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

[Borg]

This week, I discovered that my car posts inspection messages that can theoretically only be cleared by the dealer when you take it there to have it 'inspected'. A simple 20K check of fluids, etc. is over $400 and some inspections run in excess of $1000! I've been to dealers for repairs before and they use every opportunity to go on fishing expeditions to see how much they can scare you in order to have you do unnecessary repairs.

It took a bit of research but I found that cars in the U.S. are required to follow an On Board Display (OBD) standard for diagnostic tools which led me to this little device for $70 which will clear the "Inspection Due" messages and allow me to take it where I choose.

UPDATE:
I got the scanner today and used it to reset the service interval. Worked like a charm and it even told me about the last trick that the manufacturer had up its sleeve - the service reset can't be done unless the hood is open.

 

[dlgoff]

I watched a PBS program today about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Which reminded me about an interview and job offer as a non-destructive test engineer from Morton Thiokol, Inc. I had before the disaster. I ended up taking a job from a different employer. Thank goodness.

 

[nuuskur]

Wonder what this is about : Why is Spanish so popular in ( Edit: in Europe).
View attachment 325900

I would like to learn Spanish as well. Mainly because it's almost another lingua franca. In some parts of the world it definitely is. Just as Mandarin in many SEA countries.

 

[fresh_42]

This is going to be a tough weekend. Whenever I zap through an English channel I hear or read a word that sounds like a nasty disease or an overpriced beer. Then I realize it's even worse and I wish it was Monday.

 

[fresh_42]

I just read the headline: "ChatGPT for better teaching"

Then I read the little statement to figure out who it said - a university president.

Oops! Then I searched from which department this obviously dull professor came.

Physicist and biologist.

Double oops! What a disappointment.

 

[WWGD]

I understood the weird look I received recently. I meant to tell someone I was doing a Spring Cleaning on Steroids. Instead, I said I'm doing a Spring cleaning on ...Hemorrhoids.

 

[WWGD]

Wonder if it would make sense to include the links to free books put out by Springer?

 

[Tom.G]

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=springer+free+books

(maybe Google should be promoted to one of your "Best Friends")

 

[WWGD]

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=springer+free+books

(maybe Google should be promoted to one of your "Best Friends")

I did look, though I remember seeing Math books at some point, but not in their current webpage.

 

[Tom.G]

Checking the Google search results found a site with a list sorted by subject:
https://hnarayanan.github.io/springer-books/

 

[WWGD]

Checking the Google search results found a site with a list sorted by subject:
https://hnarayanan.github.io/springer-books/

Thanks for the link, but these are not free, but discounted:

 

[fresh_42]

If it looks like a duck,
walks like a duck,
and quacks like a duck,

then it is definitely a **** AI if you had to ask.

 

[nsaspook]

the dead zone where all sense of time and space seems to disappear ....

 

[fresh_42]

Back in my days it was more like this:

We didn't know sleep and the fridge was empty anyway.

 

[Grelbr42]

We didn't know sleep and the fridge was empty anyway.

The first ever webcam was pointed at the coffee pot so that people didn't need to walk all the way there to find the pot empty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot

I wonder what people did when it was empty?

 

[nsaspook]

The first ever webcam was pointed at the coffee pot so that people didn't need to walk all the way there to find the pot empty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot

I wonder what people did when it was empty?

 

[WWGD]

Not too confident about an organization called the " Feil" organization.

 

[Borg]

The first ever webcam was pointed at the coffee pot so that people didn't need to walk all the way there to find the pot empty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot

I wonder what people did when it was empty?

Don't forget its HTTP Coffee Pot protocol 418 - I'm a teapot.

 

[pinball1970]

Random book. Totally forgot I had this, I have Griffiths but got bogged down quick. I will try again but was wondering if you guys had come across it.

 

[fresh_42]

I am basically satisfied with Google, but one thing sucks as hell. If I searched for something, then they fill both of my caches, the German and the English one. But if I clean up one cache, the other one remains untouched.

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...-race-adventure-lifetime-tragedy-simon-speirs

Sometimes the risks and cost are just too great.

