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

[zoobyshoe]

The middle article reads:
“I won’t be taking pictures on a plane beside an open window ever again, that’s for certain!”

Umm, right? I haven't flown in a while. Do they let you open windows now? :O

It was " a small Cessna aircraft," not a passenger jet.

 

[Borg]

I am a little behind in my reading and have just started reading my Jan. edition of Scientific American. I read everything including the user comments on the previous month's articles. Last night I was reading a particularly long user comment that was complete nonsense. After reading a few lines, I decided to look at the signature to see who was spewing such garbage and saw that it was a crackpot who is well known on PF!

 

[WWGD]

I am a little behind in my reading and have just started reading my Jan. edition of Scientific American. I read everything including the user comments on the previous month's articles. Last night I was reading a particularly long user comment that was complete nonsense. After reading a few lines, I decided to look at the signature to see who was spewing such garbage and saw that it was a crackpot who is well known on PF!

Don't mean to kiss up to PF, but , outside of PF there are few sites I have encountered that filter out crackpots and general unsupported ( often unsupportable ) nonsense. Good idea too, to filter out Pro- and Anti- Trump posts.

 

[WWGD]

<\RANT>I am going to snap if this (maybe just personal) trend continues. I go out to eat and when I order something (this is for low-cost self-serve places) the servers start double-guessing me: "Are you sure you want that warmed up? It is fresh". Or, " I don't think rice goes well with that dish". Seriously? I make an effort to treat everyone respectfully, specially blue-collar people ( given I was one myself for a while and because they have little power) , but I just feel like lashing out and saying: " hey, I am eating the food, not you". < /RANT>.

 

[WWGD]

Is PF finally going public with its using of robots for staff? First Jedishfru and his avatar, then the article on mentor's bios?

 

[OCR]

Is PF finally going public with its using of robots for staff? First Jedishfru and his avatar, then the article on mentor's bios?

And, indeed...

 

[Borg]

Saw this over the weekend. If only it weren't so accurate...

 

[nuuskur]

Can't trust anyone on that day. Does that imply, though, that on other days people accept things blindly?

 

[zoobyshoe]

I got a notice from the Planned Outage Department of my local utility company informing me my power would be out a few hours in a week or so. The reason given is "pole replacement."

I am intrigued by the mysterious Planned Outage Department and wonder why it was necessary to create such an entity. Why couldn't all this happen under the aegis of, say, the utility's Maintenance Department? Are outages ever planned outside of some form of maintenance? What kind of bureaucratic shenanigan is this Planned Outage Department ?

Anyway, although the outage isn't for a few days, a crew is out there today erecting the new pole, itself. The pole they're replacing, though, is a structural pole, as far as I can tell. It carries no electrical cables, just a cable to hold a different pole up, and a guy wire to ground. I'm not sure why they have to cut the power to replace it, unless it's just in case the other pole, which is carrying electrical wires, falls over during the procedure.

It's easy to see why the old pole needs replacement in any event: a palm tree took root right next to it and has been threatening to push it over for years now. I imagine they're going to remove both the old pole and the tree. Palm trees are somewhat pestiferous: they put out masses of seeds and often take root in the strip of soil between sidewalk and street, eventually pushing the sidewalk "tiles" up at an angle and cracking them. They grow well by themselves requiring no care.

 

[fresh_42]

Planned Outage Department

Wait until the Planned Short Circuit Department will contact you!

 

[WWGD]

I guessed a few , all guesses were correct , some were educated guesses, others wild guesses. From :

http://definition.org/end-quiz/

 

[WWGD]

I got a notice from the Planned Outage Department of my local utility company informing me my power would be out a few hours in a week or so. The reason given is "pole replacement."

I am intrigued by the mysterious Planned Outage Department and wonder why it was necessary to create such an entity. Why couldn't all this happen under the aegis of, say, the utility's Maintenance Department? Are outages ever planned outside of some form of maintenance? What kind of bureaucratic shenanigan is this Planned Outage Department ?

Anyway, although the outage isn't for a few days, a crew is out there today erecting the new pole, itself. The pole they're replacing, though, is a structural pole, as far as I can tell. It carries no electrical cables, just a cable to hold a different pole up, and a guy wire to ground. I'm not sure why they have to cut the power to replace it, unless it's just in case the other pole, which is carrying electrical wires, falls over during the procedure.

It's easy to see why the old pole needs replacement in any event: a palm tree took root right next to it and has been threatening to push it over for years now. I imagine they're going to remove both the old pole and the tree. Palm trees are somewhat pestiferous: they put out masses of seeds and often take root in the strip of soil between sidewalk and street, eventually pushing the sidewalk "tiles" up at an angle and cracking them. They grow well by themselves requiring no care.

A new pope? Too bad the new pope , somehow with (almost) the same name as the actor "Cliff" from Cheers, is not Polish.

 

[fresh_42]

I guessed a few , all guesses were correct , some were educated guesses, others wild guesses. From :

http://definition.org/end-quiz/

What have you done? I'm bad on American History but know everything about M*A*S*H ... what a shame!

