Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

Faye_dunwoody t1_jdv9rsl wrote

I had this question pop into my head at like four am one day. Fortunately I work the night shift in the hospital and the er doctor happened to be Muslim so I had the opportunity to ask. At first, I think he thought I was giving him shit but when he realized I was serious, he told me that it was more important to pray than to face the correct direction. He also showed me an app he had on his phone that used gps to show him the correct direction to pray. I was surprised to see the direction was north. They pray over the top of the world, which makes sense when you think about it.

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imevul t1_jdv9cgu wrote

We're all traveling at great speeds through space/time, so according to which frame of reference are we talking here?

An outside observer would say you are traveling at great speed on a train for example, while in your own reference frame you would be stationary (until you accelerate).

Or maybe it's more philosophical? I know I don't feel quite settled until I'm at home, taking a dump while sitting on my own toilet. That, to me, is one of the places where I feel most at peace.

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bouchert t1_jdv9406 wrote

I feel like the consideration that ultimately made the most difference in deciding in the plaintiffs' favor was this rule about including a "significant portion" of one work within another, or something like that. And indeed, the notes in question make up fully half the kookaburra song. But it's so short, I feel like there needs to be a limit. Otherwise you can have people laying claim to whole songs consisting of trivial musical notes or solitary measures. And even if the right short combination of notes can be distinctive, the tune they were fighting over was not the sort that leaps out at you. It went largely unnoticed for 26 years until an Australian quiz show, based on a staffer's original research (as opposed to settled fact), asked contestants to name the similarity.

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pohatu771 t1_jdv8tf8 wrote

Someone would.

If some neo-Nazi group used “That’ll Be The Day” over images of a Jewish president, I think Buddy Holly’s wife would have an issue with that.

(Not that Universal, who owns the recording, or Paul McCartney, who owns the publishing would ever allow that.)

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