Today I Learned

[jim hardy]

I don't think I can learn the above. I have a bias that the subconscious can be creative. In such cases, the conscious will follow the subconscious.

Hmmmm that quote must be from six months ago !

I was being more literal.
Both reside physically in one's brain
and your conscious controls where your feet take you.

Doing random, anonymous acts of kindness will change how you feel, though. Try it for a few days . "Power of Positive Thinking" ?

 

[mfb]

and your conscious controls where your feet take you.

Studies show you can predict this before your consciousness thinks it makes the decision. I don't think they tested feet, but they tested motion of the hand(s). The basic conclusion: you make the decision without consciousness involved, and afterwards your consciousness thinks it made the decision. Very interesting topic. It also has a Wikipedia article.

 

[OmCheeto]

Studies show you can predict this before your consciousness thinks it makes the decision. I don't think they tested feet, but they tested motion of the hand(s). The basic conclusion: you make the decision without consciousness involved, and afterwards your consciousness thinks it made the decision. Very interesting topic. It also has a Wikipedia article.

This kind of reminds me of something I learned about the other day.
Dancing Squid:



I was kind of mortified.

But then, I googled, and everything I read about it, said that the Octopus/Squid didn't have a brain left, so the dancing was caused by the salt in the Soy Sauce.

Something didn't sound quite right, as cephalopods are all salt water creatures.

So I googled the anatomy of cephalopods, and found that their brains are directly between their eyes.
What looks like it might be the cranium on most creatures, turned out to be just about everything but the brain.
So all of these people, thinking they'd beheaded the poor creatures, had simply disemboweled them.

ps. I read the other day, that cephalopods have such a bizarre DNA pattern, that biologist consider them alien creatures, from another world.
google, google, google...
Here's an older reference, but confirms what I read: Scientists declare that octopuses are basically aliens

Seriously, someone with much greater photoshop skills than me needs to create a drawing of what humans would look like if our body parts were arranged like a cephalopod:

Its mouth is between its legs, and its anus, like nearly everything else, is on top of its head!

 

[mfb]

ps. I read the other day, that cephalopods have such a bizarre DNA pattern, that biologist consider them alien creatures, from another world.
google, google, google...
Here's an older reference, but confirms what I read: Scientists declare that octopuses are basically aliens

Alien != Aliens.
They use the same DNA and RNA, the same amino acids, the same translation between RNA and amino acids, and even have many genes in common with other branches of life.

Today I learned from Evolution of cephalopods: Lagerstätte (with ä!) is an "English" word.Edit:

1822 Francis Galton

Today I learned: He was a half-cousin of Charles Darwin, and their common grandfather also worked on evolution.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

A byte is always 8 bits. Bytes are not words. Words increased in size, bytes did not.

Hi @mfb:

I may be mis-remembering this, but I believe there was a time when a byte was 9 bits including a parity bit.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Fracking adds about 300 million dollars a DAY to the US economy.

Hi @Hornbein:

Does the $3M per day include the costs of dealing with environmental aside effects?

One of the peculiarities of commonly used economic statistics, e.g., GDP, is that negatives like making an environmental mess that requires expensive clean-up adds to the GDP, if the clean-up actually ever happens. If illness is caused, then the costs of corresponding medical care is also added to the GDP.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[BornCane]

Today I learned

that Adolf Hitler had a nephew that fought in the U.S Navy in WW2

 

[collinsmark]

I may be mis-remembering this, but I believe there was a time when a byte was 9 bits including a parity bit.

I think you are thinking of older systems where 7 bits of a byte were used information along with a single parity bit. Total bits in a byte are/were still 8, regardless of how they were used.

By the way, the original ASCII table was made in this way. Since there were only 7 bits of information, there were 2^7 = 128 entries in the table.

The extended ASCII table replaces the parity bit with another bit of information, allowing for 256 entries.

 

[Hornbein]

Hi @Hornbein:

Does the $3M per day include the costs of dealing with environmental aside effects?

One of the peculiarities of commonly used economic statistics, e.g., GDP, is that negatives like making an environmental mess that requires expensive clean-up adds to the GDP, if the clean-up actually ever happens. If illness is caused, then the costs of corresponding medical care is also added to the GDP.