 

[WWGD]

What have you done? I'm bad on American History but know everything about M*A*S*H ... what a shame!

I think if you just enter the address on your browser you may reach the one I linked to.

 

[fresh_42]

I think if you just enter the address on your browser you may reach the one I linked to.

I did this and had 38. Mostly wrong were American history and literature, e.g. I missed the Wright brothers flight by a year or connected the EPA with Carter.

 

[WWGD]

I did this and had 38. Mostly wrong were American history and literature, e.g. I missed the Wright brothers flight by a year or connected the EPA with Carter.

Yes, it is biased towards the US, and considering that, your score is pretty good. I am sure if I had to deal with German culture and history (let alone some non-Western ) I would have gotten much lower score. I retook it just to re-inforce the ones I guessed and to re-examine the ones I got wrong.

 

[fresh_42]

Yes, it is biased towards the US, and considering that, your score is pretty good. I am sure if I had to deal with German culture and history (let alone some non-Western ) I would have gotten much lower score. I retook it just to re-inforce the ones I guessed and to re-examine the ones I got wrong.

But I did the M*A*S*H one until the first quarter and had not a single mistake...

 

[WWGD]

But I did the M*A*S*H one until the first quarter and had not a single mistake...

Yes, I did embarrassingly well on the TV section too. I guess you watch late night tv ? I used too, until I could not afford $110/month for internet + Cable TV. EDIT: Now I just use the neighbor's wi-fi ( with their permission) and use alternative TV suppliers, but these carry less content and less variety. EDIT2: Since you mentioned the references to US culture and history, I was reminded of the question on who was the inventor (discoverer?) of binary numbers (or was it binary algebra?). I thought it was Boole, but according to the quiz, it was Leibniz. (BTW: look at this: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=leibniz+cookies&t=ha&ia=web )

 

[zoobyshoe]

A new pope? Too bad the new pope , somehow with (almost) the same name as the actor "Cliff" from Cheers, is not Polish.

This is kind of an imaginary pun, ennit? Sort of a √-(pun), or something.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Thanks to ebay, I was able to replace my photo printer, which has been out of production for about ten years, with an exact copy. The "slightly used" replacement looks perfectly new and works beautifully. It was $63.00, including shipping, while the original was $99.00 plus tax.

I've been buying old, "expired" ink cartridges on ebay for years now, and 90% have worked like new. I just printed a great print with a cartridge that "expired" in 2009. These are original HP cartridges made for the printer, not refilled, not some strange aftermarket equivalent. They were something like $30.00 brand new. On ebay you can find them for around $12.00-$14.00.

I tried an Epsom printer once, and the quality of the photo printing was horrible.

 

[WWGD]

Ouch! I am reading , or more like browsing, a book on rules of thumb. A rule of thumb for having a good, entertaining party ( or get together)
is that at most 25% of the guests should be economists.

 

[WWGD]

Correction: quiz is at :

http://definition.org/how-smart-are-you-quiz/

EDIT: I am not sure it is a well-designed quiz, but, since I did well, partly through luck, I am pretending that it is for now :).

 

[dkotschessaa]

So many wasted years in school. I could have just read these two books which, set theoretically speaking, contain all of the information in the entire universe.

 

[nuuskur]

It's amazing they fit the complement in a single book ! :O

 

[WWGD]

It would be interesting (and pretty shameless ) if the same guy had written both books.

 

[dkotschessaa]

Don't mean to kiss up to PF, but , outside of PF there are few sites I have encountered that filter out crackpots and general unsupported ( often unsupportable ) nonsense. Good idea too, to filter out Pro- and Anti- Trump posts.

I have recently taken up studying history as like a side, side, side project (from studying and working and having a family) and I joined a history forum to talk with other like minded people. I'm finding it really difficult to communicate online with non PF people. This place has me spoiled.

-Dave K

 

[dkotschessaa]

Correction: quiz is at :

http://definition.org/how-smart-are-you-quiz/

EDIT: I am not sure it is a well-designed quiz, but, since I did well, partly through luck, I am pretending that it is for now :).

It says:
I got 32 of 50 right Wow! You got your Bachelor's degree!Technically this is true until I pass my qualifier.

 

[fresh_42]

This place has me spoiled.

And not to forget about the vocabulary. Formerly I thought the f-word is bad, and bs isn't much better either. Puh! Those are for amateurs! The really mean ones are: Copenhagen, Bell, Bohr, wave-particle duality, FTL, event horizon, simultaneous and a couple more!

 

[WWGD]

And not to forget about the vocabulary. Formerly I thought the f-word is bad, and bs isn't much better either. Puh! Those are for amateurs! The really mean ones are: Copenhagen, Bell, Bohr, wave-particle duality, FLT, event horizon, simultaneous and a couple more!

Together with posts that are little more than strongly-expressed opinions with little, if any support for them. They somehow describe these as arguments, which they are only in the strictly literal sense of the word, but of very poor quality, of low level.

 

[fresh_42]

Together with posts that are little more than strongly-expressed opinions with little, if any support for them.

