Today I Learned #2: Gone for a Wiki Walk

[elmurcis]

TIL about The Solar Minimum Superstorm of 1903. I thought that Solar cycle minimum phase is kind of safe area from serious stuff. I was wrong. How I gonna sleep from now on?
https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2020/07/29/the-solar-minimum-superstorm-of-1903/

 

[Grisu]

TIL one of my vague acquaintancies apparently is qanon nut...Didn't even know they exist outside the US until recently.

 

[Hrothbern]

In case you think only dogs steal and gather your socks and shoes...

TIL about a wild fox, settled in Berlin, who hoarded more than a hundred shoes, flip flops, etc

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53612856

 

[Berzerker]

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org...ly-life-and-practice/is-this-the-face-of-god/

No graven images and idols... but old habits die hard... The face of "God"? Thats either a hat or God has a flat top.

In his article “The Face of Yahweh?” published in the Fall 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem reveals the head of an anthropomorphic male figurine excavated from the site of Khirbet Qeiyafa in the Kingdom of Judah. The head dates to the tenth century B.C.E.—the time of King David. Garfinkel believes that this figurine head represents a male deity. Given its location, it may even denote the Israelite God, Yahweh.

Anyone familiar with the Sumerian culture knows they left us many depictions of their 'gods', occasionally standing upright staring off above the horizon with large wide open eyes properly befitting the title of 'watchers'.

 

[Ferocitus]

Geotoxicology of Multiple Sclerosis: correlation of groundwater chemistry with childhood homes and prevalence of MS patients, Saskatchewan, Canada

I could only access the abstract. It mentions there were elevated levels of nitrate in an area with a high rate of MS, but:

I tried to send you the paper, but it's 665Mb and the max is 180ishMb for conversations.
This map from the paper might be useful to you though...

 

[Ferocitus]

From a slashdot thread about a recent paper: The immunogenetics of sexual parasitism.
There are few animals more bizarre than the anglerfish, a species that has so much trouble finding
a mate that when the male and female do connect underwater, males actually fuse their tissue with
the females for life. After the merger, the two share a single respiratory and digestive system.
Now scientists have discovered that the anglerfish accomplishes this sexual parasitism because it
has lost a key part of its immune system, which then allows two bodies to become one without tissue
rejection.

All vertebrates, including humans, have two kinds of immune systems. The first is the innate system,
which responds quickly to attacks by microscopic invaders with a variety of chemicals like mucous
physical barriers like hair and skin, and disease-munching cells called macrophages. The second
line of defense is an adaptive system that produces both "killer" T cells to attack the pathogen
and antibodies custom-made to fight specific bacteria or viruses. The two systems work together to
fight infections and prevent disease. But in a study published Thursday in the journal Science,
researchers from Germany's Max Planck Institute and the University of Washington found that many
anglerfish species (there are more than 300) have evolved over time to lose the genes that control
their adaptive immune systems, meaning that they can't create antibodies and lack those T cells.

Here's the link to the paper:
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/07/29/science.aaz9445

 

[Hrothbern]

TIL about how to build a dam with robots:
Akira Naito, head of Obayashi’s dam technology unit, told Nikkei: “Eventually, we may be able to cut building time by 30 percent.”

Japanese construction giant to build massive dam almost entirely with robots

The Obayashi Corporation, one of the five largest construction companies in Japan, is building a giant dam with robots, according to a report on the Nikkei Asian Review website.

The dam project is located in the Mie Prefecture, in the south-east corner of Japan’s main island, and Obayashi will be testing a variety of robotic and automation technologies in its construction.

In fact, according to Nikkei, almost every stage of the construction of the concrete dam will involve some sort of automation technology.

The cranes, for example, are fully automated, although they will still be directly overseen by human workers for safety reasons.

Concrete will be poured and applied by robotic machines specially developed by Obayashi, although here too human workers will monitor and check their work, and finishing off for them if necessary.

Like many dams, this dam will be built up using concrete “forms” or slabs. The raw material for these forms will be poured by robots and the finished, dried, hardened form will be lifted and placed by the robots.

Typically, in order to place concrete forms correctly, a group of human workers would work in a co-ordinated way, along with a human operating a manual crane.

This human labour-intensive process has now been eliminated entirely from the Obayashi dam project.

In terms of efficiencies gained through the application of robots to the job, Obayashi says that it has so far been modest.

The company calculates that, even after all its robotic and automation technologies are implemented, productivity increases by about 10 percent.

However, that is mostly because, at the moment, a relatively large number of human workers are still on site to closely monitor the robots, and step in if necessary.

Ten percent is still a significant amount if you are talking about a multimilion-dollar dam project, but in the future, the productivity gains will be even bigger, according to a Obayashi representative.

Akira Naito, head of Obayashi’s dam technology unit, told Nikkei: “Eventually, we may be able to cut building time by 30 percent.”

https://roboticsandautomationnews.c...giant-to-build-massive-dam-with-robots/34428/

 

[Ferocitus]

TIL about how to build a dam with robots:

Wow! That undertaking is a couple of orders larger than the beautiful "robo-built" houses I saw around Eindhoven University last year.

 

[Hrothbern]

Wow! That undertaking is a couple of orders larger than the beautiful "robo-built" houses I saw around Eindhoven University last year.

yeah... that parc near Eindhoven I guess

3D printing of houses.

