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criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content.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.
  • #5,601
fresh_42 said:
That comes when you change wording while typing. At the beginning of a sentence I automatically hit caps.

How should I know what I think before I read what I typed?
How should I know /
 
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  • #5,602
WWGD said:
How should I know /
Yeah, beside that y and z are exchanged, the special characters are different, too. That was especially annoying at times you had to boot from a floppy disk which didn't have the German keyboard setting in the autoexec.bat
 
  • #5,603
fresh_42 said:
Yeah, beside that y and z are exchanged, the special characters are different, too. That was especially annoying at times you had to boot from a floppy disk which didn't have the German keyboard setting in the autoexec.bat
Triest Dvorak (Dvorach?) keybored (before it expires ;))?
 
  • #5,604
Wonder why SQL Server services don't start automatically when you load SSMS. It took me a while to figure this was the main reason for the inability to connect. But adding Python, R and ML to SQL Server allows me to forgive them. More so when I finally learn to use it.
 
  • #5,605
I only know Antonín Dvořák.
 
  • #5,606
fresh_42 said:
I only know Antonín Dvořák.
Know him? He died in 1904! aka 1904 1. Besides, he was Czech, mate (Or Check mate!)
 
  • #5,607
WWGD said:
Know him? He died in 1904! aka 1904 1. Besides, he was Czech, mate (Or Check mate!)
I know him, but he only speaks czech, so I do not understand him. The séances are bit boring.
 
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  • #5,608
fresh_42 said:
I know him, but he only speaks czech, so I do not understand him. The séances are bit boring.
In the restaurant? Czech please!
 
  • #5,609
fresh_42 said:
I know him, but he only speaks czech, so I do not understand him. The séances are bit boring.
Seances? I too confuse 'regression' with Spiritism. I once tried to conjure someone only to hear them say : " I am not dead yet!".
 
  • #5,610
49218367891_02e205e0dd_b_d.jpg
 
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  • #5,611
Houses that cannot stand, based on the street name...
 
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  • #5,612
I heard of this unusual Rock or general experimental music band whose name was pretty bizarre, no letters nor numbers, something like ))|:)... and who's music had no melody, but I can't remember nor find its name through a search. Guess they don't need to choose a name that people will remember.
 
  • #5,613
This is the most absurd I can come up with:


Btw, been to Brooklyn lately?
 
  • #5,614
fresh_42 said:
This is the most absurd I can come up with:


Btw, been to Brooklyn lately?

No, I don't think that's the band, the song has some melody.
 
  • #5,615
What is this?
x
 
  • #5,616
fresh_42 said:
What is this?
x
?? What's what?
 
  • #5,617
Said hello effusively to someone in the streets I knew, to their obvious puzzlement. Later on I realized it is a lady I had often seen at the post office but had never met. Subconsciously I guess I assumed I knew her. I've heard of people with similar situations with TV personalities. You see them daily on TV, so when you see them in the streets, if you're a little distracted you say hi to them as if you knew them in person.
 
  • #5,618
WWGD said:
?? What's what?
The hidden variable.
 
  • #5,619
fresh_42 said:
The hidden variable.
Maybe you're looki g for the Quantum forum?
 
  • #5,620
WWGD said:
Maybe you're looki g for the Quantum forum?
I left one in Lame Jokes but nobody guessed. (Near the Time Square discussion.)
 
  • #5,621
fresh_42 said:
I left one in Lame Jokes but nobody guessed. (Near the Time Square discussion.)
Now the two are entangled.
 
  • #5,622
Auto (in) correct almost causing a major confrontation in another site:

Spit on Steve !
(Spot on, Steve!).
 
  • #5,623
I'm afraid I sowed the germ of evil today!

McDonald's drive thrus have usually three stops here: order - pay - receive food. Some genius at my usual McDoof has had an idea! As I asked for the bill they told me that I would get it together with the food. I couldn't help, I just had to tell them that there is a fundamental flaw in their logic and this new procedure is complete bs. Seems I was the first one who taught them. Now they know. Crap, I need a new franchise.
 
  • #5,624
fresh_42 said:
I'm afraid I sowed the germ of evil today!

McDonald's drive thrus have usually three stops here: order - pay - receive food. Some genius at my usual McDoof has had an idea! As I asked for the bill they told me that I would get it together with the food. I couldn't help, I just had to tell them that there is a fundamental flaw in their logic and this new procedure is complete bs. Seems I was the first one who taught them. Now they know. Crap, I need a new franchise.
You mean because it is harder to correct errors in the check?
 
  • #5,625
WWGD said:
You mean because it is harder to correct errors in the check?
It is impossible. The bill became completely meaningless. They could as well hand out anything.
 
  • #5,626
It's hardly cheap as some claim, for a reasonable amount of food.
 
  • #5,627
WWGD said:
It's hardly cheap as some claim, for a reasonable amount of food.
Yep, it's relatively expensive. More than twice the price of a Döner. And the Döner has far better nutrition data. Plus they don't have refills here.
 
  • #5,628
Doner is Kebob? ( Or , for my friend Robert: Kebob)
 
  • #5,629
WWGD said:
Doner is Kebob? ( Or , for my friend Robert: Kebob)
1576690331750.png
 
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  • #5,630
fresh_42 said:
Ah, I see those in the streets. Did not know they had been industrialized.
 
  • #5,631
The story says that a Turk, Kadir Nurman, in Berlin invented it in the 60's or so. The dish wasn't new, they usually serve it for lunch. The man recognized that all people hurried on the streets during lunchtime and nobody stopped by to sit down in his little restaurant. Then he had the idea to make a to-go version of it.

Annual sales are now at 3.5bn in Germany.
 
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  • #5,632
fresh_42 said:
The story says that a Turkey, Kadir Nurman, in Berlin invented it in the 60's or so.
In case that's not just a typo, a Turk, or a Turkish person, is someone from Turkey. A turkey is a kind of bird, or a childish insult in the US.
 
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  • #5,633
Ibix said:
In case that's not just a typo, a Turk, or a Turkish person, is someone from Turkey. A turkey is a kind of bird, or a childish insult in the US.
Possibly a inadvertent transliteration from the German. Like Turkite?
 
  • #5,634
And a source of confusion too, as in a few years back: Airplane goes down, shot by Turkey.
 
  • #5,635
Fred Wright said:
Possibly a inadvertent transliteration from the German. Like Turkite?
I admit I was too lazy to look it up. In other cases adjective, noun, and nationality match. The situation isn't any better in German: to "turk" something means to fake something. When they celebrated the opening of the Kiel Canal in 1895 many ships from many nations were present. The orchestra played the national anthems accordingly. Unfortunately they didn't had the notes of the Turkish anthem, so they decided to play the "Rondo Alla Turca" from Mozart instead. We use to turk as a verb for to fake since then.

I truly hope that this anecdote is invented, but I fear it is not. The piece reminds of the turkish (osmanic) occupation of Vienna. A strange association for the opening festivities of the canal.
 
  • #5,636
Fred Wright said:
Possibly a inadvertent transliteration from the German. Like Turkite?
Possibly.

My wife is Spanish, so I'm used to minor lost-in-translation moments. I don't normally comment on minor typos/misspellings where sense is unaffected, but I've found that people can get quite sensitive about proper names for countries and nationalities. Particularly when you happen to be implying that the guy was an idiot, reading the text as written.

My wife once sent me a text saying that she'd heard (from a mutual friend who was an office mate of mine) that I was sleeping around the office, smiley face emoticon. I had been out drinking to celebrate a friend's birthday the night before and was indeed having some trouble keeping my eyes open - but that's not what "sleeping around the office" means... I decided I'd better not let that one pass...
 
