random stuff

[red devil]

In keeping with the thread you should've waited until 101... ;-)

[Salsaboy]

Or 99.

[El Pibe]

straw poll of batshiticity http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2013/04/conspiracy-theory-poll-results-.html

[nashoi]

I'm surprised the moon landing conspiracy only gets 7%.

This is a generator site that was launched a while back.

http://www.verifiedfacts.org/

Obv shortly after launch the creators of the site received threats from people accusing them of working for the govt spreading disinformation

[El Pibe]

ha ha, ever the way.

I enjoyed aaronovich's voodo histories, which in writing he obviosuly found himself similarly accused.

It's the ultimate get out clause that allows CT types to wallow in their own circular logic.

This was fun, how Jimmy Page destroyed Eddie and the Hot Rod

http://greatwen.com/2013/03/27/jimmy-page-aleister-crowley-and-the-curse-of-eddie-and-the-hot-rods/

[El Pibe]

Fantastic (if slightly tongue-in-cheek) article on the current state of GBSSR.

http://potlatch.typepad.com/weblog/2013/04/brezhnev-capitalism.html

also linked to because it's the sort of thing that's guaranteed to wind Huguenot up ;)

Though he does commit the cardianl sin of using trope=motif rather than trope=metaphor, but that's probably one for the irrational hatreds thread.....

[El Pibe]

appeals to the nerd in me (this incorrectly implies that I'm also made up of non-nerdy stuff)

http://www.distancetomars.com/

[El Pibe]

nice little wealth distribution visualisation

http://flowingdata.com/2013/04/16/wealth-distribution-in-america/

Makes you glad you live in a nice country with a narrow wealth gap and a government dedicated to maintaining it.

doh!!

[david_carnell]

The fascinating and disturbing world of FOOF (or dioxygen diflouride to give it its scientific name).

http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/02/23/things_i_wont_work_with_dioxygen_difluoride.php

Highlight: "Being a high energy oxidizer, dioxygen difluoride reacted vigorously with organic compounds, even at temperatures close to its melting point. It reacted instantaneously with solid ethyl alcohol, producing a blue flame and an explosion. When a drop of liquid 02F2 was added to liquid methane, cooled at 90?K., a white flame was produced instantaneously, which turned green upon further burning. When 0.2 (mL) of liquid 02F2 was added to 0.5 (mL) of liquid CH4 at 90?K., a violent explosion occurred."

This stuff can, literally, set ice on fire. Mental.

[the-e-dealer]

Would it open a Bicycle lock?

[El Pibe]

Ha yes, I saw this too.

I love the fact that it's so unstable it has no practical uses whatsoever.

It's actually too destructive to be a weapon, delightful irony.

[david_carnell]

A fellow XKCD reader, obvs.

Have you read any more from that chap's series of "Things I Won't Work With"? I don't know one end of a test tube from another but even I know that some of this stuff sounds utterly horrific.

When discussing the rather smelly selenophenol he notes its smell is "...the biggest stinker I have run across. . .imagine 6 skunks wrapped in rubber innertubes and the whole thing is set ablaze. That might approach the metaphysical stench of this material."

Marvellous. [insert curry/pooh joke here]

[El Pibe]

one for the otta

 

[*Bob*]

I always assumed Otta was more..

http://arpeggiokorinaguitars.com/images/Enterprise(resized)364x1021.jpg

[El Pibe]

I figured he already has like a dozen of them!!

as it goes he's more this

 

[El Pibe]

interesting stuff, investment manager Lelsie GRantham on bubbles and climate change.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/apr/15/jeremy-grantham-population-china-climate

  Quote

[climate change sceptics] are in the "screaming loudly" rather than the "fact based" part of the exercise, because they don't have the facts. They are masters at manufacturing doubt. What I have noticed on the blogs and in the comments section under articles is that over several years, as the scientific evidence for climate change gets stronger, the tone of the sceptics is getting shriller and more vicious and nastier all the time. The equivalent on the other side is a weary resignation, sorrow and frustration and amazement that people on the other side can't look at the facts. The sceptics are getting angrier and more vicious every year despite the more storms we have, and the more mad crazy weather we have?

One of the problems is that typically you are not dealing with the facts. Putting in more facts makes the sceptics more angry. They have profound beliefs ? as opposed to knowledge ? that they are willing to protect by all manner of psychological tricks. So you have people who are very smart - even great analysts and hedge fund managers - who on paper know that their argument is wrong, but who promote it fiercely because they are libertarians. Libertarians believe that any government interference is bad. Anyone with a brain knows that climate change needs governmental leadership and they can smell this is bad news for their philosophy.

[El Pibe]

The barking mad worlds of conspiracy theorists and jihadists collide

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/16/what_extremists_are_saying_about_the_boston_massacre?page=full

I noticed an even barkinger mad film shared on facebook which had already decided it was a 'false flag' operation, without even bothering for an official narrative to refute, and, bizarrely enough, placed the blame squarely at the feet of Steve Jackson who did those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books I enjoyed as a boy.

The world would definitely be a duller place without them!!

*keenly awaits New Nexus' first linky on the matter*

[El Pibe]

talking of bonkers, 2 hours of hundreds of fans' star wars recreations spliced together.

madeness, genius or both?

http://www.starwarsuncut.com/newhope

[*Bob*]

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> interesting stuff, investment manager Lelsie

> GRantham on bubbles and climate change.

I did wonder what he'd been up to after leaving Eastenders.

[El Pibe]

Solar ovens

http://www.williamgbecker.com/MakeSolarOven.html

I saw this and thought of nette.

[El Pibe]

talking of stars, here's a lovely diagramatic of all the planetary systems discovered by Kepler

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/space/keplers-tally-of-planets.html?_r=0

[Chillaxed]

Definitely both. Thanks!

El Pibe Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> talking of bonkers, 2 hours of hundreds of fans'

> star wars recreations spliced together.

> madeness, genius or both?

>

> http://www.starwarsuncut.com/newhope

[El Pibe]

on the subject of cinema (god I'm bad at these)

 

[the-e-dealer]

God knows what this is but its looks fun!

[El Pibe]

I stumbled upon Aeon when reading this article about dark matter.

I flicked about to see if there was anything else interesting and found this wonderfully overwrought meditation on gothic literature.

It reads like one of Ted Max's parodies, marvellous!