Today I Learned

[sbrothy]

With Finland, I think it's more related to their cultural past. In their national epic, the Kalevala, there is a lot of mention of words/names having power. Wizards were able to do great feats just by knowing and using the right words. Names also tended to reflect something about the person more so than in other cultures. For example, many people today have the surname "Miller" because some ancestor had that as their profession and it was then just handed down from generation to generation after that. In Finland, this wasn't always the case. Not only could surnames change from generation to generation, but they could change within a person's lifetime. This occurred in my paternal line. My grandfather was born with a surname that reflected the name of their homestead. Prior to immigrating to the US, they sold the homestead, and upon doing so changed their surname to one that reflected a region, since they no longer owned that land. Likewise, waiting to name the child was so you could get some sense of what they were like, so you could choose a name that would suit them.

Sounds like this could be said of any nationality. As to wizards and names this is also pretty common. “As above so below.”

Not to detract from Finnish magic though.

 

[fresh_42]

With Finland, I think it's more related to their cultural past. In their national epic, the Kalevala, there is a lot of mention of words/names having power. Wizards were able to do great feats just by knowing and using the right words. Names also tended to reflect something about the person more so than in other cultures.

I think, those wizzards were a paraphrase for child mortality.

 

[jack action]

It must take near the whole bottle to make the dish below look appetizing

but this is what life could be

View attachment 365153

Ah, Canada! This is where I call home (litteraly, all of this within 2 km of my home!):

Summer:

Winter:

Food:

Nice climate, nice food, and we speak the language of love!

 

[BWV]

Ah, Canada! This is where I call home (litteraly, all of this within 2 km of my home!):



Nice climate, nice food, and we speak the language of love!

Aside from the food, I love Canada, and while cold, at least the days are longer in Quebec than in Norway. but could not live anywhere without good Mexican food

But why is it the French in Louisiana developed this great cuisine and all they ever did in Canada is fries in gravy?

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski -- that's possibly the most powerful position in the House -- served 15 months in prison for abusing the congressional post office. He legally got stamps in bulk for free but then sold them instead of using them to mail letters. Rep. Joe Kolter was also convicted.

When John Kiriakou was 18 he was an intern/pageboy for Joe Kotler. Kolter had had knee surgery and John would push him about in his wheelchair. John saw Kolter, Rostenkowski, and Kolter's chief of staff playing poker. They were so intent they skipped an important House vote. He said that not only were all of them convicted of the stamp abuse, but John Kiriakou was later questioned by the FBI as to whether he knew some of the resulting cash was used to deal cocaine.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL that botany can be quite exciting!

 

[sbrothy]

TIL that botany can be quite exciting!

I'm sure but some details would be nice!

 

[fresh_42]

I'm sure but some details would be nice!

It is hard enough to know the botanical terms in my own language, let alone the English versions.

I have seen a documentary that was about sensing and communication. I was already aware of the complex symbiosis in forests and how mycelia form a communication web for trees. But I didn't know that there are parasitic plants that can distinguish between a healthy and an unhealthy potential host, or whether a plant is strong enough to host them. Others (corn) fight parasitic insects indirectly by releasing chemicals that attract the natural enemies of these insects. Or that plants react to various sound frequencies, presumably figuring out where more water can be found and whether there are obstacles in the ground. They do this with a sort of hair that is genetically the same as the hair in our ears. There was a story about wild tabac. It blooms at night to attract a night moth for pollination. But the moths leave their eggs, and their offspring eat the plant. If there are too many of them, they change to blooming during the day, calling for hummingbirds as pollinators who are harmless. So why don't they use hummingbirds by default? The answer is that the moths travel hundreds of miles per night and thus provide a greater genetic variance than the hummingbirds do. So the plant balances between conflicting goals. And many more facts, e.g., about bacteria as part of the game. Really cool.

 

[BillTre]

They do this with a sort of hair that is genetically the same as the hair in our ears.

This is highly unlikely.

 

[fresh_42]

This is highly unlikely.

Why? We share large parts of the genome. Wasn't it 50% with a banana? IIRC it was from an Israeli scientist.

Edit: It had been said in the context that those "hairs" on the plants' roots react to sound frequencies.

 

[BillTre]

Why? We share large parts of the genome. Wasn't it 70% with a banana? IIRC it was from an Israeli scientist.

Plants and animals are as far apart from each other evolutionarially as almost any eukaryotes (cellls with nuclei).
The genetics of the hair cells in ears are based on them being epithelial cells and going through a particular developmental sequence (a placode of cells (a special developmental structure) on surface, a subset of the cells developing into hair cells and growing their "hairs" (actin filled cilia-like surface extrusions)) to sense vibrations. To me at least, a genetic identity would involve replicating all of these properties. There is more to it than just a gene sequence. The hair cell type would have to replicated. Cell types involve lots of things.

 

[BWV]

There is a body of literature in machine learning / financial economics finding that generating synthetic data from a set of predictors (P) to increase the dimensionality, so P >> the number of observations and using linear ridge regressions with minimal shrinkage can capture nonlinearities in a similar fashion to neural networks with nonlinear activation functions.

This is one application of random matrix theory which I am also learning is a big current topic that has roots in physics

 

[jack action]

TIL about Aristotle's wheel paradox.

​

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Recently I learned that Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI, is also the Executive Chairman of Helion, a company claiming they will power a Microsoft plant with fusion power by 2028.

Helion is using the Theta-Pinch model to produce fusion. I wonder how much of a role AI is playing in finding solutions to challenges presented by fusion technology.

I also learned that the new AI cold war - the race to gain technological superiority through the benefits of AI - depends primarily on having the power AI will demand. It is an enormous power hog. This incentivizes leadership to enable the production of as much power as possible, as quickly as possible, regardless of environmental concerns.

Gates is pushing Generation IV fission reactor technology which promises to be melt-down proof and far more difficult to weaponize than traditional nuclear tech. We have traditional fusion research making breakthroughs in addition to the theta-pinch and z-pinch fusion models being developed, apparently with significant success. So that all seems very promising but it doesn't provide power today.Gates plans to build a micro nuclear, Generation IV fission reactor, for every major data center as soon as the tech is ready. He already broke ground in Wyoming for his Natrium plant. Testing on a more advanced technology should begin in Idaho in about a year. So hopefully that isn't too far off.

The thinking is that we need to produce as much power as possible as quickly as possible, with virtually no regard for the consequences, and hope AI can help fix everything later. The race to win AI superiority is considered to be critical and a matter of National Security, and takes priority over other concerns.

As if we didn't already face enough energy challenges! On a personal level this is all horrifying. But it seems the die is already cast. We just have to do the best we can and try to minimize the damage. And it seems we are betting everything on AI being everything promised.

 

[Hornbein]

When AI defeated humans in StarCraft II I knew it would take command of military tactics.

My Dad was the consultant for KMS Fusion back in the 70's. He said fusion wasn't clean. The fast neutrons reduce the containment vessel to radioactive waste.

It's worth noting the whole system depends on satellites, which cannot be defended other than by threatening nuclear annihilation of anyone who dares mess with them.