Update 2024-03-27: Greatly expanded the "Samples" page and renamed it to "Glossary".
Update 2024-04-04: Added 5 million mid-2011 posts from the k47 post dump. Browse (mostly) them here.
Update 2024-04-07: Added ~400 October 2003 posts from 4chan.net. Browse them here.
Welcome to Oldfriend Archive, the official 4chan archive of the NSA. Hosting ~170M text-only 2003-2014 4chan posts (mostly 2006-2008).
Dyslexia didn't stop Jack Horner from becoming famous palaeontologist
He has dyslexia, which make it difficult for him to read and write. He flunked out of university repeatedly.
But his dogged determination has seen him awarded two honorary doctorates.
Dr Jack Horner, 67, a US palaeontologist, has gone on to discover many dinosaurs, name 12 species and even inspired the main character in the Jurassic Park novel and movies.
The "dinosaur hunter" has become one of the most famous in the world, and is promoting a traveling dinosaur exhibition which he curated.
He said: "It's pretty incredible. All I really wanted to do was to make even the smallest contribution to palaeontology."
Indeed, he has made several discoveries in over 35 years of working with dinosaurs.
In the 1970s, he discovered the first dinosaur eggs in North America, and was the first to prove that dinosaurs cared for their young.
The Museum of the Rockies in the US, where he is curator of palaeontology, also has the world's largest tyrannosaurus rex collection because of his fieldwork.
Two species of dinosaurs are even named after him - Achelosaurus Horneri and Anasazisaurus Horneri.
In the late 80s, novelist Michael Crichton modelled a fictional palaeontologist after Dr Horner.
This character was eventually portrayed by actor Sam Neill in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park franchise.
Dr Horner was the technical adviser for all three Jurassic Park movies and the cancelled American science-fiction TV series Terra Nova.
STRUGGLED IN SCHOOL
But as a child growing up in Montana, a state in the western US, Dr Horner struggled in school.
He said: "I was discouraged when I was very young - when my friends were all learning to read and I just couldn't dot it.
"But I realised very early that there were lots of things I could do better than other kids, like coming up with new ideas and using my imagination, and finding fossils."
His dyslexia was diagnosed only in adulthood. But he always been interested in dinosaurs.
He said: "I was born wanting to be a palaeontologist and have never really thought of being anything else."
At the age of eight, he discovered his first dinosaur remnant - the size of a fist - on a fossil-hunting trip. The bone is still in his office.
In the mid-1970s, he found a palaeontology position in a museum.
Looking back, he said: "Some people saw how passionate I was and realised that I did know more than my college records reflected.
"I always encourage dyslexic kids to not lose hope, and figure out what they can do better than non-dyslexics.
"One is no better or no worse than the other. They simply use their brains differently."
"I'm not fond of commercially acquired dinosaur specimens as they really don't have any scientific value. In turn... they have diminished educational value."
(As opposed to all the bullshit textbook "real world" problems)
From an article in American Mathematical Monthly from a long time ago. All should be solvable with first-semester calculus.
Problem 1) Find the centroid of Nevada. (For simplicity you may assume Nevada is a perfect trapezoid lying in a plane, and that one degree of lattitude or longitude is a constant distance throughout Nevada.)
Problem 2) When crude oil flows from a well, water is frequently mixed with it in an emulsion. To remove the water the crude is piped to a device called a heater-treater, which is simply a large tank in which the oil is warmed and the water is allowed to settle out. Operating experience in a particular oil field indicates that the concentration of water in the treater's output can be modeled by the following equation in a neighborhood of the usual operating point of 135°F and a 2-hour holding time:
,
where is the holding time in hours and is the operating temperature in degrees F. (a) Because of random fluctuations in the well's flow rate, the holding time actually varies slightly around 2 hours. Suppose you are given a simple control device that can change the tank temperature proportionally to the measured change in holding time. What constant of proportionality would best compensate for small holding time fluctuations and keep the water concentration as constant as possible? (b) Now as field equipment ages, its maximum operating settings are generally decreased. Find the equation of the line that best approximates the way in which the holding time would have to be increased as the maximum temperature rating falls slightly below the usual operating temperature. (This is a problem an engineering student was asked to solve while working for an oil company one summer).
Problem 3) Your friend is at the top of a building which you know to be exactly 100 feet high. She throws a stone downward at ft/sec, and you time how long it takes to hit the ground. Neglect air resistance, so that the distance (in feet) fallen by the stone in seconds is given by the formula . If you time 2 seconds for the stone to fall to the ground, and if your stopwatch is accurate only to within sec, at what downward speed did your friend throw the stone? Include an error estimate in your answer. Use the tangent line approximation.
