Madelaine McMasters Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said: To further point out the scaremongering tactics of some environmentalists, that study appears to have included "road dust"...dirt kicked up into the air by the passage of vehicles. There's no way in hell THAT will ever get mitigated unless we start sluicing off all the roads daily, or maybe forget vehicles altogether and just walk from place to place the way God intended. Some people really think we should all still be hunter gatherers, with a world population of a few million at most. Anyway, Maddy...your storehouse is full of potentially USEFUL information. So, fixed that for you. https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/saharan-dust-blows-across-atlantic Death to camels!!! Edited March 12, 2020 by Madelaine McMasters 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolig Loon Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 There is a handful of basic physical constants that any scientist commits to memory. Avagadro's number is one of the more useful ones, along with the speed of light in a vacuum (2.99 x 10^9 m/sec), but there are another 15 or 20 that are part of the normal toolbox. There are also several handy approximations that are worth having at your fingertips, like the number of seconds in a year ( very close to PI x 10^7) and the mass of the Earth (6 x 10^24 kg). Each branch of the sciences has its own valuable numbers as well, as does each community of engineers. We keep those numbers at the front of our minds, or at least in a handy cheat sheet or sticky note. They are the scientist's equivalent of having a repertoire of familiar characters, quotes, and plot lines from literature if you happen to be in the Humanities. Regrettably, as C.P. Snow pointed out almost 75 years ago, scientists are much more likely to be familiar with the humanists' canon than humanists are to be familiar with the basics of the sciences. Even sadder, it's almost a point of pride on both sides of the culture gulf to be ignorant of what happens on the other side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 49 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said: Yeah, when they taught it in chemistry class, I never really did get Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 10**23 atoms per mole). We called it "Avocado's Number". But while the number is weird, the concept is not. Chemists wanted a way to be able to go from looking at atoms and molecules to doing experiments with real-world amounts of substances. So, a "mole" of anything is that substance's atomic weight, in grams. Gasoline is C8H18...eight atoms of carbon and eighteen atoms of hydrogen. Carbon has atomic weight 12, and hydrogen is 1 (from the periodic table, don't you know). So we add up the atomic weights of all the atoms in the gasoline molecule...(8 x 12) + (18 x 1) = 114. A "mole" of gasoline is then 114 grams. There are 6.02x10**23 molecules of gasoline in that 114 grams, but we don't even have to think about that; no one's counting atoms*. The important point is 1 mole of anything, in grams = atomic weight of the thing. *No chemists, I mean. Chemists weigh stuff in balances. Physicists DO count atoms; in fact, they count quarks. Quark! Quark! I never had the luxury of being able to take chemistry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 The current pandemic reminds me of the Heinlein story where people had to go naked to prove they didn't have alien controllers on their back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 I want to open a new thread so we can have a place to post about it without a lot of arguing but LL shut down the other one even though the storm had passed so I'm too chicken now. Anyway, here's an article that, considering the northern hemisphere is heading into spring and the southern hemisphere is heading into cooler weather, has some interesting information other's may be interested in knowing. https://medium.com/@ra.hobday/coronavirus-and-the-sun-a-lesson-from-the-1918-influenza-pandemic-509151dc8065 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madelaine McMasters Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 8 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said: https://medium.com/@ra.hobday/coronavirus-and-the-sun-a-lesson-from-the-1918-influenza-pandemic-509151dc8065 Some years ago, I listened to an NPR Newsmaker Luncheon speech by the Surgeon General of the Army. He quipped that the problem with hospitals is "we build them indoors". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 44 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said: Some years ago, I listened to an NPR Newsmaker Luncheon speech by the Surgeon General of the Army. He quipped that the problem with hospitals is "we build them indoors". I'm gonna add to that. We build them without patient access to the outdoors. Something that has always bugged the heck out of me and why I avoid hospitals if I have another choice that is lower risk. Like, at home with the windows open periodically. I always air my home periodically. Something I picked up from my mother 50 years ago. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMe Jewell Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Typical Colorado - Nice spring like days for the last week and then a rain/snow mix predicted for the first official day of spring tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 @Love Zhaoying We lost Odin. 😢 https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/game-of-thrones-direwolf-dog-dies-following-cancer-battle/ar-BB11OlhB 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 3 hours ago, Selene Gregoire said: @Love Zhaoying We lost Odin. 😢 https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/game-of-thrones-direwolf-dog-dies-following-cancer-battle/ar-BB11OlhB Meanwhile at home.. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindal Kidd Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said: Meanwhile at home.. "I'm Insane!""I'm happy!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 5 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said: "I'm Insane!""I'm happy!" Basically! 😹😻 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selene Gregoire Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Apropos of nothing... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMe Jewell Posted April 9, 2020 Share Posted April 9, 2020 Maybe it's time to go back to my roots - might be able to pull in some big bucks for it this time around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMe Jewell Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Wasn't sure where to post this, so just figured I'd dump it here. @Scylla Rhiadra - I discovered another Scylla today. A witch on the TV series 'Motherland: Fort Salem" and she pronounces her name as Silla. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scylla Rhiadra Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 22 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said: she pronounces her name as Silla. Well, of course she does, dahling. I hadn't heard of the series; it looks fun? I have to say, though, the actress they cast for the part -- Amalia Holm? -- doesn't look at all like me. Really, they could at least have called me about my availability. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleMe Jewell Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 11 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said: I hadn't heard of the series; it looks fun? Not bad so far - definitely an interesting twist on witchcraft. For any new series, I tend to record a bunch of episodes before I watch it, so I binged the first 6 episodes yesterday. It was good enough to keep me watching. The bigger tell will be when I have a lot of other stuff queued up, will I go straight to this show or wait until I've exhausted all of the others. Often I don't even know until I'm at that point. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Did this thread really deserve to whither, to die? Was not being a "central derail" thread enough reason to continue? I mourn thee, O thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindal Kidd Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted July 12, 2020 Share Posted July 12, 2020 "Hiring Cuties" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annalise Evergarden Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silent Mistwalker Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 On 7/11/2020 at 9:50 AM, Lindal Kidd said: 10 hours ago, Whorrid said: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drakonadrgora Darkfold Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 On 7/13/2020 at 9:28 PM, Silent Mistwalker said: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Love Zhaoying Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 Wake up, wake up! Live again, O Thread! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindal Kidd Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 (edited) Edited April 12, 2022 by Lindal Kidd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
Flickr
Recommended Posts
Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now