The Infodumping Thread

[hiraeth]

As suggested in another thread...

Let's have a space where we can blab about our latest findings / thoughts / feels about our special interest when you just need a place / person / people to share it with Just Because. You won't have to worry about being "annoying" or anything to folks here - we all know what it's like

And plus -- I can't speak for everyone, but I like learning random new things from people, and I also like seeing others being really excited about something

So, for me, this has been on my mind lately!

 

[Suzanne]

Unfortunately my interest currently is rather controversial and thus, doubt that it would be accepted on here! Just to clear the curious mind and save it from wondering into all sorts of avenues lol it is concerning evolution and how to refute it. Perhaps you can see why I cannot go on about this lol

I know many aspies on here and perhaps that includes your self, that believe in evolution and thus, it is best I refrain.

But yes, an excellent suggestion and if I were still obsessed with ebola, I would certainly be making good use of the thread

I am obsessed with Chayanne and know it is an obsession because I only will listen constantly to him at the moment. It is rather fascinating how one cannot understand a single word and yet, be able to sing along!!!

 

[RidingDutchman]

Unfortunately my interest currently is rather controversial and thus, doubt that it would be accepted on here! Just to clear the curious mind and save it from wondering into all sorts of avenues lol it is concerning evolution and how to refute it. Perhaps you can see why I cannot go on about this lol

I know many aspies on here and perhaps that includes your self, that believe in evolution and thus, it is best I refrain.

To be honest, I am a firm believer of evolution, but this only makes me more curious as to what reasons you have to refute it. Not to end up in some useless debate over which one is right or wrong, but because I believe one can only have a true meaningful opinion if one knows both sides of the story, if there might be good reasons for me to have doubts about evolution theory, I want to know them so I can be sure if my opinion is still correct.

People often treat opinions like they are a thing to always debate on, but a friendly "agree to disagree" is always possible and I hate it when people start to argue and 2 minutes later you find out they have no clue about the topic, but have an opinion just because they feel like they need to have an opinion...

 

[RidingDutchman]

Small infodump. I really dislike the British way of naming cannons.

The British name their gun for instance "Royal Ordnance QF 20 pounder" with this they mean a Quick Firing (QF) 84mm gun (3.307 inch) which means that it fires a shell that's 84mm wide but the only thing the name actually says is that it fires a 20 pound (9.07 kilo) shell.
So if you were to change the type of shell, it would still be called a 20-pdr gun, but the shell wouldn't weigh 20 pounds anymore...

On the other hand I love the German way.
They name a gun for instance 8.8 cm KwK 36 L/56.
Here 8.8 cm means the width of the fired shell (you can't fire anything bigger or smaller because the gun won't work, you may change the weight)
Kwk or kampfwagenkanone (tank canon) 36 is just what the thing is and what type.
And last but not least L/56 means that the length of the barrel is 56 times the diameter of the fired shell, 56 x 88 mm = 4,928 (around 16 ft).
This makes it so much clearer as to what exactly a gun is, just by it's name... I'm a bit of a fan of the old German efficiency (although they made quite a few inefficient choices in ww2)


Random funfact to go with it. Many people believe the 88mm gun in the tiger is a flak 88 mounted in a tank. They are actually designed separately for reasons of functional use in tight spaces.

Enough tank stuff for now, might throw in some more random facts some other time xD

 

[clg114]

As suggested in another thread...

Let's have a space where we can blab about our latest findings / thoughts / feels about our special interest when you just need a place / person / people to share it with Just Because. You won't have to worry about being "annoying" or anything to folks here - we all know what it's like

And plus -- I can't speak for everyone, but I like learning random new things from people, and I also like seeing others being really excited about something

So, for me, this has been on my mind lately!

This is very interesting, I would have never guessed that the Finnish language would be that different from the other Scandinavian languages. Why is that? Are the people that different? I guess I'll have to check it out. Here I go, off on another side road again. Just to see where it goes.

