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criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content.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.
  • #8,701
BillTre said:
Best playoff game ever.
One of the best games I've ever seen.
 
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  • #8,702
BillTre said:
Best playoff game ever.
If none of the other teams will improve tremendously, then we've seen the Superbowl winner tonight. Although KC will have to work on its defense. There have been at least three passes into or near the end zone I remember from the last quarter alone where the receiver was completely uncovered.
 
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  • #8,703
These were probably the best two teams in the playoffs.
Too bad it wasn't the SB.
 
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  • #8,704
BillTre said:
These were probably the best two teams in the playoffs.
Too bad it wasn't the SB.
It was a battle of QB with little defensive disturbances.
 
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  • #8,705
fresh_42 said:
If none of the other teams will improve tremendously, then we've seen the Superbowl winner tonight.
😍😍😍
 
  • #8,706
I realized I have been using the expression ' like a Jekyll and Hyde..' without ever knowing which one is the good one.
 
  • #8,707
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The doc is the outwardly pleasant man and Mr Hyde is his hidden (Hyde/hide) dark side.
 
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  • #8,708
Ibix said:
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. The doc is the outwardly pleasant man and Mr Hyde is his hidden (Hyde/hide) dark side.
And the rumors that he is buried at Hyde Park Corner have to be considered fake news.
 
  • #8,709
"The young people think the old people are fools -- but the old people know the young people are fools"
— Agatha Christie
 
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  • #8,710
A nice little snippet from a physicist delivering a talk earlier: "research physics is figuring out how to live on the knife edge between triviality and intractability". :oldeyes:
 
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  • #8,711
In the East, people practice martial arts like Tai Chi. In the West it's all Judo Christian practices.
 
  • #8,712
I took my first Covid test today and should get the results in 3 days. Based on the symptoms that I've had this week, I think that it was a regular cold. But it's best to check. :olduhh:
 
  • #8,713
Borg said:
I took my first Covid test today and should get the results in 3 days. Based on the symptoms that I've had this week, I think that it was a regular cold. But it's best to check. :olduhh:
My results were confusing: " You are NOT the father" ? ;).
 
  • #8,714
WWGD said:
My results were confusing: " You are NOT the father" ? ;).
It's only important that it is "negative" these days.
 
  • #8,715
fresh_42 said:
It's only important that it is "negative" these days.
A negative DNA test is something to hope for.
 
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  • #8,716
WWGD said:
A negative DNA test is something to hope for.
Everyone needs their DNA!
 
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  • #8,717
Gah! Chose sausages made of pork and chicken again unknowingly. Will be eating rubber-like sausages for a while.
 
  • #8,718
WWGD said:
Gah! Chose sausages made of pork and chicken again unknowingly. Will be eating rubber-like sausages for a while.
You have to buy your sausages here:

Screen-Shot-2019-02-28-at-15.03.14.png
 
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  • #8,719
fresh_42 said:
You have to buy your sausages here:

View attachment 296108
Or maybe at the store " The Best of the Wurst". Which should open at this intersection. Edit: Is that a Photoshop or are they real names?
 
  • #8,720
WWGD said:
Or maybe at the store " The Best of the Wurst". Which should open at this intersection. Edit: Is that a Photoshop or are they real names?
I have no idea. It was among the signs I posted in Lame Jokes, where I think e.g. "Parking here will be fine" was photoshopped, the accident with the car probably not.
 
  • #8,721
Got to play with a Michelson interferometer. :oldsmile:

1643311726167.png
 
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  • #8,722
ergospherical said:
Got to play with a Michelson interferometer. :oldsmile:

View attachment 296112
The Cavendish doesn't have lifts. The Blackett Lab does. In the latter, the Michelson interferometer was best used for detecting when the lift was in motion.
 
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  • #8,723
Ibix said:
The Cavendish doesn't have lifts. The Blackett Lab does. In the latter, the Michelson interferometer was best used for detecting when the lift was in motion.
I noticed this was the only piece of kit in the whole room bolted to the floor, so I'd venture to guess that the pattern would rapidly (and randomly) expand and collapse as the lift vibrated the apparatus? [university funds put to good use. :oldwink:]
 
  • #8,724
The pattern disappeared entirely, actually, but probably because your 'rapid' is a slight understatement and we just couldn't see the changes happening.

Properly isolated optical kit is bolted to very heavy tables which stand on pneumatic supports that isolate them from vibration in the floor. But the one in the student lab was not well isolated and in a lab adjacent to the lift shaft - probably so research kit wasn't there, honestly.

Pro tip: aluminium beer kegs with partially inflated motorcycle inner tubes on top do almost as good a job of isolating your optical table from the floor as bought gear, and are a few grand cheaper. And you can drink the beer.
 
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  • #8,725
Ibix said:
Pro tip: aluminium beer kegs with partially inflated motorcycle inner tubes on top do almost as good a job of isolating your optical table from the floor as bought gear, and are a few grand cheaper.
Yeah, I'm sure that explanation'll totally convince my demonstrator. :oldeyes:
 
  • #8,726
fresh_42 said:
I have no idea. It was among the signs I posted in Lame Jokes, where I think e.g. "Parking here will be fine" was photoshopped, the accident with the car probably not.
I saw a similarly -confusing one: " Fine for littering".
 
  • #8,727
WWGD said:
Is that a Photoshop or are they real names?
See the sixth photo here.
 
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  • #8,728
Keith_McClary said:
See the sixth photo here.
Good find. It doesn't seem to be an actual street sign - it's a hot dog vending cart.

