# I learned something today....



## Art Rock

I don't think we have a thread for this. Little bits of information on anything (well, except religion and politics) that you encountered recently and others might find interesting (or not).

*May you live in interesting times!*
For years, I thought like many others that this English expression was a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in "uninteresting times" of peace and tranquility than in "interesting" ones, which are usually times of trouble. 
Yesterday my wife and I were summing up all the stressful things that have happened to us over the past ten years (concluding that we still have plenty of things to be happy for), and I quote this line as a translated Chinese curse. I drew a complete blank - she had never heard about it (for those who do not know, she is Shanghainese). So I checked on Wiki (partially quoted above) - and found out that "the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced". Amazing.

Wiki link.


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## Taggart

Aw! You've ruined things!


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## pianozach

I always figured it was some Irish, Celtic, or Scottish saying/curse, meaning *"May you experience much disorder and trouble in your life."*

We certain do live in interesting times.


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## Strange Magic

The expression "Let no new thing arise" is attributed to China, Spain, and probably everywhere else. Woody did say "Life's a bitch, then you die". He also said, of a restaurant, "The food is terrible. And the portions are so small."


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## Art Rock

*The Toy symphony*

Based on the CD I have with this work from the 1760s, I always thought it was by Leopold Mozart. Today I found out that the composer is undetermined, and that apart from Papa Mozart, also the Haydn brothers and one Austrian Benedictine monk Edmund Angerer have been considered to be the composer.


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## TxllxT

Two days ago we went for a walk in the old estate of 'Groeneveld' (Greenfield) on the outskirts of Baarn in the center of the Netherlands. My wife made a short video of the beautiful bird singing among the huge old trees and put this on FB. We had no idea what bird it was, nor did we catch a glimpse of it. But one of her contacts on FB reacted today: this is a blackcap. On Wikipedia I learned that indeed this little bird with its strong voice lives on estates where big old trees are being kept. And ... "In Messiaen's opera Saint François d'Assise, the saint is represented by themes based on the blackcap's song."


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## ArtMusic

Art Rock said:


> I don't think we have a thread for this. Little bits of information on anything (well, except religion and politics) that you encountered recently and others might find interesting (or not).
> 
> *May you live in interesting times!*
> For years, I thought like many others that this English expression was a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally used ironically; life is better in "uninteresting times" of peace and tranquility than in "interesting" ones, which are usually times of trouble.
> Yesterday my wife and I were summing up all the stressful things that have happened to us over the past ten years (concluding that we still have plenty of things to be happy for), and I quote this line as a translated Chinese curse. I drew a complete blank - she had never heard about it (for those who do not know, she is Shanghainese). So I checked on Wiki (partially quoted above) - and found out that "the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced". Amazing.
> 
> Wiki link.


You might note that there are numerous words in Mandarin for which there is no direct translation in English. English (my first and only language that I am fluent in) is flawed.


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## Conrad2

Just saw an interesting video about sphere eversion, the process of turning a sphere inside out without cutting, tearing, or creasing it.

Here is the YouTube video I watched:





I'm not a math major, but from my limited understanding and perception, it seems that the person who is turning the sphere inside out do so by making "ridges" on the sphere surface which push the top and the bottom through each other without it forming a crease as the sides turn counterclockwise and pushing the center back onto itself.

I searched for the creator of the videos and found this site which I presume it belongs to the video creators. From reading it, I learned that the mathematicn Stephen Smale created a proof for it, but was viewed by his peers to be practicaly impossible even though the math underlying it seems sounds. It was only when other mathematians who prove it through visualization did it become accepted. From that point, mathematians are trying to find different methods to accomplish it in more simpler manner.

Here is the original proof that started this, but I found very inaccessible through its technical language, so power to you if you can understand it.

I found an article that I could understand to some reasonable degree that has some images.

I also found a browser simulation while looking for more information, though it does touch on different geometry concepts.

I noticed that the website hasn't been updated since 1996, so if anyone know that there was any major advancement in the field, please post it as I find this topic interesting for a layman.

Hope you guys found this to be interesting.


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## WNvXXT

Leanred of the oldest surviving camera photograph - eight hour exposure.


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## Art Rock

ArtMusic said:


> You might note that there are numerous words in Mandarin for which there is no direct translation in English.


And vice versa. For instance, in mandarin there are no separate words for he and she (or his and hers), for rat and mouse, for rabbit and hare, for sheep and goat, and so on.......


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## pianozach

Art Rock said:


> And vice versa. For instance, in mandarin there are no separate words for he and she (or his and hers), for rat and mouse, for rabbit and hare, for sheep and goat, and so on.......


My favorite pop culture factoid is that the Innuits (or "Eskimos") of northern North America have 50 to 100 or so words for "snow".

For instance:

qanuk: 'snowflake'
kaneq: 'frost'
kanevvluk: 'fine snow'
qanikcaq: 'snow on ground'
muruaneq: 'soft deep snow'
nutaryuk: 'fresh snow'
pirta: 'blizzard'
qengaruk: 'snow bank'
qaniɣ 'falling snow', 
aniɣu 'fallen snow', and 
apun 'snow on the ground'


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## DaveM

Today I learned that an octopus has a number of neurons comparable to small dogs and 2/3 of them are in the arms. Also they have 3 hearts. When the octopus is at rest it can absorb oxygen through the skin rather than the gills and the tentacles can respond to light separate from the eyes. They are surprisingly intelligent. Amazing animal!


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## Ariasexta

I never heard of such a curse in chinese, the most relevant I know would be: 郁闷/Yumen, means so boring that it irritates. I hate this word very much, in actuality it is a strong word in the way that shall sound a bit offensive to use before strangers, although contains no expletives, but sounds like a exclamation with a repressed tone of a F word. Interesting times as a curse is totally new to me, but in internet community, we have slangs like "interesting girls" refering to silly young girl stereotype as depicted in some japanese animes.

Yesterday, I knew that there are about more than one hundrel microchips in a Tesla electric car, everyone of them requires technology under 30 nnm, it is like a mini-supercomputer or a robot already, not a real car in our traditional sense other than that it runs on wheels.


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## Jacck

Ariasexta said:


> I never heard of such a curse in chinese, the most relevant I know would be: 郁闷/Yumen, means so boring that it irritates. I hate this word very much, in actuality it is a strong word in the way that shall sound a bit offensive to use before strangers, although contains no expletives, but sounds like a exclamation with a repressed tone of a F word. Interesting times as a curse is totally new to me, but in internet community, we have slangs like "interesting girls" refering to silly young girl stereotype as depicted in some japanese animes.


it is some fake English meme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times


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## Ariasexta

Jacck said:


> it is some fake English meme
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times


I can not see wiki now. We got someone questioned for clicking on certain materials. I know many foreigners love to learn chinese from the web memes, it was quite amazing,if someone wanna know more about the exercise of chinese ghetto curses, watch Xiaolong ghost hunting videos, very funny.


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## WNvXXT

I've always somehow known this, and finally looked it up. Only recently got a car with an outside temperature reading.

Why Your Car Thermometer is Wrong 6-15-17

.


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## Pat Fairlea

DaveM said:


> Today I learned that an octopus has a number of neurons comparable to small dogs and 2/3 of them are in the arms. Also they have 3 hearts. When the octopus is at rest it can absorb oxygen through the skin rather than the gills and the tentacles can respond to light separate from the eyes. They are surprisingly intelligent. Amazing animal!


They are! Don't get me started: I could bang on about the intelligence and differentness of octopus ad nauseam. What really boggles me is that they combine their curiosity and intelligence with short lifespans. Just a few years, even in the big species.


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## Jacck

Ariasexta said:


> I can not see wiki now. We got someone questioned for clicking on certain materials. I know many foreigners love to learn chinese from the web memes, it was quite amazing,if someone wanna know more about the exercise of chinese ghetto curses, watch Xiaolong ghost hunting videos, very funny.


I learned some basic chinese during my traveling in China (I spend 6 months traveling all over China in 2003), so I could ask stuff like "how much is this?" and I could count and I could ask for a room in a hotel, but otherwise the language is very difficult due to the tonality. And since I am borderline tone deaf, it is especially difficult for me. I read that tone deaf people cannot learn chinese

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/learn-a-foreign-language-wellness/index.html

"In the days of the British Empire, if you were going to be sent to Hong Kong as a civil servant, you had to pass a musical test first because all Chinese languages are tonal. There are four tones in Mandarin: high pitch (say G in a musical scale), rising pitch (like from C to G), falling (from G to C) and falling low then rising (C to B to G) -- and if you think that's difficult, there are nine tones in Cantonese. In Mandarin, there is a whole poem, "The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" with just the syllable "shi" repeated 107 times in various intonations. In other words, if you are tone-deaf you might as well give up now."


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## Kiki

Art Rock said:


> *May you live in interesting times!*


I've never heard of the Chinese curse. I don't remember reading/hearing this phrase either, but I could immediately guess there was some sarcastic undertone, since under normal circumstance no one will wish something for someone seriously like this... or perhaps it's only because I've been listening to too much Shostakovich and that somehow has conditioned my mind. :lol:

OK, here's one I learnt today -

First, what I've always known,

The Chinese word "wēi jī" ("危機" in Traditional Chinese, "危机" in Simplified Chinese) means "crisis". (Re: Collins dictionary)

There is a popular conception in the English speaking world that - by dissecting the Chinese word "wēi jī" ("危機"/"危机") into two separate characters - "wēi" ("危") means "danger", while "jī" ("機"/"机") means "opportunity"; and this has become a popular use of the word in the business world - look for opportunities during a crisis.

What I didn't know was,

Re: wiki, linguists think that this is a misinterpretation of the word. While "jī" ("機"/"机") on its own has "opportunity" as one of its meanings, "jī" ("機"/"机") in the word "wēi jī" ("危機"/"危机") definitely means a "change point".

So we've gone around in a circle. "wēi jī" ("危機"/"危机") means "crisis". While there may be opportunities during a crisis, that's not what the word implies.

Having said that,

There is also a popular saying in Chinese "Where there is danger, there is opportunity" ("有危必有機"/"有危必有机"). Although no one seriously attributes this phrase to the word "wēi jī" ("危機"/"危机").

The modern world is a big melting pot. Languages evolve every day. One day, who knows, the word "wēi jī" ("危機"/"危机") may have the "opportunity" bit added to its meaning.


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## ArtMusic

Art Rock said:


> And vice versa. For instance, in mandarin there are no separate words for he and she (or his and hers), for rat and mouse, for rabbit and hare, for sheep and goat, and so on.......


My brother studied Mandarin. While there is no possessive noun to distinguish the sex, I was told English have no words for younger brother, older brother, younger sister, older sister, the day before yesterday, the day after tomorrow etc. Things like sheep and goat etc. might well be the case as that has more to do with the Chinese way of classifying animals. Linguistics is fascinating. Suffice to say I feel English is a rather limited language even compared with German speaking friends who share the same opinion comparing English with German.


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## Ariasexta

Jacck said:


> I learned some basic chinese during my traveling in China (I spend 6 months traveling all over China in 2003), so I could ask stuff like "how much is this?" and I could count and I could ask for a room in a hotel, but otherwise the language is very difficult due to the tonality. And since I am borderline tone deaf, it is especially difficult for me. I read that tone deaf people cannot learn chinese
> 
> https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/learn-a-foreign-language-wellness/index.html
> 
> "In the days of the British Empire, if you were going to be sent to Hong Kong as a civil servant, you had to pass a musical test first because all Chinese languages are tonal. There are four tones in Mandarin: high pitch (say G in a musical scale), rising pitch (like from C to G), falling (from G to C) and falling low then rising (C to B to G) -- and if you think that's difficult, there are nine tones in Cantonese. In Mandarin, there is a whole poem, "The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" with just the syllable "shi" repeated 107 times in various intonations. In other words, if you are tone-deaf you might as well give up now."


Chinese tones are quite emotional, it might explains why some chinese people talk louder than most people of other linguistic backgrounds. In many ethnic places, chinese language is considered naive and stupid, however sometimes it sounds smart in an educated way, in many rural gatherings, people avoid chinese and use their own dialects many of which are quite rude sounding loaded with far more many curses than discrete expressions.


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## Ariasexta

Chinese language is rich for sure, myself is stil exploring its historical depth and expressive potentials. In fact, it is the case for English language as well, each word can be extend in its content of information. Chinese language has a chance to be one of the most beautiful sounding languages in the world, if it can adopt new aesthetics, actually, many new expressions invented according to the younger aesthetics during the last 40 years had been avoided deliberately due to its naivete untill recently, it just reemerged and many young people support it. I do not consider chinese language has reached it truly modern form, so far, it need further structural and etymological enrichment. As you know, the hardest part of learning chinese for foreigners is writing it, not reading it or speaking it.


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## Conrad2

Learn about a fruit I didn't knew that I want to taste.





^ Skip to 2:15 to escape long intro, 10:00 for jam taste, or 17:30 for wild one taste.

The Cloudberry in Finland. Another thing on my bucket list.

An article from the Michelin guide.



> Sometimes referred to as yellowberry, salmonberry or bakeapple, cloudberries (rubus chamaemorus in Latin) grow in boggy areas of Arctic and subarctic regions, appearing for just a few weeks in the summertime. Starting out white and turning red, pickers know they're fully ripe when the berry reaches a golden color. Prevalent throughout Scandinavia-where they are highly prized-cloudberries can also be found in the upper reaches of Britain and Ireland, the Baltic states, northern Russia, Canada and Alaska. Generally, they only grow in the wild and need to be foraged, though efforts are being made to cultivate them commercially.
> 
> Chefs love cloudberries, often using them in preserves and desserts. You can drink them, too, as they're also transformed into liqueurs and used to flavor beer. This past season, three-MICHELIN-starred Maaemo in Oslo, Norway, turned them into a jam to accompany its dessert of Norwegian waffles cooked in aged beef fat. And noma in Copenhagen is well-known for its cold cloudberry soup dessert with a snowy island of frozen yogurt and miniature candied pine cones.
> 
> However, cloudberries are a rarity here in the States. "I've only seen it in a sweet, sugary jam at IKEA," says Bengtsson. Unable to source fresh cloudberries, she is forced to settle for frozen fruit. "[It's] an annoyance, but you do the best with what you have."


Hope you guys find this interesting.


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## WNvXXT

Gloster E38/39 - the first British jet-engined aircraft and first flew in 1941.


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## WNvXXT

...what a Klein bottle was.


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## Guest

WNvXXT said:


> I've always somehow known this, and finally looked it up. Only recently got a car with an outside temperature reading.
> 
> Why Your Car Thermometer is Wrong 6-15-17
> 
> .


I followed that link, and it is astonishingly stupid, even for the internet.

1) My car thermometer gives a pretty accurate indication of outside temperature, usually within a degree of current temperature indicated by the weather service. I suspect they use judicious placement of sensors and clever calibration to cancel out the effect of the sun heating the car.

2) The web site makes the absurd objection that cars use a "thermistor" not a "thermometer." There is nothing special about a mercury or alcohol thermometer. Temperature is a well defined physical property that can be measured any number of ways and a thermistor can be calibrated to give a much more accurate reading of temperature than a mercury thermometer. It is like saying that you can't trust the weight measured by a piezo-electric scale, because it is not a pan balance.


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## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> I followed that link, and it is astonishingly stupid, even for the internet.


