27 peices of useless information

[DukeP]

Can one use pliers in folding the paper?

I think when you say ANY piece you are doomed to be disproven.. a 50x100ft sheet of thin tissue paper could be folded quite a few times.. especially if you cut out a half moon in the previous fold right where the next crease is going to be.

THe thickness of the paper matters less than what you would expect.

Its a simple logarithmic increase.

You will half the areal of the paper every time you fold it.

Even starting with a stupidly large piece of paper, fold it 7 times and it can properbly fit on your desk.

I AM a bit skeptic about the number 7 tho' - its a bit more cabalistic than emipirc.


Im quite certain you can fold stuff more times, but it DOES get increasingly difficult, especially after the first 3-4 easy folds.



~~DukeP~~

[DukeP]

Coconut plasma:

Confirmed, at least for coconuts in the early stages of ripening. It was used several times during WWII when plasma resources were low and it's still sometimes used by the Indonesian Navy.

Young coconut milk is sterile, contains glucose and most of the necessary minerals; potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, copper and traces of sulphur, chlorides and a dash of protein. It also does not harm red blood cells once infused.

I guess a few people could react to the proteins with an allergic reaction, but given they're already probably bleeding to death the allergic reaction would be the least of their problems

Dr. Mordrid

It has been used recently in Denmark.

Theres a group of sick and twisted religious people that prohibits its member from reciving blood from donors. THis makes most realatively safe operations quite deadly. While replacing the lost blood with coconut milk doesnt do anything for your ability to transport oxygen, it does allow what blood remains to circulate. The lack of oxygen can be somewhat alleviated through the use of pure oxygen breathing masks (which opens up its own can of worms).


If I was a doctour I would flat out refuse to comply with peoples wishes if they where in dire danger of dying.. Suicide is illegal, and theres the doctors oath and all.

~~DukeP~~

[Brian Ellis]

Suicide is illegal

Certainly not everywhere. But how do you punish them? This is one case where capital punishment is OK, but only if the suicide has succeeded

Patients have the right to refuse treatment and doctors certainly have no right to impose treatment on someone who has expressly refused it. THAT is against the Hippocratic oath. That is why I have made a living will expressly refusing that I be kept artificially alive if comatose with no cerebral activity or if there is evidence that brain damage is sufficient to ensure that I will never enjoy a quality of life even if I do wake up from the coma and will still need life support. I made a 24 hour exception before the plug is pulled in the unlikely event that any organ may be useful for transplanting. I have also left my cadaver to medical research or training.

[Fat Tone]

Yeah, Johovas Witnesses make it into the headlines here regularly for not allowing transfusions on their kids.

[Nowhere]

Exactly. I don't care what they do to themselves. But their kids...

[Brian Ellis]

If someone has a religious conviction, then this should be respected. The incidence of juvenile asthma in OECD countries has increased by about 400% over the last 50 years. Despite better medical care and treatment, the death rate from this cause and sub-causes has more than doubled in the same period. Why? Because we, the collective we, are burning enormously increasing amounts of fossil fuels to provide the energy we crave for our Hummers, SUVs, airconditioners, even our mobile phones etc. Do we object to tens of thousands per year of other peoples' kids dying of pollution-related diseases caused by our cupidity and selfishness and insist that action be taken to mitigate the problem? No, we don't. What right then do we have to criticise a sect that loses a few kids per year because of their convictions? None whatsoever.

I say this not because I have any sympathy towards Jehovah's Witnesses or any other sect - I don't. But I do believe that it matters not what one's beliefs are, provided one is allowed to practise them freely, with a single exception: any religious or political belief promoting violence, crimes or other actions which damage third parties for whatever reason should be proscribed, including skin'eads.

[Gurm]

Pfeh!

People shouldn't be allowed to kill children because of their religious beliefs.

Why does it matter if they are murdering children by refusing them medical treatment or by shooting them in the head with a pistol? It ends up the same - the child dies.

[VJ]

And some useless answers to counter:

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.

Brainiac tested this. They used an extremely large piece of paper (from an industrial roll), and managed 12-13 times.
Depending on the type of paper, you can manage even more.

