[url]http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/books/dictionary-mistake-goes-unnoticed-for-99-years-20100510-uoh2.html[/url]
In the entertainment section???

Damn! About thirty years ago I noticed this definition and couldn't figure out why it was atmosphere instead of gravity related. . .

Really - I did. I just didn't have the inclination to challenge it. Opportunity missed. . .:sad:

[QUOTE=EdH;214811]Damn! About thirty years ago I noticed this definition and couldn't figure out why it was atmosphere instead of gravity related. . .

Really - I did. I just didn't have the inclination to challenge it. Opportunity missed. . .:sad:[/QUOTE]

Well, atmosphere does help. A siphon won't work in a vacuum. a siphon also wont work if the top of the loop is too high. For water I think it is about 30-35 feet above the higher of the two levels of liquid.

Gravity determines WHICH WAY it will flow but the air pressure keeps the tube full. In a vacuum the liquid would just fall out both ends of the tube and leave another vacuum in the tube..

If the top of the curve in the siphon is too high, then the liquid in the tube will balance the air pressure outside and you will get another vacuum at the top of the tube. This is how old liquid barometers work. They use mercury which is much heavier than water of course so you only need about 30 inches instead of 30 feet of liquid to balance the air pressure. And they only use one side of a siphon( ie a single vertical tube).

btw it isn't a really good vacuum since the liquid at the top will quickly evaporate and make vapor so you get some gases in the so called vacuum.

The new BBC website is amazingly accurate:

Almost painful to watch. They should have started arm wrestling or something.

[URL="http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/05/clegg-cameron-clap-hands"]http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/05/clegg-cameron-clap-hands[/URL]

Canadians should look away now:
[url]http://m.abc.net.au/browse?page=11144&articleid=2899594&cat=Top%20STories&title=Below-the-belt_bite_sends_backpacker_packing&SID=287340b61b02ba31429984941a275dbf[/url]
(Nice snappy headline, too).

[QUOTE=99.94;215005]Canadians should look away now:
[url]http://m.abc.net.au/browse?page=11144&articleid=2899594&cat=Top%20STories&title=Below-the-belt_bite_sends_backpacker_packing&SID=287340b61b02ba31429984941a275dbf[/url]
(Nice snappy headline, too).[/QUOTE]
Was it firmly established that it was a spider bite? I'm thinking it might've been a mosquito bite and he, being male and seeing where he was bitten, got super awesomely paranoid. Sure, we'll give you anti-venom wink-wink. Then when the reporter shows up, they don't want to embarrass the guy by admitting he freaked out.

I'm just saying.

[url]http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/08/17/404-error-pages-reloaded/[/url]

¿ɥnɥ 'lɐnsnun puɐ ƃuıʇsǝɹǝʇuıun

[url]http://www.revfad.com/flip.html[/url]

˙sʞɔǝu ɹıǝɥʇ uı sʞɔıɹɔ ǝldoǝd ǝʌıƃ oʇ ǝʞıl I

I wonder if this would work with email. That would be awesome. I notice that it seems to turn all uppercase letters to lowercase, I got lucky that an upside down capital I looks exactly the same as a right-side-up one.

[quote=ET_;215746]¿ɥnɥ 'lɐnsnun puɐ ƃuıʇsǝɹǝʇuıun

[URL]http://www.revfad.com/flip.html[/URL][/quote]

Very interesting. It still needs some work though. Like Jason noted, it converts upper case to lower case, although does the flip properly but I just noticed that it doesn't flip numbers at all:

The phrase:

Today is May 26th 2010

Flips to:

˙0102 '62 ʎɐɯ sı ʎɐpoʇ


The numbers are correctly in reverse order but not flipped upside down. It also doesn't flip special characters like: #$%^&*()@:; It does flip more common punctuation like commas, periods, exclamation points, and question marks.

Still pretty cool though.