My auto is 15 years old, and gives a pretty accurate temperature reading after a few minutes. Initially it will read quite high, as we park the car on the street, and it absorbs the heat of the sun and the road. A mile down the road the new air rushing in gives an accurate reading.


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## Jacck

Conrad2 said:


> The Cloudberry in Finland. Another thing on my bucket list.


I remember that fruit, though I have long forgotten about it. When we were 16 or so we made a month long trekking in Scandinavia, mostly hiking along the Kungsleden in Sweden (sleeping in a tent). It was in summer and we were probably lucky, but these cloudberries were everywhere, so we ate them all the way and drank water from the streams along the way. Amazing time. I also remember the amazing billberries from the Lofoten islands. Billberries grow also in Czech Republic, but nothing like on the Lofoten.


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## Guest

pianozach said:


> My auto is 15 years old, and gives a pretty accurate temperature reading after a few minutes. Initially it will read quite high, as we park the car on the street, and it absorbs the heat of the sun and the road. A mile down the road the new air rushing in gives an accurate reading.


Depends on the car, I suppose. My current car (Toyota Prius) and previous (Camry) seems to give a pretty consistent reading, even when the car is sitting in the sun. When I drive off the temperature reading only varies by a degree or two from the initial reading. I suspect the thermometer is on the underside, protected from the effects of the sun and relatively open to the air. I vaguely remember having cars in the past that had the problem where the temperature reading was biased by sunlight.


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## Conrad2

Learned about the story of Richard Rowland Kirkland, "Angel of Marye's Heights".





His story told by the Chief Historian of Fredericksburg National Park, John Hennessey.

TLDW
An article I found.


> Born in Flat Rock Township near Camden in August 1843, Kirkland was the second-youngest of seven children born to John A. Kirkland and Mary Vaughn. In April 1861 Kirkland enlisted as a private in the Camden Volunteers, which later became part of the Second South Carolina Volunteer Infantry. Attached to the Army of Northern Virginia, Kirkland and his regiment saw extensive action in Virginia. He was promoted to sergeant in the summer of 1862.
> 
> Kirkland was immortalized at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. In the aftermath of a failed Union assault on Marye's Heights, he witnessed hundreds of wounded and dying Union soldiers begging for water. Touched by their cries, Kirkland went to his brigade commander, Joseph B. Kershaw, and declared, "General, I can't stand this." Convincing Kershaw to allow him to aid the Union wounded, Kirkland gathered up a dozen or more canteens and went out onto the battlefield to comfort and assist his fallen enemies. Union soldiers assumed that Kirkland was plundering their dead. When they realized that the Confederate sergeant was aiding the Union wounded, all shooting ceased. Kirkland was cheered as a hero and a humanitarian by both sides.
> 
> Promoted to lieutenant after the Battle of Gettysburg, Kirkland was killed in action at Horseshoe Ridge on the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863. His remains were interred at the family cemetery on White Oak Creek in Kershaw District. Published accounts of Kirkland's act of heroism circulated in the years after the war, and he was gradually immortalized as the "Angel of Marye's Heights." He was reburied in 1909 at the Quaker Cemetery in Camden. In 1965 a bronze statue was dedicated in his honor at the Fredericksburg battlefield.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I felt a bit hesitant about posting what I learned today as I feared that successive posts regarding my post could derail this thread, but I felt his humanitarian act warranted a mention in case it inspire/interest someone who is reading this.


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## Malx

Whilst rummaging around in the Royal Botanic Gardens shop in Edinburgh today with my daughter we came across 'Chuckleberry Jam' neither of us had heard of a Chuckleberry - it appears to be a hybrid between a redcurrant, gooseberry and jostaberry, now a jostaberry is a hybrid of a gooseberry and blackcurrant. I hope you are following all this.

Or am I just out of touch with fruit developments?


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## Conrad2

Malx said:


> Or am I just out of touch with fruit developments?


You may be interested in the Tree of 40 Fruit which was done by Professor Sam Van Aken using the technique of grafting where it produce 40 types of fruits year round.

From the professor official website:


> The Tree of 40 Fruit is a single tree that grows forty different types of stone fruit including peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and almonds. Created through the process of grafting, the Tree of 40 Fruit blossom in variegated tones of pink, crimson and white in spring, and in summer bear a multitude of fruit. Primarily composed of heirloom and antique varieties, the Tree of 40 Fruit are a form of conservsation, preserving stone fruit varieties that are not commercially produced or available.


A video about the tree.





An artist depiction of the tree in five/four years from this date.








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*Update*: after scrolling through the professor website I learned another thing today that you can "combine" fruits together in a visual sense.









^an apple and a strawberry


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## WNvXXT

word of the day

corpora... collection of linguistic data


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## Conrad2

Today I learned about the climax of the feud between the British artists Turner and Constable at the 1832 Summer Exhibition.

An article from the Royal Academy of Arts.


> the rivalry of our most famous RA Schools graduates, Turner and Constable, was never more fraught than on the eve of the Summer Exhibition in 1832. The story goes that when Turner saw his cool-toned seascape Helvoetsluys hung next to Constable's scarlet-flecked Thames scene The Opening of Waterloo Bridge, he was piqued by the prospect of being upstaged. So in a retaliatory move, he planted a single daub of red in the sea of his own canvas, later finessing it to look like a buoy bobbing in the choppy seas.
> When Constable saw what Turner had done, he declared: "He has been here and fired a gun."
> The episode, first recorded in 1860 by Charles Robert Leslie, features prominently in Mike Leigh's biographical drama Mr Turner (2014). The two pictures will be reunited in this special display in our Collection Gallery.











^ John Constable - _The Opening of Waterloo Bridge_









^ J.M.W. Turner - _Helvoetsluys_

A video about their distinct style.





Which artist's style appeals to you?

If you want to learned more, there is a long article by the Tate, and a lecture video from The Clark Art Institute about the two artists.


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## pianozach

I learned that the Feud between *the Hatfields and the McCoys*, which started in 1863 was finally settled by a peace treaty in 2003.


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## Conrad2

Today I learned about the Pu o Hiro (Trumpet of Hiro) stone on Easter Islands. When blown correctly it produced a trumpetlike sound.

Here is the only video clip I found of the stone's sound. 




^*Skip to 0:37 for the sound* (Sorry if it's too short as it was the only video I could find).

I do wonder what the stone would sound when it was not eroded and handle by a craftsman (or through the wind, if that how it was originally intended to make the sound).

The indigenous population thought that the stone has magical properties such as bringing fish to shore (Source). From reading the paper, the rocks have ritual significance attached to them and to differentiate them from ordinary rocks, craftsman would carve out motifs of animals, plants, rituals, or tools onto the stone's surface. Unfortunately, that is the only good source I can find regarding the rock beside blogs and touristy websites, and a large part of the native heritage has been lost to history.


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## Richannes Wrahms

I learned some German today but nothing in itself interesting. 

What I have to say is that "The Tree of 40 Fruit" will most probably become "The tree of a few fruits" as the stronger species/varieties take over the weaker ones. I doubt careful pruning will be able to prevent this.


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## WNvXXT

Conrad2 said:


> Which artist's style appeals to you?


I like both of them. Really enjoyed the J.M.W. Turner movie Mr. Turner (2014) starring Timothy Spall.


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## Conrad2

Today I learned that Helen Keller, the famous American author who is blind and deaf, have listened to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony played by The New York Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Walter Damrosch over the radio, and she was so moved by the song that she penned the following letter to the orchestra.



> Dear Friends:
> 
> I have the joy of being able to tell you that, though deaf and blind, I spent a glorious hour last night listening over the radio to Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony." I do not mean to say that I "heard" the music in the sense that other people heard it; and I do not know whether I can make you understand how it was possible for me to derive pleasure from the symphony. It was a great surprise to myself. I had been reading in my magazine for the blind of the happiness that the radio was bringing to the sightless everywhere. I was delighted to know that the blind had gained a new source of enjoyment; but I did not dream that I could have any part in their joy. Last night, when the family was listening to your wonderful rendering of the immortal symphony someone suggested that I put my hand on the receiver and see if I could get any of the vibrations. He unscrewed the cap, and I lightly touched the sensitive diaphragm. What was my amazement to discover that I could feel, not only the vibrations, but also the impassioned rhythm, the throb and the urge of the music! The intertwined and intermingling vibrations from different instruments enchanted me. I could actually distinguish the cornets, the roll of the drums, deep-toned violas and violins singing in exquisite unison. How the lovely speech of the violins flowed and plowed over the deepest tones of the other instruments! When the human voice leaped up trilling from the surge of harmony, I recognized them instantly as voices. I felt the chorus grow more exultant, more ecstatic, upcurving swift and flame-like, until my heart almost stood still. The women's voices seemed an embodiment of all the angelic voices rushing in a harmonious flood of beautiful and inspiring sound. The great chorus throbbed against my fingers with poignant pause and flow. Then all the instruments and voices together burst forth-an ocean of heavenly vibration-and died away like winds when the atom is spent, ending in a delicate shower of sweet notes.
> 
> Of course, this was not "hearing" but I do know that the tones and harmonies conveyed to me moods of great beauty and majesty. I also sensed, or thought I did, the tender sounds of nature that sing into my hand-swaying reeds and winds and the murmur of streams. I have never been so enraptured before by a multitude of tone-vibrations.
> 
> As I listened, with darkness and melody, shadow and sound filling all the room, I could not help remembering that the great composer who poured forth such a flood of sweetness into the world was deaf like myself. I marvelled at the power of his quenchless spirit by which out of his pain he wrought such joy for others-and there I sat, feeling with my hand the magnificent symphony which broke like a sea upon the silent shores of his soul and mine.
> 
> Let me thank you warmly for all the delight which your beautiful music has brought to my household and to me. I want also to thank Station WEAF for the joy they are broadcasting in the world.
> 
> With kindest regards and best wishes, I am,
> 
> Sincerely yours,
> HELEN KELLER


Inspiring to read how classical music has affected Helen Keller to such extent despite her disability.


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## Conrad2

Today, I learned about the Marvelous spatuletail, a hummingbird native to Peru. The bird is special as the male has four feathers in its tail and a tail feather that can cross each other which is used in an elaborate mating ritual (Source).





^video showing the mating ritual. Wish that they didn't add the background music.

Unfortunately, the bird is endangered due to habit destruction and hunters who prized the bird's heart allegedly for brewing love potion (WTH).

The bird look beautiful to me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Update*: I just learned about the White Bellbird, which is native to South America, which produce one of the loudest call ever recorded from a bird (Source).





^video of its song/call


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## Conrad2

Today I learned about the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas which is one of the only places that the public are allowed to dig for diamonds and keep their finding. Annually, about 600 or 2 diamonds a day are found by visitors. The park was a former diamond mine where the first diamonds in the state, and was later sold to the state which turn it into a park. (Source)

The Strawn-Wagner Diamond which is notable for its perfect grade, was found here. (Source)













^ long video about the park


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## Art Rock

I knew that there were pedestrian bridges over valleys in China with glass plates throughout the bottom. I did not know that there are actually 2300 of those monstrosities already, and now one did not survive a storm, while people were crossing it - several plates dropped out. Apparently no-one got hurt (well, likely psychologically). Images are terrifying if you cannot stand heights.

Video link.


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## starthrower

I was up late last night reading about Medieval history and I was surprised to learn that Charlemagne was illiterate. I wouldn't have assumed that due to his progressive policies and beloved status among great leaders of the Middle Ages.


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## Conrad2

Today I learned about the Tanager Expedition in the early 1920s, where a team of scientists visited the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a bird reservation set by TDR, with the initial intent of killing the rabbits which threaten the native flora and end up discovering new species and archaeological sites. (Source)

Video about the Expedition:





the only existing video reels of now extinct species from the expedition.




^Laysan Honeycreeper





^Laysan Rail Bird









^ Stone image found on Nihoa and Mokumanamana island during the expedition. These images was used as a spiritual relic which serve as continuity of spiritual power and authority of the chiefs during seasonal ceremonies. (Source)


----------



## Flamme

The depth of pain of a paper-cut..


----------



## Ariasexta

Several weeks ago, I was rejoiced by a news about a girl from Shanghai ganging and beating up a guy who posted video about him abusing a cat. What a girl, goodjob.


----------



## Malx

^Ariaseta:
I'm confused - you condemn violence against a cat, understandably, but applaud violence against the guy


----------



## Flamme

Things I didnt know and thought I did.


----------



## Conrad2

I became aware that there was a Japanese edition of Vampire Weekend's _Father of The Bride_ album. On that edition there are several exclusive tracks and there is one titled _Lord Ullin's Daughter_, which stood out as it was spoken rather than sing. After googling it, it was a redition of Thomas Campbell poem of the same title by the actor Jude Law.

Here is the track:





Here is the text version of the poem:


> A Chieftan to the Highlands bound,
> Cries, 'Boatman, do not tarry;
> And I'll give thee a silver pound
> To row us o'er the ferry.'
> 
> 'Now who be ye would cross Lochgyle,
> This dark and stormy water?'
> 'Oh! I'm the chief of Ulva's isle,
> And this Lord Ullin's daughter.
> 
> 'And fast before her father's men
> Three days we've fled together,
> For should he find us in the glen,
> My blood would stain the heather.
> 
> 'His horsemen hard behind us ride;
> Should they our steps discover,
> Then who will cheer my bonny bride
> When they have slain her lover?'
> 
> Outspoke the hardy Highland wight:
> 'I'll go, my chief - I'm ready:
> It is not for your silver bright,
> But for your winsome lady.
> 
> 'And by my word, the bonny bird
> In danger shall not tarry:
> So, though the waves are raging white,
> I'll row you o'er the ferry.'
> 
> By this the storm grew loud apace,
> The water-wraith was shrieking;
> And in the scowl of heaven each face
> Grew dark as they were speaking.
> 
> But still, as wilder blew the wind,
> And as the night grew drearer,
> Adown the glen rode armed men-
> Their trampling sounded nearer.
> 
> 'Oh! Haste thee, haste!' the lady cries,
> 'Though tempests round us gather;
> I'll meet the raging of the skies,
> But not an angry father.'
> 
> The boat has left a stormy land,
> A stormy sea before her-
> When oh! Too strong for human hand,
> The tempest gathered o'er her.
> 
> And still they rowed amidst the roar
> Of waters fast prevailing;
> Lord Ullin reach'd that fatal shore-
> His wrath was chang'd to wailing.
> 
> For sore dismay'd, through storm and shade,
> His child he did discover;
> One lovely hand she stretch'd for aid,
> And one was round her lover.
> 
> 'Come back! Come back!' he cried in grief,
> 'Across this stormy water;
> And I'll forgive your Highland chief,
> My daughter!- oh, my daughter!'
> 
> 'Twas vain: the loud waves lash'd the shore,
> Return or aid preventing;
> The waters wild went o'er his child,
> And he was left lamenting.


What a woeful poem!


----------



## WNvXXT

Through a historical fiction novel: HMS Erebus / HMS Terror Franklin expedition.


----------



## Ariasexta

Malx said:


> ^Ariaseta:
> I'm confused - you condemn violence against a cat, understandably, but applaud violence against the guy


If you have seen those videos,,those people will not fare better if in the US.


