Anyone have any random nerdy facts?

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Further to the discussion of microwaves in the LOL pic thread (thanks, @Art Upton)...

Microwaves generally do damage by heating tissue, so the organs most likely to be damaged are those that are relatively small and have relatively low blood flow. Practically speaking, that means eyes, ovaries, and testes. Everything else, you're likely to notice the hat and get the heck out before it causes serious damage.
 
Further to the discussion of microwaves in the LOL pic thread (thanks, @Art Upton)...

Microwaves generally do damage by heating tissue, so the organs most likely to be damaged are those that are relatively small and have relatively low blood flow. Practically speaking, that means eyes, ovaries, and testes. Everything else, you're likely to notice the hat and get the heck out before it causes serious damage.
Mmmm, but only on certain narrow frequencies. Radiothermy is pretty well identified, by tissue type, these days. The IEEE human head model has more than 50 tissue types. Let me see if I can find that diagram, fascinating.
 
A sign in the Radio Building, on top of the roof of the local University Dorm Tower, said do not spend more then 3 mins outside directly by the door.

Besides the Ham Radio repeaters we were up their helping to update/repair, and the University's Radio Repeaters for Police/Faculties, there were the Flat White Cell Site Antennas directly above the doors where the signs were on the inside.

When the folks that worked on the Radio [not cell] antennas were outside, they had to stay away from those cell antennas
 
Spiders don't always inject venom when they bite. They often use their fangs to anchor themselves.
Rats don't even have venom but they can sure hang on if they're pissed enough. I didn't know they could growl but apparently that's a thing too.

A recent "rat anchoring" saw me spend 6-1/2 hours in the ER getting a tetanus shot, x-rays, IV antibiotics and a lot of strange looks from the staff every time someone asked me what I was in for... but no-one gave me a hard time over it and I didn't get rat bite fever so it's all good (or as good as getting bit by a rat can be)
 
I do know that rats scream. (Former certified pest control operator.)
When I was a teenager I visited my pen-pal in the US and her stepdad told me that he used to plink at wild rabbits until one day he heard one "scream like a woman" (his exact words) and it had such an affect on him he never shot another animal again. He still kept his guns for the range and regular gun stuff, though.
 
Rats don't even have venom but they can sure hang on if they're pissed enough. I didn't know they could growl but apparently that's a thing too.

A recent "rat anchoring" saw me spend 6-1/2 hours in the ER getting a tetanus shot, x-rays, IV antibiotics and a lot of strange looks from the staff every time someone asked me what I was in for... but no-one gave me a hard time over it and I didn't get rat bite fever so it's all good (or as good as getting bit by a rat can be)
No rabies shot? I hope this was long enough ago.
 
It is not recommended to refinish the wooded stocks of WW2 era Arisaka rifles. The original varnish was made from the sap of urishi trees. As it is the same family as Poison Sumac and the dust will cause a rash.
 
If you look under the butt-plate of a K31 rifle (Karabiner 31, aka "Schmidt-Rubin") you will often find a small tag with a name, unit designation, and city in Switzerland. This identifies the soldier it was last issued to. Some have actually written to and corresponded with the soldier who used to carry their rifle.
 
The first Star Wars novel was a novelization of the original movie, "Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker" that came out in November 1976, half a year before the movie did. George Lucas is credited as the author, but the novel was actually ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, who published "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" in 1978, two years before the release of The Empire Strikes Back.

Splinter of the Mind's Eye is about Luke and Leia in a race with Darth Vader to get their hands on a crystal that amplifies Force powers. I don't remember that much about it as I read it about 25 years ago, but I do recall thinking it was a halfway decent adventure but definitely not my favorite Star Wars story.
 
The first Star Wars novel was a novelization of the original movie, "Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker" that came out in November 1976, half a year before the movie did. George Lucas is credited as the author, but the novel was actually ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, who published "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" in 1978, two years before the release of The Empire Strikes Back.

Splinter of the Mind's Eye is about Luke and Leia in a race with Darth Vader to get their hands on a crystal that amplifies Force powers. I don't remember that much about it as I read it about 25 years ago, but I do recall thinking it was a halfway decent adventure but definitely not my favorite Star Wars story.
I remember reading Splinter of the Mind's Eye when I was in high school and my thoughts on it were pretty much the same. ADF was really your go-to guy for big-screen sci-fi novelizations back then. He wrote the novelization of Alien and did a great job with that one; I dunno if certain scenes in the book were originally in the movie and cut for time but it flowed so well it was like I'd actually seen them (even though I don't think I ever did).

He was also credited with the story for Star Trek The Motion Picture (not the most original mash-up) and all the Star Trek "Log" series.

Memories...
 
In the original 1977 Star Wars movie, in the beginning scene where the Star Destroyer zooms in and blows people away with that sound...

that sound effect was a recording of a broken air conditioner!


The lightsaber sound was a combination of a buzzing TV tube and a projector motor. He would play the sound and wave around a microphone in front of it to get a doppler effect to get the shifting sound of a lightsaber being swung.
 
Another cool fact. The reason that stars twinkle in the sky is because the light gets refracted in the atmosphere. The same thing happens with city lights if you were viewing them from a plane, but not nearly as much because the light doesn't have to pass through so much atmosphere.
 
Another cool fact. The reason that stars twinkle in the sky is because the light gets refracted in the atmosphere. The same thing happens with city lights if you were viewing them from a plane, but not nearly as much because the light doesn't have to pass through so much atmosphere.
I’ve never noticed any twinkle in stars…
 
I’ve never noticed any twinkle in stars…
Really? Look at them next time you see stars, you will see it. That's the whole reason there is a song called twinkle twinkle little star.
 
I’ve never noticed any twinkle in stars…
Check closer to the horizon, those twinkle more than straight up because the light goes through more air. It's also dependent on the weather, and much reduced at high elevations.

Stars twinkle but planets don't, because planets are so much closer t
Nothing to do with distance, everything to do with angular size. Though both look like points of light to the naked eye, through a telescope you can see the planets as discs while the distant stars are still points of light.
 
Check closer to the horizon, those twinkle more than straight up because the light goes through more air. It's also dependent on the weather, and much reduced at high elevations.


Nothing to do with distance, everything to do with angular size. Though both look like points of light to the naked eye, through a telescope you can see the planets as discs while the distant stars are still points of light.
The distance results in a much narrower angle, so distance matters. I just didn't specify that in my post.
 
ADF was really your go-to guy for big-screen sci-fi novelizations back then.
A few years later, Vonda N. McIntyre wrote the novelization for The Wrath of Khan, which is outstanding. She went on the write them for The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, which are also quite good. I don't know why she stopped, but I like to thing that she was done with a Spock trilogy: Spock dies, Spock is resurrected, and Spock gets his personality back.
 
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