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criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content.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.
  • #9,631
WWGD said:
I'd say legal advice from someone referring to a "Half a David" * may not be too reliable.

*Affidavit. clear after an hour what he meant. A full David may be too much. A Goliath...?
Turned out to be a scammer. Not really surprised.
 
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  • #9,632
Weird that I'm suddenly finding food items I often eat without any major issue, to be overly sweet.
 
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  • #9,633
My daughter just passed her single engine pilot instrument rating check ride. This is what she said in an email reply:
Checkride went well. I just passed so now I officially have my instrument rating. Time to work on commercial now.
 
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  • #9,634
Congradulations.jpg


Now THAT is one persistent gal!
 
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  • #9,635
WWGD said:
Weird that I'm suddenly finding food items I often eat without any major issue, to be overly sweet.
examples?
 
  • #9,636
WWGD said:
Weird that I'm suddenly finding food items I often eat without any major issue, to be overly sweet.
Have you trying googling something like "why do suddenly find things too sweet?". Some potential causes sound serious enough (e.g., diabetes) that checking with your doctor seems justified.
 
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  • #9,637
dlgoff said:
examples?
Ice cream, Diet Pepsi . I just noticed yesterday. I had passed my previous physical with flying colors. I exercise 6x /week; strength and cardio.
 
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  • #9,638
I'm also regular, and I empty my bowels daily, at 7 a.m. Unfortunately, I wake up at 8 a.m.
 
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  • #9,639
Some folks these days can barely hold a conversation without looking at their phone every minute. Many will literally start scrolling Instagram while you are talking to them.😔
 
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  • #9,640
Hamiltonian said:
Some folks these days can barely hold a conversation without looking at their phone every minute. Many will literally start scrolling Instagram while you are talking to them.😔
I've made it a point to spend 10-15 min daily just sitting, doing nothing, just forcing myself to slow down..
 
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  • #9,641
Hamiltonian said:
Some folks these days can barely hold a conversation without looking at their phone every minute. Many will literally start scrolling Instagram while you are talking to them.😔
Yes. I can't forget the time while walking in a shopping mall, a teen age girl, while looking down at her phone and walking toward me, ran into me.
 
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  • #9,642
dlgoff said:
Yes. I can't forget the time while walking in a shopping mall, a teen age girl, while looking down at her phone and walking toward me, ran into me.
In terms of culture change, Radio, TV, NET, Cell and NET + phone for me not a good move.
Net plus phone that is
 
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  • #9,643
Hey, how about we meet at the café, so we can look at our phones and ignore each other?
 
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  • #9,644
WWGD said:
Hey, how about we meet at the café, so we can look at our phones and ignore each other?
It crossed my mind during Ukraine early doors. This may not end well so let's meet kind of thing.

The invite would have been ...

Hey guys we will probably be vaporised next week. Fancy a beer and a piece of pie?

Pick a city
 
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  • #9,645
pinball1970 said:
It crossed my mind during Ukraine early doors. This may not end well so let's meet kind of thing.

The invite would have been ...

Hey guys we will probably be vaporised next week. Fancy a beer and a piece of pie?

Pick a city
Don't get your hopes down. It seems a
pinball1970 said:
It crossed my mind during Ukraine early doors. This may not end well so let's meet kind of thing.bc

The invite would have been ...

Hey guys we will probably be vaporised next week. Fancy a beer and a piece of pie?

Pick a city
Don't despair, I read about a black hole headed towards Earth ( general direction) . It appeared to be a few hundreds of thousands light years away, but of course, we're seeing it at the time the pic was taken, not at this moment.
 
  • #9,646
Aren't these last names that start with 'Or', confusing?
"Hi, I'm John Ortega"
wait, which one is it, John, Tega? Is it a riddle, or are you giving us a choice?
I remember Tony Orlando. Half the people called him Tony, the other half Lando.
 
  • #9,647
dlgoff said:
I can't forget the time while walking in a shopping mall, a teen age girl, while looking down at her phone and walking toward me, ran into me.
Ha! I love it when that happens. I'm quite tall, hence I tend to be invisible to small people. Their face literally bounces off my lower chest and sometimes they almost fall backwards. From the look on their face, they seem not to understand immediately what's happened.

Little kids are even more fun. If I'm walking with a full shopping bag I make sure to raise the bag so that its (timber-strengthened) bottom is at their face level. I stand still as they strike it (so no one can claim that I walked into them).

(Am I a bad person?)
 
