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.
  • #9,661
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?
But I am curious as to your claim that any recursive computation can also be accomplished without recursion. I'm aware of specific cases when this is true , but not of any result to this effect.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #9,662
Jarvis323 said:
visa versa
Linguistic pet peeve:
The phrase is “vice versa” from Latin with the meaning “the other way around”.
 
  • Informative
Likes Oldman too
  • #9,663
I can't understand advertisement of products these days anymore...
It is all about people dancing, singing, the advertisement ends and i have no idea what product they were trying to sell/talking about.
 
  • Like
Likes pinball1970 and WWGD
  • #9,664
Large print:
" Our Lawyers Average 15 years of Tax Experience"
Tiny print :
" And 5 years in Prison".
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Likes Rive and Oldman too
  • #9,665
WWGD said:
Large print:
" Our Lawyers Average 15 years of Tax Experience"
Tiny print :
" And 5 years in Prison".
A good ad would be the other way around.
 
  • #9,666
When they cut down the Ceviche fish, they end up with sons of Ceviche.
 
  • #9,667
LCSphysicist said:
I can't understand advertisement of products these days anymore...
It is all about people dancing, singing, the advertisement ends and i have no idea what product they were trying to sell/talking about.
Laxatives? Tampons? Hernia Truss?
 
  • #9,669
strangerep said:
Laxatives? Tampons? Hernia Truss?
Maybe all in one? And an AM/FM radio and Swiss Army knife too.
 
  • Like
Likes dlgoff
  • #9,670
A bizarre exchange:
Person 1" I went to the school of Hard Knocks"
Person 2 " Well, you flunked out of it"

Talk about stretching an analogy too far.
 
  • Haha
  • Like
Likes OmCheeto, Oldman too and dlgoff
  • #9,671
Shazam's out put:"How you remind me". I finally heard /recognized a song from infamous Nickelback.
 
  • #9,672
Magic? How does Windows update when I'm not even online?
 
  • Informative
Likes Oldman too
  • #9,673
WWGD said:
Magic? How does Windows update when I'm not even online?
Probably a remote procedure call prior to going offline, this is only a theory but Magic is a long shot.
 
  • Like
Likes WWGD
  • #9,674
WWGD said:
Magic? How does Windows update when I'm not even online?
Dark magic: by some automatic settings it'll download the files beforehand and do the restarts outside 'active hours' on its own initiative, without asking anything.

Quite an annoyance when you have a ton of stuff left on on your desktop
icon_reclamao.gif
 
  • Like
Likes WWGD and Oldman too
  • #9,675
WWGD said:
Magic? How does Windows update when I'm not even online?
Big Brother is not only watching you, he's patching your machine for you.
 
  • #9,676
It's weird how visual appeal can affect our enjoyment of something.

If you took your favorite food and put it on a plate to eat, it'd probably look wonderfully appetizing.

Yet, if you put it in your mouth to eat and start chewing (it tastes good at this point) and THEN take it back out and put it on the plate (the chewed up food with saliva and all), you probably would not want to eat that.

YET, IT'S THE SAME FOOD ITEM!
 
  • #9,677
kyphysics said:
YET, IT'S THE SAME FOOD ITEM!
It's all in the presentation. :wink:
 
  • #9,678
I am going to work with Horatiu! So happy.
 
  • Like
Likes Ibix, dextercioby and fresh_42
  • #9,679
This is the house Nicholas Cage once owned (2006-2009) in Germany:

1658535731393.jpeg
 
  • #9,680
It's day 106 and I still want to smoke.
 
  • #9,681
fresh_42 said:
It's day 106 and I still want to smoke.
It's day 5 for me , of spending 20 consecutive minutes sitting down doing nothing.
What was the motivational phrase:
" Today's the first day of the end of your life"?
 
  • #9,682
fresh_42 said:
This is the house Nicholas Cage once owned (2006-2009) in Germany:

View attachment 304691
He sells his 5 castles, 4 Burmese Pythons, the 7 World's Tallest Dwarfs, his 18th century Iron Maidens, his DeLorean, and he may be ready to pay his debts.
 
  • #9,683
I forgot the password I had set up 20 minutes prior, yet I was able to remember that the Earth weights ##5.977 \times 10^{24} kg##.
 