----------



## Conrad2

While playing a geography game (Geoguessr) I notice that a lot of train stations are named Union Station, and it happen so many times in different cities that I started to think it was not by coincidence and there must be a reason why. So I hit the goog, and it turns out that the name come from the consolidation of rail tracks owned by different railroad companies into a single terminal during the 20th century. (Source)

So I learned that I cannot relay on the name of the train station to find out where I am as train stations often share a common name.


----------



## Conrad2

I discover that there is a band in Japan, ELECTRONICOS FANTASTICOS!, that converts old appliances into electromagnetic instruments.






From my limited understanding, electromagnetic instruments produce vibrations in the air that have a frequency that is picked up by your ear. For example, if you are in a car, you will hear a higher pitch when you pass by objects as you go faster.

After doing a deep depth into the object, I learn more, where there is a growing field of musicians that are experimenting with this. There is a thing called a Magnetic resonator piano, where you attached a electromagnet to the piano to increase the range of the piano.
Here is a video of it:





There is a technical paper that examines how it works if you are interested.

These developments reminds me of the Theremin instrument.


----------



## Conrad2

There is a solar phenomenon named Lahaina Noon, where in Hawaii, the Sun will be overhead at a 90 angle on two days each year, which cause upright objects to have no shadows. The name has some meaning behind it as Lahaina means "cruel sun" and may refer to severe droughts events on the island of Maui. (Source)









^ Example of upright objects, in this case the posts, having no shadow during Lahaina Noon.


----------



## senza sordino

Conrad2 said:


> There is a solar phenomenon named Lahaina Noon, where in Hawaii, the Sun will be overhead at a 90 angle on two days each year, which cause upright objects to have no shadows. The name has some meaning behind it as Lahaina means "cruel sun" and may refer to severe droughts events on the island of Maui. (Source)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ^ Example of upright objects, in this case the posts, having no shadow during Lahaina Noon.


This is related to how Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the Earth


----------



## Art Rock

Today I came across some inspired collective nouns from the literary world:

A chapter of novelists
A draft of editors
A recommendation of booksellers
An autopsy of critics
A stanza of poets
A borrowing of librarians
A blurb of publicists

and saving the best for last:

A gruop of proofreaders...


----------



## Dorsetmike

> and saving the best for last:
> 
> A gruop of proofreaders...


Looks like one is needed


----------



## Flamme

How things fall in place, eventually, maybe.


----------



## pianozach

Favorite Song You've Never Heard


----------



## Art Rock

pianozach said:


> Favorite Song You've Never Heard


I learned today that you probably posted this in the wrong thread.


----------



## mikeh375

I learnt that Art Rock is on the ball.


----------



## Guest

Today I've been watching on Netflix a UK TV series called "Peaky Blinders" and there was a maxim given by one of the women characters as to how best keep a married man happy. *I have therefore learnt today* (and will henceforth memorise) that very maxim (spoken with a heavy Birmingham accent): to keep 'yer man 'appy; keep 'is balls empty an' 'is belly full.


----------



## Ingélou

mikeh375 said:


> I learnt that Art Rock is on the ball.


He knocks Argus into a cocked hat.


----------



## pianozach

Art Rock said:


> I learned today that you probably posted this in the wrong thread.


Indeed.

Too many tabs open.


----------



## Guest

I did not think it was possible to ruin the _Law and Order_ franchise, but _Organized Crime_ has done a thorough job.


----------



## Flamme

''Arrogance is a weed that grows mostly on a dunghill'' an arab proverb.


----------



## Guest

Conrad2 said:


> There is a solar phenomenon named Lahaina Noon, where in Hawaii, the Sun will be overhead at a 90 angle on two days each year, which cause upright objects to have no shadows. The name has some meaning behind it as Lahaina means "cruel sun" and may refer to severe droughts events on the island of Maui. (Source)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ^ Example of upright objects, in this case the posts, having no shadow during Lahaina Noon.


That's true of any location in the tropics (between latitude -23.4 and +23.4 degrees) including parts of Hawaii.


----------



## Conrad2

Baron Scarpia said:


> That's true of any location in the tropics (between latitude -23.4 and +23.4 degrees) including parts of Hawaii.


Yep, that is correct. I think that the scientific term for a point where the sun is overhead is called "Subsolar point".

There is a website where you can see the current subsolar point.


----------



## Art Rock

I learned today that in the 1920s people could buy and drink radioactive water....


----------



## Conrad2

I learned that it's an European custom to glue things to a newly minted PHD's student cap that represents their personalities and thesis.

Example of one such cap:


----------



## WNvXXT




----------



## senza sordino

1+3 = 4
1+3+5 = 9
1+3+5+7 = 16
1+3+5+7+9 = 25
1+3+5+7+9+11 = 36
1+3+5+7+9+11+13 = 49

Add successive odd numbers and you get a perfect square. This goes on to infinity


----------



## pianozach

senza sordino said:


> 1+3 = 4
> 1+3+5 = 9
> 1+3+5+7 = 16
> 1+3+5+7+9 = 25
> 1+3+5+7+9+11 = 36
> 1+3+5+7+9+11+13 = 49
> 
> Add successive odd numbers and you get a perfect square. This goes on to infinity


Yes, and the squares are of the number of numbers added together.

1+3 = 4 . . . 2 squared from two numbers
1+3+5 = 9 . . . 3 squared from three numbers
1+3+5+7 = 16 . . . 4 squared from four numbers


----------



## Phil loves classical

Jacck said:


> I learned some basic chinese during my traveling in China (I spend 6 months traveling all over China in 2003), so I could ask stuff like "how much is this?" and I could count and I could ask for a room in a hotel, but otherwise the language is very difficult due to the tonality. And since I am borderline tone deaf, it is especially difficult for me. I read that tone deaf people cannot learn chinese
> 
> https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/learn-a-foreign-language-wellness/index.html
> 
> "In the days of the British Empire, if you were going to be sent to Hong Kong as a civil servant, you had to pass a musical test first because all Chinese languages are tonal. There are four tones in Mandarin: high pitch (say G in a musical scale), rising pitch (like from C to G), falling (from G to C) and falling low then rising (C to B to G) -- and if you think that's difficult, there are nine tones in Cantonese. In Mandarin, there is a whole poem, "The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den" with just the syllable "shi" repeated 107 times in various intonations. In other words, if you are tone-deaf you might as well give up now."


I once tried to tell a coworker from Hong Kong my name in Cantonese, and repeated in various intonations for over a minute the best I could, he still couldn't understand until I spelt it out. I speak kind of monotone naturally.

Also, the word for a drink in general sounds dangerously close to the word for urine. I can't tell the difference without hearing them next to each other.


----------



## Art Rock

Phil loves classical said:


> Also, the word for a drink in general sounds dangerously close to the word for urine. I can't tell the difference without hearing them next to each other.


In mandarin, the same sound (ma) with different intonation is used for mother and horse. Guess what I called my mother-in-law?


----------



## Phil loves classical

Art Rock said:


> In mandarin, the same sound (ma) with different intonation is used for mother and horse. Guess what I called my mother-in-law?


Yes, also in Cantonese. The sound for mom is higher or less heavy than for horse. I guess you didn't sound enthusiastic to see her when you said it.


----------



## Phil loves classical

For cat lovers. How cats land on their feet. (Not by centre of gravity obviously)


----------



## starthrower

Today I learned that in the U.S. Vermont has the highest percentage of fully vaccinated citizens and Mississippi has the least. Why am I not surprised?


----------



## pianozach

Today I learned that a fig is not a fruit.

No, it's not a vegetable either, nor is it a nut.

It's an inverted flower.


----------



## Merl

Today I discovered that Roberto Mancini (Italian national team manager) is 4 days older than me and really likes the music of Queen.


----------



## Art Rock

pianozach said:


> Today I learned that a fig is not a fruit.
> 
> No, it's not a vegetable either, nor is it a nut.
> 
> It's an inverted flower.


The technical term is rewolf.
(No it's not, just a cheap joke)


----------



## Red Terror

People are inherently corrupt.


----------



## Roger Knox

I learned that Jean Cras (1879-1932), a successful composer, was also a Rear Admiral in the French Navy. So now I think a university music school should start a double major in Naval Engineering and Music Composition. It would catch the next wave ...


----------



## TxllxT

Roger Knox said:


> I learned that Jean Cras (1879-1932), a successful composer, was also a Rear Admiral in the French Navy. So now I think a university music school should start a double major in Naval Engineering and Music Composition. It would catch the next wave ...


From Wikipedia: "For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov combined his composition and teaching with a career in the Russian military-first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. He wrote that he developed a passion for the ocean in childhood from reading books and hearing of his older brother's exploits in the navy. This love of the sea may have influenced him to write two of his best-known orchestral works, the musical tableau Sadko (not to be confused with his later opera of the same name) and Scheherazade. As Inspector of Naval Bands, Rimsky-Korsakov expanded his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing, which enhanced his abilities in orchestration." So there is the clue: 'the love of the sea'...


----------



## adriesba

I learned that learning too much makes my brain hurt. :lol:


----------



## Roger Knox

adriesba said:


> I learned that learning too much makes my brain hurt. :lol:


I don't know whether or not to "like" this. But if by learning you mean studying, I agree completely. The sound of the word "cramming" makes my mind, body and spirit rise up with indignation.


----------



## MrNobody

I learned that some animals make paper


----------



## adriesba

MrNobody said:


> I learned that some animals make paper


What animals what???


----------



## Roger Knox

TxllxT said:


> From Wikipedia: "For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov combined his composition and teaching with a career in the Russian military-first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. He wrote that he developed a passion for the ocean in childhood from reading books and hearing of his older brother's exploits in the navy. This love of the sea may have influenced him to write two of his best-known orchestral works, the musical tableau Sadko (not to be confused with his later opera of the same name) and Scheherazade. As Inspector of Naval Bands, Rimsky-Korsakov expanded his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing, which enhanced his abilities in orchestration." So there is the clue: 'the love of the sea'...


Also from Wikipedia: "Born in Tourcoing (Nord), Roussel's earliest interest was not in music but mathematics. He spent time in the French Navy, and in 1889 and 1890, he served on the crew of the frigate Iphigénie and spent several years in southern Vietnam.[1] These travels affected him artistically, as many of his musical works would reflect his interest in far-off, exotic places." In Albert Roussel's case perhaps it was "a land across the sea" that attracted him -- specifically India, in his symphonic suite _Evocations_ and in the opera _Padmâvatî_.


----------



## Roger Knox

adriesba said:


> What animals what???


Do they play scissors, rocks and paper? 

I think he's referring to _homo sapiens_.


----------



## Guest

The band "Little Feat" is not from Texas (as I had been led to believe based on their album, "Representing the Mambo"). They're from Los Angeles!


----------



## pianozach

For his 70th birthday *Duke Ellington* performed at the White House for President Richard Nixon and assembled guests. However, Duke's father had beaten him to it - he worked there as a butler in the 1920's during the Warren G. Harding administration.


----------



## MrNobody

adriesba said:


> What animals what???


A hidden clue for you Sherlock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.A.S.P._(band)


----------



## adriesba

MrNobody said:


> A hidden clue for you Sherlock
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.A.S.P._(band)


A *paper wasp* harharhar lol :lol:


----------



## Phil loves classical

Americans count for 90% of clients for tourism operators in Northeastern Ontario and 100% in Northwestern Ontario. Hope they open the border soon.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/resource-based-tourism-sector-canada-us-border-1.6086756


----------



## pianozach

David Crosby, famous for being in the groups The Byrds, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as a solo career, was the son of Floyd Crosby.

*Floyd Delafield Crosby, A.S.C. *was an Academy Award-winning cinematographer, and a descendant of the Van Rensselaer family. In addition to working on cinematography on over a hundred films, won the *1931 Academy Award for Best Cinematography* for his work on the film *Tabu: A Story of the South Seas*, the last silent film to win in that category. He was also the youngest winner in the category, being only 31 years old at the time.

The Van Rensselaer family is notable for playing a critical role in the formation of the United States.


----------



## Taggart

We were reading the obituary of the 8th Earl of Lonsdale recently. It described his ancestors - some of whom were exceedingly disreputable. One of the more interesting was the 5th earl - Hugh Lowther. He donated the original Lonsdale Belts for boxing. He also had a fascination with yellow. The Yellow Earl had his regiment of yellow-liveried servants. He had his fleet of yellow motor-cars, and his pack of yellow dogs, and a hot-house to grow yellow gardenias for his buttonhole. So when he became a founder member of the British Automobile Association, it adopted his livery. Funny how things turn out.


----------



## Roger Knox

Yesterday I learned I have wings. With COVID-19 restrictions eased, it was my first trip to the barber shop in months. Not sporting a full mane anymore, I still have sporadic long tresses of fine hair that fly every which way. As I was telling my barber at some length what I didn't want, he cut in with "You need a cleanup, I'll take care of your wings." When he was done I emerged with wings clipped, best I had looked for a long time.


----------



## TxllxT

'The last victory of Bonaparte' - There exists a great-grandniece of l'Empereur, Marie (1882-1962). When Sigmund Freud was to be deported to a concentration camp she personally intervened and asked Joseph Goebbels to release the old man (1856-1939). Goebbels did so in exchange for two castles that were in Marie's property. She agreed. Sigmund Freud was allowed to emigrate to London, where he died soon after his arrival.


----------



## jhm

Conrad2 said:


> Just saw an interesting video about sphere eversion, the process of turning a sphere inside out without cutting, tearing, or creasing it.
> 
> Here is the YouTube video I watched:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm not a math major, but from my limited understanding and perception, it seems that the person who is turning the sphere inside out do so by making "ridges" on the sphere surface which push the top and the bottom through each other without it forming a crease as the sides turn counterclockwise and pushing the center back onto itself.
> 
> I searched for the creator of the videos and found this site which I presume it belongs to the video creators. From reading it, I learned that the mathematicn Stephen Smale created a proof for it, but was viewed by his peers to be practicaly impossible even though the math underlying it seems sounds. It was only when other mathematians who prove it through visualization did it become accepted. From that point, mathematians are trying to find different methods to accomplish it in more simpler manner.
> 
> Here is the original proof that started this, but I found very inaccessible through its technical language, so power to you if you can understand it.
> 
> I found an article that I could understand to some reasonable degree that has some images.
> 
> I also found a browser simulation while looking for more information, though it does touch on different geometry concepts.
> 
> I noticed that the website hasn't been updated since 1996, so if anyone know that there was any major advancement in the field, please post it as I find this topic interesting for a layman.
> 
> Hope you guys found this to be interesting.


I'm going to give this a watch, looks like my kind of thing. Appreciate the share!


----------



## WNvXXT

marine isotope stages... alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimate.


----------



## WNvXXT

Mehrgach

swat valley

Thar desert

uniparental DNA

y-chromosome - passed only from father to son

mtDNA - passed exclusively from mother to offspring through the egg cell


----------



## WNvXXT

A gene mutation called 13910T which originated in Europe some 7500 years ago, allows the human body to digest milk beyond infancy into adulthood. Homo sapiens are the only mammals in the world who have acquired this ability.


----------



## Art Rock

WNvXXT said:


> A gene mutation called 13910T which originated in Europe some 7500 years ago, allows the human body to digest milk beyond infancy into adulthood. Homo sapiens are the only mammals in the world who have acquired this ability.


Don't cats drink milk? Or is that a cartoon thing?


