Science!

[Sethomas]

Well, there is also this:
http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/space-launch---uncensored

[kahljorn]

sethomas where should i go to college for philosophy ucla ucsd uc berkeley or any of the other ucs? do you know which one is the best?

[Sethomas]

punkgrrrlie, I believe, was a philosophy major at UCLA and later went on to law school. She's all smart and pretty and cool, and now I'm sad with the memory that I haven't talked to her in like seven years.

Berkley has the stronger program, but I doubt you're sexually confused enough to get accepted there.

[kahljorn]

i already got accepted there

which means i walked myself into a joke!

[Tadao]

:(

[Tadao]

You may as well go to UC Santa Cruz and contemplate the philosophy of hot bitches on the beach.

http://philosophy.ucsc.edu/

http://philosophy.ucsc.edu/images/Banner%20-%20Open%20Book.jpg

[kahljorn]

thats what my geology professor told me to do

:lol

[Tadao]

I lived in Santa Cruz and let me tell you! It's like the Baywatch of San Francisco.

[Tadao]

also that's were Meth was introduced into my life, and it is abundant. :eek

[kahljorn]

:O:O:O

whats berkeley like cuz everyone tells me to go there but a while ago someone told me its trashy and filled with bums

[Tadao]

Lol I can't say much about Berkley, I hear they went a little more upscale granola. I guess it's all who you talk to.

[Esuohlim]

MY FRIEND SAYS BERKELEY IS THE NICEST-SMELLING CAMPUS SHE'S EVER BEEN TO :eek

DO YOU LIKE FLOWERS, KAHLJORN?

[Kitsa]

I had a friend who went to Berkeley, then to Berklee (http://www.berklee.edu/), and that was a bit of a mindfuck. I still can't remember which one she ended up graduating from.

[Fathom Zero]

Ahh. I thought about doing some Berklee online classes some time ago. Neato.

[kahljorn]

i love fluors :O

[Kitsa]

My pictures of Supermoon all suck :(

[Zhukov]

Berklee is the dumbest name I've ever heard for a school.

If you go there you will be a Berklee Hunt.

[kahljorn]

ive never heard of berklee

sounds like one of those phishing sites that tries to have the same name as something else in the hopes of catching people off guard

[Tadao]

I got my degree at Purdoo

[darkvare]

my dad went to purdue university

[Kitsa]

So did my brother.

Berklee is real and actually rather prestigious.

[Esuohlim]

My black-guy-who-sings-whiter-than-Hootie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRbSrKG_P3s) friend graduated from Berklee. He's touring the country in a van making only enough money for gas to keep going. LIVING THE DREAM.

DO YOU LIKE DRIVING VANS, KAHLJORN??

[Kitsa]

That's weird.

[kahljorn]

im going to berkeley not berklee wth thats not even one name

[Esuohlim]

You should go to Berklee instead. I heard it's real and actually rather prestigious.

[Colonel Flagg]

I had a friend in high school who applied to Berklee School of Music. It's a good school for jazz, so I understood back in the day.

[Colonel Flagg]

Don't worry about supermoon - we'll get another in a couple of years.

Saturday was a cloudy and rainy night in Philly. :(

[Kitsa]

Brendon Small went there, didn't he?

[Zhukov]

People need to stop defending Berklee. It sounds rubbish, and that's enough.

I saw the super moon, it was pretty cool.

[kahljorn]

agreed, i already ruled out going to ucla and ucsd because they aren't prestigious enough to have a school with one name. Harvard, Princeton, Cambridge.. all one name. Berk Lee just doesn't make the cut.

[Fathom Zero]

San Diego Community College it is, then.

[Esuohlim]

People need to stop defending Berklee. It sounds rubbish, and that's enough.

I saw the super moon, it was pretty cool.

Supermoons are rubbish too. They happen all the time and the moon isn't THAT much bigger when it does. Catch the moon rising/setting on a particularly hazy summer day and then you'll see a big motherfucking moon.

[kahljorn]

San Diego is two words

:rolleyes

[Esuohlim]

HAVE YOU TRIED SUPERMOON UNIVERSITY. ONE WORD.

[Fathom Zero]

CGufyFt6zQc

:rolleyes

[Zhukov]

Supermoons are rubbish too. They happen all the time and the moon isn't THAT much bigger when it does. Catch the moon rising/setting on a particularly hazy summer day and then you'll see a big motherfucking moon.

The moon is closer to us in the southern hemisphere though, so I can understand why you think that.

[kahljorn]

HAVE YOU TRIED SUPERMOON UNIVERSITY. ONE WORD.
i dont think my gpa is super enough :(

[Pub Lover]

I don't remember if this got mentioned already.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1837966/mustafas-space-drive-an-egyptian-students-quantum-physics-invention

A dynamic Casimir effect engine? :eek

[Fathom Zero]

Sweetness.

[Kitsa]

She sounds awesome.

[Esuohlim]

THIS SOUNDS LIKE VAGUE BULLSHIT TO ME, FRIENDS

[Kitsa]

CAPS

I want to see how far she can go with it, actually. Probably further than Egypt.

[Esuohlim]

The thing is I was under the impression that the Casimir effect as a catalyst for space travel was already theorized a long time ago. And I can't find an article about this from a website that is even close to scientifically credible.

Plus, phrases like "...where two very reflective very flat plates are held close together, and then moved slightly to interact with the quantum particle sea. It's horribly technical, but the end result..." raise some red flags. From an engineering standpoint there is basically nothing technical about two reflective flat plates.

