Stuff you didn't know and probably don't care about

[Charmonium]

Meet the new species named after Chewbacca

FUR BALL Trigonopterus chewbacca may not be as tall as its namesake, but the new weevil species is plenty hairy.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-species-hairy-weevil-named-after-chewbacca

 

[Charmonium]

We are now using muons from cosmic rays to "x-ray" the pyramids. This is way, way cool.

https://vimeo.com/143189512

http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-it-looks-like-inside-a-pyramid-2016-5

 

[Charmonium]

The importance of snot . . . (for dolphins)

Dolphins emit a series of quick, high-frequency sounds — probably by forcing air over tissues in the nasal passage — to find and track potential prey. “It’s kind of like making a raspberry,” says Aaron Thode of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. Thode and colleagues tweaked a human speech modeling technique to reproduce dolphin sounds and discern the intricacies of their unique style of sound production. He presented the results on May 24 in Salt Lake City at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/science-ticker/snot-could-be-crucial-dolphin-echolocation

 

[John Connor]

Although better known for her Silver Screen exploits, Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) also became a pioneer in the field of wireless communications following her emigration to the United States. The international beauty icon, along with co-inventor George Anthiel, developed a "Secret Communications System" to help combat the Nazis in World War II. By manipulating radio frequencies at irregular intervals between transmission and reception, the invention formed an unbreakable code to prevent classified messages from being intercepted by enemy personnel.

http://www.women-inventors.com/Hedy-Lammar.asp

 

[John Connor]

Six people you didn't know that were spies. One of them being non other than Julia Child.

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-people-you-didnt-know-were-wwii-spies

 

[Charmonium]

Let’s consider the unit of Planck length for a moment. The proton is about 100 million trillion times larger than the Planck length. To put this into perspective, if we scaled the proton up to the size of the observable universe, the Planck length would be a mere trip from Tokyo to Chicago. The 14-hour flight may seem long to you, but to the universe, it would go completely unnoticed.

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-planck-scale

 

[CZroe]

Six people you didn't know that were spies. One of them being non other than Julia Child.

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/6-people-you-didnt-know-were-wwii-spies

My take-away is that Shark Repellant was already a real thing by the time Adam West so-conveniently used it as Batma. I recall a much more recent effort to succeed where they ended up isolating and using exactly what they needed from decaying sharks to repel live sharks (natural reaction), which made me think earlier attempts were failed.

 

[Charmonium]

Schrodinger's cat - Now with more cat in more boxes!

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/schr%C3%B6dinger%E2%80%99s-cat-now-dead-and-alive-two-boxes-once

In a real laboratory version of the experiment, microwaves inside a superconducting aluminum cavity take the place of the cat. Inside the specially designed cavity, the microwaves’ electric fields can be pointing in two opposing directions at the same time — just as Schrödinger’s cat can be simultaneously alive and dead. These states are known as “cat states.” Now, physicists have created such cat states in two linked cavities, thereby splitting the cat into two “boxes” at once.

Though the idea of one cat in two boxes is “kind of whimsical,” says Chen Wang of Yale University, a coauthor of the paper, it’s not that far off from the real-world situation. The cat state “is shared in two boxes because it’s a global quantum state.” In other words, the cat is not only in one box or the other, but stretches out to occupy both.

Because the states of the two boxes are linked — or in quantum parlance, entangled — if the cat turns out to be alive in one box, it’s also alive in the other (SN: 10/20/2010, p. 22)

 

[Charmonium]

This you might actually care about. Various types and weights of Gold Medal Flour are being recalled because of E. Coli O121 contamination. This is a strain that produces shinga toxin. Story and recalled item list here - http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm504192.htm

 

[CZroe]

This you might actually care about. Various types and weights of Gold Medal Flour are being recalled because of E. Coli O121 contamination. This is a strain that produces shinga toxin. Story and recalled item list here - http://www.fda.gov/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencies/Outbreaks/ucm504192.htm

Not sure why we need to be so specific about the strain. The safe E.Coli is everywhere and on everything. The kind that gets stuff recalled has always been a toxin-producing strain.

 

[Charmonium]

Which land locked country has a Navy?

