Great one-liners from PF members

[TonyStewart]

What else is measured by the lack of evidence besides Security? ( and don't say String Theory)

 

[phinds]

In his Insights article on pop-sci presentations by reputable scientists, @fresh_42 said

Enjoy them, but don’t mistake them for real science.

Reference: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/opinion-when-pro-scientists-explain-using-pop-science/

 

[berkeman]

More than one line, but the first sentences set up the context:

Yes, visual models lead to inaccuracies in QM. They can be useful, as you would hope any model is. In science (and other things as well) it is often said: "The map is not the territory" (Korzybski).

 

[phinds]

Regarding the need for military folks in particular not to post on social media

War can be a poker game where both sides are cheating with folks posting about the hand a player is holding to the other players.

 

[Tom.G]

In a back-and-forth between two people that who both "know" they are right.

Then you need to learn that, when you are holding a hammer, everything is not a nail.

 

[Hornbein]

War can be a poker game where both sides are cheating with folks posting about the hand a player is holding to the other players.

But the posts can also be lies. What fun, eh?

 

[sevensages]

I worked with a guy for over thirty years before he told me he was an accordion player. "I just don't talk about it," he said.

I don't get this quote. What's funny about it?

 

[phinds]

I don't get this quote. What's funny about it?

It's an american thing. It is an instrument reviled by many. According to lore, musicians who go to hell are condemned to playing the accordian.

 

[Hornbein]

 

[pinball1970]

It's an american thing. It is an instrument reviled by many. According to lore, musicians who go to hell are condemned to playing the accordian.

I would have guessed bag pipes myself

 

[berkeman]

While discussing speculation in a thread...

.......I may become airborn from the hand waving, but just give me a number and I can get there.

 

[PhDeezNutz]

“ I learned about 10% of the science I now know in school. The rest I've learned on my own.”

@Drakkith

It really is a powerful statement about how school doesn’t teach you everything you need to know but rather give you a foundation from which you can begin to start learning everything you need to know.

 

[berkeman]

Words to live by...

Measure with a micrometer, mark with chalk, cut with an axe...

 

[gmax137]

I first heard that from a co-worker, retired Navy Chief.

He also said, "cut to suit, beat to fit, paint to hide" lol.

 

[Tom.G]

It must work on a Mac, since everyone uses it.

 

[Tom.G]

The world could end tomorrow. Let's go when you're ready

Pessimist!

 

[berkeman]

While giving good academic advice about studying...

Playing a Stradivarius badly does not make you a violinist

 

[PeterDonis]

Getting the wrong answer more quickly is seldom helpful.

 

[sophiecentaur]

It's an american thing. It is an instrument reviled by many.

Also the Viola. So many viola player jokes.

 

[Vanadium 50]

So many viola player jokes.

What's the differemce between a violin and a viola?
--- Violas burn longer.

What is the best recording of the Walton Viola Concerto?
--- Music Minus One.

Shall I go on?

 

[gmax137]

viola?

I didn't know about viola jokes.

EDIT: So, yes, please go on !

 

[Vanadium 50]

So, yes, please go on !

How can you tell if a viola is playing out of tune?
--- The bow is moving.

How is a viola recital like a lawsuit?
--- Everybody is happy when the case is closed.

Had enough?

 

[sophiecentaur]

Mark Steel on BBC Radio Four last night : "I could see myself taking a job in a mirror factory."

Even po-faced Paul Merton had to laugh at that one. The English Language is a rich source.

 

[DrClaude]

Do not try to learn mechanics from a mixed martial arts presentation.

 

[gmax137]

From the thread on magnetic flux

This was when real men used sabres and physicists used pencils and french curves.

 

[berkeman]

Word...

An instructor I had a long ago said this: "The sooner you sit down to the keyboard, the longer it takes to write your program."

 

[Bystander]

gmax137:
I dunno. Sounds like something the lawyers could argue about until we see a proton decay.

 

[berkeman]

A response in a B-level thread asking what the Universe has been expanding into since the Big Bang...

The universe is not a fire cracker. It's a four dimensional spacetime geometry.

 

[DennisN]

I worked with a guy for over thirty years before he told me he was an accordion player. "I just don't talk about it," he said.

I don't get this quote. What's funny about it?

It's an american thing. It is an instrument reviled by many. According to lore, musicians who go to hell are condemned to playing the accordian.

I have not a big problem with accordions, but I only accept them in small doses .

Others:

 

[DrClaude]

It's an american thing. It is an instrument reviled by many. According to lore, musicians who go to hell are condemned to playing the accordian.

 

[berkeman]

I guess you had to be there...

"I can't yell duck, it's a goose".

 

[berkeman]

Guess you had to be there...

