I bet you didnt know that

Fourier

evolving_doors wrote: »

Is that from the Applied Maths exam?

No, from a real biology paper:
Pressures produced when penguins pooh—calculations on avian defaecation, Meyer-Rochow, V.B. & Gal, J. Polar Biol (2003) 27: 56

Penguins have specially constructed anuses that shíte with significant force to blast their waste away from their nests, for the sake of their chicks' hygiene.

The paper was the first to accurately model their anus mathematically.

NB: I'm not sure if this is a high or low brow post now

mzungu

“Aegilops” is the longest word in English with all the letters in alphabetical order.

bonzodog2

mzungu wrote: »

“Aegilops” is the longest word in English with all the letters in alphabetical order.

"Facetiously" is the longest word with the vowels in alpha order. Even if you're Welsh

sbsquarepants

Fourier wrote: »

.

The paper was the first to accurately model their anus mathematically.

I guessing that when you first set out to discover the intricate how's and why's of reality, you didn't think it would lead to you writing the above

Greybottle

Bookkeeper is the only word in English with 3 double letters in succession. (As well as it's derivatives of course, such as "bookkeeping, bookkeepers etc.)

New Home

Researchers Solve the Mystery of the Atacama ‘Alien’ Mummy (her skeleton is 6-8 inches long)

Nolan’s initial analysis suggested that Ata, as the remains are known, was indeed a human with an estimated bone age of six to eight years at the time of death. This latest study adds to the find, revealing that Ata was a girl of Chilean descent. Her small stature and abnormal proportions were likely the result of genetic mutations largely associated with human growth, such as mutations in genes associated with dwarfism and scoliosis.

As Ian Sample reports for The Guardian, these genetic mutations can also explain the apparently advanced age of her bones. Based on this latest analysis, Nolan and his team believe Ata was born preterm, and was either a stillborn or died shortly after birth.

As Nolan explains in the statement, the “dramatic phenotype could in fact be explained with a relatively short list of mutations in genes known previously to be associated with bone development.”

The specimen is not ancient, writes Gizmodo’s George Dvorsky, probably dating back around 40 years.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tiny-alien-skeleton-found-chile-was-likely-result-genetic-mutations-180968576/

Capt'n Midnight

mzungu wrote: »

If there was a hole going straight through the earth and you jumped in, it would take about 42 mins to reach the other side.

If you haven't seen the awful remake of Total Recall then don't.

If you have then the shuttle thing that goes through the centre of the earth breaks a lot of physics. Ignore the fighting outside while travelling in air that's very hot and dense, the stupid one is that the shuttle would have to be travelling about three times escape velocity, as in it would keep going right out into outerspace.

New Home

Among the comments:

This stone (in German it's called "Sonnenstein") even works if it's cloudy. There are 2 lightbeams which you can see inside the stone and the brightness of this 2 lightbeams is used to see where you need to travel to get to specific positions. You can use this stone even 40 minutes after the sun is not visible anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunstone_(medieval)
http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/4/172187

Capt'n Midnight

^^^

The Chinese had a chariot with a figure that always pointed south.

and like the Vikings they didn't use magnets. A differential gear on the wheels kept the figure aligned.

mzungu

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

If you haven't seen the awful remake of Total Recall then don't.

If you have then the shuttle thing that goes through the centre of the earth breaks a lot of physics. Ignore the fighting outside while travelling in air that's very hot and dense, the stupid one is that the shuttle would have to be travelling about three times escape velocity, as in it would keep going right out into outerspace.

Aye, I haven't seen it, but the original still kicks ass which is why a remake should never have been entertained. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Back on topic, Sean Connery wore a toupee in all his Bond movies. He started going bald in his early twenties, so by the time he got the role in Dr. No in his thirties, his hairline had receded quite a bit. Producers wanted Bond to have hair so Connery obliged and wore the toupee.

Capt'n Midnight

^^^

For Thunderball they used a REAL jetpack

For the remake Never Say Never Again they use some bad model work.

cdeb

Half of all plastic ever made was made in the last 15 years. A million plastic drinks bottles - water, Coke, etc - are bought every minute.

It's a huge environmental issue now

New Home

I watched a documentary about plastic a few months ago, they said that they took blood samples of even the most remote populations in the world, and in 100% of the sample they found plastic matter. They also said that they also tested a high number of couples who had been having difficulties with sterility, and again, 100% of those samples contained dangerous levels of plastic matter.

Chancer3001

I always thought South America was situated directly South of North America.

But in fact 99% of South America is east of Florida

Water John

Yes a real world globe should be used as standard not the flat two dimensional maps. Have forgotten all those technical names. Time zones can also be a bit deceiving.

py2006

Chancer3001 wrote: »

I always thought South America was situated directly South of North America.

