6 ms·

Why haven’t I heard about this before? This seems too important a detail for my school textbooks to have left out and for popular culture to lack any references

Why haven’t I heard about this before? This seems too important a detail for my school textbooks to have left out and for popular culture to lack any references to it whatsoever. What am I missing?

segfaultbuserr 6y ago
> For popular culture to lack any references to it whatsoever As the first paragraph of the article has mentioned, at least xkcd has a reference [0]. [0] https://xkcd.com/2344/ https://xkcd.com/2344/
- CamperBob2 6y ago
  That's interesting, assuming the location in the comic is correct. It is very close to 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude. Many people who have built or used GIS applications are familiar with "Null Island." It should probably have been called "Bug Island." If you have bugs in your GIS code, this is where they tend to lurk.
  - RobertoG 6y ago
    >>" It is very close to 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude." The 0 latitude could be relevant, but that the 0 longitude is in there is more an historical accident. The shape of the African continent is also interesting there.
    - throwaway316943 6y ago
      There appears to be a mountain range that runs straight into the ocean there. Oddly right in the middle of the bite. I wonder what that area looked like when ocean levels were lower.
    - xaedes 6y ago
      I think the 0 longitude most likely is accidental. Yet, here is another thing to think about: Zero longitude is the longitude of Greenwich, i.e. London, a significant city through the ages. Cities and towns, especially ones with old age, aren't positioned randomly but in geographical suitable locations: valleys, rivers, coast, etc. Since the position of London is not random, the 0 longitude isn't totally random as well. Still seeing no connection to this 26s pulse tho.
      - CamperBob2 6y ago
        Just saying that software bugs tend to show up here. If the pulse was localized by cross-correlating data from lots of different stations worldwide, it could potentially be some kind of numerical artifact.
- rishav_sharan 6y ago
  Is there really any subject on which there is no xkcd? They are the Simpsons of web cartoons.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - taneq 6y ago
    There's no topic without a relevant xkcd, and there's no event that The Simpsons didn't predict, and if it exists there's porn of it. The internet has rules.
- taneq 6y ago
  Funny because (I'm sure like many people) before I even clicked on that my gut feeling was "clearly a sleeping kaiju".
cheriot 6y ago
> But nearly 60 years after the pulse was first observed, no one has managed to figure it out. That may be because, as far as seismologists are concerned, it’s just not really a priority. “There are certain things that we concentrate on in seismology,” explains Wiens. “We want to determine the structure beneath the continents, things like that. This is just a little bit outside what we would typically study … [since] it doesn’t have anything to do with understanding the deep structure of the Earth.” > That doesn’t mean it’s not worth studying, Ritzwoller adds. The same reason it's not important enough to finish the article ;)
- jobigoud 6y ago
  Such a weird justification. If they don't know what's causing it how do they know it won't help explain the structure beneath the continent or the deep structure of the Earth.
  - op03 6y ago
    It's not weird. Its just how a large jungle gets explored by chimps with 6 inch brains. Eye doctors, Astronomers, Painters, Microscopists, Architects etc etc had all been studying light for thousands of years. But it took a bookminder to do some basic 8th grade magnetism and electrical experiments to make a connection. The jungle is vast and there are only so many curious chimps.
  - throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
    Life is finite. Brainpower is finite. If you feel otherwise, add to the field.
aaron695 6y ago
> Why haven’t I heard about this before? It's probably just part of the "Earth's hum", which is waves. (Don't confuse this with the world wide paranormal hum people claim to hear) You probably should have learned of the hum at school, if you did, you'd have probably forgotten. As a 10 year old you'd either find it amazing and think of it forever or just forget. It would be interesting to rank it on the importance level though. Or, it'd be interesting to work out how you could rank it. What are important things to know... in order... for personality types.
- rlt 6y ago
  Huh, I feel like that’s something I’d remember learning. Did many other people here learn that?
  - LandR 6y ago
    First of me hearing about this.
- jusssi 6y ago
  > (Don't confuse this with the world wide paranormal hum people claim to hear) Taking this sort of random swipe at at people who experience this is kind of rude. Even though it's pretty much confirmed it's not a real audio signal coming from outside of a person's body, there isn't quite enough evidence it isn't a real auditory sensation for these people (instead of psychological or "paranormal" issue). I do get the hum sometimes, usually happens when my shoulders are tense. Also usually only in one ear, which is why I was able to pretty quickly rule out an external source (though when it first happened, I did spend some time opening and closing windows, listening at ventilation ducts, trying to locate it). Edit: I'll add it here that sometimes it is a real sound. We live a couple of km away from a harbor, and the sound we get to our place from an idling cruise liner is very similar to what my ears sometimes generate by themselves. It's really hard to tell them apart except by trying if it gets louder (and more high freq components) by opening a window. The point is, at least in an urban environment it can be pretty hard to tell if the hum is real or not.
  - 6y ago
richrichardsson 6y ago
You're missing more XKCD in your life! https://xkcd.com/2344/ https://xkcd.com/2344/
- nemacol 6y ago
  These moments when I find myself digging into a very specific point on a pretty specific topic and someone posts a XKCD link and I think to myself - there is just no way this will be about this exact thing.. Sure enough. Thanks for the link. I needed a good belly laugh this morning.
rcxdude 6y ago
Why do you think that it's important? Basically any kind of long term signal recording will turn up a multitude of patterns and signals with unclear source, some easier to explain than others. Seismometry has many of them, but this seems far too niche for any general textbook to care about.
arbitrage 6y ago
LOL. Pop culture is our barometer for relevancy, now? Jesus wept.

