The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXIII

[bhsup]

Steven Spielberg's "Obama"

That was funny! Stupid reporters at the dinner better laugh.

 

[warpus]

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187069-Activities-Manchester_Greater_Manchester_England.html

Greater Manchester's a great city. (If you like cities). Plenty of industrial archaelogy. Nightlife. Museums. Art galleries. A major part of the BBC is located there. Manchester United FC. Manchester City FC.

I'd recommend The Royal Exchange theatre (in the round), Museum of Science and Industry, The Lowry, The Comedy Store, Whitworth Art Gallery.

Very easy to get from Manchester to London by train or coach. Though the airport is located well out of the city, there are naturally easy and frequent transport links to and from it.

But then, it's a very long time since I was last there. And I can't say I miss the place. And I wouldn't call it a beautiful place - but I don't like cities anyway.

Yeah, I know about the 2 football clubs, and I hate them with a passion I would go to a game if the season was in full swing, but June is offseason.. I guess I could go visit Old Trafford or something and do a tour - that might be interesting.

Thanks for the other ideas, I will have to do some digging!

But I might just head straight to London, cause my time in Europe would be limited - I'd want to spend most time in places that I'm most interested in.. but who knows

Is there public transit from the airport to the main train station so that I could jump off the plane, get right on a bus, and then on a train, and end up in London that day?

Coaches are cheap and nasty. National Express and Megabus. Train is fast and nice but you have to book in advance. 76 quid on the gate but 12 quid if you book now for june.

12 quid, that sounds reasonable! Would you recommend a train from London to Amsterdam or Paris, or is flying better?

 

[Azale]

That was funny! Stupid reporters at the dinner better laugh.

"But I'm not him. I'm Daniel Day-Lewis."

That line is what got me.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Tracy Morgan could probably do an excellent job playing Biden.

 

[Borachio]

Is there public transit from the airport to the main train station so that I could jump off the plane, get right on a bus, and then on a train, and end up in London that day? Would you recommend a train from London to Amsterdam or Paris, or is flying better?

Manchester airport is well served.

http://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/manweb.nsf/Content/train

I think to get to London you go to Manchester Piccadilly station first.

And the Eurostar goes direct from London Waterloo (so named expressly to infuriate the French) to Paris, or Brussels.

 

[Peck of Arabia]

I thought the Eurostar goes from St Pancras now? That's where I caught it from, anyway.

 

[Borachio]

Well, then you're right. I wouldn't know. Except that it used to go from Waterloo.

 

[Cutlass]

Odd.

Maybe the outward pressure of the fusion and the inward pressure of gravity are sufficient so that the centrifical force is buried in the other forces.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Why does the Sun not bulge at the equator, like other stars and the Earth do?

It doesn't?

Apparently not. Though I've only just read it. In some book or other. So I've not checked it out, yet.

http://io9.com/5935742/its-official-the-sun-is-the-most-perfect-natural-sphere-ever-measured

Odd.

Isn't it just?!

I'm intrigued.

And it's period of rotation is ~26 days. So it should bulge quite a bit, I think.

Well maybe it's because the sun takes a month to revolve. I know buldges are due to centrifigal force due to rotation, maybe the sun rotates slowly enough that the buldge doesn't happen. I am not sure if a monthly period is fast or slow for a star though.

No. I don't think it's that. I think astronomers were expecting to observe more oblateness than there is. They don't seem to have an explanation for it yet. But I'd guess it shows something about the internal circulation.

It's called gravity, guys.

Granted, if gravity isn't the culprit, then

 

[Joecoolyo]

I thought the most perfectly spherical objects were neutron stars?

 

[Borachio]

That would make sense. But then a black hole would be an even better candidate, wouldn't it?

I suppose they're talking about objects which are readily measurable in terms of oblateness - or not. As far as I know there aren't many neutron stars nearby.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Well a black hole has zero volume, so I don't think that it can be spherical in shape.

And yeah, I can see that. I think the almost perfect sphere of a neutron star was just a result of a lot of theoretical math, though I'm not entirely certain.

 

[Farm Boy]

Are we sure a black hole has zero volume? To an outside observer would its volume not be measured by the event horizon?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The event horizon isn't the black hole (which is the singularity) though. The event horizon is just the point beyond which light cannot escape, I think.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Yeah, the even horizon is just the point in which light cannot escape.

I was talking more about the singularity at the center of the black hole, which I assume is the object that is creating the absurd gravity that is a black hole.

 

[Quackers]

I don't think national express is that bad tbh.
Coaches have changed a lot to the toilet-less ones in the 1980s. I travelled from Southampton to London on one once; it wasn't a long journey (two hours if i recall) but it was very comfortable. It was a hot summer too but the air conditioning made it nice.

 

[Ajidica]

Do European bus companies treat you better than the American ones? I think livestock get better treatment that I do while on the Megabus.

 

[Farm Boy]

Yeah, the even horizon is just the point in which light cannot escape.

I was talking more about the singularity at the center of the black hole, which I assume is the object that is creating the absurd gravity that is a black hole.

Couldn't you just about as easily determine the volume of the singularity as infinite then? Since there is no maximum at all as to the amount of light/matter than you can pour into it?

 

[Quackers]

I know people who've travelled back home on Megabus and they think it was terrible.

NE though, not a problem for me. Ideally, take trains, they are my favourite mode of transport. You pass through some glorious old train stations; i've made many a journey on trains in this country and the red brick stations are glorious

Trains are incredibly safe too and you can buy beer on them, thats awesome.

 

[warpus]

Do European bus companies treat you better than the American ones? I think livestock get better treatment that I do while on the Megabus.

The best bus service I've been on was in South America. North American city2city bus service sucks butt compared to it. Couldn't compare it to European bus lines, but..