 

[BillTre]

That makes too much sense!

 

[Rive]

The 'flea market' of my favourite IT site is littered with all those 'mining rigs'
It's quite tempting to put up some real hard ware (for real men)

 

[BillTre]

 

[DrGreg]

He also reacted similarly to the UK sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf:



Summary: when he first saw it, his intention was to sue, until he realised it was a comedy and he subsequently became a great fan.

 

[pinball1970]

Paul Dirac interview

 

[fresh_42]

Paul Dirac interview

I have a book. The elementary particles. Copyright: 1943.

 

[Astronuc]

Kansas farmers abandon wheat fields after extreme drought
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kansas-farmers-abandon-wheat-fields-100000061.html

WICHITA, Kansas, May 22 (Reuters) - Farmers in Kansas, the biggest U.S. producer of wheat used to make bread, are abandoning their crops after a severe drought and damaging cold ravaged farms.

They are intentionally spraying wheat fields with crop-killing chemicals and claiming insurance payouts more than normal, betting the grain is not worth harvesting, Reuters found on a three-day tour of the state. Other growers are turning over dismal-looking fields to cattle for grazing.

Abandoning fields will lead to a smaller U.S. wheat supply in the world's No. 5 wheat exporter, with stocks seen falling to a 16-year low. High rates of abandonment deal an economic blow to farm towns and force wheat buyers to adjust procurement plans by buying the staple grain elsewhere.

Nationally, winter-wheat farmers plan to abandon 33% of the acres they planted, the highest percentage since World War I, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a May 12 report.

Kansas farmers are expected to abandon about 19% of the acres planted last autumn, up from 10% last year and 4% in 2021, according to the report. But farmers, grain traders and representatives of major food companies who traversed the state on an annual crop tour last week warn of an even greater percentage of unharvested acres.

 

[Astronuc]

Edge of Nowhere: Journey to Macquarie Island (Full Documentary) | TRACKS​

Macquarie Island is about 930 miles (1500 km) southeast of Tasmania. One gets there by boat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macquarie_Island
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/629/

The island is the exposed crest of the undersea Macquarie Ridge, raised to its present position where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate. It is a site of major geoconservation significance, being the only place on earth where rocks from the earth’s mantle (6 km below the ocean floor) are being actively exposed above sea-level. These unique exposures include excellent examples of pillow basalts and other extrusive rocks.

 

[WWGD]

Every tab everything working except YouTube. I was searching for SysInternals. Which I never had??

 

[hmmm27]

That you, Yoda ?

 

[pinball1970]

That you, Yoda ?

No. Not quite l.

Everything working it was.
Searching the net I am.
SysInternals searching I was.
Owned never had did I.

 

[pinball1970]

That you, Yoda ?

Star wars is stupid. Totally do not get it.

 

[phinds]

Star wars is stupid. Totally do not get it.

Get it, totally I do not. Stupid it is.

 

[hmmm27]

I thought MS changed the name to PowerToys, or something like that, but apparently not. Latest update, yesterday.

 

[pinball1970]

FA cup, oldest football (soccer) competition in the world (1871) played on the 3rd June with an all Manchester final (Man U and Man C) for the first time in history.

 

[fresh_42]

Does anyone remember Catweazle? Germany made a movie 50 years after the series (26 episodes)!

 

[DrGreg]

Does anyone remember Catweazle? Germany made a movie 50 years after the series (26 episodes)!

Yes. I guess many people of roughly my age from the UK would remember it. And I guess it was sold to a number of other countries, given that it was made on film rather than video tape, by "London Weekend International", a subsidiary of London Weekend Television.

Catweazle

 

[fresh_42]

Yes. I guess many people of roughly my age from the UK would remember it. And I guess it was sold to a number of other countries, given that it was made on film rather than video tape, by "London Weekend International", a subsidiary of London Weekend Television.

View attachment 327197
Catweazle

IIRC it was broadcast here in Germany on Sunday afternoons. And I still use the words "electric-trick" occasionally. Not sure whether this was due to translation or in the original script as well. I just found it interesting that they produced a movie 50 years later and still count on the fact that people will remember it. And there was only one choice for the lead actor, which they indeed have chosen.

