Today I learned...

[Urmas]

... a few facts about coffee - apparently Finnish people drink the most coffee...

 

[nivrip]

 

[EvanDavis]

 

[Abarbarian]

TIL that what was thought of as science fiction a few years ago is now reality.

Reality below

Pig brains kept alive outside their bodies in experiment which suggests humans can beat death to achieve immortality

Science fiction from 1996

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/cold-lazarus/on-demand/19947-001

Cold Lazarus is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of cancer of the pancreas.[1][2]

It forms the second half of a pair with the television serial Karaoke. The two serials were filmed as a single production by the same team; both were directed by Renny Rye and feature Albert Finney as the writer Daniel Feeld. The plays were unique in being co-productions between the BBC and Channel 4, something Potter had expressly requested before his death. The show was first aired on Channel 4 in 1996 on Sunday evenings, with a repeat on BBC1 the following day.

Cold Lazarus is set in the 24th century, in a dystopian Britain where the ruined streets are unsafe, and where society is run by American oligarchs in charge of powerful commercial corporations. Experiences are almost all virtual, and anything deemed authentic (such as coffee and cigarettes) has either been banned or replaced by synthetic substitutes.

As more of Feeld's thoughts and memories are unearthed, it becomes evident not only that Feeld's mind is conscious of its predicament, but also that Feeld is attempting to communicate with the scientists, and is pleading to be allowed to die.

I watched the whole series of Karaoke when it was first aired. The Cold Lazarus four parter was excellent and Albert Finney was outstanding in it.
Well worth a watch.

 

[nivrip]

Is immortality such a good thing? I read a book some years ago, the name of which escapes me, about a man who was promised everlasting life and could have anything he wanted. He ate like a pig, drank like a fish, had endless women, always won every sporting event he took part in and felt that this was wonderful. But, after a hundred years or so he began to get bored with this life and eventually he, too, asked to die.

I think the moral was that to be truly happy you need a challenge and without it life eventually becomes meaningless

And, anyway, if we were all given immortality were would we all live?

 

[Abarbarian]

I
I think the moral was that to be truly happy you need a challenge and without it life eventually becomes meaningless

Yup you have to have trouble and strife to appreciated the good times.

 

[Becky]

Fake vinegar?! Scandalous

There's a fish and chip shop in town near here that has a vinegar mister so that you don't get your food too soggy

Re the pig brain thing, this is a quote from the MIT Review:

“These brains may be damaged, but if the cells are alive, it’s a living organ,” says Steve Hyman, director of psychiatric research at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was among those briefed on the work. “It’s at the extreme of technical know-how, but not that different from preserving a kidney.”

Hyman says the similarity to techniques for preserving organs like hearts or lungs for transplant could cause some to mistakenly view the technology as a way to avoid death. “It may come to the point that instead of people saying ‘Freeze my brain,’ they say ‘Hook me up and find me a body,’” says Hyman.

Such hopes are misplaced, at least for now. Transplanting a brain into a new body “is not remotely possible,” according to Hyman.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611007/researchers-are-keeping-pig-brains-alive-outside-the-body/

Typical tabloid taking things out of context

 

[nivrip]

Amazing the things that vinegar can do. Not sure if you drink it or apply it. Or just put it on your chips.

But does it work with fake vinegar?

 

[Becky]

Hmmm, not sure I believe that!

 

[Becky]

Today I learned that Ford have come up with a way to allow blind people to visualise the view out of their car window

 

[nivrip]

Seems a good step forward.

But will the people who have never been able to see understand what these "images" actually mean?

 

[Becky]

Seems a good step forward.

But will the people who have never been able to see understand what these "images" actually mean?

Well even someone who has never seen anything before will be able to feel things with their hands, so I imagine it will give them a sense of what is out there. I've been to museums before that had tactile models of things behind glass so that visually impaired people could feel the objects

 

[Abarbarian]

There's a fish and chip shop in town near here that has a vinegar mister so that you don't get your food too soggy

That is a brilliant idea

 

[nivrip]

Well even someone who has never seen anything before will be able to feel things with their hands, so I imagine it will give them a sense of what is out there. I've been to museums before that had tactile models of things behind glass so that visually impaired people could feel the objects

True, but you can't feel a view.

 

[EvanDavis]

TDIL when I change the desktop background on my desktop it also changes on my laptop, although I haven't actually learned how that happens.

 

[Taffycat]

I have just learned that a language exists, which is comprised of whistling.

 

[nivrip]

Tricky if you can't whistle.

 

[Ian]

TIL that there's a Marvel character called "Captain Midlands" - an 80 year old Brummie super soldier . I wonder if we'll be seeing him in a future Avengers film :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Midlands

 

[Becky]

I have just learned that a language exists, which is comprised of whistling.

Fascinating!

 

[Ian]

Today I learned about the fascinating life cycle of the European eel. It's genuinely really interesting:

Turns out, all of them spawned near Bermuda, can climb vertical surfaces and cross land to end up in UK lakes like Windemere, then transform and swim all the way back again 20 years later!