A random thread of absolute randomness...

[kejedo]

I was thinking of my experience as a science teacher when we had to identify the various (lung) lobes of a frog. Glad we didn't have to study the bison. 

[kejedo]

Beaded lacewings are a type of winged insect that eats termites as babies. Adults lay eggs in termite nests, setting their young up for some stinky but successful hunting. Beaded lacewing larvae release a chemical called “allomone” from their rear ends that paralyzes the termites, which they then eat. Just one flatus can take down multiple termites. 

[kejedo]

Current environmental papers challenge the premise that early migrations to the US continent traveled over the Bering strait (now collapsed bridge.) Not sure of the time guesses, but it is worth considering.

[minister159]

The Earth rotates on its axis once each day. Because the circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles, a spot on the equator rotates at approximately 1,037.5646 miles per hour. Not only that, but the earth is orbiting the sun at the speed of almost 67,000 mph! We know it's gravity that keeps us from being flung off into space, but why don't we feel the spinning?

 

Because the entire solar system is traveling at about 144 miles per second in its orbit around the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. That is a VERY fast speed. So why don’t we feel this motion? The reason is that the speeds are constant. As people, we, the atmosphere, and Earth’s oceans are all spinning at the same speed. Think of traveling in a car. You don’t feel much motion when you’re driving at a fast speed down a smooth highway. But when you hit the brakes, you feel the speed change. This is why we do not feel the Earth’s motions through the universe.

 

[dljbsp]

4 hours ago, minister159 said:

We know it's gravity that keeps us from being flung off into space,

centrifugal force due to rotation slightly counteracts gravity — it makes you weigh a little less at the equator, but not enough to “fling” anything off.

[Sheep]

20 hours ago, dljbsp said:

centrifugal force due to rotation slightly counteracts gravity — it makes you weigh a little less at the equator, but not enough to “fling” anything off.

 

I've always been amazed at the balance between centrifugal force and gravity. You would think that with our planet flying around the sun so fast that it might fling off into outer space and get lost in the vast reaches of our universe. But it doesn't do that because gravity pulls it back into its orbit. However the earth doesn't do the opposite either and get swallowed up by the sun, because centrifugal force pulls it outward and keeps it on track in orbit. Just perfect, because the two opposing forces are perfectly balanced; if one was slightly stronger than the other, we would be in deep trouble, getting dragged into the sun or pulled into space, either one being inhospitable to continued life. And of course, the speed we're travelling around the sun also affects those forces, another perfect quirk.

 

What is it that keeps those two forces absolutely balanced with each other, in the only position that would be hospitable for life to exist? Of course, most scientists would say that it just happened like that, by itself, with nothing to control it. Yeah, sure.