Recent content by gmax137

  1. gmax137

    Esoteric Words...

    One of my favorite words is "epexegetic" or epexegetically Edit-- it's an example of an esoteric word
  2. gmax137

    Esoteric Words...

    Wet noodle.
  3. gmax137

    Nuclear reactor design with refuel period of more than 20 years

    The idea in the OP reminds me of the traveling wave design most recently (?) promoted by Bill gates.
  4. gmax137

    Collection of Science Jokes P2

    In all of the years I've written ft-lb, kw-hr,... I never once saw - as a minus sign. Now I can't un-see it, lol.
  5. gmax137

    Studying Correlating IQ and STEM performance

    I must be missing something here. If IQ follows a normal distribution wouldn't 50% be average or above (not 80%)? I know this is a tangent, but have you taken the MMPI* test? That's a doozy. I've taken it as part of getting unescorted access in nuclear power facilities. They don't provide...
  6. gmax137

    Studying Correlating IQ and STEM performance

    My thought was, as a young person comes up in grade school and through high school, the "smart kids" are pushed into the sciences - either by their parents / teachers or by themselves. I think this might have been even more true back in the 1950s and 1960s when the public's image of "smart...
  7. gmax137

    Cray-2 Supercomputer Comparisons

    A few questions in no particular order. So it makes me wonder: the guys that were buying Cray computers in the 1980's (let's just say the NSA), what are they buying and using today? Another question I have is about the input/output metrics. Not a computer guy so I don't know the terminology...
  8. gmax137

    Structural failure (buckling) of columns in NY City building, 235 E 42nd Street

    I didn't realize that, I just assumed ... EDIT: wait: TIL
  9. gmax137

    AI satire videos of real people can work well

    Yeah, no. Still too soon.
  10. gmax137

    Not Penrose

    I had that experience with the first of the "Feynman" videos I watched. I went from "oh cool - a Feynman talk I haven't seen" to "OMG" in a matter of seconds. It took a few weeks of my ignoring them for the other "not Feynman" videos to disappear from my utube feed.
  11. gmax137

    It's been half a century - Why am I still warring with my printer?

    I have a printer connected directly to my desktop computer. It worked fine for years, then one day the computer couldn't see the printer. If I needed to print, I emailed the doc to my wife's laptop and printed from there. Over our wifi, to the same printer. I've been doing this for over a...
  12. gmax137

    Today I Learned

    Well, only us old-timers (get it?) can read those confounded analog clocks anyway...
  13. gmax137

    Is AI Overhyped?

    I wouldn't be happy if the company I worked for laid off 8000 employees. To me, that shows a lack of serious planning. But, I worked for the same outfit for over 40 years. So I'm probably the one with unrealistic expectations. Wiki says Meta has 77,986 employees (March 2026).
  14. gmax137

    Basic skills that kids are lacking

    I have seen maintenance failures where the equipment vendor document said "clockwise," meaning "clockwise from above" whereas the tech doing the maintenance thought "clockwise from below." This was vertical shaft machinery removed for servicing (so the "from below" view is in the tech's face)...