Regards,
Buzz

Hey, I just work here.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Where are those costs not included? Every opponent of nuclear power makes sure they get overestimated as much as possible.

Hi mfb:

I think I may have misunderstood what you posted, or you misunderstood what fresh_42 said.

I understand that fresh_42 was referring to the fact that nuclear waste material has never been safely and permanently disposed of, because it is way too expensive to do this. No matter how much the industry overestimates their costs, which are to be paid for by the rates their customers pay, the future costs of dealing with the accumulated wastes is definitely NOT included.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Today I learned that one of Scott Walker's predecessors as governor of Wisconsin suggested a new slogan for the state's vehicle license plates.

Hi @jtbell:

I think you misread the article you cited. It said that a contest was held to select a new slogan, but the governor rejected the suggestion for the cheese slogan.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[einswine]

Today i learned that Wolfgang Pauli developed a close relationship with Carl Jung, and both delved into the esoteric and mystical world

Both developed an obsession with the number 137

How can such a logical mind like Pauli become friends with such a crackpot as Carl Jung

I think that had to do with the zeitgeist of Western Culture at that time. And which made seeing the possibility of a connection between aspects of QM and Jung's Synchronicity more natural than it would seem today. Organized religion had become less relevant and a spiritualistic mysticism had become common among both the upper and middle classes. It was accepted at the highest levels of the social hierarchy and it partly shaped Nazi philosophy. Ouija boards and séances were still every where after WWI. Science was at a kind of turning point with the rise of the new physics. And science new a lot less then and a lot less seemed certain about what might or might not be possible.

I think the same will eventually be said of this time :)

My 2 cents.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

According to conference in Davos, 2 million people will lose their jobs because of robotisation in next 5 years.

Hi @Sophia:

John K. Galbraith's book The End of Normal (2014) discusses this.

A few decades ago new technology might end an industry, or change its processes, and thereby end its jobs, but the new technology also led to a new industry with new jobs, or just new jobs in the current industry. That now happens less and less.

Nowadays fewer or less skilled (with lower salaries) or no new jobs are created by new technology. The benefits of the new technology are: (a) reduction by a relatively small amount the costs of goods to many who use the products, and (b) substantial increases in unearned income to stock-holders and salaries to CEO's and other high corporate executives. The down side is lost incomes to many, reducing the population of those able to buy the products of the new technology.

My interpretation of Galbraith's message is that fixing the economic problems created by new technology will require radical changes in the way the economic system functions, and the way the benefits of new technology are distributed.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Buzz Bloom]

It's been my experience, that incidental toxic/deadly "things", in reasonable quantities, can safely be ignored.

Hi @OmCheeto:

Even if the FDA does an excellent job putting maximum allowable limits on each of various "bad" compounds in foods, testing to determine acceptable limits is not done for combinations of "bad" things.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Buzz Bloom]

I gathered that much, but the 'why' behind it is beyond my comprehension... and I really doubt I'm learning THAT today... I think it would require a semester or two.

Instead of a sphere, a similar result is easier to conceptualize for an infinite line from -∞ to +∞, and using an infinite number of components.

Decompose the line into the segments ... [-n-1,-n) ... [-1,0) [0,1) ... [n,n+1) ...
let every other segment be put into set A, and put all other segments into set B.
Concatenate all the segments in A together, end to end, to for a line which is the same as the original line.
Do the same for the segments in set B.
The result is what was originally one line has been formed into two lines.

It is clearly much more difficult to visualize the corresponding result with the sphere and only a finite number of pieces.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[OmCheeto]

Hi @OmCheeto:

Even if the FDA does an excellent job putting maximum allowable limits on each of various "bad" compounds in foods, testing to determine acceptable limits is not done for combinations of "bad" things.

Regards,
Buzz

That's kind of what I implied the other day, in another thread.

ps. Happy belated anniversary, @Buzz Bloom .

 

[einswine]

My interpretation of Galbraith's message is that fixing the economic problems created by new technology will require radical changes in the way the economic system functions, and the way the benefits of new technology are distributed.

There are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States. In not too many years there will be none. Truck drivers will be replaced by truck minders but there will be fewer of them and minders will make much less. And then it gets worse as this will be happening in almost every commercial domain. I think it is a safe assumption that without a major black swan event technology will eventually break capitalism.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

without a major black swan event technology will eventually break capitalism.

Hi @einswine:

I agree with your sentiments, but I think the "black swan event" metaphor is flawed. One of the properties of a "black swan event" is that it is a surprise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory​

It doesn't seem plausible to me that a solution to fix the economic problem can happen as a surprise, if it can happen at all. It will require a political process.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[mfb]

@Buzz Bloom: Where is the point in warming up all those months old discussions? And could you please do this in one post, not in 20?

I understand that fresh_42 was referring to the fact that nuclear waste material has never been safely and permanently disposed of, because it is way too expensive to do this.

There are permanent nuclear waste storages for low and medium radioactive materials. Highly activated waste can be stored permanently as well, but keeping it on the surface is actually safer today. So where is the problem?

the future costs of dealing with the accumulated wastes is definitely NOT included.

Of course it is.

 

[einswine]

Hi @einswine:

I agree with your sentiments, but I think the "black swan event" metaphor is flawed. One of the properties of a "black swan event" is that it is a surprise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory​

It doesn't seem plausible to me that a solution to fix the economic problem can happen as a surprise, if it can happen at all. It will require a political process.

Regards,
Buzz

Sorry I was not clear. Black swan was meant as something that would bring an end to technological progress. Say a small accidental nuclear war between Pakistan and India that triggered a mini nuclear winter that caused 2 consecutive years of crop losses.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

Where is the point in warming up all those months old discussions? And could you please do this in one post, not in 20?

Hi @mfb:

I apologize if I did something inappropriate. I started reading through the thread at the beginning because I found the posts interesting. There are now 1170 posts. I responded to a post when I thought I had something to contribute that might be of interest to the poster. It never occurred to me to try to accumulate these responses into a batch. Why do you advise that as a better mode of response in such situations?

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Buzz Bloom]

There are permanent nuclear waste storages for low and medium radioactive materials. Highly activated waste can be stored permanently as well, but keeping it on the surface is actually safer today. So where is the problem?
Of course it is.

Hi @mfb

My remarks about nuclear wastes were based on a variety of sources, but the following two are good representatives.

http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-power/nuclear-waste#.Vu__aubvmM8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_waste
​

Your post motivated me to do some more looking, and I found the following quite recent article.

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-year-old-nuclear-problem-storage-safer.html​

I get the impression that you were not referring to this very new waste management technology in your post. Is this correct?

The two earlier links seem to me to make a good case that up to the now the methods used have serious flaws. Can you cite some references that show this to be incorrect?

Assuming that the new technology described in the third article actually can solve the waste problem, It seems most likely that using this new technology has not been included in the industry cost estimates since it is so new.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that Crosby, Still, and Nash needed to get a guitar player. Jimi Hendrix said no, so they settled for Neil Young.

I also learned that Richard Nixon's first job was as a carnival barker.

 

[mfb]

It never occurred to me to try to accumulate these responses into a batch. Why do you advise that as a better mode of response in such situations?

It doesn't create an unnecessary overhead of posts.

http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-power/nuclear-waste#.Vu__aubvmM8

That site looks heavily biased.

Wikipedia is a good way to look for references, but it is not a good reference on its own.

I get the impression that you were not referring to this very new waste management technology in your post. Is this correct?

I was not referring to any specific step of the whole chain of waste processing.

The two earlier links seem to me to make a good case that up to the now the methods used have serious flaws.

Which serious flaws do you mean, and what would be their effects?

Assuming that the new technology described in the third article actually can solve the waste problem

That's now how it works. The new method can improve one of the many steps involved in waste processing.

It seems most likely that using this new technology has not been included in the industry cost estimates since it is so new.

And every new method will make the same level of processing cheaper, or lead to better processing, otherwise it is not used.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

That site looks heavily biased.
Wikipedia is a good way to look for references, but it is not a good reference on its own.

Hi mfb:

I agree that my research skills are not very good, and my choice of references may be flawed. That is why I asked if you could cite some better references that show that current technology is doing a good job.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[jtbell]

I'd like to remind people of Greg's rule from the very first post in this thread:

Keep commentary to a minimum and just LIKE posts.

