Weekly Science Headlines

[Doktor Howl]

Navy program? Well there's your fucking problem.  Here's some long-winded anger that nobody asked for:

Imagine, if you will, a big brick building that serves as the Navy's "detox" facility.  It has two wings, one for the rehabilitation "classrooms", and the other for sleeping quarters.  This place is full to the brim with people who either want help, need help, or neither want or need help but were forced to go to this place anyways.  The third category is approximately 80% of the people there.  The fullness of this building, in fact, is so constant that people actually seeking help for severe problems are often forced to wait around six months just to get in, due to the amount of people currently interred there.

You are split into groups of about 8, and everyone gets to get up and talk about their feelings, and all kinds of other fun stuff like art therapy, and some other therapies, however the whole process is so expedited that over the month you may be there you won't be able to utilize any of these therapies more than about twice.  All of these enjoyable things are led by your group's counselor, who is some dude who went through a correspondence course and was deemed an "expert", which in Navy terms literally means exactly nothing.  There are also psychologists.  However, all of the groups currently in the building (about 10-12), share these two psychologists, so you will again probably only see them twice during your interment.

The average denizen is somebody who maybe slipped up once, had a few to many drinks around the wrong people, and got turned in to the (command) authorities.  There's also the possibility that you could accidentally say something stupid, and if the wrong person hears it, oh, you know what would help you? Navy detox.  There's some cases where they can't quite force you to go there because it would be unfair, but they can "suggest" you go there so strongly, that you "magically" take their advice and wind up there.  The whole system is essentially designed to take the pressure off of Navy commands in order to alleviate them of responsibility.  It turns an issue from hey, maybe this command is so stressful or so backwards or everyone has a stick so far up their ass that it literally drives people to drinking and that seems like a problem we should work at into hey, this guy is a drunk, it's not our fault.  And my personal favorite part, is that if you are sent to this facility and come back, and are LITERALLY EVER caught drinking again, you can be immediately discharged, so that they can say hey, this command isn't at fault.  It's that broken Navy rehab program, not fixing this guy.

I would even go so far as to say that a lot of the reason people show improvement during the program is that it generally gets you away from the constant stress of wherever you were working before.

So the whole program is kind of a complete fucking joke, so it doesn't surprise me that they say hey, wait guys, we are super-legit, we cured addictions you didn't even know existed.

(Disclaimer:  I do think the program is a good idea, because there is a lot of stress and a lot of people I knew in the military could use some better coping mechanisms, and there are some people who got some good out of it.  Sadly they are the minority, and without a pretty major overhaul, it's esentially worthless.)

When I was in the army, the standard treatment for depression was to ask the patient if they had anything to drink that year.  If they said yes, they were sent to detox.  Clearances revoked, career over.

So nobody ever sought treatment for depression, and the results were as expected.

[Demolition Squid]

Wasn't sure where to put this. This thread seems okay?

Paracetamol may dull emotional intensity as well as pain.

Interesting that paracetamol - one of the most common drugs out there - is still (potentially) having new side effects found. It makes an instinctive sort of sense, too. If the implication about 'how the brain handles emotional pain' were correct, though, surely this would apply to all painkillers 

[Cain]

I do seem to recall speculation about how the brain handles pain in relation to this, a few years back now.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am interested by the way this research is being reported, simply because as Cain mentioned, it's a well-established phenomenon also seen with Ibuprofen.

[Brother Mythos]

General Relativity Alert!

Gravitational waves MAY have been detected oscillating in a space-time continuum near you.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/people-are-getting-excited-after-a-physicist-tweeted-that-gr#.htB9yk66W

Cowabunga!

[Brother Mythos]

Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet.

http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523

I thought the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) had discounted this possibility, but we shall see.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet.

http://www.caltech.edu/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523

I thought the WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) had discounted this possibility, but we shall see.

Well that'd be cool!

[Brother Mythos]

"Dark 'noodles' may lurk in the Milky Way"

http://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2016/Dark-noodles-may-lurk-in-the-Milky-Way?featured=F29EDEB1728C4A92B579C7A5DC28BAD5

The Pastafarians must be beside themselves with joy.

[Brother Mythos]

A Helpful Guide to Finding The Real Ninth Planet™

[Brother Mythos]

General Relativity Alert!

Gravitational waves MAY have been detected oscillating in a space-time continuum near you.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/people-are-getting-excited-after-a-physicist-tweeted-that-gr#.htB9yk66W

Cowabunga!

"It's True: Physicists Announce Discovery Of Gravitational Waves"

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/physicists-announce-discovery-of-gravitational-waves

[Freeky]

mind = blown. Not sarcasm.

[minuspace]

General Relativity Alert!

Gravitational waves MAY have been detected oscillating in a space-time continuum near you.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/people-are-getting-excited-after-a-physicist-tweeted-that-gr#.htB9yk66W

Cowabunga!

"It's True: Physicists Announce Discovery Of Gravitational Waves"

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/physicists-announce-discovery-of-gravitational-waves

What is this, a school for ants?  Those gravity waves are AT LEAST TWO times too fast, according to my (questionable) calculations.  I thought they said it took 7ms between readings, should it not be around 14ms? 
4180000 / 299792458 = .0139 (aprox.)
US(width) / speed of light

[b/c I need the exercise]

[Brother Mythos]

General Relativity Alert!

Gravitational waves MAY have been detected oscillating in a space-time continuum near you.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/people-are-getting-excited-after-a-physicist-tweeted-that-gr#.htB9yk66W

Cowabunga!

"It's True: Physicists Announce Discovery Of Gravitational Waves"

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/physicists-announce-discovery-of-gravitational-waves

What is this, a school for ants?  Those gravity waves are AT LEAST TWO times too fast, according to my (questionable) calculations.  I thought they said it took 7ms between readings, should it not be around 14ms? 
4180000 / 299792458 = .0139 (aprox.)
US(width) / speed of light

[b/c I need the exercise]

Two detectors can not triangulate the direction of a signal. Triangulation requires a third detector.

I did not do any calculations. However, you may be assuming the signal was coming in exactly on the straight line connecting the Louisiana and Washington detectors. There is no reason to make that assumption. For instance, if the signal had originated at an equal distance from both detectors, there would have been zero time delay.

[minuspace]

General Relativity Alert!

Gravitational waves MAY have been detected oscillating in a space-time continuum near you.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/people-are-getting-excited-after-a-physicist-tweeted-that-gr#.htB9yk66W

Cowabunga!

"It's True: Physicists Announce Discovery Of Gravitational Waves"

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/physicists-announce-discovery-of-gravitational-waves

What is this, a school for ants?  Those gravity waves are AT LEAST TWO times too fast, according to my (questionable) calculations.  I thought they said it took 7ms between readings, should it not be around 14ms? 
4180000 / 299792458 = .0139 (aprox.)
US(width) / speed of light

[b/c I need the exercise]

Two detectors can not triangulate the direction of a signal. Triangulation requires a third detector.

I did not do any calculations. However, you may be assuming the signal was coming in exactly on the straight line connecting the Louisiana and Washington detectors. There is no reason to make that assumption. For instance, if the signal had originated at an equal distance from both detectors, there would have been zero time delay.

Initially, I read the measurement between the detectors being used to confirm that gravitational waves had been "discovered".  Now, it seems like it may be used to infer the direction of said wave.  Regardless, what preoccupies me is how these oscillations in curvature are supposed to propagate through space-time itself, in the first place.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

http://www.sciencealert.com/this-woman-has-illegally-uploaded-millions-of-journal-articles-in-an-attempt-to-open-up-science