News Weird News Compilation

[Keith_McClary]

Pay attention to the warning signs!

@morrobay https://www.physicsforums.com/attachments/img_20210726_100915-jpg.286716/

 

[Klystron]

TripAdvisor reviewer left a scathing one-star rating for a Marriott resort after witnessing a crocodile drag a guest into the ocean. The hotel apologized for an 'unpleasant experience.'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/a-tripadvisor-reviewer-left-a-scathing-one-star-rating-for-a-marriott-resort-after-witnessing-a-crocodile-drag-a-guest-into-the-ocean-the-hotel-apologized-for-an-unpleasant-experience/ar-AAMHxPFPay attention to the warning signs!

I read the SFgate version from POV of the victim and her rescuers (may be behind paywall in California).

Though aware of crocodile danger in Thailand, I had thought Thomas Harris's depiction of saltwater crocodile attacks in Florida in novel "Cari Mora" dramatic hyperbole until reading this report.

Though famous for creating character Hannibal Lector, Harris originated the term "serial killer" in an early mystery novel. Warning: even seasoned mystery readers may be repulsed by the violence in "Cari Mora".

 

[Hornbein]

Photos posted of the incident reveal that the massive wheel left a large circular divot in the grass on the golf course.

Should your ball land in this divot it must be played as it lays until the divot is declared "ground under repair" by the authorities.

 

[Astronuc]

'HIGH VOLTAGE': Utah Police Crack Down on People Swinging from Hammocks on Power Lines
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/high-voltage-utah-police-crack-down-on-people-swinging-from-hammocks-on-power-lines/ar-AAMNnDQ

The Weber County sheriff's office said it has seen more people setting up their hammocks on local power lines and that law enforcement officers plan on cracking down on the potentially electrifying form of recreation.

"Over the past few years we have noticed an increase in people hammocking from the power lines on the bench of North Ogden and Pleasant View. As you can see in the picture below the hammockers are climbing up the tower and sometimes between power lines," the sheriff's office said, referring to an image it shared on Facebook.

"These lines carry 75,000 kilovolts and that power can jump from the lines. This activity is extremely risky," it added.

What could happen?

 

[fresh_42]

The Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanowskaja found protection at a police station at the airport in Tokyo after criticizing her coaches at the Olympics. "I am safe", the athlete is quoted by the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF). Earlier it became known that the Belarusian Association wanted to bring her to Belarus against her will.

 

[Astronuc]

I hope Kristina Timanowskaja gets asylum.

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.kptv.com/news/crazy-chaos-corvallis-residents-react-after-tesla-crash-sent-batteries-car-parts-flying-into-nearby/article_a7e0b04a-2a1a-11eb-9ea1-273ab7e02bb6.html
'Crazy chaos': Corvallis residents react after Tesla crash sent batteries, car parts flying into nearby homes

Not quite the same, but battery fires do seem to be a problem.

Editor OilPrice.com
Fri, July 30, 2021, 10:30 AM
In this article:

Tesla's Giant Australian Battery Bursts Into Flames
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-...nt-Australian-Battery-Bursts-Into-Flames.html

The giant Tesla lithium-ion battery that French Neoen is building in the Australian province of Victoria is burning, according to the fire and rescue service of the province.

"A 13 tonne lithium battery in a shipping container is fully involved with crews wearing breathing apparatus working to contain the fire and stop it spreading to nearby batteries," Fire and Rescue Victoria reported earlier today, adding that there was no threat to local residents or drivers despite the release of smoke at the sight.

The battery installation, with a capacity of 300 MW/450 MWh, is due to be completed later this year and is expected to provide about half of the storage capacity Victoria needs to replace the Lorne power plant, which is due for retirement. The megabattery was also planned to reduce electricity bills for Victorians and increase grid reliability.

Truck Hauling Tesla’s Catches Fire (Sep 26, 2019) - 22 months ago
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Truck-Hauling-Teslas-Catches-Fire.html

 

[fresh_42]

I hope Kristina Timanowskaja gets asylum.

From one of our main tv channels:

After criticism of association officials, Kristina Timanowskaja from Belarus is no longer allowed to participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The Belarusian Olympic Committee justified the decision with a medical examination. Meanwhile, the other side speaks of an attempt to "violently" leave the country.

The Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya will no longer participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, according to the Belarusian Olympic Committee. According to pictures and reports from independent Belarusian media, the 24-year-old was brought to the airport in Tokyo after criticizing Belarusian sports officials.

