Thoughts at large

[oladub]

Two articles about marijuana that showed up on Facebook today showed 1) the difference marijuana extract made for a man with Parkinson's Disease and 2) claimed that an industrial hemp derivative was much cheaper than something presently used in batteries. This is out of my league but since neurons and brain electrical signals are involved with Parkinson's Disease, I wondered if there was a substance in marijuana that affects both brain currents and battery storage.

[GMan]

Good Lord, Summer temps have arrived! Time for those ozone action days!

[Jimaz]

To women who buy clothes for men:

We understand why you're not conscious of the importance of shirt pockets and we're really, really, appreciative of that. [[You can't imagine how incredibly appreciative we are of that.)

Yet, for men, shirt pockets are mandatory. One pocket is adequate, two are better. Best: shirt pockets that fasten closed somehow to prevent our tools from slipping into the toilet when we bend over to flush.

We use our tools to fix your stuff. We need a safe place to carry these tools.

Work with us here.

People who design pocketless shirts for men should be shot.

A public service announcement brought to you by Genders United™.

[Honky Tonk]

To women who buy clothes for men:

We understand why you're not conscious of the importance of shirt pockets and we're really, really, appreciative of that. [[You can't imagine how incredibly appreciative we are of that.)

Yet, for men, shirt pockets are mandatory. One pocket is adequate, two are better. Best: shirt pockets that fasten closed somehow to prevent our tools from slipping into the toilet when we bend over to flush.

We use our tools to fix your stuff. We need a safe place to carry these tools.

Work with us here.

A public service announcement brought to you by Genders United™.

As old age sets in, glasses have become a necessity of life. Shirt pockets would definitely be a plus.

[Zacha341]

^^^ You could always do contact lenses! Just joking. I cannot imagine sticking those things in my eyes......!

[Jimaz]

I often wonder about the relationship between the modern, remotely controlled, garage door and the Portcullis.

[canuck]

I often wonder about the relationship between the modern, remotely controlled, garage door and the Portcullis.

Lol x 100.

Especially when that portcullis looks like a rusty '55 Caddy front grille

[Bong-Man]

At some point today I'm going to stop laughing at Chris Christie....not sure when though.

[canuck]

At some point today I'm going to stop laughing at Chris Christie....not sure when though.

Isn't there a dumb t-shirt somewhere that spells it out: Life's a beach

[oladub]

The best take I saw on the 4th. of July this year was an ad by Ancestry.com.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1PMt8bnz34

[Jimaz]

I'm going for a longshot here.

Is the formula for the distance between two points in 3D space d=√[[∆x²+∆y²+∆z²)?

I think that's the correct 3D generalization of the 2D Pythagorean theorem. Can anyone confirm that?

It's for a Minecraft project.

[Bigb23]

Is the formula for the distance between two points in 3D space d=√[[∆x²+∆y²+∆z²)?

Gee - my $1 store calculator can't seem to do that one.

Just kidding - I had advanced Unigraphics 16 3D twelve years ago, and as the saying goes, use it or lose it. I lost it. [[Too many beers).

[Honky Tonk]

I'm going for a longshot here.

Is the formula for the distance between two points in 3D space d=√[[∆x²+∆y²+∆z²)?

I think that's the correct 3D generalization of the 2D Pythagorean theorem. Can anyone confirm that?

It's for a Minecraft project.

I Googled it for fun and came up with a boatload of answers and instruction videos, much faster than this crowd.

[Jimaz]

... Just kidding - I had advanced Unigraphics 16 3D twelve years ago, and as the saying goes, use it or lose it. I lost it. [[Too many beers).

I know the feeling. I did solve this when I was a kid and I'm pretty sure the answer was d=√[[∆x²+∆y²+∆z²) but I'm struggling to reproduce the proof. It had something to do with using the Pythagorean theorem iteratively, i.e., first find the distance between [[x₁,y₁) and [[x₂,y₂) without regard to z, then use that distance with ∆z to find the answer.

I Googled it for fun and came up with a boatload of answers and instruction videos, much faster than this crowd.

Okay. Thanks. That helped. The solution with the illustration on this page explained it best for me.

Essentially, I was struggling with how to legally get from d=√[[[[√[[∆x²+∆y²))²+∆z²) to d=√[[∆x²+∆y²+∆z²). Well, duh. The inner radical and its square simply cancel out and Bob's your uncle.

That should work for any number of dimensions. That's pretty cool.

Since we were still able to solve this, what it really proves is that we are still suffering a beer deficiency.

So cheers!

[Bong-Man]

I just got done reading yet another article in a Detroit daily newspaper about faith. Do any of these newspapers post anything about Science ? Don't ever wonder why this country is ranked 24th in that area and falling fast. We wouldn't want to stimulate anyone's interest or challenge anyone's beliefs that hasn't stepped in a science class in 30 or 40 years [[and that was 9th grade Earth Science). We wouldn't want your curiosity and interest trickling down to your children for God's sake.

[aj3647]

I just got done reading yet another article in a Detroit daily newspaper about faith. Do any of these newspapers post anything about Science ? Don't ever wonder why this country is ranked 24th in that area and falling fast. We wouldn't want to stimulate anyone's interest or challenge anyone's beliefs that hasn't stepped in a science class in 30 or 40 years [[and that was 9th grade Earth Science). We wouldn't want your curiosity and interest trickling down to your children for God's sake.