  • #5,637
fresh_42 said:
I admit I was too lazy to look it up. In other cases adjective, noun, and nationality match. The situation isn't any better in German: to "turk" something means to fake something. When they celebrated the opening of the Kiel Canal in 1895 many ships from many nations were present. The orchestra played the national anthems accordingly. Unfortunately they didn't had the notes of the Turkish anthem, so they decided to play the "Rondo Alla Turca" from Mozart instead. We use to turk as a verb for to fake since then.

I truly hope that this anecdote is invented, but I fear it is not. The piece reminds of the turkish (osmanic) occupation of Vienna. A strange association for the opening festivities of the canal.
I remember a 4th of July were hosts played "Born in the USA", superficially a patriotic song but actually a protest song. Didnt make sense.
 
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  • #5,638
fresh_42 said:
The orchestra played the national anthems accordingly. Unfortunately they didn't had the notes of the Turkish anthem, so they decided to play the "Rondo Alla Turca" from Mozart instead. We use to turk as a verb for to fake since then.
Have you seen the film The Dish? It's basically a slice-of-life around Parkes radio telescope when they are the only ones who can pick up the live feed from Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon. The US ambassador is in this small town in the back of beyond in Australia. The mayor asks everyone to be upstanding for the US national anthem, and the band plays the theme from Hawaii Five-O. The mayor apologises later, but the ambassador - an experienced diplomat - laughs it off.
 
  • #5,639
WWGD said:
I remember a 4th of July were hosts played "Born in the USA", superficially a patriotic song but actually a protest song. Didnt make sense.
Nobody listens to the words of anything. "Every Breath You Take" is quite popular at weddings - presumably for the "you belong to me" line in the chorus, which is extremely creepy in the context of the lyrics. And "Fairytale of New York" is a popular christmas song, despite the singers praying God this christmas'll be their last and swearing at and insulting each other
 
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  • #5,640
" I have time to kill"

Let me start running just in case. Maybe you can be less ambiguous?

Same as , I think Crichton's book " Time to Kill". A book about some murderers

or an account of someone extremely bored?
 
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  • #5,641
WWGD said:
" I have time to kill"

Let me start running just in case. Maybe you can be less ambiguous?
There's a rather surreal Star Trek novel where they briefly meet the Time Being, who turns out to be rather blubbery and unfit, on account of never doing anything because of all the people who do things for the time being.
 
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  • #5,642
Highest drink temperature you're allowed to ask for at @Sbux is 190 degrees. Seems cup will be too hot to handle.
 
  • #5,643
Wonder if it makes sense to put food on fridge when there are 4+ consecutive days with temperature below 30 deg. Actually warming them up putting them on the fridge.
 
  • #5,644
fresh_42 said:
Koala bogu for the internet. In the olden days, I used to have to actually dissect delicious meals, in person, to figure out what was in them.

2019.12.19.doner.kebab.pdx.png


This is much too easy.

ps. I've never heard of "odd potato chips" before. hmmmm...
 
  • #5,645
OmCheeto said:
Koala bogu for the internet. In the olden days, I used to have to actually dissect delicious meals, in person, to figure out what was in them.

View attachment 254372

This is much too easy.

ps. I've never heard of "odd potato chips" before. hmmmm...
My guess is they give you 1,3,5,..., 2n+1,... chips?
 
  • #5,646
OmCheeto said:
I've never heard of "odd potato chips" before.
They are the alternative to Wenceslas chips which are deep and crisp and even.
 
  • #5,647
Whatever it is, it's making hungry. Looks pretty tasty. Edit: Closest to that I can think of is Chipotles.
@fresh_42 Du hast Chipotles auf Deutschland?
 
  • #5,648
Yes, necessity is the mother of invention, but who's the father?
 
  • #5,649
WWGD said:
Yes, necessity is the mother of invention, but who's the father?

Frank Zappa of course.


Where do think dental floss came from?
 
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  • #5,650
WWGD said:
Chipotles
Not that I knew of. Germany is a bit underdeveloped regarding mexican food. There are some mexican restaurants but I don't think big chains. I know that my NM friend has trouble to find the chilis here she is used to. It's easier to get asian food.
 

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