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Comment Re:"Brightness is important for HDR" (Score 1) 33

OLED has no problem with black levels. You can't get much blacker than off with zero light emitted.

OLEDs have historically had problems with near-black levels, which I think is what the parent was referring to. But recent models have pretty much fixed this.

OLEDs also have problems with near-black uniformity, usually in the form of very faint vertical streaks that can't be seen in *most* normal viewing. Some panels are worse than others. Panasonic sets tend to be more uniform than LG for some reason, even though LG make all the panels.

Personally I'd take these issues over the horrendous blotchy dirty screen effect seen on all LED TVs (even QLEDs).

Comment Re:Statistics are everything here. (Score 3, Informative) 253

The world record for lightning strikes on a human is held by Roy Sullivan, a US Park Ranger who was struck seven times. He grew to believe that storm clouds were following him, and was struck a couple of times while trying to get away. Immediately after the seventh strike he also fought off a bear (!), and a few years later he shot himself.

  1. Sullivan's first documented lightning strike was in April 1942. He was hiding from a thunderstorm in a fire lookout tower. The tower was newly built and had no lightning rod at the time; it was hit seven or eight times. Inside the tower, "fire was jumping all over the place". Sullivan ran out and just a few feet away received what he considered to be his worst lightning strike. It burned a half-inch strip all along his right leg, hit his toe, and left a hole in his shoe.
  2. He was hit again in July 1969. Unusually, he was hit while in his truck, driving on a mountain road—the metal body of a vehicle normally protects people from lightning strikes by acting as a Faraday cage. The lightning first hit nearby trees and was deflected into the open window of the truck. The strike knocked Sullivan unconscious and burned off his eyebrows and eyelashes, and set his hair on fire. The uncontrolled truck kept moving until it stopped near a cliff edge.
  3. In July 1970, Sullivan was struck while in his front yard. The lightning hit a nearby power transformer and from there jumped to his left shoulder, searing it.
  4. In spring 1972, Sullivan was working inside a ranger station in Shenandoah National Park when he was struck again. It set his hair on fire; he tried to smother the flames with his jacket. He then rushed to the restroom, but could not fit under the water tap and so used a wet towel instead. Although he never was a fearful man, after the fourth strike he began to believe that some force was trying to destroy him and he acquired a fear of death. For months, whenever he was caught in a storm while driving his truck, he would pull over and lie down on the front seat until the storm passed. He also began to believe that he would somehow attract lightning even if he stood in a crowd of people, and carried a can of water with him in case his hair was set on fire.
  5. On August 7, 1973, while he was out on patrol in the park, Sullivan saw a storm cloud forming and drove away quickly. But the cloud, he said later, seemed to be following him. When he finally thought he had outrun it, he decided it was safe to leave his truck. Soon after, he was struck by a lightning bolt. Sullivan stated that he actually saw the bolt that hit him. The lightning moved down his left arm and left leg and knocked off his shoe. It then crossed over to his right leg just below the knee. Still conscious, Sullivan crawled to his truck and poured the can of water, which he always kept there, over his head, which was on fire.
  6. The next strike, on June 5, 1976, injured his ankle. It was reported that he saw a cloud, thought that it was following him, tried to run away, but was struck anyway. His hair also caught fire.
  7. On Saturday morning, June 25, 1977, Sullivan was struck while fishing in a freshwater pool. The lightning hit the top of his head, set his hair on fire, traveled down, and burnt his chest and stomach. Sullivan turned to his car when something unexpected occurred — a bear approached the pond and tried to steal trout from his fishing line. Sullivan had the strength and courage to strike the bear with a tree branch. He claimed that this was the twenty-second time he hit a bear with a stick in his lifetime.

https://www.guinnessworldrecor...).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Comment Re:Each to their own I suppose (Score 1) 60

Trick of alignment in my areas, most rainbows we get are doubles where I am in the Midlands area of the UK.

It's nothing to do with alignment. Every rainbow has a secondary arc, but it is often too dim to see because the sun isn't bright enough. The secondary arc becomes clearer when the sky around the sun is very clear and the sun is very bright. Simple as that.

Comment Re:Crow's tiny brain (Score 4, Interesting) 130

What is surprising is the tiny size of a bird's brain, given its intelligence.

I was reading about jumping spiders the other day. They're completely awesome.

They've been observed spotting prey in a different bush to the one they're sat in, before climbing all the way down their bush, walking across the ground to the other bush, then climbing all the way up the other bush to ambush the prey, all while staying hidden from the prey's view.

Consider the visual acuity, spatial awareness, memory, and planning skills required to do that, and then realise that the jumping spider's entire body is only a few millimetres long. Its brain is absolutely minuscule. Right now we have no way of explaining how this is possible. I love things like that.

Comment Re: Glad I don't remember any of it. (Score 1) 28

Well the implication of TFS is that when the mother gives birth, she also accidentally takes a shit on the baby.

It's impossible to push a baby out without shitting yourself. The shit gets squeezed out like toothpaste from a tube as the baby descends into the birth canal. Midwives have seen it all before and get rid of quickly, but there's certainly gut/faecal bacteria in the mix when a baby is born vaginally.

Comment Re:I remain skeptical (Score 1) 64

if this technology is so great then why did it look so bad in Rogue One

The CG Racheal in Blade Runner 2049, on the other hand, is incredible. The amount of work required was equally incredible though - IIRC it took about a year to complete that two minute scene. However, this stuff is only going to get easier...

Comment Re:Still a thing if you have a broken phone (Score 1) 166

If you bought it from Amazon, try returning it. My Nexus 5x died about six months ago after owning it for 18 months, and Amazon gave me a full refund (after some discussion about it being a known unresolved design fault, so I didn't want a repair). I then took the money and bought a Pixel XL, and it effectively cost me nothing.

Comment Re:Why bother? (bootloop of death) (Score 1) 107

Yep, both Nexus 5x's in my household bootlooped, one after almost exactly a year, the other after ~18 months. We had the first one repaired, but for the second I managed to get a full refund (!) from Amazon and bought a Pixel XL from somewhere else on a good deal, costing me a net £20.

Lots of negative things can be said about Amazon, but their willingness to accept returns/refunds does make me think twice about buying from elsewhere, even if Amazon is slightly more expensive.

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