I Didn't Know That

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:18 am

Alaska lakes are full of ice grenades.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... -lake.html
There's a video at the end of the article and pictures.

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:15 am

That's a scary article, Beyond. But fascinating.

Ann

Sam · Post by **Sam** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:58 am

0
...these things existed (this could be posted in multiple threads):

1. Quasicrystals

2. Fibonacci word (note palindromic properties)

3. this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDShfQ72blI which I wholeheartedly endorse (hello Mandelbrot)

(Related story: http://theconversation.com/to-the-ends- ... stals-4888)

But all of this started with this blog post:

http://mainisusuallyafunction.blogspot. ... plane.html

: Click to view full size image

The longer you look at it the longer you want to look at it, I think.

--

Sam

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:48 pm

Looks nice, Sam, but it's all beyond me.

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:32 pm

Fantastic and beautiful.

Ann

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 6:58 pm

The U.S. Navy now has a ship mounted laser cannon.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04 ... re-system/

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:31 am

Possibly the biggest wasp nest ever discovered. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... sland.html

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 4:41 am

Beyond wrote:Possibly the biggest wasp nest ever discovered. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... sland.html

OHHH MYYYY!!!!

Ann

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 4:18 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Beyond wrote:
Alaska lakes are full of ice grenades.

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 4:51 pm

I learned today that the purple color of hyacinths comes off -- they leak color when wet! I had some that had flopped over (possibly due to a cat lying on them at some recent point), so cut them to bring them in. As I shook rainwater from them, I noticed that the drops landing on the counter were purple.

HA! I should check the white belly of the small, daffodil-and-perhaps-hyacinth-flattening cat to see if it's spotted with purple! (If only that didn't immediately engage all of his pointed ends....)

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 6:39 pm

Owlice, your cats 'pointed' ends should be no problem for you, as you have your own 'pointed' ends.

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 12:02 pm

Beyond, the little cat has more pointy ends than I do, and uses them much more aggressively, too!

Beyond · Post by **Beyond** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:28 am

America's Air Is Getting Cleaner.
http://www.money.cnn.com/2013/04/24/rea ... ?hpt=hp_t3

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:19 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Jacinto wrote:
<<The Battle of San Jacinto (Spanish for St. Hyacinth), fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes. About 630 of the Mexican soldiers were killed and 730 captured, while only 9 Texans died. Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, was captured the following day and held as a prisoner of war. Three weeks later, he signed the peace treaty that dictated that the Mexican army leave the region, paving the way for the Republic of Texas to become an independent country. Sam Houston became a national celebrity, and the Texans' rallying cry, "Remember the Alamo!" became etched into Texas history and legend.>>

: [b][color=#4F00FF]The Death of Hyacinth by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo[/color][/b]

owlice wrote:
I learned today that the purple color of hyacinths comes off -- they leak color when wet! I had some that had flopped over (possibly due to a cat lying on them at some recent point), so cut them to bring them in. As I shook rainwater from them, I noticed that the drops landing on the counter were purple.

Good Grief

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinth_%28mythology%29 wrote:
<<Hyacinth or Hyacinthus (in Greek, Ὑάκινθος, Hyakinthos) was a beautiful youth and lover of the god Apollo, though he was also admired by West Wind, Zephyr. Apollo and Hyacinth took turns throwing the discus. Hyacinth ran to catch it to impress Apollo, was struck by the discus as it fell to the ground, and died. When he died, Apollo didn't allow Hades to claim the youth; rather, he made a flower, the hyacinth, from his spilled blood. According to Ovid's account, the tears of Apollo stained the newly formed flower's petals with the sign of his grief.

Apollo et Hyacinthus is an opera, K. 38, written in 1767 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at age 11. It is Mozart's first true opera. The librettist and priest, Rufinus Widl, modified Ovid's story to make it conform to the ethic, by changing the sexually desired character from Ovid's Hyacinth to Melia, his sister.>>

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 11:16 am

neufer wrote:Good Grief

They smelled good while they lasted, which wasn't long; they don't do very well as cut flowers. Better is the brilliantly orange-and-yellow tulip I cut a few days ago; worse are the roses I got at Costco, 1/3 of which lost their petals upon unwrapping them. Essentially, I bought stems!

