I bet you didnt know that

sbsquarepants

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

The border between Donegal and Leitrim is wider than the Gaza Strip.

How can a border be wide?

Is it not in theory a 1 dimensional line? 1 side is one place, the other side is somewhere else. If it had width where would the border itself belong to?

Realt Dearg Sec

That's just semantics. You can describe it as wide or as long but not both at the same time. If Donegal is one hundred miles long North to south and one hundred miles wide East to west, then its southern border can sensible be described as one hundred miles wide. Long would be more normal but it's clear from context what was meant.

CruelCoin

evolving_doors wrote: »

myth... especially near any planets anyway.
People often cite the ISS as having zero gravity (Dara O Brian for one :rolleyes:).

The ISS is actually in Microgravity. It also still encounters friction.

It's close enough to the earth that some air particles are still present at its altitude, and that these slow down (and thus lowers) the orbit of the ISS.

There are regular burns to increase the altitude of the ISS. The crew often don't know anything about this happening. (forget the guys name, comes from the "year in space" mans book)

ohnonotgmail

CruelCoin wrote: »

The ISS is actually in Microgravity. It also still encounters friction.

It's close enough to the earth that some air particles are still present at its altitude, and that these slow down (and thus lowers) the orbit of the ISS.

There are regular burns to increase the altitude of the ISS. The crew often don't know anything about this happening. (forget the guys name, comes from the "year in space" mans book)

Chris Hadfield?

clintondaly

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

Chris Hadfield?

Scott Kelly

CruelCoin

clintondaly wrote: »

Scott Kelly

That's the one.

Really excellent book. (Endurance)

He goes into a lot of detail on the actual life behind the camera in space.
A lot of drudgery, frustration with equipment, etc. His hate/hate relationship with the "SEEDRA" air purifier is funny.

CruelCoin

On that note:

The Soyuz suits (Orange) that the astronauts get into for their ascent/decent to the ISS are scarily simple.

You climb into a hole in the front of the suit, and then secure the suit with. a. rubber. band.

CruelCoin

Russian cosmonauts are paid a lower wage with higher "time in space" bonuses than their american counterparts. Visa versa applies.

Cosmonauts can be penalised financially for errors. Because complaints are sometimes thrown into the "you're complaining and thus must have screwed something up" box, the cosmonauts rarely admit problems with equipment to ground control.
During the daily morning briefing from the ISS, cosmonauts only ever answer "Good" to the question of how are things.

The bloody station could be on fire, and they'd say "good", because of the way they've been conditioned.

Ten of Swords

Based on that I wouldn't mind seeing the briefing between Mir E-023 and Ground Control in 1997 the day an unmanned supply ship crashed into and critically damaged the Spektr module! The crew at the time were Russian x 2, American x 1 and British x 1.

DEFTLEFTHAND

How much are astronauts paid on average?

Are Am Eye

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

How much are astronauts paid on average?

Its astronomical

Ten of Swords

Wonder how accurate this is, too bad for the Russians

https://paywizard.org/main/cool-jobs/astronaut-salaries

American: $144,566
Canadian: $138,280
European: $102,210
Russian: $16,476

Riva10

Are Am Eye wrote: »

Its astronomical

I'd be over the moon if I could rise to that job.

CruelCoin

Ten of Swords wrote: »

Wonder how accurate this is, too bad for the Russians

https://paywizard.org/main/cool-jobs/astronaut-salaries

American: $144,566
Canadian: $138,280
European: $102,210
Russian: $16,476

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/astronaut_faq.html#5

Between "Currently, a GS-12 starts at $65,140 per year and a GS-13 can earn up to $100,701 per year." for civvies.

military astronauts retian their rank and pay from the military.
Most of them being Majors and lt. Colonels, so thats, "Insignia of an Air Force Major Major Maj Field Officer $55,231 - $92,218 per year
O-5 Insignia of an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Lt Co Field Officer $64,012 - $108,752 per year"
https://www.federalpay.org/military/air-force/ranks

This guys says Ruskies get 150k for 6 months in space.
But that probably includes the bonuses i mentioned earlier.
https://sputniknews.com/russia/20100121157640428/

Greybottle

Before the advent of the car and the aeroplane the fastest humans on the planet were those who did the Skeleton on the Cresta Run in St Moritz, Switzerland.

They hit about 125 km/h at the end. It would be 1905 before this was broken by a car and 1911 before an airplane could beat it.

Quazzie

Greybottle wrote: »

Before the advent of the car and the aeroplane the fastest humans on the planet were those who did the Skeleton on the Cresta Run in St Moritz, Switzerland.

They hit about 125 km/h at the end. It would be 1905 before this was broken by a car and 1911 before an airplane could beat it.

