iNow

31 minutes ago, Luc Turpin said:

length does not affect us as much as time

My wife begs to differ 

33 minutes ago, Luc Turpin said:

if time stands still and length compresses (I guess) to a point of nothingness, do we come to a point where space-time ceases to exist?

Until you explain the mechanism by which those two events come to pass, they can be treated as fictional and have any fictional answer you prefer. 

51 minutes ago, Paulsrocket said:

my son is a software engineer with a top secret clearance working for Lockheed Martin.

People who share things like this are probably lying, and when they’re not they’re clearly:

51 minutes ago, Paulsrocket said:

not a genius

4 minutes ago, Paulsrocket said:

What is the process of separating 1 photon moving at light speed from the trillions around it?

What is a person who doesn’t know that answer doing challenging every correction from people who quite clearly know better?

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

Then he had his aides move a meeting with farmers to Zoom.

Probably more bc the farmers were too smart to bother showing up. Good luck with the frozen lines and keeping them unfrozen. Never fun. 

I had to put a portable space heater in front of the thermostat to get it to turn on a furnace. It refused to engage without an actual temp reading (reading said “Lo” and needed to go above 33 to send the flame command to the heaters circuit board). Put a space heater toward the thermostat and voila! Furnace flame engaged! Then shutoff the space heater a short bit afterward. 

3 minutes ago, phyti said:

No one has time in a bottle. 

No one has distance in a bottle, either. So what?

”Hey barkeep! Give me a pint of centimeters and a plate full of inches, please.”

19 hours ago, TheVat said:

National Weather Service data shows there has never been a colder Iowa caucus night than what is forecast for Jan. 15. The previous coldest was in 2004, when the high temperature for the caucus was 16 degrees. (F.)

I like the way Axios summarized this same idea in table format:

19 hours ago, TheVat said:

Wondering what skewing effect, if any, this might have on the results.

In addition to my previous reply yesterday, I realized last night that weather like this will also selectively assist those candidates with the strongest ground game.

Specifically, those candidacies with lots and lots of volunteers, interns, college kids, etc. showing up to peoples front doors, picking them up in their cars / vans, and shuttling people to and from their caucus locations. 

Candidates lacking that level of city by city, county by county, town by town coordination and human centered operations will be weaker overall than those candidates who’ve spent the last several months building out that “infrastructure.”

And all because Mother Nature kissed us with her blizzard tongue this weekend. 

Just now, Paulsrocket said:

How are photons selected for entanglement

We usually go with the light ones

Better biochemistry lends to nicer narratives. 

4 hours ago, TheVat said:

Wondering what skewing effect, if any, this might have on the results.

Looks like it’s gonna be closer to minus 3F and minus 30F windchill that evening. It’s nasty out. 

Effect: Older voters far more likely to stay home. Representation for the 30-50 something crowd gains higher per vote power / weighting in the totals.  More extreme voters more likely to show up than uninspired or lukewarm ones. 

Life in Iowa as I type this:

8 hours ago, StringJunky said:

Is there substance to this comment by a Rep?

No. US President is Commander in Chief of the armed forces and has implicit authority to strike, defend, and respond to attacks without express declaration of war from Congress. 

More broadly, perhaps that needs to change (see also: Iraq and Afghanistan), but Biden doesn't need to check with the right-wing MAGA extremists in Congress before tossing a missile toward those attacking us and our allies. 

I also sometimes see shapes in the clouds! 

I’ve noticed that more people carry umbrellas when it rains. Conclusion? Umbrellas make it rain 

Science attempts to model how the universe works in a way that minimizes human bias and is consistent regardless of who tries.

Every model is provisional and will be quickly rejected when better models come along to replace them. 

The fact that you mention things like truth and proof in your posts implies that maybe you lack a valid understanding of how and why science works. 

This isn’t meant to insult you. It’s just a statement of the situation as I see it. 

Being temporarily elected President of the US for a 4-year term is NOT equivalent to the divine right of kings who’s authority is said to be an unchallengeable gift from god. 

Yet… that’s precisely the argument moving through the US Justice system in context of Cheeto Mussolini seeking a 2nd term and evasion of 93 felony charges. 

7 hours ago, exchemist said:

So I think you have made that bit up.

I’m grateful for the open exchange of ideas you shared with Phi and largely agree with you both.

I will just add that language itself also evolves, and here in my own posting behavior I become one of the selection mechanisms by which words and usages ultimately propagate.   ✌️

6 hours ago, CharonY said:

Also, yeast extract is typically used for flavoring. It is a cheap source for umami. 

Good to know. Next time I lack mushrooms for my dish I’ll add some bread starter 😂 

We call it corn flour  

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cornstarch-vs-corn-flour

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

Yikes.

Yikes is the fact that lawyers believe this is valid, and that voters (at least GOP primary voters) seem to agree.

2 minutes ago, exchemist said:

maize starch is for - a thickener perhaps

That's my interpretation. It's corn starch, like what we use in slurries to thicken sauces

22 minutes ago, exchemist said:

We have faith in the theories of science, after all. These theories are not facts but provisional models, yet we trust them - or many of the better established ones at least. That is faith, surely?

@Phi for All hits on this topic regularly, but it's NOT faith... Trust as a term to describe this works just fine. We trust it, and we trust it because evidence suggests we should, and that trust is rewarded because the evidence keeps affirming it.

We trust the sun will rise tomorrow morning (or that the earth will rotate in a way that makes the sun once more visible to us over the horizon) and we have evidence that informs this trust.

Faith, however, is different. Faith is continuing to believe despite the evidence. When the evidence contradicts that faith, the evidence must be wrong or dismissed.

That overlaps in some ways with the concept of trust, but it's not informed or updated in the same way that our trust in scientific models is. The trust is provisional, too... Faith is not. 

1 hour ago, mar_mar said:

you are saying that humans are better than apes.

I would never say something so painfully and pathetically stupid since (as you’ve been told now at least 10x by multiple members) humans ARE apes. 

39 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

In quantum systems, the computational space increases exponentially with the size of the system, which enables exponential parallelism. This parallelism could lead to exponentially faster quantum algorithms than possible classically

This is a much cleaner way of saying the exact same thing I was previously attempting to communicate here. Thx for the contribution 

2 hours ago, mar_mar said:

And I still don't understand is evolution a change or development? So simple question, why don't you answer

For the same reason I don’t spend time explaining math to a mosquito 

56 minutes ago, AIkonoklazt said:

Could someone re-parse these sentences for me?

Translated: Stupidity from time waster who shows zero signs of comprehension, good faith, and should’ve been shown the door weeks ago 

I’m simply defining “machine” in a broader way than you. Have fun.