Random Thoughts 7

Just had the first thunderstorm of the year...
Even just twenty years ago these were kind of 'summer exclusive'

After all these years, I still love physicsforums.com. Thanks @Greg Bernhardt.

Weird confusion cleared up when a Spanish speaker mixed up " Sorrow" for " Zorro".

I've just watched a TV show about the way more and more businesses and services are going digital with little or no off-line alternative, while significant numbers of people, especially the elderly, don't have smartphones or indeed any other internet access.

The irony is that, at the end of show, viewers were told they could get more information from the show's website, or could comment on Facebook or X.

DrGreg said:

I've just watched a TV show about the way more and more businesses and services are going digital with little or no off-line alternative, while significant numbers of people, especially the elderly, don't have smartphones or indeed any other internet access.

The irony is that, at the end of show, viewers were told they could get more information from the show's website, or could comment on Facebook or X.

I'm kind of worried about a lack of pay phones. What happens if you're down and out and your cellphone is out of power , without signal? Not that payphones were everywhere, but at least it was something.

I like the idea of " Topological Directions " I heard, saw. Tell someone the overall direction of the destination, in relation to where they are when they ask for directions, e.g., the destination is SW from where they're at, and let them know where , e.g., the North is, so they have a better handle on how to get there.

DrGreg said:

I've just watched a TV show about the way more and more businesses and services are going digital with little or no off-line alternative, while significant numbers of people, especially the elderly, don't have smartphones or indeed any other internet access.

The irony is that, at the end of show, viewers were told they could get more information from the show's website, or could comment on Facebook or X.

Interesting. I'm kind of old, so I checked, and I bought my very first smart phone almost exactly 3 years ago: 3/15/2021.
Having been single my whole life, and without children to look after me, I kind of remember somewhat panicking over how to order groceries online so as not to
a. starve to death, and
b. not die of covid
during the pandemic.

The only thing that doesn't make sense, is that the pandemic started 4 years ago. hmmmm.....

DrGreg said:

I've just watched a TV show about the way more and more businesses and services are going digital with little or no off-line alternative, while significant numbers of people, especially the elderly, don't have smartphones or indeed any other internet access.

The irony is that, at the end of show, viewers were told they could get more information from the show's website, or could comment on Facebook or X.

"Read the room."

Going to a nice warm beach in the Gulf of Mexico this spring/summer?

Be aware Blue Dragons, a species of small, blue sea slug.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/ani...-ashore-in-texas/vi-BB1jujBL?ocid=socialshare




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

G. atlanticus feeds on other pelagic creatures, including the Portuguese man o' war and other venomous siphonophores. This sea slug stores stinging nematocysts from the siphonophores within its own tissues as defence against predators. Humans handling the slug may receive a very painful and potentially dangerous sting.

Reminds me of box jellyfish, especially Irukandji, which is still much more potent (and potentially fatal).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irukandji_jellyfish

Astronuc said:

Going to a nice warm beach in the Gulf of Mexico this spring/summer?

Be aware Blue Dragons, a species of small, blue sea slug.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/ani...-ashore-in-texas/vi-BB1jujBL?ocid=socialshare




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


Reminds me of box jellyfish, especially Irukandji, which is still much more potent (and potentially fatal).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irukandji_jellyfish

File it under " Not just in Australia is everything trying to kill you".

(A thought from a struggling addict)
Brain biochemistry sucks... It's unbelivable how some damn hormones can throw your free will into trash.

By the way, I don't how bad of word "damn" is, so if it's not appropriate I'll edit it out. In polish it's a strong word, but acceptable in public.

weirdoguy said:

(A thought from a struggling addict)
Brain biochemistry sucks... It's unbelivable how some damn hormones can throw your free will into trash.

By the way, I don't how bad of word "damn" is, so if it's not appropriate I'll edit it out. In polish it's a strong word, but acceptable in public.

Not to belittle your problem, but have you considered biofeedback?

Kind of funny story from this guy who told me his son had taken PE classes(2021, Covid) remotely on swimming, but when he got into an actual pool, he had no idea what to do.

