I bet you didnt know that

A starquake on a neutron star could cause a mass extinction on Earth if it happened within 10 light years of us.

It would last milliseconds and the movement within the star would be measured in millimeters, yet it would release thousands of year's worth of our sun's energy.

Ineedaname

[Deleted User] wrote: »

A starquake on a neutron star could cause a mass extinction on Earth if it happened within 10 light years of us.

It would last milliseconds and the movement within the star would be measured in millimeters, yet it would release thousands of year's worth of our sun's energy.

We were actually hit by one in 2004. It came from a neutron star 50,000 light years away.

It was so powerful it blinded a satellite specifically designed to detect these events despite it being pointed in the opposite direction. It even partially ionized the earths atmosphere causing it to ring like a bell.

Franz Von Peppercorn

joeguevara wrote: »

Death toll of 20 million. Considering a world population of 5-6 billion at the time doesn’t put a dent. More soldiers died in the First World War.

The world population didn’t hit 5-6B until the 90s.

I’m surprised it was as high as in 1.2B in 1850 actually

begbysback

Ineedaname wrote: »

We were actually hit by one in 2004. It came from a neutron star 50,000 light years away.

It was so powerful it blinded a satellite specifically designed to detect these events despite it being pointed in the opposite direction. It even partially ionized the earths atmosphere causing it to ring like a bell.

I didn't hear any bell

unkel

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote: »

The world population didn’t hit 5-6B until the 90s.

I’m surprised it was as high as in 1.2B in 1850 actually

I'm surprised too, but fred funk }{ is spot on:

joeguevara

fred funk }{ wrote: »

World population was 1.2 b in 1850.

fair play. I was way way way off. But still no where near 1/12 of the worlds population.

Capt'n Midnight

joeguevara wrote: »

fair play. I was way way way off. But still no where near 1/12 of the worlds population.

The higher estimates go up to 100m deaths

Fourier

Deleted User wrote: »

A starquake on a neutron star could cause a mass extinction on Earth if it happened within 10 light years of us.

It would last milliseconds and the movement within the star would be measured in millimeters, yet it would release thousands of year's worth of our sun's energy.

Neutron stars are the only place in nature where quarks might exist. The density in their core is large enough that the universe would revert to earlier conditions where quarks existed.

cbreeze

giraffes are the only mammals who can't swim

368100

cbreeze wrote: »

giraffes are the only mammals who can't swim

Im not a giraffe and I cant swim either :-)

pleas advice

cbreeze wrote: »

giraffes are the only mammals who can't swim

they are pretty good snorkelers though

Capt'n Midnight

cbreeze wrote: »

giraffes are the only mammals who can't swim

If they were to try and walk in very deep water up to their necks then they wouldn't be able to breath because of the water pressure.

Same with humans , go down two meters and try breathing though a tube it's pretty close to attempting suicide.


Elephants on the other hand would have it easier since they have less air gaps outside of their lungs. And they are related to manatees. just use the ole trunk as a snorkel and swim away.

DEFTLEFTHAND

The Sicilian Mafia developed out of the uneasy development of modern Italy.

They wanted to be indepedent, and took war against the State.


They aligned their organisation along the same lines as a Roman Legion.


Man of Honour,a made man , a soldato, soldier.


A Caporegime, A Capo, a Captain. A Capo controls a crew of soldiers.


The three man ruling administration

The Consiglere, the advisor, the counseler to the boss.


Underboss. Second in command and heir to the top position.


Don or Boss the leader of the organisation.

Riva10

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The Sicilian Mafia developed out of the uneasy development of modern Italy.

They wanted to be indepedent, and took war against the State.


They aligned their organisation along the same lines as a Roman Legion.


Man of Honour,a made man , a soldato, soldier.


A Caporegime, A Capo, a Captain. A Capo controls a crew of soldiers.


The three man ruling administration

The Consiglere, the advisor, the counseler to the boss.


Underboss. Second in command and heir to the top position.


Don or Boss the leader of the organisation.

A Bit like our main political parties really.

Wossack

cbreeze wrote: »

giraffes are the only mammals who can't swim

speaking of giraffes - their name is relatively new, only being coined in the 1600s. Before that they were called camelopards, a conjunction of camel and leopard

cbreeze

cbreeze wrote: »

giraffes are the only mammals who can't swim

Hippos can't swim

Wibbs

Deleted User wrote: »

Hippos can't swim

I suppose it's down to how we define swimming. They're extremely proficient at aquatic locomotion. Their method is to "walk" along the bottom of a river or lake, but can and do propel themselves to the surface by this method. They can swim in mid water when young, but go over to the walking underwater as they age.

joeguevara

Wossack wrote: »

speaking of giraffes - their name is relatively new, only being coined in the 1600s. Before that they were called camelopards, a conjunction of camel and leopard

Camels can’t swim. Apes can’t swim. Loads really.

