41

Just Chat! / Re: What would happen if you showed up to your workplace in a clown suit?

« on: 18/08/2023 15:55:57 »

On Take Your Daughter to Work Day a little girl walked into the office, looked around, and burst into tears.

"What's the matter, sweetie?"  said a kindly secretary

"My daddy said he worked for a bunch of clowns"

42

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Calculating the force of a falling object on concrete

« on: 15/08/2023 10:10:26 »

And you need to take into account Young's modulus of the human body and the speed of sound in soft tissue. It's more of a squish than a bang. I think you can ignore the compressibility of concrete for a first-order approximation.

Sadly,  the Transport and Road Research Laboratory, the Motor Industry Research Association and the Institute of Aviation Medicine have plenty of models and real life data.

You won't reach terminal speed from 100m but you do need to correct for drag. E _impact< mgh, depending on clothing and posture.

43

Just Chat! / Re: Radiesthesia, shape radiation, device for developing paranormal abilities

« on: 11/08/2023 18:10:29 »

What ever happened to family friendly forum? and from someone in a position of trust too. I think Alan should be banned personally, who moderates this forum?

It's an old joke but worth repeating. Psychiatrist adminstering Rorshach ink-blot tests:

What does that remind you of?
Sex
And this?
Sex
And this?
Sex.......
...I think you are obsessed with sex
Not me mate. You did the drawings.
 
I'm not ashamed to discuss nuclear power and trains with children. They need to know about these things before puberty.

44

Just Chat! / Re: Radiesthesia, shape radiation, device for developing paranormal abilities

« on: 10/08/2023 23:26:27 »

Interesting diagram. Possibly a nuclear-powered high speed train, or a reciprocating hydraulic double dildo.

I won't be investing in either as the market seems rather limited and product liability could be a problem.

45

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Did life evolve twice? Or even more?

« on: 09/08/2023 18:45:00 »

Animals are incapable of synthesising several vital chemicals from inorganic ingredients, so every animal has to eat something that has lived - either a plant (which does the primary synthesis) or another animal. Thanks to the invention of cooking, humans have a very broad spectrum of edibles but find it necessary (and aesthetically desirable) to kill most of our prey before cooking it. The only exceptions seem to be shellfish and insects, either eaten alive or killed by cooking.

We know that plants respond to all sorts of stimuli and insult, and the octopus definitely has animal intelligence but no central nervous system, so it's probably impossible to distinguish usefully between consciousness and life in general. The vegetarian argument has scientific merit in terms of maximally efficient agriculture, but it's difficult to support veganism on any rational grounds.

46

The Environment / Re: The link between global warming and world population expansion.

« on: 09/08/2023 08:57:15 »

The problem with all-renewables is that
they can only supply about 10 - 20% of the UK's current energy demand at best,
there is no incentive for any electricity producer to invest in grid storage, and
an all-electric future will also require an enormous investment in power distribution (more taxes or current charges) and
replacement of practically every industrial and domestic heating system (more capital investment to stand still, so no competitive advantage).

But reducing the population to reduce demand to a sustainable level will only require 10 - 20% of that investment.

47

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Did life evolve twice? Or even more?

« on: 07/08/2023 23:04:28 »

Anyone care to define consciousness?

48

Just Chat! / Re: How can excessive consumerism be tackled?

« on: 06/08/2023 20:26:16 »

We are an odd species. Males of almost every other species have evolved to display excessive fur, feathers or whatever, to attract a mate, and the females tend to be smooth, brown and camouflaged. But the western male human  takes pride in being almost indistinguishable from others, whether it's a business suit, dinner jacket, or sports uniform, and even tends to cut his hair to a fairly uniform length, whilst the female indulges in competitive hatwearing  and cleavage display, and complains if you take notice. Or if you don't.

It is observable that the prettiest women wear very plain clothes and very little jewellery, but why anyone needs a hundred pairs of uncomfortable and dangerous shoes is beyond comprehension. My wife was taller than average and had great problems finding walking shoes that fitted. One day when I was replacing my worn-out black office shoes I persuaded her to try on a pair of men's desert boots. She broke out in a huge grin of pleasure and said  "these are perfect  - the most comfortable  shoes I've ever put on. But I couldn't possibly wear them."

49

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Is "neurodiverse" medicalisation of human nature?

