What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

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The discussion revolves around frustrations with current documentary programming, particularly criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content. Participants express disappointment over National Geographic's sale to Fox, fearing a decline in quality programming. The conversation shifts to lighter topics, including humorous anecdotes about everyday life, such as a malfunctioning kitchen fan discovered to be blocked by installation instructions. There are also discussions about the challenges of understanding various dialects in Belgium, the complexities of language, and personal experiences with weather and housing in California. Members share their thoughts on food, including a peculiar dish of zucchini pancakes served with strawberry yogurt, and delve into mathematical concepts related to sandwich cutting and the properties of numbers. The thread captures a blend of serious commentary and lighthearted banter, reflecting a diverse range of interests and perspectives among participants.
  • #8,151
Keith_McClary said:
It seems that some people are afraid of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.
That's why they changed the name to MRI for medical scans - Magnet Resonance Imaging. I was working on NMR imaging scanners when they first came out. But they soon became MRI.
 
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  • #8,152
Ivan Seeking said:
That's why they changed the name to MRI for medical scans. I was working on NMR imagine scanners when they first came out. But they soon became MRI.
And I hear your take was glowing . Just like with Homer ;).
 
  • #8,153
The line " What are you wearing" does not seem as effective in person.
 
  • #8,154
WWGD said:
And I hear your take was glowing . Just like with Homer ;).
No but it did nearly take off my arm once. Someone had put a regular metal chair onboard that looked just like the stainless steel chairs. I slung my arm through and walked back to make an adjustment at the magnet. By the time I felt the tug of the magnetic field on the chair, I was airborne.

1632946744575.png
 
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  • #8,156
Ouch! I got locked out of a Python Jupyter file. I wrote a simple * algorithm to spit out all primes between 2 and10000. It had an incorrect loop and looped for who knows how long. I saved it , including the output repeated (looped) who knows how many times, to the tune of ending up being 99MB in size, which is larger than Jupyter Notebook can handle without ending on its knees. Still buffering after 45 minutes. May have to try to open as a .txt file or something.* And incorrect, obviously
 
  • #8,158
 
  • #8,160
Is it a coincidence thin Germans I know are called Dieter. You diet, you lose weight. And some mention stays at a Gymnasium as well.
 
  • #8,163
Ivan Seeking said:
That's why I hate using polar coordinates. It's all circular reasoning.
Yep, me, too. I use bipolar coordinates.
 
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  • #8,164
I see these ads by banks encouraging people to use their online accou
Ivan Seeking said:
That's why I hate using polar coordinates. It's all circular reasoning.
But you can't avoid singularities at some point. ( Stretching analogy to a breaking point).
 
  • #8,165
fresh_42 said:
Really? Who would have thought so?

Conspiracy theorists lack critical thinking skills: New study​

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/2021/07/25/conspiracy-theorists-lack-critical-thinking/

In the discussion they emphasize a crucial aspect to the study. The title should reflect that for accuracy in my opinion. As it stands, the statement "Conspiracy theorists lack critical thinking skills", is technically fallacious. "Unfounded belief is correlated with lack of critical thinking skills", is a little too obvious I guess. Or the title could be "People who are bad at conspiracy theory tend to lack critical thinking skills". I also wouldn't be surprised if people who were bad at math tended to do poorly in math tests.

One example is the capacity to exercise
critical thinking ability to distinguish bogus conspiracy theories from
genuine conspiracies (Bale, 2007), leading us to question when critical
thinking ability could be used to support this adaptive function. Some-
times, it is not unreasonable to think that a form of rationality would
help to facilitate the detection of dangerous coalitions (van Prooijen &
Van Vugt, 2018). In that respect, Stojanov and Halberstadt (2019)
recently introduced a distinction between irrational versus rational
suspicion. Although the former focuses on the general tendency to
believe in any conspiracy theories, the later focus on higher sensitivity
to deception or corruption, which is defined as “healthy skepticism.
These two aspects of suspicion can now be handled simultaneously
thanks to a new scale developed by Stojanov and Halberstadt (2019).
In our study, we found that critical thinking ability was associated with
lower unfounded belief in conspiracy theories, but this does not
answer the question as to whether critical thinking ability can be help-
ful for the detection of true conspiracies. Future studies could use this
new measurement to address this specific question.
”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/acp.3790
 
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  • #8,166
Auto correct: Aswan Dam = Ass One Damn!
 
