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

osarusan · 29-11-2019 11:29am

The dinosaurs that roamed the earth 250 million years ago would have experienced a day that was around 23 hours long, and whatever creatures roam the earth 250 million years in the future will experience a day of around 25 hours.

At the time of the formation of the moon, an earth day would have been only 2-3 hours long, but has lengthened ever since in an incredibly gradual process. This is because the gravitational interplay between the moon and the earth, and the transfer of angular momentum, is causing the moon to move farther away at a rate of approximately 1-2cm a year. Accompanying this is the earth's rotation slowing down by 1/500th of a second every century, leading to an increase of about an hour every 200 million years or so.

Billions of years in the future this interplay will finally end when an equilibrium is reached, when the length of an earth day is the same length as a lunar month, which will be about 45 hours. At that time, the earth will always show the same face to the moon, as it now does to us (because the same process just described has already resulted in the earth's mass slowing down the rotation of the relatively smaller mass of the moon until one rotation on its axis lasts as long as one circle around the earth).

Buford T. Justice XIX · 29-11-2019 11:44am

Speedsie wrote: »

Malaria is a terrible disease. The last person to die from malaria contacted in Ireland (in Cork I think) was a certain Mr O Cromwell in the 17th century.

I think the last major outbreak of malaria was in the 19th century, also in Cork...

Cork, the real (malaria) capital of Ireland:pac:

mikhail · 29-11-2019 2:01pm

Widdershins wrote: »

An estimated that half of the number of people who ever lived have been killed by Malaria.
The infection rate in some parts of Africa like Gabon is 200%...because some people contract Malaria twice a year...and Malaria was originally introduced by Europeans.

What do you mean by that last bit? Malaria has been a feature of a huge part of the African ecosystem basically forever. It's one of the big factors that limited population growth in Africa because it tended to kill off livestock and so reduced options for agriculture, and because of the huge overhead strain it put on manpower. It's so devastating that you can trace the malaria band in the archeological record! If anything, its spread has been significantly reduced by man-made changes to the ecosystem.

Widdershins · 29-11-2019 2:52pm

I can't remember, Mikhail. Sleep deprived, just disregard

Ineedaname · 29-11-2019 6:54pm

Widdershins wrote: »

An estimated that half of the number of people who ever lived have been killed by Malaria.
The infection rate in some parts of Africa like Gabon is 200%...because some people contract Malaria twice a year...and Malaria was originally introduced by Europeans.

It played a role in the decline of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The builders of the pyramids were given large amounts of garlic in the hopes it would protect them.

We've found evidence of the parasites that cause it in mosquitoes trapped in amber from over 30 million years ago.

Safe to say few diseases have influenced the world as much as malaria.

Chancer3001 · 30-11-2019 12:48pm

Even still surely it hasnt killed half the people that ever lived?

Realt Dearg Sec · 30-11-2019 3:41pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Even still surely it hasnt killed half the people that ever lived?

It's not a universally agreed upon fact, some dispute it, but it's apparently not considered outlandish at all. There's a good breakdown of the history of the claim here:

https://businesstech.co.za/news/general/71652/the-biggest-killer-diseases-in-history/amp/

Widdershins · 30-11-2019 3:47pm

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Even still surely it hasnt killed half the people that ever lived?

I had the same thought but I thought maybe it's sufficiently agreed on to be worth posting in here

Widdershins · 30-11-2019 3:48pm

Incidentally we still have isolated incidents of bubonic plague in the West. Apparently its much more curable now.

Ineedaname · 30-11-2019 6:15pm

Widdershins wrote: »

Incidentally we still have isolated incidents of bubonic plague in the West. Apparently its much more curable now.

There were four cases in China just this month.

Widdershins · 01-12-2019 12:43pm

Octopuses have blue blood, no bones, and three hearts.

KevRossi · 01-12-2019 12:57pm

https://twitter.com/theauldsthretch/status/1200938506513715203

Expanation is here http://www.gibiris.org/eo-blog/posts/2016/12/05_grand-auld-sthretch-starts-earlier-than-you-think.html

Buford T. Justice XIX · 01-12-2019 4:38pm

The last person to die of Smallpox was a 40yo British woman, Janet Parker, who contracted the disease while at work in a medical lab in Birmingham, England.

