What’s interesting to me is the larger issue that scientists have become so sensitive of the ways that science can be wrong, shortsighted, misused, or weaponized that no new technology can be talked about without someone forecasting apocalypse. AI is the current glaring example, but I’ve also seen it in weather modification technology, geoengineering, modifying bacteria to eat plastic, and more.
Obviously it’s good to think of the ramifications ahead of time, lack of which has been harmful in the past. But apocalypse has never come close to happening.
There was an episode of The Outer Limits, probably The Borderland, that aired when I was about 6 or 7 years old. The TV Guide description said something about scientists finding a dimension where everything is a mirror image of its proper form. I had no idea what “mirror image” meant; I envisioned a landscape littered with upright mirrors with a person standing in front of each mirror. In the episode, someone has one of their hands reversed, but there was no discussion of the biological problems that such a process would entail, at both a macroscopic and a microscopic level.
I recently learned about Audrey Munson, America’s first supermodel – as in artist’s model. In the 1910s, there are dozens of sculptures featuring her, with many still existing (there’s one not far from me). She also is likely the first woman to do a nude scene in a non-pornographic film. Her career ended when a man murdered his wife in order to marry her; she insisted she had no romantic interest in him, but left town so the police couldn’t question her. That ended her modeling career.
She was put into an asylum with depression and schizophrenia in 1931 and spent the rest of her life in various facilities, dying in 1996 at the age of 104.
I just learned what a limnic eruption is. It’s also known as a “lake overturn”, in which dissolved CO2 suddenly erupts from deep lake waters, forming a gas cloud that is lethal for all living things. A particularly lethal event was the Lake Nyos eruption in 1986, in which the gas cloud erupted at about 60mph, spewing up to 300 tons of CO2 which then descended (being heavier than air) onto villages in northwest Cameroon, killing 1700 people and 3500 livestock, along with innumerable smaller birds, bugs and animals in a 25km radius. They’re pretty rare, thankfully, and a vent system has been installed in Lake Nyos to bleed off CO2 before it becomes a problem.
Thanks. I just reread the article and noticed that. There is some concern about Lake Kivu, which is much larger than Nyos and has the same sort of characteristics, i.e., being in an active volcanic area and being very deep. An eruption there would have the potential of killing millions, as the lake is near populous areas of Congo and Rwanda.
Spiders keep fireflies they catch in their webs alive to attract more insects, particularly more fireflies. And it works! Spiders seen keeping fireflies as glowing prisoners that draw more prey to their webs | Live Science?
I think it is cool the spiders (sheet web spiders Psechrus clavis to be precise) do it, I find it cool the researchers found out, and it is cool they did a control experiment with LEDs to find out whether it is an effective strategy or not. And it seems it is. It works best when they catch a female firefly, then they attract many more male fireflies, but it also works with other species of insect.
I’m reading “One Summer: America 1927” by Bryson. A good read so far. I was surprised to learn that Herbert Hoover was actually considered a hero and was universally admired prior to his presidency. He was a miserable SOB and was never seen to smile or laugh, sort of like someone else we know, but his ability to successfully take on seemingly impossible tasks like feeding thousands of people in need was second to none.
He was also independently wealthy and IIRC gave his government salary to charity. Which I believe led to his problem in dealing with the Depression as he thought the wealthy would help the poor = problem solved.
Hoover was credited with saving Belgium from famine during world war 1, when they were under a wartime embargo.
Later he organized another food relief program to help Russians in the 20s, and he ran for President as a great humanitarian and a prominent Secretary of Commerce.
Hoover was a graduate of the first class at Stanford University. He majored in geology.
That led to him to jobs in Australia and China, and eventually his own companies, operating and managing mines around the world.
By the time he was elected President in 1928, Hoover had been a spectacularly successful man, and an optimistic vote for continued prosperity (he also beat Al Smith, the first time a Catholic ran for president. Anti-Catholic prejudice was widespread. It was associated with immigrants and minorities in a largely Protestant society)
Little known fact about Hoover. On top of his enormous reputation from helping Europe eat after WWI and his stint as Secretary of Commerce during an economic boom, he almost certainly was guaranteed the presidency by his supervision of relief during the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927.
The country cheered. No until much later was it understood that he saved white communities only by diverting the water to flood black communities. And that wasn’t even the low point.
Although it’s actually quite sad, I am still amused by the story of Flintoff getting drunk in St Lucia and attempting to paddle out to sea in a pedalo at 4am until he capsized and had to be rescued.
My coworker from Ghana told me this. It’s not so much that there are only seven male and seven female names as it is that they get a “Ghanaian name”, which may or may not be the one they go by. It’s a bit like some Catholics having a “saint’s name” based on the day they were born.
The original Father Mulcahy, no less.
Also a star of Benson in between.
I blame “Captain Billy’s Whizbang” for the spread of terms like “Swell” and “So’s your old man!”. It was trouble, I tell you. With a capital T.
For any number n, if s is the square root of n,
then ( s - 1 )( s + 1 ) = n - 1
In fact, if you replace the 1 with d,
you get ( s - d )( s + d ) = n - d 2
I suppose there is something useful that can be / is done with this, but AFAICT it is merely amusing.
Like, if c is the cube root of n, then c ( c - 1 )( c + 1 ) = n - c
or replacing 1 with d, you seem to get = n - d 3c
No idea what this is useful for, but it is oddly interesting.