Problem 3A) If an object falls vertically from rest with air resistance proportional to velocity, then its velocity at time is given by the formula . Here is known exactly, and , the constant of proportionality between the air resistance and the velocity, is measured experimentally with some error . (a) Derive a formula for the height in terms of the initial height and . (b) Suppose you measure that it takes 2.0 seconds for the object to hit the ground, with an error of in this measurement. Your wind tunnel experiments give a value of 0.1 for , with an error of . Find a simple formula for in terms of and . Use the tangent plane approximation.
Problem 4) You are standing on the ground at a point (see diagram: http://i29.tinypic.com/4j2tds.jpg ), a distance of 75 feet from the bottom of a ferris wheel that is 20 feet in radius. Your arm is at the same level as the bottom of the ferris wheel. Your friend is on the ferris wheel, which makes one revolution (counterclockwise) every 12 seconds. At the instant when she is at point you throw a ball to her at 60 ft/sec at an angle of 60° above the horizontal. Take , and neglect air resistance. Find the closest distance the ball gets to your friend, using Newton's method to obtain an answer which is accurate to within 1/2 foot.
Я обожаю марихуану. Для меня выкурить косяк вечером гораздо приемлимее бутылки пива или водки. И пока меня не закидали какашками — объясните мне, чем травка хуже той же выпивки? Представьте, что вы на футбольном матче, и кто-то ведет себя жестоко, агрессивно, мешая окружающим. Он пьян или накурен? Он пьян. Черт возьми, кто-нибудь когда-нибудь вообще видел хоть раз драку накуренных людей? Они милые, добрые, как индийские коровы и у них интересный ход мыслей, окда. Почему марихуана противозаконна? Она растет сама по себе на планете, а вам не кажется, что ставить природу вне закона — это паранойа? Если вы думаете, что от наркотиков нет никакой пользы, то сделайте мне одно одолжение, ок ? Придите домой, возьмите все музыкальные записи и сожгите, потому что музыканты, написавшие их, очень сильно торчали. Бля, мужики, употребление травы нужно не просто легализовать, ее употребление нужно сделать принудительным. Это состояние продвинутой медитации, мать его. Зашёл в душ и вышел, познав все сущие тайны Вселенной. Всем трубку мира, отпустите растаману?
The scariest thing about the Oct 17 deadline to raise the US government's borrowing limit: No one knows what will happen. But it could be bad news. Here is an attempt to answer some basic questions
WHAT IS THE DEBT CEILING?
The US Congress has long set an upper limit on the amount of money that the US can borrow by selling treasury bonds.
That cap has been raised many times because the government spends more than it makes. Most recently, in August 2011, Congress voted to raise the limit to US$16.7 trillion.
WHAT HAPPEN ON OCT 17?
US Treasury Secretary Jacob J.Lew has said that on that day, the department will run out of tricks to stay under the debt ceiling, making it impossible to borrow any more money. He estimates that on Oct 17, the government would have US$30 billion on hand, indicating a daily expenditure of up to US$60 billion.
WHAT WOULD THE TREASURY DO THEN?
Many experts think that to avoid a default, Treasury would make debt repayments its top pripority. The House has approved a bill to require such "prioritisation" but the Senate has not passed it. And President Barack Obama has threatened to veto it.
WHAT ELSE COULD THE TREASURY DO?
It could make its interest payments first, then delay all other payments until it collects enough tax revenue to make a full day's payments. That would avoid choosing among competing obligations.
WILL INVESTORS EVENTUALLY PANIC?
The markets could turn south in the days before Oct 17, if the government is still partially shut down and no sign of a resolution of the debt limit seems near. Many investors would likely dump treasury holdings. "There would be a rush to the door," predicts Bipartisan Policy Center analyst Steve Bell.
WHAT ECONOMIC IMPACT WOULD THESE HAVE?
Many foresee a nightmare.
No longer able to borrow, the US government could spend only from its revenue from taxes and fees. Household wealth would shrink. Consumer confidence could plunge. Higher rates on government debt would raise other borrowing costs, including mortgage rates.
IS WALL STREET BETTING THAT THE US WILL DEFAULT?
When investors believe a default is likely, the stock market will almost certainly plunge.
So far, the markets have suggested that Congress will ultimately come to an agreement, but the mood is growing darker.
HAVE WE REACHED THIS POINT BEFORE?
