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criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content.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.
  • #5,201
WWGD said:
Doesn't the TEE take you to Doner?
Not anymore. It rather takes a walk nowadays. I'm not sure whether the TEE ever made it to Istanbul, but I had preferred this one anyway.
 
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  • #5,202
WWGD said:
Doesn't the TEE take you to Doner?
Btw. Yes, Döner have been invented by a Turk, Kadir Nurman. However, he lived in Berlin, so no trans europe express would have been needed.

The story is funny and tells something about cultures. The dish itself is old, and Nurman had opened a restaurant in Berlin, offering Turkish dishes. But he had no guests. Everybody was running by. To run in contrast to have a meal and two hours time in east Anatolia. So he simply thought: If the Germans do not have time to sit down and eat during their lunch break, I'll put my dishes in a pocket of flatbread and make it an "on-the-run".

At least this is the most popular version. You bet that several others also claim their versions.

Edit: An American student got so used to eat Döner when studying in Berlin, that he opened a Döner stand when back in Seattle. As the poor guy wasn't allowed to import the meat he experimented almost two years to reproduce the right mixture, consistency, and spices. When he finally got it, his business flourished. I hadn't a moment of doubt. It is like made for Americans, too: meat, salad in an eatable pocket and made in minutes. And honestly? It is better food than any burger, considering the nutritions.
 
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  • #5,203
If his name is Alfred Nurman, or , even better Alfred E Nurman, please srend me one.
 
  • #5,204
As a Math person, it hurts me deeply that apartment 1B is not just called apartment B. No units in ring of apartments? There is torsion, because if there are k stories in the complex then (k+1)B =0, because there is no (k+1)St floor. But no unity!
 
  • #5,205
One possibility, ##1## isn't a unit.
 
  • #5,206
fresh_42 said:
One possibility, ##1## isn't a unit.
Maybe true, it is der Janitor's closet.
 
  • #5,207
WWGD said:
Maybe true, it is der Janitor's closet.
Try not to ask him if he is a zero divisor ...
 
  • #5,208
fresh_42 said:
Try not to ask him if he is a zero divisor ...
Alfred E Nurman : 0 dividekeit. Ich, worry?
 
  • #5,209
Firefox update @#$% wiped out all my bookmarks. Will have to export them/save them from time-to-time from now on.
 
  • #5,210
WWGD said:
update @#$% wiped out all my bookmarks.
Isn't software wonderful? Ready to join the Luddites?
 
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  • #5,211
Bystander said:
Isn't software wonderful? Ready to join the Luddites?
Yup.
<Smashes compu...>
 
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  • #5,212
Bystander said:
Isn't software wonderful? Ready to join the Luddites?
Right. We take x steps forward, y backwards and we hope that x>y. Not quite sure it's true. EDIT: I, and I am sure many others, had ignored the repeated warnings on blackboxing technology to the degree that we had, that it would increase complexity to the point of implosion. Maybe the day is here.
 
  • #5,213
My Ethiopian friend is highly Selassie.
 
  • #5,214
WWGD said:
My Ethiopian friend is highly Selassie.
I don't know if Selassie translates to "Se-Collie"
 
  • #5,215
  • #5,216
I know her brother, Timothy. Friends call him Timmy Selassie.

[Edit: From "Lassie, Come Home". Timmy's father, "Lassie, have you seen Timmy?]
 
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  • #5,217
Second person I run into whose name is (literally) 'Unique'. But I don't know how to speak 'meta', so I can't say , in speak: Are you unique(noun) or 'Unique'(name). So if you run into the two 'Unique' together: " So you are unique? You too?
 
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  • #5,218
Weird how one here in PF may report one's own post.
 
  • #5,219
WWGD said:
Weird how one here in PF may report one's own post.
I think I've done that before, on purpose, for some reason or another (I don't remember the details).

Hitting the report button is a good way to get the mentors' attention on a subject, if you need their input or guidance, even if no bad behavior is necessarily involved.
 
