this article on the thieves' guilds of the medieval caliphates is interesting both in its own right and for its citation of noted german arabologist Johann Wilhelm Fück
I feel like I would have so much to contribute to this if I listened to the Cracked podcast. The couple of episodes I've heard were jammed with fascinating stuff.
this article on the thieves' guilds of the medieval caliphates is interesting both in its own right and for its citation of noted german arabologist Johann Wilhelm Fück
brb changing my major to islamic studies
Ha! I was just about to mention that. But I like it because it gives me writing ideas.
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
Hogan's Heroes is a pretty great show.
Do you remember the cartoon Recess? It was more or less a kid's spoof of Hogan's Heroes.
I will say I am absolutely fascinated by UVB-76, to a point that I can't read about it without wanting to immediately start work on some kind of horror story.
I love the post about search terms that led to the site. "uncommon fish that start with the letter P" is almost certainly someone doing a crossword puzzle.
Crimsondude on
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RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
This unassuming house in Petersburg, Va., has an odd history — it was constructed from the tombstones of Union soldiers who had besieged the city in 1864. The curator of the city’s museum told author Gwyn Headley that, apparently to save on maintenance, nearly 2,000 marble headstones were removed from Poplar Grove Cemetery and sold to a Mr. O.E. Young, who assembled them into a two-story house.
“The tombstones face inward, so as the owner lay in bed the names of the dead stood about his head,” Headley writes in Architectural Follies in America (1996). “Later they were plastered over so that their descendants leave none the wiser.”
“The last word must be left to the lady living next door to the Tombstone House, who confessed with massive political incorrectness, ‘Ah don’t rightly see what all the fuss was about. They was jist Union boys.’”
I've been watching a lot of videos by this dude in the Schola Gladitoria who practices HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) and is an amateur historian/anthropologist
He answers a lot of myths about weapons and their use in a nicely informative way without sensationalizing anything
So, firing nuclear waste into the Sun, rockets are too expensive and unreliable, right? What about encasing said waste in solid steel shells, and firing them out of a big railgun at the sun? That should feasibly be possible, right? Or am I completely delusional? Any engineers want to weigh in on this?
It requires as much energy to reach the sun as it does to reach the outer planets, give or take.
So, firing nuclear waste into the Sun, rockets are too expensive and unreliable, right? What about encasing said waste in solid steel shells, and firing them out of a big railgun at the sun? That should feasibly be possible, right? Or am I completely delusional? Any engineers want to weigh in on this?
It requires as much energy to reach the sun as it does to reach the outer planets, give or take.
yeah but the existence of the heavy elements is what stops the fusion reaction, because they cant be fused by the solar furnace.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
yeah but the existence of the heavy elements is what stops the fusion reaction, because they cant be fused by the solar furnace.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
yeah, but humans have this amazing ability to destroy things via baby steps rationalizing.
yeah but the existence of the heavy elements is what stops the fusion reaction, because they cant be fused by the solar furnace.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
yeah, but humans have this amazing ability to destroy things via baby steps rationalizing.
man you could dump the whole earth into the sun and it wouldn't notice. if that, y'know, makes you sleep better at night
yeah but the existence of the heavy elements is what stops the fusion reaction, because they cant be fused by the solar furnace.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
yeah, but humans have this amazing ability to destroy things via baby steps rationalizing.
man you could dump the whole earth into the sun and it wouldn't notice. if that, y'know, makes you sleep better at night
Never underestimate human kinds ability to fuck things up
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
In fact, firing a payload from a railgun is probably the worst way to get something away from earth permanently. Why? From wiki's article on orbital mechanics:
A small radial impulse given to a body in orbit changes the eccentricity, but not the orbital period (to first order). A prograde or retrograde impulse (i.e. an impulse applied along the orbital motion) changes both the eccentricity and the orbital period. Notably, a prograde impulse at periapsis raises the altitude at apoapsis, and vice versa, and a retrograde impulse does the opposite. A transverse impulse (out of the orbital plane) causes rotation of the orbital plane without changing the period or eccentricity. In all instances, a closed orbit will still intersect the perturbation point.
The bold part means that, if we only apply a force to the payload when it's on earth, its orbit is still going to intersect with the earth's. Ignoring the affects of stuff like the solar wind, there's a chance it might end up hitting the earth later on!
Four days ago I would not have understood that quoted text but now it makes perfect sense. Thank you Kerbal.
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
I was looking around for interesting things and now I'm reminded that there's been no news on Cyberpunk 2077 in forever.
“The last word must be left to the lady living next door to the Tombstone House, who confessed with massive political incorrectness, ‘Ah don’t rightly see what all the fuss was about. They was jist Union boys.’”
"Sic semper tyrannis"
Crimsondude on
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MachwingIt looks like a harmless old computer, doesn't it?Left in this cave to rot ... or to flower!Registered Userregular
yeah but the existence of the heavy elements is what stops the fusion reaction, because they cant be fused by the solar furnace.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
yeah, but humans have this amazing ability to destroy things via baby steps rationalizing.
man you could dump the whole earth into the sun and it wouldn't notice. if that, y'know, makes you sleep better at night
Never underestimate human kinds ability to fuck things up
Seriously dude
you could dump the entire solar system into the sun. The worst you'd get is some intense radiation bursts that would sterilize all those planets if we hadn't just dumped them all into the sun anyway.
If humanity ever gets to the point where we can meaningfully affect the sun, we'll uh
have options
In fact, firing a payload from a railgun is probably the worst way to get something away from earth permanently. Why? From wiki's article on orbital mechanics:
A small radial impulse given to a body in orbit changes the eccentricity, but not the orbital period (to first order). A prograde or retrograde impulse (i.e. an impulse applied along the orbital motion) changes both the eccentricity and the orbital period. Notably, a prograde impulse at periapsis raises the altitude at apoapsis, and vice versa, and a retrograde impulse does the opposite. A transverse impulse (out of the orbital plane) causes rotation of the orbital plane without changing the period or eccentricity. In all instances, a closed orbit will still intersect the perturbation point.
