Things you don't need to know...

pibbur who said:
According to news media, the Airbus Beluga XL freighter took off for the first time yesterday, from Airbus' own Toulouse-Blagnac airport.

BelugaXL-FirstFlight-1-.1000x562.jpg


Another plane I refuse to believe can fly (and given the looks of it, doesn't deserve to fly either).

Other planes for which I seriolusly doubt their flying capability:
  1. Boeing 747
  2. Airbus A380
  3. Antonov 225

To be honest, I have been sitting in two of those in european airports, and 10 hours later finding myself sitting in the same devices in similar facitlies in the US. So there's definitely something going on. Stilll, if you look at those mammoths, crawling oh-so slowly upwards, it is, at least to me, hard to fathom that they're able to do it. Just take a look at the Antonov 225 leaving Zürich: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jALTAeHLbQ

pibbur who

PS. If anyone now wants to come with the it's-against-the-law-of-physics-that-a-bumblebee-can-fly-but-the-bumblebee-doesn't-know-that-so-it-flies-anyway story - well, that one is a myth. DS.
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I like the beluga aeroplane, and would fly on it, on the condition that I don't have to pass through any airports.

Quite interesting article here, correcting the theory of how wings cause lift, which many people have been wrongly taught.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/how-wings-really-work
 
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Ripper said:
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Quite interesting article here, correcting the theory of how wings cause lift, which many people have been wrongly taught.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/how-wings-really-work
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Actually I knew that, sort of. I looked into it (asked a nephew of mine who worked as a technician in the Norwegian air force), when I started wondering: If it's the shape that's important, how can a plane fly upside down?

Nice reference. I guess it's the same princple that makes the wings create downforce on an F1 car.

What remains is to understand winglets. I've heard, don't know for sure, that without winglets, the A380 would require a significantly larger wingspan.

pibbur who stays firmly on the gropund despite having no wings.

PS. To the watch: The Beluga XL is UGLY!!! Don't believe those who tell you (and the other watchers) otherwise. Trust me, because I'm a Norwegian. And fully grown up (> 60 years). And because I know that the Bethesda games are great (unmodded). And… And … Because I say so.
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Actually, trusting pibbur is maybe not such a good idea after all. The Beluga is still ugly, though. DS.
 
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SirJames said:
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Another thing you don't need to know is that the word politics is made up of "poly" meaning many and "tics" meaning bloodsucking insects. :p
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While the thread is about things you don't need to know, the things you don't need to know are supposed to be correct things (you don't need to know). So I have to arrest you here.

Tics (or as they are more commonly spelled "ticks") are not insects. Insects have 6 limbs. The Ixodidae have as you can see on the picture below 8 legs, and belong to the Arachnid class (spider like beasts) of arthropods. Doesn't weaken your argument though, as spidery vermin are even more YEEEEEECHY than insects.

1024px-Ixodus_ricinus_5x.jpg


pibbur who might have mentioned other issues with the claim if this were in the language thread.
 
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I live in Connecticut and out here we loathe ticks. :mad:

d9fbd1-20120203-tick-map.jpg


They are everywhere.
 
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Although most don’t need to know what I deleted, you do need to know that this was not the thread for this. For the rest who don’t know what this is about, well that is the point of this thread :)
 
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Today is the start of this year's Badwater 135 Ultramaraton, the race going from Badwater Basin, Death Valley to Whitney Portal. 217 km and 4000+ m cumulative elevation gain. Now, why would anyone want to run that distance in july (or run that distance at all) when the heat makes conditions as hellish as can be? Well, that's exactly why.

Originally the race was 235 km long, going all the way to the summit of Mt Whitney, but in recent years the US Forest Service requires summit permit (whatever that is) to climb said mountain, hence the slightly shorter distance of today's races. There are still those going all the way, of course, but that's not part of the official program anymore.

The current world record is held by Pete Kostelnick who spent 21:56:32 on the road in 2016. Same runner also has the running across the US from coast to coast record: 42 days, six hours and 30 minutes, also in 2016.

