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criticizing the History Channel's focus on sensational topics like time travel conspiracies instead of real historical content.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.
  • #3,201
Borg said:
But they're not dead yet.
... as long as nobody is allergic to shrubberies everything should be fine ...
 
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  • #3,202
Wecandothis said:
Hi, I might be wayyyy off topic, but using sodium and capturing the Hydrogen released to create a fuel has to be possible. I think we are numb to think otherwise.
And what energy source do you use to obtain the sodium from your source material? And why would it not be better to use that energy to produce hydrogen directly from water?
Hydrogen fuel cells are very promising as a power source for vehicles. But please can you take any further discussion of that topic to a more appropriate area, not random thoughts?
 
  • #3,203
Hello,
In our thought?? my thought you simply take it from the ocean, not fresh water, but highly salt-sodium extract the sodium and use the remains as a coolant. Sorry, can you please direct me to a forum for random thoughts? the Ocean is there to use there is a purpose.
 
  • #3,204
Wecandothis said:
Hello,
In our thought?? my thought you simply take it from the ocean, not fresh water, but highly salt-sodium extract the sodium and use the remains as a coolant. Sorry, can you please direct me to a forum for random thoughts? the Ocean is there to use there is a purpose.
Without any specific question, problem or suggestion, there is probably no appropriate forum for this. We already use desalination facilities, produce hydrogen by renewable energy sources and use them e.g. in cars and also use salt or oil as heat storage capacities. So I can't see anything new in your thought - random or not. It is just so, that this random thought forum is meant to be a kind of recreational area filled with thoughts which are unrelated to actual science.
 
  • #3,205
Sodium metal reacts highly to freshwater.
 
  • #3,206
Please don't beat me down, I am only a thinker
 
  • #3,207
The desalinization facilities are old and full of toxic fluoride. and mate we need like the old greenhouses, we need them sucking water in , dribbling down a wall of plastic or rubber balls 4 inch thick with a cooling fan on the other side its reverse osmoses... hand on a beer it drips water, nothing new.
 
  • #3,208
Borg said:
When I'm at the doctor's office and they ask me if I'm allergic to anything, I answer "just poison". It stops them dead in their tracks every time as they try to process that. :oldtongue:
Been snake-bit so many times you made your own anti-toxin?
 
  • #3,209
BillTre said:
Been snake-bit so many times you made your own anti-toxin?
I just like being unpredictable. :oldwink:
 
  • #3,210
Borg said:
When I'm at the doctor's office and they ask me if I'm allergic to anything, I answer "just poison". It stops them dead in their tracks every time as they try to process that. :oldtongue:

There are some doctors in my family. One of them is an Anesthesiologist. As part of the background work before surgery he (or a surgeon) will ask:
"Are there any drugs you are allergic to?"

A very common response:
"Milk and other dairy."

No joke.
 
  • #3,211
StoneTemplePython said:
There are some doctors in my family. One of them is an Anesthesiologist. As part of the background work before surgery he (or a surgeon) will ask:
"Are there any drugs you are allergic to?"

A very common response:
"Milk and other dairy."

No joke.
The anesthesiologist's (no)joke put me to sleep...
 
  • #3,212
Borg said:
When I'm at the doctor's office and they ask me if I'm allergic to anything, I answer "just poison". It stops them dead in their tracks every time as they try to process that. :oldtongue:
Maybe something else too, like gun shots?
 
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  • #3,213
Wecandothis said:
Sodium metal reacts highly to freshwater.
Getting sodium metal out of water in the first place involves the reverse of a similarly energetic reaction. First you have to extract it from the water then separate it from the chloride (which can be done using large amounts of electricity to split molten salt giving sodium and chlorine). There are much more efficient ways to make hydrogen than extracting sodium and reacting it with water.
 
  • #3,214
WWGD said:
The anesthesiologist's (no)joke put me to sleep...

I suppose I could one-up this, with a callback and a French twist to be:
= = = =
question:
"Are there any drugs you are allergic to?"

response:
"Just poisson"
 
  • #3,215
StoneTemplePython said:
I suppose I could one-up this, with a callback and a French twist to be:
= = = =
question:
"Are there any drugs you are allergic to?"

response:
"Just poisson"
You could have spent at least an old, if not a rotten.
 
  • #3,216
StoneTemplePython said:
I suppose I could one-up this, with a callback and a French twist to be:
= = = =
question:
"Are there any drugs you are allergic to?"

response:
"Just poisson"
A propos poisson. The common Proto-Indo-European heritage "ghabh" which led to English "give" or German "Gabe" (=the given) also led to English "gift" and in some countries around the North Sea "Gift" (= poison). Strange, isn't it?
 
