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

[Klystron]

We should write a small play together some day.

Working title: "Root"*

Synopsis:
Poor but honest young mathematician must decide whether to remain on the family farm to grow root vegetables and raise Fibonacci bunnies, or travel to big city University to learn to determine roots of complex polynomials. Romance blossoms when our 'young Archimedes' falls in love with the beauteous mathematician Roxanne while crossing a bridge during a thunderstorm. Hilarity ensues when 'Archie' realizes Roxanne teaches his set theory class at the same university!

Will true love and an academic career map Archie's future, or will his 'roots' call him back to the farm to apply his mathematical skills to produce the perfect carrot?

Early Reviews of "Root" :

"The use of Carmichael's Theorem to resolve the 'bunny problem' left me speechless. Mathematics as Art!"
-- New York Times

" Ich lachte. Ich weinte. Ich nass meine Hose."
-- Der Spiegel

"Lady Gaga must sing the part of Roxanne when "Root" opens on Broadway. Sade as understudy?"
-- Millennial Review

*all due respect to Alex Haley.

 

[WWGD]

That reminds me of the British politician who said he wanted all schools to be classified as "good"; the criterion for "good" was "above average".

Or the guy who took seriously that all subway stops should be express stops .

 

[WWGD]

Do you have the pistachios with the red dye?
Red eye? A pistachio with a red eye?
Yes, the one with the red dye!

 

[fresh_42]

Humans. Such a funny species. They banned spectators from a football match due to SARS-CoV-2. Now it is assumed that thousands will gather in bars and watch it there.

I'm normally not a fan of Darwinism as a social concept, but sometimes ...

 

[Klystron]

Oldie but goodie: [edited for family consumption]

Sheila sells sea shells by the sea shore.
Seaman Sellers sees Sheila selling sea shells. Seaman Sellers says,
"Say, Sheila! See my special seaman shell!"
"No sale, Seaman Sellers!", says Sheila the seashell seller.

 

[WWGD]

Humans. Such a funny species. They banned spectators from a football match due to SARS-CoV-2. Now it is assumed that thousands will gather in bars and watch it there.

I'm normally not a fan of Darwinism as a social concept, but sometimes ...

How about people in the 1st world stocking up water , which they can just fill from the tap, and toilet paper !

 

[fresh_42]

https://nypost.com/2020/03/05/space...martphones-builds-cellphone-with-rotary-dial/

How about people in the 1st world stocking up water , which they can just fill from the tap, and toilet paper !

Depends on where in the 1st world. Our tap water is the best controlled food we have and often even better than mineral water from the supermarkets. However, if on the other hand it should happen that you live in Michael Moore's hometown ...

 

[WWGD]

https://nypost.com/2020/03/05/space...martphones-builds-cellphone-with-rotary-dial/

Depends on where in the 1st world. Our tap water is the best controlled food we have and often even better than mineral water from the supermarkets. However, if on the other hand it should happen that you live in Michael Moore's hometown ...

Yes, one city , small area in the country. Not the case elsewhere. EDIT Yet you seemingly believe that should apply throughout anyway.

 

[WWGD]

I wonder about so many people I see in other sites who know about foreign policy, foreign events at such amazing level of granularity in so many areas : ME, Russia, China, Brexit,..etc. How much time and energy do they have available to do such extensive research? I manage to get by knowing bits and pieces, but never at a similar level of detail.

 

[WWGD]

Still curious on whether iphones are the Complex part of some form of communication x+ iPhone.

 

[fresh_42]

Still curious on whether iphones are the Complex part of some form of communication x+ iPhone.

It's even more confusing in Germany. I pronounces "ei" which is the word for "egg". So iphones are egg-Phones, egg-Pads, egg-Macs etc. Wonder if I should have an iBread for breakfast.

 

[fresh_42]

Prince Harry liked a comment of mine on facebook.

 

[WWGD]

So I am sitting next to the lady in the coffee shop whom I repeatedly overheard

It's even more confusing in Germany. I pronounces "ei" which is the word for "egg". So iphones are egg-Phones, egg-Pads, egg-Macs etc. Wonder if I should have an iBread for breakfast.

Do you say 'walrus' after eimann?

 

[fresh_42]

So I am sitting next to the lady in the coffee shop whom I repeatedly overheard

Do you say 'walrus' after eimann?

A walrus as egg-man is too small, sorry John, but you know, I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. We use Egg-Max instead.

 

[WWGD]

A walrus as egg-man is too small, sorry John, but you know, I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. We use Egg-Max instead.

Koo koo koo chu.

 

[WWGD]

I saw yesterday a sentence perfectly illustrating the need for an Oxford comma, but I can't remember it now.

 

[WWGD]

It would be nice to have a feature when you're looking at a set of pics displayed vertically, where the caption points to the picture it refers to. Otherwise you don't know if the caption refers to the picture above it or the one below it.

 

[fresh_42]

Just read on fb:

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent virus threat and have therefore raised their threat level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, level may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.”

The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.

The virus has been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let's Get the Bastard.” They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years
Australia, meanwhile, has raised its alert level from “No worries” to “She'll be alright, Mate.” Two more escalation levels remain: “Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!” and “The barbie is cancelled.” So far, no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

 

[WWGD]

Prince Harry liked a comment of mine on facebook.

Dirty Harry made a few movies I liked. If Clint was an heir to some throne (fill in your examples), he would be Prince Dirty Harry. Or maybe dirty Prince Harry.

 

[skyshrimp]

I'm working cold beers and wondering if atoms at absolute zero generate a magnetic field, or is it only electron oscillation that creates the field (not in absolute zero).

Please don't move this. I'm just sharing harmless random thoughts

 

[WWGD]

I still wonder about claims about working 100- or even 80- hr weeks. This guy told me he works 100-hr weeks yet I see him often, while walking around, hanging out in coffee shops reading the paper, which would require him to work 100% of the remaining time. Just how productive can you be beyond 40-50 hrs/week? Maybe you can do 60+ for a few weeks but beyond that?

 

[wukunlin]

I still wonder about claims about working 100- or even 80- hr weeks. This guy told me he works 100-hr weeks yet I see him often, while walking around, hanging out in coffee shops reading the paper, which would require him to work 100% of the remaining time. Just how productive can you be beyond 40-50 hrs/week? Maybe you can do 60+ for a few weeks but beyond that?

Don't know about that guy, but I've done it once. Well, continuously for like a month with 6-day workweeks. Once it was over I fell horribly ill. The experienced exposed a lot of incompetence in my managers. They did give me a nice bonus at the end of the year but I just couldn't trust them anymore and walked out.

 

[WWGD]

Don't know about that guy, but I've done it once. Well, continuously for like a month with 6-day workweeks. Once it was over I fell horribly ill. The experienced exposed a lot of incompetence in my managers. They did give me a nice bonus at the end of the year but I just couldn't trust them anymore and walked out.

How do you even coordinate the logistics with so little time to think?

 

[wukunlin]

How do you even coordinate the logistics with so little time to think?

It was insane. I only had time for lunch and that was all the meal I had in a day. Now I think about it, I don't know how I managed to keep track of everything. Had to keep going from one thing to another, everything just flew by.

 

[WWGD]

It was insane. I only had time for lunch and that was all the meal I had in a day. Now I think about it, I don't know how I managed to keep track of everything. Had to keep going from one thing to another, everything just flew by.

You, and just-about anyone working that long, were probably being unproductive. The US has this unquestioned cult towards work and does not consider its potential negative implications. I bet if one planned things carefully, outside of extreme situations or emergencies, you can accomplish in some 40 hrs ( incl. the planning process) what you accomplish in a crazy 60+- work week. Would be great if countries that modeled the US would choose to follow the healthy examples only.

 

[wukunlin]

You, and just-about anyone working that long, were probably being unproductive. The US has this unquestioned cult towards work and does not consider its potential negative implications. I bet if one planned things carefully, outside of extreme situations or emergencies, you can accomplish in some 40 hrs ( incl. the planning process) what you accomplish in a crazy 60+- work week. Would be great if countries that modeled the US would choose to follow the healthy examples only.

It was an engineering build of a smartphone in development, where nothing went right and everyone wanted answers, and no one thought about the procedures to solve problems and we had to jump over countless hurdles of bureaucracy. So yes, the results were unproductive. It just shouldn't have been that difficult, too much time and effort spent on things that meant too little.

 

[WWGD]

It was an engineering build of a smartphone in development, where nothing went right and everyone wanted answers, and no one thought about the procedures to solve problems and we had to jump over countless hurdles of bureaucracy. So yes, the results were unproductive. It just shouldn't have been that difficult, too much time and effort spent on things that meant too little.

From the data I read, the most effective PMs are those who spend some 19% of their time planning.

 

[WWGD]

Wow, kind of shocking to be visiting a site as it was being hacked . Page moving up and down, page changing randomly. It was worldometers.info on corona and it was displaying the vatican having some 850,000 cases. They created a new row in what I assume was a data frame.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Wow, kind of shocking to be visiting a site as it was being hacked . Page moving up and down, page changing randomly. It was worldometers.info on corona and it was displaying the vatican having some 850,000 cases. They created a new row in what I assume was a data frame.

We probably shouldn't visit that site, then.

 

[fresh_42]

We probably shouldn't visit that site, then.

Otherwise the Vatican has a serious problem. Every citizen is 850 times infected!