Interesting Stuff Thread

MagicMarker

Proof that violence can be fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArklvSwKcI8

joseph brand

Hope this isn't a repost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFRnd-UugUg

amacachi

"If we can imagine it, we can do it."

The sum of the human spirit right there. There will be many things we won't be around see. They'll happen though. As we grow up we realise more and more that those things we thought when we were younger were thought be countless others. When we read old sci-fi and the like much of it comes true.

Politics (whatever side we may all be on) will act as a stumbling block forever but we'll get there eventually.

recedite

Re the fibonacci spirals thing, the method of drawing the nautilus shell on graph paper reminds me of Piet Mondrian's paintings; the patterns used in the designs seem to have an inherently pleasing effect on the mind.

MagicMarker

3D Printer :eek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHnMj6dxj4

Ambersky

I thought this looked interesting and Im a lover of the graphic novel form, so I thought Id share.
Its free and its legal to download here
http://www.clearbits.net/torrents/382-therefore-repent---a-post-rapture-graphic-novel

Open Licensed Digital Media
Graphic Novels
Therefore Repent - a post-Rapture graphic novel

What if the religious right… are actually right? Without warning, multitudes of Christians float bodily up into the sky. For the immoral majority, life goes on pretty much as usual. Except that after the Rapture, magic works — for those willing to risk demonic mutations. And an angelic army appears to have been deployed to mop up the sinners. But through it all, outsiders Raven and Mummy face the possibility of a bigger problem than the end of the world: the end of their relationship. Praise for Therefore Repent! “It’s completely nuts… It’s a book about what if the Rapture actually happened, and that’s all I’m gonna tell you.” —Junot Díaz, 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction “Now, just dealing with the Rapture might be enough of a hook, but Jim and Salgood do a great job of characterization from the very beginning. The two protagonists are so interesting that I had to keep turning page after page to see what and who they were. And yes, Salgood can draw like nobody’s business… I give this book two thumbs up.” —Chris Pitzer, AdHouse Books

Dades

joseph brand wrote: »

Hope this isn't a repost.

The interviewers really come off as dumbasses. And it's not like they're interviewing a Nobel-winning physicist - he's just a smart actor. MF seemed like he was being deliberately innocuous.

recedite

MagicMarker wrote: »

3D Printer :eek:

Nice, but now find a use for a plastic spanner....

Turtwig

recedite wrote: »

Nice, but now find a use for a plastic spanner....

Eh, just because it's plastic doesn't mean it doesn't work. The spanner performs to pretty much the same speck as a ordinary "metal" spanner. Honestly, I think a lot of people underestimate the strength of plastics.

recedite

Check your local hardware/DIY shop and see how many plastic spanners you can find, although... I did get a tiny one in a Christmas Cracker one time. Hmmm.... now what did I do with that? I think it must have got swept up with the wrapping paper and other debris.

Genghiz Cohen

Jernal wrote: »

Eh, just because it's plastic doesn't mean it doesn't work. The spanner performs to pretty much the same speck as a ordinary "metal" spanner. Honestly, I think a lot of people underestimate the strength of plastics.

We call them 'Polymers' in the biz... /smug


(Not actually in the biz)

sephir0th

MagicMarker wrote: »

3D Printer :eek:

But can it run Crys.... copy money?

ShooterSF

3D printer?! I wouldn't download a car would I not? We'll see....

joseph brand

Dades wrote: »

The interviewers really come off as dumbasses. And it's not like they're interviewing a Nobel-winning physicist - he's just a smart actor. MF seemed like he was being deliberately innocuous.

He's inspirational. The joy in his eyes when he marvels at the advances in technology and the things we've seen in space and the fact that we can do anything we put our minds to. If he was speaking from a pulpit I would attend and listen.
I reckon he is laughing inside, to himself, at the naivety of those two interviewing him. Morgan lol'd.

BTW, he reminds me of his character in Batman.

sponsoredwalk

A thread people here might find interesting, was nearly going to post in this
forum but it's a bit too philosophical.

mooliki

This is a few years old, so apologies if it's been posted before. Discussion between Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss over 12 parts;

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12

robindch

From ./ comes some too-good-for-the-creationism-thread news of biological reverse-engineering:

./ wrote:

By bringing long-dead proteins back to life, researchers have worked out the process by which evolution added a component to a cellular machine. ... In a paper published in Nature, researchers recreated an 'ancestral' version of a cellular machine called the V-ATPase proton pump, which channels protons across membranes and is vital for keeping cell compartments at the right acidity. Part of this machine is a ring of six proteins that threads through the membrane. Animals and most other eukaryotes have a ring composed of two types of protein component; fungi are alone in having a ring with three. The researchers used computational methods to work backwards and find the most likely sequences of these proteins hundreds of millions of years ago. The team inserted the DNA into yeast and found that just two mutations can turn the simple 2-protein ring into the more complex 3-protein ring.