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  • #3,217
fresh_42 said:
A propos poisson. The common Proto-Indo-European heritage "ghabh" which led to English "give" or German "Gabe" (=the given) also led to English "gift" and in some countries around the North Sea "Gift" (= poison). Strange, isn't it?
Ja wohl.

especially since most north sea countries are germanic... finde ich das auf interessant.
- - -
edit: das Gift = poison, in german no less.
 
Last edited:
  • #3,218
Yes, but the difference between a gift and Gift aka poison is somehow strange. I mean, o.k. both is given, but the consequences ...
 
  • #3,219
fresh_42 said:
A propos poisson. The common Proto-Indo-European heritage "ghabh" which led to English "give" or German "Gabe" (=the given) also led to English "gift" and in some countries around the North Sea "Gift" (= poison). Strange, isn't it?
And the Snakes engage in Poison distribution.
 
  • #3,220
Malala laments that Reuben Ben Ben-ami likes the banana narrative.
 
  • #3,221
It was no use taking the cat to the vet: the lupins had done a better job than poison ivy [ M. Python sketch , "Dennis Moore" a.k.a. Robin Hood ]
 
  • #3,222
I know a Vietnam Vet who practices here. Maybe the Vietnam part refers to where he got his degree. He has these flashbacks, drives to the airport and takes a flight to Canada every time he hears the word 'Vietnam'.
 
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  • #3,223
I am still trying to pin down when and how I end up being able to internalize certain ideas/knowledge. There are some things that just do not seem to register by effort and I must wait until my brain/mind somehow absorbs them. I have no clue of how this works.
 
  • #3,224
TWAIN - Technology Without an Interesting Name. :oldlaugh:
 
  • #3,225
Psinter said:
TWAIN - Technology Without an Interesting Name. :oldlaugh:
I took the Twain , to get to wauk .
 
  • #3,226
WWGD said:
I took the Twain , to get to wauk .
*giggles*

What's/where's waku?
 
  • #3,227
Psinter said:
*giggles*

What's/where's waku?
Unfortunately, no stable job for a while, just bits hew and thew.
 
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  • #3,228
WWGD said:
Unfortunately, no stable job for a while, just bits hew and thew.
I still don't get it. :doh:
 
  • #3,229
Psinter said:
I still don't get it. :doh:
Just a way of mispronouncing (mister-pronouncing, given today's issues?): hew:=here, thew: there
 
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  • #3,230
WWGD said:
I am still trying to pin down when and how I end up being able to internalize certain ideas/knowledge. There are some things that just do not seem to register by effort and I must wait until my brain/mind somehow absorbs them. I have no clue of how this works.

Thinking is a lot like riding a bicycle or dancing. Our brain has to get accustomed to the necessary 'movements' to make a new train of thought executable.
 
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  • #3,231
WWGD said:
Just a way of mispronouncing (mister-pronouncing, given today's issues?): hew:=here, thew: there
And, of course, Twain:= Train.
 
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  • #3,232
Borg said:
When I'm at the doctor's office and they ask me if I'm allergic to anything, I answer "just poison". It stops them dead in their tracks every time as they try to process that. :oldtongue:
A friend's doctor apparently once told her that amputation at the neck cures most medical problems. I suggested that she reply "except for a slight attack of death", but I don't know if she ever did.
 
  • #3,233
WWGD said:
I am still trying to pin down when and how I end up being able to internalize certain ideas/knowledge. There are some things that just do not seem to register by effort and I must wait until my brain/mind somehow absorbs them. I have no clue of how this works.
I find information needs some kind of framework to sit in if it's to stay in my brain. Agreeing holiday dates with my wife used to be dreadful because she'd say stuff like "how about the 25th July to 1st August" and I would have no idea how far in the future that was or how long it was or anything. The raw dates seem to mean something to her. I just can't process it that way. Now I've learned that I need to have a calendar in front of me. I have a good idea what my work "looks like" and I can check dates against that as long as I have a table of dates in front of me.

I think it's why I like science and programming. It's all structured information; it fits together and reinforces itself.
 
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  • #3,234
Best thing I've read today:

Q: "HOW you have soared these past years to the top?"
A: [Olga Peretyatko] "Top doesn't exist!"
 
  • #3,235
fresh_42 said:
Best thing I've read today:

Q: "HOW you have soared these past years to the top?"
A: [Olga Peretyatko] "Top doesn't exist!"
I remember receiving a message from a secretary from school saying that due
to weather, last day of classes had been canceled.

