Humor Random Comments Thread

[Notebook]

RE #24872 and Danube cruises above.

Had a chat with my mate Les regarding London/Prague overland. His comments:

What ho George,
Ah, those long lost days of travelling by car to Czechoslovakia 'as was'.
We would drive to Dover and catch the 01:00 ferry to Ostend, this arrived at about 06:00 local time. It took about 3 hours to get to Aachen on the German border, then hack our way across on a 2 lane autobahn to the then West / East German crossing point of Furth im Wald, if we were lucky we would get there about 17:00. That's where we said goodbye to the West and slowly went through what I called "no mans land" finally hitting the Czech border. These guys seemed to have no sense of humour, but maybe I can't blame them, oh and I should have said they were carrying Kalashnikov's. Again if we were lucky we might be processed within the hour, but they checked everything, documents, visa's, had we paid the fixed amount in the equivalent of US dollars per person per day into Czech Crowns (non convertible when you left). then they searched the car, and I mean searched for any non permitted goods. Once given the all clear we then drove through small roads to Klatovy via Domazlice which took about 1 hour. Once in Klatovy I was ready for a nice cool Czech beer, and a sleep. In the early 1980's it was quite unusual to see another UK registered car in the country areas, the other problem was that for the most part you could only get low octane petrol. The trick was to take a can of Redex with you, and give a good squirt when filling up, this reduced the effects of "pinking".
Toodle pip, Les

N.

 

[Andy44]

Gotta love the old Hercules, going strong since the 50s, and Lockheed Martin's test pilot actually loops this newest version while wringing it out at an air show. I've never seen a C-130 do this, before. (Loop is around 6:30, but the entire video is awesome)

 

[Notebook]

Looming up out of the green Cheshire countryside, listening to Deep Space, the Lovell telescope is an icon of science. And while it listens, the third largest radio telescope in the world becomes - for just a few days every summer - a massive, animated art installation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44900634

 

[Unstung]

The $1000 Nikon P1000 has a 24-3000mm 35mm-equivalent lens with a maximum aperture of f/8 at the narrow end. This corresponds to a 539mm focal length.
It uses a 1/2.3" sensor, 6.2mm wide and 4.6mm tall. This is roughly a 4:3 ratio. The resolution of the sensor is 4608x3456, or 15,925,248 pixels.
The largest angular diameter of the planets are, as follows:
Venus - 1'6"
Jupiter - 50.1"
Mars - 25.1"
Saturn - 20.1"

The sensor has a pixel diameter of 1.3 um (micrometers), circle of confusion of 3.33 um, and an airy disk diameter of 10.7 um.
The field of view is equal to 2*arctan(0.5*[dimension]/focal_length), so the width is 0.6591 degrees and the height is 0.489 degrees.
Each pixel is about 0.51" square. Now for how much (horizontal or vertical) space each planet occupies:
Venus - 129 pixels - 167.7 um
Jupiter - 98 pixels - 127.4 um
Mars - 49.2 pixels - 63.96 um
Saturn - 39.4 pixels - 51.22 um

On the extreme end, a $3300 35mm Nikon D850 has a resolution of 8256x5504 - 45,441,024 pixels. Assume it's paired with a $16,300 800mm f/5.6 lens.
The sensor has a pixel diameter of 4.4 um, circle of confusion of 10.9 um, and an airy disk diameter of 7.5 um.
Given the sensor size is 36x24mm, the frame width is 2.578 degrees and height 1.719 degrees. Thus, each pixel is about 1.124" square.
Venus - 58.719 pixels - 258.3636 um
Jupiter - 44.57 pixels - 196.108 um
Mars - 22.33 pixels - 98.252 um
Saturn - 17.88 pixels - 78.672 um

So for the price of a car, you get a sharp, but smaller, image that's less diffraction-limited. I'm pretty sure cheaper telescopes can do a better job.

That was excessive.


Also, http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=(1.22*(500+nanometers/67+millimeters))(180/pi)
For the P1000, the angular resolution is 2.06", or about 4x the pixel width.

 

[jedidia]

So for the price of a car, you get a sharp, but smaller, image that's less diffraction-limited. I'm pretty sure cheaper telescopes can do a better job.

You have really cheap cars over there :lol:

 

[ljetibo]

I don't know, $3300 35mm Nikon D850 and a $16,300 800mm f/5.6 lens. Let's round it up to 20 000$ even. Doesn't seem like a stretch for a used car anywhere in the world.

 

[Artlav]

Speaking of cameras, the timelapse thingy i pointed at the apples 4 years ago finally died today. Not too hard to fix, but it's a good excuse to post the video.

Full project details here: https://orbides.org/lapse_camera.php

If you center it closer to evening you can see how the sun bobs up and down as the times of the year fly by:

 

[Fabri91]

What do you do when you have some large quadcopter spare parts and think that USB fans are puny?

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C-ZDszUiQI"]button - YouTube[/ame]

It's slightly terrifying.

 

[Notebook]

Age test
Would you like to know how old do you act? Just answer 24 simple questions honestly and you will find out how old you really are.

https://www.age-test.com/

I'm 35, got that wrong.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

https://www.age-test.com/

I'm 35, got that wrong.

N.

28, something must be broken, I feel like 82 this morning.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

https://www.age-test.com/

I'm 35, got that wrong.

N.

Says I am 32. I turn 28 in a few weeks.

:hmm:

 

[Notebook]

I feel I can't trust any on-line tests these days.

N.

 

[Linguofreak]

I feel I can't trust any on-line tests <SNIP>.

N.

FTFY.

 

[Urwumpe]

Just read about something strange that happened at the Kassel Volkwagen plant. A large piece of the roof got blown away, but no debris inside the hall. No signs for any tornadic events. Still its attributed to a dust devil, but the explanation is highly dubious. dust devils don't require colder air to form and are more common during the early afternoon. Also there was little wind shear around on that day.

Now, my question is: Does somebody know similar events? And could it be possible that the roof got damaged by overpressure because of the heat?

https://www.hna.de/kassel/windhose-volkswagen-vw-10072114.html

 

[Andy44]

That test says I'm 27. Sure, yeah, let's go with that...

 

[PhantomCruiser]

If there are any readers of the classics here (and I'd imagine there are), here's something to consider https://www.delphiclassics.com/shop/the-harvard-classics/

I've long been a fan of Dr. Eliot's five foot shelf, and here is a portable (electronic) version for $2.49. Hard to beat the Harvard Classics, and that price is a steal. Lot's of good stuff available.

 

[Fabri91]

https://www.age-test.com/

I'm 35, got that wrong.

N.

Well, I'm 26 and got 27, so there's that.

 

[mahdavi3d]

Well, I'm 26 and got 27, so there's that.

I got 27 too! but my hair is turning white so...!

 

[C3PO]

29 here... Must be fake news. :lol:

 

[jedidia]

One sql-query to rule them all... :stirpot: