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

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    Random Thoughts
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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses various random thoughts and observations, touching on topics such as media programming, personal anecdotes, language use, and mathematical curiosities. The scope includes informal commentary, humor, and reflections on everyday experiences.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants express frustration with the quality of documentaries on channels like the History Channel and National Geographic, suggesting a decline in factual programming.
  • There is a humorous anecdote about discovering a polythene bag obstructing a kitchen extractor fan, leading to a discussion about the clarity of installation manuals.
  • Participants share thoughts on the nature of prime numbers, particularly regarding the status of the number 2 and its implications for mathematical proofs.
  • There are reflections on language use and the reactions to grammatical errors made by native speakers, with some participants sharing their personal responses to such situations.
  • One participant humorously suggests that if 2 were not considered prime, it would complicate the understanding of prime factors in even numbers.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

The discussion contains multiple competing views, particularly regarding the status of the number 2 as a prime and the quality of media programming. No consensus is reached on these topics.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying degrees of skepticism and humor, with some comments reflecting personal experiences and subjective opinions rather than objective analysis.

Who May Find This Useful

Readers interested in informal discussions about media, language, and mathematics may find this thread engaging.

  • #5,461
nuuskur said:
So I scraped together what courage I had lying around and asked her out. We're going out next week. Oh dread and worry.. :nb)
Keep us posted.
 
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  • #5,462
WWGD said:
Isnt this what the gambler's fallacy is about?

I forgot that it had a name. In any case, the point is, I think the geometric distribution can be used to describe someone with the gambler's fallacy. But again, that absurd condition must be met, which makes the description a bit pointless since it describes something that cannot happen.
 
  • #5,463
Still prepping my insights post on the difference between Cosmology and Cosmetology. I will never mixed them up again!
 
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  • #5,464
WWGD said:
Still prepping my insights post on the difference between Cosmology and Cosmetology. I will never mixed them up again!
You weren't first!

A local newspaper wrote about Meitner's introductory lecture, and the reporter thought he had to correct its title to: 'Problems with Cosmetic Physics.'
 
  • #5,465
nuuskur said:
So I scraped together what courage I had lying around and asked her out. [...]
Ah, you're a better man now than I,... er,... was,... long ago.

Oh dread and worry.. :nb)
Don't fret too much. She'll probably be quite nervous too.
 
  • #5,466
I plan to watch CAR (5-3) vs. GB (7-2) tonight (my local) and want Rodgers to win. So if anyone wants to make some money, betting on the Panthers (at your preferred bookie, not here) might be a good idea. At least if it is as usual, e.g. last week.
 
  • #5,467
Just read a recent thread in the nuclear engineering subforum about someone having trouble making some computations for certain machines work out and that errors kept reocurring even after repairs. I don't know about you, I'm heading to the shelter.
 
  • #5,468
I would pay the person to stop reviewing my products: "Pudding was grate and decilious"
 
  • #5,472
  • #5,473
WWGD said:
I just have to give this link posted by @Bandersnatch in another forum : www.wisdomofchopra.com . I laugh every time.
Tweet your wisdom! As if we hadn't already enough people who think they must tweet their wisdom! Is there already something like polluting the internet?

"Knowing what you know and knowing what you are doing is knowledge." (Confucius) way cheaper
 
  • #5,474
fresh_42 said:
Tweet your wisdom! As if we hadn't already enough people who think they must tweet their wisdom! Is there already something like polluting the internet?

"Knowing what you know and knowing what you are doing is knowledge." (Confucius) way cheaper
Confucius is not as funny as Chopra.
 
  • #5,475
fresh_42 said:
Is there already something like polluting the internet?
Not "polluted" anymore, the Internet provided an ideal home for thousands of mutant sewer worms.
 
  • #5,476
Wonder why temperate countries like Thailand, Vietnam have these power soups . It seems they would knock you out if you had them on a hot or even mildly cold day.
 
