TIL: Today I Learned

[Truthy]

TIL about the USS Scorpion

This a good readable story on it. True or not.
It concludes with:
To this day the OSC has never acknowledged that Scorpion’s loss was caused by an internal torpedo explosion or even that she had carried one of the flawed batteries. But one year after the loss, OSC did order a redesign of the battery for the next generation of torpedoes. This year marked the 50th anniversary of Scorpion’s loss without a solid answer for the crew’s families.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/mysterious-sad-story-doomed-submarine-uss-scorpion-69297?page=0,1

TIL of Bayesian search theory, which was used to find a missing hydrogen bomb, the Scorpion, Air France 447, and other things lost at sea.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Can you share some of the better theories?

The most realistic theory is a ship's battery explosion. The torpedo battery theory is popular, but by design if the torpedo battery explosion punched a hole in the torpedo room and flooded it completely the boat could still surface, and the wreckage doesn't support the torpedo battery setting off the full charge of a torpedo inside the torpedo room. The best conspiracy theory is that the Scorpion intruded on a Soviet exercise and was sunk by mistake, and the US covered it up to avoid escalating the cold war into a life ending hot war. The best fictional theory is in a novel called To Kill the Potemkin.

 

[Truthy]

The most realistic theory is a ship's battery explosion. The torpedo battery theory is popular, but by design if the torpedo battery explosion punched a hole in the torpedo room and flooded it completely the boat could still surface, and the wreckage doesn't support the torpedo battery setting off the full charge of a torpedo inside the torpedo room. The best conspiracy theory is that the Scorpion intruded on a Soviet exercise and was sunk by mistake, and the US covered it up to avoid escalating the cold war into a life ending hot war. The best fictional theory is in a novel called To Kill the Potemkin.

And so the theory goes that the US didn't use the Glomar to raise the Scorpion because that would have revealed that the Soviets were responsible?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

And so the theory goes that the US didn't use the Glomar to raise the Scorpion because that would have revealed that the Soviets were responsible?

Right. Another conspiracy theory that leads to the same place goes that the Scorpion was scuttled as a quid pro quo to appease the Soviets, and that's what they don't want revealed. People today might not see how at the time these escalation avoidance theories could get any traction, but the cold war military wasn't like most depictions of the military. No one was from the 'gung ho, let's get this party started' camp. Everyone on my boat knew that if we got caught somewhere we didn't belong our number one priority was to somehow make it all our fault and take the consequences. The US wasn't going to war for us, and we didn't want it to. If that war went hot it was a world ender, and we all knew it. So the idea that the US might order a sub scuttled with all hands, and that they would do it...it was plausible.

 

[Berzerker]

now this is scary

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-01-obesity-heart-disease-diabetes-communicable.html

The authors base their hypothesis on connections between three distinct lines of evidence. First, they demonstrate that people with a wide range of conditions, from obesity and inflammatory bowel disease to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, have altered microbiomes. Next, they show that altered microbiomes, when taken from diseased people and put into animal models, cause disease. Finally, they provide evidence that the microbiome is naturally transmissible, for example: Spouses who share a house have more similar microbiomes than twins who live separately.

"When you put those facts together, it points to the idea that many traditionally non-communicable diseases may be communicable after all," says Finlay.

 

[The_J]

Ah, hot from the press, haven't seen that yet.
A transfer of microbiomes is... complicated, so the actual risk you're exposed to probably rather limited, although possible.

 

[Berzerker]

I agree, it aint like a diabetic husband will make his wife diabetic too

but if 'good' fecal transplants can help people I'd assume the opposite is true for bad ones

 

[The_J]

That is certainly true.
The checklist for fecal transplants is rather long, to prevent this. People who donate faeces even get a check for psychological disorders (next to all the physiological checks), to prevent any possible transmission of anything.
(there's an overview in Box1 and table 2 of this article https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X17302756?via=ihub , but I don't know if that one is freely available)

 

[Birdjaguar]

That is certainly true.
The checklist for fecal transplants is rather long, to prevent this. People who donate faeces even get a check for psychological disorders (next to all the physiological checks), to prevent any possible transmission of anything.
(there's an overview in Box1 and table 2 of this article https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X17302756?via=ihub , but I don't know if that one is freely available)

I downloaded the article just fine.