NERD SHIT. Anyway, there's a big difference between theoretical physics and what we can engineer as human beings. Quantum physics is basically all on the subatomic scale, where all kinds of crazy shit happens and requires a whole new set of rules apart from classical mechanics.

So yeah, you can theorize all you want but linking quantum physics with real-life macro applications is pretty much a pipe dream since quantum effects on a macro scale are negligible.

But then there's that goddamn double-slit experiment.

IT'S SHIFTY IS ALL.

[Fathom Zero]

I'd like to see a proof of concept, anyway. Shame you don't have to do that to patent something.

[Sethomas]

So yeah, you can theorize all you want but linking quantum physics with real-life macro applications is pretty much a pipe dream since quantum effects on a macro scale are negligible.

...wut?

Have you never walked inside of a hospital's medical imaging station? Magnetic resonance imaging is all quantum effects (inducing higher electron energy states to produce photons); positron emission tomography is the product of matter-antimatter collisions; CT scans and X-rays depend on the photoelectric effect to convert EM radiation into an intelligible electric signal. Hell, the computers have to factor in quantum tunneling from the Schrödinger Equation (which is as quantum as it gets) as a source of energy bleed. LEDs are macro applications of quantum effects, as are fluourescent bulbs for that matter.

If you haven't been paying attention, most of the innovations of post-WWII technology have made considerate use of quantum physics. I am guessing that you were just limiting your considerations to the outlandishly bizarre realm of quantum effects that occur near the Planck level. Even there you have to give credit to Hawking Radiation for saving us from the evil scientists at the LHC who would otherwise turn the Earth into a black hole. In more practical terms, conventional computing is getting to the point where More's Law will reach its limit because of the aforementioned barrier tunneling that takes place at the 10^1-2 nm scale.

[Esuohlim]

Shit, gettin' Sethed is rough :(

I basically meant negligible with respect to kinematics in the macro world. I'm an engineer first, (shitty) physicist second. It just makes no sense to me that a "quantum particle sea" could be the driving mechanism behind propelling a space craft.

[Fathom Zero]

I was going to post something like that, but I only eat lunch with physicists and engineers.

[Kitsa]

I liked that he spelled out PET and then used the shortened CT. He's a man who knows where corners can be cut.

[Fathom Zero]

Also, isn't gravity, even as weak a force as it is, stronger than this quantum propulsion business? The article talks about probes being tossed off course by the effects of the particles, but if that was what it was using to begin with, then I'd imagine it could be greatly affected by a number of conditions. You could account for the effects of gravity and such and plot a course through space in such a way that it could probably use the effects of gravity to propel itself, even, but there's no way something like this would be able to stand on its own two mediocre thrusting feet.

At least, to my astronomical knowledge.

[Sethomas]

I'm sorry Milhouse, I don't like to be a jerk :(

I kind of figured afterwards that you were probably just saying "quantum events don't manifest at the macro scale," which is something that I wish every stoner who ever quoted "What the Bleep do we Know?" would realize while shutting up forever.

FZ: Well, what's going on with the satellites that are leaving the solar system is that they were given a trajectory that was designed the in the way you're describing. I think that it wasn't until the late 90s or so that we had a reasonable guess about the average density of the current universe, but even so nobody had any reason to suspect that subatomic particles would prove to be such a nuisance in slowing the satellites down.

What you're describing sort of sounds like making something like a solar panel that uses gravitational force instead of electromagnetic force. The problem with doing that is that unlike electromagnetic force, gravity always has a fixed vector, so you're pretty limited in how you can convert potential energy to kinetic energy (or vice-versa) with gravity alone. A black hole will always pull foreign bodies towards itself, but an electron or proton can push or pull depending on what it's interacting with. If you meant something more analogous to the ability to use a rudder to harnass wind energy on a sailboat into any direction, I guess it's worth a try but that's a harder project than I'd want to tackle.

I think that I did once read about gravity producing "negative pressure" in certain situations, but it seemed highly speculative and probably only applied to the first few femtoseconds after the big bang.

[Colonel Flagg]

I basically meant negligible with respect to kinematics in the macro world. I'm an engineer first, (shitty) physicist second. It just makes no sense to me that a "quantum particle sea" could be the driving mechanism behind propelling a space craft.


About a hundred years ago, my QM prof gave us a thought experiment to demonstrate the absurdity of certain quantum effects manifesting in the physical world. The concept of tunnelling was one such effect - he talked of taking one of the smaller students in the class and throwing him against a brick wall trillions upon trillions of times. If quantum mechanics applies to this situation, eventually, he said, the student will tunnel through the barrier.

He meant this as an allegorical description of one of the original arguments against the reality of quantum mechanics (skeptics shouting "How can this be?" at the top of their proverbial lungs) because, of course, students aren't electrons and only at the subatomic level can particles really behave like waves.

This whole propulsion thing makes me think of a similar story about something I believe was called the "gyromagnetic effect" that I heard about long ago. It turned out to be a perpetual motion machine. :(

[Tadao]

95UxNGwKwjE

[Supafly345]

I made this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/supafly345/ionseperationfull.png

For this: http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.0780

I guess it was shown at some science conference in spain.

[Tadao]

Makes me want to load Descent 2 and battle some of you foos.

[Shrubfest]

I just started reading Dawkins 'The God Delusion'. I was expecting to find it brash and angry.

So far, it's witty, well informed and wholly enjoyable. I now want to have tea at his house. We could be sarcastic together over tea and 'diminutive mythical being' cakes.