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  • #5,220
collinsmark said:
Hitting the report button is a good way to get the mentors' attention on a subject,
Yup, yup, yup.
 
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  • #5,221
WWGD said:
Weird how one here in PF may report one's own post.
I reported my own post once. I was aware I was riding the edge of civility with a (to my mind) particularly clueless and lazy poster. So I posted something that I felt was just the right side of the line and reported it, acknowledging that my judgement might be slightly skewed.
 
  • #5,222
Ibix said:
I reported my own post once. I was aware I was riding the edge of civility with a (to my mind) particularly clueless and lazy poster. So I posted something that I felt was just the right side of the line and reported it, acknowledging that my judgement might be slightly skewed.
Ah, I've been there myself a few times. Now I know, independently of What Gauss Would Do ;).
 
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  • #5,223
I saw a quite funny interview with Gal Gadot, who played Wonder Woman. She said in the interview (clip here) that she was talking quantum physics with a physics professor :biggrin: when she got the news that she had got the role, and he didn't understand why she got so excited because she couldn't tell anybody about the news. Personally I didn't enjoy Wonder Woman very much as a movie, but I like Gadot's personality.
 
  • #5,224
DennisN said:
I saw a quite funny interview with Gal Gadot, who played Wonder Woman. She said in the interview (clip here) that she was talking quantum physics with a physics professor :biggrin: when she got the news that she had got the role, and he didn't understand why she got so excited because she couldn't tell anybody about the news. Personally I didn't enjoy Wonder Woman very much as a movie, but I like Gadot's personality.
Maybe the prof. will think she has the hots for him. Her brother is Guy Gadot, I think an actor too. EDIT: I mean, I assume; if she's the Gal, her brother is the Guy.
 
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  • #5,225
Happy Palindrome Week.
:partytime:

9-10-19 (91019)
9-11-19 (91119)
9-12-19 (91219)
9-13-19 (91319)
9-14-19 (91419)
9-15-19 (91519)
9-16-19 (91619)
9-17-19 (91719)
9-18-19 (91819)
9-19-19 (91919)
 
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  • #5,226
Question of the day: can every Markov chain be converted into a time-homogeneous Markov chain?
 
  • #5,227
Today, I calculated, via very bad maths, and or statistics, that I will die on Monday, February 19, 2029.

Not sure of the hour, nor the venue.
 
  • #5,229
Ibix said:
I hope that is simply your estimate given your current age, and not some particular piece of bad news.
Mostly bad statistics, is my guess.
I didn't see that guy, the other day, because of both the weather[1], and statistics[2].

1. Flooding and tornadoes
2. He'd sold out much hugely bigger venues
 
  • #5,230
OmCheeto said:
Mostly bad statistics, is my guess.
I think the appropriate question is "what is the average age at death of men in your country, excluding those who died younger than you are now". I'd expect some pretty broad confidence limits.

Isn't there a Heinlein short story about someone who works out an accurate method of predicting date of death? I think he gets murdered by a rampaging mob of life insurance salesmen.
OmCheeto said:
I didn't see that guy, the other day, because of both the weather[1], and statistics[2].
I saw he was coming to the UK. I must admit I didn't even try for tickets for reason (2).
 
  • #5,231
Someone a while back wished me a long and painful death . Still, I told them, isn't that what life is,a long and painful death?
 
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  • #5,232
WWGD said:
Someone a while back wished me a long and painful death . Still, I told them, isn't that what life is,a long and painful death?
Life is a disease with a 100% mortality rate, for sure.
 
  • #5,233
Ibix said:
Life is a disease with a 100% mortality rate, for sure.
Leading cause of death. Let's do away with it...to cut down the death rate ??!
 
  • #5,234
OmCheeto said:
Today, I calculated, via very bad maths, and or statistics, that I will die on Monday, February 19, 2029.

Not sure of the hour, nor the venue.
When was the next approximation of Apophis?
 
