I bet you didnt know that

Realt Dearg Sec

LordSutch wrote: »

.. That some people still think the earth is flat.

I love in a small town north of Dallas, and there's a guy who drives around in a car covered in messages like "the earth is flat", "research it" (seriously), "search YouTube for 200 reasons the earth is flat". He actually has two such cars, one is a truck that has a leveling tool on the back. His house, too, is covered with these messages about the water table and so on and so on. There was an article about him in the local news:
http://ntdaily.com/home-adorned-with-cryptic-messages-under-citys-scrutiny/

He seems to believe not just that the earth is flat but that it goes on in all directions infinitely.

So now you know. Science.

Realt Dearg Sec

Incidentally is a common misunderstanding that people used to think the earth was flat until Columbus proved them wrong. For thousands of years it's been well understood that the earth is round. Columbus and his backers had believed the earth was a lot smaller than it is but even that was a calculation that had been previously made with a fair degree of accuracy. Nobody really thought he might sail over the edge of the earth, even though we were taught in junior cert history that this was a widely held belief.

Apparently the flat earth society itself was originally set up as a joke. Nowadays it is quite serious about its goal. EDIT this last but is apparently not true, disregard.

ScrubsfanChris

If you go to the Flat Earth Society wiki, the first FAQ is "Is this a joke?"

Thargor

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

Of the air we breath roughly 78% of it is Nitrogen 20% oxygen 1% argon 1-3% water vapour and 0.04% carbon dioxide the rest is a mixture of all sorts of gases. The lungs and brain only use about 4% of oxygen that is inhaled. This is why giving mouth to mouth works when a person stops breathing.

Thats something I always wondered about ever since Baywatch days but never bothered looking up, thanks. Btw the advice these days is just to do CPR and forget about mouth to mouth.

b318isp

Thargor wrote: »

Thats something I always wondered about ever since Baywatch days but never bothered looking up, thanks. Btw the advice these days is just to do CPR and forget about mouth to mouth.

That's only if untrained. It's 30 compressions and 2 breaths for CPR trained.

Realt Dearg Sec

b318isp wrote: »

That's only if untrained. It's 30 compressions and 2 breaths for CPR trained.

As someone who is untrained, is it true that when performing CPR you should be pressing down very hard on their chest, like seriously working hard, rather than just lightly pumping as it looks on TV? And also that it should be roughly to the rhythm of the chorus of "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees?

ScrubsfanChris

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

As someone who is untrained, is it true that when performing CPR you should be pressing down very hard on their chest, like seriously working hard, rather than just lightly pumping as it looks on TV? And also that it should be roughly to the rhythm of the chorus of "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees?

Actors receiving the CPR wear a steel sheet under their clothes so it can look more realistic without causing damage.
Performing CPR on someone who's heart is in perfect rhythm can cause serious damage apparently. Open to correction on that though, only have basic First aid myself.

Conchir

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

As someone who is untrained, is it true that when performing CPR you should be pressing down very hard on their chest, like seriously working hard, rather than just lightly pumping as it looks on TV? And also that it should be roughly to the rhythm of the chorus of "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees?

It's difficult to define "very hard" in this sense, but yes if you're performing CPR properly it will get tiring after a few minutes due to the effort you'll be putting in. If you're not pressing down hard enough you won't be compressing the patient's chest and won't really be doing much.

Ipso

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

Incidentally is a common misunderstanding that people used to think the earth was flat until Columbus proved them wrong. For thousands of years it's been well understood that the earth is round. Columbus and his backers had believed the earth was a lot smaller than it is but even that was a calculation that had been previously made with a fair degree of accuracy. Nobody really thought he might sail over the edge of the earth, even though we were taught in junior cert history that this was a widely held belief.

Apparently the flat earth society itself was originally set up as a joke. Nowadays it is quite serious about its goal. EDIT this last but is apparently not true, disregard.

Did you know that the earth is not round?

It is spherical

cdeb

Actually, it's ellipsoidal.

It's slightly flattened at each pole.

Ipso

cdeb wrote: »

Actually, it's ellipsoidal.

It's slightly flattened at each pole.

Thanks for raining on my pedantry!

BBDBB

I was told in school that its an oblate spheroid, i.e. a ball thats slightly flattened on top and bottom

begbysback

Darkness doesn't actually exist, it is merely an absence of light

Ipso

On a related theme, I always found the story of how Eratosthenes estimated the earth's circumference very interesting. Who would hjave thought theorems and the like would have real world applications.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-greek-eratosthenes-calculated-earth-circumference-2016-6

cdeb

BBDBB wrote: »

I was told in school that its an oblate spheroid, i.e. a ball thats slightly flattened on top and bottom

An oblate spheroid is a type of ellipsoid.

So we're both right. Except maybe you're more right. And Ipso is wrong.

Yourself isit

cdeb wrote: »

An oblate spheroid is a type of ellipsoid.

So we're both right. Except maybe you're more right. And Ipso is wrong.

To rain even more on his parade, a sphere is in fact round.

BBDBB

cdeb wrote: »

An oblate spheroid is a type of ellipsoid.

So we're both right. Except maybe you're more right. And Ipso is wrong.

good, lets sneer derisively in his direction

pickarooney

cdeb wrote: »

Actually, it's ellipsoidal.

It's slightly flattened at each pole.