  • #5,477
WWGD said:
Wonder why temperate countries like Thailand, Vietnam have these power soups . It seems they would knock you out if you had them on a hot or even mildly cold day.
Probably because that's where the hot chili peppers grow well. Hard to get good peppers in a cold climate with short summers - they take too long to mature.
 
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  • #5,478
Remembering Zoobyshoe, it is ##1^{o}F## in the North Pole. But it's a dry cold.
 
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  • #5,479
gmax137 said:
Probably because that's where the hot chili peppers grow well. Hard to get good peppers in a cold climate with short summers - they take too long to mature.
Good point.But its not just hot spice-wise but also temperature-wise, and overall rich.
 
  • #5,480
If you haven't developed refrigeration technology and you live in a hot country, spicy food covers up any slightly odd taste the food may have acquired...
 
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  • #5,481
Thanks, I was just about to have some...;). So until I am done , Gmax's explanation wins.
 
  • #5,482
Will try to remember yet another example to use the dash - for compound words: fungus free kit. Apparently some people pay for theirs...
 
  • #5,483
A telling phrase when you first meet someone "That's what they want you to think". Will do my best to avoid them.
 
  • #5,484
WWGD said:
A telling phrase when you first meet someone "That's what they want you to think". Will do my best to avoid them.
I heard an epic conversation in this line the other week, between a ranty bloke and his innocent victim at the next table. It was in French, which I stopped studying when I was 13 but I remember bits. And ranty bloke sounded to have an accent like Officer Crabtree, which makes life easier for an English listener. Any conversation containing "evolution", "supernatural", "world war 3" (not a typo, the poor guy on the receiving end of the rant checked twice) and "I am a victim" has to be bad, even if you can't pick out much more than that.
 
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  • #5,485
Ibix said:
I heard an epic conversation in this line the other week, between a ranty bloke and his innocent victim at the next table. It was in French, which I stopped studying when I was 13 but I remember bits. And ranty bloke sounded to have an accent like Officer Crabtree, which makes life easier for an English listener. Any conversation containing "evolution", "supernatural", "world war 3" (not a typo, the poor guy on the receiving end of the rant checked twice) and "I am a victim" has to be bad, even if you can't pick out much more than that.
Edit: Yet somehow many of those seem to excel at compartmentalizing. They hold full-time jobs, have families despite their unquestioned, hardly-supportable belief system. "World is only 5k y.o" but I am enjoying, using, all sorts of gadgets designed through mainstream science.
 
  • #5,486
WWGD said:
Yet somehow many of those seem to excel at compartmentalizing.
Indeed. I'm sure I hold a few contradictory beliefs, but I have changed beliefs when challenged on it. Probably not as often as I should, but I have done it.

Actually, I think the guy was just a xenophobic nutcase. He'd been demanding to know the nationality of everyone who stopped near him (not me though - if I had three lions and a cross of St George on my shirt I couldn't look more English than I do naturally) and getting shut down by everyone except the French guy. Any fluency at all in a foreign language was rather surprising to me.
 
  • #5,487
Ibix said:
Indeed. I'm sure I hold a few contradictory beliefs, but I have changed beliefs when challenged on it. Probably not as often as I should, but I have done it.

Actually, I think the guy was just a xenophobic nutcase. He'd been demanding to know the nationality of everyone who stopped near him (not me though - if I had three lions and a cross of St George on my shirt I couldn't look more English than I do naturally) and getting shut down by everyone except the French guy. Any fluency at all in a foreign language was rather surprising to me.
I plead guilty to not being perfectly consistent myself. Most likely true for the majority.
 
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  • #5,488
WWGD said:
I plead guilty to not being perfectly consistent myself. Most likely true for the majority.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. [Emerson]
 
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  • #5,489
How would " That's what they want you to think" compare with: " My Life Coach said that..."?
 
  • #5,490
jbriggs444 said:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. [Emerson]
Are you related to Mark44?
 

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