  • #8,167
It gets tiresome at times to hear the whole " Children are good and pure. Adults ruin them as they grow older". This leads to an infinite regress. Just how did an adult get ruined at some point? It was because of other adults, which, themselves, were ruined by others, etc. It just seems like a very lazy statement. to make.
 
  • #8,168
WWGD said:
It gets tiresome at times to hear the whole " Children are good and pure. Adults ruin them as they grow older". This leads to an infinite regress. Just how did an adult get ruined at some point? It was because of other adults, which, themselves, were ruined by others, etc. It just seems like a very lazy statement. to make.
Who says that?
 
  • #8,169
Ivan Seeking said:
Who says that?
I have heard it, read it many times in different media.
 
  • #8,170
WWGD said:
I have heard it, read it many times in different media.
Well there's your problem.
 
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  • #8,171
Ivan Seeking said:
Well there's your problem.
??
 
  • #8,172
WWGD said:
??
I strongly suggest you use only me as a valid source of information.
 
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  • #8,173
Whatever the case, I have heard it said a few times. As enlightened as the likes of " Pie (sic) contains all novels ever written".
 
  • #8,174
WWGD said:
Whatever the case, I have heard it said a few times. As enlightened as the likes of " Pie (sic) contains all novels ever written".
Well any good ex-Catholic like me knows children are born evil. That's why you have to dunk them in water - to wash away the evil.

They can even be so dangerous that you have to do it like this

1633212257585.png
 
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  • #8,175
WWGD said:
It gets tiresome at times to hear the whole " Children are good and pure. Adults ruin them as they grow older". This leads to an infinite regress. Just how did an adult get ruined at some point? It was because of other adults, which, themselves, were ruined by others, etc. It just seems like a very lazy statement. to make.
I'll bet your were "good and pure" once. :wink:
 
  • #8,176
I shall never live in Florida if I can help it. Videos of alligators/crocodiles in people's yards and even in their homes freaks me out.
 
  • #8,177
kyphysics said:
I shall never live in Florida if I can help it. Videos of alligators/crocodiles in people's yards and even in their homes freaks me out.
Then avoid Australia too. Maybe even worse in terms of animals that can kill you. Or try the Florida panhandle; I think it's better in that regard.
 
  • #8,178
Just read about Google's " I feel lucky". After clicking, saw an image of Clint: " Well, do you, punk?".
 
  • #8,179
In my review of information regarding the concept of consciousness, and especially in the musings of scientists and philosophers about quantum teleportation and Star Trek style transporters, a disturbing possibility emerged. One of the concepts of the self involves a constant stream of consciousness. If for example you are transported but your consciousness ceases to exist, and then suddenly appears somewhere else, is that still you? That argument is, no, it is not you. It is a different consciousnesses. The problem is, the same thing happens when you sleep. So we get the idea that the person who wakes up in the morning is not the same person who went to sleep last night. That person is dead.

That reminds me, I've been having trouble getting to sleep...
 
  • #8,180
Ivan Seeking said:
So we get the idea that the person who wakes up in the morning is not the same person who went to sleep last night.
However, that persons' memories (which are physically present in the brain) lead them to think they are the same person.
 
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  • #8,181
BillTre said:
However, that persons' memories (which are physically present in the brain) lead them to think they are the same person.
Exactly, which is the same conundrum that we get into when considering teleportation. We don't know we aren't the original. We don't know that person died.
 
