Interesting Stuff Thread

robindch wrote: »

In terms of gender equality, the World Economic Forum says that Ireland is doing well and has maintained its place as the sixth most gender-equal country in the world, coming in after Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Philippines (which, frankly, I wouldn't have expected):

Milutin Milankovitch was a Serb. He was caught in the wrong country at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 and interned. Luckily a friendly Hungarian professor had him paroled and moved from his cell to Budapest where he had access to the library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Oblivious to the war, he continued his calculations and finally published his first set of predictions in 1920. The genius of Milankovitch lay in the correct combination of astronomical cycles and meticulous calculation. When he died in 1958, the theory was falling out of vogue partly because of various discrepancies between his predictions and geologists' findings. Since then, the older techniques of geologists, particularly the accuracy of carbon-dating, have been found wanting and the Milankovitch model has emerged triumphant, thus standing the test of time.

A detailed description of the theory can be found elsewhere (see A.G.Dawson, Ice Age Earth, Routledge, London, 1992, chapter 13). But it is important to realise that frequent, apparently random, episodes of warming and cooling of the Earth can be explained to a great extent by the interplay of at least three celestial cycles, all running at different speeds. These cycles affect the warmth transmitted by the Sun to various parts of the Earth in a complex way. Of particular importance for the onset of glaciation is a decline in heat transmitted to northern temperate latitudes during summer with the resulting failure to melt last winter's snow. The amount of summer sun is controlled by three important heavenly cycles, which can be called respectively: the 100,000-year stretch, the 41,000-year tilt and the 23,000-year wobble.

Every year when the Earth circles the Sun, it moves alternately nearer and farther at different points of the circuit. This motion is called elliptical and the Sun lies to one end of the ellipse rather than in the middle. Over a period of approximately 100,000 years this ellipse stretches somewhat, and then shortens and fattens until it is nearly circular. The process is rather like taking a child’s hula-hoop and distorting it intermittently with two hands to make an ellipse. Over the cycle, the distance between the Earth and the Sun varies by as much as 18.26 million kilometres (11.35 million miles). Although the change in heat delivery over this cycle is relatively small, the effect on the Earth's climate is, for some reason, greater than with the other two mechanisms. At present the Sun's circuit does not particularly favour an ice age, but the onset of the next major glaciation can be predicted accurately from the cycles.

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Well, the evidence suggests that a certain religion used it's control over our education system to greatly exaggerate it's importance in Gaelic Ireland, underplay it's role in the loss of Irish independence and lie outright about it's part in the fight to regain independence.

keane2097 wrote: »

Thanks very much. If anyone is interested the book mentioned is going cheap on Amazon for Kindle:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaelic-Gaelicized-Ireland-Middle-Ages/dp/1843510030/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Jernal wrote: »

This may interest some of the denizens of this forum.
A subscription to nature generally costs over over €200 but for a limited time (very limited!) it's only €50. That's 51 issues for the entire year of a highly reputable science mag.

http://www.nature.com/ecommerce/subscribe.action?productId=NATURE&source=EXTNSO13

robindch wrote: »

Opposition to wind farms, a bit like opposition to vaccines and fluoridation, has been growing over the last number of years thanks largely to a small number of uninformed or dishonest activists working mostly via social media.

Research suggests that complaints of illness attributed to nearby windfarms has nothing to do with the windfarms themselves, and everything to do with anti wind farm groups (a) targetting specific locations for complaints and (b) adding health concerns to their wider opposition.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0076584

Gbear wrote: »

That doesn't really say much though. On a calm day it could be **** all%.