[kahljorn]

the only thing i remember reading by dawkins was the one about showing how monkeys/computers could write shakespeare :O ;o

[Colonel Flagg]

Evidence of GOD Particle Found (http://www.rdmag.com/News/2012/07/General-Science-Energy-Physics-Evidence-of-God-particle-found/?et_cid=2729289&et_rid=54736423&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fNews%2f2012%2f 07%2fGeneral-Science-Energy-Physics-Evidence-of-God-particle-found%2f)

I'm not going to hold my breath, but it seems we are on the doorstep. Of what, I'm not sure.

[Fathom Zero]

small things, I believe

and what are these particles made of

and so on

[Esuohlim]

HIGGS BOSON FOUND. FAULTY FIBER OPTIC CABLE TO BLAME :(

[Colonel Flagg]

My thoughts exactly - let's see what a thorough data analysis concludes, shall we?

[Supafly345]

https://twitter.com/#!/derpparticle

The term 'god particle' nauseates me.
HEY REMEMBER WHEN A NEUTRINO WENT FASTER THAN LIGHT? GUYS? OH IT DIDN'T?

[Fathom Zero]

THE BEST RETWEETS

[kahljorn]

i'm disappointed in myself that at first i thought all the god particle/christian comments were funny

[Esuohlim]

Me too, at first I thought they were being ironic. It's still funny though!

[Tadao]

Opossum protein neutralizes nearly all poisons, could have benefits for humans

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/opossum-protein-makes-them-immune-nearly-poisons-could-190604532.html

:eek

scientists then injected mice with the LTNF protein and subjected the rodents to venom from otherwise deadly creatures, including Thailand cobras, Australian taipans, Brazilian rattlesnakes, scorpions and honeybees.
When the venom did not kill the mice, the mice were then exposed to deadly poisons, including ricin and botulinum toxin. And again, the LTNF protein was able to diffuse the poison, leaving the mice unharmed.

[Kitsa]

Invincible fuckers

[Colonel Flagg]

My God how I hate possums. >:

In other news, the newest Mars rover (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/342706/title/Curiosity_readies_for_dramatic_entrance)is almost ready for its close-up.

I hope I just didn't just jinx the landing. :o

[Dimnos]

Another Mars rover? What is that, like 5 now? Fuck that. I want a Jupiter probe damn it.

[Fathom Zero]

too expensive

also dumb

Mars is still important. Jovian planets aren't solid, anyway - I want rovers.

[kahljorn]

jovian planets are solid on the inside

[Fathom Zero]

shut the fuck up with your density

[kahljorn]

a probe wouldn't need solid ground anyway

[Colonel Flagg]

jovian planets are solid on the inside

Pressure at the surface would likely require significant engineering enhancements, not to mention the RF interference making communication with the probe nearly impossible (remember Galileo? Lost contact about 1/3 of the way into Jupe's atmosphere, though that was more due to the local environment than interference). Tie this to the recent history NASA has had regarding landing probes on Mars (40% failure rate?) and my thoughts would be a Jupiter rover isn't worth the risk.

What about landing a probe on Io, Europa or Ganymede - each of which would be far more interesting from a scientific standpoint. easier to accomplish and we could study the insides of the moon without exclusively relying on craters. And, NASA has done it before, on Titan.

[kahljorn]

yea id like to see one landed on the moon they suspect has life on it. but then don't most of the gallilean moons have some crazy shit going on from gravity/proximity to jupiter?

a probe wouldn't have to be a rover. they already crashed a probe there to try to get information before. As far as I remember it was relatively successful.

[Colonel Flagg]

yea id like to see one landed on the moon they suspect has life on it. but then don't most of the gallilean moons have some crazy shit going on from gravity/proximity to jupiter?

The problem with landing a probe on Europa is contamination of the local environment (ocean under the ice) with earthly bacteria. As far as tidal forces are concerned, you are correct in that they are cited as one of the reasons Io is so volcanically active. They may also be partly responsible for Europa's subsurface ocean remaining liquid.

a probe wouldn't have to be a rover. they already crashed a probe there to try to get information before. As far as I remember it was relatively successful.

Yes, this was the Huygens probe I referred to briefly above that "crash" landed on Titan. "Relatively successful" is putting it mildly - it was and still is a monumental achievement in space exploration on a number of levels.

As far as I am aware NASA (or any other space agency) has never crash-landed a probe on any of the four Galileian satellites.

[kahljorn]

Yes, this was the Huygens probe I referred to briefly above that "crash" landed on Titan. no i mean the Galileo spacecraft probe they sent into Jupiter's atmosphere.

The problem with landing a probe on Europa is contamination of the local environment (ocean under the ice) with earthly bacteria.lol didn't know we had a prime directive. I guess it's more from the scientific angle of wanting a controlled environment though.
So they couldn't kill the bacteria by sending it through the Jupiter radiation belt or w/e? like sending it in between io and jupiter should make it super hot if im thinking right but i dont really know a lot about this so w/e
i know theres some bacterias that can survive high temperatures and shit but what are the chances of it ending up on a probe, when most of those bacterias are in extremely hard to reach places and probably couldn't even survive outside of their natural habitat. well w/e i know they also speculate that life on earth could've been caused by bacteria/organic someshit found in meteors so i guess i can understand this ;/

[Fathom Zero]

I think if it was close enough to either of those things to be sanitized, then it'd probably end up getting pulled towards them, anyway.

Not that I'm against crashing billions of dollars into space rocks.