About time this gets kicking at mass manufacturing level... will help greatly to get affordable housing for young people so much needing them.
(and hopefully older people moving out of family houses freeing up their houses)

The other big robotising running in D phase now is multi-layer vegetable-fruit green houses.
A lower water, energy, pesticides,etc footprint hardly imaginable.

The new one in R&D phase is replace the cold ground mono culture of bulk food like wheat, mais, potatoes, spinach, etc, etc by 2x2 meter plots within multi crop type agricultural.
I saw even pictures of tests where everything is planted almost criss cross through each other for avoiding pesticides and better soil, etc where the weeds removing and later harvesting is done by combiner sized vehicles with multiple AI robot arms.
And ofc farm to fork possibilities for urban people shopping at the entry point of that "warehouse system" apping on your way there what is freshly picked.

Much in the making

 

[Samson]

TIL negotiations with ransomware hackers look a lot like normal business negotiations: https://twitter.com/jc_stubbs/status/1289199762663604224

Spoiler The messages, screenshoted :

 

[Birdjaguar]

Ok, you guys are now at bat. Good luck. The torch is passed.

More than 50% of the US population is now under the age of 40
By Lauren M. Johnson, CNN

Updated 7:07 PM ET, Tue August 4, 2020




Millennials and those in the younger generations now make up more than half of the US population.
(CNN)It's official: millennials and those in the younger generations now make up more than half of the US population.

The data, which was released by the Census Bureau last month and analyzed by the Brookings Institution, reveals the 166 million Americans under the age of 40 -- millennials, Gen Z and younger generations -- make up 50.7% of the population, as of July 2019. There are 162 million Americans in the combined Gen X, baby boomer, and older cohorts.
Another stark difference comes in the diversity of the group. Over half of millennials and younger generations classify themselves as a racial or ethnic minority, compared to less than 30% of Baby Boomers.
It's no secret that the divide between the older and younger generations has played out on a global stage. Trends such as the phrase "Ok, Boomer" emerged after a long history of negative ideology about age from older generations concerning social justice or climate change.


"It is likely that the pandemic and recent activism will further galvanize this generation to promote an array of progressive causes," analysis author William Fey wrote.
The Brookings analysis found other surveys that show these generations differ in other ways too, such as with topics concerning immigration reform, criminal justice, environmental protection, the role of government, and the importance of diversity.
"If the nation's most racially diverse generations—which now comprise more than half of the population—can spearhead a movement that engages their older peers and parents, it would send a strong signal that the country is changing in important ways," Fey continued.
Projections show that by 2030, millennials and younger will not only be the dominate generations, but they will also make up more than half of all of eligible voters.

 

[Samson]

Ok, you guys are now at bat. Good luck. The torch is passed.

More than 50% of the US population is now under the age of 40

So is this the US bucking the western trend of aging population, or is it a misleading use of "now"?

 

[AmazonQueen]

So is this the US bucking the western trend of aging population, or is it a misleading use of "now"?

When you compare it to the 25 countries with more than 40% of their population under 15 it puts it into perspective somewhat.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Ok, you guys are now at bat. Good luck. The torch is passed.

Wake me up when young people are overwhelmingly in positions of power: executive positions in the economy, leading positions in universities, in politics and in think-tanks. As discussed in another thread, positions of power (in the US but also elsewhere) have never been so old before, and are clearly refusing to pass the torch. There is clearly vast amounts of nepotism in all of those fields. Why were all of the three probably contenders for the next US presidency (Trump, Biden, Sanders) all old enough to have grand-grandchildren?

 

[AmazonQueen]

Wake me up when young people are overwhelmingly in positions of power: executive positions in the economy, leading positions in universities, in politics and in think-tanks. As discussed in another thread, positions of power (in the US but also elsewhere) have never been so old before, and are clearly refusing to pass the torch. There is clearly vast amounts of nepotism in all of those fields. Why were all of the three probably contenders for the next US presidency (Trump, Biden, Sanders) all old enough to have grand-grandchildren?

In the case of the Democrats there were younger candidates in the Primaries who just weren't very impressive. Perhaps that's part of why.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

In the case of the Democrats there were younger candidates in the Primaries who just weren't very impressive. Perhaps that's part of why.

I wholly agree with this, no doubt, and there were indeed some young..er candidates like Yang (who is 45 now), but it's a very consistent trend that top politicians keep getting older and retiring later, filling up positions that other people covet.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I wholly agree with this, no doubt, and there were indeed some young..er candidates like Yang (who is 45 now), but it's a very consistent trend that top politicians keep getting older and retiring later, filling up positions that other people covet.

Has it? Whilst no Pitt the Younger both Blair and Cameron were young compared to most UK PMs. Dubya and Johnson were mid-50s. 2 US elections aren't really a long term trend.

 

[Narz]

http://www.throwcase.com/2014/12/21/that-five-monkeys-and-a-banana-story-is-rubbish/

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Today I learned that the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control has a few suggestions for reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19 during sex.

Spoiler NSFWish :

Most notably "sexual positions that limit face-to-face contact" and "barriers, like walls (e.g., glory holes)." Both of these copied verbatim.

 

[Commodore]

Should I also dunk my "thang" in hand sanitizer afterwards?