Interesting Stuff Thread

Obliq

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

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

Hotblack Desiato

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

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

Hotblack Desiato

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

Nothing short of amazing.

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

Turtwig

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

Dades

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

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:

Turtwig

pauldla wrote: »

Interesting article. I liked this bit:



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

My brain is currently fried but that Jones fella wrote some damn good pop science books who's names I can't remember. You should definitely check him out.

Bannasidhe

Jernal wrote: »

My brain is currently fried but that Jones fella wrote some damn good pop science books who's names I can't remember. You should definitely check him out.

and he played both lead and rhythm guitars plus bass on Never Mind the Bollocks...

Hotblack Desiato

You mean this?

CerebralCortex

Jernal wrote: »

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

I think it has to be the worst science report I've ever see come on to ScienceDaily. It's also probably the most useless piece of research I've ever seen considering the distribution of intelligence across the world, and the huge variety of selection pressures still around not to mention professional (like how CEOs tend to be psychopaths).

Very topical at the moment:

http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.ie/2010/04/abortion-question-of-womens-rights.html

magicbastarder

no halos on our coins:

http://www.thejournal.ie/no-halo-on-slovakia-2-euro-coin-680616-Nov2012/

Corkfeen

I'm like an excitable child, love space related discoveries of any variety. :pac:

Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem.

They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.

It's a bind scientists frequently find themselves in, because by their nature, scientists like to share their results. At the same time, they're cautious because no one likes to make a big announcement and then have to say "never mind."

The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. "We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting," John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That's where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. "The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.

Article continued:
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now

Well, possibly something that shows the potential for life. Amino acid or something of that ilk. Or possibly nothing at all. :pac:

Calibos

Can't see it being life, agree its probably Amino acids or something, can't get myself too excited because they discovered amino acids on a comet years ago didn't they. I'll be very surprised if it isn't a big 'Meh' from me. Nasa have a habit of over-hyping these announcements. There was one press conference hyped up for a few weeks before hand. Super secret stuff, waited with baited breadth.....they'd found a galaxy in the hubble deep field 500,000 years older than the previous record holder.....something like that anyway

Galvasean

Jernal wrote: »

My brain is currently fried but that Jones fella wrote some damn good pop science books who's names I can't remember. You should definitely check him out.

'Almost Like A Whale' is a very good read.

Galvasean

Damn cannibalistic Homos, eating all our children:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056812763

For instance, nine of the 11 butchered individuals at Gran Dolina were children or adolescents compared with the largely adult victims of more recent human cannibalism.

ShooterSF

Calibos wrote: »

Can't see it being life, agree its probably Amino acids or something, can't get myself too excited because they discovered amino acids on a comet years ago didn't they. I'll be very surprised if it isn't a big 'Meh' from me. Nasa have a habit of over-hyping these announcements. There was one press conference hyped up for a few weeks before hand. Super secret stuff, waited with baited breadth.....they'd found a galaxy in the hubble deep field 500,000 years older than the previous record holder.....something like that anyway

thats not meh!!

The galaxy MACS0647-JD (Image from nasa.gov)

Scientists have discovered the most distant and apparently the oldest galaxy in the known universe using a unique combination of super man-made and natural telescopes.
The galaxy, MACS0647-JD has been found 13.3 billion light years away from Earth. Scientists believe they are witnessing the cosmic cluster in its infancy, just 420 million years after the Big Bang which created the Universe 13.7 billion years ago, NASA and the European Space Agency announced.
“We see the newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, as it was 420 million years after the Big Bang… Its light has travelled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth,” a statement said.
Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble (CLASH), a joint US-European project, has been credited with the discovery. In order to see the galaxy, astronomers combined the magnifying power of the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and a natural zoom effect called gravitational lensing.
The effect enables astronomers to see galaxies that emit a dim light, undetectable by telescopes on Earth, but through gravitational lensing is made visible as the light from a distant object is bent by the gravity of huge galaxy clusters.

Link: http://rt.com/news/oldest-galaxy-discovered-universe-922/

To put that in perspective, while the Universe is only around 6000 years old somehow light has travelled 13.3 billion light years to reach us. That's magic*.



*Ok only if you accept the 6000 thing but dammit respect my beliefs!

Kivaro

So what did Curiosity find on Mars?
Apparently it's big news; some say historical.

Well?
Building blocks of life maybe?

Lots of buzz about it:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/mars-rover-curiosity-discovery_n_2167207.html

joseph brand

Badass shrimp!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49932040/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-smashing-spearing-shrimp-speedily-attack-prey/

Peacock mantis shrimp, a relative of the smasher shrimp examined in the study, are even more impressive, moving their claws at speeds of 75 feet (23 m) per second and delivering blows with 200 pounds (91 kilograms) of force behind them despite being only 4 inches (10 centimeters) long.

4 inches you say?

Gbear

joseph brand wrote: »

Badass shrimp!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49932040/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/how-smashing-spearing-shrimp-speedily-attack-prey/



4 inches you say?

Pah. My laser Shrimp* easily defeats your smashy smashy shrimp!
http://insignificantknowledge.blogspot.ie/2011/06/pistol-shrimps-laser-claw.html

Wait, What?