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  • #9,648
strangerep said:
Ha! I love it when that happens. I'm quite tall, hence I tend to be invisible to small people. Their face literally bounces off my lower chest and sometimes they almost fall backwards. From the look on their face, they seem not to understand immediately what's happened.

Little kids are even more fun. If I'm walking with a full shopping bag I make sure to raise the bag so that its (timber-strengthened) bottom is at their face level. I stand still as they strike it (so no one can claim that I walked into them).

(Am I a bad person?)
No they learn life lessons that way. Them getting a boo boo from your bag is better than them walking into the road under a truck.
 
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  • #9,649
WWGD said:
Don't get your hopes down. It seems a

Don't despair, I read about a black hole headed towards Earth ( general direction) . It appeared to be a few hundreds of thousands light years away, but of course, we're seeing it at the time the pic was taken, not at this moment.
At least a black hole will not be our fault.
I supposed going into it would be unpleasant though, it would strip off hot ionized gas from the sun? Vaporizing the Earth in the process?
Be nice to imagine a future without possible vaporization.
 
  • #9,650
pinball1970 said:
Be nice to imagine a future without possible vaporization.
I don't think I'll be sticking around long enough to get vaporized in that manner.
 
  • #9,651
BillTre said:
I don't think I'll be sticking around long enough to get vaporized in that manner.
What a great relief. I thought I had to nail a sign at my head reading: medium rare.
 
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  • #9,652
40 degrees on monday here in the uk. thankfully in the lab we will be working with liquid helium. for making gelato, probably.
 
  • #9,653
fresh_42 said:
More famous is the Mandelbrot set (here: apple men).
Thank you, I'm aware of both the Cantor Set and The Mandelbrot Set. But, are all Fractals recursive, or can they be obtained by recursion?
 
  • #9,654
WWGD said:
Thank you, I'm aware of both the Cantor Set and The Mandelbrot Set. But, are all Fractals recursive, or can they be obtained by recursion?
Fractals are defined by self-similarity, not by recursions, but isn't this already a recursion?
https://arxiv.org/abs/1010.4474
 
  • #9,655
fresh_42 said:
Fractals are defined by self-similarity, not by recursions, but isn't this already a recursion?
https://arxiv.org/abs/1010.4474
I'm kind of confused on whether the defining property is self-similarity or having non-Integer Hausdorff Dimension. Pretty sure all Fractals have non-Integer Hausdorff dimensions, but self-similarity may not imply fractal. A standard circle or square would be such ( counter) example.
 
  • #9,656
ergospherical said:
40 degrees on monday here in the uk. thankfully in the lab we will be working with liquid helium. for making gelato, probably.
I guess UK has made a full transition to Metric. Otherwise something seriously wrong there, at least in Cambford.
 
  • #9,657
More issues with parsing . Fourier ## \neq 48 ##. Except maybe for the French.
 
  • #9,658
WWGD said:
I guess UK has made a full transition to Metric. Otherwise something seriously wrong there, at least in Cambford.
I assume 40°C in the lab, 40°K for the helium. Both SI units.
 
  • #9,659
WWGD said:
Thank you, I'm aware of both the Cantor Set and The Mandelbrot Set. But, are all Fractals recursive, or can they be obtained by recursion?
Anything which can be computed using recursion can be computed without recursion and visa versa. So the question boils down to asking wether all fractals are computable.

I don't know if the definition of a fractal is clear enough to answer. If we are talking about an instance of a fractal then yes, in a trivial way, you can multiply an uncomputable real number with each coordinate value.

Besides a trivial example like that, and if we factor out all of those kinds of non-essential factors like noise, I'm not sure. How about a fractal which switches between two rules periodically as it recurses, but uses an uncomputable sequence to determine if it will switch or not at the start of each period? Then it is morphing unredictably between different fractals. Is that a fractal?
 
  • #9,660
Jarvis323 said:
Anything which can be computed using recursion can be computed without recursion and visa versa. So the question boils down to asking wether all fractals are computable.

I don't know if the definition of a fractal is clear enough to answer. If we are talking about an instance of a fractal then yes, in a trivial way, you can multiply an uncomputable real number with each coordinate value.

Besides a trivial example like that, and if we factor out all of those kinds of non-essential factors like noise, I'm not sure. How about a fractal which switches between two rules periodically as it recurses, but uses an uncomputable sequence to determine if it will switch or not at the start of each period? Then it is morphing unredictably between different fractals. Is that a fractal?
Formally, a fractal is a Topological space with Fractional Hausdorff dimension. It is a space that cannot quite be qualified as being n-dimensional, for n a Natural number.
 

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