[kahljorn]

Depends on how fast its going I would imagine. and probably its trajectory and various other things that scientists would consider
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/1999/ast16sep99_1/
flyby of io where it didnt crash and encountered extreme heat/etc.

anyway i think ill choose to not trust your opinion in any scientific matter since you didn't know that jupiter was solid on the inside


As Io moves around Jupiter and through this magnetized plasma torus, a huge electrical current flows between Io and Jupiter. Carrying about 2 trillion watts of power, it's the biggest DC electrical circuit in the solar system.does electricity kill bacteria?

[Colonel Flagg]

no i mean the Galileo spacecraft probe they sent into Jupiter's atmosphere.

I don't know if you can truly say it crashed - it was most likely crushed by the intense atmospheric pressure long before it hit the surface. It also got mighty hot just before it "signed off" - about 150°C (if memory serves).

Doesn't really matter, though, it stopped working anyway. :)

lol didn't know we had a prime directive. I guess it's more from the scientific angle of wanting a controlled environment though.

Yeah, there's more than a little hypocrisy at work here too. Why not have the smae rules for Mars? How about Titan? What's so special about a moon with an ocean? Where's our "manifest desinty"?

KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL! USA!USA!USA!USA!USA!USA! :p

[kahljorn]

i say they "crashed" it there because they sent it in knowing that it was going to be destroyed. :\

[kahljorn]

Fathom why would you say that the Jovian planets aren't solid on the inside. You know neptune and uranus are jovian planets, right?

do you know anything about the solar system?

[Fathom Zero]

yes

[Fathom Zero]

I was only suggesting that it would be folly to land a fucking rover on Saturn or Neptune or Uranus or Jupiter. You know. The Jovian planets. The one with the large atmospheres. The atmospheres that provide a significant amount of interference. Which would make it difficult (if not impossible) to issue it commands, let alone receive any information back.

[kahljorn]

but he never said a rover he said a probe

also those planets are all different and I don't know that they would have the same interference problems. I thought the interference was caused by all that electrical crap i posted about earlier not from the atmospheres but I don't really know. You're clearly the expert.

[Fathom Zero]

I was about to ask whether you worked for NASA or the private sector.

Stop, please.

[kahljorn]

:lol

[Tadao]

Did I mention that Possums can cure us of all poisons?

[kahljorn]

Dearest Fathom Zero,
I wish it were worth insulting you and pointing out what an idiot you are, but I know you'll just somehow absorb that into your passive-aggressive cunt and it'll just come out to disgust me later.

[Tadao]

You can take that fact and probe Uranus with it.

[kahljorn]

god damnit tadao

[kahljorn]

did i mention that about a month ago my sister had her ex-boyfriend over and he callously murdered a baby opossum? :tear

ill never forgive him

[Tadao]

http://babyanimalz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Baby-Possum-42-days.jpg

[Colonel Flagg]

T minus 3 days until Curiosity touches down on Mars. One way or another.

They're planning on broadcasting a live JPL feed in Times Square starting at 11:30 PM on the 5th. I sure hope it doesn't crash, and disappoint all the drunks, gangbangers and homeless.

[Colonel Flagg]

:lol2 @ Tadao

[kahljorn]

http://babyanimalz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Baby-Possum-42-days.jpg
thats exactly what it looked like :(

[Fathom Zero]

<3 possies

[kahljorn]

Poor fathomzero. He's stupid and wrong in everything he says so he has to change the subject.

It's ok fathomzero I will forgive you and drop the subject.

[Colonel Flagg]

Here (http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/107751.jpg)is the Curiosity timeline - Good luck to the intrepid mini-Cooper-sized rover.

Starting time is approximately 1:24 AM EDT on August 6th.

[Fathom Zero]

I'm really gonna be excited when we have the capability to dig deep on other planets. Though, I suppose at that time, we would already be able to tell what it's composed of without actually needing to dig - something like radar or active sonar, though not necessarily so. Like at the beginning of Jurassic Park. Getting information about the material, though, I wouldn't know. Waves bouncing against something are affected widely by what something is made out of, so I'm sure that people are working on doing stuff like it, if not have it already.

[kahljorn]

the light bouncing off of things can tell you what stuff is composed of.

i think its called spectrumography

also they pretty much assume the compostion of the planet because it is similar to earth except it has no volcanic activity. that and using its orbit/stuff to figure out its density allows them logic it out

[Fathom Zero]

I was going to mention spectrometers, but that's with light and can get distorted. Same lines, though, yeah. Eventually, photons or some other sort of particle we can readily detect in the far off future will be able to tell us that sort of thing. Also, radiation detectors and such is probably more likely.

I'm talking out of my ass about most of this - I've only got an interest in it.

Also, I don't want to cut into anything we're discussing, but the live stream from Quakecon is discussing optics and virtual reality in a very detailed manner.

http://www.own3d.tv/QuakeCon

Optics are neat.

[Tadao]

We've done sight, sound, and touch. So I believe the next logical step would be to smell and taste the planets.

[Fathom Zero]

I'd pay dollars to lick moon rocks.

[kahljorn]

but that's with light and can get distorted.they are able to calculate the distortion and consider that. For example they know that its gonna pass through mars' atmosphere then our atmosphere and they know what effect it will have.

actually if i remember right passing through mars atmosphere then passing through our atmosphere returns it to its original state. But maybe I'm thinking of something else

prolyl colonel flag knows all about this

[Fathom Zero]

I'm lost here. Not that that should be a surprise to anyone.