----------



## pianozach

Art Rock said:


> Don't cats drink milk? Or is that a cartoon thing?


Oh, *cats* enjoy *milk*, but it's not really that good for them. In fact, it can cause a series of ailments, including an upset stomach, cramps, and severe diarrhea. A large majority of cats are lactose intolerant and/or become dehydrated when they are fed cow's milk.


----------



## Bwv 1080

WNvXXT said:


> A gene mutation called 13910T which originated in Europe some 7500 years ago, allows the human body to digest milk beyond infancy into adulthood. Homo sapiens are the only mammals in the world who have acquired this ability.


And think about the comparative advantage it gave herders over other groups in competition for land suitable for grazing.


----------



## Bwv 1080

Italy has 34 separate languages, all of which evolved independently from Latin. Modern Italian is a single dialect of Tuscan that was chosen in the late 19th century, after unification and independence, to be the national language.


----------



## Malx

I was going to start a parallel thread - 'Things I forgot Today'.

But I couldn't recall what my first post was going to be


----------



## WNvXXT

Finally figured out the resemblance... 2nd pic: Jennifer Morrison - House tv series.


----------



## Ingélou

Something I didn't know before - posted by a school friend:










1939: Kansas Wheat. The manufacturers realised that mothers were using the sacks to make clothes for their children, and changed to a floral design and a brand label that would wash out.

PS - It _was_ kind and public spirited, but I suppose it may have boosted sales too.
A win-win situation...


----------



## Taggart

Checking up on this, I came across this comment:



> Marketing tactics were redirected from the farmer to the farm wife as bag manufacturers and mills attempted to "attract feminine attention to get the masculine dollar." This shift did not go unnoticed by feed stores employees.:"Years ago they used to ask for all sorts of feeds, special brands, you know. Now they come over and ask me if I have an egg mash in a flowered percale. It ain't natural."


----------



## Shaughnessy

Deleted post - Neither the tone nor then tenor was conveyed properly...

What I learned today? - Editing can often be more important than the actual writing...


----------



## Flamme

How damage control can help, sometimes.


----------



## Flamme

Bwv 1080 said:


> Italy has 34 separate languages, all of which evolved independently from Latin. Modern Italian is a single dialect of Tuscan that was chosen in the late 19th century, after unification and independence, to be the national language.


And with Tuscany being the home of Etruscan civilisation with whom Rome waged countless wars, the italian kinda accepted their old enemy lingua...


----------



## Luchesi

I was trying to find more information on the dangers of RF long term in our homes, and especially our workplaces and large stores. We have so many sources of RF, and many aren't obvious to us. Being close (for many hours) to computer screens, my mouse and keyboard, light bulbs, on and on.


One thing I did learn today was the concern about female fetuses. They are very small and they already have all the eggs they will ever have. Upcoming children will be bathed in more RF sources everywhere for far longer than any of us have been. There is a concern that the next generation will be much less fertile. It's difficult to scientifically test this.


----------



## TxllxT

While redeveloping this photo I realised what Holland would have looked like when Archimede didn't invent his screw


----------



## Luchesi

Perhaps someone will be helped by this post.

I've had bowel problems for quite a few months now and this week I decided to start eliminating foods. The magnesium in my pills for leg cramps were the first to go and then I cut ‘way down on caffeinated drinks. Caffeine and magnesium are a problem for some people, but not for me it turns out. Hooray! Just imagine going through life without coffee..
I've been eating whole wheat toast at least twice a day as a healthy snack, everyday. I also would put chocolate Ovaltine in my coffee throughout the day. I read the label and Ovaltine is mostly malted barley. Wheat/barley flour is in so much of the foods we eat. I was getting a lot of gluten.

gluten
late 16th cent. (originally denoting protein from animal tissue): via French from Latin, literally ‘glue.’

Gluten coats your intestinal lining and food goes through without being absorbed etc., as I understand it. Some people are more sensitive to this than others. For some people gluten's probably healthful in the process. 

So I'm a little bit gluten intolerant, but I was really overdoing it, all day long without a break. Wheat is not a natural food for humans. It's highly nutritious but…

I'm only halfway through my testing.

added;
I'm remembering Dr.Mike. I hope he's ok. He was on or near the front lines apparently (he left back in Dec19 I think).


----------



## Bwv 1080

Flamme said:


> And with Tuscany being the home of Etruscan civilisation with whom Rome waged countless wars, the italian kinda accepted their old enemy lingua...


The wikipedia on Etruscan is interesting - its a non-Indo-European language and its suspected that many Latin words without Indo-European counterparts/roots, like 'military' and 'person'


----------



## Flamme

How ppl are deceitful and weak...Especially the ''sweet talkers''.


----------



## Guest

Luchesi said:


> added;
> I'm remembering Dr.Mike. I hope he's ok. He was on or near the front lines apparently (he left back in Dec19 I think).


On or near the front lines of what?


----------



## Art Rock

Apparently this was popular around 1930-1950: artificial snow made of pure asbestos.


----------



## Luchesi

Baron Scarpia said:


> On or near the front lines of what?


This post by him is in Talk Science group;

DrMike - May-05-2019, 17:54 
Max Cooper, one of the Giants in the area of immune development, was here at my University for a long time, and did a lot of research into B cell development, so much so that UAB earned the nickname "University of the Almighty B cell." In his last several years here, he had people looking at innate immunity in Sea urchins and lampreys. I am not as versed in the intricacies of immune evolution - I specialize more in adaptive immunity (particularly T cells) to viral infection.​


----------



## TxllxT

Today I learned about Elfriede Scholz, the youngest sister of the author Erich Maria Remarque: >>Elfriede Remark was born - five years after her brother, the later world-famous writer Erich Maria Remarque - as the youngest of four children of the bookbinder Peter Franz Remark (1867-1954) and Anna Maria Remark, née Stallknecht (1871-1917). As a child she was often ill. She was paralyzed for two years due to a lack of red blood cells and weak bones. Nevertheless, she completed an apprenticeship as a tailor. A daughter born out of wedlock in 1923 died after a few months of heart failure. She finally came to Dresden via Leipzig and Berlin, where she settled as a dressmaker and in 1941 married the musician Heinz Scholz.

Like her brother, she was a staunch opponent of the National Socialists. A statement to a customer that the war was lost after all, after being denounced and reported to the Gestapo for "subversive statements" by Captain Hans-Jürgen Rietzel, led to her arrest. In October 1943 she was sentenced to death before the People's Court in Berlin, chaired by Roland Freisler, for undermining military strength. In his judgment, Freisler is said to have explicitly referred to her pacifist brother and exclaimed during the trial: "Your brother has escaped us, you will not escape us."

The sentence was carried out on December 16, 1943 in the execution site of the Berlin-Plötzensee prison by beheading with a guillotine.

The news of the death of his sister, with whom contact had been broken, prompted her brother Erich Maria Remarque to deal with National Socialism in his work. The novel Der Funke Leben (1952) is dedicated to his sister. He had only found out about her death on June 11, 1946.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the lawyer Robert W. Kempner tried on behalf of Remarque at the West Berlin public prosecutor's office to prosecute those still alive. On the day of Remarque's death, on September 25, 1970, Kempner received the decision of the Berlin Court of Appeal to discontinue the company. According to Kempner, the public prosecutor's office had not even heard the assessor at the time, Kurt Lasch. Elfriede Scholz was therefore still legally convicted. The death sentence was only overturned in 1998 by the Act to Repeal Unjust National Socialist Judgments in the Administration of Criminal Justice. 
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfriede_Scholz


----------



## Art Rock

The often used phrase 'you've another thing coming' appears to be incorrect. It should be 'you've another think coming'. Who knew?


----------



## Luchesi

Art Rock said:


> The often used phrase 'you've another thing coming' appears to be incorrect. It should be 'you've another think coming'. Who knew?


Yes, if you think that, you've got another think coming.

I've never heard the other "thing" version.

They say that formerly correct grammar is changed to the latest correct grammar as enough people accept a misheard word.


----------



## RockyIII

Art Rock said:


> Apparently this was popular around 1930-1950: artificial snow made of pure asbestos.


Christmas tree tinsel made from lead was popular in the United States until it was banned in the early 1970s.


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## pianozach

RockyIII said:


> Christmas tree tinsel made from lead was popular in the United States until it was banned in the early 1970s.


Sometimes the cat or dog would eat it. They'd poop it out later.


----------



## Flamme

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/quagmire


----------



## TxllxT

The world's strongest beer has 67,5% alcohol, is called snake venom beer, and is made in Scotland.


----------



## Forster

Art Rock said:


> *The Toy symphony*
> 
> *Based on the CD I have with this work from the 1760s*, I always thought it was by Leopold Mozart. Today I found out that the composer is undetermined, and that apart from Papa Mozart, also the Haydn brothers and one Austrian Benedictine monk Edmund Angerer have been considered to be the composer.


I learned today...

that they had CDs in the 1760s!

Seriously though, so did I based on the vinyl I had of the work.


----------



## Art Rock

The longest English word you can make using the top row of a keyboard is typewriter.


----------



## Conrad2

Nan Madol or known as the Venice of the Pacific is the only ancient city built on top of a coral reef.









^Reconstructed image of the city (it appears to be floating on water for me)









Present day image


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## Luchesi

I learned today that I had a large crop of Datura coming up (after the rains) under our forest of creosote. They're fragile and they need some shade.

They're endangered plants and they only have one special moth to pollinate them. But I can probably keep them alive now that I know they're there. This will be good for as long as I'm around...


----------



## Ariasexta

Conrad2 said:


> Nan Madol or known as the Venice of the Pacific is the only ancient city built on top of a coral reef.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ^Reconstructed image of the city (it appears to be floating on water for me)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Present day image


How beautiful, thanks.

I recalled about Michel Montaigne`s essay "On Cannibals" which created a continental impact upon the whole Renaissance Europe and Shakespeare is also said to have read this particular essay and adopted some Montaigne`s idea about noble savages. This idea also became Rameau`a idea about Les Indies Gallants...

A bit spoiler contained:



> The characterization of Ariel and Caliban in The Tempest is significant in relation to Montaigne's essay, which was one of Shakespeare's main inspirations for the work. In "On Cannibals" and in The Tempest, both Montaigne and Shakespeare explore the relationship between human nature and modern civilization. Montaigne's idealization of the cannibals contrasts sharply with Shakespeare's unsympathetic portrayal of the brutish Caliban, whose name thinly veils the influence of Montaigne's essay. Whereas Montaigne's cannibals are praised as "wild fruits," produced by nature in her ordinary way and without any artificiality, Shakespeare's cannibal appears to be as pathetic, crass, and vulgar as any individual can possibly be portrayed. This seems to imply that Shakespeare's portrayal of Caliban is a direct attack against the form of wistful idealizing of Nature that Montaigne is so fond of. Yet the complexity of The Tempest lies in its essential ambiguity. This ambiguity stems from the juxtaposition of the brutish and pathetic character of Caliban with the sprightly and sympathetic character of Ariel. Both Caliban and Ariel are natives of the island, and hence can be thought of in terms of Montaigne's cannibals. By analyzing the characterization of these two characters in relation to Prospero, one comes closer to determining how The Tempest as a work of art responds to and challenges Montaigne's essay. Lying at the root of Shakespeare's response to Montaigne is a differing conception of human nature and the extent to which modern civilization suppresses it.
> 
> Shakespeare's Natives: Ariel and Caliban in The Tempest
> By Michael O'Toole


By human nature, natives by individual were as sophisticated as westerners, there are both virtue and vice in natives just as in europeans. But their natural forms of culture and civilization did fascinate both Montaigne and Shakespeare alike:



> SHAKESPEARE, MONTAIGNE, AND THE IDEA OF SAVAGERY
> 
> Jack Glazier
> Oberlin College
> 
> Although a resolution of the controversy over primitivism in the Tempest lies beyond the scope of this article, it is fair to say that Shakespeare shares something of Montaigne`s admiration of savagery as a social form and its refractions in the Utopian dream.


---From a PDF page, page 3, the last paragraph.

I have a lot of respect for those non-western native cultures too, fascinating. I am not saying westerners are old and corrupt old-worlders, but it is like something lost pieces of every culture. We are going to find everyone`s own cultural identity not just with our native heritages but also with these lost and forgotten people and cultures. It is true, since our native cultures all suffer heavy damages none of us is complete with each ones own respective native culture and heritage.


----------



## Luchesi

I learned that Chopin was rumoured to regularly take opium with a sugar cube 

as a method of combating the symptoms of his tuberculosis/ CF.


----------



## DaveM

Having just watched the documentary, The Lost Leonardo, I learned that a painting with an uncertain provenance, the Salvator Mundi, sold for $400,000,000 a few years ago. The buyer was none other than Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS). He has kept the painting out of view since he bought it. The Louvre had hoped to show it, but MBS demanded that it be shown with the Mona Lisa which presumably would have inferred that Leonardo da Vinci was definitely the painter. The Louvre refused.

In 2005, the painting was in bad shape after poor attempts at restoration. It was barely recognizable after the 'restorative' paint was removed. Over the next few years it was restored to something that looks like something that Leonardo may have painted, but though some experts believe he might have been the painter, there is no consensus. Still, I find it rather mesmerizing.


----------



## TxllxT

The Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is widely thought to be a kind of saint surrounded by mystery, stillness and the proverbial Dutch obsession with cleanliness. Now this imagination needs to be adjusted. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/09/arts/design/vermeer-cupid-restoration.html In Dresden a Vermeer painting has been restored with the result that Cupid appears on the back wall making eye contact with those who look at the painting.


----------



## Roger Knox

I learned that squash topped with some fried sage leaves is delicious.


----------



## TxllxT

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/20/world/carbon-capture-storage-climate-iceland-intl-cmd/index.html

This was new for me: a carbon dioxide-sucking plant.


----------



## atsizat

I saw this on internet


----------



## eljr

Roger Knox said:


> I learned that squash topped with some fried sage leaves is delicious.


Sounds grand!

I read this and quickly took to the intercom to request this from the kitchen! They promised tomorrow.


----------



## eljr

I learned that facts have little place in the world for most once they are set on their beliefs.


----------



## Guest

I have alway followed what I thought was the standard procedure making coffee in a French Press, let the coffee steep for 7-8 minutes. I read one of those articles professing to tell you how to make good coffee, and it said I should use more coffee and steep for three minutes (stirring after 1 minute). I like it better.


----------



## Chilham

Yesterday I learned that the background masks people use when on zoom calls don't conceal everything behind them.

Note to self: never take a business zoom call in your bedroom.


----------



## starthrower

atsizat said:


> I saw this on internet
> 
> View attachment 160410


Oh, I think he knew his invention would be successful but didn't believe he personally was going to be the one reaping the profits. And he was nearly broke when he disappeared at sea. Most likely a suicide.


----------



## TxllxT

Today is the 200th Birthday of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (11 November 1821 - 9 November 1881 (aged 59))
Here an article of the St Petersburg webnews site Fontanka about the living-places of Dostoevsky in St Petersburg https://www.fontanka.ru/longreads/70246250/ 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoevsky


----------



## starthrower

Today's date is a palindrome. 12/2/21


----------



## Ariasexta

I recently saw some videos about gluttony show, also a documentary about slum people in Philippines eating left over food from restaurants, I find the latter more human like.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/press/press-releases/preparatory-sketch-discovered-beneath-the-night-watch

A sketch has been discovered underneath the paint of the Night Watch of Rembrandt. Now it is possible to follow the work-in-progress, from Rembrandt's first ideas to the final version.