It's a geoid!

iLikeWaffles

cdeb wrote: »

Actually, it's ellipsoidal.

It's slightly flattened at each pole.

Due to tidal forces between the moon and earth!


On the other thing. Most, if not all, of the pictures taken that seem to have proof that the earth is flat are taken with a GoPro which has corrective software to counteract the effect of the fish eye lens. This correction can be manipulated to a degree that makes a circle look like a straight line so it evens out the natural curvature of the earth at the same time.

CeilingFly

Honey is the only foodstuff that never goes off - despite this, some jars have a best before date!

BBDBB

sour cream has a sell by date, whats that all about?

whats gonna happen?

368100

BBDBB wrote: »

sour cream has a sell by date, whats that all about?

whats gonna happen?

Mold.

AndrewJRenko

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

I love in a small town north of Dallas, and there's a guy who drives around in a car covered in messages like "the earth is flat", "research it" (seriously), "search YouTube for 200 reasons the earth is flat". He actually has two such cars, one is a truck that has a leveling tool on the back. His house, too, is covered with these messages about the water table and so on and so on. There was an article about him in the local news:
http://ntdaily.com/home-adorned-with-cryptic-messages-under-citys-scrutiny/

He seems to believe not just that the earth is flat but that it goes on in all directions infinitely.

So now you know. Science.

He's not the only one.

http://www.ladbible.com/now/weird-conspiracy-theorist-botches-experiment-to-prove-earth-is-flat-20170520

New Home

CeilingFly wrote: »

Honey is the only foodstuff that never goes off - despite this, some jars have a best before date!

Technically, it can - depending on its water content and other factors, if may go 'rancid'.

Salt, on the other hand... (and probably sugar, too, but I'm not 100% sure).

Realt Dearg Sec

Yourself isit wrote: »

cdeb wrote: »

An oblate spheroid is a type of ellipsoid.

So we're both right. Except maybe you're more right. And Ipso is wrong.

To rain even more on his parade, a sphere is in fact round.

I was going to ask, what is the distinction between something being round and being a sphere? Is a sphere not round?

Capt'n Midnight

cdeb wrote: »

Actually, it's ellipsoidal.

It's slightly flattened at each pole.

cba looking it up but

IIRC it's pearoid, ie. one hemisphere is slightly bigger than the other

stimpson

New Home wrote: »

Technically, it can - depending on its water content and other factors, if may go 'rancid'.

Salt, on the other hand... (and probably sugar, too, but I'm not 100% sure).

Honey has practically zero water content, but is hydroscopic and will absorb water from the environment. If it's kept in an sealed jar then it won't spoil. Apparently millennia old jars of honey have been found in Egyptian tombs that were still perfectly edible.

Apart from the water content it's highly acidic and contains small amounts of hydrogen peroxide which all play a part in it not being a nice place for bacteria.

I remember our old dog had a flesh eating bug and had a big hole in his leg. You could see the bone and all. The vet told us to change the dressing daily and to put honey on the dressing. Within a few weeks it had healed. Mad thing to see.

cdeb

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

cba looking it up but

IIRC it's pearoid, ie. one hemisphere is slightly bigger than the other

Google doesn't recognise "pearoid" as a word at all, though it reminds me of Christopher Columbus' diaries travelling to the new world in 1492. Columbus was a bit mad - he didn't believe the earth was flat, but he does at one stage in his diaries expand on his theory that the southern hemisphere is in the shape of a woman’s breast with the seas rising up like a nipple.

GritBiscuit

From O's to Y's...

Geneticists found a Y-chromosomal lineage in 16 populations throughout a large region of Asia, stretching from the Pacific to the Caspian Sea. As Y chromosomes are only passed from father to son, that would mean that the Y is a record of one’s patrilineage. It was present in 8% of the men of that region and so makes up roughly 0.5% of men in the world (around 16 million). The pattern of variation within the lineage suggested that it originated in Mongolia approx 1,000 years ago. The geneticists don't think such a rapid spread would have occurred by chance, rather social selection and that this lineage is carried by likely male-line descendants of Genghis Khan...giving odds of modern men of 1 in 200 of being one of those descendants.

This is a phenomenon known as "super Y-lineages"...others include the Manchu lineage of North China and Mongolia and the Uí Néill lineage - of [Gaelic] Ireland.

Ipso

GritBiscuit wrote: »

From O's to Y's...

Geneticists found a Y-chromosomal lineage in 16 populations throughout a large region of Asia, stretching from the Pacific to the Caspian Sea. As Y chromosomes are only passed from father to son, that would mean that the Y is a record of one’s patrilineage. It was present in 8% of the men of that region and so makes up roughly 0.5% of men in the world (around 16 million). The pattern of variation within the lineage suggested that it originated in Mongolia approx 1,000 years ago. The geneticists don't think such a rapid spread would have occurred by chance, rather social selection and that this lineage is carried by likely male-line descendants of Genghis Khan...giving odds of modern men of 1 in 200 of being one of those descendants.

This is a phenomenon known as "super Y-lineages"...others include the Manchu lineage of North China and Mongolia and the Uí Néill lineage - of [Gaelic] Ireland.

Apparently it may have happened by chance. Although in Ireland the randy gaelic chieftans probably caused it.
http://forwhattheywereweare.blogspot.com/2015/07/zipfs-law-against-genghis-khan.html