What did you Google/Bing/Yahoo search today?

[Allen]

And was it interesting?

I often find myself searching Google for random thoughts which pop in to my head, then I start reading articles which lead to other pages and stories, and inevitably to Wikipedia or the dreaded Youtube videos of cats and fails, or failing cats... But I read up on something today which I found rather interesting and didn't know, and maybe some of you have also thought the same but never found out, so I am here to spread my new gained knowledge.

What did I Google: "Why do people instantly die in films when they are shot?"
Where did this lead me: A reddit page with some seemingly informal answers (http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikei...rop_dead_when/) - DISCLAIMER - this page has a link to a NSFW video of a suicide related to the article
This lead to: A Wikipedia page on a US politician called R. Budd Dwyer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Budd_Dwyer), he shot himself in front of a room full of journalists.

Firstly, I found the subject about hydrostatic shock fascinating. I always find it odd in films when someone takes a shot to the abdomen or chest, or get stabbed there, and they seem to instantly drop dead. I suppose it never occurred to me that shock or the rippling effect of the bullets shockwave tearing apart your organs could have such a dramatic effect. I will now watch films and TV programs where people die in a new light and not think it's so absurd that a bullet or knife can cause such damage.

Secondly, I had never heard about R. Budd Dwyer, but to be honest I don't care for British politicians, let alone foreign ones. But his speech before his suicide was quite something to read. If of course he was innocent then you have to feel for the guy, being in the limelight and having these kind of things happen to you destroying your life, despite the outcome. Just look at the recent court cases involving people like DLT, despite being proven innocent on most of the charges, he probably went through a very tough time. Anyway, this is not a discussion about DLT, I was just trying to add some modern comparison.

So, it was an interesting 10 minutes of reading. I would be interested to know what other Hexites read up on today, even if it was not what they originally intended to get an answer on. Share your new knowledge!

[satrow]

Hmm, makes me glad I use DuckDuckgo if that's the effect using Google search has on others ...

[scaryjim]

Huge amounts of VBA related stuff - fairly standard for a work day really. A few of my old internet monikers, to see if you could actually find me from them. Probably other stuff I can't remember, since my favourite way of answering any question is to open a new tab in Chrome and just type stuff straight into the address bar.

But it's all pretty boring, really.

[kalniel]

While I normally use journal searching tools, sometimes Google can be quite good for historical articles, especially where they're picked up by the press/popular science news.

So today I had a surprise request to look after a 14 yr old on work experience and while my day to day work is well out of their ability to understand without a lot of background preparation, I could take them through some of the historical examples of diseases caused by sequence mutations and the subsequent structural changes caused by the different chemical properties of the mutation, and decided to use heamoglobin as an example. Famous case of single mutation causing sickle-cell anaemia and all that, but what had me Googling was the mention of (successful) work to create genetically hybrid human-crocodile heamoglobin¹ - crocodiles being rather good at holding their breath for a long time. While being very cool, this also helped confirm a number of theories about genetic mutations.

1. Komiyama et al, Nature 373, 244-246 (19 January 1995) | doi:10.1038/373244a0

[Frankenfurter]

You don't want to know. xD

Paha. Actually I searched for Lego Man in space. Because turns out, there was a Lego Man on the edge of space!
Cool, right! XD

Also, that's some pretty interesting stuff OP, guess I'd never thought about it. I want a war game with less instantaneous deaths in it, have people flail, spurt blood and try to survive instead of being insta-killed when they're stabbed. Not because I'm sick or anything, I just see a lot of kids play war games and then think it'd be great to sign up as armed forces; if realism is what they saw (and 'experienced' when they got stabbed back) they wouldn't even consider it.

[Agent]

A few things today:

*A random old song popped into my head when thinking of a friend. I could only remember a handful of the lyrics, but a rough description and a few words and google had it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsJSwGc4lsA

*Spherical trigonometry, because I've not really had a need to look at it / do it before now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_trigonometry

*How to start Windows 8 in safemode (or if there was a better way than msconfig). It boots that fast the F8 / Shift+F8 doesn't actually work on a UEFI system with a SSD: http://www.7tutorials.com/5-ways-boo...s-8-windows-81

*Emulators with PLEX - I've started to get into the entire media centre thing at home, and I'd like to run some emulators through it as well

*Other searches relating to finding a tablet around 8" that has a 1080p screen and isn't a silly price.

