Somewhat Useful Facts Thread

[JimmyB76]

Israel is one quarter the size of the state of Maine...

[tiqhud]

MPE stands for model property editor
SDK stands for software development kit

[captain_obvious]

Actually, I knew about it long before the show. I majored in military history and I'm an amateur WWII historian.

I remember it as well. They discovered it by accident, they just wanted to experiment with the shape for plane and realised it just-so-happened to have a very low radar cross-section that would have made it difficult to detect. But the B-2 was designed to be stealthy, but based on the knowledge gained from the German model.

Also, if I remember my WWII documentaries properly, there was something like a 2-3 year ban on weapons development, imposed by Hitler for some odd reason. The only decent reason I can think of is that he wanted to divert all funds into expanding the Reich as quickly as possible. But when it was lifted, they developed some really, really scary shit. Imagine tanks the size of houses rolling across Europe and stealth bombers dropping nukes on New York, in 1944.

The tanks the size of houses thing probably wouldn't have happened. They nazis built the panzer VIII "maus" which was some huge 100 ton tank that was 33 feet long, 12 feet tall and 12 feet wide. It could move at 12km/h under ideal circumstances and simply couldn't cross most bridges due to it's incredible weight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus_Tank

[Villain]

Actually, I knew about it long before the show. I majored in military history and I'm an amateur WWII historian.

I remember it as well. They discovered it by accident, they just wanted to experiment with the shape for plane and realised it just-so-happened to have a very low radar cross-section that would have made it difficult to detect. But the B-2 was designed to be stealthy, but based on the knowledge gained from the German model.

Also, if I remember my WWII documentaries properly, there was something like a 2-3 year ban on weapons development, imposed by Hitler for some odd reason. The only decent reason I can think of is that he wanted to divert all funds into expanding the Reich as quickly as possible. But when it was lifted, they developed some really, really scary shit. Imagine tanks the size of houses rolling across Europe and stealth bombers dropping nukes on New York, in 1944.

Remind me to dig up an image I have of that tank you described. It's a warmongers dream, almost like the Dora, if not moreso. Would definitely make for an awesome vehicle in any FPS. 

[Senator]

At this moment, in the constellation Taurus, a planet is forming in the dust and debris surrounding the star HL Tau. The protoplanet, named HL Tau b, may be the youngest yet discovered. A team of British astronomers found HL Tau b when they noticed an extra-bright clump in a radio image of its parent star from the Very Large Array radio telescopes at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. The young planet is believed to be only a few hundred thousand years old and 930 million miles in diameter. Because its parent star is still developing, the protoplanet won?t condense into its final form?a ball of hydrogen and helium gas about the size of Jupiter called a gas giant?for at least another million years.

[Viper]

The Maus was big, but there was the E-100 and the Geschutzwagen Tiger, which was the size of a house.


The Japanese were just as scary with the I-400 class submarine. At one point, they had one parked in New York Harbour. Also at the Panama Canal. They carried attack planes and would surface, launch, and then hide again.

[Armondikov]

Forget the Maus, I was talking about the bloody Landkreuzers, which were (frankly) silliness personified, or at least tankified.

Nothing compared to the Bolos in Keith Laumer's books or the Leviathans or Capitol Imperialis that appear in Warhammer 40k, though.

[Armondikov]

Though thanks to TV-Tropes and the inevitable tab-explosion, I have come across this, that might be interesting to people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_A-40

[JimmyB76]

if you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation...

[Dalek]

I thought that was a given.

Blackholes vaporise and do not compress objects almost instantly when going beyond the event horizon.

[Senator]

Pew, pew.

[Viper]

Yeah, whoever thought up that scooter was compensating for something. :evil

[Senator]

Yes mr.look-at-my-large-artillery-pieces-in-page-80

[Viper]

Thats a US piece!!!!  I've never seen it before.

[Senator]

I am not very sure actually. The photo's filename, which I forgot where I got it from, calls it a T28, but the actual T28 is this one:
http://www.tonyrogers.com/weapons/t28.htm

Notice: 4 tracks.

[Nebula]

It's the same tank...

Look at this pic... you will see that the outer tracks can be removed...

[Armondikov]

if you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation...

Very easily yes. However, if you had no CO₂, you'd also die pretty quick (hyperventilation causes all the CO₂ to be expelled out of the bloodstream, so this is the mechanism by which that kills you). Basically, oxygen loads itself onto haemoglobin in the lungs but needs to offload itself in the muscles. This is helped by the fact that oxygen is in a higher concentration near the lungs, so more will load onto the haeomoglobin, but not by much, this is done because in the blood by the muscles is at a lower pH due to dissolved carbon dioxide (as carbonic acid, CO₂ + H₂O ? H₂CO₃ but this is also accompanied by the presence of lactic acid). This change in pH alters the loading curve of haemoglobin with respect to O₂ so that it unloads more oxygen than it would in other circumstances. This is known as the Bohr effect. So, with no CO₂ dissolve, you can get plenty of oxygen into your blood, but it won't come out of it again where it's needed. Similarly, too much CO₂ prevents the loading of oxygen at the lungs.

This is a different mechanism to CO poisoning, while CO₂ binds to haemoglobin weakly in different sites, CO binds exactly to the spot where oxygen will. The trouble is, it does so irreversibly, so normal partial pressures of oxygen won't displace it and your blood will have a much (and essentially permanent) reduced capacity to carry oxygen. You can counteract the effect of CO and CO₂ poisoning by upping the partial pressure of O₂ above it's normal atmospheric concentration of ~20%. Hence smoke inhalation victims are usually put on a respirator of 100% oxygen.

Incidentally, deep sea divers use an oxygen mix that's lower than atmospheric concentration - 10% or less. This is because pressure increases with depth, so the overall partial pressure, and therefore total amount, of O₂ increases. You'd therefore get far too much oxygen breathing "normal" air at a higher pressure.

[tiqhud]

If a kid is holding his\her  breath to try and get their way, let them hold it, they will pass-out and the autonomic system will kick-in, they will begin to breath normally.

[Senator]

What if the kid has planned for this eventuality with a makeshift plastic bag & rubber band device thereby ensuring that the interruption of breath will automatically continue past unconciousness?

Ha! Checkmate.

In other news, another ISS tour:

[tiqhud]

What if the kid has planned for this eventuality with a makeshift plastic bag & rubber band device thereby ensuring that the interruption of breath will automatically continue past unconciousness?

Ha! Checkmate.

the statement was "If a kid is holding his\her  breath " indicateing he\she is doing it, not an externall force.