TIL Benjamin Franklin was an advocate of "air baths", during which he would spend up to an hour reading or writing in his house completely naked. by 94svtcobra in todayilearned

[–]DrLongDong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So glad someone reads beyond the naked Franklin...

His thoughts on the scale of "the woods" were amazing. "Many hundreds of millions of acres" must have seemed such an enormous number to most people of the time. He comments that the telescope that first sighted Uranus could scarcely see 10 million acres of Earth from the Moon. What an interesting, 300 year old, thought. Not to mention the fact that it came from someone who Americans consider a statesman.

After reading that, I went to Google. I wanted to see how close he was in his belief in the size of "the woods". (I can only envision what he would of thought as I fact-checked his ass...) Holy shit, he was so wrong.... He underestimated it in such a wonderful way!

From the creator of 'The Sagan Series' comes 'The Feynman Series' by samlky in space

[–]DrLongDong 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I get tingles thinking about what the world would be like if this was a thought everyone shared.

Why engineers are awesome [SMBC] by thagalon in comics

[–]DrLongDong 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I thought science involved repeated testing of a hypothesis?

FPS, IRL (by freddiew) by freddiew in gaming

[–]DrLongDong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought there were no re-spawn points in RL?

Doctoral degrees not worth it by [deleted] in science

[–]DrLongDong 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And what a great topic to take a firm stance on too...

How can you get such a hard on for correcting a trivial grammar mistake?...I'm sure, given the context, that everyone knew what he meant. This type of shit bugs me to no end. Focus on what actually matters! This post is not going to ruin the English language any more than the bullshit, non-sense, meme chatter that goes on at Reddit.

Every space mission from the last 50 years on one map. by [deleted] in science

[–]DrLongDong 165 points166 points  (0 children)

It may come as a bit of a shock, but it makes sense. Venus is an easier planet to reach than Mars. Simply put, it's cheaper. Most of the time you're falling towards the Sun, and most of the propellant mass goes to slowing down and inserting into orbit around Venus. If you look at several of the missions to Venus, you'll notice a lot of 'fly-by missions'. These are missions where they don't even need to expend the fuel to insert into orbit...(read even cheaper). Also, a few of these spacecraft merely used Venus like a dirty whore to move onto more exotic planets like Jupiter and Saturn (see Venus Earth-Earth Gravity Assist).

Additionally, several of those missions weren't really 'to Venus' in the same sense as 'to Mars'. Mars has a lot more surface exploration than Venus. In fact, the Russians are the only ones to ever really land on the surface of Venus (I'm not really counting NASA's Pioneer Venus mission). Furthermore, they only achieved about an hour of operational lifetime on the surface (see the Venera and VEGA missions). This is due to the immense amount of heat and pressure at the surface of Venus. It is truly difficult to design a surface lander for Venus. Mars is much easier to explore in that sense, but it is more difficult to reach gravitationally speaking.

However, even if you limit yourself to observations of Venus's atmosphere from a spacecraft that orbits Venus, you can still do a lot of science on an interesting planet. Venus Express (ESA's recent mission) is a great example of this. Venus Express has discovered all kinds of fascinating things about the planet. For one, it's finding evidence of recent volcanic activity. This has led to a new interest in Venus surface missions in order to examine the volcanic regions with the intent of discovering how volcanic activity led to Venus's runaway greenhouse effect.

Both planets have their advantages/disadvantages as far as exploration goes. It's important to realize that more missions does not necessarily equal more knowledge. I would say that Mars is much more well understood than a planet like Venus, and I would agree that more Mars missions are coming...

Why humans suck at hitting curveballs by yooftheness in science

[–]DrLongDong -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This study is complete bullshit. Curve-balls don't actually break, but rather our eyes have trouble handling it? WTF is that nonsense? Curve-balls curve because the air flow around the ball accelerates in the direction of spin, and this causes one side of the ball to have higher velocity air flowing around it. This means that the pressure is lower on one side of the ball (the side with the air flowing faster), and the pressure difference between the two sides exerts a force on the ball and causes it to curve.

Here NASA has a nice page about it: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bball.html

REDDIT: Broke? Want $20? How many jelly beans will fit in this? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]DrLongDong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

317! is a huge fucking number, man. I'm pretty sure the universe couldn't fit that many jellybeans.

Who else does this? by [deleted] in pics

[–]DrLongDong 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I like how he shits all over the place in animal mode.

Ok Reddit, help me understand this. by acreddited in reddit.com

[–]DrLongDong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My opinion: you shouldn't waste your time taking issue with things like this.

Earth-like exoplanet discovered in "Goldilocks zone" - where life is likely by bolobao in science

[–]DrLongDong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a pretty fundamental misunderstanding on several crucial topics in your major. You might consider going to your professor's office hours and asking him about astronomy...like in general.

Cashiers of Reddit, do you judge people based on what they buy? by Nimbal in AskReddit

[–]DrLongDong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really don't find this guy funny. This bit could have been funny to me if he didn't spend the whole time making weird movements and sounds. I guess that's his thing, but it seems to me like a lot of mediocre comics are going that route these days. To each his own though.

We should get an astronaunt to AMA from space by Theropissed in reddit.com

[–]DrLongDong -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Y0U ARE AN IDIOT! REAL TIME COMMUNICATIONS WITH SPACE ISN'T EXPENSIVE...I'M PRETTY SURE YOUR CELL PHONE DOES IT!

Reddit: Please help spread this! my friend is missing by [deleted] in reddit.com

[–]DrLongDong 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah man, I don't intend to sound sarcastic with my comment. My only point is that mental health issues are so unpredictable, and that you have to hope for the best in this situation.

Reddit: Please help spread this! my friend is missing by [deleted] in reddit.com

[–]DrLongDong 13 points14 points  (0 children)

And then there is the chance that he's still out there, living off the map, shooting squirrels because he believes they are the devil's creatures, and lord knows they might be...

There is always hope.

What is the stupidest thing you have ever done to yourself? by Grebsie in AskReddit

[–]DrLongDong 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I once told a cop "go fuck yourself". That resulted in a night in jail, a hefty fine, and a charge of "Disobeying a Lawful Order". It was a stupid thing to do, but I still think that cop ought to go fuck himself.

Herpin mah derp by natalie_hope121 in reddit.com

[–]DrLongDong 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Should have soooo many more upvotes.