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criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content.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.
  • #8,951
WWGD said:
Ah, yes, just went with the default ' blackboard' to stand for any type of board. Thought it wouod be obvious. Though maybe instead they could be automatically sent to students as an attachment.
I think they were mainly invented for meeting protocols and addressed consultants rather than students. Their, the consultants', obsession for fancy, and otherwise superfluous gadgets has been likely the reason that they were sold at all.
 
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  • #8,952
fresh_42 said:
I think they were mainly invented for meeting protocols and addressed consultants rather than students. Their, the consultants', obsession for fancy, and otherwise superfluous gadgets has been likely the reason that they were sold at all.
I'm not sure it's superfluous. Not a bad thing to devote your attention fully towards listening rather than go back and forth between listening and writing. And having nice notes to look at, instead of smudged up pencil /pen notes.
 
  • #8,953
WWGD said:
But is pronunciation, accent (Edit : Significantly-) different between regions
My high school german teacher told us to say "wie gehts, y'all" when in Bavaria.
 
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  • #8,954
gmax137 said:
My high school german teacher told us to say "wie gehts, y'all" when in Bavaria.
I'm still stuck at' Farverhnugen' ( Sp?).
 
  • #8,955
Kind of bizarre the level of precision used by Worldometer Corona in it's population ( by country) numbers. Example, China has 1,439,678,217 people. They don't just round to 1,440 ,000,000.
 
  • #8,956
WWGD said:
Kind of bizarre the level of precision used by Worldometer Corona in it's population ( by country) numbers. Example, China has 1,439,678,217 people. They don't just round to 1,440 ,000,000.

China Population (LIVE)

updates every three seconds.
 
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  • #8,957
Keith_McClary said:

China Population (LIVE)

updates every three seconds.
I understand thst for a population feed , but Worldometer is not intended to be one. I noticed that World Almanac and book of facrs uses the same level of precision.

What's next, though live feed of Chinese births?
 
  • #8,958
How to dispose of 3G phones to avoid personal info extracted? Smash it? DeGauss it?
 
  • #8,959

Lithium-ion batteries are fueling the fire on a burning cargo ship full of Porsches​

https://qz.com/2130711/electric-vehicles-make-it-harder-to-quell-fire-on-felicity-ace-cargo-ship/
The cargo ship Felicity Ace is aflame from bow to stern with a lithium-ion battery fire that can’t be put out with water alone.

The fire has been burning since Wednesday (Feb. 16), as the ship drifts in the Atlantic about 200 miles southwest of Portugal’s Azores Islands. Its 22-person crew abandoned ship and was rescued on Thursday.

The ship left Germany on Feb. 10 and headed for the US with about 4,000 Porsches, Bentleys and other luxury cars aboard, and some of those were electric vehicles.
Maybe they need to rethink packing electric vehicles in enclosed spaces. All it takes is one bad battery, and 'poof'. At least have fire walls and decks. Inert gas (nitrogen, CO2 or otherwise) would be necessary. But then the crew must use pressurized air to avoid asphyxiation.

https://news.yahoo.com/firefighters-struggle-douse-fire-luxury-110457510.html

Cabeças previously said that "everything was on fire about five meters above the water line" and the blaze was still far from the ship's fuel tanks. It is getting closer, he said.

"The fire spread further down," he said, explaining that teams could only tackle the fire from outside by cooling down the ship's structure as it was too dangerous to go on board.

They also cannot use water because adding weight to the ship could make it more unstable, and traditional water extinguishers do not stop lithium-ion batteries from burning, Cabeças said.
 
Last edited:
  • #8,961
Astronuc said:
Maybe they need to rethink packing electric vehicles in enclosed spaces. All it takes is one bad battery, and 'poof'. At least have fire walls and decks. Inert gas (nitrogen, CO2 or otherwise) would be necessary. But then the crew must use pressurized air to avoid asphyxiation.
I remember watching a documentary on TV about the fire on a ferry. It was full of trucks, many with refrigeration systems. However, there were more such trucks than on-board power supplies, so some of them continued to run their diesel-powered refrigeration units. And the injection - I can't remember if it was water or carbonic dioxide - failed because the switches were labeled incorrectly.
 
  • #8,962
  • #8,963
WWGD said:
Do you know where Android stores it's content? SD card?
I thought I saw something about an SD card under the SIM card.

Meanwhile, here are some instructions for Android phones.
https://www.theverge.com/21419919/delete-data-android-phone-sell-trade-how-to

I also found this in instructions of Android phones.