That'll getcha killed... or worse, damage your boat.

 

[Hornbein]

all hell will break lose. But maybe it’s already breaking lose?

If someone can break bad I don't see why they can't break lose.

 

[pinball1970]

If someone can break bad I don't see why they can't break lose.

I never really got the title. Did he have a "breakdown" in the mental health sense? No! He was absolutely coherent, organised and focused. He was also very smart and professional, at every turn.

 

[jbriggs444]

I never really got the title. Did he have a "breakdown" in the mental health sense? No! He was absolutely coherent, organised and focused. He was also very smart and professional, at every turn.

I always took it in the sense of an analogy with the break in a game of pool. You hit the ball, you break the balls and the outcome is good or bad. You got a "good break" or a "bad break".

The show puts on display a sequence of bad breaks. They do not all look terrible. But you know that it is all a downhill slide to disaster. Like a quote from another movie: "The only way to win is not to play".

 

[pinball1970]

I always took it in the sense of an analogy with the break in a game of pool. You hit the ball, you break the balls and the outcome is good or bad. You got a "good break" or a "bad break".

The show puts on display a sequence of bad breaks. They do not all look terrible. But you know that it is all a downhill slide to disaster. Like a quote from another movie: "The only way to win is not to play".

Every break Walter made may have looked like a step back, in fact he was moving forward.
I loved his fatherly attitude to JP.
I know it went west but if you had an errant child, I would want to be that guy.

 

[pbuk]

I never really got the title.

Nor me, although I never let it worry me. It turns out the answer was out there all along:

The show's title is a Southern colloquialism meaning, among other things, "raising hell", and was chosen by Gilligan to describe Walter's transformation. According to Time entertainment editor Lily Rothman, the term has a broader meaning and is an old phrase which "connotes more violence than 'raising hell' does ... [T]he words possess a wide variety of nuances: to 'break bad' can mean to 'go wild', to 'defy authority', and break the law, to be verbally 'combative, belligerent, or threatening' or, followed by the preposition 'on', 'to dominate or humiliate'."

... if only there were some way of searching for information on the internet

 

[Vanadium 50]

FYI, Marius Stan (Bogdan) has a PhD in nuclear chemistry and does nuclear engineering as his "day job".

 

[pinball1970]

Nor me, although I never let it worry me. It turns out the answer was out there all along:

... if only there were some way of searching for information on the internet

I was referring to the phrase as it is. It does not ring a bell with a UK audience.

 

[hmmm27]

I was referring to the phrase as it is. It does not ring a bell with a UK audience.

Nor Canadian, though context makes it clear.

 

[pinball1970]

Nor Canadian, though context makes it clear.

What context? I think Walter broke well, or braked in a unique and innovative, lucrative yet violent way.
Jessie went backwards, the more involved he got the more detached from reality he became.
Walter was trying to protect Jessie in his eyes, just like his family but descended further and further into criminality. I AM THE DANGER!
Jessie began as a criminal but strived to escape early doors.
To become human.
A beautifully complex story and "Breaking bad" did not sum it up for me.

 

[hmmm27]

What context? I think Walter broke well, or braked in a unique and innovative, lucrative yet violent way.
Jessie went backwards, the more involved he got the more detached from reality he became.
Walter was trying to protect Jessie in his eyes, just like his family but descended further and further into criminality. I AM THE DANGER!
Jessie began as a criminal but strived to escape early doors.
To become human.
A beautifully complex story and "Breaking bad" did not sum it up for me.

Never seen it, save for a few YT clips where wossname beats the crap out of some idiot(s).

Along the lines of "breaking news", "breaking surf", "breaking wind", etc.

Guess : you think the title was too generic ? considering the current slew of criminal-POV TV.

 

[Hornbein]

. Like a quote from another movie: "The only way to win is not to play".

I don't know that one. I recall a cinematized gambler saying "You can't win if you don't play." (It was a cameo by the director of the film. I don't remember anything else about it.)

 

[Borg]

It's slightly misquoted from the movie War Games - the only winning move is not to play.

 

[Hornbein]

A two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress must propose a Constitutional amendment. If one party has at least 26% of the votes in either house, they can stop an amendment.

I knew this would happen when kids started relying on calculators.

 

[berkeman]

I took a speed reading class and then was able to read War and Peace in twenty minutes.

It's about Russia.

 

[Vanadium 50]

It's not original. I think it might have been Woody Allen.

 

[Bystander]

It's not original. I think it might have been Woody Allen.

Alan King?

 

[Ibix]

If you can read War and Peace in twenty minutes you must have been Russian through it.

 

[hmmm27]

I read The Lord of the Rings : lots of names begin with 'G'