The sound isn't caused by the claws snapping together, but rather a jet of water which is shot at 60 mph. Due to the, um, "underwateriness" of the action scene, a low pressure bubble is formed and the sound is created when the bubble collapses. And the sound is so powerful it stuns the opponent into a somewhat retarded stupor, leaving Mr. Pistol to reap the rewards and tuck into a lovely comatose crustacean snack.

How Badass is That?

Wait, it gets weirder. The sheer force of the bubble collapse means it reaches temperatures up to 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit, a.k.a. hotter than the surface of the ****ing sun.

This animal has, in fact, no access to any laser weaponry of any kind.

The Mad Hatter

From the Facebook comment:

"It seems to be a common belief (forgive me for generalizing, but particularly in the USA where it has become a political issue) that there is no scientific consensus on the subject of climate change.
This is unequivocally not true. There is debate about how fast the climate is changing, there is debate about how it is changing and how it will change, there is debate about how this will affect the Earth's ecosystems and there is debate about how *much* of it is caused by human beings.
There is almost complete consensus in the scientific community that the climate is changing, and that at least part of that is anthropogenic.
These numbers are from Dr. James Powell. In his own words, he "searched the Web of Science, an online science publication tool, for peer-reviewed scientific articles published between January first 1991 and November 9th 2012 that have the keyword phrases “global warming” or “global climate change.” The search produced 13,950 articles.
You can read his full article, references and methodology here: http://bit.ly/Y78Tbz"

Turtwig

The sad thing is popularity has nothing to do with science and while consensus is nice it shouldn't really be used as an argument for or against anything .Scientifically speaking the consensus is assumed to be wrong anyway.

So stats and papers like that while very interesting aren't going to be useful in swaying those who don't believe in AGW. Folks are just probably going to spout some shyte about Galileo or something similar.

Hotblack Desiato

Jernal wrote: »

The sad thing is popularity has nothing to do with science

The good thing is that popularity has nothing to do with science either

Hotblack Desiato

Japan's ninjas heading for extinction

Sulla Felix

Jernal wrote: »

My brain is currently fried but that Jones fella wrote some damn good pop science books who's names I can't remember. You should definitely check him out.

I've a signed copy of Y: The Descent of Men. My first ever sciencey book that wasn't a schoolbook as a teenager. Still give kudos to the uncle who attended his talk in Trinity and picked up the book for me.

Dades

ninja900 wrote: »

Japan's ninjas heading for extinction

They'll still be around - you just won't see them. :pac:

joseph brand

LEGO 3D Milling Machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX1cO2XhMrg

FouxDaFaFa

^^
That is pretty cool. I love that he used a gameboy cover to house the controls too.

Definitely the most excited I've been about a vacuum cleaner in quite some time

FouxDaFaFa

Heard about this yesterday and while it sounds like a lot of fun, it's kind of scary too. The US government is flinging money at Tulsa to train "cyber warriors".

Jim Thavisay is secretly stalking one of his classmates. And one of them is spying on him."I have an idea who it is, but I'm not 100% sure yet," said Thavisay, a 25-year-old former casino blackjack dealer.

Stalking is part of the curriculum in the Cyber Corps, an unusual two-year program at the University of Tulsa that teaches students how to spy in cyberspace, the latest frontier in espionage.
Students learn not only how to rifle through trash, sneak a tracking device on cars and plant false information on Facebook. They also are taught to write computer viruses, hack digital networks, crack passwords, plant listening devices and mine data from broken cellphones and flash drives.
It may sound like a Jason Bourne movie, but the little-known program has funneled most of its graduates to the CIA and the Pentagon's National Security Agency, which conducts America's digital spying. Other graduates have taken positions with the FBI, NASA and the Department of Homeland Security. LA Times

Bloodwing

Here's an interesting little video made by one of my favorite channels on YouTube featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson where he answers the above question.

shizz

Interesting talk from Elon Musk. Actual presentation lasts under 30 minutes, Q&A after that.

He covers re-usable rocketry and flights to Mars.

ShooterSF

Always good to listen to the Morgan Freeman of science.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pL5vzIMAhs

joseph brand

Mormon Doctrine Has Been Plagiarized

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

25 years in the making! Kendal Sheets, author of 'Book of Mormon, Book of Lies' has found evidence that the mormons' 'holy book' is nothing but quotes from travel journals such as one by Marco Polo, cunningly put together by Joseph Smith and his father, in order to help his poor family get out of poverty.

Apparently Joe was visited by an angel on two separate occasions. The first 'angel' appeared to him and said that he should be a full-time minister, hence, he needed offerings. The second time, the 'angel' said that a home for his father was of the utmost importance, even more offerings.

At least scientology is real. Ha!

pauldla

joseph brand wrote: »

At least scientology is real. Ha!

Scientology is real....?

joseph brand

pauldla wrote: »

Scientology is real....?

Of course not. Just didn't think the sarcasm smilie was necessary.

pauldla

joseph brand wrote: »

Of course not. Just didn't think the sarcasm smilie was necessary.