 

[Ylva]

I think Kitty Pryde may not become intangible, as much as she generates a force field which suspends the Higgs bosons in her vicinity.

Since evolution was mentioned, I feel compelled to go on about it. Obviously nobody thinks the writers of X-men has a clue about evolution, or if they do they are certainly pandering to the masses when it comes to oversimplified talks about genetics. To my understanding, assuming their world "works" like ours in all other respects, there can be an x-gene, but it would cause other genes to mutate rather than grant powers on its own.

If it causes other genes to mutate, would they just do mutated versions of stuff ordinary genes already do? No idea. I gotta read more about genetics first. Also, nobody "kindly" inform me that dna just tells rna how to string together proteins, and that no matter how many proteins you string together you don't get magic. I already know.

 

[Progster]

This is very interesting, I would have never guessed that the Finnish language would be that different from the other Scandinavian languages. Why is that? Are the people that different? I guess I'll have to check it out. Here I go, off on another side road again. Just to see where it goes.

The Finnish language is different from other languages because, unlike most other European languages, it belongs to the Uralic family of languages, so called because they originated in the Uralian mountains and then spread across Siberia and some areas of Northern Europe. Other major languages which belong to this group are Hungarian and Estonian.

I find minority languages fascinating. One language which interests me a lot, and which I've studied a bit, is the Aromanian language. This language is spoken in pockets of central and Northern Greece, and other Balkan countries, but there are now few native speakers. It is similar in many ways to Romanian, but has many loan words from Greek. I have heard it being spoken and can just about get the gist of what they are saying from my knowledge of Greek and Romanian. It's grammar is also similar to Romanian, though the pronunciation differs. Like in the Romanian language, the definite article is suffixed to the noun, but in Romanian, the article is -ul, in Aromanian it's often -lu. Many Aromanian words have the ending -u attached, and I've notice that some earlier Romanian forms have this ending too, including surnames. A rather (notorious) example would be the name Ceausescu. It's common for adjectives in Romanian to end in -esc, but without the u at the end. I think that the -u ending is a throwback to an earlier form of the language, which can then be traced back to Latin, at the root of all Romance languages.

Aromanian: Cunoscu (I know)
Romanian: Cunosc.

Folk song in Aromanian language sung by Stelu Enache, from the 2007 album Iskender - Aromanian Sound. (though I don't know where the Iskender came from - it's the Turkish word for Alexander, though historically an important figure in that region of Macedonia)

The Greek language and Albanian language are also interesting, because they don't belong to any family of languages and are different to any other European language. They are in a category of their own

 

[Moore]

Isaac Newton left Cambridge University in 1665 due to the college being closed because of the plague. He spent the next 18 months perusing his own research. This is when he sat under the famous apple tree and he independently created calculus, laws of motion, and light theory. This tree is still alive and well at his family estate. My current obsession is trying to acquire an apple from this tree.

 

[Nisk]

Isaac Newton left Cambridge University in 1665 due to the college being closed because of the plague. He spent the next 18 months perusing his own research. This is when he sat under the famous apple tree and he independently created calculus, laws of motion, and light theory. This tree is still alive and well at his family estate. My current obsession is trying to acquire an apple from this tree.

That would be awesome

 

[Ylva]

Isaac Newton left Cambridge University in 1665 due to the college being closed because of the plague. He spent the next 18 months perusing his own research. This is when he sat under the famous apple tree and he independently created calculus, laws of motion, and light theory. This tree is still alive and well at his family estate. My current obsession is trying to acquire an apple from this tree.

A worthy goal.

Hey, are we supposed to edit our previous posts to add new things, or can we dump anew every time?

 

[hiraeth]

Ylva I'd say do whichever You could quote the original post if it'll help with context, maybe?

Alright, I don't know if double posting is good manners so I'm editing this to include my latest finding of : some of the nationalities that show up on this list makes me wonder if they were drunk or something.... not gonna use names but at least one of them obviously makes zero sense, given my understanding of some of the free movement agreements that exist in that part of the world.

