Interesting Wikipedia articles for killing time and expanding your mind!! - Page 116 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

SLAM - Supersonic Low Altitude Missile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supers...titude_Missile

Was an Air Force program conceived in 1955 to build a supersonic guided missile that would deliver nuclear bombs.

But you ask, isn't that just a cruise missile??

Kinda, but this was powered by an Unshielded Nuclear Reactor!!!! It could stay aloft for 100s of thousands of miles and travel at Mach 4.2

And they actually built an engine and tested it and it worked. You can read about that here

Project Pluto - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto

The reactor could produce 600 megawatts. Enough energy to power about 60,000 average homes.

Basically they were building a flying Chernobyl that also dropped thermonuclear bombs..

wow

spreading tons of radiation over the earth was a feature, not a bug!

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02-06-2016 , 03:16 PM

#2878

Shark Doctor

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I love this thread. Thumbs up to all contributors.

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02-06-2016 , 03:22 PM

#2879

JayTeeMe

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Quote:

Originally Posted by esad

Seriously this thing is so nuts. They were supposed to drop 16 nuclear warheads each on the USSR, then spend WEEKS cruising around at low altitude spreading lethal doses of radiation everywhere (at mach 4). Then they were supposed to crash in preprogrammed places and explode getting fissile material and radiation everywhere.

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02-08-2016 , 08:22 AM

#2880

daveT

S.A.G.E. Master

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 23,955

Everything you'd ever want to know about screw drives:

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

And for all of you who said "She's about my size" when asked what size the gf wears, the US Standard Clothing Size won't clear up anything at all...

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

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02-08-2016 , 10:52 AM

#2881

ceire

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Human Halo

http://www.futuretimeline.net

great site, thanks

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02-08-2016 , 11:01 AM

#2882

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,077

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveT

Everything you'd ever want to know about screw drives:

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

Figures that Apple would make its own drive going for cute and not compatible with anyone's screwdriver.

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02-08-2016 , 08:29 PM

#2883

Falconhoof

veteran

Join Date: Oct 2014 Posts: 2,078

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

A stateless person is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law";[1] he or she has no citizenship or nationality.

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02-09-2016 , 10:02 AM

#2884

JudgeHoldem

banned

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 8,197

whenever i read that timeline of the far future page, i get a little worried about ish that's supposed to happen in like 50 billion years

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02-09-2016 , 04:04 PM

#2885

Andro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JudgeHoldem

whenever i read that timeline of the far future page, i get a little worried about ish that's supposed to happen in like 50 billion years

Yeah. It's a bit weird to get sad about this kind of stuff because humanity will be long extinct by then anyway, but it's just difficult to not get sad when you read all these theories about how the universe is gonna end.

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02-09-2016 , 04:21 PM

#2886

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,077

Quote:

Originally Posted by JudgeHoldem

whenever i read that timeline of the far future page, i get a little worried about ish that's supposed to happen in like 50 billion years

Even my crazy daughter doesn't worry about anything beyond the Sun going red giant in 5B years.

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02-11-2016 , 05:04 PM

#2887

fraleyight

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Falconhoof

From your article

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

This is about a man who spent almost 2 decades in an airport with no legal citizenship. The airport could not legally force him to leave and they could not legally grant him access into the country.

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02-11-2016 , 06:07 PM

#2888

thethethe

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The Terminal is a fun little film by Spielberg with Tom Hanks playing him.

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02-11-2016 , 06:48 PM

#2889

fraleyight

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Quote:

Originally Posted by thethethe

The Terminal is a fun little film by Spielberg with Tom Hanks playing him.

Yep, good movie too. Although, that is a fictional portrayal of him.

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02-12-2016 , 06:24 AM

#2890

Sugar Nut

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Quote:

Originally Posted by blind squirrel

As the article states, it goes Million - Milliarde - Billion in German. There are translation issues all the time because of this and many don't notice this way into their adult lifes.

Makes me cringe every time "respectable" media in Germany use the word "Billion", and you immediately know they got it from an English source and applied no critical thinking whatsoever before blindly parroting a (most often) ridiculously way too high number.

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02-12-2016 , 06:57 AM

#2891

darksideofthewal

adept

Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 887

I once read an article where, if the numbers were correct, it would've meant that the average American spends 500k on cosmetics a year. I was like "I've figured out the source of the financial collapse"

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02-15-2016 , 12:24 PM

#2892

daveT

S.A.G.E. Master

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 23,955

If you are including botox and plastic surgery in that cosmetic estimate...

The wiki on botox is actually quite interesting:

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

Botulinum toxin (BTX) is a neurotoxic protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum and related species. It is also produced commercially for medical, cosmetic, and research use. There are two main commercial types: botulinum toxin type A and botulinum toxin type B.

Infection with the bacterium may result in a potentially fatal disease called botulism. Botulinum is the most acutely lethal toxin known, with an estimated human median lethal dose (LD50) of 1.3–2.1 ng/kg intravenously or intramuscularly and 10–13 ng/kg when inhaled.

This is a joke, right? People are voluntarily injecting themselves with this stuff for years on end?

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02-15-2016 , 01:55 PM

#2893

jalfrezi

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Obvious candidates for a Darwin award on at least two levels.

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02-17-2016 , 12:35 AM

#2894

JimHammer

Digg'n the gifs

Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 8,742

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

Quote:

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in more than 225 movies and television episodes.

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02-22-2016 , 04:41 PM

#2895

suzzer99

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 100,195

Pink Fairy Armadillo

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02-22-2016 , 06:05 PM

#2896

thethethe

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Someone's clearly just dressed up their pet gerbil for a joke.

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02-22-2016 , 07:14 PM

#2897

Tortuous

grinder

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 437

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brown_(pilot)

He died yesterday and more people need to know about him and his life. Flew 487 different types of aircraft, more than anyone else in history.

BBC Doc

I strongly recommend this documentary, his life was absolutely fascinating.