News Weird News Compilation

[pinball1970]

This popped up in a few feeds.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2024/...laims-huge-space-propulsion-breakthrough.html

There is a disclaimer in the video that states, "the views of Dr Buhler do not represent that of NASA or the US government."

Usually a bad sign which is why I put it in weird news.

 

[Nugatory]

Who is more crackpotty, the crackpot or the one who listens to them?

This is a reactionless drive. It is crackpottery.

 

[pinball1970]

Who is more crackpotty, the crackpot or the one who listens to them?

This is a reactionless drive. It is crackpottery.

Fair enough, I have never heard of it.

 

[berkeman]

Fair enough, I have never heard of it.

Then you haven't been reading the PF rules very closely...

EMDrive and other reactionless drives
See https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/nasas-em-drive.884753/

 

[pinball1970]

Then you haven't been reading the PF rules very closely...

Oops. Ok apologies.

 

[Hornbein]

 

[Hornbein]

Essentially some guy serendipitously discovered a new phenomenon, which was then developed into an art form by this other guy.

 

[mfb]

If there is a way to make a diode to isolate inputs then it should be possible to make logic gates out of it. Getting the timing of all signals right will be a challenge as we rely on signals that always move.

Make time steps of half the refractory period. Define an on ->off sequence as 1 and an off -> on sequence as 0.
Send a signal into a T-junction followed by a fixed flame in the following time step.
Input 1: on -> off is converted to on -> off -> on
Input 0: off -> on is converted to off -> on -> off
Pick up the second and third time step and we inverted the signal: We made NOT.

OR is a simple T junction. If either signal starts with "on" then we get on->off, otherwise we get off->on.

OR and NOT can be combined to make all other logic gates.
I just don't know how to build diodes.

 

[Tom.G]

I just don't know how to build diodes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_detector

 

[Hornbein]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_detector

He means making a diode out of lighter fluid. Flames pass through in only one direction.

 

[Borg]

Today's APOD has another view of this.

 

[Hornbein]

 

[Hornbein]

Bangkok housecat survives being devoured by a python.

 

[Tom.G]

He means making a diode out of lighter fluid. Flames pass through in only one direction.

Oh, OK.
Just throw'n stuff against the wall here to see if anything sticks.

How about a tapered constriction, somwewhat like a funnel, in the pathway (groove)?

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nasa-identifies-space-object-that-hit-florida-home/ar-BB1lJIaw

"The total mass of the hardware released from space station was about 5,800 pounds."

Space trash crashes into Florida home. Ex-astronaut explains what happened
https://www.yahoo.com/news/space-trash-crashes-florida-home-005318119.html

 

[nsaspook]

 

[Swamp Thing]

A marine chopper transports a plane on a sling, refueling mid air on the way

 

[pinball1970]

Very surprised at the conclusion of this study.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-gender-difference-perception-ambient-room.html

I only have my humble anecdotal evidence to present but that spans over 30s years in different working environments with women.

My conclusion? They (the gentle sex) feel the cold more, they feel the heat more.

Only last year I posted on pf about trying to convince my office full of women that opening a window would make matters worse not better during our 90F heatwave.

Sure I felt it in the afternoon, but from 8am to about 11am it was not so bad, certainly no reason to open every single window they could as soon as they walked in!

Today was a great example, showing a young colleague (23 female) around the building where all the fire extinguishers were located.

Twenty seconds leaving the office she was shivering, I thought she was ill! 17C in Oldham UK today.

Remember this debate?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-03121-1

https://www.wired.com/2015/08/men-women-battle-office-thermostat/

Some scientific explanations.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/health/i-am-woman-why-am-i-always-so-cold

 

[Borg]

Trolling the trolls.

Tiffany Haddish started tracking down her online trolls and calling them on the phone

Haddish told the Los Angeles Times that she created a fake Instagram account under the alter ego “Sarah” in order to combat the online hate she was receiving and to “destroy” the trolls by gathering details from their personal life.

