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

[skyking]

Would've preferred it turning into a robot Transformers style and dismembering godzilla but still not bad

Don't get too close to it, or leave your D8 parked while you use the restroom.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Imagine if Marvin Heemeyer had gotten his hands on one of those instead of the Komatsu d355a. Every muffler shop needs a Bagger 288 for light duties around the property.

 

[KMFJD]

Would you visit Nairobi? https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2023/11/nairobi-named-worlds-best-city-to-visit-in-2024/

Most definitely, but mainly as a gateway to other places in Kenya

 

[KMFJD]

Sheep in New Zealand outnumber the people by a factor of 6.5

It was 22-1 in the early 80's now it's down to 5-1

New Zealand’s ratio of sheep to humans at lowest point in 170 years

Farmers turning to forestry and the fall in the price of wool are being blamed for the ratio of sheep to people falling below five to one

www.theguardian.com

 

[sdifox]

If the sheep herders keep molesting the sheep instead of letting the sheep procreate, the ratio will just keep on dropping.

 

[highland145]

Don't get too close to it, or leave your D8 parked while you use the restroom.

Buff right out...

 

[IBMJunkman]

Is it some special technology that doesn't degrade with time and has close to unlimited write cycles?

As far as I know they are not reading/writing. The PC just controls the head movement. Up/down and in/out.

 

[lxskllr]

The origin of Popeye...

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary - Flotilla 8-2, District 7

Public and Members Website for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary's Flotilla 8-2, District 7

wow.uscgaux.info

 

[KMFJD]

Imagine a battery that lasts 50 years...

Chinese-developed nuclear battery has a 50-year lifespan — Betavolt BV100 built with Nickel-63 isotope and diamond semiconductor material

The design uses China’s first diamond semiconductor material.

www.tomshardware.com

(also some of the first pacemakers where powered this way)

The History of Nuclear Powered Pacemakers

 

[IronWing]

The sun is a giant fluorescent light.

 

[stargazr]

Protesters threw pumpkin soup at The Mona Lisa at The Louvre . Apparently it did not actually get on the painting.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/28/europe/soup-thrown-mona-lisa-louvre-paris-intl/index.html

 

[sdifox]

Protesters threw pumpkin soup at The Mona Lisa at The Louvre . Apparently it did not actually get on the painting.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/28/europe/soup-thrown-mona-lisa-louvre-paris-intl/index.html

Pumpkin anything is only allowed in October

 

[highland145]

Cut off their hands.

 

[lxskllr]

Cut off their hands.

That's a little extreme. I think security rushing out and beating the shit out of them with baseball bats would be sufficient to send the right message ;^)

 

[sdifox]

Most of the Uranium used in Project Manhattan came from Congo and not Canada. And this led to the messed up state of Congo.

The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb

The DR Congo’s role in creating the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was kept secret for decades, but the legacy of its involvement is still being felt today.

www.bbc.com

 

[Ajay]

The sun is a giant fluorescent light.

Do you SEE any cords attached to the sun? Anyway, yeah, plasma is plasma.

 

[Kaido]

Cows kill more humans than sharks do every year (cows are 20x deadlier than sharks)

Vending machines kill more humans than sharks do every year

Rugs kill more humans than sharks do every year

New Yorkers bite more humans than sharks do every year

 

[SteveGrabowski]

So the US dropped four 1.2 megaton nukes on Spain in 1966. Back then the US would fly nuclear bomb equipped B-52s 24/7 from the US to the Soviet borders and back again to the US so they could quickly strike the Soviet Union at a moment's notice, but this required re-fueling the B-52s midair multiple times per flight. So a KC-135 fuel tanker's boom tore the wing off one B-52 during refueling off the coast of Spain, causing all four bombs it was carrying to drop onto the beach.

Here's the crazy part: the way hydrogen bombs work is you have a plutonium core in the shape of a sphere but of a non-critical mass, eg a mass too small to create a runaway fission chain reaction. But you have a conventional bomb that sets off a spherically symmetric explosion around that plutonium core, which compresses the plutonium core to the point it now has a critical mass and you basically have the Fat Man bomb dropped over Nagasaki (around 15 kiloton if I remember right). That fission bomb in a confined area creates enough heat to raise the temperature inside high enough to make the hydrogen fuse into helium giving off the 1.2 megaton explosion.