Step 7: Remove Your Micro SD Storage Card and SIM Card​

This step is probably the easiest. Use the SIM card ejector tool that was included with your phone or a paperclip to open the SIM card slot and take out your SIM card and any external memory cards you have.
https://www.compareandrecycle.co.uk...roid#steps-to-remove-all-data-from-an-android
from https://www.compareandrecycle.co.uk/blog/how-to-remove-data-from-iphone-android

How to Securely Delete Photos and Clear All Data From Your Android Phone​

https://gadgets360.com/mobiles/feat...elete-all-data-from-your-android-phone-603731

From Samsung
https://www.samsung.com/ie/support/...on-on-my-samsung-galaxy-s5-via-factory-reset/

Google support
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/81987?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform=Android
 
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  • #8,964
Jonathan Scott said:
My guess is that it's because he wrote in Russian, and the English version is a translation. I suspect that Russian doesn't have an equivalent of "j" distinct from "i".
This is a wrong guess for a number of reasons. For one, in Russian you still use the Latin (and Greek) letters for notations. For example you write triangle ##ABC##, not triangle ##АБВ##. Vectors ##\vec{i}, \vec{j}, \vec{k}## not ##\vec{и}, \vec{й}, \vec{к}##.
 
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  • #8,965
fresh_42 said:
@Jonathan Scott's obviously correct explanation teaches us how important context is!
I will need some context here, because to me his explanation is obviously wrong!
 
  • #8,966
martinbn said:
I will need some context here, because to me his explanation is obviously wrong!
I was not suggesting that the notation would use Russian letters, but rather that since Russian is one of several languages where "i" and "j" are not distinct letters, it would not seem natural to do so.
 
  • #8,967
WWGD said:
Those who use together either of the pairs (i, j) or (u,v) on a blackboard, should be shot. They're undistinguishable for 99% of writers.
Looking at L&L, which of course is not just Landau, it does seem that they avoid 'j' as an index with plenty of indices in the second volume. But they use the notation ##j^i## for the 4-current. If you had taken a course with him, this would have made you shoot him yourself:smile:
 
  • #8,968
martinbn said:
I will need some context here, because to me his explanation is obviously wrong!
Well, this is as wrong as ...
martinbn said:
This is a wrong guess for a number of reasons. For one, in Russian you still use the Latin (and Greek) letters for notations. For example you write triangle ##ABC##, not triangle ##АБВ##. Vectors ##\vec{i}, \vec{j}, \vec{k}## not ##\vec{и}, \vec{й}, \vec{к}##.
... is. Will say, that your statement is as speculative as Jonathan's is. You simply cannot know.

Fact: Landau used ##{ik}## and not ##{ij}## as indices. I have checked. Did you?

From there on it is pure speculation why. I consider it plausible not to use ##j## if you are a native Russian speaker since it is simply not in your natural reservoir. Another idea is what I said earlier: they used typewriters at the time and ##i## and ##j## might have been hard to distinguish, at least harder than ##i## and ##k##.

But if you continue claiming that you know what had driven Landau, I'm looking forward to being invited to your seance.
 
  • #8,969
Jonathan Scott said:
I was not suggesting that the notation would use Russian letters, but rather that since Russian is one of several languages where "i" and "j" are not distinct letters, it would not seem natural to do so.
I see, why? I, as a Bulgarian, have always used 'j' along as any other. For example the elements of a matrix for me are most naturally ##a_{ij}##.
 
  • #8,970
Is there a substitute for Ctrl+A for gmail, to select all emails in a search result?
martinbn said:
Looking at L&L, which of course is not just Landau, it does seem that they avoid 'j' as an index with plenty of indices in the second volume. But they use the notation ##j^i## for the 4-current. If you had taken a course with him, this would have made you shoot him yourself:smile:
Im referring to using them in a blackboard/whiteboard setting where the letters in the pair tend to be indistinguishable at plain sight. And I forgot the pair (m,n) too. Not so bad in a typeset book, but not a bsd idea to avoid .
 
  • #8,971
I was just an adjunct for a while, but never fully mastered writing in the board while looking back at the class. I did have a professor who would arrive, write nonstop for the duration of the class and then leave . And all from memory; no notes.
 
  • #8,972
ergospherical’s law: the number of chicken selects you order from maccies at midnight is proportional to the square of the number of pints of guinness you’ve had. It’s a dangerous combo. :oldruck:
 
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  • #8,973
whoooooooooops, fixed a blunder in my last post
peace out my gs
 
  • #8,974
ergospherical said:
whoooooooooops, fixed a blunder in my last post
peace out my gs
Hops are the closest botanical relative of the cannabis plant. Questions?
 
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  • #8,975
fresh_42 said:
Hops are the closest botanical relative of the cannabis plant. Questions?
Wow, i didn't know that.

Wikipedia agrees with you:
Screen Shot 2022-02-22 at 4.35.04 PM.png
 
  • #8,976
How about beer-battered chicken?
 
  • #8,977
Actually eating or drinking while walking is extremely hard. Myself, people in general stop their walk, eat, then continue walking.