“I’ve learned how to find people’s information — like I pull up the credit report, police records. You can do that for $1.99,” Haddish said. “Sometimes, I get so mad that I’ll get they phone number and I’ll just call them.”

“Oh, I have called people, honey,” Haddish continued. “They be shocked that I called. They’ll be like, ‘I can’t believe you even saw that.’ You did a whole video, jerk! You made a full, five-minute video!

 

[jack action]

Trolling the trolls.

Tiffany Haddish started tracking down her online trolls and calling them on the phone

I'm not really impressed by bullied people becoming bullies themselves, but the article had another unrelated interesting fact:

The “Girls Trip” favorite said that online bullying got so negative over the last year (with commenters calling her “pedo” and “not funny,” for instance) that she hired a digital forensics analyst when death threats starting coming her way. The analyst’s research showed that 75% of these threats were “created by robots in Malaysia and Iran.”

 

[Borg]

I'm not really impressed by bullied people becoming bullies themselves, but the article had another unrelated interesting fact:

I mostly agree such that I wouldn't want it to become a trend. At least she wasn't doxxing them like some are inclined to do. Too many people feel free to behave as badly as they like when they think that nobody sees them or knows who they are. Getting some of them to personally feel the shame of their own actions isn't the worst thing that I can think of.

Yeah, I saw that bit of info on the threatbots. Pretty scary.

 

[DrGreg]

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was yesterday turned away from a polling station when he could not prove his identity.

It was his own government that two years ago introduced legislation requiring voters to show photo ID.

BBC: Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting ID

 

[jack action]

Not so easy, is it?

Women on Bumble No Longer Have to Make the First Move​

[...]

The shift is a major one for Bumble. Until now, a man who matched with a woman on the app had to wait for her to message him. If she did not initiate a conversation, the match would expire after 24 hours.

[...]

But over the years, Bumble received feedback from women who found that making the first move was “a lot of work” or “a burden,” [...]

“In the end it was the data that killed me,” says Penny* about her decision to leave the dating app Bumble. If she opened the app she might receive 100 likes, 25% of which she might be interested in. She would look at their profiles and write individualised messages; a few would respond, perhaps one would result in a date.

“That’s a lot of effort to get one date,” she says. “It’s exhausting.”

Bumble, billed as the feminist Tinder when it launched in 2014, this week announced it was taking action to relieve the administrative burden on its female users. It has given them the option of firing off a short pre-written question to potential dates, rather than a carefully crafted missive, after 70% of its female users said they were becoming burnt out.

 

[Hornbein]

The analyst’s research showed that 75% of these threats were “created by robots in Malaysia and Iran.”

Hire a Malaysian robot to send out death threats. This modern world....

 

[nsaspook]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4651051-rfk-jr-says-parasite-ate-part-of-his-brain/
RFK Jr. says parasite ate part of his brain

Those worms probably died of starvation.

 

[nsaspook]

 

[Borg]

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4651051-rfk-jr-says-parasite-ate-part-of-his-brain/
RFK Jr. says parasite ate part of his brain

Those worms probably died of starvation.
View attachment 345009

I didn't even have to watch the video to know what Khan scene that was.

 

[collinsmark]

I didn't even have to watch the video to know what Khan scene that was.

I know!

For the past several days I've been anticipating late night talk show monologues (e.g. Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, etc.) to make reference to this Wrath of Kahn scene. But alas, no.

 

[Borg]

If only Ricardo Montalbán was still around to control him. I would pay good money to see that movie.

 

[collinsmark]

A bit of weird trivia about this (this is the Weird News thread, so it's almost on topic):

Chekov wasn't a character in Star Trek's first season. The episode Space Seed, where the Enterprise first meets up with Kahn, was in the first season.

So Chekov shouldn't have ever met Kahn. Yet in the movie, the implication was that Chekov was part of the crew during that incident. So there's a bit of an inconsistency there.

