Humor Random Comments Thread

[Linguofreak]

Ba ba black sheep is a really weird specimen of poetry.

It's got medieval/modern European style rhyming, old Germanic meter with four stresses per line and no pattern in the unstressed syllables, and a good amount of Germanic-style alliteration, but not in keeping with the usual rules about which stresses in the line could alliterate with each other.

 

[Urwumpe]

Ba ba black sheep is a really weird specimen of poetry.

It's got medieval/modern European style rhyming, old Germanic meter with four stresses per line and no pattern in the unstressed syllables, and a good amount of Germanic-style alliteration, but not in keeping with the usual rules about which stresses in the line could alliterate with each other.

So you mean, it could orgin from a transition period between old Germanic style literature and poetry and medieval poetry? And thus, must have happened somewhere in the phase between Beowulf and Parsival? and of course, far earlier than the tales of Chaucer or the German Neidhard tales. Maybe happened at the same time as the Nibelungen saga was written in Germany? (Which shared a similar mix of old and new style elements)

 

[Linguofreak]

So you mean, it could orgin from a transition period between old Germanic style literature and poetry and medieval poetry? And thus, must have happened somewhere in the phase between Beowulf and Parsival? and of course, far earlier than the tales of Chaucer or the German Neidhard tales. Maybe happened at the same time as the Nibelungen saga was written in Germany? (Which shared a similar mix of old and new style elements)

Maybe, but the language in the song is decently modern and it's not attested before the mid 1700s. That doesn't say that it can't have an unwritten provenance going back much further, but the whole thing is just generally weird.

 

[jedidia]

Maybe, but the language in the song is decently modern and it's not attested before the mid 1700s. That doesn't say that it can't have an unwritten provenance going back much further, but the whole thing is just generally weird.

Reading up on it, apparently some think it might go back to the old wool tax, which goes as far back as 1275, which would indeed be contemporary with the mentioned Niebelungenlied.

 

[Matias Saibene]

What is this GUI?

Me trying to understand how to configure a joystick in Orbiter Linux:

 

[Urwumpe]

Me trying to understand how to configure a joystick in Orbiter Linux:
View attachment 34906

Did you try already

sudo - joyconf --all --auto --noout --z-axis=i4 -vtrxf orbiter.mapping /dev/hid/joy0

At least that worked on RHEL 3.1

 

[Matias Saibene]

Did you try already

sudo - joyconf --all --auto --noout --z-axis=i4 -vtrxf orbiter.mapping /dev/hid/joy0

At least that worked on RHEL 3.1

 

[Notebook]

Just wondering, why is Germany blowing up bridges?

Moment bridge brought down in controlled explosion in Germany

Explosives placed on the pillars brought down the 135m long bridge in seconds.

www.bbc.com

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

Just wondering, why is Germany blowing up bridges?

Moment bridge brought down in controlled explosion in Germany

Explosives placed on the pillars brought down the 135m long bridge in seconds.

www.bbc.com

Well, our infrastructure did not age very well. The governments did not spend much attention in the past.

But meanwhile they are picking up...

This will be the next one in my region... (the longest road bridge in Germany made of steel, almost 60 years old; building of a new one is going to start next year)

While we are talking about bridges, this one is the highest railroad bridge in Germany, also in my region; 107 meters tall, built in the 1890s.

Müngsten Bridge - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I crossed it with my train during route diversions a few times already. Quite breathtaking, especially in the morning...

 

[Notebook]

I've noticed my toaster always delivers toast with a concave and convex side. Useful for buttering and spreads of all types of course.
Would this b,e due to unequal heating of the sides? It doesn't appear to get worse during cooling after removing from the toaster.

The toaster is designed for a wide range of thickness, so the bread does lean to one side during toasting. I suppose a calibrated toaster with some mild compression of the bread so each side gets equal toasting, would rule out the asymmetric heating. Any concavity would then have to happen during cooling?.