----------



## starthrower

We all know processed sugar is bad for health but I learned quite a bit from this presentation about the history of high fructose corn syrup and how toxic it is to the body.

More about Dr. Robert Lustig.
https://robertlustig.com/


----------



## Ariasexta

One of my cousins` husband passed away today, of cerebral haemorrhage, of the age around 50. Too much salts, oil, sugar will surely surprise you with a dream never to be awakened.


----------



## Forster

I found out what a "self-denying ordinance" is...or rather, was...



> The *Self-denying Ordinance* was passed by the English Parliament on 3 April 1645.[SUP][a][/SUP] All members of the House of Commons or Lords who were also officers in the Parliamentary army or navy were required to resign one or the other, within 40 days from 3 April 1645.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-denying_Ordinance

The French did something similar in 1791.

Google doesn't seem to explain what the expression has come to mean...a rule one sets oneself to deny oneself of something (eg pleasure). No definition in Lexico except the historical one.


----------



## Ingélou

I'm reading Dan Jones 'The Hollow Crown'. I never realized that a medieval king of France suffered from a mental illness which started when he had a sudden fit of violence and killed five of his retainers before he could be restrained. At times he even forgot who he was. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_VI_of_France

I wonder what caused it?


----------



## Ariasexta

I was recently wondering, when people are paid to risk their lives, how much sense does it make? does it make more sense to be paid more money than less money to risk ones life. Mining accidents happen a lot in China, the mortality rate is high but the payment is also high according to domestical income levels. I will not be paid to risk my life just for some coals, for any amount of money. This is crazy, but people will do crazy things for money, literally any amount of money as long as the situation is bad enough. How come people can be rational? does money excuse for irrationality? I am wondering and this is what I have discovered as an unsolved mystery.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> I was recently wondering, when people are paid to risk their lives, how much sense does it make? does it make more sense to be paid more money than less money to risk ones life. Mining accidents happen a lot in China, the mortality rate is high but the payment is also high according to domestical income levels. I will not be paid to risk my life just for some coals, for any amount of money. This is crazy, but people will do crazy things for money, literally any amount of money as long as the situation is bad enough. How come people can be rational? does money excuse for irrationality? I am wondering and this is what I have discovered as an unsolved mystery.


And if you have children or a needy family, the results can be more and more irrational. This is because the oldest drive within us all is the selfish gene concept.


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> And if you have children or a needy family, the results can be more and more irrational. This is because the oldest drive within us all is the selfish gene concept.


This is not selfish, but self-immolation, true, reproductive interest is irrational, but not all people gone for cheap money have families to care about. Respect for those who sacrifice themselves for their children. For a piece of bread for the family, very well honored, but at the same time, the risk would go beyond the needs of family, I think the craziness is the same with cannibalism in situation of need, reality is that even without money, people can still do cruellest things like cannibal tribes, torturing and boiling alive. It seems within mankind`s nature, but how come can money excuse for this and make this craziness less obvious, and does this effect make any sense at all? or just the same without it? I am still wondering.


----------



## science

I found out that there is a jewelry artist named Wallace Chan who makes lovely pieces that cost about ten times what my life is worth! 

His work with jade is especially impressive to me.


----------



## science

Ariasexta said:


> I was recently wondering, when people are paid to risk their lives, how much sense does it make? does it make more sense to be paid more money than less money to risk ones life. Mining accidents happen a lot in China, the mortality rate is high but the payment is also high according to domestical income levels. I will not be paid to risk my life just for some coals, for any amount of money. This is crazy, but people will do crazy things for money, literally any amount of money as long as the situation is bad enough. How come people can be rational? does money excuse for irrationality? I am wondering and this is what I have discovered as an unsolved mystery.


This is an excellent question. The actual numbers people would take would be very strongly affected by a lot of factors, and the anchoring bias would be huge, but....

If I were offered $10k to do a 1-day job with a 1% chance that I'd die, I think I'd take it. I'd probably take it over and over and be dead pretty soon! But at 2% I feel less certain.

I'd do 2% for maybe $50k, certainly for $100k.

For $1m, I might go as high as 5%.

For a 50% risk, I probably would ask for at least $20m.

Jumping all the way to the other end, I'd think very seriously about risking a 99% chance of dying for $1 billion, as long as the death wouldn't be both painful or prolonged and frightening. I'm fine with painful and short, or prolonged but not frightening.

For the chance that someone I love would die, however, I wouldn't even take $1 billion at 1%. Now let's say $1 billion at .01% and no one knows that I risked it...

You can role-play your scenarios with a random number generator. (I just did the $10k at 1% scenario and found myself unwilling to continue after having survived 16 rounds. But I would have survived 133 rounds and died a millionaire! Imagine how grateful my family would be as they split that about 20 ways....)


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> This is not selfish, but self-immolation, true, reproductive interest is irrational, but not all people gone for cheap money have families to care about. Respect for those who sacrifice themselves for their children. For a piece of bread for the family, very well honored, but at the same time, the risk would go beyond the needs of family, I think the craziness is the same with cannibalism in situation of need, reality is that even without money, people can still do cruellest things like cannibal tribes, torturing and boiling alive. It seems within mankind`s nature, but how come can money excuse for this and make this craziness less obvious, and does this effect make any sense at all? or just the same without it? I am still wondering.


Acquiring money and power, sex and even cannibalism are part of the sexual ego of a man. It's the drive of the survival of your very own selfish genes. Selfish genes probably replaced all other genes more than 500 million years ago. And this is probably true in other star systems, so the universe is a very dangerous place, or it will be in a few billion years.


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> Acquiring money and power, sex and even cannibalism are part of the sexual ego of a man. It's the drive of the survival of your very own selfish genes. Selfish genes probably replaced all other genes more than 500 million years ago. And this is probably true in other star systems, so the universe is a very dangerous place, or it will be in a few billion years.


Mathematically we have a non-existent form of ratio against 0, I borrowed that idea and presume a lot of other ideas also amount to that kind of falsity which we often take to be true. Entertainment science is very popular and misleading, like quantum soul or consciousness, math to compute the weight of spirit, the existence of God things like that. If the premise of a question is false, any develop into that question is a waste of energy. It is possible a lot of our "knowledges" are found upon self-falsifiable premises. Our universe has to make sense to us, but not to our ego, since the ego itself is that 0 under the bar of ratio.


----------



## Ariasexta

science said:


> This is an excellent question. The actual numbers people would take would be very strongly affected by a lot of factors, and the anchoring bias would be huge, but....
> 
> If I were offered $10k to do a 1-day job with a 1% chance that I'd die, I think I'd take it. I'd probably take it over and over and be dead pretty soon! But at 2% I feel less certain.
> 
> I'd do 2% for maybe $50k, certainly for $100k.
> 
> For $1m, I might go as high as 5%.
> 
> For a 50% risk, I probably would ask for at least $20m.
> 
> Jumping all the way to the other end, I'd think very seriously about risking a 99% chance of dying for $1 billion, as long as the death wouldn't be both painful or prolonged and frightening. I'm fine with painful and short, or prolonged but not frightening.
> 
> For the chance that someone I love would die, however, I wouldn't even take $1 billion at 1%. Now let's say $1 billion at .01% and no one knows that I risked it...
> *
> You can role-play your scenarios with a random number generator. (I just did the $10k at 1% scenario and found myself unwilling to continue after having survived 16 rounds. But I would have survived 133 rounds and died a millionaire! Imagine how grateful my family would be as they split that about 20 ways....)*


1% mortality rate is low enough for 5000USD for most people. Imagine, you are a boss, hiring 100 men and 5000USD each for the job, the one destined to face the fate will be compensated by insurance if the situation were the best possible. No boss can afford it. This risk will not turn up much profit if not high-tech. But even in korean semiconductor factories, their low standard of protection against the chemicals caused high death rate, and the compensations were low. Once the you ask for an offer that unrealizable, you are effectively rejecting the offer. But still rational. I will say that, for personal gains, it is totally rational to reject any amount of offer if the risk is high enough, also it is rational accept the offer when the risk is low however the payment is also low. *Our rationality seems to be founded upon our immediate and universally justifiable safety and welfare against the odds, while money has to be considered in contexts. * This point might also explains Adam Smith`s third impartial observer as the reference for virtue, since, universally justifiable, therefore the impartial observer must also be pleased, therefore, virtuous and rational.

_Adam Smith claims that humans naturally sympathize with others and seek their approval. The process of matching our sentiments with others' sentiments forms the basis of our moral judgment. But what do we do when sentiments conflict? Smith saw that we need to move beyond literal impartial spectators to reach some ideal by which we can judge others' sentiments and our own. That ideal is a category that we develop inductively. The category then allows us to construct imaginary representations of a perfect impartial spectator to arbitrate conflicts between the views of literal impartial spectators and our own._

--Adam Smith's Impartial Spectator.

Imagine, if a spectator said people who refuse the offer for risks as stupid, you know he is not impartial. An impartial spectator would say:"that man is careful enough", or "he is not interested in money", when he were amazed and impartiality allows amazement.

For feeding a whole family, calculation is necessary, so the enboldened lines at the end of your post is elucidating to the problem in personal morale. The premise is that self-immolation for family is a valid honor without the need for rationalization, therefore the later calculations are the process of reasoning, when opting for the best and safest outcome, then there is a good possibility that one could come off a winner. It seems that, reasoning needs some context which could not always be explained with cold reasoning, human sentiments count, also there is natural contingencies, which we will calculate to evade as much as possible or to negotiate for better gains. It is to say, it is well honored to self-sacrifice for the children, but neither honored nor rational to take much risk for ones own egoistic gains.

This is just a personal case, when put into bigger social context, this philosophical dilemma would become very complicated.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> 1% mortality rate is low enough for 5000USD for most people. Imagine, you are a boss, hiring 100 men and 5000USD each for the job, the one destined to face the fate will be compensated by insurance if the situation were the best possible. No boss can afford it. This risk will not turn up much profit if not high-tech. But even in korean semiconductor factories, their low standard of protection against the chemicals caused high death rate, and the compensations were low. Once the you ask for an offer that unrealizable, you are effective rejecting the offer. But still rational. I will say that, for person gain, it is totally rational to reject any amount of offer if the risk is high enough, also it is rational accept the offer when the risk is low however the payment is also low. *Our rationality seems to be founded upon our immediate safety and welfare against the odds, money has to be considered in contexts. *
> 
> For feeding a whole family, calculation is necessary, so the enboldened lines at the end of your post is elucidating to the problem in personal morale. The premise is that self-immolation for family is a valid honor without the need for rationalization, therefore the later calculations are the process of reasoning, when opting for the best and safest outcome, then there is a good possibility that one could come off a winner. It seems that, reasoning needs some context which could not always be explained with cold reasoning, human sentiments count, also there is natural contingencies, which we will calculate to evade as much as possible or to negotiate for better gains. This is just a personal case, when put into bigger social context, this philosophical dilemma would become very complicated.


We complain about rich people and their narrow minds, but it seems that they've actually succeeded in making all this work.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> Mathematically we have a non-existent form of ratio against 0, I borrowed that idea and presume a lot of other ideas also amount to that kind of falsity which we often take to be true. Entertainment science is very popular and misleading, like quantum soul or consciousness, math to compute the weight of spirit, the existence of God things like that. If the premise of a question is false, any develop into that question is a waste of energy. It is possible a lot of our "knowledges" are found upon self-falsifiable premises. Our universe has to make sense to us, but not to our ego, since the ego itself is that 0 under the bar of ratio.


Yes, it's interesting how knowledge grows from mistaken ideas.

Newton was seriously mistaken about absolutes. And that was seriously distracting for science.

And Newton thought that gravity was a force, but it turns out that gravity (space curvature) works because of time dilation - and Newton would've been totally flabbergasted I believe.

I like the logic of your writings. You think in one language and write in another?


----------



## Ariasexta

So rationality has two premises which are valid: *sentimental virtues like honor, love, trust; and the universal justification.*

Even though self-sacrifice for ones own children has a selfishness sentiment, however, the parental trust, love, care make it universally justifiable. The universal justification then, would form ground for scientific, legal, social rational processes. Still how can we define personality within such a context of rationality? does ego always conflict with personality or they are mutually supportive? How one can love him/herself without being an egoistic psychopath?

If you take Plato`s rationalism(inquiry into the cause and effect) to be the total process of reasoning then it is incomplete, most people do not think this way, and you can not say most people are not rational. The cause and effect can excuse for many crazinesses like taking risks for any money, the effects are well considered and people are resolute, they have their own reasoning but still not equally rational. In my perspective, rationality is inseparable from the concept of virtue, universality, and Adam Smith`s Impartial Spectator theory strongly supports my point, given the degrees of impartiality, if all impartial people can be pleased, does not it prove that the universality does exist? If not universal, then not all impartial spectators will be pleased and the impartiality itself would be put to doubt. Therefore, if the imparitial spectator exist at all, the universality must also exist.


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> Yes, it's interesting how knowledge grows from mistaken ideas.
> 
> Newton was seriously mistaken about absolutes. And that was seriously distracting for science.
> 
> And Newton thought that gravity was a force, but it turns out that gravity (space curvature) works because of time dilation - and Newton would've been totally flabbergasted I believe.
> 
> I like the logic of your writings. You think in one language and write in another?


I always reason in this way, only I can express it. So do most people, but most people feel unnecessary to show in literal and argumental ways. Einstein`s Relativities still keep adhering to Newtonian laws, Newton would not be too surprised except for the explanation of the speed of light. Yes, I think in 2 languages, chinese and English. If you try to read and write in an expressive way, slowly, good ways of reasoning will develop by itself. Erasmus put a lot weight upon polishing the expressiveness of the languages, he was so wise! our languages have a of hidden powers if properly used.


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> We complain about rich people and their narrow minds, but it seems that they've actually succeeded in making all this work.


Yes, this is why this is still an unsolved mystery, why people can prosper on questionable rationality and virtue, and so far our world has prospered on the grey areas and people forget to question. How far our prosperity and wealth helped savagery buried in mankinds psyche, how to see rich and poor people on a common ground of rationality and virtue.


----------



## Ariasexta

Well, I find reasoning and rationality are two different concepts, reasoning might not always lead to rationality, and rationality is a kind of effect of causes by consideration or even chances. Rationality as an effect can be universally judged but reasoning has no definitive results before the final outcome. Reasoning is a process, so is the word "reason", rationality is a definitive quality set in a common context or criteria to be judged by all impartial spectators. If not to morally judge irrationality and rationality under the light of money, then, does not it seem that money somehow presides over human nature or we allow money to preside over us. This presiding means a lot, it shakes up all our common senses we take for granted so far, because this allowance is the foundation of the value systems that dictate all the social and personal matters. Therefore, the impact of money upon our understanding of the world and ourself can not be totally ignored. Is there any other system which can preside over humankind in terms of irrationality and rationality like money does? Pure chances? Uncertainty? Personal freedom? Individualism? Nihilism? Atheism? Science? and all these have come down to us in forms of liberal capitalism already, money is their boss.

If irrationality and rationality are to be taken as chances, and money also attributed to chances, then there must be a factor in the disparity that is increasing recklessly. Is it rational to accept this outcome for a natural result of social development, and how come the chances tip toward the end of some,,,undefinable rationality? Of course, it is not by nature or chances we have disparity, rather by some undefined quality of our thinking and working and living lead to this result.

