Interesting Stuff Thread

Hotblack Desiato

robindch wrote: »

Here's a flight nobody will ever make:

Reminds me of this:

although it's a little disappointing they just show the atomic nucleus as a featureless black sphere...

Hotblack Desiato

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2013/0110/1224328624226.html

Journey to the afterlife is a scientific dead end

PAUL O'DONOGHUE

OPINION: An American doctor's revelations about life after death do not stand up to scientific scrutiny

Among the gifts I received this festive season was a tongue-in-cheek present, a copy of the current number one New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander. What a revelation it turned out to be. ...

Sarky

It'll still be referenced by religious people for years to come.

legspin

ninja900 wrote: »

Reminds me of this:

although it's a little disappointing they just show the atomic nucleus as a featureless black sphere...

Also

http://www.scaleofuniverse.com/

robindch

A little bit close to solving a #firstworldproblem, but what a deliciously thoughtful idea all the same:

http://www.goodnightlamp.com/

Sulla Felix

robindch wrote: »

A little bit close to solving a #firstworldproblem, but what a deliciously thoughtful idea all the same:

http://www.goodnightlamp.com/

That's adorable.

FouxDaFaFa

Yeah, Science!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGn7aSe8e6w

Gbear

FouxDaFaFa wrote: »

Yeah, Science!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGn7aSe8e6w

The Pharaoh's Snake thing looks like some Lovecraftian nightmare emerging from the ether.:eek:

FouxDaFaFa

It's pretty creepy alright. I love reactions like that. Irony being, I was awful at Chemistry. It just did not compute.

Hotblack Desiato

Wikipedia wrote:

This property was discovered soon after the first synthesis of mercury thiocyanate by Wöhler in 1821: "winding out from itself at the same time worm-like processes, to many times its former bulk, a very light material the color of graphite...". For some time, a firework product called "Pharaoschlangen" was available to the public in Germany, but was eventually banned when the toxic properties of the product were discovered through the death of several children mistakenly eating the resulting solid.

:eek:

joseph brand

Largest Structure in Universe Discovered.

Astronomers have discovered the largest known structure in the universe, a clump of active galactic cores that stretches 4 billion light-years from end to end.

The structure is a large quasar group (LQG), a collection of extremely luminous galactic nuclei powered by supermassive central black holes. This particular group is so large that it challenges modern cosmological theory, researchers said.

"While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe," lead author Roger Clowes, of the University of Central Lancashire in England, said in a statement. "This is hugely exciting, not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe."

When I try to fathom these massive distances, my brain just quits on me.

Turtwig

Structure indicates design.:pac:
I'll get me coat.

robindch

It's fine-tuned.
Therefore this god here (points to holybook)

pauldla

I've been looking for the film Marjoe for a while now, and, while I still haven't been able to find it, I did find an interview with the central character, Marjoe Gortner.

If you're not familiar with the film, it's a documentary about the life of Gortner, who was preaching in the Bible Belt at the age of 4 ('the youngest ordained minister in history').

Here's the interview: short, but interesting.

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/marjoe.htm

robindch

pauldla wrote: »

I've been looking for the film Marjoe for a while now [...]

This one looks like the full doc - worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIYpo4JmT6c

pauldla

Thanks robin...alas, no youtube in this neck of the woods....

robindch

pauldla wrote: »

Thanks robin...alas, no youtube in this neck of the woods....

You could try a youtube downloader which turns a youtube url into an AVI file.

Alternatively, it may be available via a premium usenet news provider.

pauldla

robindch wrote: »

You could try a youtube downloader which turns a youtube url into an AVI file.

Alternatively, it may be available via a premium usenet news provider.

I think the only way I'm going to get around the Great Firewall is if I fork out for a VPN, which I'm probably not going to do as my connection here is slow enough at the best of times. Still, thanks for your efforts!

Turtwig

pauldla wrote: »

I think the only way I'm going to get around the Great Firewall is if I fork out for a VPN, which I'm probably not going to do as my connection here is slow enough at the best of times. Still, thanks for your efforts!

Why not try a free one like Hamachi? (If that's still free.)

pauldla

Jernal wrote: »

Why not try a free one like Hamachi? (If that's still free.)

I've used free VPNs before, such as Ultrasurf, but they're terribly unreliable, and there's a bit of a catch 22 trying to download them: the URLs are blocked, and searching for them knocks out your connection. In other words, you can't search for them unless you're already outside the firewall. That's some catch, that catch 22...

MagicMarker

Pretty much the freakiest thing ever...

Turtwig

MagicMarker wrote: »

Pretty much the freakiest thing ever...

Been to the John Waters thread lately?

Dades

MagicMarker wrote: »

Pretty much the freakiest thing ever...

Why are they making Robot Boys instead of Robot Wimmin? Is this a church sponsored project? :pac:

Hotblack Desiato

Tesco Everyday 'Beef' Burgers are 29% horse.

ShooterSF

MagicMarker wrote: »

Pretty much the freakiest thing ever...

Definite example of the "uncanny valley".

Dades

ninja900 wrote: »

Tesco Everyday 'Beef' Burgers are 29% horse.

Meh, horses are tasty too! I have no emotional problems with scoffing them.

As for those religious groups unwittingly eating piggies?
You're tainted now you might as well get stuck into a big fry.

robindch

They also mentioned that 23 of the 27 burgers tested (that's 85%) contained pig DNA.

I'd like to know if the percentage of sausages containing pig DNA is as high as that.

Bannasidhe

Asked a Hindu friend last night if they would like to share a burger. They could have a third of it.... :pac:

Some people have no sense of humour :cool:

robindch

Hope Ireland isn't sourcing meat from Taiwan:

http://www.thejournal.ie/taiwan-confiscates-435-dog-penises-at-illegal-abattoir-756264-Jan2013/

Dades

^^

The Journal wrote:

But local media suggested the man could have used the penises as an ingredient in herbal wine due to the belief they could help boost male potency.

