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Totally off-topic thread
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 14:00 | Message # 1096 |
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| Really cool stuff midtskogen 
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| midtskogen | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 14:11 | Message # 1097 |
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| Cool, but at it also send shivers down the spine when I see such graphs in the making. It almost always means that somewhere in the world a lot of people died just a few minutes ago.
Earthquakes of this magnitude usually occur a couple of times a year.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
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| Watsisname | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 17:48 | Message # 1098 |
 Galaxy Architect
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| Thanks for sharing those midtskogen; I've always thought seismology was really fascinating and now you're making me want to get an instrument, if not for the fact that I'd probably have a lot of local traffic noise interfering with it. :/
Early reports indicate there was little in the way of severe damage from this quake, since it was so deep, though there were a handful of deaths. Sad, though a blessing considering what the magnitude was.
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 17:54 | Message # 1099 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| Quote (Watsisname) blessing
Do you think that one day we will ever have non-religious or non-mystical terminology to express such sentiments?
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| Watsisname | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 18:47 | Message # 1100 |
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| Heh, that's an interesting question. It occurs to me that indeed a lot of similar words (nouns) for such sentiments have such mystical/religious connotations; indeed I can't think of anything that doesn't, except perhaps "accident", but that has totally different unintended connotations. 
Accursed primitive human tendency to attribute supernatural causes to natural phenomenon! *shakes fist*
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| midtskogen | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 19:19 | Message # 1101 |
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| Quote (Watsisname) I've always thought seismology was really fascinating and now you're making me want to get an instrument, if not for the fact that I'd probably have a lot of local traffic noise interfering with it.
You can get the seismometer that I have here: http://www.mindsetsonline.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=9047
See the manual for details. The price seems to have gone a bit up since I bought mine 5 years ago, but I doubt that you can do it much cheaper building it from scratch using plumbing parts, etc. It's a perfect learn-as-you-go science project, and I still find it fascinating. Traffic noise is more a problem for geophones, not that much for a seismometer, since the seismometer is tuned to frequencies well below 1 Hz. I live 30 meters from a tram line and I only see passing trains on the geophones, but if I apply a lowpass filter at around 5-10 Hz, the noise mostly disappears. You will need to place the seismometer on the ground floor, but even then you're going to pick up noise from activity in the building. And you should protect the instrument from draft. I put it in a storeroom in the basement, a room we rarely enter, and I built a case for it with transparent sides. For logging I'm using an old NAS box (266 MHz ARM, 32 MB RAM) with the firmware replace with Debian Linux to avoid the hassle of a clunky PC.
Quote (HarbingerDawn) Do you think that one day we will ever have non-religious or non-mystical terminology to express such sentiments?
I don't know why English went for the mystical, religion only "stain with blood" word for this sentiment. Other languages loan the Latin "benedicere" word (translated in Scandinavian), which simply means "to speak well".
Frankly, I don't see the point of half-hearted attempts to change the language to avoid religious connotations, like changing BC to BCE (which still is a reference to the birth year of Jesus, roughly). A useful change in that case would be to change the zero point altogether (more correctly introduce a zero point, so we can do arithmetic across 1 AD) if there is an astronomical meaningful year 0 (and practical - years after the big bang is not very practical).
Quote (Watsisname) Accursed primitive human tendency to attribute supernatural causes to natural phenomenon! *shakes fist*
It's a way of ascribe meaning and purpose to the world. Science does to a degree the same thing, but rather order and predictability instead of meaning and purpose.
edit: I don't suggest that science is just another religion or something like that, but that it is in human nature to seek answers and that is the origin of both religion and science.
NIL DIFFICILE VOLENTI
Edited by midtskogen - Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 19:34 |
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| Watsisname | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 19:53 | Message # 1102 |
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| Quote (Watsisname) Quote (midtskogen)
You gain even more simply for living closer to the equator.
