Hopefully a leak too tiny to make bubbles or produce an odor would at worst make a mild pop when ignited.
Yep, that’s what he told me.
And risk loosing fingers or a hand if they get too close. Live steam leaks are very dangerous, and can easily badly injure or kill an incautious worker. Hazards of Steam
Sharks, as a species, are older than: the Rocky Mountains, the rings of Saturn, The North Star, trees, flowers, and the Atlantic Ocean.
This wasn’t a problem back when everybody had a cig hanging from their lips.
I might have to do a bit of self-pedantry here. The North Star is actually three stars which are estimated to be 70m years old - WAY younger than sharks. But since Polaris is 430m light years away they may actually be a little bit older than sharks. But only a little bit.
Yes, with some qualifiers: the North Star did exist before sharks, it just was not in the north as seen from Earth, and the rings of Saturn are a bit speculative. But sharks are not a species: they are a subclass of fishes called “elasmobranch”. The name “elasmobranch” comes from the Greek words elasm—meaning plate—and branchia, meaning gills. This subgroup is very ancient indeed. Today there are more than 500 species of extant sharks.
Thanks, I added “as a species” for clarity, without thinking it through. Of course “shark” is not a species at all.
Anyway, delighted to have ninja’d you with the Polaris point
You may well be delighted, I would too. Well ninja’d indeed. By seconds, that should make it even more satisfying.
The John Mayhall memoriam thread reminded me of Long John Baldry. (Hey, my mind goes places, okay?)
His Wikipedia mentions his association with Elton John. First, the last name “John” comes from Baldry’s first name (and the “Elton” from a bandmate of theirs). And Someone Saved My Life Tonight is in reference to Baldry and another person actually savings Elton’s life.
Just remember: don’t try to lay no boogie woogie on the king of rock and roll.
No, it is in fact a very young star-- @Fiendish_Astronaut got that right. It’s also not always lined up with Earth’s north pole, but that’s a much shorter timespan: The whole cycle takes around 23,000 years.
While we’re at it, “as constant as the North Star” isn’t very. In addition to the quirk of its position in the sky, it’s also a Cepheid variable star, and in fact the closest one to us, which means that it cyclically pulses in size and temperature, leading to changes in its brightness. And it’s not even constantly inconstant: Both the period and amplitude of its oscillations have changed noticeably in the time since we’ve been making precise measurements, possibly due to orbital interactions with the other stars in its system.
Thinking about it we cannot know that Polaris is 500m years old. It has existed in our sky for 70m years but for all we know got blown up by an advanced alien species before they got to 71m. From our perspective they are 70m years old and that’s it.
Yeah? Where did they swim if the Atlantic Ocean didn’t exist yet?
Panthalassa (The World Ocean)
Would it also be accurate to say that the star existed at the same time as the first sharks? Sure, the sharks couldn’t see it, but it was still there, right?
Well, around that time, anyway. There are significant error bars on both numbers.
Herbert Hoover lived from 1874 to 1964. That means that every President from Andrew Johnson to the present was alive for at least part of his life and that streak will continue in this election barring something crazy. Hoover died the same day that Harris was born. That’s 29 Presidents.
Carter is already at 17 Presidents starting with Coolidge and his streak must continue for at least 32 more years which is a minimum of six more possible without a Constitutional Amendment. He will almost certainly break the record even if Hoover gets a couple more.
Edit: never mind
You have to be 32 to be President. Someone born after he dies can’t be President for 32 years