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Science

Why the First Cowboy To Draw Always Gets Shot 398

cremeglace writes "Have you ever noticed that the first cowboy to draw his gun in a Hollywood Western is invariably the one to get shot? Nobel-winning physicist Niels Bohr did, once arranging mock duels to test the validity of this cinematic curiosity. Researchers have now confirmed that people indeed move faster if they are reacting, rather than acting first."
Science

Antarctic's First Plane, Found In Ice 110

Arvisp writes "In 1912 Australian explorer Douglas Mawson planned to fly over the southern pole. His lost plane has now been found. The plane – the first off the Vickers production line in Britain – was built in 1911, only eight years after the Wright brothers executed the first powered flight. For the past three years, a team of Australian explorers has been engaged in a fruitless search for the aircraft, last seen in 1975. Then on Friday, a carpenter with the team, Mark Farrell, struck gold: wandering along the icy shore near the team's camp, he noticed large fragments of metal sitting among the rocks, just a few inches beneath the water."

Comment Re:Peak Oil is Not a Troll (Score 1) 710

We attacked Iraq simply because we were not through killing people.

We had an army there, blood in our eyes, and the Taliban folded up like a cheep suit, and we just needed to kill some more people. It is not hard to understand. Syria was too small, Iran was what looked like a democracy and Iraq was playing grab ass. We decided to bust up the Arab Dictactor Frat-party which led to the Libyans to giving up their weapons and getting right with the human race.

20/20 hindsight is we probably should have picked Iran. There is as much oil in Brazil as in Saudi it turned out. It also turns out that Canada has as much energy in the tar sands as is in the oil elsewhere, and so does Venezuela in their tar sands.

 

Comment Multi-dimensional Santa(s) (Score 1) 76

All Santa has to do is go out and deliver presents to some number (M) of houses. Then he shifts over into the next dimension (like in the comics, not like in string theory) and delivers presents for another M houses. Santa does this until he has made deliveries in some number of different dimensions (N) and then he goes home.

For an infinite number of dimensions and Santas in those dimensions if M and N are greater than some number (I suggest it is 2 and 2) then everyone gets presents without Santa even having to break a sweat. I leave it as an exercise to the theorist to show that not all universes have to have the same number of homes.

Comment Re:Wrong Premise (Score 0) 1108

"I'm pretty sure we've never magically seen thermal radiation get blocked by a tank of warming air, then seen the CO2 concentration in that air spike as a result. Admittedly, I could be wrong since magic, sorcery, and thermodynamic witchcraft aren't fields I research in."

It is easy for me to conclude you probably never researched chemistry or geology either. The interaction between co2 buffered in sea water and water temperature can play this kind of game. Sorcery and witchraft are not necessary, but thermo may be useful for you to study.

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