Should I get out more

 

[Linguofreak]

The toaster is designed for a wide range of thickness, so the bread does lean to one side during toasting. I suppose a calibrated toaster with some mild compression of the bread so each side gets equal toasting, would rule out the asymmetric heating. Any concavity would then have to happen during cooling?.

My bet is uneven heating between the inside and outside, followed by buckling towards one side caused by slight assymetries in the initial state. I don't think we're actually seeing thermal expansion here, but actually contraction due to water loss. So it's probably among the line of "Outer shell dries and contracts, interior remains moist. Structural failure occurs on one side of shell, so there is nothing to resist further contraction of the other side. Bread bends towards the side that did not fail." Assuming that this is all drying-driven, the cooling phase would be irrelevant as most drying would occur during heating.

I don't know about "calibrated", but our toaster secures the bread in place with mild compression (to avoid the jamming problems of older models) and toasts it vertically, and we still get this.

 

[Notebook]

You could test that by using bread of various thickness, and measure the concavity versus thickness?
Maybe drying the slices in the oven to remove any moisture, then toasting?

 

[N_Molson]

 

[Matias Saibene]

I'm still on 2016 too. What are the 'cool kids' using today, and what are the improvements done ? I must say I'm a bit lost.

I believe the good Dr. Schweiger made Orbiter open source, and there are a couple of forks that I am aware of, but I haven't done much investigating. I don't know what the "official" version is anymore.

As far as I know these are the official builds, OpenOrbiter for Windows:
https://github.com/orbitersim/orbiter/releases/

And of course OpenOrbiter (a.k.a XOrbiter or OrbiterLinux) for Linux:
https://www.orbiter-forum.com/threads/linux-playground.40476/

 

[jedidia]

I've read up on EVA procedures a bit today, and I'm left wondering about something. Astronauts have to pre-breathe before EVA, similar to divers. That's because the pressure in the suit will be significantly lower in order to be able to work better in it, so they need to get the nitrogen out of their blood.
However, since they are then capable of doing 8 hours of strenuous work at that pressure, I have to wonder why the whole ISS isn't just kept at that lower pressure, and people rebreathe on their way up and then don't have to worry about it for the rest of their stay. I assume there would be ill effects from being in that lowered pressure for extended periods of time, but I don't know the first thing about medicine, so I thought I'd ask around here:
What is the exact reason the whole station isn't just kept at a lower pressure?

 

[Urwumpe]

What is the exact reason the whole station isn't just kept at a lower pressure?

Reduced fire risk compared to a pure-oxygen environment. Note that also the Space Shuttle uses the same atmosphere composition as well for that reason. Also, the nitrogen improves the air cooling of the electrical components in the spacecraft.

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

Yeah, like Urwumpe said. A 100% oxygen environment is rather risky. Apollo 1 was quite a lesson I think. I don't remember the numbers. They had different pressures during prelaunch and ascent afaik. For the Shuttle it was 14.7 psi.

Also very interesting is the evolution of space suits from Mercury to Artemis. I am reading this currently I never focused on space suits before but while finally getting proper knowledge I think space suits are as interesting as spacecraft actually. Especially in case of Artemis and future missions on Mars.

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

By the way, just read that the cabin pressure of the Apollo Lunar Module was only 3.5 psi. I guess this was due to its lightweight construction?

 

[Urwumpe]

By the way, just read that the cabin pressure of the Apollo Lunar Module was only 3.5 psi. I guess this was due to its lightweight construction?

No, that is simply the partial pressure of oxygen + trace gases in our atmosphere, 24 kPa or 24% of the normal sea level pressure.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

By the way, just read that the cabin pressure of the Apollo Lunar Module was only 3.5 psi. I guess this was due to its lightweight construction?

If anything the causality was reversed - using only O2 at its partial pressure allowed a much lighter pressure hull. They were also doing EVAs so they were pretty much pre-breathing for the entire flight.

Even under 3.5 psia, the LM structure was so light that it "inflated" rather like how a thin metal soda can becomes rigid under pressure. 3.5 psi is still 500 pounds per square foot or 24,000 Newtons per square meter.