Today I Learned

[DrGreg]

In UK English, the word "practice" as a verb ... should be "practise" (the spelling follows the same scheme as advise/advice).

Also license/licence.

 

[Borg]

Reminds me of this one.

Paris
in the
the spring

 

[pinball1970]

Reminds me of this one.

Paris
in the
the spring

Yeah and it got me again

 

[BillTre]

This year is a hot one.

 

[pinball1970]

This year is a hot one.
View attachment 330129

Could be nothing to do with people though Bill. Natural cycle. Our contribution could be minimal, negligible.
Options are.
Do nothing.
Do something I would add "just in case."

 

[pinball1970]

Could be nothing to do with people though Bill. Natural cycle. Our contribution could be minimal, negligible.
Options are.
Do nothing.
Do something I would add "just in case."

I was being a little bit sarcastic. Edit. A lot actually

 

[berkeman]

I was being a little bit sarcastic. Edit. A lot actually

We've been plotting your sarcasm over the years, and this year it is off the charts...

 

[pinball1970]

Oops...https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/01/world/voyager-2-communication-blackout-scn/index.html

(emphasis mine) That's kind of depressing...

Looks okay again

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-nasa-voyager-interstellar-shout.html

 

[pinball1970]

RIL (recently I learned) That there are some very complimentary views of pf on another science forum (Greg, it was a one time thing, it meant nothing plus I had been drinking heavily)
I'm on Facebook because of music announcements but don't participate in chat, not on twitter (is that just "X" now?) but I use YT a lot and encounter the discussion that goes with it.
This site is not a horror show in that way and some of the posters seem decent and well informed but there are elements of that in there.
Anyway the summary of pf summed up the pf mission I think. "Real" science discussed experts, no bs, ( paraphrasing)

 

[Tom.G]

Hmm... Sounds like we've got 'em all fooled.

(sorry, just couldn't resist)

 

[pinball1970]

Does the pronunciation follow the same scheme?

English people: "Just going into my dental office to practiss my practizz."

Practice is the same in UK, Advise is like "eyes" ending and advice is more like "ice" ending.

 

[jack action]

Tree in Pakistan remains ‘under arrest’ for 120 years​

[...]

Despite the fact that Pakistan gained its independence from British colonial rule in 1947, a board on the tree still reads: " I am under arrest. One evening a British officer heavily drunk thought that I was moving from my original location and ordered mess sergeant to arrest me since then I am under arrest."

[...]

Abu Zar Khan Afridi, a journalist from the area, said the tree "shows the oppression of British rule in the subcontinent and just imagine if a British officer could put a tree in chain then how were treating the locals of that era?"

 

[pinball1970]

I keep an open mind. Do we really know what that tree was up to?

 

[fresh_42]

I keep an open mind. Do we really know what that tree was up to?

Just kids, you know?

 

[Ibix]

I keep an open mind. Do we really know what that tree was up to?

Looks shady to me.

 

[mathwonk]

After reading the interesting post #16 of Perok that Muhammad Ali never served jail time and was freed by SCOTUS on appeal for draft evasion, I learned further today, that the court actually voted 5-3 to send him to jail, but reversed itself 8-0 after a clerk pointed out that DOJ had withheld from his draft board reliable testimony supporting his religious sincerity.
https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2017/09/08/muhammad-ali-supreme-court-vietnam-war

 

[Rive]

TIL that those fizzy/effervescent tablets often has some really dramatic sodium content

My blood pressure went haywire for a period parallel with the 30+ days this summer (without any apparent medical reason, and that was a medical conclusion: no worries) and finally found the likely culprit - 4-5 of those tablets a day that time

Selling them as sweet, refreshing vitamin supplements is quite a killing

 

[BWV]

Ex-London, the UK is poorer than Mississippi

 

[pinball1970]

Ex-London, the UK is poorer than Mississippi

View attachment 330388

That's a downer. Not the way we would like Manchester to be on the map.