Why haven’t I heard about this before? This seems too important a detail for my school textbooks to have left out and for popular culture to lack any references to it whatsoever. What am I missing?

segfaultbuserr 6y ago

> For popular culture to lack any references to it whatsoever As the first paragraph of the article has mentioned, at least xkcd has a reference [0]. [0] https://xkcd.com/2344/ https://xkcd.com/2344/

CamperBob2 6y ago
That's interesting, assuming the location in the comic is correct. It is very close to 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude. Many people who have built or used GIS applications are familiar with "Null Island." It should probably have been called "Bug Island." If you have bugs in your GIS code, this is where they tend to lurk.
- RobertoG 6y ago
  >>" It is very close to 0 degrees latitude, 0 degrees longitude." The 0 latitude could be relevant, but that the 0 longitude is in there is more an historical accident. The shape of the African continent is also interesting there.
  - throwaway316943 6y ago
    There appears to be a mountain range that runs straight into the ocean there. Oddly right in the middle of the bite. I wonder what that area looked like when ocean levels were lower.
  - xaedes 6y ago
    I think the 0 longitude most likely is accidental. Yet, here is another thing to think about: Zero longitude is the longitude of Greenwich, i.e. London, a significant city through the ages. Cities and towns, especially ones with old age, aren't positioned randomly but in geographical suitable locations: valleys, rivers, coast, etc. Since the position of London is not random, the 0 longitude isn't totally random as well. Still seeing no connection to this 26s pulse tho.
    - CamperBob2 6y ago
      Just saying that software bugs tend to show up here. If the pulse was localized by cross-correlating data from lots of different stations worldwide, it could potentially be some kind of numerical artifact.
rishav_sharan 6y ago
Is there really any subject on which there is no xkcd? They are the Simpsons of web cartoons.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- taneq 6y ago
  There's no topic without a relevant xkcd, and there's no event that The Simpsons didn't predict, and if it exists there's porn of it. The internet has rules.
taneq 6y ago
Funny because (I'm sure like many people) before I even clicked on that my gut feeling was "clearly a sleeping kaiju".

cheriot 6y ago

> But nearly 60 years after the pulse was first observed, no one has managed to figure it out. That may be because, as far as seismologists are concerned, it’s just not really a priority. “There are certain things that we concentrate on in seismology,” explains Wiens. “We want to determine the structure beneath the continents, things like that. This is just a little bit outside what we would typically study … [since] it doesn’t have anything to do with understanding the deep structure of the Earth.” > That doesn’t mean it’s not worth studying, Ritzwoller adds. The same reason it's not important enough to finish the article ;)

jobigoud 6y ago
Such a weird justification. If they don't know what's causing it how do they know it won't help explain the structure beneath the continent or the deep structure of the Earth.
- op03 6y ago
  It's not weird. Its just how a large jungle gets explored by chimps with 6 inch brains. Eye doctors, Astronomers, Painters, Microscopists, Architects etc etc had all been studying light for thousands of years. But it took a bookminder to do some basic 8th grade magnetism and electrical experiments to make a connection. The jungle is vast and there are only so many curious chimps.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
  Life is finite. Brainpower is finite. If you feel otherwise, add to the field.

aaron695 6y ago

> Why haven’t I heard about this before? It's probably just part of the "Earth's hum", which is waves. (Don't confuse this with the world wide paranormal hum people claim to hear) You probably should have learned of the hum at school, if you did, you'd have probably forgotten. As a 10 year old you'd either find it amazing and think of it forever or just forget. It would be interesting to rank it on the importance level though. Or, it'd be interesting to work out how you could rank it. What are important things to know... in order... for personality types.

rlt 6y ago
Huh, I feel like that’s something I’d remember learning. Did many other people here learn that?
- LandR 6y ago
  First of me hearing about this.
jusssi 6y ago
> (Don't confuse this with the world wide paranormal hum people claim to hear) Taking this sort of random swipe at at people who experience this is kind of rude. Even though it's pretty much confirmed it's not a real audio signal coming from outside of a person's body, there isn't quite enough evidence it isn't a real auditory sensation for these people (instead of psychological or "paranormal" issue). I do get the hum sometimes, usually happens when my shoulders are tense. Also usually only in one ear, which is why I was able to pretty quickly rule out an external source (though when it first happened, I did spend some time opening and closing windows, listening at ventilation ducts, trying to locate it). Edit: I'll add it here that sometimes it is a real sound. We live a couple of km away from a harbor, and the sound we get to our place from an idling cruise liner is very similar to what my ears sometimes generate by themselves. It's really hard to tell them apart except by trying if it gets louder (and more high freq components) by opening a window. The point is, at least in an urban environment it can be pretty hard to tell if the hum is real or not.
- 6y ago

richrichardsson 6y ago

You're missing more XKCD in your life! https://xkcd.com/2344/ https://xkcd.com/2344/

nemacol 6y ago
These moments when I find myself digging into a very specific point on a pretty specific topic and someone posts a XKCD link and I think to myself - there is just no way this will be about this exact thing.. Sure enough. Thanks for the link. I needed a good belly laugh this morning.

rcxdude 6y ago

Why do you think that it's important? Basically any kind of long term signal recording will turn up a multitude of patterns and signals with unclear source, some easier to explain than others. Seismometry has many of them, but this seems far too niche for any general textbook to care about.

arbitrage 6y ago

LOL. Pop culture is our barometer for relevancy, now? Jesus wept.