The bold part means that, if we only apply a force to the payload when it's on earth, its orbit is still going to intersect with the earth's. Ignoring the affects of stuff like the solar wind, there's a chance it might end up hitting the earth later on!
Four days ago I would not have understood that quoted text but now it makes perfect sense. Thank you Kerbal.
So that's why we never built a mass driver along the equator.
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RankenphilePassersby were amazedby the unusually large amounts of blood.Registered User, Moderatormod
yeah but the existence of the heavy elements is what stops the fusion reaction, because they cant be fused by the solar furnace.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
yeah, but humans have this amazing ability to destroy things via baby steps rationalizing.
man you could dump the whole earth into the sun and it wouldn't notice. if that, y'know, makes you sleep better at night
Never underestimate human kinds ability to fuck things up
Seriously dude
you could dump the entire solar system into the sun. The worst you'd get is some intense radiation bursts that would sterilize all those planets if we hadn't just dumped them all into the sun anyway.
If humanity ever gets to the point where we can meaningfully affect the sun, we'll uh
have options
yeah, and people once thought it was impossible for humans to ruin an entire planet.
This unassuming house in Petersburg, Va., has an odd history — it was constructed from the tombstones of Union soldiers who had besieged the city in 1864. The curator of the city’s museum told author Gwyn Headley that, apparently to save on maintenance, nearly 2,000 marble headstones were removed from Poplar Grove Cemetery and sold to a Mr. O.E. Young, who assembled them into a two-story house.
“The tombstones face inward, so as the owner lay in bed the names of the dead stood about his head,” Headley writes in Architectural Follies in America (1996). “Later they were plastered over so that their descendants leave none the wiser.”
“The last word must be left to the lady living next door to the Tombstone House, who confessed with massive political incorrectness, ‘Ah don’t rightly see what all the fuss was about. They was jist Union boys.’”
Political incorrectness?
This lady's a heartless monster.
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
Dude you're being willfully ignorant of the levels of scale involved here.
yeah but the existence of the heavy elements is what stops the fusion reaction, because they cant be fused by the solar furnace.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
yeah, but humans have this amazing ability to destroy things via baby steps rationalizing.
man you could dump the whole earth into the sun and it wouldn't notice. if that, y'know, makes you sleep better at night
Never underestimate human kinds ability to fuck things up
Seriously dude
you could dump the entire solar system into the sun. The worst you'd get is some intense radiation bursts that would sterilize all those planets if we hadn't just dumped them all into the sun anyway.
If humanity ever gets to the point where we can meaningfully affect the sun, we'll uh
have options
yeah, and people once thought it was impossible for humans to ruin an entire planet.
We sure showed them!
The planet.
Is not.
Ruined.
Even if we nuked the ever loving shit out of it, it would not be "ruined". Life would adapt over a dozen or so centuries and the foot note of the human race would end with a big ol' "whoooops".
Posts
http://allkindsofhistory.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/an-abandoned-lifeboat-at-worlds-end/
so it's one in the morning and now i'm obliged to read this entire blog before i go to bed
thanks, tynic
brb changing my major to islamic studies
Its gonna haunt me
Do you remember the cartoon Recess? It was more or less a kid's spoof of Hogan's Heroes.
Man best of luck to people 10,000 years in the future cause I can't understand most of our culture now.
oh my god this site.
The Tombstone House
This is silly. those are obviously mountains, not plains.
ineedmayo.com Eidolon Journal Updated
He answers a lot of myths about weapons and their use in a nicely informative way without sensationalizing anything
Also I'm very leery over the idea of dumping heavy elements that tend to only be made when stars explode into the sun as a waste disposal concept.
but nature does it all the damn time when comets and asteroid crash into the sun
Suns don't explode because of these heavy elements, they make the heavy elements because they're about to explode.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Modern day, we have four states of matter;
Plasma, Vapor, Liquid, Solid.
Progress!
I think you'll find it's Liquid, Solid, Solidus.
nah dog, it's running out of fuel that stops the reaction. As the star runs out of burnable hydrogen, it has to burn hotter to fuse helium and oxygen into heavier and heavier elements to keep itself running. The heavier elements are a byproduct, not a cause.
Also if you're worried about humans sending heavy elements into the sun changing its runtime, remember that any amount we shot into it would be statisically negligible. Like forget about parts per million, you'd be talking about parts per google, and seriously more rocky and metal asteroids fall into the sun every day than we could ever produce.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
yeah, but humans have this amazing ability to destroy things via baby steps rationalizing.
man you could dump the whole earth into the sun and it wouldn't notice. if that, y'know, makes you sleep better at night
Never underestimate human kinds ability to fuck things up
Four days ago I would not have understood that quoted text but now it makes perfect sense. Thank you Kerbal.
Seriously dude
you could dump the entire solar system into the sun. The worst you'd get is some intense radiation bursts that would sterilize all those planets if we hadn't just dumped them all into the sun anyway.
If humanity ever gets to the point where we can meaningfully affect the sun, we'll uh
have options
posts like this make me wish I had a button where I could give people a trophy
yeah, and people once thought it was impossible for humans to ruin an entire planet.
We sure showed them!
Political incorrectness?
This lady's a heartless monster.
The planet.
Is not.
Ruined.
Even if we nuked the ever loving shit out of it, it would not be "ruined". Life would adapt over a dozen or so centuries and the foot note of the human race would end with a big ol' "whoooops".
I'm being woefully aware of humanity's capacity to fuck shit up.