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

[Ivan Seeking]

My wife and I have our names on Perseverance. It's pretty interesting to think about how there will be a record of us on Mars for probably a very long time.

Maybe one day they will be retrieved.

 

[WWGD]

What do you do when you're hungry but not too much so? Have a half a Halvah.

 

[Borg]

Upcoming job interviews within my company... I'm really good at what I do but interviewing isn't one of those things.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Upcoming job interviews within my company... I'm really good at what I do but interviewing isn't one of those things.

I just did something I've never done before and wasn't sure how I did. But the boss just called to pat me on the back, so I guess I did okay.

 

[Mayhem]

I have started my undergraduate project in QM and I have concluded that electrons do not want to be studied.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I have started my undergraduate project in QM and I have concluded that electrons do not want to be studied.

They are generally very negative.

 

[Mayhem]

They are generally very negative.

That's really the only thing you can say for certain about electrons.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

That's really the only thing you can say for certain about electrons.

Electrons all look the same to me.

 

[WWGD]

That's really the only thing you can say for certain about electrons.

Though not sure where electrons come into play in Quality Management.

 

[fresh_42]

Though not sure where electrons come into play in Quality Management.

Some of them come overweight and in disguise but are actually just lousy show-offs.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Some of them come overweight and in disguise but are actually just lousy show-offs.

The rebels come with negative mass...

 

[Rive]

Excellent weather. We have officially started the gardening season. Mid-February, why not?
Nothing really serious, just moving some dirt around and cutting back the bushes.

Muscle pain (that's expected).

Sunburn. Now, that's totally unexpected

 

[fresh_42]

Valentine's Day in AZ?

Stupidity corrected halftime score: KC 10 - PE 7

 

[dlgoff]

Heck of a Super Bowl game KC 35 Philadelphia 35. 4:14 left in the game.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh man! It's too soon for this; especially with Travolta doing it. My heart still breaks every time I think about Olivia Newton John.

 

[dlgoff]

KC Chiefs win the Super Bowl. Folks are shooting off fireworks around here.

 

[kyphysics]

"Chat GPT" and "Bard" are two very unappealing names for a natural language A.I. chatbot.

Why not Einstein...Newton...etc?

 

[Rive]

Why not Einstein...Newton...etc?

Would feel a bit like blasphemy. I would rather go with unappealing.

Also, all those complaining students... You can imagine

 

[jack action]

Why not Einstein...Newton...etc?

Because it would feel stupid to ask Einstein to write a hip-hop song in the style of Shakespeare.

It's an AI language model and has nothing to do with science.

 

[Mayhem]

"Chat GPT" and "Bard" are two very unappealing names for a natural language A.I. chatbot.

Why not Einstein...Newton...etc?

Reserve the good names for later. Once we get something like ChatGPT hooked up with Wolfram-Alpha + a super computer, we can think about using the good names. Imagine being able to draw a molecule and simply prompting "will this [do what we predict it will]?" and getting an answer in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee.

For the record - the entire purpose of using ML/AI would be to circumvent the issue of brute computation anyhow. IIRC a pharma company created an app where the goal is to fold proteins correctly, since apparently human intelligence is better at it than computers. Crazy huh.

 

[Borg]

You could always ask the AIs for some better names.

 

[Astronuc]

Close call - United Airlines plane taking off from Maui plunged to within 800 775 feet of the Pacific Ocean, flight data shows
https://www.yahoo.com/news/united-airlines-plane-taking-off-165658609.html

 

[Astronuc]

Train derailment in Ohio, near border with Pennsylvania, resulted in numerous tankcars leaking vinyl chloride, which caught fire, which cause production of HCl and phosgene gas. Video shows sparks and flames well before Ohio train derailment - 20 miles before actually.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/video-shows-sparks-flames-well-112900271.html

The video, obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was taken by a security camera at an equipment plant in Salem, Ohio. What appears to be sparks and flames can be seen in the video under one of the train cars as it passes the plant. The National Transportation Safety Board referenced the video at a news conference last week.

Looking at the video, it looks like the lead truck under a covered hopper car has failed; it could be a bearing failure leading to collapse of the truck, a wheel failure, or an axle failure. Railroad have wayside or trackside detectors to monitor trains for bad equipment. Clearly, it failed in this case. NTSB is investigating.

From the wreckage, some covered hoppers were carrying plastic materials.




Update/edit: Following the train derailment and control release and burn of vinyl chloride, animals in the area started dying.

Days after a catastrophic train derailment prompted officials to conduct a "controlled release" of the toxic chemicals onboard, animals are dying at alarming rates in East Palestine, Ohio.

A woman in North Lima, roughly 11 miles away from the village of East Palestine, where the crash occurred, checked on her chicken coop on February 7 only to find her five hens and rooster laying lifeless, with no sign of a predator entering their enclosure.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/streams-fish-coop-chickens-skulk-041933924.html

Worried that the materials could explode, sending deadly shrapnel flying up to a mile through the air, officials conducted a "controlled release" of the chemicals and burnt them, sending a toxic cloud of black smoke into the air.

"This will allow the material to come out of the tank car," Scott Deutsch, a Norfolk Southern Railroad official, said on Monday, prior to the fire, according to WKYC. "It will go into a pit and trench that we have dug and set up for this operation. Inside that trench will be flares lining that trench that then will light off the material."

Breshears' chickens weren't the only fatalities locals are attributing to the burn. Taylor Holzer, an East Palestine resident who rescues foxes, told Newsweek all four of his animals are experiencing signs of chemical exposure. One rescue fox had such severe symptoms it died before it could receive treatment.

