Amusing Science

[Doctor X]

Or Ransomware converts the entire ocean to Ice 9!

--J.D.

[sparks]

Ooooh. I like that plan much better. Does Ice 9 work with a good Single Malt? (Yes, I remember that ice in Scotch isn't a nice thing, but...you know me.)

[Doctor X]

Unfortunately, it would turn the water portions to Ice 9 as well.

The same way Windows corrupts all it touches.



In the hard rain.

--J.D.

[Rob Lister]

Spoiler:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44368813

Do they need a device diver?

On a serious note, I first thought this was a very stupid idea. How do you R and R a bad server or storage blade? The answer is, you don't. You let it fail and and use the remaining good ones. By the time enough blades fail to make a difference (5 to 7 years), the technology as a whole has moved on the unit is just scraped for a new one. As long as they don't run Windows 10 Enterprise on it, they'll be fine.

[Anaxagoras]

Spoiler:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44368813

Do they need a device diver?

On a serious note, I first thought this was a very stupid idea. How do you R and R a bad server or storage blade? The answer is, you don't. You let it fail and and use the remaining good ones. By the time enough blades fail to make a difference (5 to 7 years), the technology as a whole has moved on the unit is just scraped for a new one. As long as they don't run Windows 10 Enterprise on it, they'll be fine.

Correct.

https://xkcd.com/1737/

[Witness]

Oldest itch:

Oldest known case of dandruff found in 125m-year-old dinosaur

Scientists have discovered fossilised dandruff on the skin of a feathered microraptor

The oldest known case of dandruff has been identified in a small feathered dinosaur that roamed the Earth about 125m years ago.

Paleontologists found tiny flakes of fossilised skin on a crow-sized microraptor, a meat-eating dinosaur that had wings on all four of its limbs.

Tests on two other feathered dinosaurs, namely beipiaosaurus and sinornithosaurus, and a primitive bird known as confuciusornis, also revealed pieces of fossilised dandruff on the animals’ bodies.

The prehistoric skin flakes are the only evidence scientists have of how dinosaurs shed their skin. The material shows that rather than losing their outer layer in one piece, or in large sheets, as is common with modern reptiles, the feathered dinosaurs adapted to shed their skin in tiny flakes.

“This is the only fossil dandruff known,” said Maria McNamara, who worked on the dinosaur fossils at University College Cork. “Until now we’ve had no evidence for how dinosaurs shed their skin.”

Images of the dandruff taken with a powerful electron microscope show that the material is extremely well-preserved and is almost identical to that found on modern birds. Like human dandruff, the skin flakes are made of tough cells called corneocytes that are full of the protein keratin.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/201 ... d-dinosaur

A fossil of a microraptor found in Liaoning province, China. The crow-sized dinosaur lived about 125m years ago. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Prehistoric dandruff found on the skin of a microraptor dinosaur. Photograph: Maria McNamara at University College Cork

[Witness]

[Witness]

[Fid]

Seeing light move, sorta (annoying music):

We have built an imaging solution that allows us to visualize propagation of light at an effective rate of one trillion frames per second. Direct recording of light at such a frame rate with sufficient brightness is nearly impossible. We use an indirect 'stroboscopic' method that combines millions of repeated measurements by careful scanning in time and viewpoints.

Details & other vids: http://web.media.mit.edu/~raskar/trillionfps/

If you remember the poster "Mr. Skinny" at TOP he would have loved this. He was a safety officer at an AFB and had access to some gazillion megawatt laser. Testing was required so we sent a literal sock puppet on a trip around the world with the intention that 'Lil Steve would be destroyed by said gazillion megawatt laser.

Unfortunately 'Lil Steve vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
RIP Jeff.

[Witness]

[gfycat]AnyCheerfulGallowaycow[/gfycat]

[Anaxagoras]

This clever case pops open to protect your phone when you drop it




It has some kind of sensors in it that can detect free-fall. Then those curved metal strips pop out to absorb the impact.

Some questions remain: will it work in practice (better than a simple protective case and film)? How bulky is it? And how much will it cost?

But a cool concept.

[Doctor X]

Do not drop your phone.

--J.D.

