Official "Hot-houri" thread

[only_human]

Hyperloop: MIT students win contest to design Elon Musk's 700mph travel pods

The Hyperloop is a high-speed ground transport concept proposed by Musk to transport “pods” of 20 to 30 people through a 12-foot diameter tube at speeds of roughly 700mph (1,127km/h).

More than 100 university teams presented design concepts to a panel of judges in an event that began on Friday.

Delft University of Technology from the Netherlands finished second, the University of Wisconsin third, Virginia Tech fourth and the University of California, Irvine, fifth.

The top teams will build their pods and test them at the world’s first Hyperloop test track, being built adjacent to SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California, headquarters.

NEW YORK CITY’S TRASH-SUCKING ISLAND

Trash zips through the pipes at an average of 30 mph, but it can reach speeds of 60 mph. Sending all kinds of pieces of trash — metal, wood, sharp, heavy — through a bend in the tubes can cause a lot of wear and eventually a hole. Once that happens, the system loses suction, and the Swedes are called in.

“The first time is scary,” said a young Swedish pipe technician as he waited in a storage room behind a grocery store for another Swede to come back from 50 feet down the pipe. “You get used to it.”

The system was built 35 years ago by a Swedish company called Envac with a planned 40-year life span, so it’s not surprising that the Swedes are frequent visitors.

[kladner]

.

Please note that as per the Instructions from Mr.President of The Federal
Republic of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry Of Finance to our
Consolidated Oil Reserve Account Holders in the United States Wells Fargo
Bank Head Office we have on Monday 25th January 2016 taken delivery of
your uploaded Inter Switch ATM Master/Verve Card valued the sum of
USD3.5Million as uploaded by our bankers Well Fargo Bank in your name and
favor as the funds Beneficiary your Wells Fargo Bank duly issued ATM Card
awaiting urgent delivery to your mailing address in your Country through
the Office of the Director General Of The Debt Management Office
DR.Abraham Edo.also note that we have entered into an agreement with FedEx
courier company only for your delivery at the agreed low rate sum of
USD195 ONLY.

EDIT: Dollar signs removed.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by kladner

.

EDIT: Dollar signs removed.

Yeah, you are a rich man now, you need only to part with about $200, aargh...

[kladner]

Originally Posted by LaurV

Yeah, you are a rich man now, you need only to part with about $200, aargh...

The attempts at official-sounding language are hilarious.

[Xyzzy]

[only_human]

The Original Groundhog Day Involved Eating the Groundhog

Europeans had long marked winter’s midpoint on Feb. 2 by celebrating Candlemas Day, a festival of lights that also included a formula for predicting the arrival of spring. As explained in an English folk song:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go winter, and come not again.

While the same principle applied to Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney inserted the notoriously grumpy, burrow-dwelling rodent into the formula as a kind of meteorological middleman. It also became a regional delicacy, with a flavor described by locals as “a cross between pork and chicken,” according to Pennsylvania historian Christopher R. Davis.

In the 1880s, per Davis, groundhog was the cuisine of choice at the Punxsutawney Elks Lodge. Devotees later formed the Groundhog Club, which hosted both the annual Groundhog Day ceremony and a summertime groundhog hunt followed by a picnic featuring a variety of groundhog dishes and a “groundhog punch” that sounds equally appetizing — a combination of vodka, milk, eggs, orange juice “and other ingredients,” Davis writes.

As tastes changed and Punxsutawney Phil’s status rose, the Groundhog Club stopped hunting his brethren and began catering to him instead. Groundhog is no longer on the menu at the annual Groundhog Picnic, and “groundhog punch” has morphed into an “elixir of life” that reportedly keeps Phil young and explains why the same groundhog has been predicting spring in Pennsylvania for over a century.

It’s Groundhog Day: Is winter finally over?

In the Hollywood outing, pessimistic weatherman Phil Connors is forced to live through the same Groundhog Day "over and over" again until he gets it right.

The plot is basically a twist on Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol - except instead of ghoulish spirits, Connors is confronted by his own miserable life repeated endlessly on a loop.

Beer: Penn Brewery hopes you'll want a Philsner again and again and again

If you get the feeling that you’ve had this beer before, well, you may have. It’s basically Penn Gold.

But Penn Brewery this season is releasing a draft version called Punxsutawney Philsner, and it will do it with a visit this Saturday from Pennsylvania’s famous prognosticating groundhog.
...
Phil will make other beer appearances, but his big gig is on Feb. 2, Groundhog Day, at Gobbler’s Knob near Punxsutawney, which will mark the 130th anniversary of his and his shadow’s prediction of how much winter remains.

Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Early Spring

The event, which typically brings out 30,000 revelers to the small, west-central Pennsylvania town, has become a television staple at the beginning of one of the coldest months of the year in the U.S. Northeast. In addition to the celebrated rodent, the pageant features an entourage of city elders in old-fashioned dress and top hats, presiding over the festivities.

[Xyzzy]

https://vimeo.com/150929970

[only_human]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

https://vimeo.com/150929970

nice. soap bubbles freezing (01:20).

It wasn’t easy to capture those bubbles because only around 5-10% of them didn’t break instantly and as you can imagine it was a challenge to be patient at -15 Celsius ;) but it was worth it because now that my daughter has seen it, winter is magic for her.
Music: "Ice Chimes" by Lee Rosevere

[Xyzzy]

How many counties can we ride to in 2016?

So far, 0.5%!

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

How many counties can we ride to in 2016?

So far, 0.5%!

if I didn't find out it's NP-hard I was going to ask if you were looking for a hamiltonian path or not.

[Dubslow]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

How many counties can we ride to in 2016?

So far, 0.5%!

Hey, not bad! I'm not terribly far away, relatively speaking. A mere 20 counties away! (Of which 3 or 4 are only crossing a corner for a few miles)