Life's great mysteries (things that make NO sense)

[WWGD]

People who say/use "diffuse" when they mean "defuse;" the words are NOT equivalent.

Irregardless! ;).

 

[gmax137]

"For all intensive purposes."

"It is a mute point."
I had a long talk with a colleague from Louisiana who said this. His view was, the "point" was meaningless, in other words, it "had nothing to say" about the issue at hand. Hence, it was a "mute" point. I was speechless.

 

[WWGD]

The whole IT thing, where you're expected to know about everything if you say you're in IT: setting up web pages, installing a router, databases, programming, etc. And just about everything else.
" Is that eclipse tonight a lunar eclipse?". " No Idea".
" Aren't you in IT?"

 

[hutchphd]

People who say/use "diffuse" when they mean "defuse;" the words are NOT equivalent.

It is of course possible, in certain circumstances, to do both at the same time. Angry crowds, for instance.

 

[Jodo]

Espresso does not have x in the spelling but...

 

[collinsmark]

Espresso does not have x in the spelling but...

I like to think of the name espresso having to do with the fact that it is brewed in single serving. It's not brewed in a big pot, all at once, that people share. Your espresso is brewed especially for you.

 

[phinds]

I like to think of the name espresso having to do with the fact that it is brewed in single serving. It's not brewed in a big pot, all at once, that people share. Your espresso is brewed especially for you.

Yes. It is an EXPRESS serving, not an ESPRESS serving.

 

[Keith_McClary]

espresso

It means pressed out, expressed by pressure.

 

[collinsmark]

Sure, it's all that. But it's brewed especially for you. (Not expecially or esspecially.)

 

[berkeman]

I'm getting dizzy...

 

[Ibix]

People who say/use "diffuse" when they mean "defuse;" the words are NOT equivalent.

I actually came across the opposite the other day - a travel mug with a built in "defuser". As carried by the bomb squad, presumably - it does get hot in that protective gear and it's nice to have a cold drink built into your tools. (Not sure if it was actually meant for tea or a water filter or what.)

 

[WWGD]

I'm getting dizzy...

Have an Ex/Ess/Etc presso. It will help you settle/xettle.

 

[collinsmark]

Some PF members within the extablished community here exchew the spelling of espresso with es- in favor of the higher exteemed ex-, expousing that it more exoterically resembles the exsential meaning, and perhaps expousing that the ex- is more exthetically pleasing, and the es- in espresso should be excorted out the door. But by my extimation, extranging the es- is in error, and detracts from the exsence of espresso.

Putting it another way, some words in my opinion, like espresso, are fine with the es-.

 

[WWGD]

I used to get upset at the use of the expression " At a Fraction of the Cost", since it assumed fractions were less than 1, while they can be equal to 1,000 ,000/1 or larger.
But I have come to ignore it, since I thought I was being pedantic.

 

[pbuk]

I used to get upset at the use of the expression " At a Fraction of the Cost", since it assumed fractions were less than 1, while they can be equal to 1,000 000/1 or larger.

That would not be proper.

 

[Keith_McClary]

fractions

Shhh, don't let any marketing types know that!

 

[DaveC426913]

These stupid

bumper stickers!
This is baby en route:

This is baby on route:

 

[sysprog]

It means pressed out, expressed by pressure.

Yes. That's what the big lever is for . . .

 

[WWGD]

Yes. That's what the big lever is for . . .

View attachment 297243

I love the esthetics of many of those machines, like the Faemas. Would consider buying one just for show if they weren't $1,000+ a pop.

 

[hutchphd]

Yeah I want a coppertone La Pavoni. Just for show.
I have a Capresso manual electric pump machine that I use daily and would recommend without reservation (around $100 as I recall). Doesn't give you coffee biceps though.

 

[WWGD]

Yeah I want a coppertone La Pavoni. Just for show.
I have a Capresso manual electric pump machine that I use daily and would recommend without reservation (around $100 as I recall). Doesn't give you coffee biceps though.

Why without reservations?.Native Americans want espresso too!

 

[DaveC426913]

(Some of these may be retreads. tuff. They keep me awake at nights. They should do the same to you.)

• There exist simple, English sentences that can be spoken correctly but cannot be written correctly.

• The fraction of living human skeletons to living human people is slightly great than one.