The Nature article is here, while the PLOS paper is here.

Sarky

It appears each neuron in the brain has a unique genome. Could explain a lot.

muppeteer

Light speed rollercoaster ride video

It's the ultimate ride for thrill-seekers: a rollercoaster hurtling down a track at near-light speed surrounded by colour changes and distortions. Now, an animation developed by physicist Michael Hush from the Australian National University in Canberra lets you see the effects described by Einstein's special theory of relativity, by creating a fictional world where the speed of light is about 5 metres per second.

Watch while stoned at your own risk

Genghiz Cohen

muppeteer wrote: »

Light speed rollercoaster ride video


Watch while stoned at your own risk

Click that, mute it, then click this.

Turtwig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbGz1njqhxU

K, so um, Sponsoredwalk can explain this.

From the comments -When a droplet impacts a pool at low speed, a layer of air trapped beneath the droplet can often prevent it from immediately coalescing into the pool. As that air layer drains away, surface tension pulls some of the droplet's mass into the pool while a smaller droplet is ejected. When it bounces off the surface of the water, the process is repeated and the droplet grows smaller and smaller until surface tension is able to completely absorb it into the pool.

sponsoredwalk

Jernal wrote: »

K, so um, Sponsoredwalk can explain this.

Today has been a pretty good day but holy **** that has just topped my week!

The best I can do is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWEYeT43W4U

joseph brand

I think you'll understand what I mean.

MagicMarker

OMG, look at those supple bananas in the background.

Turtwig

Spoiler Alert : Rubiks cube in 20 moves. Might not be to everyone's taste.:)

Calibos

joseph brand wrote: »

I think you'll understand what I mean.

What an ungrateful Bitch!!

She should be thanking the Lord for the bounty that she has recieved.

....Such bounty... almost immeasureable bounty....bounty of the highest order......

All I really have to say is....'There is a God!!

Turtwig

Hmm... need I remind people of coffee in an elevator?

dmw07

Jernal wrote: »

Hmm... need I remind people of coffee in an elevator?

Don't get the link?

amacachi

Jernal wrote: »

Hmm... need I remind people of coffee in an elevator?

I'd prefer tea if you don't mind.

recedite

Aesthetically pleasing violence;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU7iYYpSrlo

sponsoredwalk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfccUe_8ghg

"... and this is the pattern that we roughly see:
As the persons own self-reported labelling goes from strong liberal
to strong conservative, so does the persons expressed, implicit level
of bias, so in this case - greater anti-black bias, greater anti-Arab bias,
greater anti-gay bias as political orientation changes."

cavedave

How your genes can affect your response to religion

Turtwig

http://edge.org/annual-question/what-is-your-favorite-deep-elegant-or-beautiful-explanation

Scientists' greatest pleasure comes from theories that derive the solution to some deep puzzle from a small set of simple principles in a surprising way. These explanations are called "beautiful" or "elegant". Historical examples are Kepler's explanation of complex planetary motions as simple ellipses, Bohr's explanation of the periodic table of the elements in terms of electron shells, and Watson and Crick's double helix. Einstein famously said that he did not need experimental confirmation of his general theory of relativity because it "was so beautiful it had to be true."

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT,
OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?

Since this question is about explanation, answers may embrace scientific thinking in the broadest sense: as the most reliable way of gaining knowledge about anything, including other fields of inquiry such as philosophy, mathematics, economics, history, political theory, literary theory, or the human spirit. The only requirement is that some simple and non-obvious idea explain some diverse and complicated set of phenomena.

You might need to set aside a week to read all these though. Just picking ones at random is interesting though.:D

Genghiz Cohen

Sauce

Wait, I thought evolution was an interminably slow process requiring millions of years to make any noticeable difference? Apparently not if you're yeast. A research team has just announce that it's figured out how to evolve a single-celled organism into a multicellular animal just like a freakin' Pokemon.

The team, from the University of Minnesota, was able to artificially evolve a culture of brewer's yeast into it's multicellular form basically by overfeeding it. The culture was housed in flasks and bathed in an extremely nutrient-rich medium.

Once a day, researchers would shake the flasks, then harvested the fast-sinking yeast clumps to start new cultures—the equivalent of natural selection. After just a few weeks, the yeast clumped together and after two months, the clumps had merged into multicelled organisms. What's more, the new creatures showed cell specialization, a juvenile stage, and multicellular offspring.

"Multicellularity is the ultimate in cooperation," said evolutionary biologist Michael Travisano, co-author of the study. "Multiple cells make make up an individual that cooperates for the benefit of the whole. Sometimes cells give up their ability to reproduce for the benefit of close kin."

