Jamie123
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Posts posted by Jamie123
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10 minutes ago, Vort said:
Looks like @Jamie123 only reads General Discussion. We should go to the other forums and talk about him. He'll never know.
Not being a Mormon, General Discussion is my usual go-to, since Current Affairs is mostly about America (though I do check it out sometimes). I do check out the other forums though, so if you make fun of my Owl costume there, I'll cry! 😭
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I know it's not as lively as it's been in the past, but since New Year it's slowed almost to a stop. It's almost the end of Tuesday, and the last time anyone posted was Saturday. Has the party moved somewhere else?
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On 3/5/2024 at 7:48 PM, Vort said:
When it comes to intentionally modifying our external environment, again, we're the champions.
There is no doubt about this, but we don't win at sport by modifying our environment, but by building up our strength, speed and stamina. No one ever won a marathon by inventing the bicycle.
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4 hours ago, Vort said:
For instance, there is no distance runner that can match humans.
Interesting. According to this article, https://www.quora.com/Do-humans-actually-rank-high-in-the-animal-kingdom-as-long-distance-runners humans do beat horses for persistence running, but sled dogs, ostriches, camels and pronghorns (yes, I had to look that one up too) do better.
A pronghorn.
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A normal house cat (felis catus) can run at 30mph, considerably faster than a wombat, and faster even than Usain Bolt's record of 27.5mph. It seems to me that athletics is all about humans achieving things as best they can with their limited bodies which are no mean feats at all for animals in general. Human sport is the paralympics of the animal kingdom.
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It is illegal to keep wombats as pets, but you can have a virtual one. This is mine. His name is Willie the Wombat.
- mordorbund and zil2
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2 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:
Another thing about wombats is that the pouch faces backwards, so that it doesn't get filled with soil when the wombat is digging. It also must make it easier for the joey to get into after it is born.
Joey looking backwards out of pouch.
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Another thing about wombats is that the pouch faces backwards, so that it doesn't get filled with soil when the wombat is digging. It also must make it easier for the joey to get into after it is born.
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1 hour ago, askandanswer said:
The elderly couple don't look too alarmed by Mr Crocky!
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On 3/1/2024 at 8:07 PM, askandanswer said:
I remember being amazed the first time I saw a wombat run. Until then I had only seen them move at a very slow pace. For a moment I thought it was chasing me and I got a bit worried , but when I changed direction it ran straight past me.
Was this out in the wild, or was it in some kind of park? It must be wonderful to see these exotic animals living with nature. We do have wild deer and ponies here in the uk*, and I did once see a moose in Maine. I never saw a bear though. (Except in the zoo.)
Oh and I once saw a wild alligator when I was on a swamp tour from New Orleans. It wasn't as big as I'd expected though. The guide was making it jump out of the water by dangling a chicken leg over it on the end of a string. The lady sitting beside me in the boat told me he was being very stupid.
* We do of course have plenty of smaller wild animals like foxes, badgers, rabbits, weasels etc. Foxes are a nuisance. They get into your rubbish and scatter it all over your lawn.
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OK let's see that we can do. During the 90 seconds of the wombat's 25mph sprint it covers 25*1.5/60=15/24 mile. If the force impeding its progress is proportional to its speed then the energy it expends can be expressed 25*15/24 (bespoke unit system). Now if it travels at only 15mph, we can divide the "energy" by 15 to get 25/24=1 1/24 miles. So it just about beats Roger Bannister.
However this is a very simplistic model and I haven't taken account of the wombat's kinetic energy.
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3 hours ago, askandanswer said:
I remember being amazed the first time I saw a wombat run. Until then I had only seen them move at a very slow pace. For a moment I thought it was chasing me and I got a bit worried , but when I changed direction it ran straight past me.
I've been thinking all the way home. A very fast runner (like Roger Bannister) can run a four minute mile. Four minutes go into one hour 15 times, so that's 15 miles per hour. Quite a lot slower than a wombat.
Now if a wombat runs at 25mph, it covers a mile in 1/25 hours which is 60/25=12/5=2.4 minutes. However, it can only run at 25mph for about 90 seconds at a time, but could no doubt run for longer at a slower speed
So the question remains: can a wombat run a 4 minute mile? Let's ask ChatGPT...