General Relativistic effect due to being farther from the center of mass almost perfectly cancels this out. (A strange coincidence). smile
Ooooh, I need to revisit this post. I started thinking about this a bit more and came to the realization that my understanding was horribly inadequate! I was right in saying that the two effects almost perfectly cancel out, but I was wrong in saying that it was a coincidence. It is not a coincidence at all.
It turns out that if the Earth were a perfect rotating fluid, such that its surface follows an equipotential surface, then there is no change in time dilation with latitude. I.e. on an ideal Earth with no topography, a clock at the equator will tick at exactly the same rate as a clock at one of the poles. Indeed, all clocks on the Earth would tick at the exact same rate.
On the real Earth, this happens to be an extremely good approximation, and the effect of changing one's altitude (e.g. living on a mountain vs sea level) is the most significant source of variation.
Midtskogen, thanks for the info on the seismometers.
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| HarbingerDawn | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 21:50 | Message # 1103 |
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Cosmic Curator
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| We appear to have set yet another all time attendance record a few hours ago with 133 visitors. I wish I knew where all of these people are coming from...
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| Spyro | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 22:07 | Message # 1104 |
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| I was right! The coversation DID in fact go like Steve swimming in a hallway, back and forth, for an entire hour! I think I can predict the future...
I'm back, but am I here to stay? Hopefully!
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| Disasterpiece | Date: Tuesday, 16.04.2013, 23:00 | Message # 1105 |
 World Builder
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| My window creaked ominously for about an hour before it shattered all of a sudden. Any scientific opinions on how it happened?
Temp was about 70 degrees, it had been that way for a while, no real wind. I'm utterly confused.
I play teh spase engien
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| Watsisname | Date: Wednesday, 17.04.2013, 00:03 | Message # 1106 |
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| Aliens? I'mma go with aliens. Board up your windows immediately so they can't get inside.
In seriousness, I can't really make any confident guesses, other than perhaps the house/wall just settled in such a way as to introduce a stress on the window pane until it failed. It's been known to happen on occasion.
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| werdnaforever | Date: Wednesday, 17.04.2013, 01:13 | Message # 1107 |
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| Sorry to bring this up... this may sound crazy, but... XKCD's previous whatif:
http://what-if.xkcd.com/40/
At least one of the bombs was a pressure cooker. Does anyone else think this is strange? Maybe the culprits read XKCD? I can't get it out of my head how weird this all is- it was posted a week ago, before the bombings.
EDIT: I'm serious, BTW
Added (17.04.2013, 04:13)
---------------------------------------------
What's the lowest star in space engine that's not in a cluster? I've found galaxy RS 0-0-0-0, Cluster RC 0-0-0-0-0, and Star RSC 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0, but that's still within a cluster.
Regarding the lowest star, I can't find anything. I'm not sure how many zeros to use. I've tried RS 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 and similar things to no avail.
EDIT: I've got dibs on any bases and colonization at that spot!
Edited by werdnaforever - Wednesday, 17.04.2013, 01:14 |
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| Disasterpiece | Date: Wednesday, 17.04.2013, 02:09 | Message # 1108 |
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| Quote (werdnaforever) I've got dibs on any bases and colonization at that spot!
Only if you can defeat the von neumann probes on Disastian origin! Mwah hahahaha! MWAH HAHAHAHA! HA HA HA!
I play teh spase engien
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| werdnaforever | Date: Wednesday, 17.04.2013, 02:20 | Message # 1109 |
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| Quote (Disasterpiece) Only if you can defeat the von neumann probes on Disastian origin! Mwah hahahaha! MWAH HAHAHAHA! HA HA HA!
I'll just use a computer virus
EDIT: Totally just realized there's a thread about the lowest planet. Someone can feel free to move my posts there since I don't have magic moderator powers
Edited by werdnaforever - Wednesday, 17.04.2013, 02:36 |
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| Disasterpiece | Date: Wednesday, 17.04.2013, 02:41 | Message # 1110 |
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World Builder
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| Quote (werdnaforever) I'll just use a computer virus
Thanks for making me feel ridiculously stupid. 
I play teh spase engien
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