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

In summary, the conversation consists of various discussions about documentaries, the acquisition of National Geographic by Fox, a funny manual translation, cutting sandwiches, a question about the proof of the infinitude of primes, and a realization about the similarity between PF and PDG symbols. The conversation also touches on multitasking and the uniqueness of the number two as a prime number.
  • #5,846
WWGD said:
Dubbed or translated?
What is the difference? They do not use the original soundtrack and speak over it, if you meant that. They produce a new soundtrack to match the lips better.
 
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  • #5,847
WWGD said:
Dubbed or translated?
There's an animated kids' series called "Timmy Time" about a bunch of anthropomorphic animals in a preschool. None of them actually talk - they just make the appropriate animal sound, and that's done by a person saying the sound. I mean, Timmy is a lamb, and he's voiced by someone saying "baaaa". Between the inflection they put into the voices, clever camera work and exaggerated facial expressions, they're surprisingly communicative.

I gather that dubbed versions are available in case you don't speak english.
 
  • #5,848
Ibix said:
I gather that dubbed versions are available in case you don't speak english.
And you don't have Russians speaking with a Scottish accent.
 
  • #5,849
fresh_42 said:
What is the difference?
Dubbed or subtitled, I expect he means. Connery's Scottish Lithuanian is as hilarious as his Scottish Spaniard in Highlander and his Scottish Englishman in James Bond.
 
  • #5,850
fresh_42 said:
And you don't have Russians speaking with a Scottish accent.
Vladimir, Alexei, Babushka said: Out of the WattaRRRRRRR! Bring me the Vodka, er, Whiskey! Wonder if AI can improve on this. Not likely in the short run.
 
  • #5,851
Ibix said:
Dubbed or subtitled, I expect he means.
Subtitles are awful. I always read them even if I understand the English better or at all, in case they are in Hebrew or something. I don't like them. But here they translate (produce a new soundtrack) of nearly everything, except some cultural movies from Finland or so, which nobody wants to see. In those cases they use subtitles. The best situation is if they broadcast both languages and you can decide per remote which one to follow.
 
  • #5,852
fresh_42 said:
Subtitles are awful.
They can be hilarious. I saw a Mexican movie where one of the characters cusses out another, not only calling into question his parentage but that of his goats too, and further insinuating that the two subjects were closely related, rather like him and his goats. The English subtitle over this lengthy and colourful tirade was "Damn you, Luis!"
 
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  • #5,853
Ibix said:
They can be hilarious. I saw a Mexican movie where one of the characters cusses out another, not only calling into question his parentage but that of his goats too, and further insinuating that the two subjects were closely related, rather like him and his goats. The English subtitle over this lengthy and colourful tirade was "Damn you, Luis!"
I've seen it in mostly Chinese movies: you see the guy's mouth moving for some 3-4 minutes, saying some 20+ words and then it is subtitled to something like Yes, indeed!
 
  • #5,854
fresh_42 said:
So you're a politician!
The quote is from Richard Jordan's character, Jeffrey Pelt.
 
  • #5,855
Ibix said:
They can be hilarious. I saw a Mexican movie where one of the characters cusses out another, not only calling into question his parentage but that of his goats too, and further insinuating that the two subjects were closely related, rather like him and his goats. The English subtitle over this lengthy and colourful tirade was "Damn you, Luis!"
Colorful insults are a very cultural thing and actually one of the hardest things to translate - some insults just does not exists in other languages, so what you get at the end is just gibberish. I too would rather go with the 'damn you'.

Also, I found English surprisingly lacking in this regard.
Lee Emery is (was) an exception - and a genius.
 
  • #5,856
Wonder if there is a game-theoretical analysis or solution to these insult-fests you so often see in other sites. Other than the few that just refusing to continue, they just go on indefinitely; no physical or other restrictions as irl and one just responds , to which the other responds...Good thing to moderate a site. Seeing these largely unmoderated sites makes me question the virtues of capital L Libertarianism.
 
  • #5,857
WWGD said:
Seeing these largely unmoderated sites makes me question the virtues of capital L Libertarianism.
I think Richard Dawkins commented, when someone was insisting that we need God to be good, that typically what we mean by that is that we need police.
 