I don't think he intended this thread to turn into a series of extended discussions.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

I don't think he intended this thread to turn into a series of extended discussions.

Hi jtbell:

Thanks for the reminder. I will try to avoid discussion in this thread in the future. I will instead start another thread to discuss whatever issue that seems to require some discussion.

Regards,
Buzz

 

[Borg]

There is an online poll to determine the name for a new UK polar ship.
TIL, that the leading name with 27,000 votes is Boaty McBoatface.

 

[Ibix]

We were discussing this at work. Apparently there was an interview about it on the radio the other day with the First Lord of the Admiralty. Apparently he was pretty good natured about it. His only worry was that there's a tradition of the crew giving a nickname to ships, and he did express some concern as to what nickname it would end up with...

So, yesterday I learned that the First Lord of the Admiralty is not the stuffed shirt his title makes him sound like.

 

[PeroK]

We were discussing this at work. Apparently there was an interview about it on the radio the other day with the First Lord of the Admiralty. Apparently he was pretty good natured about it. His only worry was that there's a tradition of the crew giving a nickname to ships, and he did express some concern as to what nickname it would end up with...

So, yesterday I learned that the First Lord of the Admiralty is not the stuffed shirt his title makes him sound like.

It's the title "First Sea Lord" that always makes me laugh!

 

[Hornbein]

It's the title "First Sea Lord" that always makes me laugh!

In Malay the First Sea Lord is Lakshman. That Rama's buddy in the Ramayana legend.

Lakshman

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned that the first person ever caught for an automotive speeding infraction was British:

This infraction was committed by Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent. Mr. Arnold was traveling in a 2 mph zone (yes, 2 mph) and was going a breakneck 8 mph. The fine he received was for 1 shilling.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index...axi-driver-in-an-electric-car-on-may-20-1899/

 

[Astronuc]

TIL it may be illegal to collect rain water in Colorado from one's roof, unless one own's senior water rights.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/22/3762378/colorado-rain-barrel-law/

In Colorado . . . . , one mundane drought-fighting tool remains illegal: using rain barrels to catch rainwater from roofs for use in gardens.

Colorado is one of many states that operate under a prior appropriation system whereby people with “senior” water rights get access before those with “junior” water rights. In a water-constrained world, they argue, there won’t be enough to go around. And senior water right holders are worried that urban farmers and lawn-lovers will impinge on their allocations by collecting rain off their roofs.

What's behind the fight over legalizing rain barrels in Colorado
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29627611/whats-behind-fight-over-legalizing-rain-barrels-colorado

Legalizing household rain barrels in Colorado is pitting conservation-minded Democrats against Republicans determined to defend water rights. The two-session standoff, however, has a handful of legal experts wondering why there's a fight.

None of them could point to a statute that specifically says rain barrels are illegal. Arguments on both sides depend on a broad legal interpretation that says you http://water.state.co.us/SurfaceWater/SWRights/Pages/RainwaterGraywater.aspx without a water right, even if you put it back in the ground to water a garden a few feet away.

Republicans want to make sure rain barrels don't put a crack in state water law and ensure that those with the oldest and most expensive water rights get their fair share before those with no rights get a drop.

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned that David Crosby was Melissa Etheridge's sperm donor, though Julie Cypher actually bore the two children.

 

[Docscientist]

Today I learned if I really want to do something,I must go out and start doing it instead of contemplating about it.

 

[jim hardy]

Today I learned if I really want to do something,I must go out and start doing it instead of contemplating about it.

 

[Ibix]

Today I learned that owls are surprisingly light, that their feathers are very soft, and that some of them are quite territorial about their perches. Also that the smallest ones are about six inches tall and the largest nearly three feet.

In related news, it is possible to recognise a nerd in a very short space of time, even if his particular field of nerdery is very different from one's own.

 

[Sophia]

Today I learned (no, I was reminded) how much I suck at Math This was caused by reading some threads here like beautiful equations and biggest number. I looked there and I was like

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned (no, I was reminded) how much I suck at Math This was caused by reading some threads here like beautiful equations and biggest number. I looked there and I was like

This is how I feel about it.