That's true. I'm wondering about the penetration, though. Of course it'll be distorted through our atmosphere and that of any other object, but I'm wondering how effective they are at penetrating certain layers of elements. It'd surely possible to get a reading of a layer, then adjust for that layer so that you can read the next one. But I'm really wondering if there would be a way to take one efficient reading some day that passes through the entirety of an object, say Mars, and provide info about the composition down to the core. How did it come into being? Was it spawned like any other planet or did other objects collide and form this object over time? How old is the core? We can tell a lot of this already by inference.

I'm just musing about how easy it will be one day, to even have a handheld meter that would provide us that information.

This is assuming humanity doesn't fall to some catastrophe before then. Space travel would likely be commonplace, so charting the universe would probably be very important. Our Solar System would be old hat at that point and we wouldn't need to look at minute changes in blurry photographs to show that there is water flowing on the surface of a planet.

[Esuohlim]

Are you guys thinking of this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-dispersive_X-ray_spectroscopy

[kahljorn]

u can do it with any lightwave but i think they use ir/visible in space (for planets and stuff anyway for stars u could probably use xrays if u used the telescopes in space). also i think xrays would be bad (for planets) since they are one of the lightwaves that penetrate atmosphere the least.

but yea its called spectroscopy

and no he means some futuristic invention that will rely on some kinda super quantum particle or something thats able to penetrate through planets and carry all of the information with it and a futuristic device will translate that and tell you everything about the planet

[Esuohlim]

But if we could do that then we could just shoot lasers from our living rooms and no one will ever go into space again :(

[kahljorn]

thats why its the future
by then we will have settled all of the planets and will have left our solar system]

in the future

[Fathom Zero]

future living rooms

complete with floating not-televisions

And that's just about right. The English major isn't going to come up with a novel scientific advancement anytime soon. :|

[Colonel Flagg]

Seriously, I just want NASA to get a big win on this one, and land the one ton rover safely and with all of its scientific capabilities intact.

Fingers crossed.

[Tadao]

I kinda hope it crashes. :(

[Colonel Flagg]

Well, that would certainly be newsworthy, too.

[Tadao]

I just think i would be funny to see 2.5 billion dollars and a lot of hard work blow up millions of miles away.

[Tadao]

It might put a lot of stuff into perspective for people.

[Dimnos]

I would like to see them crash 2.5 billion dollars into the national debt.

Also, back to Jupiter, the probe could be fired off from some sort of relay satellite or something. I'm no space engineer but I bet that Branson guy could pay someone to figure it out, it has been the new fucking millennium for a while now. :rolleyes

[Fathom Zero]

WOO

SPACE

FUCK YEAH

ODYSSEY DATA IS STRONG

[Colonel Flagg]

Sorry Tadao. Congrats, NASA.

[Tadao]

Well, maybe it's drill will break or something equally funny. :(

[Dimnos]

Their going to flip it on the first hill. It will still work perfectly fine but be like a turtle on its back.

[Colonel Flagg]

They will have to send a follow-on rescue mission with a big pancake flipper á la eyeglasses for the Hubble.

[Fathom Zero]

I was never a fan of HFCS but I object to the method.

I HATE the people that talk about this like it's fucking poison. Not that I'm implying you were or anything. It just gave me a good reason to open my trap. This and MSG exemplify people's fear of acronyms and irrational attitudes due to people telling them they're bad for us. MSG especially. I'm just fucking tired of people complaining.

[Kitsa]

It's not fucking poison, there are just better things to eat.

Like I said, I mainly object to the methods behind the movie.

[Fathom Zero]

For sooth. I WASN'T DISPARAGING YOU, RED.

Like I said, it just gave me the opportunity. There's a person in my life that hates MSG because it "gives her headaches", (as opposed to, you know, the dozens of preservatives and assorted chemical treatments food gets), and thinks it's in Starbucks coffee. HFCS, same thing with certain people. I'm really bummed out by it sometimes, because it's a very quick way to reveal to me exactly how stupid someone is.

[Kitsa]

"fucking poison" was a quote. I should have quoted it.

The MSG, I dunno. Some people are sensitive to it. It can cause migraines in some people. Every once in a while I'll get palpitations off it. There are sensitive individuals who aren't necessarily stupid. What's stupid is the knee-jerk before you know whether you're sensitive or not. Everyone's set off by something different.

For example, I get bad migraines about 2 hours after I've been in a Hobby Lobby store. Took years to narrow it down to that, and when I told my ophthalmologist he said that he gets lots of complaints about Hobby Lobby. Something about the frequency of the fluorescent lighting, not too different from strobe flashes giving some people seizures.

[Fathom Zero]

Fluorescent light messes with my eyes as well. I swear they're making me go blind.

The thing about MSG is that it's just an amino acid with a sodium attached. I'd be more than willing to be it's more because the people that get palpitations and headaches and such have a negative reaction with too much salt than an amino acid that is present in every single food that has protein in it and also one that the body requires as part of the metabolism.

EDIT: If you have some sort of negative reaction to glutin, that would probably do it, as well.

[Kitsa]

It's possible. I don't know about gluten, but given the glutamates' general role in our biochemistry, just about anything could be possible. Maybe another hundred years of research will enlighten us. In the meantime, eating at the Cheesecake Factory makes me feel fucking horrible.

[Fathom Zero]

Eating at a "Factory" is never a good sign.

[Tadao]

SCIENCE!

[Fathom Zero]

Cheesecake science.