Evidentally the dimmer contributers find it useful.

magicbastarder

blasphemy laws to be repealed in the netherlands:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/29/275146/netherlands-abolish-blasphemy-law/

recedite

magicbastarder wrote: »

blasphemy laws to be repealed in the netherlands:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/29/275146/netherlands-abolish-blasphemy-law/

Interesting to see who is most concerned and commenting at the end of that article, this comment is typical;

they have been showing strong support for Zionism recently, Its just that this is to further promote the Anti Islamic Islamophobia Agenda.

joseph brand

magicbastarder wrote: »

blasphemy laws to be repealed in the netherlands:

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/29/275146/netherlands-abolish-blasphemy-law/

However, it is still off-limits under the Dutch law to insult police officers or the country’s monarch, Queen Beatrix.

Bannasidhe

However, it is still off-limits under the Dutch law to insult ... the country’s monarch, Queen Beatrix.

Mr Queen Beatrix* has to think very carefully before responding to questions like 'Does our bum look big in this?' and 'Does one like our hair?' Answers like 'In comparison to what?' and 'Indeed, one has always found startled punk badgers attractive' are completely out of the question.




*Dear A&A pedants, I know that Mr Queen Beatrix aka Claus von Amsberg died in 2002 but that spoils the joke like.

PopePalpatine

I'm not sure if this was relevant, but I overheard Ray D'Arcy this morning responding to a few texters saying that, as an atheist, he shouldn't celebrate Christmas. It was nice to hear him refute their statements by saying that Christmas pretty much copied the old winter solstice festival.

Zillah

recedite wrote: »

Interesting to see who is most concerned and commenting at the end of that article, this comment is typical;

Well, the website in question is PressTV, aka, The Iranian Government, so I wouldn't be surprised if the comments were from a slightly skewed perspective.

EDIT:
I am also consistently amazed that people can so brazenly simply declare that certain kinds of speech are not free speech because they don't like them. Just baffling.

robindch

Scouts over in the UK might be rethinking this whole god-thing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20584208

BBC wrote:

The UK Scout Association is considering an alternative oath for atheists.

The 105-year-old movement is launching a consultation to see if members would back a Scout Promise for those who feel unable to pledge a "duty to God". Versions of the oath already exist for the Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist faiths, but this is the first time such an adaptation has been considered.

In March, the National Secular Society said atheist children and potential Scout leaders were being put off. Membership of the Scouts has increased from 444,936 in 2005 to 525,364 this year. But the movement needs more volunteers - it says that at present there are over 35,000 young people on waiting lists.

Girlguiding UK has also announced it will launch a consultation on the wording of their promise, which will start on 4 January 2013.

More than 50 scout groups catering for young people drawn mainly from Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities have opened in the last 10 years. The Scout Association says its existing promise, which also contains a vow of allegiance to the Queen, would continue to be used alongside any new version.

UK Scout Chief Commissioner Wayne Bulpitt added: "We are a values-based movement and exploring faith and religion will remain a key element of the Scouting programme. That will not change. "However, throughout our 105-year history, we have continued to evolve so that we remain relevant to communities across the UK. "We do that by regularly seeking the views of our members and we will use the information gathered by the consultation to help shape the future of Scouting for the coming years."

The existing Scout Promise reads: "On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, to do my duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people and to keep the Scout Law." The alternative versions introduced more than 40 years ago allow Hindus and Buddhists to use the word "my Dharma" and Muslims "Allah" instead of God. Non UK citizens are able to replace the phrase "duty to the Queen" with "duty to the country in which I am now living".

In March, the National Secular Society, which aims to restrict the role of religion in public life, wrote to Chief Scout Bear Grylls, complaining that atheist children were being excluded or having to lie to join the movement. Responding to the consultation announcement, NSS president Terry Sanderson, said: "This is a move in the right direction. "By adjusting their promise to include people without a religious belief, the Scouts will bring themselves in line with the reality of 21st century Britain."

The news of the two consultations has been welcomed by the British Humanist Association (BHA), a charity which campaigns for an end to any mandatory promise to God or another deity or religion. Their Chief Executive Andrew Copson said: "With two-thirds of young people today reporting themselves as not religious and a growing proportion not believing in any god, it is important that the promise should be inclusive.

"The current situation is unfair on those who are excluded from what is often the only organisation of its kind in the area - and one which has received considerable state funding. "It is vital that these changes are realised," he added.

postitnote

I just saw this video posted on Twitter. It shows the discoveries of all known asteroids since 1980:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJsUDcSc6hE

legspin

postitnote wrote: »

I just saw this video posted on Twitter. It shows the discoveries of all known asteroids since 1980. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xJsUDcSc6hE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I've never tried embedding a vid before, and i'm in work. So if it fails please someone feel free to repost the vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJsUDcSc6hE&feature=youtu.be

Watching the growth in discoveries was slightly hypnotic.

postitnote

God bless you Robin.
I looked at your edit and I think I know how to embed now.

Bannasidhe

postitnote wrote: »

God bless you Robin.
.

Gets popcorn.....

:pac: