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

[fresh_42]

You use an app for a nap?

Yep.

More than one:
- Rock radio (multiple channels)
- electronic music (multiple channels)
- audios that read me the news (multiple channels)
- audios that read me Wikipedia articles
- audios that read me astronomical data
- and a classical music channel

 

[WWGD]

Wow, several companies have emailed me, asking me to fill a survey for them. After I've ignored them, I received very aggressive emails almost demanding I take the survey asap. No, I replied. Pay me, and I'll take it, unless you're a non-profit. The nerve, as if I owed them anything.

 

[dlgoff]

Dang. In a tornado watch until 11:00 pm. Glad I have a storm shelter.

 

[berkeman]

Dang. In a tornado watch until 11:00 pm. Glad I have a storm shelter.

Yikes, stay safe! Do you have some sort of Doppler wind alarm device or something that lets you know when to dive into the shelter?

 

[dlgoff]

Yikes, stay safe! Do you have some sort of Doppler wind alarm device or something that lets you know when to dive into the shelter?

I have a weather radio here in the house. The town, a mile or so away, has a tornado siren that can be heard inside my house.

 

[Astronuc]

Man, 109, who still drives his car every day has simple tips for long life​

https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-109-still-drives-car-203838450.html

At 109 years old, Vincent Dransfield still zips around town in his car every day, buying lunch, running errands and shopping for groceries.

He lives independently in his own house in Little Falls, New Jersey, where he has resided since 1945.

The centenarian requires no help navigating between the home’s main floor, his bedroom upstairs and the basement where he does his laundry, his family says.
. . .

 

[Grelbr42]

Dang. In a tornado watch until 11:00 pm. Glad I have a storm shelter.

Just remember, the shelter does you no good unless you are in it at the important time. Maybe it's possible to hook up a WiFi repeater in there so you can be safe and still surf the net.

Heh heh. Recalling working on the safety report of a nuclear reactor. It got to the part about traffic accidents on the nearby driving surfaces, parking lot, delivery area, etc. The entire analysis consisted of: See the section about flying gas trucks due to tornadoes. Since the station was qualified to survive the impact of a flying gas truck it was considered qualified against any credible traffic accidents.

 

[berkeman]

Since the station was qualified to survive the impact of a flying gas truck it was considered qualified against any credible traffic accidents.

Was it qualified to survive the BLEVE from the gas truck catching fire and burning for a bit (then exploding)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor_explosion

 

[fresh_42]

Some emigrants to English are just funny.

I learned "Zwischenzug" from following the current chess world championship, and now I have found: "Trockenbeerenauslese". Forget about Kindergarten. There are apparently much funnier words. Even one with an "ö", and no, it's not Motörhead. It's "trögerite", "ö" inclusive.

 

[dlgoff]

I just drove down my drive to the mailbox and there was a Box Turtle crossing the drive. I stopped and moved it off the road so other autos wouldn't run over it. They are considered endangered species around here.

 

[Swamp Thing]

Was it qualified to survive the BLEVE from the gas truck catching fire and burning for a bit (then exploding)?

I Bleve it was.

 

[fresh_42]

You use an app for a nap?

 

[fresh_42]

I understand Alan McManus quite well, and John Higgins not at all. Can someone explain this to me? I looked it up, their birth places are only 23km apart.

 

[Astronuc]

The Origins of 7 Common Units of Measurement​

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/25108/why-are-there-5280-feet-mile-making-sense-measurements

Bad Roman influence

 

[dlgoff]

I can't believe it's almost May and here in Kansas the temperature is 48°F.

edit: now it's the evening and it's 44°F.

 

[fresh_42]

Science is exciting. I just learned that the amount of melting permafrost can be determined by the lack of ${}^{129\,}\mathrm I$ in water. The gauge year is 1950. Heck, we polluted everything.

 

[pinball1970]

National alert UK i phone test today. 3pm GMT.

https://amp.theguardian.com/technol...lert-system-test-has-been-years-in-the-making

 

[DennisN]

A glimpse into the near future?

He’s the first conversational holographic being — powered by ChatGPT
https://lookingglassfactory.com//uncle-rabbit

A really cool short demo clip on that page, where the rabbit completes the lyrics of a song.

Who would have thought SkyNet would start gathering info about humans in the form of rabbits instead of robots?
SkyNet is clever, very clever. We've got to prepare; time to start buying weapons and store them at various strategic locations.

 

[WWGD]

Not sure if I like or hate " Lemon Swayze". It changes each time I listen to it.

 

[hmmm27]

I thought a YT video on sounds of the rainforest would help me sleep, relax. Instead, I feel like peeing every 10 minutes.

YT spaceship engine noises. Or, any B&W TV series playlist.

Man, 109, who still drives his car every day has simple tips for long life

Mostly, be the old guy driving the car, not the pedestrian crossing in front of it.

 

[Algr]

Why can't you go metric like any sane person in the world? Don't be afraid, it doesn't come with bare breasts or in rainbows!

Ha! You need three digits where one will do.

BTW, I can do metric fine, but I've never heard of other cup sizes. Why would they even define a metric cup? Wouldn't that be like saying that 25 cm was a metric foot?

 

[pinball1970]

I understand Alan McManus quite well, and John Higgins not at all. Can someone explain this to me? I looked it up, their birth places are only 23km apart.

Just listened to both.

John Higgins talks a little faster, plus more pronounced Glaswegian accent and also more dialect, so actually saying a different word, an example.

Instead of "I hope he doesn't mind.."

He says " I hope he does ne mind"

"All I need is to pot the black" becomes, "Ol a need is to pot the black."

 

[pinball1970]

I thought a YT video on sounds of the rainforest would help me sleep, relax. Instead, I feel like peeing every 10 minutes.

I use Bart Ehrman discussions.

He talks on different topics on ancient history.

His voice is soothing but engaging and somehow this makes me drift off.

 

[Grelbr42]

Was it qualified to survive the BLEVE from the gas truck catching fire and burning for a bit (then exploding)?

Yes.

Ten feet of specially reinforced concrete with 2 inches of armor plate steel inside and out. Standard CANDU containment.

Indeed, the modeling of the gas truck explosion was quite drastically conservative. There was some question as to where the worst point in the process of burn-then-explode was. A later explosion means more fuel has burned so the vault has had more time to heat up but less fuel to explode. But having to model that was tiresome. So they found a short-cut. They modeled a full load burning in place. Then a full load exploding in place. Effectively it's *TWO* gas trucks full of fuel, one to heat and one to explode. Not even a scratch.

My industry is good at finding conservative shortcuts of this type.

And the experiments are a lot of fun to watch. From a good safe distance. Here are a few tests of transport casks. Info from this type of test is used to validate the models of the containment. A CANDU vault is similar to these flasks except the walls are ten feet thick.

 

[berkeman]

Here are a few tests of transport casks.

Wow, gotta love the creativity. Rocket-propelled locomotive!!

 

[fresh_42]

Just listened to both.

John Higgins talks a little faster, plus more pronounced Glaswegian accent and also more dialect, so actually saying a different word, an example.

Instead of "I hope he doesn't mind.."

He says " I hope he does ne mind"

"All I need is to pot the black" becomes, "Ol a need is to pot the black."

I understood his [Higgin's] post-game interview in the studio rather well. Not perfectly, but better than usual. There have been other times, especially when interviewed in the Arena, that it was far more difficult.

Btw.:
a) Whom do you want to win?
b) Who do you expect to win?

My answer (Ronnie, Si). And I insist to note that I was a Ronnie fan long before it became a trend! I remember the times when he was annoyed and left the game in the middle of a session!

 

[BillTre]

 

[Astronuc]

Colorado Is Not a Rectangle—It Has 697 Sides
The Centennial State is technically a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/is-colorado-a-rectangle

there are only three states whose borders are entirely made up of straight lines: Utah, which would have been a rectangle if Wyoming hadn’t bitten a chunk out of its northeastern corner; Wyoming itself; and Colorado.

Except that they aren’t. for two distinct reasons: because the earth is round, and because those 19th-century surveyors laying out state borders made mistakes.

Congress defined the borders of Colorado as a geospherical rectangle, stretching from 37°N to 41°N latitude, and from 25°W to 32°W longitude. While lines of latitude run in parallel circles that don’t meet, lines of longitude converge at the poles.

This means that Colorado’s longitudinal borders are slightly farther apart in the south. So if you’d look closely enough, the state resembles an isosceles trapezoid rather than a rectangle. Consequently, the state’s northern borderline is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) shorter than its southern one. The same goes, mutatis mutandis, for Wyoming.

There's more.

 

[pinball1970]

I understood his [Higgin's] post-game interview in the studio rather well. Not perfectly, but better than usual. There have been other times, especially when interviewed in the Arena, that it was far more difficult.

Btw.:
a) Whom do you want to win?
b) Who do you expect to win?

My answer (Ronnie, Si). And I insist to note that I was a Ronnie fan long before it became a trend! I remember the times when he was annoyed and left the game in the middle of a session!

Ronnie is a nut job, we do not understand him but when he is happy to play he is unparalleled.
To break the record would be something so I hope he does it.
I do not know enough about the other players form- been a while since I watched closely. Very surprised Judd Trump went out early.

 

[fresh_42]

Ronnie is a nut job, we do not understand him but when he is happy to play he is unparalleled.
To break the record would be something so I hope he does it.
I do not know enough about the other players form- been a while since I watched closely. Very surprised Judd Trump went out early.

I remember the time when you could predict the result of a frame by looking at his face while sitting on his chair.

 

[pinball1970]

I remember the time when you could predict the result of a frame by looking at his face while sitting on his chair.