[Tadao]

To make the corn syrup into high fructose corn syrup, you turn some of its glucose molecules into fructose molecules by exposing the syrup to yet another enzyme, again produced by bacteria. This enzyme converts the glucose to a mixture of about 42 percent fructose and 53 percent glucose, with some other sugars as well. This syrup, called HFCS 42, is about as sweet as natural sugar (sucrose) and is used in foods and bakery items. HFCS 55, which contains approximately 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose, is sweeter than sucrose and is used mostly in soft drinks.
:halloween2

Sugar cane must be crushed to extract the juice. The crushing process must break up the hard nodes of the cane and flatten the stems. The juice is collected, filtered and sometimes treated and then boiled to drive off the excess water. The dried cane residue (bagasse) is often used as fuel for this process. The remaining liquid is allowed to set into a solid mass known as jaggery, gur, chancaca or panela. (Gur is used in the rest of this document.)
:halloween

[Fathom Zero]

yummmmmmm

[Tadao]

Oh shit, first you have to add acids to cornstarch to make corn syrup, then you can begin the processes of turning corn syrup into corn sugar.

Tell me again why juicing sugar cane is not the healthier idea?

[Fathom Zero]

The acids cost less, I'd imagine.

I must be cheaper, or at least more profitable, otherwise they wouldn't do it.

[Tadao]

Well yeah, but I said healthier. I can eat fruit roll ups or pay more and dry my own fruit. Fruit roll ups are not something you should eat though.

[Fathom Zero]

Fruit leather is damn good.

My mum gave me her Ron Popeil brand food dehydrator, so I've been making jerky and shit like that to take with me to school. The fruit wrap is a little harder, I grant you.

[Colonel Flagg]

Fluorescent light messes with my eyes as well. I swear they're making me go blind.

Just put aluminum foil on your head - works every time. :p

In other science news, the newest member of the periodic table (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120926112719.htm) has apparently been produced. The element presently known as ununtrium - which was the last hole in the periodic table under 118 - has now been officially identified through it's decay chain through 6 separate and distinct alpha emissions.

EDIT: "Last hole up to 118" may be overstating it a bit, but the other elements (up to 118) have been positively identified and reported in peer-reviewed journals - just with not enough firmness to allow for naming rights to be awarded, which is controlled by IUPAC. At least this is what I've been led to believe. :o

Probably won't matter much except to elemental purists.

[Esuohlim]

They should name it Esuohlium :picklehat :picklehat

[Colonel Flagg]

I'd bet on Nipponium, although I agree with you.

[Pub Lover]

African Spiny Mouse Has Salamander-like Regenerative Abilities

University of Florida researchers have discovered that the African spiny mouse has unique regenerative capabilities. The mouse is able to regrow new body tissues following an injury. These mice have skin that is easily torn, which helps them escape predators. Their special ability enables them to then regrow skin or ear parts they lose in escape attempts.
There is hope the African spiny mice's unique tissue regrowth capabilities, the same sort of biological process that a salamander uses to regenerate a severed limb, could translate into medical therapies for humans. Salamanders are studied frequently in the lab, but amphibian biology is very different than human biology.

..

[Colonel Flagg]

I apologize in advance to all MacAddicts out in cyberspace, but this article (http://www.pddnet.com/news/2012/09/apple-ceo-maps-extremely-sorry-0?et_cid=2872586&et_rid=45600941&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pddnet.com%2fnews%2f2012%2 f09%2fapple-ceo-maps-extremely-sorry-0)made me :lol

[ChrisGlass]

Add the purple lens flare to that and I'm just loving people now getting used to purple photos and getting lost.

[Tadao]

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO THIS SOME MORE NONSENSICAL SENTENCES.

IF YOU PUT PEANUTS ON THE MIRROR I WOULD FEEL LIKE AN ELEPHANT.

[Colonel Flagg]

Ok, now things are getting interesting (http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/10/star-races-around-black-hole-key-proving-einsteins-theory).

The hype is a little misleading, as nothing has been proven yet, but a major test for Einstein's theory of General Relativity has not ever been able to be proven ... until now. In short, by monitoring these two stars for a few years, astronomers will be able to a) measure the mass of the black hole at the galactic center, and b) measure the deviations of both emitted light and from the elliptical orbits of both stars at the point of closest approach.

In a word, awesome.

[Colonel Flagg]

I WOULD LIKE TO ADD TO THIS SOME MORE NONSENSICAL SENTENCES.

IF YOU PUT PEANUTS ON THE MIRROR I WOULD FEEL LIKE AN ELEPHANT.

:zugs

[Dimnos]

astronomers will be able to a) measure the mass of the black hole at the galactic center


:wank

[Tadao]

anyone watch the rebbull stratos highjump? Man that old guy fucked up way too much to be in charge of communications.

[Kitsa]

Yeah, he couldn't even give the guy a wind direction, lol.

Anyhow, that was pretty badass.

Did you see the helmet cam (http://m.gizmodo.com/5951725/first-head-cam-footage-from-daredevils-space-jump) of it?

[Kitsa]

Also, I passed a redbull delivery truck today and the driver was drinking a giant Starbucks. :lol

[Fathom Zero]

heyyyyy don't talk shit about Joe Kittinger

[Tadao]

:lol

Now that is funny.

I was switching back and forth between FB games and Discovery Channel and finally got to the EGRES (or whatever) check list and I was bothered that old man rushed thought the visor thing and had to back track and make sure the red light was on. They almost canceled the whole jump over the visor.

Then the whole wind direction blew me away. :/

[Fathom Zero]

They had to keep going back to the heating elements in the visor over the last half-hour or so - there'd been recurring issues.

