Things you did not know

[Niccolo]

this is more or less a question, why does the metric system mainly use meters, and not decimeters? The american system (I don't know what its called) mainly uses feet and not yards

it is called the customary system

Strictly speaking... SI, or Systeme Internationale.
Anyway, the reason metrics is done in metres is really because of old-timers. Way back through the ages of physics, as all of the formulae were developed, they slipped into using the KMS system; Kilograms, metres and seconds.

 

[stompy]

this is more or less a question, why does the metric system mainly use meters, and not decimeters? The american system (I don't know what its called) mainly uses feet and not yards

it is called the customary system

Strictly speaking... SI, or Systeme Internationale.
Anyway, the reason metrics is done in metres is really because of old-timers. Way back through the ages of physics, as all of the formulae were developed, they slipped into using the KMS system; Kilograms, metres and seconds.

Yep. Because the physicists used metres as their starting point (and still do, due to the SI system), everyone who uses metric bases on metre.

 

[TheKnifeJuggler]

IN A NUTSHELL

During the 70's, there were a group of hackers who used whistles received as prizes in cereal boxes to hack telephones. They were called the Captain Crunch gang.

 

[Jimmyjames]

The Atari Jaguar, which claimed to be 64 Bits, actually had two parallel 32-bit processors.

Sam Tramiel (Atari CEO) also tried to put an injunction on the original Playstation because he felt that Sony's ability to release a low-priced next-gen console was an attempt at unfair price-dumping.

To everyone's surprise, the Jaguar failed.

 

[Hey Joe]

I am a secret agent.

 

[Geoffrey42]

Way back through the ages of physics, as all of the formulae were developed, they slipped into using the KMS system; Kilograms, metres and seconds.

Here's what I never understood about all of this (2 things, really): I love metric, it is just so much better than the American/British system/s. But, why "kilo"grams? Why not grams? Seems like the standard should be the base unit, not the decasecond, or the milliliter.

2nd thing: Why didn't they change time into a base 10 system like everything else? Menu costs too high? Or is it that the "hour" means something more to us than 60 minutes each consisting of 60 seconds, deep in our brains?

 

[TheKnifeJuggler]

The reason we use the time the way we do is because the people who originally started measuring time used that system.

There is another reason why it should work... I just can't remember it.

 

[dukethepcdr]

Did you know that corn is not a vegetable? It's actually a grass just like kentucky bluegrass only it's been genetically modified over the centuries by people to change the properties of it's ears and kernals.

Also, did you know that most of the sugar consumed in the U.S. comes from sugar cane which is also a grass?

Did you know that goat's milk is actually better for us than cow's milk? It's hard to find in most grocery stores but it has less saturated fat naturally than cow's milk does after it is processed. It also has a wider variety of beneficial proteins.

 

[Nikita89]

the world is going to end on the 23rd of december 2012, according to the mayan callender.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Apparently if you view a rainbow from above (in a plane) it is a ring/circle.

no that's not true you can't see a rainbow from above

IN A NUTSHELL

During the 70's, there were a group of hackers who used whistles received as prizes in cereal boxes to hack telephones. They were called the Captain Crunch gang.

no the story is this, capt'n crunch serial used to have a whistle as the prize in the box, a man by the name of John Draper found out that they would make a noise at 2600 hertz, which would allow you to gain access to the main trunk lines of telco

this is also how he got his handle of CaptainCrunch
this frequency is how the hacker mag 2600 got their name as well

and now further since it's something not a lot of ppl know about

the people who play with phones are called phreakers
the people who break into systems are called crackers, these are the bad guys and the name comes from the safe crackers who broke into safes

and finally a hacker is a computer programmer, the term comes from wood carving, just as they hack away at the wood, a hacker hacks away at the code of a program. hence why you have perl hackers and such

the confusion comes from some media person thinking hacker sounded cool so they used that term to describe them instead of cracker

 

[cleverlymadeup]

Here's what I never understood about all of this (2 things, really): I love metric, it is just so much better than the American/British system/s. But, why "kilo"grams? Why not grams? Seems like the standard should be the base unit, not the decasecond, or the milliliter.

i think because gram is so light compared to a kilogram which is closer to a pound where a gram is pretty light

2nd thing: Why didn't they change time into a base 10 system like everything else? Menu costs too high? Or is it that the "hour" means something more to us than 60 minutes each consisting of 60 seconds, deep in our brains?

simply put the 60 minute thing is tied to circumference of the earth and is one of the non-metric things that is actually pretty sane

i forget what the full explination is but it does have something to do with the earth

the world is going to end on the 23rd of december 2012, according to the mayan callender.