Google Maps does find a Hot Dog Street in Fayetteville, North Carolina, but it doesn't cross a Sausages Avenue. The nearest match is a Sausage Lane in South Carolina.
 
  • #8,730
It’s funny watching certain people at the gym. A guy just came in fully kitted-out with protein-shakes et al, did about 15 lat pull-downs, then spent another 15 minutes on his phone, then did about another 5 lat pull-downs, drank the shake and left. :oldruck:
 
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  • #8,731
kyphysics said:
Is It Weird That I Prefer "Working" w/ Members of Opposite Sex More?
.
.
.
It's just that I usually (90% of the time) have more chemistry for some reason when working with people of the opposite sex.
Hmm... It could have something to do with continuing the species.
Ya think? Just maybe? :doh:
 
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  • #8,732
Borg said:
I took my first Covid test today and should get the results in 3 days. Based on the symptoms that I've had this week, I think that it was a regular cold. But it's best to check. :olduhh:
Test results came back already. Negative for Covid so it's just a cold.
:partytime:
 
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  • #8,733
Borg said:
Test results came back already. Negative for Covid so it's just a cold.
:partytime:
Good deal. But some take more than one test and some come positive and others come out negative. What do you then do? I guess Bayes time with false positives and negatives? Maybe @Dale can suggest how Bayes would play out in any such situation?
 
  • #8,734
" Tragedy" of eating chicken and pork sausages I mistakenly bought , thinking they were beef, is over. Almost ran out of a whole soy sauce bottle.
 
  • #8,735
WWGD said:
Good deal. But some take more than one test and some come positive and others come out negative. What do you then do? I guess Bayes time with false positives and negatives? Maybe @Dale can suggest how Bayes would play out in any such situation?
3 days waiting for the result ##{\Longrightarrow }_{a.c.}## PCR test ##\Longrightarrow_{a.c.} ## not false negative

Borg said:
Test results came back already. Negative for Covid so it's just a cold.
I am not quite sure whether it is supposed to congratulate you on having a cold.
 
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  • #8,736
fresh_42 said:
3 days waiting for the result ##{\Longrightarrow }_{a.c.}## PCR test ##\Longrightarrow_{a.c.} ## not false negative
You mean those tests have a low rate of false negatives? How about the false positives?
 
  • #8,737
Also low, although I haven't found exact figures. From Wikipedia:

In a round robin test by the German Instand e. V. (Society for the Promotion of Quality Assurance in Medical Laboratories), the quality of 463 laboratories from 36 countries was examined in May and June 2020, among other things, to determine whether they could reliably rule out false positive results in the tests. The laboratories for the SARS-CoV-2 negative samples mostly achieved correct negative results (97.8% to 98.6%). Laboratories that could not exclusively deliver 100% correct results were not certified.

cp. https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045
 
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  • #8,738
I'm aware of false negatives and positives but don't have the numbers. If I call them to get it, I would probably end up talking to someone who doesn't even know what false positives and negatives mean. I did send a message to my doctor asking if she knows how to get the numbers but I doubt that she'll be able to help.

In any case, the fact that it came back negative means I would just need to know the false negative rate in order to know how likely it is that I have an actual negative diagnosis.

I was also tested for two strains of flu and those were both negative as well.
 
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  • #8,739
WWGD said:
Good deal. But some take more than one test and some come positive and others come out negative. What do you then do? I guess Bayes time with false positives and negatives? Maybe @Dale can suggest how Bayes would play out in any such situation?
Roughly speaking, if a test has approximately equal sensitivity and specificity, then getting a negative test cancels out getting a positive test as far as Bayesian evidence goes. You are left with your prior, which is usually the incidence in the population.
 
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  • #8,740
Have no fear, The Tiger will be here. Goodbye Ox/Bull.
 
  • #8,741
Seems like wearing sweats is back in fashion. I also see many having iced drink. It doesn't make sense to me, but, hey, do your own thing. But I can't stand when someone doing both things starts complaining...about how cold it is ?
 
  • #8,742
I drank three full cups of coffee before a rowing test and now it's 19:37 in the evening and I'm hearing colours and seeing sounds. :olduhh:
 
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  • #8,743
ergospherical said:
I drank three full cups of coffee before a rowing test
How did the test go? Single skull?
 
  • #8,744
berkeman said:
How did the test go? Single skull?
just a timed sprint on the ergo for crew selection purposes. Think it went alright, although much more painful and less fun than on an actual river :)
 
  • #8,745
 
  • #8,746
Bathtub rowing is no fun.
ergospherical said:
just a timed sprint on the ergo for crew selection purposes. Think it went alright, although much more painful and less fun than on an actual river :)
 
  • #8,747
Wow, a positive Covid test two weeks ago. Now 2 negatives ( took two to make sure). EDIT: Wonder about the probability of catching Omicron, or some other variant, twice. I only remember one of them was an A&B.
 
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  • #8,748
First I spend around 25 minutes for the bathroom and then I find out this weird guy I thought was in line, is hanging out near the bathroom for no apparent reason. Then, as I'm leaving the bathroom, I almost get tackled by this guy desperate to get in.
 
  • #8,749
Isn't the fact that the definition of the word "word" uses words the perfect example of circularity? :biggrin:
 
  • #8,750
Wonder who's in the majority: People who have trouble winding themselves up ( caffeine), or who have trouble winding down( alcohol, etc.). I'm certainly on the second group.
 

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