So there will be no last day. Feed that into a program!
 
  • #3,236
WWGD said:
I remember receiving a message from a secretary from school saying that due
to weather, last day of classes had been canceled.

So there will be no last day. Feed that into a program!
Imagine we replied: "Assuming AC or not?" Could be a difficult discussion afterwards.
Or what happens to the Mormons and their spin-offs?
 
  • #3,237
We often guide students in the transition from school to university or self study and tell them which fields are absolutely necessary, especially the mathematical ones. But I haven't read the most important advice of all. Never. Nobody thinks about it. Just sloppy. Dereliction of duty. They should by no means forget to learn as most as they can about Monty Python, Kafka and the Hitchhiker.
 
  • #3,238
fresh_42 said:
Imagine we replied: "Assuming AC or not?" ?

Only in the worse , hottest Summer days ;).
 
  • #3,239
fresh_42 said:
and tell them which fields are absolutely necessary, especially the mathematical ones.
Student: Professor, what of this is important for the exam?
Mathematics Professor: Nooooooo! You don't ask that! All of it! All of it is important! :mad:
Student: :olduhh:
funny-yellow-highlighter-book-marker.jpg
:oldlaugh:
 

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  • #3,240
Ibix said:
I find information needs some kind of framework to sit in if it's to stay in my brain.
Similarly, the days in English have no definition in my mind. Like, if someone says the name of a day in my language, it is associated with data, but in English... NullPointerException. :biggrin:

Say we have a meeting this Thursday and I have to enumerate the days and map them to the name of the days in my language for it to have meaning. I start like: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thurs... Got it. Now I know when Thursday is. :doh:
 
  • #3,241
Ibix said:
I find information needs some kind of framework to sit in if it's to stay in my brain. Agreeing holiday dates with my wife used to be dreadful because she'd say stuff like "how about the 25th July to 1st August" and I would have no idea how far in the future that was or how long it was or anything. The raw dates seem to mean something to her. I just can't process it that way. Now I've learned that I need to have a calendar in front of me. I have a good idea what my work "looks like" and I can check dates against that as long as I have a table of dates in front of me.

I think it's why I like science and programming. It's all structured information; it fits together and reinforces itself.
I agree with you and others in this regard, but there also seem to be some mindsets where the mind is particularly receptive and can absorb just-about anything while in them. I have tried to understand these states better so I can put myself in them , but I have not gotten very far in this regard. Mayble alpha?
 
  • #3,242
WWGD said:
... there also seem to be some mindsets where the mind is particularly receptive and can absorb just-about anything while in them. I have tried to understand these states better so I can put myself in them ...
You mean a toddler?
 
  • #3,243
fresh_42 said:
You mean a toddler?
? No, states of mind. I guess ##\alpha, \beta ## , etc. Mental states where/when you can absorb anything. But these states set in without any (conscious) control, and only maybe people with very specialized skills can consciously enter into them or trigger them.
 
  • #3,244
I think we're usually in such a state as long as we're younger than, say 6, maybe sometimes a little bit more. From there on ... To achieve something you've described, we would probably need a good portion of a Tibetan monk and eventually some chemicals. It's not really a western state of mind.
 
  • #3,245
fresh_42 said:
I think we're usually in such a state as long as we're younger than, say 6, maybe sometimes a little bit more. From there on ... To achieve something you've described, we would probably need a good portion of a Tibetan monk and eventually some chemicals. It's not really a western state of mind.
Seems kind of cruel that toddlers have the needed state of mind but not the necessary knowledge/context and viceversa for adults.
 
  • #3,246
55 m to go and I'll approach this state of mind :biggrin:
 
  • #3,247
They have a street called "Prince St". I suggest having a cross street called " The Revolution", so that you can be at "Prince and the Revolution" . They also have a street name " Spring St" , where they could have a business called "een", so it is Spring St een (Bruce).
 
  • #3,248
How about a bar in NYC named "99 Bottles of Beer"? Probably not financeable at this location, though.
 
  • #3,249
fresh_42 said:
How about a bar in NYC named "99 Bottles of Beer"? Probably not financeable at this location, though.
I think they do have a place with a similar name. But my $ situation does not allow me to do much bar-hoping.
 
  • #3,250
WWGD said:
I think they do have a place with a similar name. But my $ situation does not allow me to do much bar-hoping.
Just found a Random Road ... What must have happened to call it this way?
 

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