Fun Fact Thread! (previously fun fact for the day, not limited to 1 per day anymore.)

[farmerben]

12 hours ago, Ben J. Kerman said:

 

For something more interesting, Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador is farther from the Earth's center than Mt. Everest, while not being as high above sea level as Everest is. I guess I can't resist to point out interesting geography facts.

It's also the best location on Earth for a ramp launcher for spacecraft. 

[Maria Sirona]

21 hours ago, farmerben said:

It's also the best location on Earth for a ramp launcher for spacecraft. 

And would be even better if the Earth spun the other way around

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

I was today years old when I learned Mercury is NOT tidally locked to the Sun.

 

7:07 on for the relevant segment

Edited May 16, 2023 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[steve9728]

Hong Kong is somewhere still using bamboo scaffolding. Mainland China, just across the river from it, banned the use of bamboo scaffolding in 2000 and replaced it with metal. Have to say, I do hope that they will phase out bamboo scaffolding as soon as possible. Because bamboo + fall protection nets + flammable liquids = torch. Some of them is God damn big torch

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

4 hours ago, steve9728 said:

Hong Kong is somewhere still using bamboo scaffolding. Mainland China, just across the river from it, banned the use of bamboo scaffolding in 2000 and replaced it with metal. Have to say, I do hope that they will phase out bamboo scaffolding as soon as possible. Because bamboo + fall protection nets + flammable liquids = torch. Some of them is God damn big torch

Did not know that it had been banned.  Was a real 'skilled labor' feat for folks to build and tie all that together.   I've seen shows on it and was simply amazed that people would rely on that much craft, so very high up!  Figured it was China-wide given the ubiquitousness of bamboo.

[steve9728]

6 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Did not know that it had been banned.  Was a real 'skilled labor' feat for folks to build and tie all that together.   I've seen shows on it and was simply amazed that people would rely on that much craft, so very high up!  Figured it was China-wide given the ubiquitousness of bamboo.

Do some "deep dive" on social media and I find that in some rural village, when the villagers build their own houses, some of them also using bamboo. I guess no one would have bothered if no one had reported it. Or even they also don't know it's been banned. 

However, one of the disadvantages of metal scaffolding is that there is a certain chance that the tubes and connectors will be stolen and sold as scrap. I still remember one day after school when I was kid, "Dad, why are those two guys running with such long steel pipes?"

[darthgently]

Bamboo is very susceptible to rot also, much more so than most wood (it is a grass really iirc).

Still, it is an amazing natural material

[kerbiloid]

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/all-the-biomass-of-earth-in-one-graphic/

Spoiler

Humans 0.06 Gt

Livestock 0.1 Gt

Wild mammals and birds 0.01 Gt.

***

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2204892120

Spoiler

***

If all become vegan, the livestock  becomes useless and would be eliminated.
The wild animals would be eaten in turn by the increased population of local humans, but replace the domesticated ones on former pastures, in less by orders of magnitude amounts.

So it would be ~0.1 Gt of vegan humans vs ~0.01 wild beasts, 10:1.

Thus if vegans win, the human becomes almost the only significant mammal on Earth, and the only kind of self-domesticated cattle as well.

Eat the meat, save the planet.

Edited May 19, 2023 by kerbiloid

[darthgently]

11 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

and the only kind of self-domesticated cattle as well.

You, @kerbiloidare a true wordsmith.  Stellar phrasing

[magnemoe]

On 5/16/2023 at 10:02 PM, steve9728 said:

Do some "deep dive" on social media and I find that in some rural village, when the villagers build their own houses, some of them also using bamboo. I guess no one would have bothered if no one had reported it. Or even they also don't know it's been banned. 

However, one of the disadvantages of metal scaffolding is that there is a certain chance that the tubes and connectors will be stolen and sold as scrap. I still remember one day after school when I was kid, "Dad, why are those two guys running with such long steel pipes?"

People building / renovating their own houses or farms are rarely is up to code even in the west, lots of Darwin awards stuff  here, stepladder in an front loader on an tractor is a trend. 
I say the main downside of bamboo is that it has more variations and flaws and require more skill to do well than steel. 

Sometimes removing the scaffolding is optional. One guy in my army squad worked for an scaffolding company and they was scaffolding an oil platform. The previous platform sunk so they had been under high workload but now they was done and was removing it, on morning boss told them to stop removing scaffolding and focus on more expensive stuff. Then the alarm sounds you grab the most expensive stuff and get out couple of hour later they heard that he called the dive alarm   
 

[StrandedonEarth]

 

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

54 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

That was awesome.

[StrandedonEarth]

 

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

6 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

 

Weird to see the back side in so much detail.

Our shieldmaiden has done her job well!

[Superfluous J]

The 3000-years-dead Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II has a(n expired) passport.

(spoilered because the image is kinda big)

Spoiler

 

[steve9728]

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

The 3000-years-dead Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II has a(n expired) passport.

Look how happy he was smiling (sorry Pharaoh)

[Codraroll]

2 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

The 3000-years-dead Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II has a(n expired) passport.

(spoilered because the image is kinda big)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Weird that he chose to publish it on the internet without any redactions. Isn't he worried about identity theft?

[DDE]

Well, this ain't a joke or an urban legend...

 

[kerbiloid]

He forgot that the Earth is flat.

[TheSaint]

5 hours ago, steve9728 said:

Look how happy he was smiling (sorry Pharaoh)

Well, nobody looks good in their passport photo.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

10 hours ago, Codraroll said:

Weird that he chose to publish it on the internet without any redactions. Isn't he worried about identity theft?

Curse of the Mummy... FAFO. 

[darthgently]

11 hours ago, DDE said:

Well, this ain't a joke or an urban legend...

 

This proves the flat earth is accelerating skyward at exactly 1 g.  That ain't no coincidence

[kerbiloid]

Their curled "orbit" tricks aren't a thing here, on the solid, flat Earth.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Gravity is a lie.  The Earth just sucks.