I agree, it aint like a diabetic husband will make his wife diabetic too

but if 'good' fecal transplants can help people I'd assume the opposite is true for bad ones

Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Zkribbler]

True Lies is a remake of the French movie La Totale.

 

[Birdjaguar]

TIL
Are cows better represented in the Senate than people?

Spoiler :

Are cows better represented in the Senate than people?

By Sergio Peçanha
JANUARY 16, 2020

I recently stumbled upon a factoid that was news to me: The United States has nine states that are inhabited by more cows than people. Here’s one example:

This bit of information would have passed unnoticed if I hadn’t come across it just as the president was about to face trial in the Senate. As fact and factoid mingled in my brain, an intriguing question emerged: Are cows better represented than people in the Senate?

I decided to check. The Constitution stipulates that each state is represented by two senators, regardless of population. If we add the population of the nine states that have more cows than people and compare that with California, this is what it looks like:

That seems out of balance. Unless, of course, Senate representation is secretly based on the number of cows, not on people. Consider this:

The outsize influence of low-population states in the Senate becomes an issue every time Congress needs to make a very important call — such as deciding if the president should keep his job.

How big is the problem? Here are all the states ordered and sized from most to least represented in the Senate in relation to their population:

As you see, it is not just those nine cow-dense states that stick out. So, to put things on a better perspective, let’s look at the 20 states with the least population. Together, these states are home to about 33.5 million people — they hold about 10 percent of the American population and 40 percent of the senators.

By focusing on the 20 states with the lowest population, we finally get the answer to our initial question — cows are indeed better represented than people in the Senate:

It might seem that changing Senate representation to a system that is proportional to the population would radically change the division of power between Republicans and Democrats. In fact, it would not. Here’s a calculation based on the number of seats each party holds today and the population of the states each senator represents:

Therefore, proportional representation would not be enough for Democrats to single-handedly remove the president from office. It would just be equally unfair to everyone.

I wonder how different things would be if cows could vote.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

TIL that a guy I was in the navy with just retired last year. It seems totally remarkable to me because he was in my division on the boat, and the level of hatred for the navy and rejection of all possibility of re-enlistment that he was surrounded by at that early point would seem to be totally incompatible with someone making a life's work out of it. Thirty-eight years in the navy; I can't even imagine it.

 

[The_J]

TIL
Are cows better represented in the Senate than people?

Spoiler :

Are cows better represented in the Senate than people?

By Sergio Peçanha
JANUARY 16, 2020

I recently stumbled upon a factoid that was news to me: The United States has nine states that are inhabited by more cows than people. Here’s one example:

This bit of information would have passed unnoticed if I hadn’t come across it just as the president was about to face trial in the Senate. As fact and factoid mingled in my brain, an intriguing question emerged: Are cows better represented than people in the Senate?

I decided to check. The Constitution stipulates that each state is represented by two senators, regardless of population. If we add the population of the nine states that have more cows than people and compare that with California, this is what it looks like:

That seems out of balance. Unless, of course, Senate representation is secretly based on the number of cows, not on people. Consider this:

The outsize influence of low-population states in the Senate becomes an issue every time Congress needs to make a very important call — such as deciding if the president should keep his job.

How big is the problem? Here are all the states ordered and sized from most to least represented in the Senate in relation to their population:

As you see, it is not just those nine cow-dense states that stick out. So, to put things on a better perspective, let’s look at the 20 states with the least population. Together, these states are home to about 33.5 million people — they hold about 10 percent of the American population and 40 percent of the senators.

