Dick Speed
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Nominative Determinism
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Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names. The term was first used in the magazine New Scientist in 1994, after the magazine's humorous "Feedback" column noted several studies carried out by researchers with remarkably fitting surnames. These included a book on polar explorations by Daniel Snowman and an article on urology by researchers named Splatt and Weedon. These and other examples led to light-hearted speculation that some sort of psychological effect was at work.
This is a community for posting real-world examples of names that by coincidence are funny in context. A link to the article or site is preferable, as well as a screenshot of the funny name if it's not in the headline. Try not to repost, and keep it fun!
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Dirk Gently
- China: 650kmph
- German testing: 400kmph
- German normal: 300kmph
- North America: <laughter, then tears>
I am SO CURIOUS as to what it feels like riding a fucking 650kmph train. I WANT
Scenery inches by a fraction faster than on a regular train. A number above the carriage door tells you the speed and that's all any tourist looks at. You feel nothing.
The Amtrak Acela hits 120mph for some stretches. I think that's the fastest train in the US.
I assume that's moving backwards so that the freight train can pass by them.
Fuck me, it took me way too long to find the nominative determinism in this. Completely missed the author's name in its tiny print (Richard Speed for anyone else still trying to find it)
Yeah, @daw@feddit.org could you put the name in the title please?
What a dumb article.
First off, maglev is totally different from traditional trains and in most cases not economically feasible.
Second, the Chinese maglev technology is probably based on the Transrapid... which was developed in Germany and then sold to China because of the first point.
The 600km/h maglev which this article talks about
is [...] under development in China, using German Transrapid technology under license from ThyssenKrupp
~~650 km/h in 7s, that's 2340 m/s so assuming it's from stationary then an acceleration of 334m/s² or 34g. Really hoping there wasn't a person on that train, because there isn't anymore!~~
Your maths is weird:
650 km/h is about 180 m/s.
Linear acceleration from 0 to 180 m/s in 7 s means 25.8 m/s^2 or about 2.6 g.
Haha whoops, I did the conversion upside down, don't get on any trains I've built!
Doesn't matter, as long as you're not a railway engineer :-p
Not anymore!
Maglevs created: 66 km
I mean I hope they'll be good one day but today maglevs are just an expensive dream/test.
The ICE train is a traditional design, not Maglev. And yeah, they're just not cost effective for most applications.
Not yet cost effective (maglevs), but infrastructure for the people doesn't have to be cost effective, it enriches the lives beyond monetary aspects.
It is however just prohibitively expensive (atm) tho.
In terms of financing it, sourcing materials, and even maintenance procedures & experience are very new.
Hopefully this changes in the near future.
Austrian rail wanted a higher speed line through most of the country. Iirc the plan was to extend it to Zürich-Budapest eventually. Only problem was a few dozen km of the line goes through Germany and they didn't want the higher speed tracks installed. Like, Austrian rail was going to pay for them. They just didn't want noise. It's unfortunately a big enough portion of the line that it made it not worthwhile.
The UK is so far from getting a replacement bus to be anywhere near this speed.
Just a quick link to the sauce without Android UI (witch matching battery % level & news article comment count):
theregister.com/2025/06/30/deutsche_bahn_test