Oldtree

Apart from trees forming symbiotic relationships with local mycorrhizal fungi, tree seeds can carry latent fungi that only "emerge" later from the mature tree, triggered by the demise of the tree. This is part of a natural symbiotic recycling process rather than an infection by 'bad' fungi.

Now I cannot pin down where I learned this, but this article goes some way to supporting the idea:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1754504810000061

Realt Dearg Sec

Oldtree wrote: »

Apart from trees forming symbiotic relationships with local mycorrhizal fungi, tree seeds can carry latent fungi that only "emerge" later from the mature tree, triggered by the demise of the tree. This is part of a natural symbiotic recycling process rather than an infection by 'bad' fungi.

Now I cannot pin down where I learned this, but this article goes some way to supporting the idea:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1754504810000061

Username checks out

Gloomtastic!

From the Cool Pictures thread.......

New Home wrote: »

The comments are very interesting!

sightband

The Irish word for masturbation, or one of them is ‘féin truailliú’ translating as ‘self pollution’.

New Home

There's a type of cotton fabric so fine and smooth it's called something like "egg skin", because it resembles the "skin" that protects the egg under the shell (you can see it better when you peel a hard boiled egg).

Wibbs

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

From the Cool Pictures thread.......

On ancient clothing.. The purple pigment used by very rich romans to dye their clothes was worth its weight in gold. It took thousands of a particular shelled mollusc to extract the dye. The colour apparently became better with age and exposure to light and was extremely colour fast so could take years of wear and washing. It was one of the ultimate fashion and status statements. Only one problem... it stank to high heaven of fish.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

New Home wrote: »

There's a type of cotton fabric so fine and smooth it's called something like "egg skin", because it resembles the "skin" that protects the egg under the shell (you can see it better when you peel a hard boiled egg).

They should call it "protective protein membrane" so.

New Home

Anders Shy Aircraft wrote: »

They should call it "protective protein membrane" so.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a veritable poet in our midst. :rolleyes:

gw80

Dont know if its been posted already but the word slang is short for short language, seen it on facebook so may or may not be true.

The Shahtoosh shawl was sold worldwide at high prices because of the difficulty in collecting enough fibres to create each individual one. It is made from the belly hair of the Tibetan antelope, aka the Chiru, and the fibers were collected where they fell or were found on the areas the antelopes roamed. So they said.

The Shatoosh was sought after for it's exclusivity and it was so fine it could be passed through a wedding ring. The fibers were the finest of any wool and had the highest insulation rating, so these gossamer shawls were considered worth the £6k ST average price tag among a certain set. They were promoted alongside cheaper alternatives as high fashion items in the early 2000's, leading to vastly increased production to satisfy demand.

The reality is that the antelopes had to be killed for the fibres to be gathered in quantity and the Shahtoosh was eventually made illegal to either own or sell. It took the wool of four Chiru to make one shawl, and unsurprisingly the Chiru became endangered as a result. Numbers are now increasing though the antelope are still vulnerable to organized poaching for their wool.

Shahtoosh is a Farsi word meaning 'King of Wool', and the black market in Shahtoosh shawls is thriving. The closest alternative to Shahtoosh wool is Pashmina wool, woven from the finest underbelly fur of the cashmere (Kashmir) goat, it's considered inferior to the Shahtoosh which remains an object of desire regardless of the death count for each piece - but at least the wool can be gathered ethically.

Are Am Eye

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

The Sicilian Mafia developed out of the uneasy development of modern Italy.

They wanted to be indepedent, and took war against the State.


They aligned their organisation along the same lines as a Roman Legion.


Man of Honour,a made man , a soldato, soldier.


A Caporegime, A Capo, a Captain. A Capo controls a crew of soldiers.


The three man ruling administration

The Consiglere, the advisor, the counseler to the boss.


Underboss. Second in command and heir to the top position.


Don or Boss the leader of the organisation.

The american mafia was a little different to their european counterpart. Who themselves came in a few flavors with their own distinct rules and culture. Lucky Luciano in New York was the main architect of the US mafia. He developed the system of families and the three man administration and then the crews headed by capos. The national ruling commission. In Sicily things hadn't this formality but had the same cast iron rules. You obey the boss no matter what, you don't assist or deal with the state authorities and rats are killed.

Carmine Galante (1910-79) in the 1970s started to import Sicilian mafiosi into the states to work for him. Galante was head of the Bonanno Family in New York and one of the biggest heroin dealers of all time. He felt these Sicilians or Zips as they became known in NY retained the traditional values of loyalty to the boss and family and were superior to american born gangsters. They were also necessary because he had made an enemy of virtually everyone else in the mob. His 'loyal' Zip bodyguards on signal all casually strolled out of the restaurant he was eating in just as the hit men entered who were to kill him.

"Nobody will ever kill me, they wouldn't dare" Carmine Galante.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

gw80 wrote: »

Dont know if its been posted already but the word slang is short for short language, seen it on facebook so may or may not be true.

It has been used as far back as the early 18th century to mean the vocabulary of tramps or thieves and is thought to be derived from a North Germanic source, related to Norwegian slengenamn (“nickname”).