Timanovskaya asks the IOC for help
The opposition Belarusian athletes' association Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF) published a video on Telegram on Sunday (01.08.2021) with a statement by Timanovskaya: "I am under pressure and they are trying to get me out of the country without my consent. I ask that IOC about getting involved. " According to the BSSF, the video is said to have been made on Sunday evening (local time) in Tokyo.

You can currently watch the qualification in the hammer throw competition. My favorite reporter refuses to comment on one athlete from Belarus. He has been repeatedly caught doping, strange CAS decisions included. He is now the president of the Belarussian athletic organisation, 45 years old, and surely not tested.

 

[berkeman]

Truck Hauling Tesla’s Catches Fire (Sep 26, 2019) - 22 months ago
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Truck-Hauling-Teslas-Catches-Fire.html

LOL. I like how the article (which is critical of Teslas and EVs) is in the oilprice.com website news.

 

[fresh_42]

Farmer refuses to sell his land and now he works his field surrounded by houses and buildings

 

[Keith_McClary]

Farmer refuses to sell his land

In China they build the road around the house. The owner finally sold after the government upped the offer.


Here, they would just expropriate for whatever they consider "fair market value".

 

[Astronuc]

LOL. I like how the article (which is critical of Teslas and EVs) is in the oilprice.com website news.

Well, it's about energy although fossil vs battery/electric.

Nuclear claims to be green and clean unlike coal, oil and gas. Gas claims to be cleaner than coal or oil, and coal and oil diss on nuclear, and they all diss on solar and wind.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Well, it's about energy although fossil vs battery/electric.

Nuclear claims to be green and clean unlike coal, oil and gas. Gas claims to be cleaner than coal or oil, and coal and oil diss on nuclear, and they all diss on solar and wind.

In the mean time, we could already be running the country on carbon-neutral fuels from algae. We could have been 10 years ago.

 

[jack action]

In the mean time, we could already be running the country on carbon-neutral fuels from algae. We could have been 10 years ago.

Yeah, what happened to that technology? It was probably the one that I found the most interesting and they stopped talking about it very quickly. What was the big downside of that technology?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yeah, what happened to that technology? It was probably the one that I found the most interesting and they stopped talking about it very quickly. What was the big downside of that technology?

It is all about the price at the pump. From what I gather, they can't get much below $5 a gallon. When I first started looking at this around 2006, the real cost of producing algae fuels was between $30 and $50 a gallon. So it has come a long way but the price of fuel dropped significantly again in recent years. There is also a big push for electric with no regard for what ultimately powers those cars.

The way I see it, they are just moving the goalposts. And the last time I checked, there was real concern about the grid having the capacity to carry so many electric cars.

 

[Hornbein]

It is all about the price at the pump. From what I gather, they can't get much below $5 a gallon. When I first started looking at this around 2006, the real cost of producing algae fuels was between $30 and $50 a gallon. So it has come a long way but the price of fuel dropped significantly again in recent years. There is also a big push for electric with no regard for what ultimately powers those cars.

The way I see it, they are just moving the goalposts. And the last time I checked, there was real concern about the grid having the capacity to carry so many electric cars.

In 1993 we learned that all the US was willing to do was put a 4.3 cent per gallon tax on gasoline. This "victory" by one vote was so costly politically that there has been nothing done since then. Read all about it in Woodward's "The Agenda."

On the other hand, the son of the woman who cast the deciding vote got to marry Chelsea Clinton.

The Democrats were defeated so badly in the subsequent 1994 election that they gave up and morphed into a right wing party. Read about that in Robert Reich's "Locked In The Cabinet." In 1997 Reich resigned. As Secretary of Labor he had no support from his party so it was a futile pursuit.

 

[Astronuc]

I'm putting this here because of "Hundreds of pneumatic pistons are then used to compress the plasma until the atoms fuse, generating massive amounts of heat."

Backed by Jeff Bezos for over a decade, the company raised $100m in its last round of funding and is preparing to go back to investors for more cash to show that the firm’s technology can be successfully scaled up.

https://pcma.news/nuclear-energy-fusion-plant-backed-by-jeff-bezos-to-be-built-in-uk/

 

[Jarvis323]

I'm putting this here because of "Hundreds of pneumatic pistons are then used to compress the plasma until the atoms fuse, generating massive amounts of heat."https://pcma.news/nuclear-energy-fusion-plant-backed-by-jeff-bezos-to-be-built-in-uk/

Here's a video from the company and a video about the technique.

 

[mfb]

and is preparing to go back to investors for more cash to show that the firm’s technology can be successfully scaled up.