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 11:45 am

: [b][color=#0000FF]Contortionist, ca. 1880.[/color][/b]

owlice wrote:
They smelled good while they lasted, which wasn't long; they don't do very well as cut flowers. Better is the brilliantly orange-and-yellow tulip I cut a few days ago; worse are the roses I got at Costco, 1/3 of which lost their petals upon unwrapping them. Essentially, I bought stems!

I have a friend who's an contortionist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a stem and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an contortionist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is ... I can appreciate the beauty of a stem. At the same time, I see much more about the stem than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one millimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the branchings of xylem in the stem evolved in accordance with Murray's law is interesting. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in Murray? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a stem. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:01 pm

There's a fairly large segment of people out there who are repulsed by thought. I have been told personally a few times, "You think too much." Maybe it's not the intricacies which annoy them but the verbosity of my musings which turns a simple thing into an ugly and complex thing.

owlice · Post by **owlice** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:13 pm

neufer wrote:Then he says "I as an contortionist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty.

As well you should! What does his being a contortionist have to do with whether he has an aesthetic sense of the beauty of the stem? His body isn't the only thing he contorts.

neufer wrote:All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a stem. It only adds.

Indeed!

rstevenson · Post by **rstevenson** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 12:59 pm

neufer wrote:... I have a friend who's an contortionist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree with very well. He'll hold up a stem and say "look how beautiful it is," and I'll agree. Then he says "I as an contortionist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing," and I think that he's kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is ... I can appreciate the beauty of a stem. At the same time, I see much more about the stem than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it's not just beauty at this dimension, at one millimeter; there's also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes. The fact that the branchings of xylem in the stem evolved in accordance with Murray's law is interesting. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in Murray? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a stem. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.

That sounds a lot like Richard Feynman's musings, except that he referred to an artist rather than a contortionist. ("Nutty" is the giveaway. It's a word few people use, at least in public, but Feynman used it fairly often.)

Rob

neufer · Post by **neufer** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 1:23 pm

geckzilla wrote:
There's a fairly large segment of people out there who are repulsed by thought. I have been told personally a few times, "You think too much." Maybe it's not the intricacies which annoy them but the verbosity of my musings which turns a simple thing into an ugly and complex thing.

Perhaps you should try being verfermi rather than verbose (or, at least, a little verklempt).

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:02 pm

That would make me more verneuendorffer for sure.

TNT · Post by **TNT** » Fri Apr 26, 2013 1:15 am

West Virginia is the saddest state in America. How happy - or sad - is your state?
http://www.weather.com/health/happiest- ... e-20130301

Ann · Post by **Ann** » Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:27 am

TNT wrote:West Virginia is the saddest state in America. How happy - or sad - is your state?
http://www.weather.com/health/happiest- ... e-20130301

Quite interesting. As a non-American, I have to wonder about the rankings and what makes U.S. states happy or sad. I can easily imagine Hawaii being very happy, what with all the sun and surf and fun you can find there (and telescopes!!!!), and as for Louisiana, one of the sadder states, I can imagine that hurricane Katrina still dampens the mood. But for the many of the other states, I have no idea why they are happy or sad. Why would you be so happy in Utah, which appears to be all desert, and why would you be so happy in Nebraska? Is it because Bruce Springsteen sang a song about you? Or maybe this is the Nebraska song that cheers you up?

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Ann

geckzilla · Post by **geckzilla** » Fri Apr 26, 2013 2:55 am

TNT wrote:West Virginia is the saddest state in America. How happy - or sad - is your state?
http://www.weather.com/health/happiest- ... e-20130301

Oh, they actually called our house just a couple of days ago doing the poll to assess this. Results came back rather quickly.

saturno2 · Post by **saturno2** » Fri Apr 26, 2013 5:14 am

I didn´t know that, a group of technicians of my area. managed to build a satellite, that a few minutes ago, was put into orbity by a launch in China
The curious thing about this satellite is carrying a video camera and will
transmit in real time with an open signal for all.
I always thought that knowledge of the Universe is for all.
This satellite is called " Pegasus " is for educational purposes.
Hope it works well !!
" Pegasus " is a very small satellite and we will see the images in web
http://www.earthcam.com

Starship Asterisk*

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