thoughtso

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Are your backups good? by thoughtsoin sysadmin

[–]thoughtso[S] 7 points8 points ago

The actual command executed was 'rm -r -f *'

Gory details here.

Does it take longer to get thirsty in a humid environment, if all other factors are the same? by aedgar777in askscience

[–]thoughtso 1 point2 points ago

Thirst is a symptom of dehydration. And you actually become dehydrated faster in a hot humid environment than in a hot dry environment because your body has to sweat more to stay cool. This is because cooling via sweating is less efficient in a humid environment than in a dry environment.

This is the same reason that an evaporative cooler works well in desert climates but not in humid climates.

This article on thermal stress has a lot of good information on the topic.

TIL that the "rebel yell" that terrified the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War has been successfully reconstructed (and it's more terrifying than I'd ever imagined). by hamlet9000in todayilearned

[–]thoughtso 41 points42 points ago

The rebel yell in the video. (link goes to 3m13s into the video)

The sound of a group of chimpanzee's attacking and killing another chimpanzee. (link goes to 3m22s into the video)

A storm is coming by leatherlungsin pics

[–]thoughtso 4 points5 points ago

It's a composite fake. Snopes: The Imperfect Storm

After bathing... by iulwenin aww

[–]thoughtso 4 points5 points ago

I think he may have a future in Japanese animation.

If you are in a spherical room completely surrounded by a single light source, would there be a shadow? by jea15001in askscience

[–]thoughtso -1 points0 points ago

Yes.

To see this, first consider the total light arriving at any point on the sphere when you are not inside of it. It will be illuminated by all of the light arriving from the entire visible surface of the sphere.

Now place an opaque irregularly shaped object (you) in the middle of the sphere. Now the object is blocking the light arriving from behind it, and since it is adsorbing at least part of the light illuminating it, it will be dimmer than the background. So the exact brightness measured at any point of the sphere will be less than it would be if the object wasn't there.

That's a shadow.

Id like to know the statistics - Is 99% of reddit karma being held by 1% of reddit users? Are there any graphs or references which show how reddit money is divided? by Pelmeenin AskReddit

[–]thoughtso 10 points11 points ago

A Zero-Sum Game is one where a gain by one participant is exactly balanced by a matching loss for the other participants.

Are Americans truly less traveled than Europeans? Can we compare distances rather than number of countries? by DutchMeNowin askscience

[–]thoughtso 1 point2 points ago

You have to have a sense of scale to put that in context. Two years ago I drove to Utah from California and back. In the process I only traversed three states (California, Nevada, Utah) but traversed nearly 1200 kilometers each way (2400 km total).

That is almost exactly the same as driving from London, UK to Milan, Italy, and back, distance-wise.

At what point do you think that humans will be unable to comprehend their own theories and models about the universe? by NiallMcPaulSmellsin askscience

[–]thoughtso 1 point2 points ago

Do you think there will be a point at which very few people are capable of pushing the boundaries?

Advances at the edge of physics and technology require a level of creativity and skill that very few people can master. But that is true in any skilled profession.

If you were to talk about composing music the same thing is true. The best-of-the-best composers have skills that mere hard work is not enough to achieve. You need the skills honed by years of practicing your profession plus a spark of creative invention that no one knows how to teach and that has always been associated with high intelligence.

Most people can't be an Einstein. But most people can't be a Mozart or a Shakespeare, either.

Just so people can stop asking to wear them, this is how blind we are. by grizzlykidin pics

[–]thoughtso 0 points1 point ago

Rarely get that specific feeling because I don't even get out of bed without putting them on. Hard to lose them when you only take them off before turning off the light.

However, sitting on them and breaking them the day I was doing pistol qualifications in the Navy was...interesting. What was really funny is that I was aiming at the vague blur of a target and nearly qualified for sharpshooter. I had no idea what-so-ever whether I was even actually hitting the target until after we were done.

Rise In Scientific Journal Retractions Prompts Calls For Reform: "Dr. Casadevall...said he feared that science had turned into a winner-take-all game with perverse incentives that lead scientists to cut corners and, in some cases, commit acts of misconduct. 'This is a tremendous threat,' he said." by trot-trotin science

[–]thoughtso 3 points4 points ago

I find it disturbing that science journals in general are being repeatedly tarred with this when in fact the retraction problem is mostly in the medical/bio/psych related journals and articles.

Go to Retraction Watch and just view the journals and titles. Almost all of the retractions are med/bio/psych journals and articles. Even limitting yourself to the journals that are not traditionally med/bio/psych journals, most of those retractions are still med/bio articles.