 

[pinball1970]

TIL. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/998339

 

[BillTre]

Report of the snake and hawk attack:

Peggy Jones learned that lesson in a most unwitting way on July 25 as she and her husband were finishing a day of yard work on a six-acre property that they own in Silsbee, Texas, about 100 miles northeast of Houston.
First, in an improbable occurrence, a snake fell from the clear blue sky, wrapping itself tightly around Ms. Jones’s right forearm.
“I immediately screamed and started swinging my arm to shake the snake off,” Ms. Jones, 64, said in an interview. “I was screaming, ‘Jesus, help me, please, Jesus, help me!’”
The snake wrapped itself around her arm more tightly. It hissed and lunged at her face, at times striking her glasses. But then, Ms. Jones realized, the snake, too, was an unwitting victim.

A brown-and-white hawk flying overhead had fumbled and dropped the four-and-a-half-foot-long scaly creature. The hawk quickly joined the fracas, swooping down to wrench its serpentine dinner from Ms. Jones’ arm.
The hawk snatched, scratched and jabbed at her arm “three to four times,” to reclaim its meal, Ms. Jones recalled. Each time, its powerful talons slashed her forearm. At one point, the bird dragged Ms. Jones’s arm up into the air. On the fourth try, it successfully uncoiled the snake and flew away. The “horrific” ordeal, Ms. Jones said, lasted about 15 to 20 seconds, and left her arm scratched, bruised and punctured.

NY Times report.

 

[KingGambit]

Today I learned that,

Phillip Morris gave Ukraine 500 thousands packets cigarettes donation??

This is the full video

After what I read about US nuclear triads, Putin threats, MAD, nuclear deterrents, concerning the War in Ukraine, these 500 thousands packets of cigarettes seems out of place.

 

[pinball1970]

Regarding the recent superconducting material and paper.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/science/retraction-ranga-dias-rochester.html

 

[Swamp Thing]

Today I learned that the "high-frequency trading industry" (as in doing algorithmic stock transactions at a very high rate) ... is eyeing the "high frequency" (as in shortwave) spectrum to set up global low-latency data links. Many radio amateurs are worried about the impact on their hobby.

https://www.radioworld.com/tech-and-gear/market-makers-want-to-expand-their-use-of-shortwave

 

[fresh_42]

TIL who invented the Countdown!

It was the director Fritz Lang who used it (6-5-4-3-2-1-0) in his last silent film "Die Frau im Mond" (The Woman in the Moon), 1929, for dramaturgical reasons. That must have convinced NASA and they kept it.

 

[pinball1970]

Mary Earps is the current ladies England goalie (soccer). Spain beat us in the world cup final today 1-0 but she did save a penalty to keep us in it.
As the penalty was about to be taken, the commentator mentioned the players refer to her as 'Mary Queen of stops.'
Never thought Id say it but I'm really getting into women's footie.

 

[fresh_42]

Mary Earps is the current ladies England goalie (soccer). Spain beat us in the world cup final today 1-0 but she did save a penalty to keep us in it.
As the penalty was about to be taken, the commentator mentioned the players refer to her as 'Mary Queen of stops.'
Never thought Id say it but I'm really getting into women's footie.

I made this step some years ago (obviously for similar reasons). They might not be as athletic, but they often play the prettier game.

 

[pinball1970]

I made this step some years ago (obviously for similar reasons). They might not be as athletic, but they often play the prettier game.

I tried watching with a bunch of footie guys years ago when we were all still playing five a side.
An England game possibly or prem game. We all said the same thing, "l could definitely get in the team."
It was slow as hell, players in space all the time as no closing down, organization seemed to be all over. Like really bad Sunday league
Fast forward ten years and the progress is incredible.
They always had skills on the ball but the crossing, finishing, close passing, defending etc etc just amazing now.
Some of the tackles are red blooded too,no messing around.
I could NOT get in that team now ; )

 

[pinball1970]

I made this step some years ago (obviously for similar reasons). They might not be as athletic, but they often play the prettier game.

They cried less than the lads too.

 

[fresh_42]

They cried less than the lads too.

One of our ladies earned a shitstorm in Brazil for saying (in the German Playboy):

“I don't know of any female Neymar. For example, I don't know any player who stays down for two or three minutes."