Yes he can get so angry over nothing, at himself at everything!

He also does things like this, remember the left handed controversy?

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news...aims-ronnie-osullivan-antics-rattle-robidoux/

 

[fresh_42]

Yes he can get so angry over nothing, at himself at everything!

Angry was ok, bored was the problem!

 

[Rive]

Old school power supplies needed to warm up before use.

Then there was some decades when they were just available right after switching them on.

These days they are booting up.

 

[dlgoff]

Went morel (morchella) mushroom hunting today and realized I'm just getting too old to do all that walking

 

[Rive]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

 

[Tom.G]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

Frustration!

 

[DrGreg]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

I know, from witnessing a family member's dementia, that memory problems can result not only in forgetting things that have happened, but also remembering things that haven't happened.

 

[WWGD]

I wonder if I have something of an autistic thing going. I went to the store to look for something I thought I had left there a while backIt involved providing my credit card number or remembering the employee I had dealth with. I couldn't remember anything about the employee, but I had no problem remembering the 14 digits of my credit card, one I hadn't used in a while. I have trouble remembering faces, which doesn't quite help me become popular.

 

[collinsmark]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

"Déjà foo"?

 

[fresh_42]

"Déjà foo"?

You meant "Déjà fou" or "Déjà folle"?

 

[collinsmark]

You meant "Déjà fou" or "Déjà folle"?

Those are fine choices too, I suppose.

I was thinking of "foo," an intentionally meaningless placeholder word. But I suppose they all work.

 

[Rive]

"Déjà foo"?

That's actually quite fitting

It was just a sudden impression (and a panicky impulse to recall and salvage it) of a so ill-logical and badly fitting memory that I'm sure I've never actually had anything like that, ever - gone

Frustration!

Sure it is

 

[Astronuc]

Interesting perspectives on life, evolution, intelligence and technology; history and future.

 

[dlgoff]

My Pilot daughter is working on her CFI Certificate.

From: https://www.sweetaviation.com/fligh...,proficiency, and perform insurance checkouts.

A certified flight instructor (CFI/CFII) certificate allows a commercial pilot to be an educator in aviation. A CFI and/or CFII certificate certifies you to teach other pilot certificate applicants, as well as conduct flight reviews, assess aircraft proficiency, and perform insurance checkouts.

 

[WWGD]

Guess I learnt my lesson so I didn't point my QR reader to this lady's pants:

 

[Charles Link]

Interesting calculation of the other day: Using $r^3/T^2=GM/(4 \pi^2)$, I computed $T$ for the earth's orbit around the sun. For $r$, the light takes 500 seconds to reach the earth from the sun, since 93,000,000/186,000=500, so that $r=(500)(3.0E+8)m$. Meanwhile $M_{sun}=2.0E+30$, an easy number to remember, and $G=6.67E-11$ (MKS). The answer of 3.2 E+7 seconds agreed with $T=(365)(24)(3600)$ seconds. For more precision, a google gives $T=3.16 E+7$, (for the circular orbit), so that the distance of the diameter of the orbit is traveled in about 1.0 E+7 seconds. Meanwhile light takes 1000 seconds to travel the diameter of the orbit, so that the earth moves around the sun at a speed very close to one ten-thousandth the speed of light. A google showed this to be 18.5 miles/second, rather than 18.6=186,000/10,000, but the number one ten-thousandth is accurate to better than one part in a hundred. In any case, a couple of fun calculations. :)

 

[WWGD]

Wonder what this is about : Why is Spanish so popular in ( Edit: in Europe).

 

[DrGreg]

Wonder what this is about : Why is Spanish so popular in Spain?
View attachment 325900

Did you really mean to say that? Or did you mean to say "Why is Spanish so popular in Europe?"

I can think of two possible reasons.

1. Maybe in many schools Spanish isn't taught as much as other languages
2. Spain and Spanish islands are popular holiday destinations.

 

[WWGD]

Did you really mean to say that? Or did you mean to say "Why is Spanish so popular in Europe?"

I can think of two possible reasons.

1. Maybe in many schools Spanish isn't taught as much as other languages
2. Spain and Spanish islands are popular holiday destinations.

Indeed, I meant why Spanish is popular in Europe. I would have thought those in the tourist trade would be able to speak English fluently( given most tourists do as well).

 

[fresh_42]

Indeed, I meant why Spanish is popular in Europe. I would have thought those in the tourist trade would be able to speak English fluently( given most tourists do as well).

This survey was among ordinary people, not among those in the tourism industry. It has been asked which additional language would they like to speak. Since basically everybody between 15 and 30 already speaks English - more or less - plus their own language, the only reasonable languages in Europe are the three that have been listed. And Spanish is the logical choice because there are so many countries that speak Spanish. The few German ones either want to read Kant and Goethe in their original version or want to work in Germany although there are many reasons to visit Germany as a tourist. The Dutch know this.