 

[DrGreg]

And I still use the words "electric-trick" occasionally. Not sure whether this was due to translation or in the original script as well.

I don't remember that, but I do remember "telling bone" for "telephone".

 

[kyphysics]

Paralyzed man walks after bluetooth connects his brain and spine​

 

[jack action]

Just thought of this:

Why fear AI spreading false news on forums and social media? When we are discussing with someone and we are in doubt our interlocutor is a chatbot, all we have to do is ask this person to identify all the traffic lights in a picture.

Boom! End of times averted.

 

[Astronuc]

Eating healthfully -

Sick workers tied to 40% of restaurant food poisoning outbreaks, CDC says​

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sick-workers-tied-40-restaurant-171843478.html

Food workers who showed up while sick or contagious were linked to about 40% of restaurant food poisoning outbreaks with a known cause between 2017 and 2019, federal health officials said Tuesday.

Norovirus and salmonella, germs that can cause severe illness, were the most common cause of 800 outbreaks, which encompassed 875 restaurants and were reported by 25 state and local health departments.

Investigators with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for better enforcement of “comprehensive food safety policies,” which emphasize basic measures like hand washing and keep sick workers off the job.

Although 85% of restaurants said they had policies restricting staff from working while sick, only about 16% of the policies were detailed enough . . . .

It's Not Just Salt, Sugar, Fat: Study Finds Ultra-Processed Foods Drive Weight Gain​

Over the past 70 years, ultra-processed foods have come to dominate the U.S. diet. These are foods made from cheap industrial ingredients and engineered to be super-tasty and generally high in fat, sugar and salt.

The rise of ultra-processed foods has coincided with growing rates of obesity, leading many to suspect that they've played a big role in our growing waistlines. But is it something about the highly processed nature of these foods itself that drives people to overeat? A new study suggests the answer is yes.

The study, conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, is the first randomized, controlled trial to show that eating a diet made up of ultra-processed foods actually drives people to overeat and gain weight compared with a diet made up of whole or minimally processed foods. . . . .

 

[BillTre]

 

[Astronuc]

If one falls from a ship in the middle of the ocean.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/survive-fall-off-cruise-ship-135500959.html

Don't fall off a ship in the middle of the ocean.

 

[Ibix]

Don't fall off a ship in the middle of the ocean.

That seems like the #1 tip...

 

[Astronuc]

Mike Markkula, Apple's Lesser-Known Co-Founder Owned ⅓ Of The Company But Missed Out On A Potential $900 Billion Fortune (Benzinga)
https://www.benzinga.com/news/23/06...-missed-out-on-a-potential-900-billion-fortun

Armed with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, this Trojan brother was already well-versed in the intricacies of the field. Markkula’s career at Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc. and Intel Corp., where he retired as a millionaire at the young age of 32, showcased his deep understanding of the tech landscape.

His $250,000 investment, a combination of loans and equity, solidified his position as the second CEO, third employee and a significant one-third owner of the budding company. In 2023, a one-third stake in Apple would be worth about $900 billion.

Current capitalization as of yesterday is $2.846T, and 1/3 would be ~$948 billion.

 

[fresh_42]

I will never make fun of Welsh place names again. I just learned about a mountain called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.

 

[hmmm27]

I will never make fun of Welsh place names again. I just learned about a mountain called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.

Literal translation : "We just call it 'the mountain', why would we call it anything else ; also, you're standing in quicksand... again."

 

[Ibix]

Literal translation : "We just call it 'the mountain', why would we call it anything else ; also, you're standing in quicksand... again."

There's a long digression on this theme in one of the earlier Discworld books on this theme, explaining why the forest they are in is named Skund ("Your finger, you fool", in the local language) and mentioning the existence of a mountain named "who is this idiot who does not know what a mountain is".

This one actually just seems to be an extremely specific descriptor (rather like the long Welsh one, in fact). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauma...kakapikimaunga­horonukupokaiwhen­uakitanatahu.