Things that make you go "Hmmmm…"

[Dr Sardonicus]

Ahh, yes, the evils of nuclear radiation. Them! was the ants mutated into giants. Likewise with Tarantula!. There were giant grasshoppers, too.

Gojira (Godzilla) was the monster awakened by nuclear radiation. A revised version had added scenes with an American reporter portrayed by Raymond Burr.

The giant insects and other unnaturally large animals apparently were impervious to the "square-cube law" first enunciated AFAIK in Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences by Galileo Galilei.

[jasong]

Why does it seem like all stars in adverts have 5 points on them?

Do rich CEOs look up at the sky and say,"Those stars totally have 5 points on them, no doubt about it. Not 4, not 6, not 7 or 8, no triangles or squares up there. They all have exactly 5 points."

Other than the star of Bethlehem, it seems like everybody wants stars to have 5 points.

[Nick]

The stars on the flag of the European Union each have 5 points too.
I guess that 4 points would make them look like squares, while 6 points is a star of David.

[retina]

Real stars don't have any points. They are, for the most part, circles (maybe slightly flattened circles if you look real close from the appropriate viewpoint).

[xilman]

Originally Posted by retina

Real stars don't have any points. They are, for the most part, circles (maybe slightly flattened circles if you look real close from the appropriate viewpoint).

There are many images of real stars which have four or six points to them! Luckily my scope has a circularly symmetrical support for the secondary mirror and the (properly focused) images are circular, seeing permitting.

Close up, though, almost all stars are very nearly perfect oblate ellipsoids. Some are tidally distorted into ovoids and this effect can be measured by ground-based telescopes. Explanation on request.

[retina]

Originally Posted by xilman

There are many images of real stars which have four or six points to them!

There are also examples of hexagons and other shapes. But those are just imaging effects, not the actual star itself.

I am more impressed by the hexagon shape in the pole of one of those outer planets in our very solar system. What is that all about?

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by retina

There are also examples of hexagons and other shapes. But those are just imaging effects, not the actual star itself.

I am more impressed by the hexagon shape in the pole of one of those outer planets in our very solar system. What is that all about?

Perhaps it's the frozen remains of a gigantic Rayleigh–Bénard convection cell.

[retina]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Perhaps it's the frozen remains of a gigantic Rayleigh–Bénard convection cell.

It changes with the seasons. Perhaps the aliens are still experimenting with their boiler.

[kladner]

A brief explanation here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_hexagon

[pinhodecarlos]

This week three days traveling in and out of Cambridge visiting schools and a python on loose...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-48818178

[retina]

Boeing's Software Fix For The 737 MAX Problem Overwhelms The Plane's Computer

They use 80286 CPUs. It won't even run P95 code, but it will control the entire aeroplane.

From the comments:

But the concept of taking control away from the pilot to cover for an unstable hardware design is just simply out of this world, from the management land of greed and stupidity.

Short term profits are more important than lives, it seems.