I've always has a suspicion about that M&S "Dine in for 2" wine.

Beruthiel

Dades wrote: »

^^
I've always has a suspicion about that M&S "Dine in for 2" wine.

That stuff is antifreeze!

robindch

Beruthiel wrote: »

That stuff is antifreeze!

robindch wrote: »

On very rare occasions, I'd invite a certain mate of mine along for dinner in my place with a few friends. He was notorious for showing up with a bottle of the cheapest crap imaginable, but would still drink everybody else's better stuff while leaving his stuff untouched. He even tried it on with something from the earlier days of M+S wineshelves one time, a bottle that was so acidic, I couldn't even cook with it afterwards.

Anyhow, one evening a few months after the M+S bottle incident, he and another friend arrived together, and the two of them asked me for a glass of wine. I headed into the kitchen, closed the door and filled the nice friend's glass with the good stuff, and filled Mr Stinge's glass with something out of a rank bottle I'd opened the previous week. As I was filling his one, the door opened and Mr Stinge sauntered in, looked at the two bottles on the worktop, the two glasses of wine with obviously different-colored red wine in each, and said "I suppose you're pouring me out a glass of that cheap-looking stuff?" "Actually, yes I am -- here you go."

Next time he showed up, he arrived with something drinkable.

Mr Stinge, btw, is one of the few people I know who goes to church regularly.

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

Mr Stinge, btw, is one of the few people I know who goes to church regularly.

If it's one of those church that do the wine thang he may have acquired a taste for the nasty stuff.

Many many years ago 10 year old Bannasidhe was chosen along with her mother for the honour of bringing up the Bread and Wine to the alter in a well known Cork city centre church.

I was given the 'wine' - but it didn't smell right so as we were leaving the Sacristy I lifted the lid of the chalice to have a proper look/smell. Mother stabbed me in the side with her elbow (specially sharpened for just such occasions) and told me to 'Stop it' in that wait til I get you home hiss we all know so well.

Cue outraged defense, loudly voiced just as we entered the Nave 'But Mam - this isn't wine! It's Brandy!!!' It echoed for ages

We were never honoured again....

kylith

Beruthiel wrote: »

That stuff is antifreeze!

You can get orange juice as a non-alcoholic alternative. Their orange juice is bloody lovely.

robindch

Bannasidhe wrote: »

It's Brandy!!!

Bannasidhe

robindch wrote: »

Strangely the priest didn't look at all happy...

sephir0th

Likewise, for some religious groups or people who abstain from eating pig meat, the presence of traces of pig DNA is unacceptable,” he said.

Is it still a sin if you don't know you're eating it?

Dades

kylith wrote: »

You can get orange juice as a non-alcoholic alternative. Their orange juice is bloody lovely.

Not always, unfortunately. Sometimes they have some sort of fizzy apple juice that is nearly as bad as the wine.

Hotblack Desiato

robindch wrote: »

He even tried it on with something from the earlier days of M+S wineshelves one time, a bottle that was so acidic, I couldn't even cook with it afterwards.

Keith Floyd always said if it's not good enough to drink, it's not good enough to go into the pan

Bannasidhe

ninja900 wrote: »

Keith Floyd always said if it's not good enough to drink, it's not good enough to go into the pan

Back in my cheffing days I cooked with Keith a few times...always ended up hung-over for days. Can't remember more than a 'splash' ever going in the pan...

kylith

ninja900 wrote: »

Keith Floyd always said if it's not good enough to drink, it's not good enough to go into the pan

Did he ever find a wine not good enough to drink? It doesn't seem like it.

I remember seeing him cook Marijuana and zebu penis stew once. How pissed do you have to be for that to sound like a good idea?

pauldla

kylith wrote: »

Did he ever find a wine not good enough to drink? It doesn't seem like it.

I remember seeing him cook Marijuana and zebu penis stew once. How pissed do you have to be for that to sound like a good idea?

And I thought the Chinese would eat anything!

I have a good pal here who's been playing the dating game for quite a while. His longest daliance has been with a Sichuan girl who loves nature programmes, but every beastie that came onscreen is greated with the same question: "Can you eat those?"

He eats out a lot these days.

kylith

pauldla wrote: »

And I thought the Chinese would eat anything!

I have a good pal here who's been playing the dating game for quite a while. His longest daliance has been with a Sichuan girl who loves nature programmes, but every beastie that came onscreen is greated with the same question: "Can you eat those?"

He eats out a lot these days.

I seem to remember he was somewhere in Africa at the time.

PopePalpatine

ninja900 wrote: »

Tesco Everyday 'Beef' Burgers are 29% horse.

**** that Tesco Burger, there's a horse inside! :pac:

legspin

http://www.truthwinsout.org/news/2013/01/32934/

Take that, fundies.

Bannasidhe

legspin wrote: »

http://www.truthwinsout.org/news/2013/01/32934/

Take that, fundies.

“With this ruling, the court has established that freedom of religion is an individual right. It is emphatically not a collective right to discriminate against LGBT people, women, or people of another faith or life stance.”

Hmmmm - wonder if that impacts on The Employment Equality Acts of 1998 & 2004 (Section 37 i)?

Dades

Obviously those judges didn't read post #19. :rolleyes:

Yes, I've been looking for an excuse to use this!

Liamario

The dumb leading the dumber?

Watch in order (They're short)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2n7vSPwhSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUXDKnL4xGE

MrPudding

Liamario wrote: »

The dumb leading the dumber?

Watch in order (They're short)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2n7vSPwhSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUXDKnL4xGE

Just wow.

MrP

Kiwi in IE

That is completely astounding!