[sparks]

I never drop my phone. I ... accelerate ... it towards any and all hard surfaces.

[Witness]

[Witness]

A bit long, but you'll get the idea quickly.

[Fid]

Might make sex a bit gritty but looks like fun.

[sparks]

"Bite the pillow, I'm goin' in dry."

[gnome]

A bit long, but you'll get the idea quickly.

With appropriate color and lighting, could be marketed as a lava hot tub.

[Witness]

Preparing a Tyrannosaur tooth for exhibition:



[Link amended.]

[Witness]

Colour-blind scientist realises he has discovered a new species of spider only after posting pictures online

Web users were struck by tiny arachnid's bright orange and turquoise markings

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 61786.html



Mating is dangerous business for spiders.

Long version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK_BTE1K2Ko

[Anaxagoras]

Mating is dangerous business for spiders.

For male spiders it is.

[Witness]

↑ Yeah that was implicit. For the ladies it's a fuck, a snack, or both.

---

[Witness]

Spoiler:

Darwin's Slipper (sic).

[Witness]

[sparks]

All the texts I've read have the LSB on the left and the MSB on the right. WTF?

[Witness]

All the texts I've read have the LSB on the left and the MSB on the right. WTF?

You mean bit, right? (Sometimes MSB/LSB stands for byte.)

Little-endian CPUs usually employ "LSB 0" bit numbering, however both bit numbering conventions can be seen in big-endian machines. Some architectures like SPARC and Motorola 68000 use "LSB 0" bit numbering, while S/390, PowerPC and PA-RISC use "MSB 0".

[sparks]

Sorry, you lost me.

But, yes, I was referring to bits not bytes.

[Witness]

↑ For the bits it's just numbering in a byte (the leftmost being either 0 or 7). For bytes (the "endianness") they can be stored AB or BA.
Give me the title of one of the books and I'll try to have a look.

---

Bernoulli principle.

[sparks]

"Give me the title of one of the books and I'll try to have a look."

I recall encountering it in a tech manual for a Studer A 727 CD player. Professional model we used in radio stations back in the early '90s as a comprehensive introduction as to how the damned things worked.

[Witness]

↑ Thought some textbook. This manual: https://www.vintageshifi.com/repertoire ... Manual.pdf?

[sparks]

Yep. Go to page 11. The way the wrote this, the MSB is on the right.

[Witness]

Yep. Go to page 11. The way the wrote this, the MSB is on the right.

I really don't know, but I have a hypothesis (apart from constraints perhaps arising from the fact that the data is transmitted).





When the AUX nibble is used for carrying extended audio data, it presumably contains the least significative bits (or the CD would be unplayable on machines using only the AUDIO SAMPLE part). So placing the LSB on the left, near AUX, allows to grab bits 4 – 27 in one swoop (if AUX too goes from LSB to MSB from left to right, which is the case).

Whaddya think, pure fiction?

[sparks]

Clear as mud to me my friend!

[Witness]

Electric eel:

[Anaxagoras]

Betcha guys didn't know about this little trick of science.

[Doctor X]

Not to that degree.

--J.D.

[Witness]

Mushroom trivia:

Fascinating facts about fungi

• "Fungi are in a kingdom of their own but are closer to animals than plants
• They have chemicals in their cell walls shared with lobsters and crabs
• A fungus has been discovered capable of breaking down plastics in weeks rather than years
• There is evidence to suggest that yeasts - a type of fungus - were being used to produce the alcoholic drink mead as long ago as 9,000 years ago
• At least 350 species are consumed as foods including truffles, which can sell for thousands of dollars apiece, quorn, and those in marmite and cheese
• Plastic car parts, synthetic rubber and lego are made using itaconic acid derived from a fungus
• 216 species of fungi are thought to be hallucinogenic
• Fungi are being used to turn crop waste into bioethanol
• Products made from fungi can be used as replacements for polystyrene foam, leather and building materials
• DNA studies show that there are thousands of different fungi in a single sample of soil, many of which are unknown and hidden - so-called "dark taxa"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45486844

[Witness]

[Anaxagoras]

https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments ... _30_years/

[Doctor X]

Rots of Rock.

--J.D.