stupid 'like' buttons appearing on random websites, and as these images aren't downloaded, FB can't use them to track your browsing of non-FB sites with 'like' buttons.

Turtwig · 13-11-2012 12:16AM

ninja900 wrote: »

It means no stupid 'like' buttons appearing on random websites, and as these images aren't downloaded, FB can't use them to track your browsing of non-FB sites with 'like' buttons.

In case you accidentally click 'like' on pron. :pac:

joseph brand · 13-11-2012 11:58AM

Hotblack Desiato · 14-11-2012 07:34PM

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/1114/1224326570917.html

Five years ago, two couples embarked on sex marathons to boost their relationships. Is it still good for them?

‘I can’t believe we did the whole thing. We had little kids, too – our days were just exhausting. Annie and I were both shattered. How did we do it?” says Douglas Brown.

Do it they did, though: every day, for 101 days. Charla and Brad Muller, though, did better: they managed the full 365. Can you imagine? Sex, every day, for a whole year. Even when you’re knackered. Even when you’re barely speaking to each other. Even when there are lots of things you’d rather be doing: hot bath/good book; footie on the box; clean the goldfish bowl?

Sounds like a great idea

fitz0 · 14-11-2012 11:33PM

Nothing short of amazing.

http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/

Turtwig · 15-11-2012 12:15PM

Are Humans getting dumber?
I'd believe it. :pac:

Dades · 15-11-2012 12:30PM

fitz0 wrote: »

Nothing short of amazing.

I actually thought you were referring to the post above yours. Which personally I find even more amazing. :pac:

pauldla · 15-11-2012 12:31PM

Jernal wrote: »

Are Humans getting dumber?
I'd believe it. :pac:

Interesting article. I liked this bit:

Not everybody agrees with Crabtree’s reasoning, however. Steve Jones, a geneticist at University College London, believes there is insufficient data to support his theory. ”Never mind the hypothesis, give me the data, and there aren’t any,” Jones told The Independent. “I could just as well argue that mutations have reduced our aggression, our depression and our penis length, but no journal would publish that. Why do they publish this?”

I'm going to amuse myself by pretending that's the same Steve Jones of Sex Pistols fame. :pac:

Interesting Stuff Thread

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