• There exist numbers, used in peer-reviewed papers, that are so stupid large, they cannot be written out in the volume of the visible universe, even if each digit were no more than a Planck length in size. In fact, the number that is merely the number of digits in the aforementioned number likewise cannot be written in the volume of the visible universe. Yea verily, even the number that is merely the number of digits of the number that is merely the number of digits in the aforementioned number is too large to fit in the visible universe, even if the digits are a Planck length in size.

• There exist concepts so dangerous that - were you simply made aware of them and nothing more - can conceivably doom your unborn descendants to a life of pain, suffering and torture beyond your control.

 

[DaveC426913]

• Spoiler

  "There are three ways to spell the word 'to'".

• Spoiler

  Pregnant women contain more than the average number of skeletons.

• Spoiler

  Graham's Number

• Spoiler

  Remember, you were warned. Reading on makes you complicit.
  Spoiler

  Roko's ... Basilisk

 

[hutchphd]

I've always loved Pascal's Wager

 

[jack action]

"There are three ways to spell the word 'to'".

Correction: There is only one way to spell the word "to", but three ways to spell the sound "/tu/" (IPA); and many more in other languages.

Roko's ... Basilisk

Didn't know about that. Wow, just wow! If there was an award for the most non-sensical subject on this thread, I would probably vote for that one.

 

[DaveE]

If there was an award for the most non-sensical subject on this thread, I would probably vote for that one.

Yes. That article gets my vote for the hardest thing to read this month: GET TO THE F#$@!%^$ POINT ALREADY!

OTOH, I didn't succeed in really reading it, but I did skim the whole thing. I don't do well with that sort of "Deepak Chopra word salad" style.

 

[DaveC426913]

Correction: There is only one way to spell the word "to", but three ways to spell the sound "/tu/" (IPA); and many more in other languages.

Perhaps you missed the preamble, which was laid out in post 322.

 

[DaveC426913]

Yes. That article gets my vote for the hardest thing to read this month: GET TO THE F#$@!%^$ POINT ALREADY!

OTOH, I didn't succeed in really reading it, but I did skim the whole thing. I don't do well with that sort of "Deepak Chopra word salad" style.

Yeah, I hummed and hawed over what to link to. There are two links there, BTW. The other one is to a rationaWiki article, but that one goes in a slightly different direction - with simulations.

 

[WWGD]

Perhaps you missed the preamble, which was laid out in post 322.

Which brings up a new one for me: Why do we have a preamble without having 'ambles'.
Or feeling overwhelmed, underwhelmed, without the option of feeling 'Whelmed'?

 

[epenguin]

Which brings up a new one for me: Why do we have a preamble without having 'ambles'.
Or feeling overwhelmed, underwhelmed, without the option of feeling 'Whelmed'?

Even 'Underwhelmed' is or was a jokey journalistic sort of wordplay on one of those words that don't/didn't have an opposite. A bit reminiscent of 'software'. Not done extensive research, but see the usage history graph here: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/underwhelmed
Big contrast with that here
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/overwhelmETA just thought of another example: 'gruntled'. Its history is quite well known: https://www.analyticalgrammar.com/disgruntled-and-gruntled/

 

[Bystander]

For birth control: "...do not take if you are planning on becoming pregnant...". Ya think?

"Do not take if you are allergic to this medicine."

 

[DaveE]

"Do not take if you are allergic to this medicine."

It's not such a mystery if you're a corporate lawyer concerned about risk management. The correct translation is "don't sue us; you'll probably lose because we warned you not to be an idiot". This is probably the result of, like, 87 settlements paid for stupid s&^$. 97% of tort cases in the US are settled out of court. It doesn't cost much to add another sentence to the package insert. The fact that nobody reads it isn't relevant.

They're not saying their customers are stupid, they're saying their customers are greedy, trials are expensive, and jurors are stupid sometimes. It's all part of the "don't sue us" kabuki dance.

 

[phinds]

They're not saying their customers are stupid, they're saying their customers are greedy, trials are expensive, and jurors are stupid sometimes. It's all part of the "don't sue us" kabuki dance.

 

[gmax137]

"Do not take if you are allergic to this medicine."

It's not such a mystery if you're a corporate lawyer concerned about risk management. The correct translation is "don't sue us; you'll probably lose because we warned you not to be an idiot". This is probably the result of, like, 87 settlements paid for stupid s&^$. 97% of tort cases in the US are settled out of court. It doesn't cost much to add another sentence to the package insert. The fact that nobody reads it isn't relevant.