Given the extreme rise in anti-intellectualism and open disdain of science in the U.S. in recent years, is this really all that surprising?

Reminds me of Bill O'Reilly's "Tide goes in, tide goes out, you can't explain that, therefore it is proof that God exists" explanation for how ocean tides work. Of course science can explain how tides work, but complex scientific concepts are too difficult to fully grasp for many Americans, whereas anyone [[even a 3-year old) can understand the equivalent of "A Wizard did it."

[GMan]

Given the extreme rise in anti-intellectualism and open disdain of science in the U.S. in recent years, is this really all that surprising?
..........................................
."

I don't agree with that statement. There are a lot of STEM programs for young kids. Kids are hitting math and science concepts in earlier grades than were introduced when I was in school.

[aj3647]

I don't agree with that statement. There are a lot of STEM programs for young kids. Kids are hitting math and science concepts in earlier grades than were introduced when I was in school.

I'm not talking about the educational system in this country, I'm speaking politically. Massive proposed budget cuts to scientific research by the current administration, open hostility to climate scientists and the ongoing knee-capping of the EPA, organized political-religious efforts to "teach the controversy" [[i.e. insert Christianity into public school science curriculums), the list of examples goes on and on.

I would remind you of this recent event, which might be an indication that that scientists in this country feel like they are under siege.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_for_Science

[Jimaz]

To women who buy clothes for men:

We understand why you're not conscious of the importance of shirt pockets and we're really, really, appreciative of that. [[You can't imagine how incredibly appreciative we are of that.)

Yet, for men, shirt pockets are mandatory. One pocket is adequate, two are better. Best: shirt pockets that fasten closed somehow to prevent our tools from slipping into the toilet when we bend over to flush.

We use our tools to fix your stuff. We need a safe place to carry these tools.

Work with us here.

A public service announcement brought to you by Genders United™.

Smacking my head over why I didn't mention this earlier.

I found the perfect solution for pocketless shirts: Photographer's vests!

I bought one years ago while in my astronomy phase. Astronomers, like photographers, need to carry a lot of fiddly bits into the field [[so you need more pockets). I once tried to count its pockets but lost interest before completing the count. That's a lot of pockets!

It's a less metrosexual version of the manpurse with the added benefit of creating the appearance that you're "on the job" and so belong wherever you are. [[Vests do that.) Reflective tape might help that too. For astronomers, a reflective "Dim it, Dammit!" message would be appropriate.

If you're the type that wears many hats, you can preload a different vest for each of your roles and snap into the role by merely changing vests. It's much faster than the traditionally dreaded ritual of the "loading of the pockets."

Keep your stick on the ice!

[oladub]

There are attacks on science in this Country. Many, but not all, are by Republicans or religions. However, Jewish and Mormon populations, for instance, are not held back by their religions in STEM accomplishments. While some Republicans and fundamentalist religious groups attack global warming, stem cell research, and evolution, among other things, liberals have been known to attack research into, for instance, racial intelligence, contrarian global warming research, and sometimes fail to apply statistics when PC narratives seem threatened. On the positive side, remedies have evolved. California's Democratic Party State government has subsidized stem cell research and enhanced EV technology with subsidies. The US still leads the world in IT and medical research thanks, in large part, to capitalist incentives. Elon Musk and others have accelerated US space capacity, even a corporate space race, after both parties have cut NASA's budget since moon landings. US school test scores have increased nominally in science recently although our math scores place 31st of 35 industrial countries. The present administrator of my school district said that we could expect math scores to decline because of common core requirements but that it was worth it because of social advantages bestowed by common core. Our public schools and whoever runs them are failures considering that our schools are relatively well funded.

[Bigb23]

Adam Savage [[Myth Busters), is such an over the top Geek Monster, that you gotta love him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqmF2_h8icM

Me, I'm on the Geek Down Low. [[Not even Star Wars underwear.)

[Jimaz]

As a young child, the very first letter of the alphabet that I learned was not "A" but "Z."

And I owe it all to Zorro.

[[Why do I even remember that?)

[Bong-Man]

I had to hit the bong a few times after reading that recent report that indicated 1 out of every 3 adult Americans take some kind of opiate on a daily basis. Seriously, can that be true ? Has it really gotten that bad ? Macomb County alone has gone from 50 to over 200 opiate/heroin deaths in two years, and the fallout has just begun. What a mess.

[Jimaz]

...Macomb County alone has gone from 50 to over 200 opiate/heroin deaths in two years, and the fallout has just begun....

And of course it isn't just Macomb County. It's all over.

My wild-ass conspiracy theory is that the illegal opiate industry has been bribing legislators to deregulate "legitimate" opioids because they're the true gateway drug to illegal opiates. There's a pretty obvious profit motive there that I rarely see mentioned in the press.

My even wilder-ass conspiracy theory is that this is a first step to achieving the Georgia Guidestones goal of a 500 million global population [[vs. today's 7.5 billion). Deaths due to suicidal overdoses would be more difficult to pin on a megalomaniacal social engineer and so would be a logical first step. Perpetual war accomplishes that end well too so maybe war was the real first step.

Granted that last one is about the wildest my ass will ever go.

[Bong-Man]

I'm still trying to wrap my little head around the 'illegal opiate lobby'.

Maybe an easier conspiracy to buy into at this point would be a 'deep State' fueled by 33% of the population surfing the internet at home while struggling with an opiate mental cloud. Hmm ? After all, that is his current approval rating.