  • Like
Likes Astronuc
  • #9,684
fresh_42 said:
It's day 106 and I still want to smoke.
Hang in there, it's worth it. I stopped over ten years ago, still, sometimes... nope no way. It's nice to be able to breathe when you need to. 🚭
 
  • Like
Likes Astronuc
  • #9,685
Quitting took me three attempts before it stuck. Now, >40yrs later, I still occassionally think about lighting up! Argghh! :mad:
 
  • Like
Likes Oldman too and Astronuc
  • #9,686
I hear the easiest way to stop smoking is to never start.
 
  • Love
Likes Oldman too
  • #9,687
LCSphysicist said:
I can't understand advertisement of products these days anymore...
It is all about people dancing, singing, the advertisement ends and i have no idea what product they were trying to sell/talking about.
The worst are the perfume adverts.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Likes Oldman too and Astronuc
  • #9,688
Orodruin said:
I hear the easiest way to stop smoking is to never start.
fresh_42 said:
It's day 106 and I still want to smoke.

WWGD said:
" Today's the first day of the end of your life"?

Oldman too said:
Hang in there, it's worth it. I stopped over ten years ago, still, sometimes... nope no way. It's nice to be able to breathe when you need to. 🚭

Tom.G said:
Quitting took me three attempts before it stuck. Now, >40yrs later, I still occassionally think about lighting up! Argghh! :mad:
Smoke, or STROKE; it's a HARD lesson.
 
  • #9,689
fresh_42 said:
It's day 106 and I still want to smoke.
Just keep aiming for the next prime number in days.
 
  • Like
Likes Oldman too and fresh_42
  • #9,690
Astronuc said:
Just keep aiming for the next prime number in days.
I have written a little App that tells me the day. It also tells me what I would throw away if I made an exception.
 
  • Like
Likes Oldman too and Astronuc
  • #9,691
On a completely different subject - an interview with an anthropologist-in-residence for the NY Department of Sanitation. She does talk about how some scientists back in the day used to analyze royal poop.

https://personplacething.org/408-robin-nagle/

I was interested about her father, who when an adolescent was searching for the Answer. So, he studied Physics, which was part of my motivation, and that didn't work for him. Then he studied Philosophy, and that didn't quite work either. He eventually studied Theology, and in particular Anglican theology, which worked for him. I stayed with Physics and eventually Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science.
 
  • #9,692
fresh_42 said:
I have written a little App that tells me the day. It also tells me what I would throw away if I made an exception.
I watched my wife go through the withdrawal process. She used nicotine gum to curb the urge. She had been smoking since she was 16 (a high school thing some kids adopted). She had smoked for about 15 years, when she decided to quit. She didn't want to be smoking and having kids.

She had cut way back on smoking (from 20 per day) to 5 or 10 depending. Certainly around finals, her smoking increased. However, she eventually quit, probably at this point about 36 years ago.

She also worked briefly as a drug/alcohol (substance abuse) and mental health counselor, and she didn't feel right about encouraging others to quit substance abuse while she was addicted to nicotine.
 
  • Informative
Likes Oldman too
  • #9,693
Astronuc said:
She also worked briefly as a drug/alcohol (substance abuse) and mental health counselor, and she didn't feel right about encouraging others to quit substance abuse while she was addicted to nicotine.
The biochemical addiction is only a couple of days, a few weeks at most. But the mental temptation ...

I have <insert religious comment of your choice> no problem with alcohol although I regularly drink beer. The thought that a single cigarette would be similar is unfortunately wrong. Too bad.
 
  • Like
Likes Oldman too
  • #9,694
Bystander said:
Smoke, or STROKE; it's a HARD lesson.
That sums things up perfectly, everyone focuses on the respiratory issues, not that it isn't of critically important, It's just that the vascular aspect doesn't get the attention it deserves. From personal experience, there's more connection than just rhyming between smoke and stroke.
 
Last edited:
  • #9,695
Astronuc said:
[...] some scientists back in the day used to analyze royal poop.
Hmm,... so if it doesn't stink then the person must be of true ancient royal lineage? Or were they analyzing for traces of precious metals? Or, to examine whether the poop is slightly barbequed, proving that the sun does indeed shine brightly out of their... <ahem> ?
 
  • Haha
Likes Oldman too

Similar threads

35
Replies
1K
Views
32K
Replies
3K
Views
145K
Replies
2K
Views
158K
Replies
4K
Views
216K
Replies
4
Views
2K
Replies
8
Views
1K
Back
Top