So, there you have it. The evolutionary step that expanded Life beyond amoebas probably wasn't powered as much by some revolutionary genetic variation as it was by the bacterial equivalent of a Las Vegas buffet.

MagicMarker

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Sauce

Delirium

Benny with the magic hat may have to eat his words about condoms with regards to HIV in South Africa.

Condoms are slowing HIV spread in South Africa

Condoms are to thank for falling HIV infection rates in South Africa.

So say Leigh Johnson at the University of Cape Town and colleagues. They fed data from 2000 to 2008 on the country's HIV rates, condom use and the number of people taking antiretroviral therapy (ARTs) - which reduce the chances of passing on the virus - into two computer models of viral transmission and prevalence.

Condom use accounted for the vast majority of the decline in HIV, with only up to 17 per cent due to the natural dynamics of the disease, and up to 10 per cent down to the use of ARTs (Journal of the Royal Society Interface, DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2011.0826).

David Wilson at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, says the results highlight that condoms are "the most effective" way to protect against HIV epidemics. Johnson emphasises that all prevention and treatment programmes should be intensified.

Source

robindch

Astronomy Ireland wrote:

Aurora Alert

Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, a coronal mass ejection (CME) and a class-M solar flare erupted from the Sun, sending material almost directly towards Earth. This cloud of charged material is expected to arrive at Earth on Saturday night at roughly 10:30pm, but conditions within the cloud and in space can possibly alter this by a number of hours.

When to View
When it arrives, there is a small chance that the aurora borealis (northern lights) will be visible from Ireland. We suggest keeping an eye on the northern sky from 6pm on Saturday evening and throughout the night, into Sunday morning. If it appears, the aurora will have a green and/or red colour, most likely just over the northern horizon.

Where to View
Ideally it is best to watch the aurorae from a location as far north as possible, but depending on the strength of the CME from the Sun, they can be visible further south. We recommend picking anywhere that has a dark sky with a clear northern horizon. This can be a location just outside a town or city, or a dark parkland area.

.

Sarky

All those hours playing Skyrim really makes me want to see an aurora for real.

Turtwig

I'm sorry Man U fans but it appears your team is a damn big influential factor in global warming.

The Mad Hatter

Sarky wrote: »

All those hours playing Skyrim really makes me want to see an aurora for real.

All the times I've read Northern Lights had the same effect on me.

Turtwig

Read this aloud.:)


English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

MagicMarker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBkQE9YitnY

:eek:

The Mad Hatter

MagicMarker wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBkQE9YitnY

:eek:

Cool!

I presume the reason he hides his head like that is so that the silverback won't see his eyes and take it as a challenge?

Broads.ie

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Cool!

I presume the reason he hides his head like that is so that the silverback won't see his eyes and take it as a challenge?

Yep, I also tracked the gorillas in that exact area (Bwindi Impenetrable Forest - cool name eh?) and it's the first rule of Gorilla Club. If the silverback or any large gorilla charges/attacks or seems a bit over excited just crouch, avoid eye contact, be submissive. As far as I know, a Gorilla has never killed a tourist. Not in a long time anyway.

Here's a video of one charging... the guy must have had a death wish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umokxn3Vc38

strobe

Jernal wrote: »

Read this aloud.:)


English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

:eek:

Awesome.

The Mad Hatter

Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, bemoaned the lack of great secular works of art. I thought some here might enjoy this oratorio from the writings of Charles Darwin by the American composer Richard Einhorn, called The Origin.

It's fully a cappella (or at least, the songs featured on the CD release is - I haven't been able to find a recording of the full oratorio), and not dissimilar to Renaissance music in style, but with much more modern and ethnic harmonies and some other vocal sounds (bird cries, ululations, etc.). It's not Beethoven, but it's still beautiful, and very easy to listen to. The words are also crystal clear, if you're into that sort of thing.

CerebralCortex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WSbcd4zYak

Smart and sexy!

Turtwig

Beautiful! Just Beautiful! Picture of Planet Earth's disc. Be sure to view it in the original 8000x8000 resolution.

Think I may just ask it for some coffee in an elevator someday.

strobe

Jernal wrote: »

Beautiful! Just Beautiful! Picture of Planet Earth's disc. Be sure to view it in the original 8000x8000 resolution.

Beautiful picture Mal... ehh Jernal. (*walks off grumbling under breath about A&A regs changing their usernames)

Think I may just ask it for some coffee in an elevator someday.

I can't believe this has actually become a meme on here. I blame Liamw, he's an awful messer that lad.

Turtwig

strobe wrote: »

Beautiful picture Mal... ehh Jernal. (*walks off grumbling under breath about A&A regs changing their usernames)

I know it makes me a bit of a hypocrite but I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Thanks Beruthiel for being such an angel about it. Stroby, you could always change your name to Neave. Who knows, then changing usernames may just cotton as a meme also?:)