Something smells in the med/bio/psych ecosystem for sure - but using a broad brush that this problem is endemic across all science journals is clearly not justified.

My fundie cousin needs proof the Earth is spinning, can I get a 'Like I'm 5' explanation? by mrstefin askscience

[–]thoughtso 1 point2 points ago

More directly, the earth has an equatorial bulge because of the spinning of the earth.

My fundie cousin needs proof the Earth is spinning, can I get a 'Like I'm 5' explanation? by mrstefin askscience

[–]thoughtso 1 point2 points ago

Not a good example. The Coriolis effect has no noticable impact on the scale of bathtubs and other similiarlly small motions.

My fundie cousin needs proof the Earth is spinning, can I get a 'Like I'm 5' explanation? by mrstefin askscience

[–]thoughtso 1 point2 points ago

Sorry about the wall of text, but...

Having skimmed the video here are the obvious flaws.

The "helicopter experiment" demonstrates that objects moving through air experience forces that tend to make them move at the same speed as the air. Since the truck is moving relative to the air when the helicopter is launched, the helicopter will soon come to a near halt relative to the air but not to the truck. If the same experiment (modulo needing a rocket instead of a helicopter) was done in a vacuum, the launched object would stay directly above the truck as it moved vertically. As someone else pointed out, another way to demonstrate it would be to launch the helicopter inside an enclosed truck. Since the air inside the truck is moving at the same speed as the truck, the helicopter will not slow to match the speed of the air outside the truck when launched.

Saying that clouds moving proves that the atmosphere doesn't perfectly co-move with the ground is true. But it is being driven by heating on one side from the Sun and radiation to space in every direct, and by the spinning of the earth.

Show him a Crookes radiometer. They spin because of the movement of gas within the bulb caused by differential heating from a light. This is, in a grossly simplified way, what the atmosphere of the earth does as well: It moves relative to the surface because different places are heating and cooling at different rates.

Then consider hurricanes. In the northern hemisphere they always spin counterclockwise. In the southern hemishere they always spin clockwise. This is a direct result of the earth spinning and is known as the Coriolis Effect.

The effect can also be seen in the deflection of artillery. When fired facing directly north, artillery is deflected to the east. When fired facing directly south, artillery is defected to the west. This would be a very tough to explain if the earth wasn't rotating.

Another elegant demonstration of the rotation of the earth are Foucalt pendulums. As the earth rotates, the plane of the pendulum's motion appears to move in the opposite direction.

As for his idea that the earth can't be rotating because we can't feel it - all you need to do is point to the international space station. It is moving at about 5 miles per second and yet the astronauts onboard don't feel the motion at all. What people feel is the 'jerk' (actual scientific term) of motion, not motion itself. When motion is smooth and and uniformly accelerated, you don't feel it at all.

Failing to see the forest for the trees by thoughtsoin climateskeptics

[–]thoughtso[S] 1 point2 points ago

Fair enough. I think it is probably time for me to take a break from here again.

Century old map throws new doubt on climate change sea level claims by AlyssaMoorein climateskeptics

[–]thoughtso -1 points0 points ago

Edit: You did realize, of course, that the all NZ average is not the same as the rate for a specific spot on the coast?

Century old map throws new doubt on climate change sea level claims by AlyssaMoorein climateskeptics

[–]thoughtso -2 points-1 points ago

Let's see...oceans rising approx 3 mm/year, land rising approx 1 mm/year (average for the entire NZ coast, not the specific for the spot in question) difference about 2 mm year.

Sounds right.

Century old map throws new doubt on climate change sea level claims by AlyssaMoorein climateskeptics

[–]thoughtso -1 points0 points ago

Steve Goddard couldn't find his own ass with a GPS and two seeing-eye dogs to help him.

He takes two photos completely disregarding the impact of tides, isostatic rebound, sea swell state, changes in local water currents, and all other things that can affect local water level *, shows that *at that exact instant the local water level was the apparently lower in the modern one and claims it proves something.

And even as far as his "challenge": The same rock, different angle, different day. Oh look - it's underwater.

Century old map throws new doubt on climate change sea level claims by AlyssaMoorein climateskeptics

[–]thoughtso -2 points-1 points ago

Dude - pay attention to the threading. I wasn't responding to you. I was responding to the idiocy AlyssaMoore linked to. Which was about New Zealand - not Tasmania.

But specifically regarding your 1841 marker at Port Arthur, John Daly was completely wrong.

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