The Science Thread!

[Wneglia]

Some Quarks are Strange, others are Charmed

[Wneglia]

Weird Stuff

He Bee Crazy

Bioengineered Vaginas

[Wneglia]

Seems counter intuitive:

The sum of all integers until infinity is -1/12

[bannination]

The history of the future of the universe.

[JTA]

The history of the future of the universe.

Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of "world history," but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die. One might invent such a fable, and yet he still would not have adequately illustrated how miserable, how shadowy and transient, how aimless and arbitrary the human intellect looks within nature. There were eternities during which it did not exist.

Sobering.

[rstrong]

Skydiver nearly gets hit by a meteorite (article)

Incredible forensic work by NASA physicist conclusively debunks Norwegian skydiver 'meteorite' video.

[neoplacebo]

Yeah, I thought that video was bogus right off the bat. I've managed to dodge half a dozen meteor fragments over the years, and in every case the damn things were glowing hot and hit the ground at supersonic speed just inches from my feet in some cases. This one was not glowing and would in fact be just about impossible to photograph in its descent. I figure what they saw was a bag of heroin tossed from another airplane going the opposite way that their plane was going, thus doubling the falling object's perceived speed. Dumbasses.

[bannination]

North America superimposed on Jupiter. We're so crazily insignificant.

[rstrong]

I dunno. I've owned more valuable real estate than exists on all of Jupiter.

[neoplacebo]

A week or so ago on the History Channel I saw a scene of Donald Rumsfeld looking full face straight into the camera and saying "All generalizations are false; including this one." Then he smiles and says "There it is." And there's no further explanation for this as if it's a clip from some misguided effort to portray him as smart or human.....anybody else see this?

[neoplacebo]

Oh, I forgot to mention that lately I've been playing around with baking soda and vinegar. It's fascinating; makes me feel like a kid again.

[Boatrocker]

A week or so ago on the History Channel I saw a scene of Donald Rumsfeld looking full face straight into the camera and saying "All generalizations are false; including this one." Then he smiles and says "There it is." And there's no further explanation for this as if it's a clip from some misguided effort to portray him as smart or human.....anybody else see this?

Didn't see that, but it's a quote attributed to Mark Twain.

[neoplacebo]

A week or so ago on the History Channel I saw a scene of Donald Rumsfeld looking full face straight into the camera and saying "All generalizations are false; including this one." Then he smiles and says "There it is." And there's no further explanation for this as if it's a clip from some misguided effort to portray him as smart or human.....anybody else see this?

Didn't see that, but it's a quote attributed to Mark Twain.

Ok, thanks. I just thought it was a weird sort of thing. Rumsfeld, totally discounted as a stupid and vain sort of guy talking about generalizations; something he should by now know about. His generalizations and assumptions relative to our military operations over the past decade speak for themselves. As he would say, smiling, "There it is."

[Wneglia]

5 Brain Myths That Won't Go Away

...Myth: Alcohol kills brain cells...

Oh, I forgot to mention that lately I've been playing around with baking soda and vinegar. It's fascinating; makes me feel like a kid again.

I'd recommend booze, instead, now that we know it doesn't kill brain cells.

Buffalo Theory
CHEERS!

[JTA]

Christian group to schools: Stop filling kids' heads with dinosaurs
Technically Incorrect: Insisting that dinosaurs are a 19th century invention and caused one child to become 'bestially-minded,' Christians Against Dinosaurs posts its displeasure on a popular parenting site. But surely this is satire.

Vaccines couldn't save the dinosaurs, which never existed anyway. Dinosaurs + Vaccines = NWO/Illuminati conspiracy to turn our children into autistic bestiality addicts.

[JTA]

Christian group to schools: Stop filling kids' heads with dinosaurs
Technically Incorrect: Insisting that dinosaurs are a 19th century invention and caused one child to become 'bestially-minded,' Christians Against Dinosaurs posts its displeasure on a popular parenting site. But surely this is satire.

Vaccines couldn't save the dinosaurs, which never existed anyway. Dinosaurs + Vaccines = NWO/Illuminati conspiracy to turn our children into autistic bestiality addicts.

I hate to break your heart, but I think this Christians Against Dinosaurs thing is a troll.

[JTA]

That possibility is advanced in the sub-headline and several times throughout the article. The author does not state a conclusion. Since some Christians are that goofy and those satirizing them are that clever, I won't offer a conclusion, either.

Apparently, the CAD head, Kristen Auclair, is a real insurance executive. I can't even decide whether being a wingnutty Christian or someone mocking wingnutty Christians is a bigger threat to one's career. Either way, she's no wimp.

What if her hoax keeps growing, and like the anti-vaccine movement, real Christians start nodding their heads in approval and begin opting their children out of dinosaur class. Will we eventually reach a point where dinoclasts are smashing dinosaur fossils in museums?

[Mr.B]

This video, in reality, explains how Lowes and Home Depot has stayed in business so long. Paleontologists have been buying spackling compound by the train loads in order to build all dinosaur displays in America's museums. I have no clue who they buy it from in other countries.

I agree with JTA...this video is a troll....

[neoplacebo]

I recommend everyone read this story I saw from a site named io9. The title of the article is "How mice turned their private paradise into a terrifying dystopia." I'm not computer savvy enough to snag it and put it on here......but it talks about an experiment called Universe 25 from back in 1972 in which this guy built a really nice mice environment, kept it stocked with food....mice had everything they could need. He started with 8 mice and by day 560 there were 2,200 mice. And though this would seem to be a thriving and successful environment, the article explains how the mice town reached its peak population "....and then steadily declined down to unrecoverable extinction." The behavior of the mice and the way their mice society became stratified led to a "fair distribution" problem. The whole thing reminded me of lots of parallels between mice town and our own society. Check it out.

[neoplacebo]

I saw that.

How Mice Turned Their Private Paradise Into A Terrifying Dystopia

Yeah, that's it. Fascinating. How the hell do you put something from another place in a forum post anyway? I've never had to use a computer for anything other than work and email and the forum.....I figure it's probably easy to do; I just don't know how to do it.