[Tadao]

Yet checking it before he jumps is skippable :rolleyes

[Fathom Zero]

maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan he was fine

don't worry about it, they checked it enough

[Tadao]

COUNTDOWN

5
4
2
3 SIR!
3
4
NO SIR COUNT DOWN!
2
5!

RELEASE THE GERMAN!

[kahljorn]

what science should i major in if i wanna be rich as hell

[Colonel Flagg]

Medicine or law. :p

In other news, this (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49439505/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/alien-planet-alpha-centauri-closest-ever-found-earth/)is the finding Scifi fans have been waiting for since the discovery of the first exoplanet. Yes, it's more like Hell than Earth, but still, a planetary system only 4.3 light years from us is reason for most astronomers to party.

[kahljorn]

seriously you cant make any money in science?

i was thinkin bout getting a geology degree

[Colonel Flagg]

Yes, you can make money in science, mostly because if you're good at it, you can do things that seem like magic to 99% of the workforce.

Which is both good for your job security, and very sad. :(

Geology is a decent choice - lots of opportunity there.

[Fathom Zero]

Geologists, chemical engineers, etc.

Word is that, over the past two or three years, they're starting to hire more and more young people after having not for so long coz the current workforce is really old.

My buddy's a year off from graduating and he's got a $75,000 salary already at a company that designs and builds natural gas recovery plants. He starts during the Summer building valves in a team.

So yeah. There's moneys if you're willing to work for it - it's rather competitive.

[Tadao]

Dick enlarging sciences

[Colonel Flagg]

Dick enlarging sciences

Or hardening. Either one. Also, fat eliminating chemistry.

[kahljorn]

if I'm reading my school info correct I can double major really easily so i was thinking of picking up a science degree alongside philosophy so i don't feel worthless and have decent job potential. One of my teachers told me with a bachelors in geology you can get jobs easy, so I was thinking of going for that. Science just sounds fun.

if you're good at it, you can do things that seem like magic to 99% of the workforce.

is it hard to be good at science?

[Colonel Flagg]

It really depends a lot on your aptitude (not attitude). You need to be able to think scientifically, critically question assumptions and design experiments to test assumptions. It also helps if you can spot bullshit.

Only you can be sure if it's something you can do, or if it's something you'd like to do.

[kahljorn]

Word is that, over the past two or three years, they're starting to hire more and more young people after having not for so long coz the current workforce is really old.
all dem baby boomers are retiring now.

[Tadao]

Kilogram is getting fat.

http://news.yahoo.com/kilogram-gained-weight-005533827.html

The international standard, a cylinder-shaped hunk of metal that defines the fundamental unit of mass, has gained tens of micrograms in weight from surface contamination, according to a new study.

As a result, each country that has one of these standard masses has a slightly different definition of the kilogram, which could throw off science experiments that require very precise weight measurements or international trade in highly restricted items that are restricted by weight, such as radioactive materials.

[Tadao]

The LA Kings Blackout Night is in honor of Raytheon’s spectacular images of Earth, deemed the “Black Marble.” Raytheon’s Visible Infrared Imaging Sensor (VIIRS), aboard NASA’s Suomi-NPP satellite, has been capturing never-before seen views of our planet. This innovation in imaging produced the 2012 Black Marble, a unique view of Earth at night.

:lol

[Tadao]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/04/25/article-2313986-19757F68000005DC-698_634x556.jpg

[Colonel Flagg]

What a dick.

[Tadao]

Hey Flagg, I got a question for you. If I soak my Brita water filter in vinager, does it clean all the charcoal? Or does a lot of tap water crap not die from vinager?

[Colonel Flagg]

I have not heard of using vinegar to clean out water filters in this fashion, and I don't expect it to work particularly well. Charcoal is a superior adsorbent, which means that is will be a devil to clean. I expect that vinegar is not nearly as strong a reducing agent as would be required - you probably need a much stronger acid.

My advice - if you can, buy a replacement filter. It's both cheaper and safer.

[Tadao]

Yeah, I expected as much. I know from survival shows that charcoal is pourus and collects muck in the pours to help clean the water, but I didn't even think of it as a sponge. Can't boil it because it's encased in plastic.

Thank you Mr. Chem!

[kahljorn]

i am now a geology major :D

[Tadao]

That's pretty cool. What are your intentions? Earthquakes, global climates, gold?

[kahljorn]

making money

maybe civil engineering or space mining or someshit but i havent seen any schools that specialize in space mining :O

[TheNunEater]

Then create one.

[Colonel Flagg]

Space mining is a terrific concept. I've always thought that all humankind would need was a reason to go to the asteroid belt. Discover a gold asteroid about 20 meters in diameter, and .... BOOM! All kinds of spacecraft technology would be invented in a matter of a few years.

Kahl, we're counting on you.

[kahljorn]

thats exactly my opinion as soon as space becomes valuable/more available we'll be a space faring species.

[Tadao]

Send a resume to Richard Branson

[Colonel Flagg]

I am done explaining the scientific method to knuckleheads. THe next person to ask me a dumb question about why analysis takes so long is going to get a verbal clop in the chops. :explode

[Colonel Flagg]

And I mean in person, not on this message board. :\

[Tadao]

And it took you that long to come to this conclusion?

[Colonel Flagg]

It's just ... work bro. I have people come to me and bitch about "how come my stuff isn't done?", and "why aren't you giving a rat's a$$ about such and such project?", and I've had it. It's as if even when I dumb things down to a 5th grade level, they all are still in kindergarten.

