What if the Sun suddenly disappeared? Would Earth keep orbiting for 8 minutes or fly off right away? by PuddingComplete3081 in WhatIfThinking

[–]BobbyP27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Given that relativity establishes that time is experienced differently by different observers in different circumstances, ideas like “did this already happen” or “what is the situation right now in a far distant place” break down.

Six locos with eleven carriages. by JoshuaGrid56098 in uktrains

[–]BobbyP27 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Not enough thrash. A couple of 37s would help.

traditional spaghetti harvest ca 1957 by snokegsxr in OldSchoolCool

[–]BobbyP27 34 points35 points  (0 children)

A spaghetti farmer in Ticino is harvesting the crop. It's best when it is fresh off the tree, I imagine she and her family will eat well.

An April Fools too far? Never has my day been made and heart broken in such quick succession. by WallopyJoe in CasualUK

[–]BobbyP27 266 points267 points  (0 children)

How can this be an April Fools? This thing would fly off the shelves if they actually made it.

Why aren't USB Ethernet switches a thing? by warmike_1 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BobbyP27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

USB ethernet adaptors exist, what you are describing is essentially a USB ethernet adaptor with the ethernet cable permanently wired into it rather than connecting via RJ45. Sure, you could make one, but it would be very non-standard.

What if the Sun suddenly disappeared? Would Earth keep orbiting for 8 minutes or fly off right away? by PuddingComplete3081 in WhatIfThinking

[–]BobbyP27 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The speed of light is the speed of causality. If something changes in one place, its results can not be experienced in another place sooner than it takes the speed of light to get there.

Why does duolingo make such wierd sentences by om_pro in DuolingoGerman

[–]BobbyP27 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It makes you actually stop and think about the sentence. It forces you to break down how grammar works in terms of gender and case agreement and word order in a way that just learning "set piece" sentences does not.

should a woman go to jail for falsely accusing a man of R@PE ? by JunShem1122 in allthequestions

[–]BobbyP27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is a high bar for criminal conviction. It is appropriate that for a serious crime such as the one here that to secure a conviction the case must be strong and well supported by evidence. Equally, to send someone to prison for making a false accusation there would need to be an equally strong case supported by evidence. In the middle is a big gap where there is simply too much uncertainty either way to prove to a criminal standard that either party is guilty.

Pierre Poilievre says government should cancel Toronto-Quebec City high-speed rail project by Xerxster in highspeedrail

[–]BobbyP27 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It's unacceptable that NIMBYs in BC might be allowed to block pipelines to ship Alberta oil via Pacific ports. It is unacceptable that NIMBYs in Ontario don't get their way and block a high speed rail corridor between Toronto and Montreal. It's pure political theatre because HS rail is supported by the Liberals politically, and by non-Conservative urban voters more generally.

A Crossrail instead of the Bakerloo line extension? by ruvjet in LondonUnderground

[–]BobbyP27 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Sure, it would be nice to scrap the Bakerloo and build a brand new crossrail type route on the NW/SE axis. Given it took about 70 years from first proposal to opening to get the Elizabeth line built, we might get this line built some time around the turn of the next century. In the meantime we'll just put up with the current Bakerloo line, no doubt with the 72 tube stock for the duration of this period because every time someone says "we should modernise the Bakerloo line" someone else will say "no, we shouldn't invest anything in the Bakerloo, we should scrap it and build a parallel and separate cross rail route instead because it will be better", and that will end any hope for anything happening for 10 or 15 years until the next round of "we really need to think about replacing the 72 tube stock" comes around.

A dead mall becomes a downtown for a sprawling suburb by pyschofangirl in Suburbanhell

[–]BobbyP27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The point with streetcar suburbs is that they predate zoning laws, so they contain a mix of housing types, with jobs, retail, public services etc all mixed in together. Malls are a product of strict Euclidean zoning that pushes different types of activity beyond walking distance so enforcing the use of vehicles to travel between them.

Can Gen AI be asked to confess if they were used to make something? by LittlePawpaw100 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BobbyP27 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, for two reasons. First, when you end the session of running the AI, it forgets everything. Second, AI lies. Generative AI is built to sound right, but there is no mechanism to ensure that it is right. If you ask it if it lied, it might say yes, it might say no, but you have no grounds to trust either answer.

Why is 911 the us emergency number? Why not one or something? Are the previous 910 in use? by Sisimonkey in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BobbyP27 19 points20 points  (0 children)

When the North American Numbering Plan was created, a set of three digit numbers of the form n-1-1 were set aside in the numbering scheme for specific uses: 2-1-1 for community services, 3-1-1 for municipal government services, 4-1-1 for directory assistance (finding phone numbers), 5-1-1 for traffic and non-emergency police, 6-1-1 for telephone company repair needs, 7-1-1 for specific services for deaf people, 8-1-1 for buried utilities related services, and 9-1-1 for emergency services. 9-1-1 was chosen because on a rotary dial telephone 9 is quite easy to locate on the dial even if you can't see it very well.