Before you try scaling things up, maybe show that you can achieve fusion at all? Maybe they did that in private, but I haven't seen anything yet. It looks like a milestone you would want to promote everywhere.

The first video says they reached "higher than 5 million degrees" at 1:10. That's ~3 MK or ~5.5 MK depending on which degrees he meant. That's far away from fusion. At ~50 MK you get 1% the fusion a 150 MK machine (e.g. ITER) gets at the same volume and pressure.

 

[Jarvis323]

Before you try scaling things up, maybe show that you can achieve fusion at all? Maybe they did that in private, but I haven't seen anything yet. It looks like a milestone you would want to promote everywhere.

The first video says they reached "higher than 5 million degrees" at 1:10. That's ~3 MK or ~5.5 MK depending on which degrees he meant. That's far away from fusion. At ~50 MK you get 1% the fusion a 150 MK machine (e.g. ITER) gets at the same volume and pressure.

There is a paper they published in 2017 where they say,

If near adiabatic compression is achieved, volumetric compression of 350X or more of a 500 eV target plasma would achieve a final plasma temperature exceeding 10 keV.

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017APS..DPPU11136L/abstract

So is 500 eV the temperature of the injected plasma before compression with the pistons, and what they talk about in the video? I guess it's the piston compression system that has not actually been demonstrated sucessfully yet and this is what they hope to demonstrate in the new facility? But in the Ted Talk he seems to suggest that making and injecting hot enough plasma (and keeping it hot until it is compressed) was the challenge?

 

[Astronuc]

I'm putting this here because of "Hundreds of pneumatic pistons are then used to compress the plasma until the atoms fuse, generating massive amounts of heat."

If I had a hammer . . . . .

 

[Twigg]

I'm putting this here because of "Hundreds of pneumatic pistons are then used to compress the plasma until the atoms fuse, generating massive amounts of heat."

Thanks for sharing this astronuc, this really made my day!

When I try to visualize what the reactor would look like, I can't help but think of a v8 engine with "plasma injectors" instead of fuel injectors. I know the compression ratios wouldn't even compare, but I can't help imagine it that way.

Also, I know the mass defect is huge and the math will work out, but I think it's ironic and hilarious they're using compressed air to compress a piston to generate heat to drive a (presumably) vapor power cycle. If you didn't have the fusion, it would be like the silliest perpetual motion proposal you'd ever seen!

 

[Keith_McClary]

video about the technique

Apr 22, 2014

 

[mfb]

The upper video is from June 2021.

 

[Astronuc]

Vanished hikers/campers in the Wonnangatta Valley
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/04/world/asia/wonnangatta-valley-disappearances.html

 

[berkeman]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/tech...-space-hero-reality-television-scn/index.html​

(CNN) The hottest new reality show isn't set in a house, on an obstacle course, or on the Jersey Shore. Television producers are betting on a new location: the International Space Station.

Two reality television shows are in the works that would offer a first for viewers by taking them inside the ISS, as a member of the public will be awarded a multi-million dollar experience to space as the grand prize on both. The Discovery Channel is considering "Who Wants to Be an Astronaut" while a competitor, "Space Hero," is hoping to land somewhere else.

The "Who Wants to Be An Astronaut" premise is simple and relies on traditional reality television tropes. Here on Earth, contestants will vie for an all-expenses-paid trip to live on the ISS for eight days. The as-yet unknown "variety of extreme challenges" are designed to determine which competitors have what it takes to be a real astronaut, and passage to space will be provided by Houston-based space broker Axiom Space. While NASA hasn't confirmed that Axiom Space will even be able to secure a seat on a commercial rocket, Discovery is confident in its plans. The media company has even enlisted former astronaut Mike Massimino's consulting services.

 

[kyphysics]

That actually sounds like a blockbuster show.

 

[mfb]

This list says Game of Thrones had a budget of $15 million per episode for the final season.
Sending a game show winner to the ISS for a week is about $50 million (via Axiom->SpaceX). Certainly in the budget if they can make a series of successful shows out of it.

 

[Keith_McClary]

That actually sounds like a blockbuster show.

Unless the winner is subject to space sickness:
As with sea sickness and car sickness, space motion sickness symptoms can vary from mild nausea and disorientation to vomiting and intense discomfort; headaches and nausea are often reported in varying degrees.

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/new...-six-zeroes-from-currency-central-bank/story/

Venezuela will slash six zeroes off its inflation-battered currency the bolivar to make it easier to use, the central bank said Thursday.

