Today I Learned

[Orodruin]

A billion times a billion is not a trillion in either scale. Your logic breaks down immediately after your example.

I mean, the logic of long scale is $10^{6n}$ and the logic of short scale is $10^{3(n+1)}$ with $n$ corresponding to whatever the name states, e.g., quadrillion $n=4$: $10^{24}$ or $10^{15}$ depending.

 

[DaveC426913]

If trillion =10¹²
And billion - 10⁹

That means that the root - illion - equals one thousand, no?

And a million should be called monillion.

 

[pinball1970]

I don't suppose there is any chance of ditching the British American thing? That must be confusing to students.

10 to the 6 million
10 to 9 billion?

 

[Orodruin]

And a million should be called monillion.

To be fair, million could very well be a contraction of monillion …

 

[pbuk]

I don't suppose there is any chance of ditching the British American thing?

It was ditched in 1974, as above.

That must be confusing to students.

Not since 1974.

 

[Orodruin]

Not since 1974.

It can still be pretty confusing to people not having English as their first language. Most higher level textbooks will be in English.

 

[Borg]

TIL about an AI technique called Prompt Injection where a user request can be hijacked similar to SQL injection or Cross-site scripting attacks. In Prompt Injection, a web page could theoretically issue hidden commands to an LLM to ignore the user's request and perform a completely different task. While this isn't currently an issue for ChatGPT which doesn't directly retrieve pages from the internet, this could be a big deal as LLMs start reaching out live to web sites in the future.
Damn it.

 

[phinds]

TIL that this year the 13 year AND the 17 year cicadas are going to come out at the same time for the first time since 1803 when Thomas Jefferson was president.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/...ect-from-this-years-rare-dual-brood-emergence

 

[BillTre]

Way too many bugs for birds and other predators to eat during their short period of availability.
Which is why this life cycle strategy is thought to have evolved.

I was around when a bunch came out in Maryland when I was a kid.
I always thought they made flying saucer sounds.

 

[phinds]

I was around when a bunch came out in Maryland when I was a kid.
I always thought they made flying saucer sounds.

Me too, although I wasn't a kid when they came out. I was there for it twice.

Once had one of the ()#@**@(# things hit my wing window (back when cars HAD such things) that was angled back to put a breeze on my face and it ricocheted off into my face and scared me half to death. Not a good thing since I was going about 60+ on the Washington Beltway.

My kids were fascinated by them.

 

[collinsmark]

I've posted this article before many years ago, but it's always good to post about cicadas. Cicadas are awesome.

The Cicada's Love Affair With Prime Numbers

https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-cicadas-love-affair-with-prime-numbers

To test this hypothesis, researchers from Brazil’s Universidade Estadual de Campinas used a computer simulation, very similar to John Conway’s Game of Life, in which simulated cicadas and predators battled it out in a hundred-by-hundred-cell matrix. They found exactly what Gould had suggested: cicadas with a prime-numbered life cycle had the most successful evolutionary strategy. If we discount those cicadas with life cycles of ten years or fewer (as being too close to predator life cycles), we find that the most successful emergence rates for cyber cicadas are thirteen and seventeen years—precisely what we find in the wild.

 

[pinball1970]

TIL I'm filling in on a gig, other drummer Ill. Veeerrrry rusty on this set. Wish me luck. On at 8pm

 

[Ibix]

TIL I'm filling in on a gig, other drummer Ill. Veeerrrry rusty on this set. Wish me luck. On at 8pm

Break a leg! (Is that for musicians too, or only actors? I used to say it before martial arts gradings too )

 

[pinball1970]

This is what nerves look like

 

[fresh_42]

View attachment 339289

This is what nerves look like

Good luck, Phil!

 

[BillTre]

TIL that George Carlin's estate is suing a media company (Dudesy) for copyright infringement over an AI generated special they produced.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL that there are places with $10^{30}$ bar. Everywhere.
(The pressure a quark experiences in the center of a proton.)

 

[gmax137]

Oh I thought you were going to say the pressure @pinball1970 is putting on himself

 

[Hornbein]

TIL that there are places with $10^{30}$ bar. Everywhere.
(The pressure a quark experiences in the center of a proton.)

Some say this is the same as the pressure in the center of a neutron star, some say it is ten times more. No one knows the precise radius of any neutron star, so there is some uncertainty. Maybe there is a quark plasma at the center, maybe not.

 

[Grinkle]

TIL that a Google search of how much energy Bitcoin uses to exist shows you its an estimated 0.5% of the worlds electricity production. I find that a staggering amount - I am not sure how sound the estimate is.

 

[Borg]

I read years ago that there was the equivalent of 50 powerplants in China supplying power for all of the bitcoin miners. Whatever the actual value, I'm sure that it's a lot.

 

[walkeraj]

A small thing, but I learned that Schroedinger's equation is a diffusion equation and path integral formulation is actually the thought of Norbert Weiner, originally.

 

[pinball1970]

T.I.L.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/watch-asteroid-nasa-potentially-hazardous-zoom-past-earth/


This is one of the estimated 4700 PHOs in our solar system, more detail here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentially_hazardous_object

 

[DaveC426913]

Very cool live sim of everything in the solar system:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch/eyes-on-asteroids

 

[BillTre]

TIL that smaller dogs and dogs with longer nose live longer than others.
Not an absolute rule, but a a general trend.
Dogs with short smashed on noses are prone to breathing problems and respiratory infections.
Smaller animals live longer generally.
Females live longer than males.
The effects are generally small, usually under a year to less than 2 year differences in longevity.
NY Times article here.
There is a big list of breeds.
Expect many similar stories in the next few days (popular subject).
Research article here.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL that ...

View attachment 339650

... was an invention of German immigrants from Westfalia, and that Phil was originally a badger.

 

[OmCheeto]

TIL that ...

... was an invention of German immigrants from Westfalia, and that Phil was originally a badger.

TIL that
a. Badgers are indigenous to my state, and
b. Badgers are indigenous to all continents except South America and Australia

source: wiki image

ps. I love the image creators comment, as it is just too much like how I deal with things; "The inspiration was too confusing, so I recompiled this from a set of existing maps available on the Commons. "

 

[fresh_42]

View attachment 339289

This is what nerves look like

Btw., did you tell us how it went? Was it like this or more like that?

 

[pinball1970]

Btw., did you tell us how it went? Was it like this or more like that?

I tried to post immediately after the gig but I was a bit all over the place i got distracted.
It was A.Sold out and B. Great.
Supporting 'Twin Lizzy' who were really good.

 

[fresh_42]

TIL: Today I listened to a piece of music and I thought: "Sounds like Beethoven but isn't Beethoven." I found Otto Nicolai (symphony in D major), a German composer in the first half of the 19th century who founded the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Life isn't fair. We (Germans) gave Austria Mozart, Beethoven, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and I do not need to mention whom they gave us.