While the animal deaths initially alarmed residents, human health problems are also beginning to appear, even among residents who initially evacuated the area.

Chelsea Simpson, who lives near the site of the derailment, told The New Republic she has had a sore throat since the burn, and her 8-month-old baby has suffered respiratory issues that are being treated with a steroid. Simpson said her eyes were bloodshot and burning after visiting her home for just 10 minutes a few days ago, and she has yet to return.

Edit/update2: "About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed Feb. 3 in the Ohio village of East Palestine. No one was injured in the derailment that investigators said was caused by a broken axle."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/lawsuit-seeks-medical-testing-toxic-215150758.html

Edit/update3: 'Bomb train' derailed. We are suffering pain of the hit. Call Biden, Gov. Dewine| Opinion
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bomb-train-derailed-suffering-pain-153009550.html

Edit/update4: https://www.yahoo.com/news/rural-ohio-facing-comparisons-chernobyl-005056522.html

Following the February 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, users on social media began sharing photos of an ominous black cloud hanging over the town — and fears that the disaster would become the new Chernobyl.

A fire engulfed a Norfolk Southern train after 50 of its 150 cars derailed. The train carried 10 cars full of hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, a colorless gas used in the creation of the plastic PVC, which was released as a result of the derailment. In sunlight, it can be broken down into chemicals like formaldehyde.

Other flammable chemicals, like ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, ethylhexyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, and isobutylene were also present in the cars and released into the environment, according to a list compiled by the EPA.

It's more like Bhopal.

Edit/update5: Some critics fault NS handling of the toxic spill and fire.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rail-com...ohio-train-derailment-response-184948934.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dangerous-ohio-chemical-train-derailment-193220326.html

https://apnews.com/article/videos-d8daa6fc54fb4a8f86dec593ff48a7d2
Edit/update6: NS is being criticized and faulted for the derailment.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/railroads-self-inspect-track-cars-161855861.html
https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-administration-considering-penalties-ohio-162925488.html

 

[WWGD]

The rebels come with negative mass...

Priest had a bad week?

 

[WWGD]

Wonder what this says about Russia. Look at members of its air force. And notice it's a photo op by Putin, so these are likely not the worse.
And compare to the USAF

 

[kyphysics]

You could always ask the AIs for some better names.

LOL Maybe "Data" (from Star Trek Next Gen.)

"Bard" is just the worst! At least "Chat GPT" is kinda of "different" and interesting (even if weird to me). . .Bard just sucks!

If Alphabet loses the Chatbox wars w/ Microsoft/Open A.I., I would partially blame the product name of "Bard."

 

[gmax137]

Why not Einstein...Newton...etc?

It's an AI language model and has nothing to do with science.

How about "Noam"?

 

[fresh_42]

How about "Noam"?

I had to think about this quote from "The Hunt for Red October" ...

Capt. Bart Mancuso: Central Intelligence Agency... Now, there's a contradiction in terms.

... and how it could be changed to somehow relate to the AI bots. Then I saw Scott Glenn's first name of his role!

 

[jack action]

How about "Noam"?

Oh, he's gonna love that:

Noam Chomsky Slams ChatGPT: 'High-Tech Plagiarism' With No Benefits for Education

During an interview on the YouTube channel EduKitchen, Chomsky said that chatGPT — an AI-powered chatbot that has created a ripples in the tech ecosystem — has nothing to do with education except undermining it.

Chomsky called chatGPT “basically a high-tech plagiarism” that makes learning difficult as it doesn’t help develop linguistic and cognitive abilities anymore than plagiarism.

 

[Mayhem]

Universities: We're going to make your life as a student more difficult because we want to save paper to spare the enVirNOnMEnt

Also universities: Please buy this 1500 page textbook full of unnecessary bloat for a 5 ECTS course. Oh and you'll only be using two chapters.

Related: I'm sure buying metal straws* and wooden toothbrushes will make up for your flight to the Bahamas and the fact that you drive everywhere despite it being in walking/biking distance or accessible via. public transportation.

*How many plastic straws, CO₂-wise, are equivalent to one metal straw? Sure, there is a waste problem, but working with metal is expensive and the vast majority of people dont use straws on a daily basis, so it's not like it's comparable to using ceramic plates vs. single-use plastic plates.

 

[Rive]

Sometimes, it's hard to understand people. What was the big idea? 'Reinforcing' concrete with barb wire, and then put so thin cement in it that it can be torn apart by a hoe

'Creation' of the previous owner of our home.

Just finished with shifting old concrete, bricks, 'stuff' out of the garden. About 2m², so far.

 

[Borg]

Obviously someone who just used whatever they had laying around.

 

[Rive]

Obviously someone who just used whatever they had laying around.

Right. Absolutely right.

As I'm thinking about this, we found a few decently made piece of concrete in the garden.
- a piece of roadside post
- a piece of a grave marker (fortunately a side piece, not the one with names...)
- some broken fence posts - the kind which could stop a tank, so I can't quite understand how they got broken unless they were 'got' broken...

The only acceptable piece of homemade concrete here was the top of the septic tank: it got a good dose of cement, till it was that dark blue-ish color. With 20cm thickness. Fortunately without any attempt of reinforcing. Took two days to break apart.
The walls of the tank below were made of cheap masonry blocks, almost all broken, and clearly no intention of retaining any water or anything...

 

[Borg]

I saw a commercial for a new movie and had to laugh - Cocaine Bear. It's about a bear that finds a bunch of cocaine dumped from an airplane. They need to do a mashup with the Project Grizzly movie.

 

[fresh_42]

What makes a coral an animal and a venus flytrap a plant?