Drive by science

[Ari]

Related, you don't know how much it annoys me that scientists like to give the names of people to things, sometimes not even the person who discovered it. Which is fine for fundamental particles or other things but once it gets into complex laws I would love there to be something in the name that even slightly hints towards whats in that law. It sometimes feels like scientists make this stuff more complex and obfuscated than it really needs to be.

[ceptimus]

You probably don't like Cole's Law then Ari. It's shredded cabbage with salad dressing.

[BrotherMan]

There's a Fly in my Wine! - YouTube

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by ceptimus

That's really Charles's Law mixed with Boyle's. Charles's Law is normally stated given constant pressure and mass: then the volume varies with (absolute) temperature.

Boyle's Law is about the inverse relationship between pressure and volume given constant temperature and mass.

I'm not a rocket surgeon.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

There's a Fly in my Wine! - YouTube

The more important question is how much of it did the wee bastard drink

[LarsMac]

So, now, It's YouTube's fault people are ignorant?

BBC:YouTube aids flat earth conspiracy theorists, research suggests

YouTube is playing a significant role in convincing some people that the Earth is flat, research suggests.

A study quizzed people at flat earth conferences and found most cited videos viewed on the site as a key influence.

They were won over by videos which claimed to amass evidence proving the Earth was not a spherical planet.

YouTube needed to do a better job of ensuring visitors get accurate information alongside such videos, said the researcher behind the study.

"There's a lot of helpful information on YouTube but also a lot of misinformation," Prof Asheley Landrum from Texas Tech University, who carried out the study, told The Guardian.

The algorithms the site used to guide people to topics they might be interested in made it easy to "end up down the rabbit hole" of misinformation, said Prof Landrum.

"Believing the Earth is flat is of itself is not necessarily harmful, but it comes packaged with a distrust in institutions and authority more generally," she added.

The study involved interviews with 30 attendees at two conferences.

Questioning revealed YouTube had suggested the flat earth videos after attendees had watched other clips at home about conspiracy theories.

Some said they only watched the videos to criticise them but were won over by the arguments being advanced. The results from Prof Landrum's study were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Science this weekend.

Prof Landrum said there was a need for scientists and science advocates to produce their own YouTube videos that answered and debunked the claims of flat earthers and conspiracy theorists.

"The only tool we have to battle misinformation is to try and overwhelm it with better information," said Prof Landrum.

So YouTube has helped the Dumbing Down of the populace by showing stupid people stupid shit?

[JoeP]

Yeah, people were stupid before and will be stupid whatever online platforms do.

But this:

YouTube had suggested the flat earth videos after attendees had watched other clips at home about conspiracy theories.

That's a choice YouTube makes, to increase views, and it definitely doesn't need to do that. It's not OK to make money by actively promoting stupidity.

The same could be said about many other platforms. And channels.

[Ari]

I'm now curious about flat earth videos, may your thetans pray for me!

Although I agree, the algorithmn can be aggressive. In theory if you remove things from your history youtube will act like you didn't view them when suggesting new things. I've learned this after watching what a couple MRA videos said and suddenly my whole feed was covered in angry foaming at the mouth literal neck beards, like their face was clean shaven, it was only their neck that had beard length hair. It was all very unpleasant, but I can see for the general public that just keeps clicking through to things how suddenly everyone seems to be MRAs and one of them has said something they want to hear more about and down the hole they go.

[Corona688]

Originally Posted by LarsMac

So YouTube has helped the Dumbing Down of the populace by showing stupid people stupid shit?

I'd believe it. Filter bubbles. For a while, youtube was showing me every perpetual-motion scam it had because I accidentally got led to one from a friend. Do that to someone impressionable instead of [s]jaded[/s] skeptical, and what do you get?

[Kyuss Apollo]

Latest Weather at Elysium Planitia

InSight is taking daily weather measurements (temperature, wind, pressure) on the surface of Mars at Elysium Planitia, a flat, smooth plain near Mars’ equator.

[Crumb]

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-planet.html

Originally Posted by phys.org

"My favorite characteristic of the Planet Nine hypothesis is that it is observationally testable," Batygin says. "The prospect of one day seeing real images of Planet Nine is absolutely electrifying. Although finding Planet Nine astronomically is a great challenge, I'm very optimistic that we will image it within the next decade."