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/11/the-last-victim-of-smallpox.html

KevRossi · 01-12-2019 6:29pm

The same piano was used by Paul McCartney to record Hey Jude and by Freddie Mercury to record Bohemian Rhapsody.

KevRossi · 05-12-2019 2:02pm

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1202543358813655041

BTW - this guy is worth following on Twitter for interesting facts.

mzungu · 05-12-2019 9:37pm

Sir Hugh Beaver, the Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery, decided to set up the Guinness Book of World Records after attempting to settle an argument over whether golden plover or the red grouse is the fastest game bird in Europe. He found that the answer to this was hard to find in reference books. So, in order to settle these kinds of trivial arguments the Guinness Book of World Records was born in 1955.

LaFuton · 05-12-2019 11:08pm

Widdershins wrote: »

Octopuses have blue blood, no bones, and three hearts.

octopi?

Say my name · 05-12-2019 11:35pm

mzungu wrote: »

Sir Hugh Beaver, the Managing Director of the Guinness Brewery, decided to set up the Guinness Book of World Records after attempting to settle an argument over whether golden plover or the red grouse is the fastest game bird in Europe. He found that the answer to this was hard to find in reference books. So, in order to settle these kinds of trivial arguments the Guinness Book of World Records was born in 1955.

And that took place while out on a shooting party on the North Sloblands in Co.Wexford on the 10th November 1951.

Adyx · 06-12-2019 1:12am

LaFuton wrote: »

octopi?

Nope. Octopuses is correct.

Speedsie · 06-12-2019 9:22am

Adyx wrote: »

Nope. Octopuses is correct.

Indeed, though at a push you could use octopodes.

Octopi is a horrific mashup of Greek and Latin

Buford T. Justice XIX · 08-12-2019 1:25pm

It took 200,000 years for the human population to reach 1 Billion people.

It took just 200 years to reach 7 Billion.

4068ac1elhodqr · 08-12-2019 4:21pm

Another 30yrs and it's 10bn.

roosterman71 · 09-12-2019 12:05pm

Maybe that lad in the Matrix film all those years ago was right - humans are like a virus.

ohnonotgmail · 09-12-2019 12:08pm

roosterman71 wrote: »

Maybe that lad in the Matrix film all those years ago was right - humans are like a virus.

As Bill Hicks described the human race, a virus with shoes.

Buford T. Justice XIX · 09-12-2019 2:19pm

Head into the link below and scroll down to see some species and how deep they're found. And continue right down to the deepest parts of the oceans.

https://neal.fun/deep-sea/

Professor Moriarty · 09-12-2019 2:34pm

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Head into the link below and scroll down to see some species and how deep they're found. And continue right down to the deepest parts of the oceans.

https://neal.fun/deep-sea/

That's excellent.

lapua20grain · 09-12-2019 2:52pm

Buford T. Justice VI wrote: »

Head into the link below and scroll down to see some species and how deep they're found. And continue right down to the deepest parts of the oceans.

https://neal.fun/deep-sea/

Just showed this to my son, brilliant find.

4068ac1elhodqr · 09-12-2019 3:53pm

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

As Bill Hicks described the human race, a virus with shoes.

PrincePhilip remarked (in 1988): "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation". Charming.

Ipso · 09-12-2019 4:27pm

Chase Embarrassed Pod wrote: »

PrincePhilip remarked (in 1988): "In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation". Charming.

He could probably do something about inbreeding when he was younger.

LostinBlanch · 10-12-2019 10:47pm

You may not know that in the 16th century the English attempted to outlaw the typical Irish hairstyle.

In 1517 Laurent Vital described this distinctive Irish hair style thus: ‘for they (Irish men) were shorn and shaved one palm above the ears, so that only the tops of their heads were covered with hair. But on the forehead they leave about a palm of hair to grow down to their eyebrows like a tuft of hair which one leaves hanging on horses between the two eyes’[iii].

Seen as a particularly Irish haircut it was despised by the English establishment and attempts were made to outlaw it in 1537[iv] and again in the 1570s[v]. However, it remained persistently popular and appears to have been worn as badge of honour amongst Irish kerns (soldiers).

It hasn’t gone away you know.

Link: http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/08/16th-century-irish-hipsters/

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

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