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  • #5,858
Ibix said:
I think Richard Dawkins commented, when someone was insisting that we need God to be good, that typically what we mean by that is that we need police.
Edit: Seems we're most likely to notice the need after we no longer have a sheltered life of college or otherwise. And it seems too, most Libertarians are well-heeled, with enough resources both to provide for and protect themselves and their families. I doubt there are many working-class libertarians.
 
  • #5,859
Seemed like a hidden camera show. Cyclist with the right of way going at 20mph or more, almost hits clueless pedestrian. I thought cyclist would shout and pummel the pedestrian. Instead, he apologized profusely, asking him if he was OK. A second cyclist approached the two and asked everyone if they were OK. Dont know, just didnt expect it to turn out like that.
 
  • #5,860
Merkel or Markle? Please pronounce clearly or mention who's with Harry. Or maybe I should mind my business when overhearing the other table.
 
  • #5,861
I stopped two car accidents from happening in the same parking lot yesterday. While I was waiting for a car to back out of a spot, the car on the other side started backing out also. I honked my horn and they stopped within a couple of feet of each other. Later as I was leaving, I was telling my wife about it when I saw two more cars headed for each other again. This time I had to yell and wave at the drivers who again barely stopped in time. Strange morning. :wideeyed:
 
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  • #5,862
I didnt calculate carefully-enough and laundry, including blankets, sweaters/jackets I use to keep warm at sleep were not ready by bed time. After some 25 minutes of laying in the cold , lightbulb went on. 30 slow-burn situps and 30 pushups did the job and I crashed into sleep.
 
  • #5,863
I wonder if one can sense coffee on " the other side": Give me a coffee medium.
Well, madame Zelda is busy now...
 
  • #5,864
Recently I've been playing around with ephemeris data for fun and kicks.

Specifically, this data is in the form of Two-line Element sets (TLE) used to track artificial satellites. If you've ever used a satellite tracking website or app, such as heavens-above.com or its phone/tablet app, the information from them ultimately based on TLEs (albeit behind-the-scenes).
Heavens-above.png

(Image from Heavens Above android app on Google Play)

TLEs have two or three lines of data. Line 0 contains the common name of the satellite/object and is not really so important. Lines 1 and 2 contain the real information. Each line (line 1 or 2) is exactly 69 characters long.

2line.gif

(Image courtesy of NASA)

TLEs are maintained by Space-Track.org. Space-Track.org is a part of NORAD, which is a part of the United States Air Force (and which I'm guessing NORAD is more specifically a part of the "Space Force" now).

If you're not familiar with NORAD, it is the very same organization that Mathew Broderrick's character "accidentally" hacked into in the 1983 fictional movie "WarGames", and nearly caused a nuclear apocalypse.

545667-mgm4.jpg

(Image from the move "WarGames," courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.)

TLEs are freely available to the public from Space-Track.org, so long as you register for a login account, follow their guidelines, and don't create a nuclear apocalypse.

Although TLEs are used, either directly or indirectly, by many amateur sky-watchers, they are also used by people and systems carrying some pretty serious responsibility. So when writing code that processes the TLE information, it's good practice to double check that the data wasn't corrupted when downloaded. This is mostly done with parity in the form of a checksum at the end of each line. But it's also good practice to check that lines 1 and 2 are exactly 69 characters long, excluding any leading or trailing whitespace.

As part of checking for the line length, a constant might be declared in code resembling this (in C# or C++ here):
Code:
 public const int DesiredL = 69;

Or if programming in C# specifically, an arguably better syntax might be:
Code:
 public int DesiredL { get { return 69; }}

'Makes me wonder if the folks at NORAD designed their standard specifically with that in mind, knowing full well that coders would have to write something to that effect.

[Edit: Although not the most efficient use of declaration types,
public long DesiredL { get { return 69; }}
is also syntactically correct.]
 
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  • #5,865
If you put antibiotics on probiotic yogurt, do you end up with biotics? Anti-Pro?
 
  • #5,866
We're closed to the date where it's awkward to wish happy new year to people we have not been in contact with. Or maybe we can use the Chinese or other new year. Happy Mayan/Persian, etc. New year. Me, I am joining the group with the most holidays.
 