Though I've been surprised at seeing people reading actual books while walking, rather than looking at their phones
 
  • #8,978
Damn it's cold here. . . not good for baby calves ! . 😞

1645602920415.png


.
 
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  • #8,979
OCR said:
Damn it's cold here. . . not good for baby calves ! . 😞

View attachment 297481

.
And the " Real Feel" may be even lower than that. Guess that area gets , what. 6 months of Winter?
 
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  • #8,980
Kind of weird way of framing questions. " Why does dimensional analysis work?"
Not sure, maybe to pay for food and rent?
 
  • #8,981
OCR said:
Damn it's cold here. . . not good for baby calves ! . 😞

View attachment 297481
I heard (at that temperature)you put food in the fridge to warm it up, right?
.
 
  • #8,982
Lol. . .

Who said that. . . ?

I heard (at that temperature)you put food in the fridge to warm it up, right?

You or me. . . ? . 🤔

.
 
  • #8,983
OCR said:
Lol. . .

Who said that. . . ?
You or me. . . ? . 🤔

.
Fortunately haven't been in that position yet. Hope I'll never be ;).
 
  • #8,984
Now here is a strange observation:

Ленин
Сталин
Ельцин
Путин
 
  • #8,985
fresh_42 said:
Now here is a strange observation:

Ленин
Сталин
Ельцин
Путин
I don't get it! That's how Russian names work. By the way, Lenin's name is Uljanov (Ульянов).
 
  • #8,986
martinbn said:
I don't get it! That's how Russian names work. By the way, Lenin's name is Uljanov (Ульянов).
I know. Similar is true for Stalin with the Georgian ending -vili. However, neither for Yelzin nor Putin. But that particular ending in contrast to -ev or -ov is telling if you look at the list.
 
  • #8,987
fresh_42 said:
I know. Similar is true for Stalin with the Georgian ending -vili. However, neither for Yelzin nor Putin. But that particular ending in contrast to -ev or -ov is telling if you look at the list.
Yes, but it is quite common in Russia, it is not just these four.
 
  • #8,988
martinbn said:
Yes, but it is quite common in Russia, it is not just these four.
But they weren't presidents or leaders.
 
  • #8,989
I thought " Stalin ' meant ' Man of Steel". Which I guess makes him into Superman, according to the Western nickname.
 
  • #8,990
My only observation, not knowing any Russian , was the similarity between Dombass and Dumbass.
 
  • #8,991
Wow, email can be pretty revealing of some traits. Like those people who periodically reply to your emails within 30 minutes. Scary.
 
  • #8,992
First time I am actually happy that my last relationship broke. The discussions these days would be devastating.
 
  • #8,993
fresh_42 said:
First time I am actually happy that my last relationship broke. The discussions these days would be devastating.
and wait for the (underestimated) downfall of (not being ready for ) 5G. A "Potent Potable" cocktail mixing with Covid and Ukraine.
 
  • #8,994
WWGD said:
A "Potent Potable" cocktail mixing with Covid and Ukraine.
Let me put it this way: my avatar is a picture taken in the Caucasus in southern Russia ...
 
  • #8,995
fresh_42 said:
Let me put it this way: my avatar is a picture taken in the Caucasus in southern Russia ...
Ah. Good thing you did not have a reunion there in recent times.
 
  • #8,996
WWGD said:
Wow, email can be pretty revealing of some traits. Like those people who periodically reply to your emails within 30 minutes. Scary.
Is this too slow or too fast?

I usually reply to emails within 5 minutes or less.
 
  • #8,997
fresh_42 said:
Let me put it this way: my avatar is a picture taken in the Caucasus in southern Russia ...
I'm guessing it was you in the original pic on top of the bear, and Putin was air-brushed in? I understand the South Caucasus is popular for such shoots. ;).
 
  • #8,998
Jarvis323 said:
Is this too slow or too fast?

I usually reply to emails within 5 minutes or less.
Wow, if you don't mind my asking, are you a CEO, or just hyper-connected? Is this all week long, or during work hours?
 
  • #8,999
WWGD said:
I'm guessing it was you in the original pic on top of the bear, and Putin was air-brushed in? I understand the South Caucasus is popular for such shoots. ;).
For a moment I was tempted to use a picture where I could be seen in bed after a spontaneous party in a hotel cafeteria in Moscow. (It had been taken without my knowledge. Not that I could have done much about it.)
 
  • #9,000
fresh_42 said:
For a moment I was tempted to use a picture where I could be seen in bed after a spontaneous party in a hotel cafeteria in Moscow. (It had been taken without my knowledge. Not that I could have done much about it.)
I thought you were in the town were Euler crossed the 5 bridges, whose analysis gave rise to Topology. Was that the Pregel river of some like that?
 

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