 

[Ibix]

So Chekov shouldn't have ever met Kahn. Yet in the movie, the implication was that Chekov was part of the crew during that incident. So there's a bit of an inconsistency there.

Walter Koenig apparently joked that his personal theory was that they met offscreen during Space Seed. Chekhov was using a toilet that Khan needed to use, and the whole creature in the ear thing was revenge for making him wait.

 

[nsaspook]

Walter Koenig apparently joked that his personal theory was that they met offscreen during Space Seed. Chekhov was using a toilet that Khan needed to use, and the whole creature in the ear thing was revenge for making him wait.

The AI 50's version.

 

[berkeman]

Well, if you're going to crash your car, at least you can...

https://www.kron4.com/news/san-rafael-car-crashes-in-front-of-collision-repair-shop/

 

[Tom.G]

A case of someone making an astute choice?

 

[Swamp Thing]

Maybe they were friends. "Why don't you come over and crash at my place?"

 

[nsaspook]

Brainy Smurf lives on.

 

[Hornbein]

Brainy Smurf lives on.

Goin' out in a blaze of glory.

 

[Tom.G]

And the weird part is he lived through it and WALKED to the ambulance.

A cat with nine lives has nothing on that guy!

 

[Hornbein]

And the weird part is he lived through it and WALKED to the ambulance.

A cat with nine lives has nothing on that guy!

It's not that unusual. At high enough voltages the air around the body ionizes and conducts the electricity.

 

[phinds]

It's not that unusual. At high enough voltages the air around the body ionizes and conducts the electricity.

And this protects him from a 40 foot fall, how exactly?

 

[Bystander]

And this protects him from a 40 foot fall, how exactly?

Coulombic repulsion.

 

[Ibix]

And this protects him from a 40 foot fall, how exactly?

I have read that one of the worst things you can do when falling is tense up, because it makes it much harder to absorb the impact. My guess would be the shock stunned him and he flopped on to the ground.

(There's a "high tension" joke in there somewhere...)

 

[nsaspook]

https://unofficialnetworks.com/2024...complaint-over-lack-of-trained-grizzly-bears/

Why do you think the bears just say home now instead of dancing for the tourists.

 

[Tom.G]

https://unofficialnetworks.com/2024...complaint-over-lack-of-trained-grizzly-bears/

Why do you think the bears just say home now instead of dancing for the tourists.

And there is this where a tourist tangles with a Bison.

 

[nsaspook]

And there is this where a tourist tangles with a Bison.

 

[fresh_42]

Parakeets haunt Mainz University​

The green-feathered birds don't even stop at the Mainz Microtron, the particle accelerator at the Institute for Nuclear Physics. Several holes gape in the facade - evidence of breeding holes for ring-necked parakeets, also known as lesser Alexander parakeets. “The caretakers are fighting a pretty unsuccessful battle,” says university employee Detlev Franz. For several years now, the enthusiastic recreational ornithologist has been dealing with the free-living parrots, which have spread in many communities, especially along the Rhine.

https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/lokales/mainz/stadt-mainz/sittiche-suchen-mainzer-uni-heim-3613646

 

[Astronuc]

And there is this where a tourist tangles with a Bison.

Yellowstone Darwin Award Competition?

 

[Hornbein]

View attachment 346091

Parakeets haunt Mainz University​

https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/lokales/mainz/stadt-mainz/sittiche-suchen-mainzer-uni-heim-3613646

I have seen many free parrots in Barcelona and some in Santa Cruz California circa 1990.

 

[fresh_42]

I have seen many free parrots in Barcelona and some in Santa Cruz California circa 1990.

They are here in Germany since the late 60s, early 70s. Now there are thousands of them in parks in big cities along the Rhein (because of the climate there). That they inscribe in Nuclear Physics is new.

 

[fresh_42]

Yellowstone Darwin Award Competition?

I had to think about a dialogue I once read. A park ranger had been asked why they couldn't make the trash cans in the park bear-proven. His answer was, that the intelligence of some bears exceeds the intelligence of some tourists by far.