Could a wombat run a 4 minute mile?No, it's highly unlikely. Wombats are not built for speed, as they have short legs and a stocky build, which is more suited for burrowing and digging rather than running long distances at high speeds.Are you sure? Wombats can run quite fast!
While wombats can reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) over short distances, they are not built for sustained speed or endurance. Running a 4-minute mile, which requires maintaining an average speed of 15 miles per hour (24 kilometers per hour) for four consecutive minutes, would be highly unlikely for a wombat due to their physiology and energy reserves.
I'm not convinced. What do you think?
(Another picture of a wombat)
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The collective noun for wombats is a "wisdom". So Hammerton Zoo has a wisdom of wombats.
Wombats can run 25mph, which is only slightly slower than a galloping horse.
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I just discovered that the only wombats in the UK are in Hammerton Zoo in Cambridgeshire. London Zoo is massive, and you'd think they'd have any animal you can think of, but no, they have no wombats. No wombats today. Or any other day.
I've half a mind to go to Hammerton just to see the wombats. I like wombats. Though an adult wombat can do you quite an injury if you annoy it (which apparently is not all that difficult). They are big and heavy and can run fast, and getting hit by one would not be pleasant at all. And the oddest thing about them is that they poo cubes. I remember reading that in Physics World a few years back
This is a good video about wombats:
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Many, many years ago a very good friend of mine had an abortion. She was a girl i used to hang out with a lot (not a girlfriend) and we used to watch movies together and eat pizza, and I'd go to her apartment to keep her company when she was feeling down. (And no I wasn't the father, in case you were wondering.) She didn't tell me about the abortion until afterwards, which in some ways was a good thing, because had I known I would have pulled out every stop to talk her out of it - including offering to pay for the child's upbringing myself. My own family would have then called me an idiot, but I know what I'd have told them: "All death diminishes me for I am involved in mankind" (which I've probably misquoted). As it was, all I could do was try to be supportive of her. Anything else would not have brought the baby back.
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I may not know much about bears, but one thing I have learned from the good people of Maine: you do not interfere with a mother bear's cubs, unless you want your bodily appendages seriously rearranged.
So what was Walt Disney thinking of with the bear scene from Pocahontas? John Smith is about to shoot the bear, but Pocahontas stops him and leads him into the bears' den. There she picks up one of the cubs and hands it to Smith. The cub playfully pulls Smith's helmet down over his eyes. Meanwhile mummy bear is standing peacefully by, not ripping anyone's arms and legs off.
The moral is, if you want to know what to do when you meet a bear, don't ask Mr Disney.
- JohnsonJones and zil2
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Two hymns I always find myself singing - usually when I think I'm alone - are "He Who Would Valiant Be" and "Thine be the Glory" - until I remember that the tune for the latter was written by Handel in honour of the "Butcher of Cumberland" (who brutally massacred the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie - and a lot of other people too - in the Battle of Culloden, 1746) whereupon I either stop singing, or else replace the words with "being sick" noises. That is not a good moment to realise you are not alone after all!
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On 2/19/2024 at 6:26 PM, Ironhold said:
OK.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/radio/music-stream?lang=eng
The church website is now set up so that you can choose either LDS Channel, an all-Choir channel, a talk channel, and a Spanish-language stream.
I swear, LDS Channel has five different versions of "A Poor Wayfaring Man Of Grief", each one as depressing as the others. 🥶
Is there something I'm missing as to why this song is so popular? Something I'm missing?
I quite like this hymn, but I've always thought the narrator was blowing his own trumpet a bit.
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On 2/13/2024 at 5:56 AM, Vort said:
Can bears climb trees? Let's find out!
I'm gonna say yes.
Come to think about it, bears must be able to climb trees, otherwise how would they get to the bees' nests?
Right now though I'm dealing with another issue: namely can hermaphrodites make themselves pregnant? It seems some species can, but its never been reported in humans. But does that mean it couldn't happen?
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1 hour ago, Ironhold said:
Also, Flintstones = Honeymooners, just like Jetsons = Dagwood & Blondie. Hanna-Barbera was *not* subtle about who and what they ripped off.
Very true. Also Top Cat = Sgt. Bilko (or The Phil Silvers Show to use its proper name.)
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"HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY"
- zil2, NeuroTypical and mirkwood
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Super lame, boring thread where nothing bad or interesting is going on and that mods would really hate because it's stupid
in General Discussion
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"Lies make baby Jesus cry!"