Random Thoughts Part 4 - Split Thread

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The discussion revolves around a variety of topics, beginning with the reopening of a thread on the Physics Forums. Participants express relief at the continuation of the conversation and share light-hearted banter about past threads. There are inquiries about quoting from previous threads and discussions about job opportunities for friends. The conversation shifts to humorous takes on mathematics, particularly the concept of "Killing vector fields," which one participant humorously critiques as dangerous. Participants also share personal anecdotes, including experiences with power outages and thoughts on teaching at university. The tone remains casual and playful, with discussions about the challenges of winter, the joys of friendship, and even a few jokes about life experiences. The thread captures a blend of humor, personal stories, and light philosophical musings, all while maintaining a sense of community among the forum members.
  • #3,511
HomogenousCow said:
Again I feel like you're implying something unreasonable here. People are making it sound like he raped a student or something, when in fact it was completely consensual. (We haven't read any evidence of the contrary)
Did anyone except me actually read the IHE article you linked? I keep citing it in support of my position, and I'm not seeing any counter-citations. Anyway, it's titled "We all felt trapped" and says that Harbi "was pushed to participate". Neither of those sounds particularly consensual to me.

Authority figures and experts (people in positions of power, however limited) need to be careful how they make requests because, unless they take pains to clearly communicate otherwise, the recipient of the request is likely to hear "...or I'll withdraw my support". The most sympathetic reading I can make of the situation is that Lewin made requests without realising the implied threat. The problem is, even if he didn't realize it, someone else did - and wrote MIT policies against staff-student relations. So "I didn't realize what I was doing would be a problem" is a tough sell for him. In fact, you yourself provided a link to harassment law and quoted: Harassment can include “sexual harassment” or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature. At the least, we've got unwelcome sexual advances (they felt trapped and pushed into it) and requests for sexual favours (naked pics).

And that really is my last word on the topic. Unless someone can come up with another source of information, I really cannot read Lewin as anything other than exploitative. Intentional or not, he had every opportunity to know better.
 
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  • #3,512
dkotschessaa said:
That's highly improbable, so, congrats!
It depends on how much toast he eats. I don't eat that much toast, mostly when I go out.
 
  • #3,513
dkotschessaa said:
That's highly improbable, so, congrats!
It doesn't mean I haven't, just that I don't recall ever having done it. So, if I had, I suppose I didn't think it was a very important event.
 
  • #3,514
WWGD said:
It depends on how much toast he eats. I don't eat that much toast, mostly when I go out.
I pretty much have toast every day.
 
  • #3,515
zoobyshoe said:
I pretty much have toast every day.
Then I am toast.
 
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  • #3,516
WWGD said:
Then I am toast.
Sounds like the strap line for some cod eastern mystic movie. "To understand the toast, you must first become the toast".
 
  • #3,517
Ibix said:
Sounds like the strap line for some cod eastern mystic movie. "To understand the toast, you must first become the toast".
And if you combine it with the previous Buddhist monk theme, then I will become the toast within (but without butter, the butter within).
 
  • #3,518
WWGD said:
And if you combine it with the previous Buddhist monk theme, then I will become the toast within (but without butter, the butter within).
Butter without toast? But your fingers would get greasy.

(With apologies to the late Sir PTerry).
 
  • #3,519
Ibix said:
Sounds like the strap line for some cod eastern mystic movie. "To understand the toast, you must first become the toast".
To me, it's suggests a paraphrase of Dali:

"I do not eat toast. I am toast!"

(Dali actually said: "I do not take drugs. I am drugs!")
 
  • #3,520
I would like to add a palm tree e.g 🌴 or other cute images representable with Unicode into my message but the forum engine text parser filters then cancels them out.
 
  • #3,521
While playing and whiteboarding away with knot theory (this I consider my "downtime" from more formal study) I am listening to all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies. until I can start to recognize them. I "know" 1 2 and 3 sort of. We are all too familiar with the motif of 5 but not much beyond that and I think I will know 9 when I hear it.

It's a nice afternoon in Florida for once. Windows open, fresh air, music, ahh
 
  • #3,522
dkotschessaa said:
While playing and whiteboarding away with knot theory (this I consider my "downtime" from more formal study) I am listening to all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies. until I can start to recognize them. I "know" 1 2 and 3 sort of. We are all too familiar with the motif of 5 but not much beyond that and I think I will know 9 when I hear it.