By focusing on the 20 states with the lowest population, we finally get the answer to our initial question — cows are indeed better represented than people in the Senate:

It might seem that changing Senate representation to a system that is proportional to the population would radically change the division of power between Republicans and Democrats. In fact, it would not. Here’s a calculation based on the number of seats each party holds today and the population of the states each senator represents:

Therefore, proportional representation would not be enough for Democrats to single-handedly remove the president from office. It would just be equally unfair to everyone.

I wonder how different things would be if cows could vote.

I liked the post, I found it interesting, but from looking at what is calculated, the guy must be playing with numbers to show his case.
Because the obvious calculation to do is just to calculate cows per senator per state. He didn't do that, and there's no good reason to not do that.

Also the purpose of the senators is not to proportionally represent the population of the state, but to represent the state. So basically wrong math question asked.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

It's taken more seriously than that. The 'fine tuning' of cosmological constants is a pretty big issue and area of study and this offers a testable hypothesis that could explain what we observe.

Well it all hinges on the assumption that all the cosmological constants are basically variables that could be assigned any arbitrary values, and we just happen to have got lucky with the correct ones. Except we have no idea why they have they values they have, or any reason to think that they could actually have any other values at all. The notion of other universes existing with other values for the constants is an interesting one, but it's not a notion that's actually hinted at by anything in reality, it's an entirely hypothetical construct of the human mind.

There's also a weird problem with the logic of the idea inasmuch as the very first universe that was created (from somewhere) must have been stable and capable of creating black holes to even start this process of an evolutionary chain in the first place. But if the very first universe that existed could already do that... what's the requirement for any evolution towards that?

 

[Josu]

TIL that during the 1868-1871's Spanish Provisional Government, there was a duel between two pretenders to the Spanish crown, Antoine d'Orléans and Enrique de Borbon, which ended with the death of Enrique de Borbon.
In 1870 the Spanish Parliament elected Amadeo I of Spain. Most of parliamentarians dissmissed Antoine d'Orléans due to the killing of Enrique de Borbon

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Thirty-eight years in the navy; I can't even imagine it.

Especially odd because it must mean he either loved it or has an infinite capacity to put up with stuff he hates. It seems like a massively wasted opportunity though. I would have taken the 75% retirement and sat on my butt

Edit: Can mods edit posts without leaving redtext? My post changed in such a way that I can't tell if a bot did it or a mod.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Especially odd because it must mean he either loved it or has an infinite capacity to put up with stuff he hates. It seems like a massively wasted opportunity though. I would have taken the 75!

Oh, I think he obviously loved it. I just can't figure how he put up with being surrounded by the rest of us. He was always sort of standoffish compared to everyone else, and now I guess I can see why.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I liked the post, I found it interesting, but from looking at what is calculated, the guy must be playing with numbers to show his case.
Because the obvious calculation to do is just to calculate cows per senator per state. He didn't do that, and there's no good reason to not do that.

Also the purpose of the senators is not to proportionally represent the population of the state, but to represent the state. So basically wrong math question asked.

yes, The column, though, was not a fully serious one.

Edit: Can mods edit posts without leaving redtext? My post changed in such a way that I can't tell if a bot did it or a mod.

Yes they can. they can even make your post written by someone else.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Cool thanks. I sent a PM asking for clarification and if my post was changed I'm going to file a complaint. I don't mind that it was changed, it just should have gotten the redtext or at the very least given me a notification that it had been edited purely for awareness. It's really not cool to see your posts have been rewritten by someone else and to have no idea it had been done.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Cool thanks. I sent a PM asking for clarification and if my post was changed I'm going to file a complaint. I don't mind that it was changed, it just should have gotten the redtext or at the very least given me a notification that it had been edited purely for awareness. It's really not cool to see your posts have been rewritten by someone else and to have no idea it had been done.

I've always been told when my posts have been edited without a public notice. I suspect it was you having some sort of brainfart moment.