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

[Borek]

 

[Borek]

When you try to shot landing on a windy night, but you get an unexpected guest (well, not that unexpected, Perseids peak is just days away) - a meteor.

 

[WWGD]

It seems the number of people called " Bruce" has declined to a chronic low. This is the only conclusion I can draw from the name of the company " Bruce , Inc. Emergency Supply" , and the fact that I have not run into anyone named Bruce for a while.

 

[Ibix]

It seems the number of people called " Bruce" has declined to a chronic low.

Perhaps they were all nihilist philosophers?

 

[fresh_42]

Maybe all Bruces died hard ...

 

[WWGD]

Maybe all Bruces died hard ...

Interesting, re the movie Live Free or Die Hard, prisoners in the state of New Hampshire produce license plates that read: "Live Free or Die" , which is the state motto. And, BTW, since every state has a motto, no one is ever stranded; they can always borrow the motto to get back home.

 

[fresh_42]

Just saw a documentation which explained Sgt. Pepper, song by song in a terms of music science. Very interesting and a pity that we so often just consume music and fail to see the many hidden details. It's almost as if people would use mathematics as a big toolbox and don't give a **** about the mathematical principles ... - oops!

 

[WWGD]

Data * overload may be a factor

Just saw a documentation which explained Sgt. Pepper, song by song in a terms of music science. Very interesting and a pity that we so often just consume music and fail to see the many hidden details. It's almost as if people would use mathematics as a big toolbox and don't give a **** about the mathematical principles ... - oops!

Data* overload may be a factor. Too much going on, must oversimplify/automate in order to function..

* Data, and not information

 

[WWGD]

Weird: I am using a new PC , almost identical to my other one and I do not see the new post red-sign alerts in my PF tab, like I do in my other PC. EDIT: I suspect it may have to see with the fact that I was ( unknowingly) using Explorer instead of Chrome/Mozilla , which I ( and I believe some 99%+ of people nowadays) used in the other PC.

 

[fresh_42]

Weird: I am using a new PC , almost identical to my other one and I do not see the new post red-sign alerts in my PF tab, like I do in my other PC. EDIT: I suspect it may have to see with the fact that I was ( unknowingly) using Explorer instead of Chrome/Mozilla , which I ( and I believe some 99%+ of people nowadays) used in the other PC.

Dude, you must login! And what is an Explorer?

 

[WWGD]

Dude, you must login! And what is an Explorer?

I am logged in. I do see the red mark, but only when I am in the PF tab ( now that I am using Chrome, I also see it when I am using other tab). Explorer is just another major mistake by minisoft.

 

[fresh_42]

My new favorite quote:

Thinking outside the box only works well when you first understand what's IN the box.

 

[OmCheeto]

My new favorite quote:
phinds said: ↑
Thinking outside the box only works well when you first understand what's IN the box.

I fell in love with this "outside of the box" comment, the moment I saw it:

Integral; "You cannot think outside of the box if you have no idea where the box is."​

Being somewhat polite, I don't recall ever using a variation I came up with one day; "Seriously? You don't even have a box to think out of."

I like to think of myself as an "out of the box" thinker, linking seemingly disparate ideas from a room full of boxes.
Unfortunately, most of them are nearly empty.

 

[Borek]

Best model I can think of is a box full of air, put in a vacuum. Many people have no idea that when they say "I am thinking out of the box" they are actually drawing their ideas from the vacuum (and not even from a thin air).

 

[Ibix]

My favourite metaphor for doing science is doing a jigsaw, but we don't have the box and we're not 100% certain we've got all the pieces at the moment. All the time, people find pieces or find ways to make pieces fit together. And every so often someone has some great insight, like "you know, those two mountains are pretty much the same - do you think it's actually a mountain reflected in a lake?" And then there's a flurry of activity, flipping pieces upside down and trying to see if they fit that way up, and looking for other bits that might pair up as reflections.

And then along comes someone who's read about a jigsaw once saying "maybe it's a cat!" And then they look all hurt with our dogmatic insistence that this big grey thing with the trees and the snow is probably a mountain.

 

[OmCheeto]

My favourite metaphor for doing science is doing a jigsaw, but we don't have the box and we're not 100% certain we've got all the pieces at the moment. All the time, people find pieces or find ways to make pieces fit together. And every so often someone has some great insight, like "you know, those two mountains are pretty much the same - do you think it's actually a mountain reflected in a lake?" And then there's a flurry of activity, flipping pieces upside down and trying to see if they fit that way up, and looking for other bits that might pair up as reflections.

And then along comes someone who's read about a jigsaw once saying "maybe it's a cat!" And then they look all hurt with our dogmatic insistence that this big grey thing with the trees and the snow is probably a mountain.

O.M.G...

Someone get @Greg Bernhardt on the line. I want that on my next PF t-shirt:

"Maybe, it's a cat!"

 

[Ibix]

I want that on my next PF t-shirt:

"Maybe, it's a cat!"

Underneath a picture of a mountain, natch.

 

[OmCheeto]

Underneath a picture of a mountain, natch.

We need a "rofl" with tears shooting out our eyes emoticon!

That is so funny, I'm crying.

 

[WWGD]

My friends from India. One barely ever has any money: Lokash. The other one does not like to share: Selfeesh. EDIT: My name probably means something weird in other languages. Maybe non-Westerners are classier in not bringing it up, or , unlike me, have something actually funny to say..