In 2011, Republicans hesitated to lift the debt ceiling until the last minute but ultimately relented. In 1979, there was a similar standoff. The Treasury Department accidentally failed to make one interest payment. But the government has never knowingly failed to fulfil its financial obligations.
US$1.27 trillion
The amount China holds in US Treasury bonds, second only to Japan
US$3.4 trillion
US Federal Reserve's assets
US$30 billion
Cash in hand with the US Treasury on Oct 17
70%
Disapproval ratings for Republicans, up from 63 per cent
51%
US President Barack Obama's disapproval rating.
350,000
Number of furloughed US federal workforce headed back to work
For those of you anons with access to online journal databases, I would like to propose a trade.
First a little background: I am currently writing a JBC-style (journal of biological chemistry) mini review on the alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex and I desperately need a certain article my library does not have. I have tried requesting access and doing an inter-library loan with no success.
I am willing to trade an article my library does have for the following article:
REX SHEU, K.-F. and BLASS, J. P. (1999), The α-Ketoglutarate Dehydrogenase Complex. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 893: 61–78
so tell me if you have access to this publication and tell me the name of the publication you need and we can work something out.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Here's a look at how the organisation works.
OPCW
The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks when it was required to oversee the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria.
Since the 1990s, the OPCW has been implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention, the first international treaty to outlaw an entire class of weapons.
CONVENTION
The convention prohibits the devlopment, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention, transfer or use of chemical weapons.
It came into force in 1997 and has been ratified by 189 states. Of those, seven - Albania, India, Iraq, Libya, Russia, the US and a country identified by the OPCW as "a State Party" but widely believed to be South Korea - have declared stock-piles of chemical weapons. These include mustard gas and nerve agents like sarin and VX.
INSPECTION
The OPCW has conducted more than 5,000 inspections in 86 countries. All the declared stockpiles of chemical weapons have been inventoried and vertified.
FUNDING
Funded by its member states, the OPCW has a budget of about 74 million euros and employs about 500 people. Its director-general is Turkish diplomat Ahmet Uzumcu.
Weapon destruction process
Rocket with chemical warhead, Fuse, Chemical agent container, Rocket motor
Explosive charge
1. Rocket with chemical warhead is loaded into a steel cradle, and an explosive charge is attached to it.
Steel cradle
2. The cradle with the rocket is loaded into a steel drum to prepare the rocket for detonation.
Door sealed
3. The rocket is detonated to release its toxic contents. Chemicals are added and the drum is rotated to mix and neutralise the contents.
Layout of mobile destruction unit on site
Staff decontamination zone
Stainless steel containment vessel
Flatbed trailer
Environmental enclosure
Another way to disarm chemical weapons
Using incineration or hot-detonation technology. The weapon and its chemical contents are destroyed by heating them to the temperature required to break down the chemicals.
BY THE NUMBERS: 57,740 tonnes, or 81.1 per cent, of the world's declared stockpile of chemical agents have been verifiably destroyed.
If I have a force F=4i+2xi acting on a particle going in a straight line from (0,0) to (1,1), then the work done on the particle should be the integral of 4 dx from 0 to 1 plus the integral of 2x dy from 0 to 1. Since the particle is essentially moving along y=x, is it true that I should write 2y dy in place of 2x dy so that the work done is 4x from 0 to 1 plus y^2 from 0 to 1, or a total of 5?
Thermophiles : "IT'S NOT THE HEAT, IT'S THE HUMIDITY!"
RADIORESISTANT ORGANISMS TOLERATE RADIATION 500 TIMES THE LETHAL DOSE FOR HUMANS.
CHERNOBYL
Radioresistant : "NICE PLACE.'
BAROPHILES ENJOY EXTREMELY HIGH PRESSURE LIVING DEEP ON THE OCEAN FLOOR UNDER ALMOST 7 MILES OF WATER.
Barophiles : "NO PRESSURE!"
POLYEXTREMOPHILES - LIKE THE TINY WATER BEAR - CAN TOLERATE MULTIPLE KINDS OF EXTREME CONDITIONS, INCLUDING TEMPERATURES FROM MINUS 328 TO PLUS 304 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, THE NEAR-VACUUM OF SPACE, 1,200 TIMES ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE, EXTREME DEHYDRATION AND RADIATION.
Polyextremophiles : "AND I CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT A SMART-PHONE!"
THEY TEACH US TO SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE CONVENTIONAL ORGANISMS COULD NOT SURVIVE.