  • #5,867
WWGD said:
We're closed to the date where it's awkward to wish happy new year to people we have not been in contact with. Or maybe we can use the Chinese or other new year. Happy Mayan/Persian, etc. New year. Me, I am joining the group with the most holidays.
I'm considering a new religion, 'The Abrahams'. We take the holy Friday from the Muslims, the Schabbes from the Jews and the Sunday from the Christians. I don't care a lot about the rest, it's so similar that any argumentation is ridiculous anyway. The advantages are obvious: three free days in a row and far less killed people.
 
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  • #5,868
fresh_42 said:
I'm considering a new religion, 'The Abrahams'. We take the holy Friday from the Muslims, the Schabbes from the Jews and the Sunday from the Christians. I don't care a lot about the rest, it's so similar that any argumentation is ridiculous anyway. The advantages are obvious: three free days in a row and far less killed people.
But too much redundancy since Saturday and Sunday are already non-work days in most places. Need to find one for Mondays to have that bridge from Thursday night to Tuesday morning.
 
  • #5,869
It's weird how viruses are considered non-living. If you can kill it, then it was alive.
 
  • #5,870
Hamburgers? Why Ham in Hamburger if it is made of beef?
Because Hamburgers originated in Hamburg.

How about Cheeseburgers? Did they originate in Cheeseburg?
 
  • #5,871
WWGD said:
Because Hamburgers originated in Hamburg.
The story I have heard was, that the ship(s) originated in Hamburg, and the beef was brought by immigrants for the journey. However, it wasn't ground beef originally.

But to a more important and urgent question:
Shall I watch the Superbowl (consider my local time!) knowing that my favored team will lose?
 
  • #5,872
All sorts of people wal
skyshrimp said:
It's weird how viruses are considered non-living. If you can kill it, then it was alive.
IIRC , conditions for something to be alive: it reproduces, has a metabolism and 2-3 others I can't remember now.
 
  • #5,873
fresh_42 said:
The story I have heard was, that the ship(s) originated in Hamburg, and the beef was brought by immigrants for the journey. However, it wasn't ground beef originally.

But to a more important and urgent question:
Shall I watch the Superbowl (consider my local time!) knowing that my favored team will lose?
Watch it in Cheeseburg for good luck.
 
  • #5,874
skyshrimp said:
It's weird how viruses are considered non-living. If you can kill it, then it was alive.
Supposedly, sponges themselves are alive too; in a sort of suspended state. I remember a while back a question on whether water itself is alive. Answer was no.
 
  • #5,875
So something 'non-living' has learned from interactions from immune system attacks and has molecularity adjusted itself to wipe out the human race?

Not bad for something that can't think.

So what happens if it spreads through the Western world like a wild fire?

Is this nature's latest attempt at trying to cull an unregulated and terminal human population boom?
 
  • #5,876
skyshrimp said:
So something 'non-living' has learned from interactions from immune system attacks and has molecularity adjusted itself to wipe out the human race?

Not bad for something that can't think.

So what happens if it spreads through the Western world like a wild fire?

Is this nature's latest attempt at trying to cull an equally unregulated and terminal human population boom?
Scary though; possibly true. EDIT: Population growth has been tapering of, though, and it is much higher in non-developed world; there is even negative growth in some countries. Bulgaria had a population of around 9 million in the 1970s and it is around 7.2 million now.
 
  • #5,877
Some of you may remember the incredibly-boring saga of a domain name I bought the rights to a few years back. After a year went by, I told the company --FatCow -- that I chose not to renew my rights to the name, in a painfully - explicit way. For the last 4 years or so, each January , which was the month when I first bought the rights -- I get the same email warning me that my rights to the name are about to expire. And yet again, I tell them explicitly that I chose not to renew after the first year . And then they keep having reps asking me to renew. I make it a point to be polite to people down in the rungs of power but I have been losing it trying to convey the very basic point : ! don't want to, nor have I ever wanted to #$% renew ownership to the domain name. I suggest to stay away from Fat Cow company.
 
  • #5,878
Why does Tabasco have a best before date? I mean prior to, say 50 years.
 
  • #5,879
fresh_42 said:
Why does Tabasco have a best before date? I mean prior to, say 50 years.
Why do they put instructions on underwear? ( For washing, but it seemed funny any way: lift a leg...)
 

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