Interesting Links for 17-09-2021

[andrewducker]

Tesla autopilot will randomly swerve towards pedestrians

(tags:Tesla automation driving murder epicfail video )

The Fellowship of the Walk

(tags:lotr video funny music )

When Republicans control state legislatures, infant mortality is higher

(tags:politics usa healthcare children death )

Scottish taxes don't subsidise English spending

(tags:Scotland UK England tax )

I look forward to the forthcoming definition of "British TV" that some poor bureaucrat is going to have to try and come up with

(tags:UK TV WTF regulation conservatives )

Are *you* ready for Autumn Spider Festival?

(tags:spiders comic aieeee! )

Giant fossilised penguin found by New Zealand school children is previously unknown species

(tags:penguins paleontology newzealand )

Study confirms superior sound of a Stradivari is due to the varnish

(tags:music violin history materials )

Massive age-related division opens up in British society on a new front

(tags:time language age UK )

Why Is Inflation Rising Right Now? A Stuffed Toy Shows Why

(tags:trade China USA doom )

Google, Apple remove Navalny app from stores as Russian elections begin

(tags:google apple russia OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[cmcmck]

The idea that Strad sound is due to the varnish is not new.

It's known that there's diamond dust in the varnish.

The wood's also wet seasoned and that has an effect too.

[mlknchz]

Why didn't the giant eagles just fly them to Mordor? Cause then it would have been a three sentence story. " "Frodo sat alone on a lawn chair in his backyard watching the speck in the sky resolve itself into an enormous eagle. It swooped down, snatched him up, flew him to Mordor and dropped him into the fiery cauldron of Mt Doom. Sauron was suddenly destroyed as he sipped his morning coffee and Middle-Earth was saved from a dire threat it never knew existed."

Done

[andrewducker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t970bmp8eiw

But there are lots of reasons:
https://geekandsundry.com/heres-why-the-eagles-didnt-take-the-one-ring-to-mordor/

(Not least of which is that Sauron had flying Nazgul in the air over Mordor!)

[mlknchz]

SEVEN NAZGUL to patrol the entire border? 24/7? or 2.3 Nazgul per 8 hour shift with NO radar? with those odds, Mordor would have been speaking elvish in no time :)

[andrewducker]

Nazgul don't sleep, and I'm pretty sure that The Eye would spot the ring if it had direct line of sight to it, even at long range.

[calimac]

No, this is the reason why you don't use the giant eagles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZrJPiq9QGM

[andrewducker]

Thank you, that was excellent!

[anna_wing]

I had an interesting expeirnece listening to a Stradivarius in a mixed bill of violin and piano pieces, dating from the early 18th century to the 1980s. In the 18th and earlier 19th century works it was amazing. This deep, mellow, golden sound. But as the music became more recent, and definietly from the Impressionist pieces onwards, it didn't sound any different to me from a top-quality modern instrument.

I was certainly not expecting anything other than "really nice sound", which I got, not being any kind of conoisseur of violin. But it sounded better for the music of its own era, which makes some sense.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, that's fascinating!