They're not saying their customers are stupid, they're saying their customers are greedy, trials are expensive, and jurors are stupid sometimes. It's all part of the "don't sue us" kabuki dance.

Hmm, I think the point of @Bystander 's post is, how is the patient/consumer supposed to know if they are allergic to "'catchyname' or any of its ingredients"?

 

[DaveE]

Hmm, I think the point of @Bystander 's post is, how is the patient/consumer supposed to know if they are allergic to "'catchyname' or any of its ingredients"?

Or which pollen from his neighbor's garden? Or what chemicals were used in making his shoes? Or the things in his Cheerios that aren't intended to be there? How allergic he is to a wasp sting? Exactly which sweetener they put in that junk food? Welcome to the real world, where people aren't protected from every risk. People don't always know exactly what causes their problems. Although that's why there are Allergists at the clinic.

Manufacturers just can't do perfectly precise product labeling. Although labeling has gotten much better since I was young (peanuts, for example). Pharmaceuticals are probably the best characterized and labeled thing you will ever consume, but no it's not perfect, it never will be. Still, I think it is reasonable to expect people that can't take atorvastatin to also know that Lipitor might be a problem.

 

[Hornbein]

Drum synthesizers

Not the invention part, it makes sense, Electric guitar distortion fuzz wah Jimmy Hendrix amazing
Electric piano, classic Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ – brilliant.
Synth drum…..why didn’t anyone say, “This sounds pretty naff to be honest let's drop that idea?”Exceptions? Autobahn sounds cool but that is an exception, the music makes it and acoustic drums with a tonne of boom would have sounded great too.
Most synths sound like Night Rider theme tune.
I went to a Simmonds exhibition in Manchester in 1980s. One guy playing and explaining how they worked.
They sounded cr*p and everyone was going nuts I just did not get it.
You could double up by pressing a button (bass drum) and it even extracted out of time notes!
So totally cr*p sound played by nontechnical non-musical out of time drummers.

Drum synth is cheaper than real drummer.

Kate Bush used to use a drum synthesizer to make an oppressive sound. To me, that's the only area in which they excel.

I can't stand loops and drum machines. But many if not most people prefer beats so simple that a drummer would get depressed playing them. So drum machines are the correct business decision in most cases of recorded music.

Suppose you are a dance troupe that wants to make a little money from a video. You have to use Youtube. If you use copyrighted music, then the copyright holder gets all the money. So you use a computer program to generate uncopyrighted background music. It's good enough.

As a hobby I pair up modern dance videos with copyrighted sound tracks. It takes only an hour or so and the result can be to my ears far superior. Let the copyright holders have the sliver of advertising money.

 

[pbuk]

Drum synthesizers

Make sense if you loose an arm. Many other great drummers have used electronic kit too.

 

[pinball1970]

Make sense if you loose an arm. Many other great drummers have used electronic kit too.

They still sound awful. I know this is subjective but Hysteria to me was horrible. Anthemic, soul less overproduced commercial garbage. Pretty standard for the 80s.
The drum kit is a very special instrument, it does not rely on pitch it relies on sound, the player has to show technique, creativity and dynamics totally different to a guitar player for instance.
The drum synth removes all of that.
I played one a few months ago. The kit cost a grand and the guy who owned it already had a double bass drum kit at the studio but packed away.
I asked him why he was using the electronic kit and he told me it was smaller lighter and quickly set up.The late great Buddy Rich used them once to my knowledge in the track 'You got to try.' Just for one bar I think, soon dropped. 1981 on Parky possibly.

 

[pinball1970]

Drum synth is cheaper than real drummer.

Kate Bush used to use a drum synthesizer to make an oppressive sound. To me, that's the only area in which they excel.

I can't stand loops and drum machines. But many if not most people prefer beats so simple that a drummer would get depressed playing them. So drum machines are the correct business decision in most cases of recorded music.

Suppose you are a dance troupe that wants to make a little money from a video. You have to use Youtube. If you use copyrighted music, then the copyright holder gets all the money. So you use a computer program to generate uncopyrighted background music. It's good enough.

As a hobby I pair up modern dance videos with copyrighted sound tracks. It takes only an hour or so and the result can be to my ears far superior. Let the copyright holders have the sliver of advertising money.

Kate Bush is an absolute legend. Whatever she does will be creative beautiful and pushing an envelope somewhere in the Universe.