That's in the same category as "somewhere" (I have read somewhere ...). Man, these are meeaaan.

 

[WWGD]

That's in the same category as "somewhere" (I have read somewhere ...). Man, these are meeaaan.

How about the reverse nonsense that just because they do not believe something or are not aware of it, that the something is not so? How (implicitly) arrogant: I can't conceive of or understand something, then that something cannot be so.

 

[Bandersnatch]

http://definition.org/how-smart-are-you-quiz/

Spoiler

How smart are you, quiz?

 

[fresh_42]

How about the reverse nonsense that just because they do not believe something or are not aware of it, that the something is not so? How (implicitly) arrogant: I can't conceive of or understand something, then that something cannot be so.

Uh! The clerical argument. We call this "counsel-resistant" in German.

 

[jim hardy]

Together with posts that are little more than strongly-expressed opinions with little, if any support for them.

Recall Mark Twain's quip about righteous indignation - "The more vehement , the less righteous."

 

[WWGD]

Recall Mark Twain's quip about righteous indignation - "The more vehement , the less righteous."

True in my experience, the most radical ones happen to be the least well informed. I dread the opinions of those that are too clear and with little doubt on things other than facts. I have no problem with informal arguments during casual exchanges, but it seems a matter of basic honesty that, as you said, the vehemence in which the argument is expressed should be directly proportional to the strength of the evidence to support said argument. But, yes, the opposite seems most often to be the case.

 

[WWGD]

Spoiler

View attachment 124710

How smart are you, quiz?

I guessed Europa, which seemed to be correct. And I did state that I was not sure the test effectively measures intelligence if anything, only that , to satisfy my ego, I am claiming it does, since I did well on it. But I don't see how ( the answer to ) a single question can reveal much of anything about someone.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Snip

Sorry, I wasn't clear on what I meant. It was a 'groan' post, since there's no such thing as a Jovian moon called 'Lo'.

 

[WWGD]

Sorry, I wasn't clear on what I meant. It was a 'groan' post, since there's no such thing as a Jovian moon called 'Lo'.

And 'Behold' ? ;)

 

[Bandersnatch]

And 'Behold' ? ;)

Now I'm thinking how much room for improving the names of the moons in the solar system there is. Phobos and Deimos could be renamed after your suggestion Lo and Behold. Saturn's moons could bear the names of the consecutive words in the 'itsy bitsy spider' nursery rhyme. And Jupiter's Galilean moons could be renamed 'Three little piggies' - all four of them, just to mess with people.
Now I just need a time machine and fix the world right.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Quiche? Nothing more than egg pie. How, then, can it taste so good?

 

[collinsmark]

Now I'm thinking how much room for improving the names of the moons in the solar system there is. Phobos and Deimos could be renamed after your suggestion Lo and Behold.

Eek! I prefer Phobos and Deimos, roughly translated as "fear" and "panic." Those work best in my opinion.

I'm sure @Drakkith would agree.*

*This is a reference to the video game, Doom, btw. The original game took place on the moons, Phobos and Deimos.

 

[dkotschessaa]

I was thinking my way through a topology problem this morning and realized that it would be much facilitated by using play-doh. If my son is cool with it I am going to borrow his. I don't think he will mind. (So far he has only tried to eat it and did not seem to be very fond of it).

 

[dkotschessaa]

And not to forget about the vocabulary. Formerly I thought the f-word is bad, and bs isn't much better either. Puh! Those are for amateurs! The really mean ones are: Copenhagen, Bell, Bohr, wave-particle duality, FLT, event horizon, simultaneous and a couple more!

Yes and often those concepts get...entangled.

OOPS!

 

[WWGD]

I need to watch the elevator buttons more carefully. For the second time I accidentally pressed the 'close door' button when a
frail old lady was trying to get in. I got plenty of dirty looks.

 

[fresh_42]

I need to watch the elevator buttons more carefully. For the second time I accidentally pressed the 'close door' button when a
frail old lady was trying to get in. I got plenty of dirty looks.

Did you explain it? Like:
"She obviously needs some practice. Better she takes the stairs."

 

[WWGD]

Did you explain it? Like:
"She obviously needs some practice. Better she takes the stairs."

No, I finessed it: " Hey, hurry up or get the hell out. I have no time for this #$% ".

 

[dkotschessaa]

No, I finessed it: " Hey, hurry up or get the hell out. I have no time for this #$% ".

"I gave you the challenge because I believe in you!"

 

[WWGD]

I was thinking my way through a topology problem this morning and realized that it would be much facilitated by using play-doh. If my son is cool with it I am going to borrow his. I don't think he will mind. (So far he has only tried to eat it and did not seem to be very fond of it).

Don't know how you will submit play-doh (play d'oh! for Homer ) in exam, kind of messy for prof. to reconstruct proof.

 

[WWGD]

No, I finessed it: " Hey, hurry up or get the hell out. I have no time for this #$% ".

Sorry, this is the triple espresso version.

 

[fresh_42]

Sorry, this is the triple espresso version.

Or the hypocritical version: "Sorry, I just farted. I'm too ashamed."