What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Evo
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Random Thoughts
Click For Summary
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criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content.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.
  • #3,931
WWGD said:
This looks more like geometric algebra. Or Simplicial.
No, it looks like homological algebra, the category thingies, at least the books are titled so, both, the English and the German ones.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #3,932
Ibix said:
Can be interpreted as, sure. But can be interpreted otherwise too (e.g. the connection). So I object to the "is" part of "a matrix is a tensor".
So it depends on what "is" is?
 
  • #3,933
Yo mama so fat , when she walks around the house... she _really_ walks around the house.
 
  • #3,934
Whenever you get a new job and meet your new co-workers:

oLG93mr.gif


Edit:

Scene from the movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguins_of_Madagascar
 

Attachments

  • oLG93mr.gif
    oLG93mr.gif
    595.2 KB · Views: 341
Last edited:
  • Like
Likes Borg
  • #3,935
Can someone please find a word for "Erkenntnis". The only possibility I see is "knowledge", but there is a fundamental difference between knowing something and understood something! Too bad we don't have philosophy here. I would be very interested which consequences it has to a society, that only knows things and doesn't care about "Erkenntnis".

And, no, re-cognition doesn't count. It's only to realize what's already known. I'm looking for the knowledge behind "Eureka!".
 
  • #3,936
fresh_42 said:
Can someone please find a word for "Erkenntnis". The only possibility I see is "knowledge", but there is a fundamental difference between knowing something and understood something! Too bad we don't have philosophy here. I would be very interested which consequences it has to a society, that only knows things and doesn't care about "Erkenntnis".

And, no, re-cognition doesn't count. It's only to realize what's already known. I'm looking for the knowledge behind "Eureka!".
Insight?
 
  • Like
Likes fresh_42
  • #3,937
Jonathan Scott said:
Insight?
Oh, I haven't thought about this one. Probably because it means something different in German. Insight here reflects on a revised and corrected position, or the possibility to view formerly closed documents.
 
  • #3,938
Have you even laughed so hard that you could literally feel your ab muscles ripping?
 
  • #3,939
Are rainbows chromatic aberrations, or vice versa?
 
  • Like
Likes collinsmark
  • #3,940
I've incidentally found a place in town today where people can actually play boules - people who played it inclusively.
 
  • #3,941
OmCheeto said:
Are rainbows chromatic aberrations, or vice versa?
They're more or less a product of chromatic aberration, yes. I'm not sure you can really call it chromatic aberration when it's not part of an optical system designed to form an achromatic image, but it's the same root cause, certainly.
 
  • Like
Likes OmCheeto
  • #3,942
fresh_42 said:
I've incidentally found a place in town today where people can actually play boules - people who played it inclusively.
I play boules
(I need no tools)
Against fools
While eating moules.
 
  • #3,943
Ibix said:
I play boules
(I need no tools)
Against fools
While eating moules.
Correction: Pétanque.

Your turn.
 
  • #3,944
fresh_42 said:
Correction: Pétanque.

Your turn.
I'll be frank
I play petanque
But I don't clank
'less I bring my tank.
 
  • Like
Likes fresh_42
  • #3,945
Ibix said:
I'll be frank
I play petanque
But I don't clank
'less I bring my tank.
You know this doesn't work with the actual pronunciation?
Our town is considered the most multi-cultural in Germany, but I didn't know that French belong to this mixture.
 
  • Like
Likes Ibix
  • #3,946
fresh_42 said:
You know this doesn't work with the actual pronunciation?
Our town is considered the most multi-cultural in Germany, but I didn't know that French belong to this mixture.
It works with the usual anglicised pronunciation. And just Googling it (from an English computer in England, anyway) gives me the same pronunciation. How's it supposed to be pronounced?
 
  • #3,947
Ibix said:
How's it supposed to be pronounced?
[peˈtaŋkɔ]
There is no correspondence to the French nasal syllables in English. Frank was o.k., since the French pronounce it similar, but then I don't think there is a way to make it rhyme in English. That's why I corrected boules. :wink:
 
  • Like
Likes Ibix
  • #3,948
Hmm. Google is offering pəˈtaŋk - which I think is the same except it's missing the final symbol - and the "listen to the pronunciation" comes out so that it rhymes with frank/clank/tank. But I do vaguely recall how to pronounce frank (or, at least, franc). And there won't be much that rhymes with that in English. As you say, we don't have that sort of sound.

Anyway, my doggerel works in English. And I'm speaking English. Not my fault if foreigners can't pronounce their own language right. :wink:
 
  • Like
Likes fresh_42
  • #3,949
I just looked it up, out of curiosity, and the statistic counts more than 300 French in town, and only a bit over 200 from UK. I would have expected more. At least the 330 are enough to explain a boules match.
 
  • #3,950
Ibix said:
Not my fault if foreigners can't pronounce their own language right.
Are we talking about the Haggis people?
 
  • #3,951
fresh_42 said:
Are we talking about the Haggis people?
Haggises are people? I thought they were furry creatures with one leg shorter than the other from running round hills. You catch them by scaring them into running the wrong way round a hill, then catching them in a net as they roll down the hill.
 
  • #3,952
Ibix said:
Haggises are people? I thought they were furry creatures with one leg shorter than the other from running round hills. You catch them by scaring them into running the wrong way round a hill, then catching them in a net as they roll down the hill.
I always suspected these things were alive - no wonder Nessie is hiding. ... Are they related to fried Mars bars?
 
  • #3,953
fresh_42 said:
I always suspected these things were alive - no wonder Nessie is hiding. ... Are they related to fried Mars bars?
No - unlike haggis trapping and Nessie, those are real. :oldruck:
 
  • #3,954
Ibix said:
They're more or less a product of chromatic aberration, yes. I'm not sure you can really call it chromatic aberration when it's not part of an optical system designed to form an achromatic image, but it's the same root cause, certainly.
Thanks! That was my thought.
 
  • Like
Likes Ibix
  • #3,955
Ibix said:
They're more or less a product of chromatic aberration, yes. I'm not sure you can really call it chromatic aberration when it's not part of an optical system designed to form an achromatic image, but it's the same root cause, certainly.
So is it the real life or is it just fantasy...?
 
  • #3,956
WWGD said:
So is it the real life or is it just fantasy...?
Old, but still funny:

Iif you're a Star Trek nerd, identify the episodes.
 
  • #3,957
Ibix said:
Old, but still funny:

Iif you're a Star Trek nerd, identify the episodes.

I need to update my cheesy pop references. But then again, I am kind of a newcomer, I started listening to them in the 2000s.
 
  • #3,958
WWGD said:
I need to update my cheesy pop references. But then again, I am kind of a newcomer, I started listening to them in the 2000s.
They gained my full attention in 1978 :biggrin:
 
  • #3,959
fresh_42 said:
They gained my full attention in 1978 :biggrin:
I incredibly had just passing experience with them. I think I got into them after some " Wayne World" movie.
 
  • #3,960
Does anyone not know Bohemian Rhapsody? It's one of those things that seems to me to have entered the collective unconscious.

It's possible my sample of "the collective" is biased by my age group.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 2K ·
64
Replies
2K
Views
58K
  • · Replies 3K ·
89
Replies
3K
Views
160K
  • · Replies 2K ·
76
Replies
2K
Views
171K
  • · Replies 4K ·
134
Replies
4K
Views
236K
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 3K ·
112
Replies
3K
Views
361K
  • · Replies 21 ·
Replies
21
Views
2K
  • · Replies 14 ·
Replies
14
Views
2K
Replies
5
Views
1K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
2K