Post: #76

This video was produced by staff at Microsoft as a way of telling people in their own company what a poor job they were doing.

It is a spoof which imagines what the iPod would have looked like if Microsoft had designed it.





Originally - the legendary 'Think Different' Apple advert was to be narrated by Steve Jobs himself. But then it got changed to Richard Dreyfus (which I think works better).

Here it is with the Steve Jobs voiceover.

Post: #77

Japanese survivor of two nuclear bombs.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar...ivor-japan

Quote:It seems almost improper to suggest that fortune was smiling on Tsutomu Yamaguchi in the dying days of the second world war.

On 6 August 1945, he was in Hiroshima, preparing to return home from a business trip when the American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on the city. Yamaguchi lived, while 140,000 other people who were in the city that morning died, some in an agonising instant, others many months later.

Burned and barely able to comprehend what had happened - only that he had witnessed a bomb unlike any used before - Yamaguchi spent a fitful night in an air raid shelter before returning home the following day.

That home, 180 miles to the west, was Nagasaki. His arrival came the day before it was devastated by a second US atomic bomb on 9 August.

In a barely conceivable course of events, he had twice been perilously close to nuclear ground zero; and both times he had lived. More than 70,000 other residents of Nagasaki were not so lucky.

More than 60 years later, the 93-year-old became the first and only known survivor of both attacks yesterday to win official recognition from Japanese authorities.

Post: #78

It continues to blow my mind that America has twice used nuclear bombs in war.

I am not attacking Americans. But it is something to consider - when you think about how those rabid Islamic America haters in the Middle East. In their mind - America long ago stepped over to 'the dark side'.

I just can't imagine dropping a Nuclear Bomb on people. I think people forget how immense it is that Nuclear Weapons have already being used in war.

Twice!

Post: #79

I think it's crazy that in fact the US was the only country ever to drop two in warfare and still to this day that there haven't been any dropped in warfare ever since(even with MAD). The ones that nations that do have an arsenal today would make Little Boy and Fat Man look like nothing in comparison.

Now the justifications for doing so can be entirely different thread.

Post: #80

This guy has a North Korean passport and is probably one of the more likely Western men to be able to someday sleep with a North Korean woman and get one of the rarest flags:

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/meet-the-...orth-korea

Quote:Alejandro Cao de Benos—a 38-year-old Catalan aristocrat—is the head of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), an organization that works with North Korea's Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. He's North Korea's unofficial ambassador to the rest of the world, and the only Westerner to be awarded the position of special delegate in the country.

Post: #81

Also re: WWII nukes, I had a high school teacher tell us that the 2nd one wasn't necessary, and the U.S. actually wasn't completely committed to that path. Apparently during the negotiations over Japan's surrender, there were some misconceptions and/or wrong translations, and the U.S. felt like Japan wasn't actually backing down the way they intended to....anyone else heard this or seen any sources?

Post: #82

I heard America wanted to end the war with Japan before Russia invaded. So as to keep the spoils to themselves.

Post: #83

On the subject of the Japanese in WWII, I always thought it was interesting just how dedicated they were to their duties, to the point of carrying out missions even decades after the war ended, since some of them were isolated and unaware:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_holdout

Quote:Japanese holdouts or stragglers (Japanese: 残留日本兵 Zanryū nipponhei, "remaining Japanese soldiers") were Japanese soldiers in the Pacific Theatre who, after the August 1945 surrender of Japan ending World War II, either adamantly doubted the veracity of the formal surrender due to strong dogmatic or militaristic principles, or simply were not aware of it because communications had been cut off by the United States island hopping campaign.

They continued to fight the enemy forces, and later local police, for years after the war was over. Some Japanese holdouts volunteered in the Vietnamese Independence war and Indonesian Independence war to free Asian colonies from Western control, which had been one of Imperial Japan's alleged goals during World War II.