  • #5,235
Water and the air are deadly. Everybody dies eventually
:nb)
 
  • #5,236
Life is a terminal disease.
You pass it on to your children.
 
  • #5,237
'Reminds me of this:



(Original source: Kentucky Fried Movie)
 
  • #5,238
Ibix said:
I think the appropriate question is "what is the average age at death of men in your country, excluding those who died younger than you are now". I'd expect some pretty broad confidence limits.
It was mostly for fun, so very little effort went into making it realistic.
I quit smoking this last May, and the effects have not been wearing off fast enough, so I periodically google; "When is this going to end?", and I run across all manner of 'new to me' statistics.
The first graph I curve fit, gave me my death date.
The second graph I curve fit, told me that humans have a life expectancy of 240 years.


2019.09.12.bad.graphs.png

[ref to the legitimate part of the graph]​

I found that quite amazing.

ps. I may have omitted a couple of important data points.

Isn't there a Heinlein short story about someone who works out an accurate method of predicting date of death? I think he gets murdered by a rampaging mob of life insurance salesmen.
Although a fan of Heinlein, I do not recall that story.

I saw he was coming to the UK. I must admit I didn't even try for tickets for reason (2).
Over the last week, I've watched 3 videos featuring Randall Munroe, as I didn't know what he looked nor sounded like. He doesn't strike me as a very entertaining speaker. But I've decided that I can't go near his website, as I will push the "random" button, for hours.
 
  • #5,239
Automate:
Guy riding with you on your car.
 
  • #5,240
Undergrads have very 'powerful' proof techniques.
  1. Assume A, therefore A
  2. If you (the instructor) can't give a counter example to my (the student) claim, then my claim is true.
I don't recall teaching any of that .. :confused:
 
  • #5,241
OmCheeto said:
ps. I may have omitted a couple of important data points.

Although a fan of Heinlein, I do not recall that story.
If memory serves, the short story is usually titled "Life-Line" and the scientist named Pinero. RAH published Lifeline in an SF pulp magazine and then in anthology "Future History".

The anthology usually contains short story "Misfit" about math marvel spaceman Libby and the novelette "Methuselah's Children" where Heinlein introduces immortal Lazarus Long and the long-lived Howard Families featured in subsequent novels.

While stealing a starship to flee Earth to save the Howard Families, Lazarus tells Libby that Pinero was not a charlatan. Under his nom-de-space Captain Shefield, Lazarus visited Pinero who computes Lazarus's lifeline but refuses to divulge how long Long is fated to live. Given your chart, you may be a hidden Howard.:cool:
 
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  • #5,242
Refreshing my Python , writing a list of primes in a range. It runs...but prints out each number a weird number of times. AAGHHH. Maybe it is because of switching between versions 2,3, and between IDEs.
 
  • #5,243
OmCheeto said:
Today, I calculated, via very bad maths, and or statistics, that I will die on Monday, February 19, 2029.

Not sure of the hour, nor the venue.

Are you a stand-up comic? Maybe it will be The Apollo?
 
  • #5,244
WWGD said:
Refreshing my Python , writing a list of primes in a range. It runs...but prints out each number a weird number of times. AAGHHH. Maybe it is because of switching between versions 2,3, and between IDEs.
Why do you want to refresh your python? It doesn't even have arms, not to mention armpits.
 
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  • #5,245
fresh_42 said:
Why do you want to refresh your python? It doesn't even have arms, not to mention armpits.
Nein Python program. Python Fresh Air-keit.
 
  • #5,246
WWGD said:
Python Fresh Air
Oh, you allow it to go outside on its own. Didn't know they find home again.
 
  • #5,247
They go home to (Fresh* -Bel) Air

*Not necessarily _42
 
  • #5,248
I wonder if 'Vannesso' would be a good men's name.
 
  • #5,249
WWGD said:
I wonder if 'Vannesso' would be a good men's name.
Why not. Andrea is a men's name.
 

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