 

[Bystander]

"Laser 'FOCUSED'...?"

 

[pinball1970]

"Laser 'FOCUSED'...?"

"I thought that Floyd's visual show was a little laser focused, they should have more back drop videos like they had in the 60s.
Make it real man."
Makes total sense.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Make sense if you loose an arm.

There is a famous trumpet player named "Wingy" Manone who lost an arm in a streetcar accident. Notorious prankster Joe Venuti once gave him a single cufflink as a gift.

 

[DaveC426913]

...lost an arm in a streetcar accident.

It was a noble sacrifice in order to save the five arms on the other track.

 

[BillTre]

"I thought that Floyd's visual show was a little laser focused, they should have more back drop videos like they had in the 60s.
Make it real man."
Makes total sense.

I think @Bystander was referring to the nature of "normal" laser light. An intense small dot of light with all the photons going in parrallel. Focusing not usually necessary.

There are however cases where you want focused laser light. for example confocal scanning laser microscopes have produced big advances in modern microscopy.

Putting the laser light through a lens (focusing it) allows you to generate images in various ways. The confocal mechanisms allows you to more easily assemble a clean 3D image, and being digital goes right into computers for 3D imaging. Its mostly used for looking at fluorescence, indicative of various things (chemical status, cell shape, watching cells move, location of labeled molecules in cells, ...)

The intensity of the light can also be used to affect living things and chemical things (usually by destroying things, sometimes by making a molecule active by breaking a specific bond).

In addition, there are multiphoton confocal microscopes. These are like a confocals, but rely on a great density of photons (in space and time) to have two (or more) photons arrive at a molecule at the same time (using nanosecond pulse lasers). If they are "there" at the "same time", then their energies can add up (approximately adding) to enough energy to activate the target molecule to fluoresce (or whatever else it might do). Among other things, this gives a greatly enhanced 3D resolution.
As the laser is focused down (along the z-axis) to a very small area (defined by the optics), the photon density goes way up.
The reason this is better than a normal confocal microscope is that the low end limitation on the background of a single photon confocal is the activation by single photons in less focused z-levels (in front of or behind the layer focused on). This kind of activaion in a two photon system is very unlikely due to the requirement of two photons simultaneously for activation.

 

[Bystander]

Flags on mailboxes: in the movies/cartoons, delivery raises the flag; in real life you raise the flag to alert the mail carrier.

 

[gmax137]

Flags on mailboxes: in the movies/cartoons, delivery raises the flag;

I don't remember seeing that.

in real life you raise the flag to alert the mail carrier.

Right on!

 

[DaveC426913]

Flags on mailboxes: in the movies/cartoons, delivery raises the flag; in real life you raise the flag to alert the mail carrier.

Interesting. I've never seen one used except on TV, so my knowledge is unreliable.
But this site suggests your version is also a myth:

​

5 Myths About Carrier Signal Flags in Mailboxes​

#1) Only Used for Outgoing Mail
Today, carrier signal flags are typically used to alert mail couriers about the presence of outgoing mail. In the past, though, they were used for incoming mail as well. In rural areas, couriers would raise the carrier signal flag on a mailbox so that the resident would know he or she has mail to collect. As a result, residents wouldn't have to make unnecessary trips to and from their mailbox. Unless the carrier signal flag was raised, residents would assume there was no mail to collect.
https://www.mailboxesandsigns.com/blog/2020/posts/5-myths-about-carrier-signal-flags-in-mailboxes/

 

[BillTre]

A friend modified my sister's mailbox so a little springy flag flipped up when the door on the box was opened to put mail in.

 

[Grelbr42]

In the commuter train parking lot I use, there are "disabled" parking spots close to the train. OK. That's great.

How did they decide how many such spots there should be? The lot is nearly 1/4 taken up by designated accessible spots. They are nearly all empty, pretty much every day. Usually there are one or two vehicles in the designated spots, often none.

Now, in the six months or so I have been using this lot I have never failed to get a spot. Still a lot of people doing the work-from-home thing. The commuter train and parking lot are not operating anywhere near to capacity. So it's not a big deal.

But it is kind of wacky that every morning I get to walk by nearly 1/4 of the lot totally empty.

 

[russ_watters]

In the commuter train parking lot I use, there are "disabled" parking spots close to the train. OK. That's great.

How did they decide how many such spots there should be?

The answer is building/construction codes dictate the percentage.