[Shivy011]

The R7 265, 750ti, quadratic formula and that's it

[jimbouk]

Java this, java that, arduino LEDs. All work related stuff tbh. Not so interesting, but interesting for work!

[g8ina]

I googled a company called Meadows, who are one of the main contractors for our new kitchen & bathroom, cuz I needed to complain

[AETAaAS]

"Do you like tapes and CDs? Because imma tape my dick to your forehead so you can CDs nuts"

Googled that on the bus this morning because it popped into my head and was wondering where it came from. Still no clue as I got off the bus. Anyone?

[Saracen]

... Just look at the recent court cases involving people like DLT, despite being proven innocent on most of the charges, he probably went through a very tough time. Anyway, this is not a discussion about DLT, I was just trying to add some modern comparison.

....

Just picking you up on a technical distinction, he wasn't found innocent, he was found "not guilty". It's an important distinction.

A trial (in the UK, or at least, England and Wales, Scotland, as ever, being a bit different) isn't trying about determine if he did it or not. It's about whether it can be proven, beyond reason doubt, that he's guilty.

That is to say (short of hung juries, directed verdicts, etc) one of two verdicts results :-

a) It is proved he's guilty, or
b) It isn't proved he's guilty.

In the absence of proven guilt, he is presumed innocent, not proven to be.

A "not guilty" verdict, in any trial, is entirely consistent with the accused having done whatever he was accused of. The state simply cannot prove, to an acceptable standard, that the accused did.

In DLTs case, I have no idea, or opinion, on whether he's innocent ir not, merely that he's not guilty, beyond reasonable doubt.

One more point. I've done jury duty, as I'm sure many here have. And in one case, I feel pretty sure the accused did what he was charged with. Yet, I voted "not guilty", and that was the trial result, not because the jury didn't think he was guilty as charged, but because we couldn't be sure, beyond reasonable doubt, that he was.

A trial does not, nor even seek to, establish "innocence". That is presumed, by law, to be the case, unless guilt can be proven.

That's one reason why I feel sex cases, and child sex cases in particular, deserve anonymity of accused, because the mere charging and trial establishes the allegation, and even a 'not guilty' verdict doesn't establish innocence, merely allows the continued presumption of it. The stain, the suspicion, will likely never go away, and DLT could well be as innocent as Christ himself, but can never prove it, unless and until proof his accusers were wrong, or lying, comes up.

I feel really sorry for anyone that really is innocent, but gets accused of this type of crime, because some mud will always stick. On DLT, I have no basis for a view, one way or the other, any more than I did before the story broke.

[Saracen]

As for recent searches, nothing that sticks in my memory, and I may well not have searched gor anything, possibly for days. The last thing I remember searching for was a link to the text of the Budapest memorandum on Ukraine.

[virtuo]

I just Googled "who uses bing search"


nobody


Recent serious searches have been around SAP integrations, and bathroom tile suppliers (as I bought my bathroom tiles about 5 years ago, and have now discovered I don't have enough.. half way through putting them up!)

[sammyc]

^ that's a nooooo moment are you too far in to do something like this & claim you always intended to..

I often find myself searching Google for random thoughts which pop in to my head, then I start reading articles which lead to other pages and stories

This, & far too much. Actually not much along this line the last couple of days, more the factual need (or want) to know google stuff, like chrome error messages, how to change the line spacing in open office, where to buy discounted stamps, how to stratify seeds in the fridge... but some random bits including how long was Norway occupied during WWII, whether the Rev Frog Orr-Ewing was christened Frog (disappointingly no ) and whether sparky or sparks is the usual nickname for an electrician which led to looking at other tradesmen's names. Insulation men are 'itchy and scratchy' in the US apparently, don't know about here.

[virtuo]

^ that's a nooooo moment are you too far in to do something like this & claim you always intended to..

Oof, I'd rather start again

Luckily there's a few places with "clearance" stock of the tiles I need, only about 2 boxes short and they are white so not much to lose in batch differences. Delivery's an eye-waterer though.

[sammyc]

Oof, I'd rather start again

I don't blame you I thought you had maybe drawn a blank so far after 5 years but if you can get sorted & stomach the delivery then good.