 

[Rive]

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/new...-six-zeroes-from-currency-central-bank/story/

View attachment 287161

We also had a coin with worth less than it's material.
It was quite a hot sell, apparently. When it finally got revoked only some 10-20% of the produced amount was recovered.

 

[mfb]

1 and 2 cent ($/€), 1 Yen and similar coins could get retired, too. Some Euro countries do that already.
Switzerland got rid of its 1 centime coins in 2007.

 

[Rive]

I have a feeling that some countries are keeping those around to force people into using cards instead.
Even beggars tends to give you a cold look if you try to deposit the piled up clatter to them.

 

[berkeman]

Unless the winner is subject to space sickness:
As with sea sickness and car sickness, space motion sickness symptoms can vary from mild nausea and disorientation to vomiting and intense discomfort; headaches and nausea are often reported in varying degrees.

Yeah, good point. Come to think of it, one of the episodes of the reality show will likely be a flight on the Vomit Comet for the contestants...

from your link:

 

[berkeman]

Um, wait. Is there something going on that I should know about?

https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/08/06/space-force-defense-sciutto-pkg-nr-vpx.cnn

 

[mfb]

What a weird propaganda video.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Um, wait. Is there something going on that I should know about?

View attachment 287187
https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/08/06/space-force-defense-sciutto-pkg-nr-vpx.cnn

Same old game, different battleground.

What a weird propaganda video.

Propaganda? By whom?

 

[berkeman]

What a weird propaganda video.

Yeah, it looks like they are trying to justify their existence as a new, separate military force. I think all of these pieces existed before, so hopefully we had these capabilities before. But I don't know if there is some advantage to combining those forces into a single, separate military force.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Yeah, it looks like they are trying to justify their existence as a new, separate military force. I think all of these pieces existed before, so hopefully we had these capabilities before. But I don't know if there is some advantage to combining those forces into a single, separate military force.

Sure there is. This way you get to say SPACE FORCE!

Presumably it makes sense for the same reason the other branches are separate from each other.

 

[Keith_McClary]

 

[berkeman]

Sure there is. This way you get to say SPACE FORCE!

SPACE FORCE!

https://www.highlandernews.org/82601/spaceballs-the-replay/

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.avclub.com/a-sumo-statues-big-butt-is-scaring-horses-at-the-olympi-1847429368

 

[Astronuc]

About 27,000 pounds of Degree women's spray deodorant exploded in Northeastern Oklahoma after a semi-truck caught fire on Friday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-war-zone-that-smelled-lovely-explosion-of-womens-deodorant-rocks-truck-stop/ar-AAN5roC

"It looks like Roman candles going off," Oakley told the outlet. "And you're walking through everything, it looks like a war zone. Especially at 5 o'clock in the morning."

Fox 23 reporter Scott Martin shared various photos from the scene. In one tweet, he shared a video of the fire in progress and described the aerosol cans as "popping off like fireworks."

 

[Tom.G]

Baseball as a contact sport?

https://www.newser.com/story/309613/ball-girl-takes-down-rogue-fan-at-dodger-stadium.html

 

[mfb]

at Dodger Stadium

He didn't dodge that well, apparently.

 

[kyphysics]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/09/amc...as-payment-for-movie-tickets-by-year-end.html

AMC says it will accept bitcoin as payment for movie tickets by year-end

PUBLISHED MON, AUG 9 20216:34 PM EDTUPDATED TUE, AUG 10 202110:01 AM EDT
CEO Adam Aron said during an earnings call Monday that the movie theater chain will have the IT systems in place to take the cryptocurrency as payment by the end of 2021.

 

[mfb]

The tiny (~8 km) Saturn moon Skathi has become one of the 50 most viewed articles on the English Wikipedia, averaging 60,000 views per day. Why? No one knows. It's speculated that some app uses the page as check if it can connect to Wikipedia.

 

[fresh_42]

The tiny (~8 km) Saturn moon Skathi has become one of the 50 most viewed articles on the English Wikipedia, averaging 60,000 views per day. Why? No one knows. It's speculated that some app uses the page as check if it can connect to Wikipedia.

The end is near! They are already among us.

 

[Astronuc]

Driver Plunges Cadillac Into Sinkhole After Ignoring Cones and Barriers​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/driver-plunges-cadillac-into-sinkhole-after-ignoring-cones-and-barriers/ar-AANeiQM

 

[fresh_42]

Driver Plunges Cadillac Into Sinkhole After Ignoring Cones and Barriers​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/driver-plunges-cadillac-into-sinkhole-after-ignoring-cones-and-barriers/ar-AANeiQM