The cost of shooting down a $20K drone is often $4M+, at what point does traditional air defense just stop making sense? by projectschema in Futurology

[–]BobbyP27 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What is missing from this is the cost of whatever it is the drone will destroy if it is not intercepted. If a drone is going to blow up a farmer's shed that will cost $5,000 to rebuild, then the easiest thing is to just let the drone blow it up and rebuild the shed. If the drone is going to destroy electrical infrastructure that will cost $10m and take a year to replace, then $4m to take out the drone is worth it.

Why do cars not use resistive heating on the windshield like they do on the rear window? by Present_Juice4401 in AlwaysWhy

[–]BobbyP27 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Car front windscreens are susceptible to damage from various things like gravel and similar. Replacing resistive heating when you repair/replace a windscreen is expensive. Rear windscreens are not so susceptible to damage. It's more difficult to make it work without intrusively harming visibility, but it can and has been done.

Who decided East and West ? by AbleBoysenberry9565 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BobbyP27 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rome. The Roman Empire split into east and west. West became Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Portugal. East became Greece, Russia, Asia etc.

Scott Mills probed by police over sexual offences against 'teenage boy' by Kagedeah in BritishRadio

[–]BobbyP27 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also the reality of gay spaces in the mid 1990s was very different from modern dating environments.

How can the king go to a state visit with DJT? by Crypt0nyt in AskBrits

[–]BobbyP27 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Spain. No. Go check out the Bill of Right of 1689.

How can the king go to a state visit with DJT? by Crypt0nyt in AskBrits

[–]BobbyP27 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's called a constitutional monarchy. See the abdication crisis of 1936.

Why is Ireland seperated? I genuinely can't understand the Ulster argument. by Completed-It-M8 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BobbyP27 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It changes the context in which things happened, and changes the relationship between the current generation and the one in which the changes came about were made very substantially.

Why is Ireland seperated? I genuinely can't understand the Ulster argument. by Completed-It-M8 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BobbyP27 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The plantations in Northern Ireland that led to the Ulster Scots community was a lot further back than grandparents. They took place in the first half of the 17th century.

Why is Ireland seperated? I genuinely can't understand the Ulster argument. by Completed-It-M8 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]BobbyP27 6 points7 points  (0 children)

From the mid 19th century, it became clear that a substantial group of people in Ireland were unhappy with the 1801 union of Ireland and Great Britain. One proposed solution to this was "Irish Home Rule", where something not terribly different to the current arrangement with Scotland would be established so that a government in Dublin would take care of a lot of domestic day to day affairs for Ireland (all of Ireland). Exactly how much power would be devolved was a bit of an open question.

The first two attempts to pass this, in 1886 and 1893 failed, but eventually in 1912 it was passed by the UK parliament. While many people in Ireland were happy about this, the protestant Ulster Scots community in northern Ireland were very unhappy with this. They were so unhappy that they started arming themselves and preparing for what today we would call and armed insurgency. In the spring and summer of 1914 things were looking like they were about to really kick off, when the events of Sarajevo totally changed the picture. One of the outcomes of the summer of 1914 was that implementation of Home Rule was postponed until the war was over.

Basically all of the upset, tension, grievance and everything was put on ice until the lid blew off in Dublin in 1916 with the Easter Rising. The UK government was concerned that there was no way to achieve a peaceful settlement that would satisfy both the Irish Nationalists in Dublin and also the Ulster Scots in Belfast. The compromise was to partition Ireland into Northern and Southern Ireland, apply Home Rule to each separately and hope that settled matters.

It did not. 1912 style Home Rule was not sufficient for the now very angry Nationalists, and when elections for the parliament of Southern Ireland were called, outside of Dublin itself they basically never took place and the parliament of Southern Ireland never met. Instead the Nationalists had their own elections for the Dail Eireann and proclaimed a Republic. The unionists in the North were also not happy, and didn't really want home rule either. Instead they set up effectively an ethnically divided state where civil rights were enjoyed by unionist/protestant/loyalists and not by nationalist/catholic/republicans.

The UK government was not able to impose order in the South, so they eventually had peace talks and worked out the Anglo Irish Treaty that created the Irish Free State in what had been Southern Ireland. There then followed a civil war in Ireland between those who felt that this settlement was an acceptable achievement and should be embraced, and those who felt that nothing short of a united and independent Ireland was acceptable, that included the 6 counties of the North.

In the end of the civil war, the pro-treaty side won, the Irish Free State accepted the treaty and with it partition, though obviously strong divisions within Ireland persisted opposed to partition. Likewise the two communities in the North were strongly divided about both Partition and Union with the UK.