Ian Kenway @iankenway@social.cleverlibre.org

*Noon Time*

When I stop to think of "noon"
Either midwinter or in June.
The sun is overhead
Not an hour off instead.

That's why I like "standard time"
It's like a well done rhyme
When noon is in it's proper place.
With the sun straight up in space.

#SmallPoems
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Interesting fact of the day: The same effect that cuased light in a prism to split up into different colors is what ultimately caused the first transatlantic telegraphic wire in 1858 to fail.

Morse code is transmitted as on-off signals, effectively square waves. Square waves are in fact made up of many different frequencies. Like in a prism different frequencies move at different speeds through a wire. Therefore as the on-off pulses traveled through the transatlantic telegraph wire the signal spread out like it does in a prism and ultimately the pulses would overlap and be indistinguishable.

The effect was so extreme that it took a message of only 98 words (the first message sent) over 67 minutes to send one way and a whopping 16 hours to confirm the message.

Whitehouse, a doctor with little mathematical understanding, thought he could solve the problem by increasing voltage, which we now know was a futile effort. He increased the voltage to the point he managed to short out the cable entirely and made it useless. However Lord Kelvin had already warned of the problem as was ignored and he came up with the law of squares to describe the problem which later was refined to give us the telegraphers equation. The telegraphers equation is still used today to model feedlines in radio transmitters and receivers.

#Science #STEM #Physics #History @Science #QOTOJournal

Discovery of #Pompeii slaves’ room sheds rare light on real #Roman life | #Italy | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/06/discovery-of-pompeii-slaves-room-sheds-rare-light-on-real-roman-life

#Archaeology #History

This is a picture of the first moments of a nuclear explosion taken in 1952. The blast radius at this moment is less than 20 meters wide.

There are so many extraordinary things about this photo. First off the fact that they had a camera in the 1950's capable of such insanely high speed frame rates (they created a movie from this) that it was capable of 1,000,000 frames per second. In many ways that is more impressive than the nuclear bomb itself.

Second the fact that you can see, in real time, a nuclear explosion as it happens. Those spikes at the bottom are called the "rope trick effect" which is caused by the support cables inside or holding up the bomb. The light radiation is so intense it vaporizes anything nearby causing things to explode just from the intensity of the light itself (before radiation has any effect at all). So those spikes are literally just the support cables exploding in the extraordinarily bright light from the bomb.

#Science #STEM #Physics #History @Science

I remembered this epic quote from Good Will Hunting and now I need to watch it again:

You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart.

A quick little clip from this weekends cave diving session. Went down about 100 feet into this cave system. #SCUBA

https://youtu.be/i8s6nJ53b-g

"The things we fear the most have already happened to us" -- Robin Williams

#Quote #RobinWilliams #Fear

Good Will Hunting was an **amazing** movie and this analysis of the first therapy scene was really insightful. Really appreciated this:

https://youtu.be/fsIbs7mR0CE

#GoodWillHunting

Someone needs to make a movie called "Bad Won't escaping" about a troubled psychiatrist who finds help from his well adjusted client struggling with the loss of his wife.

#Covid-19 virus does not infect #human #BrainCells, study suggests | #MedicalResearch | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/03/covid-19-virus-does-not-infect-human-brain-cells-new-study-suggests

#Science #Pathology

#Meat #carcasses sent to #EU for #butchering amid #UK #WorkerShortage | #Food & drink #industry | The Guardian

#Brexit going as well as can be expected, I see.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/03/meat-carcasses-sent-to-eu-for-butchering-amid-uk-worker-shortage

#UK #Politics

#QAnon is just astrology for meth heads.

What does #tech take from us? Meet the writer who has counted 100 big losses | #Internet | The Guardian

Some advantages of eschewing #StreamingServices.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/nov/03/what-does-tech-take-from-us-meet-the-writer-who-has-counted-100-big-losses

Top climate scientists are sceptical that nations will rein in global warming

Nature conducted an anonymous survey of the 233 living #IPCC authors last month and received responses from 92 scientists — about 40% of the group. Their answers suggest strong scepticism that governments will markedly slow the pace of #GlobalWarming, despite political promises made by international leaders as part of the 2015 #ParisClimateAgreement.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02990-w

Nearly 300 dead today and over 1000 admitted to hospital with Covid-19. Great job by the Tories.

#UK #Pandemic #Coronavirus #Sarcasm

#MartinRowson on #RishiSunak’s ‘age of optimism’ #budget – #cartoon | Opinion | The Guardian

Marking as #NSFW on grounds of taste.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2021/oct/27/martin-rowson-on-rishi-sunaks-age-of-optimism-budget-cartoon

#UK #Politics #Satire