Obviously, during such a race you need supplies, and most participants have service vehicles providing them with whatever they need. That is of course cheating, according to some runners, at least according to Marshall Ulrich who brought everything he needed with him from start to finish using a modded baby jogger cart (whatever that is) back in '99

But of course, a mere 217 km is for pussies. Real men and women do the Badwater Quad: Badwater->Mt Whithey->Badwater->Mt Whitney and back to Badwater again. Marshall Ulrich did it in '01 (10 days), Lisa Smith-Batchen in '14 (15 days).

pibbur who wishes all the participants good luck, especially Grzegorz Gucwa who's running for Norway.

PS. If a quadruple Badwater in 10 days isn't good(bad) enough for you, there is of course the world record for circumnavigating the earth on foot, 621 days, set by Kevin Carr in 2013-2015. Quite impressing, especially since part of the route took him through Australia. DS.

PPS. If you're interested (and of course, you are), here's a presentation of all participants in Badwater 2018 ed.: https://www.vidaenelvalle.com/sports/article215341320.html DS.
 
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This sort of thing always reminds me of this scene.

 
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Yepp, I guess they feel great when it's all over and they've passed the finishing line. Or perhaps a couple of hours/days after.

A bit like coming up from an epsiode of clinical depression. Few things are better than that (depends to some degree on the presence and the severity of dysthymia).

pibbur who has first hand experience.

PS. Then we have the before mentioned mr. Kostelnick. He's participating in this year's Badwater, and will probably pass the finishing line tomorrow, no surprise if he wins the ordeal. After that? What about next week? Here's what he posted on Facebook in May (https://es-la.facebook.com/petesfee...america-is/1257042261064825/?_fb_noscript=1): "On August 1, 2018, I’ll set off on a run of my own imagination—“Ke To Key: Unlock Your Wildest Dream”. I am going to run over 5,300 miles from Kenai, Alaska to Key West, Florida. I’m going to do it with all my gear in a stroller". In other words 8000 km without any external support. One question: Do they allow (seemingly) mad men into Canada? DS.
 
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Took a while before I got it (before I checked Wikipedia). This is something I definitely like to know.

pibbur who also thinks this is something he (probably) will tell the wife about, and at the same time something she will not listen to.
 
Radio Shack unveiled the TRS-80 computer on this day in 1977.

m1.jpg

The TRS-80 Micro Computer System is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of Tandy/Radio Shack, Z-80 microprocessor. It was one of the earliest mass-produced and mass-marketed retail personal computers.
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Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80

Link - https://www.bing.com/search?q=trs+80&filters=IsConversation:%22True%22%20OsKey%3A%22OnThisDay0803%22+Id%3A%223%22+dw_answerstobesuppressed%3A%22taskpanepromotionanswer%22&form=OTDTB3
 
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Remember Pete Kostelnick, the ultrarunner? As I mentioned in one of my Badwater posts, he has planned running from Alaska to Florida this autumn, but I was unsure about whether he would actually do it, since he DNFed this years's Badwater 135.

You'll be happy to know that he's on the road. Started Tuesday 0500 at Anchor point this week, passed Cooper Landing Wednesday, and is somewhere south of that today. He's expected at Key West in November.

You can read about it and even see a short video here: http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Record-breaking-ultrarunner-calls-running-in-Alaska-a-dream-come-true-489955151.html.

According to mr Kostelnick, running from Alaska to Florida is a dream come true.

pibbur who agrees with mr Kostalnick regarding the dream aspect of running said distance, but is not sure that they are talking about the same type of dream.
 
I believe a Nightmare is considered a type of dream!! :)
 
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IBM released the 5150 computer on this day in 1981.

$1,565 will get you 16K of RAM, a 4.77 MHz CPU, and DOS 1.0 on IBM's new entry into the marketplace, a machine marketed as a personal computer, or 'PC.' Open standards mean third parties can write software or build peripherals, which will contribute to the 5150's huge success.
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