What have you learned today?

Xprimentyl

Xprimentyl

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TheMysteriousGX said:
Psa

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This is actually good to know. Might test out some homemade mosquito traps for our backyard; maybe hang a chunk of dry ice from our new bug zapper. Then again, Murphy's Law, I'll probably just end up attracting more pests to our general vicinity than I'll actually kill. And my clumsy ass, I'll end up with frostbite in Texas in June which I don't think any nearby urgent care facilities is prepared to deal with.
 
Thaluikhain

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Hmmm, CO2 is poisonous in large doses, do it right and the same stuff that attracts bugs could kill them. Unless they can detect the amount of CO2 as well as its presence and get warned off.
 
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gorfias

gorfias

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twistedmic

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Apparently there is a large number of people that believe New Mexico is not a part of the United States. And there are people that think the District of Colombia (DC) is part of Colombia.
 
The Rogue Wolf

The Rogue Wolf

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hanselthecaretaker said:
www.health.harvard.edu

Cognitive effects in midlife of long-term cannabis use - Harvard Health

As more US states have legalized recreational cannabis or passed medical cannabis laws, public perception that cannabis is a harmless substance is growing. But its long-term benefits and ris...
www.health.harvard.edu www.health.harvard.edu

I mean, we all kinda already knew but only now are starting to see studies confirm it.
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Of course it's not harmless; it's an intoxicant (which you can't spell without "toxic"). But alcohol and tobacco also have deleterious long-term effects and we've been just fine with those for centuries.
 
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Bedinsis

Bedinsis

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Xprimentyl said:
That Greenland is larger than the continental United States, yet the population is less than 60K. Not that I ever knew that much about Greenland to begin with, just an interesting factoid. Comparatively, Iceland is a fraction of the size of Greenland, and their population is over 366K. I'm guessing Greenland isn't readily habitable.
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What? No!
The area of Greenland is 2.2 million square kilometres.
The area of continental US is 8.1 million square kilometres.
Where did you get this "factoid"?
 
Bedinsis

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Xprimentyl said:
Doth my eyes deceive me then? Looks like the contiguous 48 could fit easily in the Greenland island.
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Your eyes are indeed deceived; the fact that the Mercator projection makes areas close to the poles look bigger is often illustrated by that many schoolchildren think that Greenland could give Africa a run for the money in the size compartment yet in real life Africa is vastly larger.

To illustrate this: zoom in somewhere on the equator on Google Maps(a map which uses the Mercator projection), drag yourself northwards and see how the scale in the lower right corner changes as you go further north.
 
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Xprimentyl

Xprimentyl

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Bedinsis said:
Your eyes are indeed deceived; the fact that the Mercator projection makes areas close to the poles look bigger is often illustrated by that many schoolchildren think that Greenland could give Africa a run for the money in the size compartment yet in real life Africa is vastly larger.

To illustrate this: zoom in somewhere on the equator on Google Maps(a map which uses the Mercator projection), drag yourself northwards and see how the scale in the lower right corner changes as you go further north.
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Well...
Guess I don't need to post that I learned this today since I'm already in the thread for that. Still, to be a fourth the size and effectively 0% of the US population is something I still found interesting. Not that I expected it to be "millions of people," but certainly not as low as it is. That's like having a 10 bedroom mansion for your pet guinea pig.
 
Thaluikhain

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Xprimentyl said:
Guess I don't need to post that I learned this today since I'm already in the thread for that. Still, to be a fourth the size and effectively 0% of the US population is something I still found interesting. Not that I expected it to be "millions of people," but certainly not as low as it is. That's like having a 10 bedroom mansion for your pet guinea pig.
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If you like that, there's lots of that around, for example, look at the population densities of Asia (especially south east Asia) compared to the rest of the world.
 
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Bedinsis

Bedinsis

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Thaluikhain said:
If you like that, there's lots of that around, for example, look at the population densities of Asia (especially south east Asia) compared to the rest of the world.
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One example would be how Libya and Egypt are neighbouring countries and Libya has almost twice the area, and population wise there are 7 million Libyans and 103 million Egyptians.
Another would be how half of the Indonesian population lives on the island of Java, making it the most highly populated island in the world.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Johnny Novgorod

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Shamash-shum-ukin apparently set himself on fire when his brother's (Ashurbanipal) forces took Babylon from him. But since fratricide would've been punishable by death even if Ashurbanipal's forces executed Shamash without his knowledge or command, it's possible that Shamash was written off as a suicide to rid Ashurbanipal of any guilt. Either way most records associate Shamash with a great fire.

Ashurbanipal was the last "great king" of Assyria and ruled for 38 years. His son ruled briefly after him, followed by a eunuch usurper that lasted 3 months, followed by the actual last king of Assyria.
 
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TheMysteriousGX

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Probably the best West Wing clip


(yeah, I know, you can't actually map a oblate spheroid onto a 2d map, but we can do better)
 
Worgen

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Don't fuck around with fractal wood burning and youtube can reupload your vids.

 
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