But it is also possible to consider from classical point of view that we think the wealth is naturally good for everybody, it is about taking care of more people and ourselves, this way of thinking must allow some amount of selfishness, and we are likely from here, let adrift our pursue for wealth by either chances or intellect, up with the anchor of morality. Therefore to a great extent, money by its nature converges on the most expressed selfish part, it seems natural. This allowed selfishness is neither a part of sentimental virtue nor the universality I suggested above, as the development goes, but truly a liberation of human EGOS. How this ego will behave will be of some interests indeed, we can say, partially under the auspice of the money system, and another part under the liberal wing authorities, as we can testify how liberalism supports the presiding of human egos over all traditional and natural heritages. So, does it mean a middle way between irrationality and rationality? A kind of *human objectification* by the our own egos? by being objectified, does it mean these people are exempted from all social and sentimental judgements(if I gave in to take rationality as a kind of sentimentalism)?

Yes, it seems to be the case, by objectification, all crimes seem to be methodically, technically allowable. It means as long as you have enough means, you are exempted from the legal prosecution for the amount of crime allowed by your means. This is probably how our humanist ideals bump into Mr Hypocrisy, and pointing at each other as the hypocrite.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> Well, I find reasoning and rationality are two different concepts, reasoning might not always lead to rationality, and rationality is a kind of effect of causes by consideration or even chances. Rationality as an effect can be universally judged but reasoning has no definitive results before the final outcome. Reasoning is a process, so is the word "reason", rationality is a definitive quality set in a common context or criteria to be judged by all impartial spectators. If not to morally judge irrationality and rationality under the light of money, then, does not it seem that money somehow presides over human nature or we allow money to preside over us. This presiding means a lot, it shakes up all our common senses we take for granted so far, because this allowance is the foundation of the value systems that dictate all the social and personal matters. Therefore, the impact of money upon our understanding of the world and ourself can not be totally ignored. Is there any other system which can preside over humankind in terms of irrationality and rationality like money does? Pure chances? Uncertainty? Personal freedom? Individualism? Nihilism? Atheism? and all these have come down to us in forms of liberal capitalism already, money is their boss.
> 
> If irrationality and rationality are to be taken as chances, and money also attributed to chances, then there must be a factor in the disparity that is increasing recklessly. Is it rational to accept this outcome for a natural result of social development, and how come the chances tip toward the end of some,,,undefinable rationality? Of course, it is not by nature or chances we have disparity, rather by some undefined quality of our thinking and working and living lead to this result.
> 
> But it is also possible to consider from classical point of view that we think the wealth is naturally good for everybody, it is about taking care of more people and ourselves, this way of thinking must allow some amount of selfishness, and we are likely from here, let adrift our pursue for wealth by either chances or intellect, up with the anchor of morality. Therefore to a great extent, money by its nature converges on the most expressed selfish part, it seems natural. This allowed selfishness is neither a part of sentimental virtue nor the universality I suggested above, as the development goes, but truly a liberation of human EGO. How this ego will behave will be of some interests indeed, we can say, partially under the auspice of the money system, and another part under the liberal wing authorities, as we can testify how liberalism support the presiding of human ego over all traditional and natural heritages. So, does it mean a middle way between irrationality and rationality? a kind of *human objectification* by the our own egos? by being objectified, does it mean these people are exempted from all social and sentimental judgements(if I gave in to take rationality as a kind of sentimentalism)?


Humans need something to drive them (incentivize) and guide them (purpose) and drag them along (laziness). If it's not the pursuit of money, what would you like it to be?


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> Humans need something to drive them (incentivize) and guide them (purpose) and drag them along (laziness). If it's not the pursuit of money, what would you like it to be?


Humans being lazy is a false premise, but rather what kind of platform can provide a ground large, strong, safe enough for their common exercises. Money seems to provide such a platform but at the same time, tend to objectify some of the people, this shows how these people being fallen outside the platform here and there and that this platform is not big or safe enough. Science, it seems to be a bit larger than money, but strangely it succombs to money from time to time, as if science is a cushion for those who fall from the above. This platform is like a trapesoid, who knows if it will not grow sharper at the top and people might not fall upon oneself, instead of science, people become a cushion.

My proposition of a possible solution is the understanding of this ego or egos. This ego, I know in a neo-cult video called The Law of One by a reportedly alien, it called Christianity has a tenet of sacrificing the ego. The major issue is still how to take care of this human ego and know and control it. But people seem not knowing about it in our times, the liberation is so cherished and people can not suddenly notice anything wrong. Buddhism and Christianity both have their medicines for this serpent, reviving some traditional values would help a lot.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> Humans being lazy is a false premise, but rather what kind of platform can provide a ground large, strong, safe enough for their common exercises. Money seems to provide such a platform but at the same time, tend to objectify some of the people, this shows how these people being fallen outside the platform here and there and that this platform is not big or safe enough. Science, it seems to be a bit larger than money, but strangely it succombs to money from time to time, as if science is a cushion for those who fall from the above. This platform is like a trapesoid, who knows if it will not grow sharper at the top and people might not fall upon oneself, instead of science, people become a cushion.
> 
> My proposition of a possible solution is the understanding of this ego or egos. This ego, I know in a neo-cult video called The Law of One by a reportedly alien, it called Christianity has a tenet of sacrificing the ego. The major issue is still how to take care of this human ego and know and control it. But people seem not knowing about it in our times, the liberation is so cherished and people can not suddenly notice anything wrong. Buddhism and Christianity both have their medicines for this serpent, reviving some traditional values would help a lot.


Religions enlarge egos, because without evidence a concept will either grow huge and egos will blossom, or the concept will shrink and disappear.


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## Art Rock

Based on the recent series of posts, a reminder that religious discussions are not allowed at Talk Classical. From the 'Guidelines and Terms of Service':



> A special forum has been created for Political and/or Religious discussions that are related to Classical Music. In general political comments and posts are not allowed on Talk Classical, neither in threads nor posts in its forums, social groups, visitor messaging, blogs and signatures, other than those specified related solely to Classical Music in this special dedicated forum. For religious comments and posts, the same holds, except that religious statements are allowed in signatures, and general religious threads and posts are allowed in the social groups.


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## Art Rock

Also, I'd like to point out as thread starter that this thread is for:



> ILittle bits of information on anything (well, except religion and politics) that you encountered recently and others might find interesting (or not).


Please do not start and continue extensive discussions here, use a new dedicated thread for that. Thanks.


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## TxllxT

https://inews.co.uk/news/science/tumble-dryers-are-a-major-source-of-plastic-pollution-and-can-discharge-120-million-tiny-fibres-a-year-1396629
Tumble dryers are the biggest source of micro-plastics pollution of our environment.


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## TxllxT

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/tech-zukunft/alternative-antriebe/rost-am-elektroauto-korrosion-gefahr/

[Test your German] Even Tesla does quite bad in this car test for corrosion.


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## KevinW

What did I learn today... AP Calculus BC? How to get the area of a cross section by using derivatives and the equations for areas?


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## TxllxT

From the orange berries of the sea-buckthorn, a quite familiar thorny shrub in the dunes along the sea-side https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippophae_rhamnoides , it is possible to make tea which is a true immunity booster.



















Good for your health (vitamin C), eyes (vitamin A), skin, hair...


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## KevinW

What I learned today: in a youth orchestra, in terms of techniques and passion in music, sometimes there is a huge gap between the concertmaster and the associate concertmaster, the associate concertmaster and the second and third row of first violin, the first violin and the principal second violin, the principal second violin and other second violin players… Kind of like how a pyramid runs down from the top.


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## eljr

Ariasexta said:


> Humans being lazy is a false premise,


Not really. Of course this is dependent how how you define lazy.

Humans do use as little energy as possible in accomplishing what they do.


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## Flamme

Not to put the floor cleaner into a jogger but on the floor...It clogs the bottle in jogger...:tiphat:


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## TxllxT

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-60089225
For the first time in my Dutch life I learned about the existence of a 'Dutch reach', which for sure is not invented by the Dutch. Another thing is the greater awareness of Dutch drivers of cyclists, scootmobiles and other slow traffic taking part in the road traffic. In Amsterdam you must be prepared that cyclists appear from all sides and sway like drunken camels over the road.


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## Ariasexta

I watched a video about Tesla the inventor by a great videor(chinese), and realized that Tesla was the first to experiment with short-range radio communication. He has his credit for this, I disliked him for his rumored free energy stunts, free energy always gives me creeps，any sort of scientific spiritualism is just repulsive. Spiritualism should remain purely spiritual, science better not tries to conflate into everything.


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## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> I watched a video about Tesla the inventor by a great videor(chinese), and realized that Tesla was the first to experiment with short-range radio communication. He has his credit for this, I disliked him for his rumored free energy stunts, free energy always gives me creeps，any sort of scientific spiritualism is just repulsive. Spiritualism should remain purely spiritual, science better not tries to conflate into everything.


Yes, the poor man. Unhappy childhood, his father wanted him to go into the priesthood. He left for America as soon as he was old enough.

He arrived with no money and very poor English. Quite unsurprisingly he developed a dislike for humans and their pettiness, and how they took advantage of him. He knew he had great ideas, but he stepped on a lot of toes of the profiteers. Eventually he made a lot of money and then lost it all in a fire IIRC, and then later more set backs due to an accumulation of other reasons. It's an interesting biography.

He saw the world differently, but he was probably correct after all. He surmised that free energy was available, and he also expected that there were intelligent beings out there.


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## eljr

I learned what seemed obvious, science can find no evidence of conciseness after death. 

It was part of a half hour lecture on conciseness and just what that is. 
Do you actural have free choice is it an illusion was a large part of the neuroscience lecture.


----------



## Flamme

Luchesi said:


> Yes, the poor man. Unhappy childhood, his father wanted him to go into the priesthood. He left for America as soon as he was old enough.
> 
> He arrived with no money and very poor English. Quite unsurprisingly he developed a dislike for humans and their pettiness, and how they took advantage of him. He knew he had great ideas, but he stepped on a lot of toes of the profiteers. Eventually he made a lot of money and then lost it all in a fire IIRC, and then later more set backs due to an accumulation of other reasons. It's an interesting biography.
> 
> He saw the world differently, but he was probably correct after all. He surmised that free energy was available, and he also expected that there were intelligent beings out there.


Idk why but the whole tesla business is becoming boring for me...I think he might be overrated.


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> Yes, the poor man. Unhappy childhood, his father wanted him to go into the priesthood. He left for America as soon as he was old enough.
> 
> He arrived with no money and very poor English. Quite unsurprisingly he developed a dislike for humans and their pettiness, and how they took advantage of him. He knew he had great ideas, but he stepped on a lot of toes of the profiteers. Eventually he made a lot of money and then lost it all in a fire IIRC, and then later more set backs due to an accumulation of other reasons. It's an interesting biography.
> 
> He saw the world differently, but he was probably correct after all. He surmised that free energy was available, and he also expected that there were intelligent beings out there.


He has a natural affinity with electricity, I believe he did his research with a strong instinct toward the electricity and all photoelectric phenomena in particular. Tesla was also good at math too but he had a passion for photons. Free energy is quite a sensitive topic, no prospect of a good use if we have people shooting and cheating each other these days. People have choosen chaos they will have to stay loyal to their way and their jail. Hindu scripts tell of ancient people on flying vehicles(vimanas) shooting huge burning darts at each other, Mahenjo Daro destroyed by one of such darts:

Mahabharata


> White hot smoke that was a thousand times brighter than the sun rose in infinite brilliance and reduced the city to ashes, the account reads. Water boiled...horses and war chariots were burned by the thousands.. . the corpses of the fallen were mutilated by the terrible heat so that they no longer looked like human beings...


Free energy an alias for the Godhead, but people are far from being ready even to imagine the consequence. I think people should not toy with the things they do not really have a notion of. A monkey can smoke and dress up, it makes them ever more stupid by doing things not in their nature, humanity should beware of this.


----------



## Flamme

eljr said:


> I learned what seemed obvious, science can find no evidence of conciseness after death.
> 
> It was part of a half hour lecture on conciseness and just what that is.
> Do you actural have free choice is it an illusion was a large part of the neuroscience lecture.


I dont have any proof just a deep inner feeling that ''something'', beyond the rot, exists...And a hope some good ppl I knew are on better place now.


----------



## Ariasexta

I also conceive an idea about speed of light and space-time based on Einstein`s unchangibility of speed of light: Originality not guaranteed, just an instant flash of mind.

If the speed of light is unchangible, we can take this way, if you travel at 100km per second, and then 10000km per second, and then 100000km per second, as long as you never catch up to the speed of light, you will always feel the same in speed against the speed of light, that is, we might never really understand what is our real speed in the current position of universe in terms of expansion because whatever the speed we have, the speed of time and light always feels the same. So from the eye of the light, everything is equal. The universe does not really expand, but our own movement behind the light makes the universe expand, the faster we move, the faster the universe recede from us. But if we try to stay stationary, we will probably annihilate ourselves, because the universe does not allow staticness, or rather, go back to the primeval void of the beginning of the universe. So from my induction, to try to go back in time will destroy the order of physical laws, making one detached from the flow of time, eventually gets stuck in a parallel universe as the negative matter and self-annihilated by positive-negative matter mechanism.


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## Luchesi

If we dismiss time as a substantial dimension then the velocity of an object is not a function of increasing its speed in any direction, but rather the reorientation of its component energimes which are already moving at c so that -- the net vector of the component energimes provides a net velocity along an axis of motion. And so, the constancy of the speed of light is fundamentally more accurately expressed as the constancy of the speed of the energime. And a photon becomes nothing more than a system of bound energimes all moving in perfect alignment along the axis of motion. If we eliminate TIME like this - the quantum mass becomes 2.9 x 10^-73 kg. This is a dangerous conclusion for the CERN experimenters. They don't want to hear it.﻿


----------



## Ariasexta

Global Warming? Antarctica Has Coldest Winter On Record

Published on October 20, 2021
_
Antarctica has posted its coldest winter since records began in 1957 with average temperatures of -61.1°C. The previous record was -60.6°C in 1976._

Buy more warm cloths folk, before the price soars.


----------



## Chilham

Ariasexta said:


> ... Antarctica Has Coldest Winter On Record....


Whilst the World had the fourth hottest Summer on record.

Individual temperatures in individual locations do not prove or disprove global warming.


----------



## Ariasexta

Chilham said:


> Whilst the World had the forth hottest Summer on record.
> 
> Individual temperatures in individual locations do not prove or disprove global warming.


As to personal clothing interests, I am gonna invest in the warmer criterion more, I think the capitalists would not lie against their own profit, they can have millions of excuses for just one possible motif that is more universal than the rest. It is good summers will still be hot, I love hot summers, love the south too.

_Clothes to get 15-20% costlier in 2022, probable GST rate hike may further add to the prices_
_
Even as apparel customers are relieved after the GST Council deferred the GST rate hike for textiles, the prices of clothes are likely to go up by up to 20 per cent this year due to increase in prices of raw materials, freight costs, etc. A probable increase in GST will lead to a further hike in prices of clothes._

Written by Tanya Krishna
January 18, 2022 2:35:00 am


----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


> I dont have any proof just a deep inner feeling that ''something'', beyond the rot, exists...And a hope some good ppl I knew are on better place now.