  • #8,182
I remember seeing my prof's leg floating around randomly. His teleportation experiment had not quite worked as expected.
 
  • #8,183
Each iteration of conscious experience could be considered a new version of the previous one, or a modification of it.

This leads to the classic ancient Greek guy boat problem (Ship of Theseus) which is the basis of this conundrum (which seems to be at the base of this):
The ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus’ paradox, is a thought experiment that raises the question of whether an object that has had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object. The paradox is most notably recorded by Plutarch in Life of Theseus from the late first century. Plutarch asked whether a ship that had been restored by replacing every single wooden part remained the same ship.The paradox had been discussed by other ancient philosophers such as Heraclitus and Plato prior to Plutarch’s writings, and more recently by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Several variants are known, including the grandfather’s axe, which has had both head and handle replaced.
It can be made even worse if after each piece is removed and replaced, the original parts are reassembled into a copy (or the original?) of the ship.
This would be simillar to transporting someone, but also keeping the original.
 
  • #8,184
BillTre said:
Each iteration of conscious experience could be considered a new version of the previous one, or a modification of it.

This leads to the classic ancient Greek guy boat problem (Ship of Theseus) which is the basis of this conundrum (which seems to be at the base of this):

It can be made even worse if after each piece is removed and replaced, the original parts are reassembled into a copy (or the original?) of the ship.
This would be simillar to transporting someone, but also keeping the original.
How about the structure of the boat , i.e., how the parts fit together? Ratios, which parts as fit together, etc. I understand , though I know very little about it, this is also used in teleportation: the description of the structure is used to " reassemble" the person at the receiving end.
 
  • #8,185
WWGD said:
I remember seeing my prof's leg floating around randomly. His teleportation experiment had not quite worked as expected.
That reminds me of the short story "Shottle Bop", by Theordore Sturgeon.
 
  • #8,186
Interesting Reading: Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation
JBIS, Vol. 58, pp. 43-50, 2005
 

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  • #8,187
I went to a first family party after Covid. In this party was said to me:

"Is the cat dead or alive? (It was asked about 20 times)
What about the particle that is a wave at the same time?
Calculate the cake speed.
Calculate the time i take to make a drink.
Why do i got drunk?
What about to do a time travel machine?
He can't play cards with us because he will calc all the possibilities and will win.
Just need to go faster than light !
What if the light go faster than light?
You already seem crazy.
Why do i don't feel that the car is at 100 km/h?
Sheldon!
Multiverse?
What is heaviest? One kg of cotton or steel?"

That happens with you guys too?
 
  • #8,188
LCSphysicist said:
That happens with you guys too?
Nope. They fear the answer!
 
  • #8,189
BillTre said:
This leads to the classic ancient Greek guy boat problem (Ship of Theseus)
This reminds me of the comedian (Steven Wright)

“Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates... When I pointed it out to my roommate, he said, "Do I know you?”​

 
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  • #8,190
gmax137 said:
This reminds me of the comedian (Steven Wright)

“Last night somebody broke into my apartment and replaced everything with exact duplicates... When I pointed it out to my roommate, he said, "Do I know you?”​

Wright is the one who talked about wanting a 1:1 -scale map of the world.
 
  • #8,191
What the heck could this be:
ping PF - check
ping NYT - check
ping facebook - server unknown
ping aol - check
ping aol.mail - server unknown
ping msn - check
ping outlook - server unknown
 
  • #8,192
Ouch! No one seems to care much for Wolfram's ANKOS, other than Steve himself.
 
  • #8,193
LCSphysicist said:
I went to a first family party after Covid. In this party was said to me:

"Is the cat dead or alive? (It was asked about 20 times)
What about the particle that is a wave at the same time?
Calculate the cake speed.
Calculate the time i take to make a drink.
Why do i got drunk?
What about to do a time travel machine?
He can't play cards with us because he will calc all the possibilities and will win.
Just need to go faster than light !
What if the light go faster than light?
You already seem crazy.
Why do i don't feel that the car is at 100 km/h?
Sheldon!
Multiverse?
What is heaviest? One kg of cotton or steel?"