Spoiler

Bolivia

http://www.wisegeek.com/do-any-landlocked-countries-have-navies.htm

 

[Charmonium]

There are naturally occurring nuclear reactors.

http://www.wisegeek.com/is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-natural-nuclear-reactor.htm

In 1972, scientists found evidence that nuclear fission had occurred naturally on Earth nearly 2 billion years ago. This natural nuclear fission reactor, in which a uranium deposit and ideal geological conditions triggered self-sustaining chain reactions, was discovered in the African nation of Gabon by French physicist Francis Perrin. The Gabon reactor is the only one of its kind to have been discovered anywhere on Earth. It consists of 16 sites where natural nuclear fission reactions took place, each lasting for a few hundred thousand years.
More about ancient power plants:

• The energy produced by these natural nuclear reactors was modest. The average output was about 100 kilowatts, which would power about 1,000 light bulbs today. A typical nuclear power plant produces about 1,000 megawatts, enough to power about 10 million light bulbs.
• The radioactive byproducts of the fission reactions in Gabon have been safely contained for almost 2 billion years, providing evidence that long-term geological storage of nuclear waste is feasible.
• The possibility that natural nuclear reactors may have occurred on prehistoric Earth was hypothesized by scientists in the 1950s, two decades before evidence of their existence was found in Gabon.

 

[Charmonium]

Thomas Edison created a device to try to talk to the dead - the necrophone.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-2981080/Thomas-Edisons-lost-idea-device-hear-dead.html

One of Thomas Edison's little-known ambitions was to build a device to hear the voices of the dead, according to a nearly lost chapter of the inventor's memoirs which is being republished in France this week.


The American, who developed the phonograph and is often cited, inaccurately, as being the first to come up with the light bulb, wanted to create a sort of "spirit phone" that recorded the utterances of departed souls.


Edison (1847-1931) detailed his efforts and they were published posthumously in 1948 as the final chapter of his "Diary and Sundry Observations".

I found this out from watching a new tv show - Houdini and Doyle on Fox. Not great but has some thin basis in reality and is entertaining.

 

[Thebobo]

My Middle name is

Spoiler

Gaylord

 

[KMFJD]

Dildo Run provincial park is located right next to Virgin's Arm Newfoundland

 

[Charmonium]

Dildo Run provincial park is located right next to Virgin's Arm Newfoundland

I would have sworn you were making that up until I googled it.

 

[Thebobo]

 

[Thebobo]

Dildo Run provincial park is located right next to Virgin's Arm Newfoundland

I cant believe after half a century I finally learned of this. Can you imagine the power of this information if you were like 13.

 

[Charmonium]

Completely forgot about this thread. But this worth resurrecting. A virus that comes in 5 separate pieces. It doesn't infect humans, only skeeters and a skeeter has to get 4 of the 5 pieces before it's infected. It's as if Frankenstein's parts could roam around by themselves and then self assemble after they got to the village.

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...1766/new-virus-breaks-the-rules-of-infection?

Human viruses are like a fine chocolate truffle: It takes only one to get the full experience.

At least, that's what scientists thought a few days ago. Now a new study published Thursday is making researchers rethink how some viruses could infect animals.

A team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases has found a mosquito virus that's broken up into pieces. And the mosquito needs to catch several of the pieces to get an infection.

"It's the most bizarre thing," says Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney, who wasn't involved in the study. It's like the virus is dismembered, he says.

"If you compare it to the human body, it's like a person would have their legs, trunk and arms all in different places," Holmes says. "Then all the pieces come together in some way to work as one single virus. I don't think anything else in nature moves this way."

 

[renz20003]

My cats breath smells like cat food.

 

[Ichinisan]

Regular beer is safe?

 

[Charmonium]

Tattoos make your immune system stronger.

http://www.wisegeek.com/will-getting-a-tattoo-hurt-my-immune-system.htm

A 2016 study published in the American Journal of Human Biology indicates that getting several tattoos over time can make your immune system stronger. This does not mean, however, that getting a tattoo will immediately improve your overall health and reduce the likelihood of getting the flu this year. The study does indicate that someone who has had several tattoos experiences less suppression of the immune system than an individual getting tattooed for the first time. In this way, the body of the tattoo "veteran" toughens up, similar to the way in which exercise strengthens muscles.

When someone receives a tattoo for the first time, his or her immune system is strained due to the increase in the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol result in immunosuppression, making the immune system less able to protect against infections. However, this reaction lessens each time a person receives an additional tattoo. There is less immunosuppression and the immune system remains better able to fight infections.

Although the American Journal of Human Biology study may provide a greater incentive for tattoo lovers to indulge in their hobby, critics argue that this study is not definitive. They point to one potential flaw in the study design -- the fact that the researchers did not consider whether the study participants had strong immune systems in the first place.

 

[John Connor]

Ah, I don't know if that is true. Like the study claims there needs to be more definitive research, but is interesting non the less. If it is true, why I'll get a tat on both ass cheeks that reads something like, "come get me flu!" LOL

I don't care for tats myself. And they look ugly on woman. Also, it really screws up with your ability to get an MRI, of which I have had.

 

[KMFJD]

 

[KMFJD]

Prince Rupert Drop very interesting phenomenon