I believe that is possible. Our bodies have an energy, an aura, a soul. It's possible that endures.

I ponder this less and less as time goes on. It does seem that if a spirit of us survives, we'd have figured out a way to detect it.


----------



## pianozach

Ariasexta said:


> Global Warming? Antarctica Has Coldest Winter On Record
> 
> Published on October 20, 2021
> _
> Antarctica has posted its coldest winter since records began in 1957 with average temperatures of -61.1°C. The previous record was -60.6°C in 1976._
> 
> Buy more warm cloths folk, before the price soars.


"Global Warming" causes heat waves AND cold snaps AND extreme weather conditions. That's why it's been renamed "Global Climate Change".


----------



## Flamme

pianozach said:


> I believe that is possible. Our bodies have an energy, an aura, a soul. It's possible that endures.
> 
> I ponder this less and less as time goes on. It does seem that if a spirit of us survives, we'd have figured out a way to detect it.


I was always, since childhood very DEEP when it comes to some things...I can feel the ''vibration'' or energy of ppl and places most other ppl miss...When my mum passed away and we had a wake in the house suddenly it was filled with scent of her favorite perfume...Even if I wanted to ''stage'' something I couldnt because there was so little perfume left in a small bottle...But the house was like bathed in scent. All rooms and hallways...From time to time I feel her presence and am thankful to heavens she visits us...When I ''talk'' to her in my thoughts or whispering I know she can hear me...She was a person of great energy a pillar of whole family, not just nearest cousins and a thread that kept all the branches together...She doesnt come ''often'' and I almost have a feeling she has to get ''permission'' to see us from time to time...When she died I bought two angels decoration and they always stand in my living room, one for mum and the other for her mother our grandma who was even in life an angel in human form...When grandma died in many situations when I was in ''deep trouble'', passed out, I was saved by invisible hand...


----------



## eljr

I am learning how to use an image post today!


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund

I finally learned how to rosin the bow for my viola the proper way! I decided to learn a new instrument for a newly started orchestra at the high-school I work. I can understand the patience you need in learning a string instrument...So I got to practice a bit on holding the bow and trying to relax before the D-string snapped. Next up I will learn to restring a viola. My happy feeling on the rosin thing lasted 10 minutes...


----------



## Ariasexta

pianozach said:


> "Global Warming" causes heat waves AND cold snaps AND extreme weather conditions. That's why it's been renamed "Global Climate Change".


Like inflation, rich people say that it is a good economy, as the poor people say we must buy cheaper imported goods, but rich people always say economy will grow better and better whatever happens before something happens to stop the media.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> Global Warming? Antarctica Has Coldest Winter On Record
> 
> Published on October 20, 2021
> _
> Antarctica has posted its coldest winter since records began in 1957 with average temperatures of -61.1°C. The previous record was -60.6°C in 1976._
> 
> Buy more warm cloths folk, before the price soars.


One reasonable reason for this is, the winds that encircle Antarctica are getting stronger. These are upper air planetary waves. They will consistently (statistically) block the warm air from the north. You should learn about the subject so you can understand these attention-getting headlines.

People can understand that steering winds will be getting stronger as the planet retains more energy, but for some reason these media types can't keep it straight.


----------



## HenryPenfold

Luchesi said:


> One reasonable reason for this is, the winds that encircle Antarctica are getting stronger. These are upper air planetary waves. They will consistently (statistically) block the warm air from the north. You should learn about the subject so you can understand these attention-getting headlines.
> 
> People can understand that steering winds will be getting stronger as the planet retains more energy, but for some reason these media types can't keep it straight.


Orwellian double-think


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> One reasonable reason for this is, the winds that encircle Antarctica are getting stronger. These are upper air planetary waves. They will consistently (statistically) block the warm air from the north. You should learn about the subject so you can understand these attention-getting headlines.
> 
> People can understand that steering winds will be getting stronger as the planet retains more energy, but for some reason these media types can't keep it straight.


The atmospheric pressure is assumed to be lower in the tropics if warming come, south pole is in the day of the year now, low pressure heat should hit there in this time if warming is from the purple gas effect. The planetary environment is truly getting worse, the terminology is a matter greater concern for certain people than truth. If truth is too intricate for people to know, then I could be the man to show it to myself and the others, because I maintain the metaphysical principles of everything, will never in need of any confirmation in power. From basically metaphysical principles I predict that Riemann hypothesis will never be proven, like this, I can metaphysically attain any definitive answer for my peace of mind.


----------



## Ariasexta

HenryPenfold said:


> Orwellian double-think


Something I present and have read could be too idealistic for myself and people, this is why I hesitate nothing to post and show, my idealism is like a spectre, look like an angel but I can not be sure. I can not blame anyone at all.


----------



## HenryPenfold

Ariasexta said:


> Something I present and have read could be too idealistic for myself and people, this is why I hesitate nothing to post and show, my idealism is like a spectre, look like an angel but I can not be sure. I can not blame anyone at all.


Didn't quite catch the gist ...........


----------



## Ariasexta

HenryPenfold said:


> Didn't quite catch the gist ...........


I use people`s opposition to verify myself, this is the way how I maintain my metaphysics, like science use empirical evidences, I use people.


----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


> I was always, since childhood very DEEP when it comes to some things...I can feel the ''vibration'' or energy of ppl and places most other ppl miss...When my mum passed away and we had a wake in the house suddenly it was filled with scent of her favorite perfume...Even if I wanted to ''stage'' something I couldnt because there was so little perfume left in a small bottle...But the house was like bathed in scent. All rooms and hallways...From time to time I feel her presence and am thankful to heavens she visits us...When I ''talk'' to her in my thoughts or whispering I know she can hear me...She was a person of great energy a pillar of whole family, not just nearest cousins and a thread that kept all the branches together...She doesnt come ''often'' and I almost have a feeling she has to get ''permission'' to see us from time to time...When she died I bought two angels decoration and they always stand in my living room, one for mum and the other for her mother our grandma who was even in life an angel in human form...When grandma died in many situations when I was in ''deep trouble'', passed out, I was saved by invisible hand...


So much that we cannot measure.

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

I'm an empath and mildly psychic. I've felt and heard a couple of ghosts in my lifetime. I used to be scary good with Tarot; so scary that I only do Dream Interpretation nowadays. Mom used to be able to predict phone calls ("I haven't heard from Ellen in a while . . . " _Rinnnnnng . . . Rinnnnnnng_). I can also access some synesthesia, but only with my eyes closed. Sometimes I "feel the energy", but I'm so good at ignoring it that I forget that I can, so don't.

I used to have a girlfriend who could see auras. She found it so annoying that she'd have to go to a hypnotist every couple of years to help her block it.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04281-w

Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion, in short: more output of energy (thanks to fusion) achieved than input (lasers) of energy. Hoping that these scientific investigations will pave the way for environmentally safe nuclear fusion energy plants.


----------



## pianozach

TxllxT said:


> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04281-w
> 
> Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion, in short: more output of energy (thanks to fusion) achieved than input (lasers) of energy. Hoping that these scientific investigations will pave the way for environmentally safe nuclear fusion energy plants.


There's almost always a downside to energy production, even if it's not apparent at first.

Now I'm hearing that "Natural Gas" has been determined to be unsafe, and that we'll be banning new homes being built with natural gas for heating and cooking.

*Natural Gas Bans Are New Front in Effort to Curb Emissions*_
STATELINE ARTICLE January 6, 2022 By: Alex Brown Read time: 7 min

Lawmakers in New York are considering the nation's first statewide ban on natural gas connections in new buildings, following dozens of local governments that have passed similar policies in the past two years.

But as New York and other left-leaning states consider ways to limit natural gas and the greenhouse gas emissions it creates, 20 mostly Republican states have passed laws barring cities and counties from blocking gas hookups.

"Growing the demand for natural gas is exactly what the world does not need right now," said New York state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, the Democrat who sponsored the natural gas phaseout legislation. "If you build buildings that rely on fossil fuels, you are baking in very long-term needs."

Fossil fuel combustion in buildings, mostly for heating, is responsible for about 13% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States . . ._ https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/resear...ans-are-new-front-in-effort-to-curb-emissions


----------



## eljr

Today I took a lecture on Beethoven's Fifth. 

What did I learn? What a gift Beethoven was.


----------



## Ariasexta

I realize today that curiosity is not necessarily a healthy feeling, people mistake curiosity for a great passion, and condone trespassings in the name of it. To make inquiry into big matters, curiosity is not a good motive, in place of it, custom and tradition are more valid as motive for many inquiries. This is how atheism and materialism might mislead people, sometimes, custom and tradition can provide better shelter for more people in the venture into the great matters.


----------



## Flamme

I learned how Siberia forests burn for years now and nobody pays any attention. While all that dark smoke goes into atmosphere.


----------



## Luchesi

Something to me. I even learned that Stalin had been killed. I thought it was a heart attack.

This is a translation;

Stalin did not show himself to anyone for several days. He listened to the radio a lot. Once Stalin called the leadership of the Radio Committee and asked if they had a recording of Mozart's 23rd piano concerto, which he had heard on the radio the day before. "Yudina played," he added. Stalin was told that, of course, there is. In fact, there was no recording - the concert was broadcast live.

But they were afraid to say to Stalin: "No" - no one knew what the consequences could be. Human life was worthless to him. All that was possible was to agree, nod, assent, grovel in front of the madman. Stalin demanded that a recording of Mozart's performance by Yudina be sent to his dacha. The committee panicked, but something had to be done. They called Yudina and the orchestra and made a recording that night. Everyone trembled with fear. Except for Yudina, of course. But she is a special case, she was a knee-deep sea.

Yudina later told me that the conductor had to be sent home, as he did not think anything out of fear. Another conductor was summoned, who was trembling, confused everything and only interfered with the orchestra. Finally the third conductor was able to finish recording. I think this is a unique case in the history of recording: I mean that three times in one night I had to change the conductor. Anyway, the recording was ready by morning. They made a single copy and sent it to Stalin. Yes, it was a record.

Soon after, Yudina received an envelope with twenty thousand rubles. She was told that this was by special order of Stalin. Then she wrote him a letter. I know about this letter from her and I know the story will seem incredible. But, although Yudina had many quirks, one thing I can say for sure: she never lied. I'm sure this is true. Yudina wrote something like this in her letter: "Thank you, Joseph Vissarionovich, for your support. I will pray for you day and night and ask the Lord to forgive your huge sins before the people and the country. The Lord is merciful, He will forgive you. I gave the money to the church of which I am a parishioner. " And Yudina sent this murderous letter to Stalin. He read it and did not say a word, did not even raise an eyebrow. Naturally, the order to arrest Yudina was already ready, and the slightest grimace would have been enough to destroy even her trace. But Stalin kept silent and put the letter aside in silence. The expected eyebrow movement did not occur. Nothing happened to Yudina.

They say that when the leader and teacher were found dead at the dacha, her Mozart recording was on the player. This is the last thing he heard.

Dmitry Shostakovich, "Testimony"


----------



## Art Rock

Today I learned that copyright law became established in 1710 in England and Scotland, and in the 1840s in German-speaking areas. For some reason I had expected it to be much later.


----------



## eljr

I learned that my pill cutter has a small compartment under the blade area and a slit that part of a small pill can fall though. 

I also learned that trying retrieve the the lost pill piece will end unsuccessfully and result in a small blood letting ceremony performed by the protective blade.


----------



## mikeh375

I learnt recently that a googolplex is a number that's larger than all the particles in the universe...


----------



## Forster

mikeh375 said:


> I learnt recently that a googolplex is a number that's larger than all the particles in the universe...
> 
> View attachment 163622


I learn from this why maths is a subject which baffles and annoys me. I also learned that the googolplex was originally the number 1 followed by as many zeroes as you could write before getting tired. :lol:


----------



## SuperTonic

If you are interested in extremely large numbers you should look up Graham's number. It makes googolplex look infinitesimal by comparison. It is supposedly the largest mathematically useful number ever calculated (at least it was a few years ago when I first heard about it, it might have been superseded since then). It is impossible to notate Graham's number using standard exponentiation; you have to use something called "Knuth's up-arrow notation" to even write it down.


----------



## mikeh375

SuperTonic said:


> If you are interested in extremely large numbers you should look up Graham's number. It makes googolplex look infinitesimal by comparison. It is supposedly the largest mathematically useful number ever calculated (at least it was a few years ago when I first heard about it, it might have been superseded since then). It is impossible to notate Graham's number using standard exponentiation; you have to use something called "Knuth's up-arrow notation" to even write it down.


Oh Wow, I could add a few thirds to your avatar Supertonic....that's about the extent of my maths...


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## Luchesi

Forster said:


> I learn from this why maths is a subject which baffles and annoys me. I also learned that the googolplex was originally the number 1 followed by as many zeroes as you could write before getting tired. :lol:


Google is named after a misunderstanding of googol by the founders.


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## Luchesi

Luchesi said:


> Google is named after a misunderstanding of googol by the founders.


The name "Google" actually came from a graduate student at Stanford named Sean Anderson, Koller writes. Anderson suggested the word "googolplex" during a brainstorming session, and Page countered with the shorter "googol." Googol is the digit 1 followed by 100 zeroes, while googolplex is 1 followed by a googol zeros. 
Anderson checked to see if that domain name was taken, but accidentally searched for "google.com" instead of "googol.com." Page liked that name even better, and registered the domain name for Brin and himself on September 15, 1997.


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## TxllxT

https://www.ugent.be/en/news-events/dog-faeces-urine-harming-nature-reserves About dog s***.


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## KevinW

Beethoven Violin Concerto Allegro solo part, first 17 bars.


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## KevinW

Ten more bars of Beethoven Violin Concerto.


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## starthrower

Watch this and learn the name origins of all 50 US states and territories.


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## Art Rock

I have split off the continuing discussion on the James Webb Space Telescope issues and created a new thread for it (in this forum).


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## EdwardBast

I learned, from a discussion on NPR (National Public Radio in the US), that falcons are more closely related genetically to parrots than they are to hawks and eagles, a case where genetic analysis overrules traditional classification by morphology and behavior. The presenters didn't specifically say this, but I would assume that the morphological and behavioral data underlying the traditional classification of falcons with hawks and eagles is due to convergent evolution. That is, members of the parrot family began exploiting the same niche as birds of prey and evolved over time the hawk-like features that would allow them to more successfully do so.


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## TxllxT

Today I learned about the musical taste of the Romanov family, before they were executed during the Russian Revolution. What kind of music did they like the most? Well, it's British!






Archibald Joyce's first hit was 'Autumn Dream' in 1908. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Joyce
Well, does your musical taste and the Romanov's have something in common?


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## eljr

With current affairs as they are today, I signed up for a series of lectures on the history of Eastern Europe. 

Kind of remiss of me to have neglected such knowledge so many years given my ancestors were Polish having migrated from Belarus.


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## pianozach

eljr said:


> With current affairs as they are today, I signed up for a series of lectures on the history of Eastern Europe.
> 
> Kind of remiss of me to have neglected such knowledge so many years given my ancestors were Polish having migrated from Belarus.


The world is big, and it's easy to never get around to certain subjects, or even certain specific histories. I went through high school with barely a mention of the continents of Africa and South America.