It's a nice afternoon in Florida for once. Windows open, fresh air, music, ahh

On 21st March 2015 my wife and I were in an orchestra playing all 9 symphonies in a series of four concerts on the same day (as described on the beethovathon.com website). We had played all except 9th before. Ending of 9th was a bit chaotic (we were a bit tired by then) but it was very enjoyable (and raised quite a bit for charity).

It's unusually mild for December here in the UK. Recent lowest overnight temperatures have only been down to around 11C/52F which hasn't happened for many years.
 
  • #3,523
dkotschessaa said:
We are all too familiar with the motif of 5
One of the most annoying ringtones ever is a male voice singing the words "answer the phone" to the opening two repetitions of the motif from Beethoven's fifth. It's worse than the crazy frog.
 
  • #3,524
zoobyshoe said:
To me, it's suggests a paraphrase of Dali:

"I do not eat toast. I am toast!"

(Dali actually said: "I do not take drugs. I am drugs!")
That reminds me of once when I was planning to walk back home at around 2 a.m., someone warned me of all the weirdos that were out at this time.
I replied: I _am_ one of the weirdos people warn others about.
 
  • #3,525
Ibix said:
One of the most annoying ringtones ever is a male voice singing the words "answer the phone" to the opening two repetitions of the motif from Beethoven's fifth. It's worse than the crazy frog.
Ah, I have heard of it sung to the words of " Nobody's home , Nobody's Home"?
 
  • #3,526
Jonathan Scott said:
On 21st March 2015 my wife and I were in an orchestra playing all 9 symphonies in a series of four concerts on the same day (as described on the beethovathon.com website). We had played all except 9th before. Ending of 9th was a bit chaotic (we were a bit tired by then) but it was very enjoyable (and raised quite a bit for charity).

Well done! I couldn't even *listen* to all 9 symphonies in one day.

It's unusually mild for December here in the UK. Recent lowest overnight temperatures have only been down to around 11C/52F which hasn't happened for many years.

I moved to Florida for love and not for the weather. But at this time of year, I really enjoy both.

-Dave K
 
  • #3,527
Jonathan Scott said:
<Snip>
It's unusually mild for December here in the UK. Recent lowest overnight temperatures have only been down to around 11C/52F which hasn't happened for many years.

Same here in NYC, most of the U.S, I think. In the mid 50s for the whole next week . Global warming, I guess, let's enjoy it before it comes into full-blown effecr. It will be around 2100 by then, so we won't be affected by it. Of course I know there are immediate consequences for, e.g., the water cycle, but, what are you going to do?
 
Last edited:
  • #3,528
Ibix said:
One of the most annoying ringtones ever is a male voice singing the words "answer the phone" to the opening two repetitions of the motif from Beethoven's fifth. It's worse than the crazy frog.
Worse even than:


?
 
  • #3,529
I find myself glad that Geico is not a company with a presence in the UK...
 
  • #3,530
I'm happy to say the weather in San Diego has been properly wet and nippy for this time of year.
 
  • #3,531
zoobyshoe said:
I'm happy to say the weather in San Diego has been properly wet and nippy for this time of year.
Wet, obviously rain then? Finally.
 
  • #3,532
WWGD said:
Wet, obviously rain then? Finally.
It has actually been raining a lot this year, but it is always short of duration and light. It's better than no rain, but it's not the cure we need. It has probably merely slowed the rate at which the deep ground moisture is being depleted.
 
  • #3,533
So much for the unseasonably warm weather: gusts of brutally cold, cutting wind are undoing any effects
of warmer temperature.
 
  • #3,534
jim hardy said:
hmmm
there's a word for that

Callipigyan ?
English has a word for *every*thing.
 
  • #3,535
lisab said:
English has a word for *every*thing.
It also has a word for *no*thing :).
 
  • #3,536
I'm not a Francophile, but French has the coolest words for very particular and often spooky phenomena. i.e. Deja Vu, of course, and my favorite,
L’appel du vide, "the call of the void." It is an inexplicable urge to jump from a high place, (or something similarly reckless, even if one isn't particularly suicidal).
 
  • #3,537
dkotschessaa said:
I'm not a Francophile, but French has the coolest words for very particular and often spooky phenomena. i.e. Deja Vu, of course, and my favorite,
L’appel du vide, "the call of the void." It is an inexplicable urge to jump from a high place, (or something similarly reckless, even if one isn't particularly suicidal).
Yes, that phrase has a certain " I don't know what".
 
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  • #3,538
Nostalgia is back. Nostalgia is not what it used to be.
 
  • #3,539
Nostalgia has been around for far too long.
 
  • #3,540
How did the flatfish end up the way it did? It's just not natural for a whole race of creatures to spend their lives resting on what is clearly their sides.
 

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