 

[Docscientist]

View attachment 97885

I don't procrastinate.I just fear failures.I think what if I fail in doing something that I want to do if at all I get to go out and do it.
I should have been more precise.

 

[jtbell]

Today I learned that when the stock market neither rises steadily (bull market) nor falls steadily (bear market), but instead sort of hops around like it's been doing for the last several months, it's called a bunny market.

 

[Buzz Bloom]

TIL (yesterday actually) that the U.S. Criminal Justice Act (CJA) of 1964 created an adjunct to the federal court system to provide Public Defenders for people accused of federal crimes at no cost for defendants who were unable to pay attorney fees. I had previously thought that public defenders in state courts preceded this happening with respect to federal courts, but the CJA made public defenders a required service to indigent defendants in both state and federal courts.

 

[epenguin]

well i thought he was English...because of his rival with Newton and at the time many scientists were probably only aware of only scientists in their countries

or am i mistaken

for example, was Newton's Principia only known in UK or throughout all of continental Europe when it was released

You are very mistaken to think scientists were aware of only scientists in their own countries.

 

[epenguin]

Did you know LaGrange was Italian?

I know why you say that and what you think you mean. However it is IMO opinable or definitional. It is probably safest to call him Piedmontese. There was no Italian state in his time, and I will leave it to others whether there was an Italian nation, and to fight with the French over whether he belonged to it. The Royal Court, and I believe official and legal language to quite an extent, and that of culture was French, his father, a state official was French. I have always not known but suspected that his famous Torinese Academy publications were in French, and as far as I have been able to look just now it looks like they were: https://books.google.it/books/about/Miscellanea_taurinensia.html?id=tdEAAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y

I am fairly sure that his work in the Berlin Academy, certainly Méchanique Analytique would have been published in French, and that German was not used as scientific language at the time.

I read that he said that if he had been born rich he would have been an idler, not a mathematician. Sometimes you can't do exactly what you want and you have to settle for the nearest thing.

 

[Sophia]

Yesterday I learned that cold shower causes a massive release of endorphins in me :-)
So I decided to try cold showers to increase my immunity and while it was awful at first and I squeeked and thought I'd get a heart attack (not really, exaggerating) I felt amazing afterwards! I guess my brain was happy that I survived such a torture :-) I had good mood all evening and slept well (the shower was about 3 hours before sleep)

 

[CynicusRex]

Yesterday I learned that cold shower causes a massive release of endorphins in me :-)
So I decided to try cold showers to increase my immunity and while it was awful at first and I squeeked and thought I'd get a heart attack (not really, exaggerating) I felt amazing afterwards! I guess my brain was happy that I survived such a torture :-) I had good mood all evening and slept well (the shower was about 3 hours before sleep)

I started doing that also some days ago. Works like magic if I avoid the top of my head. I prefer not having a brainfreeze :)

Anyway, TIL The Khan Academy has a CHO: a Chief Happiness Officer!

If I would have the opportunity to choose a company to work for it would definitely be either Khan Academy, SpaceX or Tesla.
Khan Academy: Chief Happiness Officer
SpaceX, Tesla: No-a$$hole policy

I think that's the way to the future. A road paved by nice people.

 

[jim hardy]

I think that's the way to the future. A road paved by nice people.

+++++

You'd probably enjoy Loren Eiseley's writings.

“The need is not really for more brains, the need is now for a gentler, a more tolerant people than those who won for us against the ice, the tiger and the bear. The hand that hefted the ax, out of some old blind allegiance to the past fondles the machine gun as lovingly. It is a habit man will have to break to survive, but the roots go very deep.”
― Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey: An Imaginative Naturalist Explores the Mysteries of Man and Nature


“Perhaps a creature of so much ingenuity and deep memory is almost bound to grow alienated from his world, his fellows, and the objects around him. He suffers from a nostalgia for which there is no remedy upon Earth except as it is to be found in the enlightenment of the spirit--some ability to have a perceptive rather than an exploitive relationship with his fellow creatures.”
― Loren Eiseley

 

[nsaspook]

I learn something new on this day every year.

 

[Ibix]

I learn something new on this day every year.

I want one of them "hold" buttons...

 

[Psinter]

Today I learned that the Tetris Theme Music comes actually from a Russian Folk song called Korobeiniki. Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korobeiniki