Intelligence officer Hiroo Onoda, who was relieved of duty by his former commanding officer on Lubang Island in the Philippines in March 1974, and Teruo Nakamura, who was stationed on Morotai Island in Indonesia and surrendered in December 1974, were the last confirmed holdouts, though rumors persisted of others.

Here's a more in depth chronological breakdown:

http://www.wanpela.com/holdouts/list.html

Post: #84

But to the Japanese - their Emperor was an actual God.

So - in a way - they were fighting a religious war.

Post: #85

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/design.htm

http://www.fas.org/nuke/index.html

Like them or not, nuclear weapons are a pinnacle of mankind achievement.

If you poke around the FAS site there is more about weapons of mass destruction that you would probably ever want to know.

Some other interesting stories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Hadwin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Douglas_Wells

Post: #86

As a Canadian I had heard about Hadwin, but this is the first I'm learning about Wells...damn, what a way to go.

Good posts from everyone so far.

Also I have a couple survival related ones, but I remembered I already created a thread for that in the past, so you can see them here, and add any ones you know:

/thread-24827.html

Post: #87

Here's a good mini-doc on a world champion freediver, really impressive control and confidence:

Post: #88

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis

Quote:The aquatic ape hypothesis (AAH) or aquatic ape theory (AAT) is a hypothesis about human evolution, which posits that the ancestors of modern humans spent a period of time adapting to a semiaquatic existence.

AAH emerged from the observation that some traits that set humans apart from other primates have parallels in aquatic mammals. It was first proposed by German pathologist Max Westenhöfer in 1942, and then independently by English marine biologist Alister Hardy in 1960.

After Hardy, the most prominent proponent was Welsh writer Elaine Morgan, who has written several books on the topic.

And more on the Euthanasia Roller Coaster:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...s-you.html

Post: #89

A few years ago, a female medical researcher reinvented the wheel--she stumbled across trapezoidal approximation for integrals--and proffered it as a new technique and named it after herself.

Here's a post that discusses it.

Pretty funny.

Post: #90

Animal hybrids....I had watched videos on Ligers before, but this feature does a good job showing just how damn tall they can be when they stand up.

Also some new entries in the form of Wolphin, Cama, etc.

Post: #91

Quote:The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever is a logic puzzle invented by American philosopher and logician George Boolos and published in The Harvard Review of Philosophy in 1996. A translation in Italian was published earlier in the newspaper La Repubblica, under the title L'indovinello più difficile del mondo. The puzzle is inspired by Raymond Smullyan.

It is stated as follows:

Three gods A, B, and C are called, in no particular order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter.

Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god.

The gods understand English, but will answer all questions in their own language, in which the words for yes and no are da and ja, in some order. You do not know which word means which.

Boolos provides the following clarifications:

It could be that some god gets asked more than one question (and hence that some god is not asked any question at all).

What the second question is, and to which god it is put, may depend on the answer to the first question. (And of course similarly for the third question.)

Whether Random speaks truly or not should be thought of as depending on the flip of a coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he speaks truly; if tails, falsely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest...uzzle_Ever

Post: #92

Quote:The Door to Hell is a natural gas field in Derweze (also spelled Darvaza, meaning "gate"), Ahal Province, Turkmenistan. The Door to Hell is noted for its natural gas fire which has been burning continuously since it was lit by Soviet petrochemical scientists in 1971, fed by the rich natural gas deposits in the area. The pungent smell of burning sulfur pervades the area for some distance.

The field is situated near the Derweze village. It is in the middle of the Karakum Desert, about 260 kilometres (160 mi) north from Ashgabat. The gas reserve found here is one of the largest in the world. The name, "Door to Hell", was given to the field by the locals, referring to the fire, boiling mud and orange flames in Derweze's large crater with a diameter of 70 metres (230 ft).[1] The hot spots range over an area with a width of 60 metres (200 ft) and to a depth of about 20 metres (66 ft).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_to_Hell

Post: #93

Why did the Soviet scientists light this reserve of natural gas on fire? Surely it would have been better to extract it? I don't see how it could ever be extinguished now.