As for histories of Russia and Ukraine; according to my public schooling there was nothing of interest in Russia until the Revolutions, and Ukraine was a country on the board when we played "Risk!". I think it was mentioned that Ukraine was Russia's bread basket.

I think I learned more about Russia from musical theatre (Thanks, "Fiddler On the Roof").


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## Forster

Perhaps not today, but this week, I learned that we've all been pronouncing "Kiev" incorrectly.


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## Ariasexta

I went to april city to express my load of mind there and now that was all I could say. I am not as complacent with wars as with pandemics, I know nature will not exterminate any species but mankind will.


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## CnC Bartok

That Ukrainians are incredibly brave.
And that the sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine
Transcript from a conversation between a Ukrainian woman and an invading soldier from yesterday:

Woman: Who are you?
Soldier: We have exercises here. Please go this way.
Woman: What kind of exercises? Are you Russian?
Soldier: Yes.
Woman: So what the ***** are you doing here?
Soldier: Right now our discussion will lead to nothing.
Woman: You are occupants, you are fascists! What the ***** are you doing on our land with all these guns? Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers (Ukrainian national flower) will grow when you all lie down here.
Soldier: Right now our discussion will lead nowhere. Let’s not escalate this situation. Please.
Woman: What situation? Guys, guys. Put the sunflower seeds in your pockets please. You will lie down here with the seeds. You came to my land? Do you understand? You are occupiers. You are enemies.
Soldier: Yes.
Woman: And from this moment, you are cursed. I’m telling you.
Soldier: Now listen to me…
Woman: I’ve heard you.
Soldier: Let’s not escalate the situation. Please go this way.
Woman: How can it be further escalated? You f*cking came here uninvited. Pieces of *****.


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## eljr

pianozach said:


> The world is big, and it's easy to never get around to certain subjects, or even certain specific histories. I went through high school with barely a mention of the continents of Africa and South America.
> 
> As for histories of Russia and Ukraine; according to my public schooling there was nothing of interest in Russia until the Revolutions, and Ukraine was a country on the board when we played "Risk!". I think it was mentioned that Ukraine was Russia's bread basket.
> 
> I think I learned more about Russia from musical theatre (Thanks, "Fiddler On the Roof").


I had hesitated to post this same displeasure with our educational system here in the states.

Outside of the US and Western Europe, ones leaves school thinking nothing but darkness has ever existed.


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## eljr

CnC Bartok said:


> That Ukrainians are incredibly brave.
> And that the sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine
> Transcript from a conversation between a Ukrainian woman and an invading soldier from yesterday:
> 
> Woman: Who are you?
> Soldier: We have exercises here. Please go this way.
> Woman: What kind of exercises? Are you Russian?
> Soldier: Yes.
> Woman: So what the ***** are you doing here?
> Soldier: Right now our discussion will lead to nothing.
> Woman: You are occupants, you are fascists! What the ***** are you doing on our land with all these guns? Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers (Ukrainian national flower) will grow when you all lie down here.
> Soldier: Right now our discussion will lead nowhere. Let's not escalate this situation. Please.
> Woman: What situation? Guys, guys. Put the sunflower seeds in your pockets please. You will lie down here with the seeds. You came to my land? Do you understand? You are occupiers. You are enemies.
> Soldier: Yes.
> Woman: And from this moment, you are cursed. I'm telling you.
> Soldier: Now listen to me…
> Woman: I've heard you.
> Soldier: Let's not escalate the situation. Please go this way.
> Woman: How can it be further escalated? You f*cking came here uninvited. Pieces of *****.


A very moving exchange.


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## Ariasexta

What is the demarcation of science? seems to be an easy question but in fact still unresolved and controversial. I took it for empirical and controlled process of learning and demonstration. Something is missing, I got it from Popper: Falsifiability. Science is not founded on rigor of set standards but the rigor of falsification. For example, we know 1+1=2, then most people think it is absolutely right that the answer is two, but Falsifiability says, it is because we reject all the other answers as false. This chanegthe whole concept a lot. The rigor comes not from definitive answers but rigor of rejection. This fits my definition of "controlledness" as well, controlledness also implies rigor of rejection, but not quite as elaborated as the Falsification theory. For example, Peer Review: the process is controlled within the peers, also rejecting public opinions. 

Philosophy, is as fun as music and science.


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## Chilham

Ariasexta said:


> What is the demarcation of science? seems to be an easy question but in fact still unresolved and controversial. I took it for empirical and controlled process of learning and demonstration. Something is missing, I got it from Popper: Falsifiability. Science is not founded on rigor of set standards but the rigor of falsification. For example, we know 1+1=2, then most people think it is absolutely right that the answer is two, but Falsifiability says, it is because we reject all the other answers as false. This chanegthe whole concept a lot. The rigor comes not from definitive answers but rigor of rejection. This fits my definition of "controlledness" as well, controlledness also implies rigor of rejection, but not quite as elaborated as the Falsification theory. For example, Peer Review: the process is controlled within the peers, also rejecting public opinions....


That's because, "Opinion" doesn't matter. What matters is objective, falsifiable, demonstrable outcomes.

Why is this so hard for you?


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## Ariasexta

Chilham said:


> That's because, "Opinion" doesn't matter. What matters is objective, falsifiable, demonstrable outcomes.
> 
> Why is this so hard for you?


I know opinions does not matter, but opinions have their own freedom in personal ways. I meant to use falsifiability to mark the milestone of science so that I can develop a system of thinking independent from science, but not found upon opinions that are just some random minds. This idea is complementary to my controlledness(originality not guaranteed, might have precedents). Togather, bolster and offset my outline of the ramifications and boundary of science.


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## Chibi Ubu

Play nice, don't subscribe to the internet news in order to remain happy. I'm fed up with anger. I hope that TC keeps me calm and happy. There's so much to like around here!


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## Ariasexta

I suddenly discover a good way to write beautiful lyrics and poems, just do not consider meanings too seriously, just try to write whatever you can that just sound cool then will be ok.


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## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> I suddenly discover a good way to write beautiful lyrics and poems, just do not consider meanings too seriously, just try to write whatever you can that just sound cool then will be ok.


Thirty years ago I stole phrases from Dylan Thomas and Swinburne for my first attempts at writing my own personal poetry, because they sounded so interesting, and because I had no interesting phrases of my own. It didn't matter if it made any logical sense. It was an emotional outlet for me.


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## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> Thirty years ago I stole phrases from Dylan Thomas and Swinburne for my first attempts at writing my own personal poetry, because they sounded so interesting, and because I had no interesting phrases of my own. It didn't matter if it made any logical sense. It was an emotional outlet for me.


I borrowed a lot of quotes from Oscar Wilde and many others, I also like Coleridge, Keats, which are serious poets not those I can say stylistically supportive of my views. But some non-serious-meaning poets are bad too like Bob Dylan, I am sure Voodoo chants could be better poems than Dylans lyrics.


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## Bwv 1080

Amazingly, this number has remained constant for over 300 years


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund

I learned it's not easy to make a cup of coffee or that there is a lot to consider, meaning my dark roasted Colombian coffee beans didn't taste awesome when I ground them in my new electric grinder and tried it out in my filter machine. Too bitter and not strong and rich flavor. Gah! Much easier with the usual coffee.


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## Chibi Ubu

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> I learned it's not easy to make a cup of coffee or that there is a lot to consider, meaning my dark roasted Colombian coffee beans didn't taste awesome when I ground them in my new electric grinder and tried it out in my filter machine. Too bitter and not strong and rich flavor. Gah! Much easier with the usual coffee.


My son prefers to drink cold brewed coffee when he drinks it. The same beans yield a seriously different flavor palette when cold brewed vs. hot brewed. I detect a huge chocolate note in his brew that I have never found in any hot brewed cuppa I've ever had.


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## Chibi Ubu

I've learned to stop participating in some of the more controversial threads here at TC:

*Gripe of The Day 
The Death of Pop Harmony
*
Actually not a bad thread, but it digresses too much, so I will go with what I believe to be part of its original intent:

*I Stopped The Insanity and Chilled*

Cheers!


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## pianozach

Chibi Ubu said:


> I've learned to stop participating in some of the more controversial threads here at TC:
> 
> *Gripe of The Day
> The Death of Pop Harmony
> *
> Actually not a bad thread, but it digresses too much, so I will go with what I believe to be part of its original intent:
> 
> *I Stopped The Insanity and Chilled*
> 
> Cheers!


Three of my favorite threads here.


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## starthrower

Visible in the sky this month.


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## Chibi Ubu

pianozach said:


> Three of my favorite threads here.


Being mellow, I know


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## Bwv 1080

Learned the answer to this:


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## Shaughnessy

Bwv 1080 said:


> *Learned the answer to this:*


Now there's two of us - We should start a club or something - Maybe call it the "Village Green Diophantine Equations Preservation Society".


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## Waehnen

On the "Somewhat Neo Classical" part of the 2nd Movement of my symphony I will need quick runs in the low register with a brass instrument. So I had to do some research because idiomatic writing is important for things to SOUND GOOD.

I learned today I will be alright with this bold run of mine. They can handle it. Especially the trombone!









What Is The Fastest Brass Instrument?


Our Soldiers go head to head in a test of speed!http://www.armyfieldband.comhttp://www.youtube.com/ArmyFieldBandhttp://www.facebook.com/ArmyFieldBandhttp://t...




youtube.com


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## Luchesi

Shaughnessy said:


> Now there's two of us - We should start a club or something - Maybe call it the "Village Green Diophantine Equations Preservation Society".


Yes, it's unfair because you need to work with elliptic curves to find the solutions (which are very large numbers).


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## Luchesi

It was solved on Quora

here, plug these in;

apple = 154476802108746166441951315019919837485664325669565431700026634898253202035277999
banana = 36875131794129999827197811565225474825492979968971970996283137471637224634055579
pineapple = 4373612677928697257861252602371390152816537558161613618621437993378423467772036

haha


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## Shaughnessy

Luchesi said:


> Yes, it's unfair because you need to work with elliptic curves to find the solutions (which are very large numbers).


I see someone else read "Arithmetic of elliptic curves and diophantine equations" in _Journal de Théorie des Nombres de Bordeaux_, tome 11, no 1 (1999), p. 173-200l...


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## Philidor

Maybe even more than 99.9 % of people cannot solve this in positive integers ...


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## pianozach

Waehnen said:


> On the "Somewhat Neo Classical" part of the 2nd Movement of my symphony I will need quick runs in the low register with a brass instrument. So I had to do some research because idiomatic writing is important for things to SOUND GOOD.
> 
> I learned today I will be alright with this bold run of mine. They can handle it. Especially the trombone!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> What Is The Fastest Brass Instrument?
> 
> 
> Our Soldiers go head to head in a test of speed!http://www.armyfieldband.comhttp://www.youtube.com/ArmyFieldBandhttp://www.facebook.com/ArmyFieldBandhttp://t...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> youtube.com


Years ago I was in the pit for a production for some high school musical, (Maybe it was Music Man, or something like that), and instead of a bass player, they had a teen *euphonium* player. He was excellent, and could play fast passages effortlessly. Great tone, too.

It turns out that the euphonium is a rather agile instrument in the right hands (and lips). 

Here's the *1st mvt*. of *Vladimir Cosma's Euphonium Concerto.*


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## Waehnen

pianozach said:


> Years ago I was in the pit for a production for some high school musical, (Maybe it was Music Man, or something like that), and instead of a bass player, they had a teen *euphonium* player. He was excellent, and could play fast passages effortlessly. Great tone, too.


Thanks for mentioning the euphonium. I had one horn replaced by euphonium but changed it back to horn. Maybe I will return to euphonium. Which other brass instrument would you suggest for the place of another horn? I would prefer the horn section (of three) to have different sounds but still operate together as a "horn" section. Euphoniums are frequent enough.


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## pianozach

Waehnen said:


> Thanks for mentioning the euphonium. I had one horn replaced by euphonium but changed it back to horn. Maybe I will return to euphonium. Which other brass instrument would you suggest for the place of another horn? I woul prefer the horn section (of three) to have different sounds but still operate together as a "horn" section. Euphoniums are frequent enough.


Not that I'm a horn expert, but I've heard my share of shoddy French Horn players. I do love the sound of a trio of horn players though.

Seems to me that 1 euphonium + 2 Fr. horns would be an excellent choice. 

The euphonium's range is the same as the bass trombone starting in the bass clef ranging from *B♭1 below the bass clef to B♭4 above the bass clef*. 

The range for French Horn kind of depends on who you ask. I've read that it's 3 octaves, and I've read it's 5 octaves. I imagine that decent players can hit the second G above middle C (G5).

When I actually have to score, I reference a small Orchestration handbook by Don B. Ray, M.A. My paperback edition actually has corrections made with stickers.

But as I really despise the alto clef, I'll ignore violas and french horns when I'm scoring.


----------



## Bwv 1080

Luchesi said:


> It was solved on Quora
> 
> here, plug these in;
> 
> apple = 154476802108746166441951315019919837485664325669565431700026634898253202035277999
> banana = 36875131794129999827197811565225474825492979968971970996283137471637224634055579
> pineapple = 4373612677928697257861252602371390152816537558161613618621437993378423467772036
> 
> haha


Although (from the same article) -1, 4, 11 works if you allow negative integers


----------



## Waehnen

pianozach said:


> Not that I'm a horn expert, but I've heard my share of shoddy French Horn players. I do love the sound of a trio of horn players though.
> 
> Seems to me that 1 euphonium + 2 Fr. horns would be an excellent choice.
> 
> The euphonium's range is the same as the bass trombone starting in the bass clef ranging from *B♭1 below the bass clef to B♭4 above the bass clef*.
> 
> The range for French Horn kind of depends on who you ask. I've read that it's 3 octaves, and I've read it's 5 octaves. I imagine that decent players can hit the second G above middle C (G5).
> 
> When I actually have to score, I reference a small Orchestration handbook by Don B. Ray, M.A. My paperback edition actually has corrections made with stickers.
> 
> But as I really despise the alto clef, I'll ignore violas and french horns when I'm scoring.


Thanks for your lovely post. 😊

Now I remember that Mellophone was the 3rd member of my original Horn Section when I started to orchestrate.

The Waehnen Horn Section: 
French Horn
Mellophone
Euphonium

The simulations I did actually sounded really cool!


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## starthrower

I learned that 40 million Americans are on food stamps.


----------



## progmatist

starthrower said:


> I learned that 40 million Americans are on food stamps.


There are millions more who need them, but don't meet the strict qualifications.


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## starthrower

progmatist said:


> There are millions more who need them, but don't meet the strict qualifications.


That's why the nation's food banks are so busy.


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## Art Rock

... that the Turkish word for cannibal is yam-yam (from a meme on another site). 

I have questions.


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## starthrower

If you're a victim of identity theft in the US you need to place a freeze on your credit at the three major credit bureaus. They are Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. It takes just a few minutes at each website. I just finished completing mine after someone opened a bank account in my name.


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## pianozach

starthrower said:


> If you're a victim of identity theft in the US you need to place a freeze on your credit at the three major credit bureaus. They are Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. It takes just a few minutes at each website. I just finished completing mine after someone opened a bank account in my name.


Studies have found that *4.5% of people in the US become victims of identity fraud every year*. Americans are much more likely to have their identity stolen when compared to other people. One million children also become victims of fraud crimes every year.


----------