Are there any Mayas alive anymore?

yes mayans are still around today

and no the world won't end on dec 23 2012, that's when the mayan long count calendar ends, if they spainards hadn't decimated their culture they would have had a newer calendar.

on that note tho the last battle in the macross saga for robotech takes place on or about that day

 

[the monopoly guy]

sharks have no tongues
according to the bible the earth is a whopping 6,000 years old...sad
mayans are still around but in the same way the potiwatamee are
antartica used to be tropical, and it is hypothesised that it will be again
2 girls sued McDonalds for making them fat

 

[cleverlymadeup]

according to the bible the earth is a whopping 6,000 years old...sad

actually that's wrong, it doesn't say that anywhere in the bible, it actually has proof the bible is millions of years old

if you read the first book of genesis those days are rather ambiguous, it was a priest that did some calculations that "proved" the earth was only 6000 years old

antartica used to be tropical, and it is hypothesised that it will be again

i was talking with someone recently who mentioned that there was a map of antartica that was made by an explorer who was told about it from even older maps

 

[TheKnifeJuggler]

Apparently if you view a rainbow from above (in a plane) it is a ring/circle.

no that's not true you can't see a rainbow from above

IN A NUTSHELL

During the 70's, there were a group of hackers who used whistles received as prizes in cereal boxes to hack telephones. They were called the Captain Crunch gang.

no the story is this, capt'n crunch serial used to have a whistle as the prize in the box, a man by the name of John Draper found out that they would make a noise at 2600 hertz, which would allow you to gain access to the main trunk lines of telco

this is also how he got his handle of CaptainCrunch
this frequency is how the hacker mag 2600 got their name as well

and now further since it's something not a lot of ppl know about

the people who play with phones are called phreakers
the people who break into systems are called crackers, these are the bad guys and the name comes from the safe crackers who broke into safes

and finally a hacker is a computer programmer, the term comes from wood carving, just as they hack away at the wood, a hacker hacks away at the code of a program. hence why you have perl hackers and such

the confusion comes from some media person thinking hacker sounded cool so they used that term to describe them instead of cracker

Huh. We'll, I knew they were called phreaks, but I thought it would be more understandable if I just said hackers.

Heh... There's a nerd bigger then me who'd bother to correct this stuff.
XD

And there is a point where you can see a ring instead of a half circle in a rainbow though.

 

[gilthanan]

Antarctica was tropical when it was part of Pangaea, since then once plate tectonics had moved it into the modern Antarctic circle it has become too cold to be tropical, and does not receive enough year round life to support a tropical ecosystem, namely because it is nearly dark 24/7 for a portion of the year when the southern hemisphere is facing away from the sun.

 

[the monopoly guy]

Antarctica was tropical when it was part of Pangaea, since then once plate tectonics had moved it into the modern Antarctic circle it has become too cold to be tropical, and does not receive enough year round life to support a tropical ecosystem, namely because it is nearly dark 24/7 for a portion of the year when the southern hemisphere is facing away from the sun.

during the jurassic it was temperate, it was still dark 24/7 in winter and cold but it wasn nearly as cold

 

[gilthanan]

during the jurassic it was temperate, it was still dark 24/7 in winter and cold but it wasn nearly as cold

Correct, I was merely refuting that it could not be tropical, I never did say it could not be temperate, and you are correct it could be temperate if the world warmed enough to the levels it was during the Jurassic.

 

[the monopoly guy]

during the jurassic it was temperate, it was still dark 24/7 in winter and cold but it wasn nearly as cold

Correct, I was merely refuting that it could not be tropical, I never did say it could not be temperate, and you are correct it could be temperate if the world warmed enough to the levels it was during the Jurassic.

well its hypothesised it will be tropical again...in many many millions of years

 

[Anarchemitis]

Not speaking of which, that weird green thing in Black Mesa East in HL2 that Eli 'Doesn't know what it is', that Alyx brought in apparently, is the disembodied head of an NPC enemy that was cut from the game; The Combine Cremator. He was to carry a acid-sprayer kinda weapon to dissolve corpses, and you would've been able to get his weapon, perfect for dealing with Zombies and antlions, but as already stated was cut.