Orbital Speed

XKCD has recent discussed orbital speed over at What If? using the International Space Station (low earth orbit, traveling about 8 km/sec) as as reference:

The ISS moves so quickly that if you fired a rifle bullet from one end of a football field, the International Space Station could cross the length of the field before the bullet traveled 10 yards.

Although this discussion of relative velocity compared to a traveling bullet is interesting, there is one further aspect of firearms not explored here but helpful to an appreciation of the tremendous speeds involved in attaining orbit:

At 8 km/sec, the ISS would cross the 100 yard (91.44 m) field in about about .011 seconds, or 11 ms.

On a Mauser or Springfield 1903 infantry rifle, the lock time (time from trigger pull to primer strike) is about 5-6 ms.

This means that if you could fully pull the trigger at the exact instant the ISS began its run down the field, the ISS would reach midfield before the firing pin even touched the bullet's primer.

Downton: What really happened

The deleted scene that shows really happened at the end of Downton Abbey, Season 3, that Julian Fellowes had to cut because the episode was already running too long.  And shared by us because this version would make us feel a bit better.

**SPOILER ALERT**
(meaning you can probably guess what was actually shown on the episode by what is written here)





Matthew Crawley has just seen his newborn son at the hospital when the nurse catches him as he is leaving.  "The telephone is for you," she says, "it is Mr. Branson and he sounds desperate."  Matthew went to the telephone and picked up the set. 

"Tom, what is it?" 

"Matthew, thank goodness I caught you.  My brother left Liverpool a few days ago, and hadn't been seen until this morning, when he told someone at the pub here in Downton that he meant to drive a lorry full of explosive up to the house when everyone returned today to show the English what they can do with their aristocracy.  He has a green open-bed lorry, and I believe he means it." 

"Tom, the train is already here.  The family is on the way up to the house already, there is no time to lose!"

"If you cut up the old farm road, you may be able to head off Kieran before he gets here on the main road.  But Matthew, you have to keep that lorry from reaching Downton Abbey!"

[Cut to Matthew driving furiously.]

Really happened in a deposition - I was there

Q: You know that we need the answers to be verbal?
A: (The witness moved head up and down.)

Fish in the news

Pike found choked on Zander

The article linked to above discusses a Dutch fish found choked with another fish nearly as big as himself in his mouth, and speculates that the fish died of greed.  Had the fish been found in the lazy rivers of the deep South, however, the only reasonable explanation would have been that the Zander had found a few beers floating in the river, been enjoying them with some friends, then turned to them and said, "Hey, ya'll, I bet I can swim right through that Pike over there!"

Largest Worker's Comp claim in the galaxy

Vader, on the Battle of Yavin: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of stormtroopers cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."

New window sticker?

Voting third party

(For backstory, click here and here.)

Fashion Changed

"Perhaps the most remarkable is a coin with two obverses - that is, one side carries the head of Trajan and the other of Hadrian, both laureled. What was unpresciented was the latter's short-cut beard. Those who met him from day to day were familiar with this artful innovation; as he well knew, in civilian dress it made him look like a Greek, and when wearing armor, like a down-to-earth soldier. Until his assention, emperors's faces, whether in statuary or on coins, had been clean-shaven. Now the fashion changed: men in every corner of the empire looked at their money and discarded their razors."

Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome 
by Anthony Everitt

Watch your back!

Water

Grammar

The Dark Side

Whatever long grandiose name Iran uses for itself v. Google, Inc.

Iran has announced yesterday that it is considering legal action against Google for not labeling the gulf that forms its southern boundary "the Persian Gulf" in Google Maps. Google, though silent as to whether the decision involves the longstanding regional feud as to whether the body is the Arabian Gulf or the Persian Gulf, has not provided any label for the water. Anyone who has looked for names of bodies of water on Maps can sympathize with not seeing a geographic feature denominated, but I am a little curious as to which judicial body Iran intends to turn to for justice and why a sovereign country will subject itself to that body's jurisdiction. Not to mention the source of legal duty to provide names for things. And why they would pursue Google without also filing the international equivalent to a quiet title action regarding the name, so as to actually establish some right as against more than just one American corporation. Perhaps we should split the baby by using a more functional description, and call the gulf the Great U.S. Aircraft Carrier Holding Tank.

Downton Playlist

With the recent close of Season 2 of Downton Abbey on PBS, while eagerly awaiting Season 3, some of us have to fill our withdrawal with something. With some help from Spotify, I present my solution, the Downton Contemporary (more or less) Music Playlist.  Some of these are so on point you have to wonder if Julian Fellows was just listening to the radio and wrote down whatever he heard.  Sorry for any spoilers, but if you haven't seen it at this point, you are likely either categorically against it and shouldn't care or are being talked into it by friends who have probably already given away all the major plot points already.

1. Violet Hill - by Coldplay
2. Mr. Crowley - by Ozzy Osbourne
3. Mary, Mary - by Chumbawamba
4. Edith - by Rachael Yamagata
5. Sybil - by State Radio
6. Lavinia - by The Veils
7. Saint Anthony - by Senses Fail
8. Come Downstairs and Say Hello - by Guster
9. Carson City - by Chet Baker
10. Thomas - by A Perfect Circle
11. Anna Sun - by Walk the Moon
12. Daisy - by Switchfoot
13. Mosley - by Wayne Krantz et al.
14. Typrwriter Girl - by The Lisps
15. If I Had a Son - by Bad Astronaut
16. Young Lawyer - by French Kicks 
17. Lady Turk - by Tritonus
18. Take Me to the Riot - by Stars
19. A Little Bit of Soap - by The Jarmels
20. I'm Too Old for You - by Jack Oblivian
21. Hotel Hospital - by Damian Jurado
22. A Single Shot in One Hand - by Blue Tales
23. Behind Enemy Lines - by Saving Grace
24. Driver, Suprise Me - by The National
25. How Stupid Mr. Bates - by The Police
26. Carlisle Wheeling - by The Monkees
27. William, It Was Really Nothing - by The Smiths
28. Walk Like a Man - by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
29. Missing Dogs - by Saintseneca
30. The Convict And The Rose - by Willie Nelson
31. Goodbye Earl - by Dixie Chicks
32. The House that Built Me - by Miranda Lambert

 

UPDATE: Thanks to The Heart for discovering that Rachael Yamagata has, in fact written a song to an Edith. And with lyrics like "Oh Edith / you murder me / you murder me," the song could almost be sung by Mary. Well, not really. But we'll stick with it anyway.

 

Pizza

You know you live in L- County when the pizza delivery vehicle in front of you is an Escalade.