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

Depends from which hemisphere you are looking...

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.

Surely it can go downstairs... exteremely fast...

Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

Most spiders can't jump (there are some exceptions, appropriately called 'jumping spiders').

Reminds me: What do you get when you cross an elephant with a kangaroo?


















answer: Bit potholes in Australia.



Jörg

[Brian Ellis]

Pfeh!

People shouldn't be allowed to kill children because of their religious beliefs.

Why does it matter if they are murdering children by refusing them medical treatment or by shooting them in the head with a pistol? It ends up the same - the child dies.

And what about murdering countless more children by polluting the air they breathe; that doesn't matter?

There is a world of difference between letting a child die of natural causes by refusing treatment and murder.

And thousands of children are dying in Niger as you read this because the West were slow to respond to pleas for famine relief. By your analogy, we are murdering them as well. Perhaps their lives have less value than that of an adept of a sect.

In France, they have a law forbidding "non-assistance Ã* une personne en danger", making it a crime not to help anyone in danger. Some years ago, a JW kid of about 11, I think, died, possibly because he did not have a blood transfusion. The doctor was charged with this law but a court threw out the case and the ruling clearly stated that if the kid had expressed an opinion contrary to that of his parents, only then could the doctor have gone against the wishes of the parents. That law cannot be applied to such cases. The judges also stated that if he had gone against the wishes of the parents and the kid, he would have been culpable of gross professional misconduct. That ruling is now an important piece of French jurisprudence.

[Kurt]

That's the thing with Ethics: yours are not mine (in a broad sense).

Both points of view are valid...

[Nowhere]

Brian, it's not the same as your examples. In this case the kids can be saved withoud changing this world that much...

And the kid also didn't want it...so what? Hitlerjugend were purposedly raised to believe they belong to a superior race, and some of other races eran't worthy of existence. Does the fact that their mind was manipulated into believing such things make those things acceptable?

Fvcking so badly live of other person (and not talking here exclusivelly about making the other person believe she has no right to live), especially your children, should be considered a criminal act.

[Paddy]

I was going to comment one the whole isotonic coconut milk thing - not that these are prevelent here in the UK, but I am not going to join the whole euthanasia/jehova's witness debate.

[KvHagedorn]

I didn't believe this "microfecal plume" thing.. especially since, as it is in quotes, it should be a common terminology.

Well, guess what? I managed a GOOGLE SINGULARITY by entering the words "microfecal plume," and it led back to this thread! Apparently this thread is the only place on the internet where the words "microfecal plume" appear.

http://www.google.com/search?q=microfecal+plume&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&filter=0

However, upon futher investigation, I did find this:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a990416.html

Not a microscopic brown geyser, but the germ thing is apparently true.

One last thought.. germs are good for you. Why? For the same reason lifting weights are good for your muscles. Ingesting germs exercises the immune system. People who wash everything with bleach after each use are scary.. and probably much less healthy than those who don't. Not only do their immune systems atrophy, but they probably damage themselves by inhaling all those chlorine fumes.

[TransformX]

I remember trying the paper folding thing back in highschool. We unrolled about 100 meters of 1 ply toilet paper and started folding it in half. We managed 8 times with that. We were all amazed.

Doing the math, the length decreases and the thickness increases like so:

0 folds: 100m/1 layer
1 fold: 50m/2 layers
2 folds: 25m/4 layers
3 folds: 12.5m/8 layers
4 folds: 6.25m/16 layers
5 folds: 3.125m/32 layers
6 folds: 1.5625m/64 layers
7 folds: 0.78125m/128 layers
8 folds: 0.390625m/256 layers

Going for the 9th fold is like trying to fold half of a package of copy paper. It just doesn't work anymore.

Try it with the ultra-thin paper they use for cigarettes..

[Jon P. Inghram]

Well, guess what? I managed a GOOGLE SINGULARITY by entering the words "microfecal plume," and it led back to this thread! Apparently this thread is the only place on the internet where the words "microfecal plume" appear.

http://www.google.com/search?q=micro...e=off&filter=0

No, you fool, you'll cause the internet's stack to overflow with recursive links like that!