Most - not all - of these numbskulls have college degrees, and yet they still can't add 2 numbers without first getting out a calculator.

[kahljorn]

do they at least know what the word disburse means?
cuz the financial aid department at my school doesn't

unless they meant SCATTER and not pay out. Actually, them scattering my financial aid instead of paying it out explains why I haven't received it for 3 months.

[Colonel Flagg]

Disburse --> Disperse.

They're just confused.

[Evil Robot II]

EVIL ROBOT CONTROLS ALL SCIENCE

[Wiffles]

Prove to science that you control all science?

[Colonel Flagg]

Wiffy, sometimes you just have to take science on faith. <rimshot>

[Tadao]

It's Comet ISON time ******s

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/timeline-of-comet-ison-s-dangerous-journey/#.Uo2ASuJ-txI

[dextire]

It's funny how excited scientists are about having no idea what's going to happen. :lol

[Tadao]

I hope it explodes and sends a giant solar flare at us that kills cell phones and Dick Cheney's pace maker.

[dextire]

I'd just like some cool pictures of visible magnetic fields. I'm easy.
There has been an unexpected lull in solar flares recently.

[dextire]

We're now down to "encouraging evidence that the comet still exists (http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/26/tech/comet-ison-update/)". :(

[Tadao]

from a reliable news source :lol

[dextire]

It lives! Sorta (http://earthsky.org/space/big-sun-diving-comet-ison-might-be-spectacular-in-2013). :xmas1

[Tadao]

I was hoping for a super bright comet so that I can tell tribes that if the don't obey me I will bring fire from the sky. :(

[dextire]

"We have no idea how big this nucleus is, if there is indeed one.

If there is a nucleus, it is still too soon to tell how long it will survive.

If it does survive for more than a few days, it is too soon to tell if the comet will be visible in the night sky.

If it is visible in the night sky, it is too soon to say how bright it will be…" :lol

I'd just like some cool pictures of visible magnetic fields. I'm easy.
Screw one week ago me. I want the super bright, highly visible to the naked eye comet that everyone has been excited for the past year or however long.

[Tadao]

It's not like anyone credible promised anything. Something cool might happen is all I heard.

[dextire]

No, you're right. All it ever came to is "if everything happens just right (and it probably won't) we could get a comet brighter than the moon, lasting for days!".
Oh well, at least Curiosity is back up and running.

[Colonel Flagg]

I don't know if anyone still reads this thread, but what the heck.

The Gemini Planet Imager (http://www.rdmag.com/news/2014/01/out-world-first-light-images-emerge-gemini-planet-imager?et_cid=3697446&et_rid=283104821&type=cta)came online recently, and the resolution and nulling technology required is just astonishing. Not only did the optics resolve a complete ring of dust around a relatively bright star, they were also able to further increase the discrimination through the use of polarization.

There is another first light image of Beta Pictoris B (http://www.ibtimes.com/gemini-planet-imager-first-light-photos-released-shows-planet-orbiting-beta-pictoris-exquisite), which is also pretty neat.

[Tadao]

Does that mean an new iPhone is coming out with higher resolution?

The answer is always yes.

[Colonel Flagg]

No iPhones in iSpace!

[Colonel Flagg]

This (http://www.rdmag.com/news/2014/01/fusion-instabilities-lessened-unexpected-effect?et_cid=3700995&et_rid=283104821&location=top)just in from Sandia. Nowhere near a fusion powered light bulb, but it is an encouraging result.

I'm not a particle physicist, nor do I play one on TV, but I have to think that changing the radial instabilities with the observed helical instabilities (which are more contained, and easier to control) is significant on more than just one level. There's some good physics to be learned here.

[Colonel Flagg]

It's been a long time since this thread was active.
:explode

I had quite an exciting time following the New Horizons (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/) probe through its encounter with the Plutonian system. The initial photos were tantalizing, enough it seems for more than a few conspiracy theorists (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3165206/Let-Pluto-conspiracy-theories-begin-Mad-claims-New-Horizons-visit-biggest-lie-history.html) (one showing potential structures on the dwarf planet). Now, however, comes the long wait for data retrieval, which should be complete sometime next December. After this, who knows? Maybe another encounter with another KBO.

Or Nibiru (http://www.inquisitr.com/2259891/nasas-planet-x-files-leaked-nasa-knows-nibiru-is-coming-says-conspiracy-theorists/).

[Colonel Flagg]

And, on a related note, New Horizons has a second potential target (http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/10151024-finally-new-horizons-has-a-kbo.html) beyond Pluto. Estimated Time of Arrival - January 2019.

The Hubble space telescope comes through in the clutch.

[Tadao]

My feeling is that we should be bothering with innerspace more than outer.

Sure send a probe every year, but don't fucking waste my money. Wee need health not space.

[zeldasbiggestfan]

Hater.

[Otto]

Feh! I'd rather my tax dollars go into developing new and better apocalypse causing weapons. I'm tired of conventional doomsday weapons that just vaporize people, poison the land, and create generations of flipper babies. I'd gladly divert my life savings into Uncle Sam's hands if it meant we got a warhead that turned people inside out, or a combat gas that causes catatonic schizophrenia.


HIRE ME, YOU UNIMAGINATIVE LOCKHEED PUSSIES!

[Tadao]

What floods aren't cool enough for you? Feh!

[Wiffles]

this year was good for space.... we saw Ceres and Pluto up-close

[Colonel Flagg]

Don't forget Rosetta! :)