 

[Jonathan Scott]

I went out to my little back lawn with my reclining garden chair last night to look for Perseids. I'd not cut the grass for a while (we are trying to encourage wildlife) and I accidentally trod (fortunately not too heavily) on something raised and scrunchy-sounding. On fetching my torch I found it was a hedgehog, visibly breathing but curled up. I went back indoors for a few minutes and when I came out again it had gone (but I saw a few nice Perseids).
After some repairs last winter, our back fence is now mostly continuous around the garden (apart from very small gaps) with the only large gap being under the gate on the concrete path around the side towards the road (where there is a bright street lamp), and I couldn't think of any obvious hiding places within our garden, so I was curious to know where it had gone. This morning I had an idea and looked under our small wheelbarrow, which we keep upside down near our shed (after two baby birds drowned in it when it was the right way up). I was surprised to see a large pile of leaves in the shape of the wheelbarrow, with a hedgehog in the middle. I immediately put the wheelbarrow down again, hoping I hadn't disturbed the hedgehog.
But now I hate the responsibility of knowing that there is a hedgehog there. What if I want to use the wheelbarrow - I guess I can't now there's a hedgehog living in it? It's probably living on the slugs growing in our unmown grass, so do I have to continue letting the grass grow? Did we accidentally trap it within the back garden when we last had our fence repaired, or is there still some hidden place where it can get in and out, or is it brave enough to go out via the path to the road?

 

[Borek]

They must be squeezing through holes that look way too small for them. I have seen one few days ago on my front yard, where to my best knowledge there are no gaps in the fence other than a slit about an inch and a half high below the gate. I live in the middle of the residential area, all houses have fences, it had to pass many yards and fences before getting here.

 

[Ibix]

Youtube seems to have some evidence backing up my memory that hedgehogs are pretty good climbers, so up-and-over is a possibility for how they get in and out.

 

[fresh_42]

I would be surprised if it was restricted to the garden. They normally walk up to a few kilometers per night and the number of slugs in your garden might not be high enough either.

 

[Hawksteinman]

I've recently been thinking about the question 'what is time?'

I still have no idea how to answer it :(

 

[WWGD]

I have this strange friend-acquaintance ( sort of in-between) who confuses the hell out of me in that he will say things that are either crealy idiotic or trite, or really isightful deep ones. I guess we all do at times, but this guy's comments somehow are fat in both tails. I had never met or heard of someone like this in this regard.

 

[WWGD]

They must be squeezing through holes that look way too small for them. I have seen one few days ago on my front yard, where to my best knowledge there are no gaps in the fence other than a slit about an inch and a half high below the gate. I live in the middle of the residential area, all houses have fences, it had to pass many yards and fences before getting here.

A slit? Quantum hedgehogs squeezing in?

 

[WWGD]

View attachment 208567

Haha, I just made a comment here about someone like that. A curious, smart inquisitive person without a formal education to be discriminating and think more clearly, and use for reference something beyond " They said" , " They believe" , etc.

 

[Borek]

A slit? Quantum hedgehogs squeezing in?

Blame my English. Slit, gap, slot, opening, hole, they don't have exact equivalents in Polish, even if we too have several words covering the same meanings (szczelina, szpara, dziura, otwór).

That being said, some animals appear to be able to tunnel through barriers, so yes, QM is probably at work here.

 

[WWGD]

Blame my English. Slit, gap, slot, opening, hole, they don't have exact equivalents in Polish, even if we too have several words covering the same meanings (szczelina, szpara, dziura, otwór).

That being said, some animals appear to be able to tunnel through barriers, so yes, QM is probably at work here.

Hey, no problem, you helped set up one of my horrible puns, none of which goes with neither szczelina, szpara, dziura, nor otwor. Have a Fart on me! EDIT: And you know more English than I will ever know Polish, so you're winning on that account, by far(t). EDIT2: Common, Borek, you got to be able to find English words that mean something weird/funny in Polish.

 

[WWGD]

Wow, look at this:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article111732917.html

 

[fresh_42]

I have this strange friend-acquaintance ( sort of in-between) who confuses the hell out of me in that he will say things that are either crealy idiotic or trite, or really isightful deep ones. I guess we all do at times, but this guy's comments somehow are fat in both tails. I had never met or heard of someone like this in this regard.

I know a German director, Christoph Schlingensief, who would have fitted in this description. He was highly intelligent, but his spectators greeted themselves by: "Well, what's been the most horrible this time?"

 

[WWGD]

I know a German director, Christoph Schlingensief, who would have fitted in this description. He was highly intelligent, but his spectators greeted themselves by: "Well, what's been the most horrible this time?"

I would think these are people who are smart but without formal training. For whatever its defficiencies, formal training often forces one to provide support for arguments and challenges ones views.

 

[fresh_42]

I would think these are people who are smart but without formal training. For whatever its defficiencies, formal training often forces one to provide support for arguments and challenges ones views.

A burden artist don't have to carry.

 

[WWGD]

Why wasn't it called " Dr Whom"? I have heard the explanation for the difference between who and whom, but it matters so little to me that I have never absorbed it.

 

[jim hardy]

For whatever its defficiencies, formal training often forces one to provide support for arguments and challenges ones views.

It teaches disciplined and rigorous thinking.
Genius I'd say is the ability to mix disciplined thought with free form wool-gathering when figuring out problems.

old jim