« on: 23/07/2023 10:56:04 »

I'm told that following a national census the Australian government managed to define the average Australian woman with considerable confidence, by age, income, possessions, number of children, etc., and then conducted a countrywide search for such a person for the basis of some proposed national TV campaign, but were never able to find one.

Such pointless statistics are not confined to the southern hemisphere. For purposes beyond mere human understanding  but something to do  with radiological diagnosis, the European Union defined an average patient as weighing 75 kg. This is a  large woman or a small man and therefore wholly unrepresentative, but estimating the radiation dose delivered to this mythical creature is a statutory requirement for every x-ray department, costs millions, and has absolutely no value beyond job creation.

The existence of a spectrum is obvious, but stating that an individual is "on the spectrum" is meaningless because everyone is!

50

Just Chat! / Re: Is There Any Evidence For God?

« on: 22/07/2023 16:34:35 »

Two priests came upon a fallen angel, with a broken wing. They patched him up and shipped hm to a hospital where he regained consciousness and asked what he could to to thank them.

"Just tell us something about the Face of God" they said.

"Well, she's black, and....." 

51

General Science / Re: Infinity...

« on: 21/07/2023 22:07:42 »

On reflection, you don't rotate about the y axis but take one half of the hyperbola and rotate it about one asymptote - my apologies!

52

New Theories / Re: Universal Utopia? What's The Universal Terminal Goal?

« on: 21/07/2023 13:52:41 »

What's the biggest benefit of this concept?
What are the problems it's trying to solve?
What are the fundamental assumptions?

Don't be silly - it's philosophy, not engineering!

53

New Theories / Re: New theory of social evolution and social structure

« on: 16/07/2023 16:59:38 »

Problem is that they are entangled, so if one blows, they all go. DO NOT BUY!

54

General Science / Re: 'Everyone Has An Accent But Me'...

« on: 09/07/2023 10:52:44 »

Dialects can be dangerous!

When automatic level crossings were introduced in the UK, the accompanying notice read "Do Not Cross While Lights Are Flashing". 

Problem was that "while" in Yorkshire means "until". 

55

Just Chat! / Re: Is "new theories" getting worse?

« on: 07/07/2023 17:12:48 »

Maybe change the format a bit, with a red warning instead of the green band, and a permanent emoji of a defecating bovine between two question marks?

56

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Has natural selection been nullified in humans ?

« on: 01/07/2023 16:33:15 »

No other species Knowingly creates, controls & extinguishes Fire!

Some Australian crows carry burning twigs from forest fires to start grass fires, then feast on the escaping insects and lizards. Interestingly, if a grass fire gets out of hand, the thermal breeze carries insects inwards and upwards, so there's a real feast of cooked protein at about 3000 ft.

57

Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: 01/07/2023 09:46:20 »

"Hard" sciences are those in which the experiments are repeatable (or in the case of cosmology, geology, and suchlike, observable) and the results generally consistent. Interpretation may be moot, but is justified by the accuracy of prediction.

This puts experimental psychology and cosmology into the realm of hard science, even though practitioners can offer contradictory theories to explain the same result, because one of the theories won't predict the next outcome. Quite different from economics or sociology where the inconsistent outcome is always due to "unforeseeable circumstances" and rarely better than a guess.

58

The Environment / Re: Is the jet stream the ultimate arbiter of local weather?

« on: 30/06/2023 12:20:36 »

Kind of.

Weather in these islands is dominated by the Atlantic depression - essentially a tongue of warm air with strong winds circulating anticlockwise and driven eastwards by the Gulf Stream and jet stream - opposed by the Arctic cyclone that delivers long periods of dry, cold, weak northeast to east winds, and occasional visits from the North African sirocco that dumps sand and dust over southeast England.

The progress of depressions is a fairly constant 30 knots at 5000 ft but the contest is modulated by wobbles in the jet stream and the Euopean continental pressure system.

Don't complain about the rain! Cambridge is looking a bit like a desert right now.

59

General Science / Re: Are cloth diapers better for our planet?

« on: 30/06/2023 08:19:16 »

The damage the child will do to the environment during the rest of his life is several orders of magnitude greater than the difference between putting his poo in the dustbin (disposables) or down the toilet (cloth).

The answer to all our problems (and those of every other species) is fewer children.

60

New Theories / Re: Why is the sky blue?

« on: 29/06/2023 20:29:41 »

Why is the sky blue? Because God wanted it to be. Same as everything else.