Episode #655

[godbomb]

I had a hard time picturing what the Milky Way Rings were:



Still don't know what they are, but at least I know what they're talking about.

the picture in the show notes is very different



edited for size

[Swoop]

fact or fiction choice #1 also seems wrong about the thickness. According to the fact retriever.com link, the central bulge is 10,000 light years thick (fact 25) and the disk itself is remarkably thinner (fact 29), resembling a frisbee disk the thickness of a sheet of paper. Perhaps you meant to include the central bulge in the thickness value, but the thinness of the disk would have been an interesting point to mention.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Clear browser cache, DNS cache.

Thanks, will try.

[daniel1948]

Does one of the rogues (I can't tell Jay, Bob, and Evan apart) really think that all we need is self driving car technology in order to have hotel rooms that detach themselves from the building, pick you up at the airport, bring you to the hotel, and then lift themselves back into the building??? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. If such a concept were remotely possible, we'd have them now with human drivers. Self-driving technology is NOT the barrier to hotel rooms that detach themselves and drive on city streets.

I'm still out of town but I had to stick my head back in here to comment on this bit of complete detachment (pun intended) from reality.

[2397]

It was Bob. Being a little hyperbolic, as usual. But the one big advantage to a self-driving car in terms of space, is that you don't need a driver's seat, steering wheel, etc. Hypothetically you could put a bed in there. Though I'm not sure they'll ever be safe enough that that won't lead to a much higher risk of injury.

Or it could be more like a taxi without the front row. One central seat with a variety of smaller amenities surrounding it. As long as it doesn't add up to more weight than a driver and the other seats, it won't cost more in terms of fuel/electricity. And whether it's worth it in the long term depends on the driver's salary vs. additional build and maintenance costs.

[arthwollipot]

Heard Cara mention having visual migraines today.  I believe that is something I've been dealing with the past 5 or so years (since I started working at a computer full time).

I get these blind spots in my field of vision surrounded by a zig zagging flashing rainbow.  Sometimes the flashing zig zags surround the entire blind spot, sometimes they only cover one side.  Sometimes they start off small and grow in size, other times they start off large.  When I researched it, I came accross the term visual aura which are associated with occular migraines/absent migraines.  Searching images for "visual aura" was pretty compelling for me, the images that come up depict pretty accurately what I experience (some more than others).  I would guess a "visual migraine" is the same thing?  There has never once been any headaches or pain of any kind when this happens and I don't get any other forms of migraines.

I've never had it checked out because my research suggested they are mostly harmless, as Cara mentioned.

If anyone has any further information that I might find interesting on this topic, feel free to share.

This?

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

I've been having occasional or semiregular scintillating scotomas for as long as I can remember. From the research I've done, they're a symptom either of nothing at all, or of serious brain damage.

Thanks, Dr Google.

[werecow]

I get these blind spots in my field of vision surrounded by a zig zagging flashing rainbow.  Sometimes the flashing zig zags surround the entire blind spot, sometimes they only cover one side.  Sometimes they start off small and grow in size, other times they start off large.  When I researched it, I came accross the term visual aura which are associated with occular migraines/absent migraines.  Searching images for "visual aura" was pretty compelling for me, the images that come up depict pretty accurately what I experience (some more than others).  I would guess a "visual migraine" is the same thing? 

Yeah, afaik they're the same thing. I get auras/ocular migraines too, but they typically precede a headache. The first time I got a weird blind spot in my eye and then the scintillating scotoma, I thought I was having a minor stroke. So naturally I did not call the doctor or the ambulance like a normal person might have, but instead decided to go to bed, and woke up with a full blown migraine headache. I rarely get them any more since I quit smoking, but when I do it is actually an advantage of sorts, since, if I take a paracetamol there and then, the headache will be only very slight.

This simulation comes pretty close to my experience, except the blind spot never gets as big and the "lines" are thinner and more jagged and they wave a bit more:

[Thordale]

I am struggling with the way Cara pronounced "Attenborough" as in Sir David Attenborough.

She was not correct.

[arthwollipot]

I am struggling with the way Cara pronounced "Attenborough" as in Sir David Attenborough.

She was not correct.

Atten-burrow?

Americans tend not to do schwas.

[Thordale]

I am struggling with the way Cara pronounced "Attenborough" as in Sir David Attenborough.

She was not correct.

Atten-burrow?

Americans tend not to do schwas.

They are going to have to  learn then and should at least pronounce it correctly - Atten-brer - like Edinburgh, like anything but Atten-burrow!

Fer cryin' out loud, they even have a segment on words, definitions and how to ruddy well say them correctly!

(can you tell, this is driving me mad?!)

[Fast Eddie B]

I would guess a "visual migraine" is the same thing?  There has never once been any headaches or pain of any kind when this happens and I don't get any other forms of migraines.

I've never had it checked out because my research suggested they are mostly harmless, as Cara mentioned.

If anyone has any further information that I might find interesting on this topic, feel free to share.

Ocular Migraine. I’ve had 3 or 4.

The first was while watching our big screen TV. There was a flickering above and to the left of the screen. I looked to see what might be causing it, first to see if the ceiling fan was on. It wasn’t, and the flickering stayed just above and to the left of wherever I was looking.

I was quite concerned. I tried covering each eye individually, but the effect remained for each eye. That made me think it was a brain problem rather than an eye problem, and I was thinking mild stroke in progress or brain tumor. Anyway, it passed in about 15 minutes, as ocular migraines are wont to do. I think it was Google that led me to the images that were mostly spot on.

Anyway, it’s happened two or three times since over maybe 5 years. Apparently it’s just a visual processing “hiccup” that’s not generally a sign of any underlying disorder. But it IS scary the first time.

As a data point, I don’t think I’ve ever had a “real” migraine, and only very rarely get headaches of any sort.

[Swagomatic]

There seems to be an alarming rise of pendantic comments in the episode threads lately.   

[RMoore]

I am struggling with the way Cara pronounced "Attenborough" as in Sir David Attenborough.

She was not correct.

Atten-burrow?

Americans tend not to do schwas.

Perhaps people from Missouri would do better.

[daniel1948]

I am struggling with the way Cara pronounced "Attenborough" as in Sir David Attenborough.

She was not correct.

Atten-burrow?

Americans tend not to do schwas.

They are going to have to  learn then and should at least pronounce it correctly - Atten-brer - like Edinburgh, like anything but Atten-burrow!

Here in America we say Ed'n'burrow. People pronounce words according to their own concept of how the letters sound. People who have not grown up speaking a language cannot pronounce words of that language the way native-speakers do. There's no way I'm going to produce a Scottish brogue when I say the name of a city in Scotland. Sorry about that. Pigs will never fly and I will never be able to pronounce Edinburgh correctly.

[Sawyer]

I am struggling with the way Cara pronounced "Attenborough" as in Sir David Attenborough.

She was not correct.

Atten-burrow?

Americans tend not to do schwas.

They are going to have to  learn then and should at least pronounce it correctly - Atten-brer - like Edinburgh, like anything but Atten-burrow!

Here in America we say Ed'n'burrow. People pronounce words according to their own concept of how the letters sound. People who have not grown up speaking a language cannot pronounce words of that language the way native-speakers do. There's no way I'm going to produce a Scottish brogue when I say the name of a city in Scotland. Sorry about that. Pigs will never fly and I will never be able to pronounce Edinburgh correctly.

We're not just pronouncing letters or phonemes as we expect; the word "burough" is right smack there in his name.  And I'm pretty sure it's not one Americans have bastardized:

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