A Thread for Random Thoughts ...

[vernon]

Why is there only one monopolies and mergers committee?

 

[vernon]

That's the place. And I live right on the river about 20 yards from the Danube bike path.

And I pedalled past your gaff in August.

 

[Andy in Sig]

If memory serves, I had to go to Hanover in August (work), otherwise you could have dropped in for a brew.

 

[vernon]

I stayed at the camp site upstream from your place. There's some great views to be had of the castle especially if you cross the bridge. Thanks for the heads up on that advice. I'll be returning to the Donau at Passau next summer for the next bit of EV6 to Budapest. Can't wait.

 

[vernon]

When out on a spacewalk attached to a space ship, which way is up?

 

[Thomk]

In three dimensions you can have a right-handed coordinate system and a left-handed coordinate system.

Two of the three axes will be in the same plane, a 3rd one will be offset - say 90 degrees, but could be anything that isn't coplanar. You can flip one of these three axes to get a different system. You can't 'reverse' two directions at the same time and end up with a different coordinate system. If you reverse say y and z you still get the same coordinate system just rotated around wrt one axis. If I reverse either 1 or 3 I end up with the other coordinate system! So reversing two doesn't work. I hope that's correct and isn't total gibberish (possible).

Great answer. Reminds me of the explaination for why some sliding "fifteen puzzles" cannot be solved. My thought was that it is a trick question. A mirror doesn't reverse left and right at all but instead reverses "front and back" i.e. causes all molecules to morph into reverse in a horribly grotesque way.The left/right reverse is an illusion.

 

[TheDoctor]

When out on a spacewalk attached to a space ship, which way is up?

That always confused me with Star Trek. Whenever the Enterprise meets another ship, they're always the same way up!! How do they manage that?
Surely one of them would be upside down, or at an angle or something???

 

[ColinJ]

That always confused me with Star Trek. Whenever the Enterprise meets another ship, they're always the same way up!! How do they manage that?
Surely one of them would be upside down, or at an angle or something???

Ha ha - I'd never thought of that one - you're right!

I used to notice more mundane things such as the total absence of toilets!

I also used to wonder about the transporter ... If the person operating it got the landing coordinates a few inches low, your feet would end up fused with the ground or the structure of the ship you were transporting to. If you materialised a few inches too high up, you'd fall and stumble! (Or - bearing in mind the orientation question - you might land on your head!)

Another thing - since there was always the danger that something might go wrong during transportation, after the transporter beam had analysed and disassembled you, why didn't they keep a backup copy just in case? It would be especially handy if the Borg or some other nasties ambushed and killed the transported crew members. You could just take another copy of the backed up crew members and beam them over to continue the fight!

 

[marinyork]

Ha ha - I'd never thought of that one - you're right!


I also used to wonder about the transporter ... If the person operating it got the landing coordinates a few inches low, your feet would end up fused with the ground or the structure of the ship you were transporting to. If you materialised a few inches too high up, you'd fall and stumble! (Or - bearing in mind the orientation question - you might land on your head!)

I think in fairness to star trek they did consider variants of this. I'm not an expert on star trek, but I believe that in Star Trek TNG, in an episode called The Pegasus they are sent to investigate a ship that was fitted with cloaking technology that has gone badly wrong and the ship is inside the asteroid and part fused to it. In Voyager in the episode Tuvix, Tuvok and Neelix are fused together into one entity after a transporter malfunction. There are various other transporter accidents in Star Trek folklore.

 

[TheDoctor]

They once ended up with two Rikers IIRC. As if one wasn't annoying enough...

 

[marinyork]

They once ended up with two Rikers IIRC. As if one wasn't annoying enough...

I thought Tuvix was annoying enough, but point taken!

 

[Night Train]

I'm sure that they did also recall someone from the transporter memory banks.

I remember listening to a radio play a few years back where the story was that airports had been replaced by transporter systems. A woman, transporting out from Heathrow to visit her son in Australia for his wedding, had her transportsession interupted by a fire alarm. She got out but had missed her slot so went home. She then found that she had been transported, was at her son's wedding, and the UK police were hunting her down for disposal as theu couldn't have her return from Australia to find herself at home.

Anyway....

Why is it that when the Government or a council doesn't have enough money they raise their income but when we don't have enough money we can't?

 

[Night Train]

Why do London buses have grab bars on the front?

 

[ianrauk]

Who are the Kombucha mushroom people?

And are they sitting around all day?​

 

[Asa Post]

Do the Welsh have a word for diversion?