That happens with you guys too?
I had an engineer at work ask why physicists never have to prove anything. Clearly some engineers need to be better educated! They literally think physicists study philosophy! The attitudes and beliefs I find regarding physics grads are often absurd and based in ignorance; esp with engineers.

I have had a number of people come to me with energy schemes. The saddest was a retired gentleman who had spent most of his retirement money developing a floating generator platform intended for use on rivers. He had even purchased a large crane for dropping them into rivers. It was a terrible design and he would be lucky to get a couple of hundred watts out of it. He was expecting something more like 100 HP. He figured he could power his house and sell energy back to the grid. How do you tell someone they just wasted their retirement money?
 
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  • #8,194
Ivan Seeking said:
I have had a number of people come to me with energy schemes. The saddest was a retired gentleman who had spent most of his retirement money developing a floating generator platform intended for use on rivers. He had even purchased a large crane for dropping them into rivers. It was a terrible design and he would be lucky to get a couple of hundred watts out of it. He was expecting something more like 100 HP. He figured he could power his house and sell energy back to the grid. How do you tell someone they just wasted their retirement money?
This level of delusion reminds me of Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos fame. (In the news now due to her trial.)
Lots of delusion (probably not on her part, but by her suckers) by people looking for a wonder investment.
Her whole enterprise seemed highly unlikely to me from the start (amounts of blood too small for almost any test, certainly not for a whole bunch of them simultaneously), but a lot of smart people (probably with no lab background) fell for her spiel, in hopes of financial reward.
 
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  • #8,195
This morning we had our weekly meeting in a restaurant for breakfast, as we often do. And we often get the same waitress. Suffice it to say she is about 30 years younger than me and very attractive. I have learned that there are a lot of women who will date much older men. I've been dating much younger women for 9 years now. You just have to be smart, funny, respectful, and go for it. So I gave her THE look. And sure enough, she responded. I'm about 90% sure she would go out if I approach her in the right way. But I have a GF her age. I like to flirt a lot just to practice but she kind of gets to me. But I don't want to break up with my current GF. And I don't cheat. Grrrrr! Course a harmless coffee date wouldn't really be cheating. It would just be...intelligence gathering.
 
  • #8,196
Kind of sad to see, of all people, Angela Merkel, a Phd scientist, making questionable decisions on nuclear energy. Maybe @fresh_42 and @mfb can clarify why Germans are preferring green energy that is not yet viable to nuclear energy?
 
  • #8,197
WWGD said:
Kind of sad to see, of all people, Angela Merkel, a Phd scientist, making questionable decisions on nuclear energy. Maybe @fresh_42 and @mfb can clarify why Germans are preferring green energy that is not yet viable to nuclear energy?
Nuclear energy is debated since the late '70s here. Chernobyl and Fukushima didn't help, either. But the most serious objection is, that nobody wants to have the leftovers stored in his backyard. Germany is rather densely populated, so it's hard to find a region where the risk of storage would be at an acceptable level. The most likely geologic formations are in the northern half of the country, and most people who support nuclear energy live in the south. I doubt that this is only by chance. And the most likely formations are old salt mines. But salt and a possible intrusion of water don't go together well. Germany has been exposed to nuclear weapons and the risk of a nuclear conflict for decades. This created a strong aversion to any related risk.

Edit: ... and 3-mile-island.
 
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  • #8,198
An alternative to Le Pen in France is Le Pencil.
 
  • #8,199
Re what I had said about claims that children are pure and adults corrupt them. This is just one example of such claim:
main-qimg-46a66b07c3a6c82712695c25d2a69ddf.jpeg
 
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  • #8,200
The New Delhi old deli delivers.
 
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