Post: #94

(07-24-2013 02:51 AM)LeBeau Wrote:  

(07-24-2013 12:14 AM)cardguy Wrote:  If you drop a bullet to the ground from your left hand.

And - at the same time - fire a gun in your right hand.

Both bullets will hit the ground at the same time.

Not sure I understand this.

Is it because they are both released from equal distances above the ground, so that gravity takes the same amount of time?

You have to shoot the gun horizontally, but yes, this is true.

Post: #95

If you fold a 1mm thick sheet of paper 100 times, it would be measured, not in feet, not in meters, not in miles but, in light years.

Einstein was right about compound interest.

Post: #96

Quote:In Living within limits: ecology, economics, and population taboos, Garrett Hardin has a great anology for compound interest.

It goes a little something like this:

“In chapter 27 of the book of Matthew we are told that when Judas regretted betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, he brought the money to the chief priests saying, “I have sinned,” and cast down the pieces of silver as he left the temple. ...

“...[S]uppose some rambling Rothschild has persuaded the priests that they should “make their money grow” so the temple would be able to do more good at a later date? Had this happened, Matthew 27 might have been written along the following lines:

Taking counsel with certain wise men called economists, the priests converted the thirty pieces of silver into gold, which they used to open up an account in the People’s Perpetual Gold Bank of Jerusalem, saying, “Let this wealth purify itself by quietly drawing interest at 5 percent per year for two thousand years. Then let both principal and interest be withdrawn from the bank and divided among all the people then living who regret the death of Jesus.”

“...Let’s suppose that the original thirty pieces of silver were equivalent to two grams of gold, which the priests deposited in the bank. That’s about one-fourteenth the weight that could be carried in a one-ounce letter. Not much, you may say: but watch the account grow!

“Presumably those who regret the death of Jesus would include both Jews and Christians, who comprise about 20 percent of the world’s people. ... For simplicity, let’s assume that the population of the earth has fallen back to five billion by Regretters Pay Day, 2026 A.D. That would produce about one billion claimants to the account. On that wondrous day, how much would each beneficiary receive from the People’s Perpetual Gold Bank?

“At 5 percent compound interest the total sum would, in two thousand years, grow to the equivalent of 4.78 X 1042 grams of gold. How great a mass is that?

“...To pay off the beneficiaries, the Jerusalem bank would have to remove from its vaults ... 800 trillion earths made of solid gold. ... With a billion petitioners to be paid, each one should receive 800,000 solid gold earths. If advance news of the payoffs persuaded all the earth’s people suddenly to regret the death of Jesus, every man, woman and child would be entitled to only (!) 160,000 earth-masses of gold.”

http://www.seanmccambridge.com/v1/articl...d-interest

Post: #97

I have posted on Compound Interest before. It is a fascinating subject...

Here is what I wrote:

Quote:On a lighter note. Here is my favourite magazine article of the past couple of years. It is a funny and weird look at the history of Compound Interest:

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/t...p?page=all

Compound Interest is a fascinating thing. Albert Einstein once said it was 'the most powerful force in the world.'

The article is by my favourite writer - Paul Collins. He is an essayist/historian who concentrates on the interesting and overlooked aspects of history and science.

Post: #98

(08-26-2013 12:29 PM)cardguy Wrote:  I have posted on Compound Interest before. It is a fascinating subject...

Here is what I wrote:

Quote:On a lighter note. Here is my favourite magazine article of the past couple of years. It is a funny and weird look at the history of Compound Interest:

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/t...p?page=all

Compound Interest is a fascinating thing. Albert Einstein once said it was 'the most powerful force in the world.'

The article is by my favourite writer - Paul Collins. He is an essayist/historian who concentrates on the interesting and overlooked aspects of history and science.

Link not working

Post: #99

Thanks for the pointer.

Here is the link!

Best article I have read in years:

http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/essays/t...p?page=all [the link works this time]

Post: #100

i knew i will find cardguy here, with his intellectually interesting anecdotes and references.

Always informative.

good thread.