[JoeP]

That is indeed p. interesting.

But I have questions. Which are more important than the work I've overdue with.

1. It's "Planet X"! Even if X=9. Such a missed opportunity.

2. Why did they include Pluto, but not Ceres (which was also considered a full planet for quite a while) or Eris (which is bigger)?

3.

Originally Posted by Crumb

Is it though? There is the potential for it to be verified by observation. The same could be said of Bigfoot. And [select attribute] of [select politician].

Can it be disproven by observation though? The article doesn't seem to say that they'll eventually work out its orbit and position in that orbit, and be able to see it, or not, in a predicted position. And there are many reasons why that might not be feasible.

[JoeP]

[SR71]

[Ari]

Originally Posted by JoeP

2. Why did they include Pluto,

Because for at least the next few decades all science articles will need to include "Also pluto!" out of fear their comments section will become "What about Pluto!" "How dare you demote pluto!" and on and on.

[JoeP]

I knew that.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Ancient Alien Theorists: There’s no way humans could have moved these giant statues.

Archaeologists: Have you tried.

AAT: Didn’t you hear me, there’s no way people could do it!!!

A: Okay, because we tried it, and it’s not that hard.

AAT: WHY ARE YOU SO CLOSED MINDED!!! pic.twitter.com/hkdOj2QXj3

— David S. Anderson (@DSAArchaeology) March 22, 2019

[JoeP]

THAT STATUE IS WALKING BY ITSELF

even though those guys with ropes are trying to hold it down

[Basset Hound]

Can planet Nine be named Mickey Mouse. He's bigger than Pluto.

[The Man]

A couple of weeks old now, but:

ALMA observes the formation sites of solar-system-like planets

This sort of thing has never been observed before, so we’ll probably learn a lot about how our own solar system might have formed.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

CERN Scientist: Well we've got some good news and bad news.

Me: Bad news first.

CERN: Parallel dimensions exist, and out of all of them we are definitely in the darkest timeline.

Me: Dang... What's the good news.

CERN: We're dimension #69.

Me: Nice.

CERN: Nice.

— Tal Waterhouse (@iiTalW) March 30, 2019

[JoeP]

I assume you heard about India's loudly publicised test destruction of one of its own satellites, which is clearly nothing to do with the forthcoming elections there.

And now, the consequences ...

NASA says space junk from India destroying missile could threaten ISS - Business Insider

NASA said that India has threatened the International Space Station and the astronauts on board by shooting down a satellite with a missile.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the satellite shattered into small pieces of space junk that pose an "unacceptable" threat to astronauts and called it a "terrible, terrible thing."
India said it deliberately chose to destroy a satellite in low orbit so the debris would not harm the station and other satellites, and said the debris would fall back to earth.
But Bridenstine said that pieces were moving above the station, and "that kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight."

Presumably if this isn't just posturing, we'll see talk about evacuating the ISS. Is Sandra Bullock available?

Also at NASA: India anti-satellite missile test a 'terrible thing' says chief - CNN, Nasa: India's satellite destruction could endanger ISS - BBC News.

The space agency's chief, Jim Bridenstine, said that the risk of debris colliding with the ISS had risen by 44% over 10 days due to the test.

However he said: "The international space station is still safe. If we need to manoeuvre it we will."

So it "poses an unacceptable threat" but "the ISS is still safe".

Anyway, watch this simulation:

2019 Indian Anti-Satellite Weapon Test - Updated...

[But]

First direct image of a black hole:

National Science Foundation/Event Horizon...

[The Man]

So this is apparently a thing:

For The First Time, Physicists Have Managed to Measure Precisely Absolutely Nothing

I don't think I really understand the story, but I gather it's got something to do with the waves in a vacuum. Or something of that nature. Maybe TLR or fragment or someone else who understands physics better than I do can elucidate. I know just enough to be dangerous (metaphorically, that is - I doubt I could actually use my physics knowledge to harm someone).

[JoeP]

I thank that with the force of a punch from a non-moving fist.