For two of the four hydrogen bombs the first stage conventional bomb exploded upon impact with the ground. The only reason it didn't set off the fission bomb was because the explosion wasn't spherically symmetric due to the impact with the ground, and thus didn't compress the plutonium core enough to go critical (eg to where a runaway fission chain reaction was inevitable). So if those bombs had a little more plutonium in them we might have had two groundburst 1.2 megaton explosions in Spain, and a 1.2 megaton groundburst creates enormous fallout due to kicking up a lot of dirt into the air that catches radioactive fission products floating in the air after the explosion and drags them back down to ground level as these heavy dirt particles fall to the ground.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Cows kill more humans than sharks do every year (cows are 20x deadlier than sharks)

I can attest to that. Been near a buffalo several times. Held its horns in my hands and moved its head around, enjoying the resistance it offers and the look saying, "Go away, dumb human. Lemme ruminate!". But cow? Hell no. For some reason, cows detect me as a malicious entity. The moment they see me, they go into full offensive mode. Never been able to touch a cow unattended by its caretaker. Never want to. It's not docile like a buffalo. Dangerous, dangerous STRONG animal. And a bull is something I never want to see in real life. No thank you.

By the way, knew this guy once (he probably married my aunt but I'm not sure. Haven't seen her in years) who had a huge bump on his forehead. He was attacked by his own cow who got spooked or something and butted its head directly into his forehead. He looked like someone from an episode of Star Trek.

 

[IronWing]

Eskimo–Aleut languages use a base 20 numbering system. Translating to decimals is a pain in the ass so middle school students in Kaktovik, Alaska created written base 20 numerals to work mathematical problems in their native language. It works. They even developed a working abacus using their system.

Kaktovik numerals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[sdifox]

Eskimo–Aleut languages use a base 20 numbering system. Translating to decimals is a pain in the ass so middle school students in Kaktovik, Alaska created written base 20 numerals to work mathematical problems in their native language. It works. They even developed a working abacus using their system.

Kaktovik numerals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So them French?

 

[Kaido]

So the US dropped four 1.2 megaton nukes on Spain in 1966. Back then the US would fly nuclear bomb equipped B-52s 24/7 from the US to the Soviet borders and back again to the US so they could quickly strike the Soviet Union at a moment's notice, but this required re-fueling the B-52s midair multiple times per flight. So a KC-135 fuel tanker's boom tore the wing off one B-52 during refueling off the coast of Spain, causing all four bombs it was carrying to drop onto the beach.

Here's the crazy part: the way hydrogen bombs work is you have a plutonium core in the shape of a sphere but of a non-critical mass, eg a mass too small to create a runaway fission chain reaction. But you have a conventional bomb that sets off a spherically symmetric explosion around that plutonium core, which compresses the plutonium core to the point it now has a critical mass and you basically have the Fat Man bomb dropped over Nagasaki (around 15 kiloton if I remember right). That fission bomb in a confined area creates enough heat to raise the temperature inside high enough to make the hydrogen fuse into helium giving off the 1.2 megaton explosion.

For two of the four hydrogen bombs the first stage conventional bomb exploded upon impact with the ground. The only reason it didn't set off the fission bomb was because the explosion wasn't spherically symmetric due to the impact with the ground, and thus didn't compress the plutonium core enough to go critical (eg to where a runaway fission chain reaction was inevitable). So if those bombs had a little more plutonium in them we might have had two groundburst 1.2 megaton explosions in Spain, and a 1.2 megaton groundburst creates enormous fallout due to kicking up a lot of dirt into the air that catches radioactive fission products floating in the air after the explosion and drags them back down to ground level as these heavy dirt particles fall to the ground.

 

[Charmonium]

The US is producing more oil than any country ever has.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/19/business/us-production-oil-reserves-crude/index.html

As the world grapples with the existential crisis of climate change, environmental activists want President Joe Biden to phase out the oil industry, and Republicans argue he’s already doing that. Meanwhile, the surprising reality is the United States is pumping oil at a blistering pace and is on track to produce more oil than any country has in history.

 

[IronWing]

View attachment 92863

 

[Kaido]

There are microplastics in our clouds now:

Not so silver lining: Microplastics found in clouds could affect the weather - American Chemical Society

Researchers in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters detected microplastics in clouds above the mountains, which could affect cloud formation and weather.

www.acs.org