kizolk
Indecisive 
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Sept 22, 2023 7:43:32 GMT
I've just found out that the blue hue you can find on some spruce boards, which I was told was due to natural variation, was in fact due to bark beetles. There's an epidemy raging in some parts of France, with the region I live in being one of the hardest hit places, that's killing a lot of spruces; when the tree is cut before a certain stage, the wood can still be used, including in construction work.
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Sept 22, 2023 7:45:26 GMT
To be more precise: the blue hue is due to a fungus that comes with bark beetles when they attack a tree.
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Post by terentiusfaber on Sept 22, 2023 15:32:43 GMT
This might be overstretching your imagination and your trust in me, but I once knew a parish priest who both looked and sounded like Bernard Manning. I'd say Bernard Manning was probably easier to live with, however, and had better manners. Did he have a peculiar taste in clothing?  He definitely did, but not like that. Just think Bernard Manning again. His look was "scruffy from the shop for morbidly obese middle-aged men". |
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Post by Pacifica on Dec 18, 2023 9:07:29 GMT
French slang "bled" comes from Arabic.
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Dec 18, 2023 11:15:33 GMT
Which makes "blédard" an interesting hybrid. I don't know if it's used in Belgian slang, but here it has a pejorative connotation reminiscent of "redneck".
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Dec 26, 2023 19:57:22 GMT
When the moon looks exceptionally large when rising to your eye, if you take a picture of it, it looks normal. This is because it's an illusion, and the photo reflects reality.
I had in fact noticed this, but assumed the problem had to do with my camera settings.
Apparently the illusion will disappear if you look at the moon whilst standing on your head. I have not yet tried this.
This is all very annoying on an existential level, at least for me.
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Post by terentiusfaber on Dec 26, 2023 20:14:10 GMT
I'm trying to get my head round this.
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Dec 26, 2023 21:26:04 GMT
Apparently the illusion will disappear if you look at the moon whilst standing on your head. I was aware that it was an illusion but this standing on your head is a new one for me! It'd be interesting to try it, but not super practical. I can't think of a good reason why it should work though. |
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Dec 26, 2023 21:29:06 GMT
Maybe it has to do with the horizon, and maybe more importantly houses etc. appearing above rather than below the moon when you stand on your head, but is it enough to break the illusion?
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Dec 26, 2023 22:05:14 GMT
Off-topic time: one of the most famous cases of UFO sightings in France was one that happened in the 80's I think. A couple was driving back home at night, and saw a big shiny ball that seemed to follow them everywhere. It would sometimes disappear for a while, then reappear and wait for them when they passed through villages or took a turn.
Some 20 years later (I think; I might be getting dates wrong), UFO researchers did an experiment -- well, not what you would usually think of when you hear "UFO researchers", but rather people from a skeptics' association, with a scientific background in some cases and genuinely interested both in UFOs and the scientific method. They used a moon calendar and the detail account of that night from the couple to reenact the sighting: the precise itinerary they had to follow, on what day and time. Turns out the UFO was the moon. Their observations precisely matched those of the couple. The moon looked unusually big under those conditions, and anything far enough seems to follow you due to parallax. It sometimes seemed to disappear because the view was blocked by a house, trees, etc., or simply because they took turns and they couldn't keep track of their exact itinerary.
The moon is the best explanation for many UFO sightings, and one of the reasons why is that it's easy to get false impressions about its size. IIRC, the couple had actually considered the possibility that they were just seeing the moon, but it appeared too big to them for that.
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Dec 26, 2023 22:19:52 GMT
Maybe it has to do with the horizon, and maybe more importantly houses etc. appearing above rather than below the moon when you stand on your head, but is it enough to break the illusion? That was how it was explained. It's somewhere in www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gr7pqp, but I appreciate it's an hour long, and is inconsistently interesting. |
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Post by terentiusfaber on Dec 26, 2023 22:20:09 GMT
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Dec 26, 2023 22:22:42 GMT
Maybe it has to do with the horizon, and maybe more importantly houses etc. appearing above rather than below the moon when you stand on your head, but is it enough to break the illusion? That was how it was explained. It's somewhere in www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gr7pqp, but I appreciate it's an hour long, and is inconsistently interesting. Oh. I like Brian Cox, I might give it a listen. Although I mostly listen to podcasts when I'm working so probably not now. |
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Feb 27, 2024 13:50:12 GMT
Nobody's learnt anything in two months?
I was aware that voetsak was impolite in Afrikaans, but didn't know what it meant. I had an idea it was a term of abuse, possibly referencing a part of the body, like 'ballbag'. Today I found out it comes from voort se ek -- 'forward, say I', meaning 'go away' -- and is insulting because it's the sort of thing one says to dogs or other animals.
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kizolk
Indecisive
Posts: 5,711
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Post by kizolk on Feb 27, 2024 19:48:34 GMT
I've recently learned about the concept of an isotopic thermometer. Maybe the wording is different in English, but it's one of the techniques paleoclimatologists use to estimate the temperature of past eras. They do that by analyzing ice core samples to find the ratio of regular water molecules to molecules of water that contain at least one isotope of either hydrogen or oxygen. As you might know, an isotope of an atom is an atom that contains the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons in its nucleus; for instance, common hydrogen has one proton and no neutron, while deuterium (aka heavy hydrogen) has one proton and one neutron. Those "isotopic water" molecules (known under various names depending on what isotopes it contains, the most famous one being heavy water -- two heavy hydrogen and one oxygen atom).
Those alternative water molecules don't need as low temperatures as regular water molecules to condense in clouds, so the higher ratio of isotopic water in an ice core sample, the higher the temperature when it precipitated. (apparently there are subtleties, but that's the general idea)
By the way, the French for "ice core (sample)" is "carotte (de glace)", i.e. transparently enough "ice carrot".
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