PF Random Thoughts

turbo

A home health-care nurse came to our house this morning to take my blood for a series of lab-tests. She was very proud about the fact that she hadn't applied any perfume, but she and her clothes (including her winter coat) were quite pungent, so I'm not feeling too good now. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was low, and the volume of blood she collected may be inadequate for the lab. I don't want to do all this again tomorrow.

lisab

whew what a case of ennui I have now

PhizKid

zoobyshoe

History comes alive in your hands, JS. I feel like I'm actually there, seeing the exhalations of breath, the smell of sweat, the crunch of Nikes on asphalt, as the experts make their slow, tortuous advance on Williamsburg.

Kinase

i was skiing in Colorado and it was -20F. I've never been that cold before. It's freezing here and there's still no snow, just wind.

Anyway, I'm trying to buy a mountain bike, and I know that disc brakes, which apply the braking force nearest to the axel are better than those which just apply it to the rim, far from the center of the wheel. Physics behind that? torque or something? I'm a bio guy.

Jimmy Snyder

Today we did an inspection tour of the settlement at Jamestown. No relation. 100 men and 4 boys arrived there from England in 1607, no women, no farmers. They formed the first permanent English settlement in America. They had instructions not to displace the natives and they landed on what they thought was an uninhabited island. It wasn't an island but was connected to land by a sand bar and while the natives didn't live there, they did hunt and plant there. The boys were brought with the intention of exchanging hostages. They didn't bring women because they didn't want to alert the natives that they intended to stay permanently. They didn't bring farmers because they had no intention of farming. The idea was to trade with the natives for food. Also to send lumber and other goods back to England, look for gold, and for a water passage to the Pacific Ocean which they believed to be 300 miles to the west. The venture was paid for by The London Company, with the intention of returning profits to the stockholders. It took some time until they found that they could become profitable by planting a strain of tobacco sweeter than the local variety. The arrived at the early stages of a 6 year long drought. The natives were not in a position to trade much food with them and many died as a result. Pocahontas was 10 years old when they arrived and as daughter of Chief Powhaten was sent with goodwill gifts of food. She caused something of a scandal as it was the custom to go naked until the age of 12. She eventually married John Rolfe and he brought her to England where she died. The astronomer Percival Lowell is a descendant as are Edith Wilson (president Wilson's wife) and Nancy Reagan.

PhizKid

This is not me:

lisab

Oh dear... ...sorry, I couldn't help myself. I'm laughing *with* you, not at you !

I truly feel for those of you who have to operate every day under the influence of testosterone.

turbo

Don't you watch the evening news? Some of us have "Low-T"

Borg

The Onion strikes again. Radio host tricked by Onion story about drones at the Inauguration.

Kholdstare

If we combine history and electronics, do we get histrionics?

Borek

No, electors.

Kholdstare

Or maybe electronics to cure hysteria as shown in the movie 'Hysteria (2011 film)'.

Jimmy Snyder

The recent election indicates that the country is divided between Blue states and Red states. Today we walked into the Civil War Visitor Center in Richmond VA to demand that they explain this so-called war between the states. They flat out refused to discuss the matter, but they did try to electrify us with stories about battles that are lost in the mists of history. We were quite impressed with this, for lack of a better word, electory.

In 1862, General McClellan came to Richmond to see the Civil War Visitor Center, but several Confederate soldiers prevented him from entering. He did get within 5 miles and if he had succeeded, he probably would have ended the war. Richmond was not only the Capitol of the Confederacy, but also its most important industrial center. In 1864, General Grant came by with the same intention as McClellan and encountered the same bunch of ruffians. They killed 5,000 of his best friends. He retreated, went south, and besieged Petersberg. This seige lasted until it ended 9 months later with the fall of the city. Trains headed for Richmond had to pass through Petersberg and so the Confederates vacated the city and burned it behind them.

Then we went to Hollywood cemetery, saw the grave of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, and finally headed back to our villa. As we were driving, it started to snow. Not very heavy by South Jersey standards, but it brought traffic to a crawl and we passed 4 cars that had skidded off the road. When we got back, we headed for the outdoor hottub. Aaaah, hot body, cool head, you can't beat it.

jim hardy

wm blake

DennisN

Batman science.

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OmCheeto

I learned a new word today: mansplain

Although it appears to be gender specific, both men and women can mansplain things to others.

It simply indicates that the explainer knows less about the subject than the explainee.

A personal experience:

Om; "I wish I knew how solar panels worked"
Mansplainer; "It's simple Om. Solar panels work by light pushing the positrons out the back of the panel"
Om; "Why thank you for that mansplanation. It now all makes sense to me."
Bystander; "What did he say, I didn't catch all of that."
Om; "He was mansplaining to me how solar panels work. Say, doesn't it take at least a .5 Mev gamma ray to produce a positron via pair production?"
Bystander; "I don't know."
Om; "I can't remember either. It might be double that figure. It's been decades since I've studied that. But I think I'll google the energy level of visible light waves to see how far off Mansplainer is with his matter-antimatter theory."

---------------------------
And just in case anyone is curious, the answer was: Off by a magnitude of ~6
1.6 to 3.4 eV: the photon energy of visible light.
1 MeV: Or, 1.602×10−13 J, about twice the rest mass-energy of an electron. - minimum energy level required for pair production