But in fact 99% of South America is east of Florida

Goes to Google Maps... :eek:

loyatemu

New Home wrote: »

I watched a documentary about plastic a few months ago, they said that they took blood samples of even the most remote populations in the world, and in 100% of the sample they found plastic matter. They also said that they also tested a high number of couples who had been having difficulties with sterility, and again, 100% of those samples contained dangerous levels of plastic matter.

if everyone in the world has plastic in their blood, then it's doesn't really prove anything that 100% of infertile couples also have plastic in their blood.

wexie

Water John wrote: »

Yes a real world globe should be used as standard not the flat two dimensional maps. Have forgotten all those technical names. Time zones can also be a bit deceiving.

That's cause timezones are a complete mess (understandably perhaps) influenced by politics, economics and convenience.

I don't know if there is such a thing but I think if you were to have a map that would actually timezones as they should be, ie. based on what time in that specific location the sun was at it's zenith, it would look entirely different from what we have today.

You can see it very clearly in this image , won't post it here cause it's large.

I think in many cases it's quite understandable (such as Ireland being GMT rather than GMT -1 or half and half)....the thing that always gets me is the half hour differences.

And what the hell Western Australia....8¾

EDIT : interestingly enough I just spotted on that image that China straddles 4 timezones and yet uses +8 for the whole country

Buford T. Justice XIX

The last enclave of the Ottaman Empire in the current EU was an island on the Danube, Ada Kaleh, which remained a possession of the Ottoman Sultan until 1923.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Kaleh

New Home

loyatemu wrote: »

if everyone in the world has plastic in their blood, then it's doesn't really prove anything that 100% of infertile couples also have plastic in their blood.

Traces of plastic and high levels of plastic in samples both mean that there's plastic in the samples, but this doesn't negate that high levels can have a much more negative effect than traces can.

BaZmO*

Apparently lots of Sea Salt that you buy now contains trace elements of plastic due to the pure volume of plastics in the ocean. Depressing thought.

donegal.

Another day that never happened, friday 30/12/2011.

In 2011 Samoa shifted the international dateline moving itself a day forward.

Moving west of the dateline put the island in the same date as its main trading partners.
"Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi maintains that this constricts Samoa's economy: "In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week," he told the government newspaper Sivali. "While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand, and when we're at church on Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane."

Neighboring American Samoa stayed on the eastern side of the dateline, resulting in a time difference of a whole day between the two territories, which are a mere 30 miles apart

Bandana boy

Chancer3001 wrote: »

I always thought South America was situated directly South of North America.

But in fact 99% of South America is east of Florida

South East !

wexie

Chancer3001 wrote: »

I always thought South America was situated directly South of North America.

But in fact 99% of South America is east of Florida

Also : despite all of today's modern technology and 30000kms of the Panamerican Highway there is still no way of driving from North to South America because of a 100 mile stretch of jungle and swamps called the Darien Gap between Columbia and Panama. And, at this stage, it's quite likely never to be possible.

Constructing a road through the Darien Gap would be extremely expensive and cause a lot of environmental damage.

Only a handful of expeditions have ever made it through in 4x4's (my personal favorite being this one )

quickbeam

wexie wrote: »

Also : despite all of today's modern technology and 30000kms of the Panamerican Highway there is still no way of driving from North to South America because of a 100 mile stretch of jungle and swamps called the Darien Gap between Columbia and Panama. And, at this stage, it's quite likely never to be possible.

Constructing a road through the Darien Gap would be extremely expensive and cause a lot of environmental damage.

Only a handful of expeditions have ever made it through in 4x4's (my personal favorite being this one )

That's really interesting. I tested on Google Maps Directions and it's true. Found this also, which shows the break in the Pan American Highway:

Greybottle

Garfield is read by over 200m people every day. He's 40.

And for his fans, here's a nice interview with his creator, Jim Davis.


https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/19/garfield-jim-davis-40-years

Professor Moriarty

wexie wrote: »

Also : despite all of today's modern technology and 30000kms of the Panamerican Highway there is still no way of driving from North to South America because of a 100 mile stretch of jungle and swamps called the Darien Gap between Columbia and Panama. And, at this stage, it's quite likely never to be possible.

Constructing a road through the Darien Gap would be extremely expensive and cause a lot of environmental damage.

Only a handful of expeditions have ever made it through in 4x4's (my personal favorite being this one )

Plus The Donald is going to build a big beautiful wall.

MikeyTaylor

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Plus The Donald is going to build a big beautiful wall.

Nothing beautiful about it. Those poor Mexicans.

Professor Moriarty

MikeyTaylor wrote: »

Nothing beautiful about it. Those poor Mexicans.

Agreed. It's a verbatim quote from The Donald.

py2006

A map created by Greek astronomer and cartographer Claudius Ptolemy, from around 140 A.D., is considered to be the oldest surviving representation of Ireland.

It also labels "Knocknadala," which in the language of the Celts meant "Hill of Parliament." Research Scientist Dr. Kieran Jordan produced notes on the 40 years of research work carried out by Fr. Tom O'Connor around the Turoe/Knocknadala area. This work suggests that the so-called ancient royal Celtic site of Tara, in County Meath, was in fact located at Turoe, in County Galway, which would be in keeping with Ptolemy's map of Ireland.