Weird. I was thinking about this just today. I was thinking to myself as I drove along the motorway that the speed I was doing was faster than any human had ever travelled about a hundred or so years ago. Strange coincidence to them come in here and read this.

CruelCoin

There is only a 2% difference in DNA between us and the smartest chimps.

That 2% is enough to enable us to build quantum computers, while they fish for ants with sticks.

If aliens came along, with their own 2% difference, it could be that both we and chimps would both look as dumb to them as chimps do to us.

Just as chimps are too dumb to understand quantum mechanics, so too is the possibility that the human brain cannot ever understand all there is to know in the universe.

REF: Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

And this is why i say full speed ahead with genetic/mechanical augmentations captain!

shamrock55

CruelCoin wrote: »

There is only a 2% difference in DNA between us and the smartest chimps.

That 2% is enough to enable us to build quantum computers, while they fish for ants with sticks.

If aliens came along, with their own 2% difference, it could be that both we and chimps would both look as dumb to them as chimps do to us.

Just as chimps are too dumb to understand quantum mechanics, so too is the possibility that the human brain cannot ever understand all there is to know in the universe.

REF: Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

And this is why i say full speed ahead with genetic/mechanical augmentations captain!

Sorry you lost me there

CruelCoin

shamrock55 wrote: »

Sorry you lost me there

TL:DR; aliens may be so far advanced that they may never bother their hole to interact with us.

ALL the species on this planet would look stoopid to them.

Any alien species capable of crossing the gap between stars would have absolutely nothing to learn from us.....

evolving_doors

CruelCoin wrote: »

TL:DR; aliens may be so far advanced that they may never bother their hole to interact with us.

ALL the species on this planet would look stoopid to them.

Any alien species capable of crossing the gap between stars would have absolutely nothing to learn from us.....

I bet they don't know all the stuff we've learned from this thread. Who's stoopid now eh!

shamrock55

CruelCoin wrote: »

TL:DR; aliens may be so far advanced that they may never bother their hole to interact with us.

ALL the species on this planet would look stoopid to them.

Any alien species capable of crossing the gap between stars would have absolutely nothing to learn from us.....

I was joking btw

Wanderer78

CruelCoin wrote:

Any alien species capable of crossing the gap between stars would have absolutely nothing to learn from us.....

Maybe they wouldn't be interested in learning from us but be interested in exploting us and extracting from our planet

Capt'n Midnight

Greybottle wrote: »

Before the advent of the car and the aeroplane the fastest humans on the planet were those who did the Skeleton on the Cresta Run in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Only one rider has broken the 50 second barrier from Top , our very own Clifton Hugh Lancelot de Verdon Wrottesley, 14th Baronet, 6th Baron Wrottesley.

Roger Hassenforder

Your finger nails will probably fall off in space
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/news/2010/09/100913-science-space-astronauts-gloves-fingernails-injury

Big Nasty

CruelCoin wrote: »

TL:DR; aliens may be so far advanced that they may never bother their hole to interact with us.

ALL the species on this planet would look stoopid to them.

Any alien species capable of crossing the gap between stars would have absolutely nothing to learn from us.....

'Mostly harmless'

Professor Moriarty

Greybottle wrote: »

Before the advent of the car and the aeroplane the fastest humans on the planet were those who did the Skeleton on the Cresta Run in St Moritz, Switzerland.

They hit about 125 km/h at the end. It would be 1905 before this was broken by a car and 1911 before an airplane could beat it.

Throughout the history of mankind, people have been achieving speeds of 190 kph as anyone who has fallen off a high cliff will attest.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Throughout the history of mankind, people have been achieving speeds of 190 kph as anyone who has fallen off a high cliff will attest.

That's like the old saying that you only need a parachute if you want to skydive a second time...

Greybottle

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Throughout the history of mankind, people have been achieving speeds of 190 kph as anyone who has fallen off a high cliff will attest.

And anybody who was blown up would have exceeded 190 KM/H for a split second as well. I probably should have added in some long list of disclaimers before I posted that.

If you want to hit that speed by jumping off a cliff, the cliff would have to be in excess of 450m high, give or take.

To beat 125 kmh, you would need a cliff in excess of 300m, give or take.

goose2005

Quazzie wrote: »

Weird. I was thinking about this just today. I was thinking to myself as I drove along the motorway that the speed I was doing was faster than any human had ever travelled about a hundred or so years ago. Strange coincidence to them come in here and read this.

afaik the fastest vehicle in prehistory was skis, a good deal faster than the best horse

Capt'n Midnight

Valentina Greggio holds the women's downhill skiing record at 247.083 km/h.

Aerodynamics helps.


It's a little trickier to balance a bicycle on snow. So the record for that is only 227.720 Km/h, still faster than falling vertically head first near sea level.