Also, I have no idea how I ended up on that page. But I do have a quirky habit of perusing immigration statistics.

 

[Progster]

Ylva I'd say do whichever You could quote the original post if it'll help with context, maybe?

Alright, I don't know if double posting is good manners so I'm editing this to include my latest finding of : some of the nationalities that show up on this list makes me wonder if they were drunk or something.... not gonna use names but at least one of them obviously makes zero sense, given my understanding of some of the free movement agreements that exist in that part of the world.

Also, I have no idea how I ended up on that page. But I do have a quirky habit of perusing immigration statistics.

Interesting list

 

[zurb]

To be honest, I am a firm believer of evolution, but this only makes me more curious as to what reasons you have to refute it. Not to end up in some useless debate over which one is right or wrong, but because I believe one can only have a true meaningful opinion if one knows both sides of the story, if there might be good reasons for me to have doubts about evolution theory, I want to know them so I can be sure if my opinion is still correct.

Creation vs Evolution is also an interest of mine. I find the science interesting. Though nowadays, I quickly reach a saturation point where I've had enough. I'm not a JW, but I have recently watched some of Prof Walter Veith's Genesis Conflict video series which is very good, and I'd recommend if you're interested.
Of course googling 'Creation Science', 'Answers in Genesis' or similar will also net some interesting articles.

 

[Ylva]

Slightly obsessed with understanding logarithms. I get that it is the unknown exponent of the base of ten (or some other base if specified). The obsession is with being able to think the rules as though they were part of my native tongue.

Sometimes I have it the same way with trigonometry, especially after learning that Cyclops has mastered trig as part of controlling his power of shooting eyebeams. If he aims them just right he can have them ricochet six times and hit someone around two corners in the back. This is also the only potential (ball) sports have to be remotely interesting to me. There are angles and momentum and distances. To some extent in video games, too.

Something to a negative power is a fraction.

 

[hiraeth]

Oh goodness Ylva , may I borrow your special interest energy for my exam tomorrow? Ugh it is not going to go well >_>

 

[Ylva]

Oh goodness Ylva , may I borrow your special interest energy for my exam tomorrow? Ugh it is not going to go well >_>

Sure, but let me warn you that it is self-direced and pretty much spins a wheel to pick an interest. You could wind up knowing everything about the works of Victor Hugo and very little else.

 

[Ylva]

If I were a mutant, my power would be infodumping.

Old ones: (Spoiler Alert)

Infodumping is pretty much Renesmee's power, too. (I do prefer her Luminosity counterpart Elspeth to the extent that I've pretty muchh mentally substituted one for the other. Now the plot of Breaking Dawn makes even less sense. Mostly because rationalist Bella would never have made all the stupid choices that are basically required for that book to happen.)

Katniss Everdeen must also have a mutant power, probably Hawkeye's. She can aim perfectly every time, even when severely traumatized. Also, like Harry Potter, she has the power of luck.

I didn't read all of 50 Shades, but I know what's in all the books because of the internet. My theory is that Anastasia must have a kind of resilience superpower, the kind that other mutants only have as secondary powers. (Quicksilver, for instance, has the extra power of not crushing his leg bones by running at 200 mph. He says as much in Son of M.) Anyway, she must have in order to avoid being traumatized by all the abuse.

 

[hiraeth]

Here is my newest entertaining discovery!

 

[Ylva]

OMG, Languages!

How does one rant about languages?

I love interlingual homophones and learning the names of metals and figuring out alphabets and phonetics and looking around in pocket dictionaries and… This could take a while.

At any rate, Duolingo is fun.

 

[Cinnamon115]

Something I read a while ago on wikipedia: it's not Pandora's box. It's actually a jar. It was mistranslated in the 16th century when the latin translator mixed up the greek word for jar, "pithos", and the greek word for box, "pyxis". It makes sense when you think about it, because in the originally story Pandora carried around the jar, and it would be tough to lug around a massive box. Since I learned about this, anytime someone says "Pandora's box" it bugs me.