Any fool can make 'a' cheap part, but only engineering excellence can make a complex machine that will fail days after the warranty period expires.

Woman, 30, Dies After Blood Clot Symptoms Were Dismissed Twice as 'Long COVID and Anxiety​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...d-twice-as-long-covid-and-anxiety/ar-BB1jzTcz

During her first visit, she was given paracetamol, to treat mild pain. However, her symptoms got worse and Emily’s mother, Marion Chesterton, told the BBC, "She was breathless, light-headed and she had difficulty walking.”

Marion said Emily later went to a second appointment and a physician's assistant (PA) diagnosed her with “a calf sprain, long-Covid and anxiety." However, she said that her daughter's calf was never examined during the appointment.

It was later discovered that Emily’s pain was due to a blood clot in her left leg, which resulted in her dying of a pulmonary embolism — a serious condition in which one or more arteries has been blocked by a blood clot.

A blood clot could be a consequence of Covid. It was treatable, if she had not been misdiagnosed. Seems another case of negligence.

Astronuc said:

Woman, 30, Dies After Blood Clot Symptoms Were Dismissed Twice as 'Long COVID and Anxiety​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...d-twice-as-long-covid-and-anxiety/ar-BB1jzTcz


A blood clot could be a consequence of Covid. It was treatable, if she had not been misdiagnosed. Seems another case of negligence.

Well, looking into Bayesian perspective, if a test has 80% reliability on a disease affecting 10% of the population, there's a 31% chance of a false positive.

An open letter/fanmail to msft/mousefart: To quote PPM (that's THE PPM, 60s-70s folk group), "Please DON'T!" when you get the urge to sing fix things.

This is RE: the latest patch butchery of "Outlook."

Ah, us Mathematicians and our holidays. Pie. (##\mathbb \pi## ) day followed , two days later, by ##\sqrt{10}## day.

FROM: The Grammar Police, "TA[insert]I[/insert]NSTAAFL."

This sounded kind of funny

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrew...ke-restaurant-is-ranked-no-1/?sh=6a88bdaf2c23

Ok, great to have a few free months of that ChatGpt app. But then again, when I ask it to tell me about the life of Galileo, it replies " Galileo was a poor boy from a poor family, wanting to avoid this monstrosity". So not sure how good of a deal.

My understanding is that you have to give it a lot of direction and correcting in order to get interesting results out of it.
There's more to it than just the data set it is learning from.

WWGD said:

Ok, great to have a few free months of that ChatGpt app. But then again, when I ask it to tell me about the life of Galileo, it replies " Galileo was a poor boy from a poor family, wanting to avoid this monstrosity". So not sure how good of a deal.

Huh?

Here's what I got:

tell me about the life of Galileo


ChatGPT
Galileo Galilei, born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy, is one of the most renowned figures in the history of science. His contributions revolutionized our understanding of the natural world and laid the groundwork for modern physics and astronomy. Here's an overview of his life:

1. Early Life and Education: Galileo was born into a family of musicians in Pisa, Italy. He initially studied medicine at the University of Pisa but later switched to mathematics and natural philosophy. His early interest in mathematics and mechanics laid the foundation for his future work.
2. Contributions to Science: Galileo's most significant contributions were in the fields of physics and astronomy. He developed a mathematical description of uniformly accelerated motion and made significant improvements to the telescope, enabling him to make groundbreaking astronomical observations.
3. Telescopic Discoveries: Using his improved telescope, Galileo made several groundbreaking discoveries that challenged the prevailing geocentric model of the universe. He observed the phases of Venus, the moons of Jupiter, sunspots, and the mountains and valleys on the Moon. These observations provided strong evidence for the heliocentric model proposed by Copernicus.
4. Conflict with the Catholic Church: Galileo's support for the heliocentric model brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church, which held the geocentric view as the official doctrine. In 1616, the Catholic Church declared heliocentrism as formally heretical, and in 1633, Galileo was tried by the Roman Inquisition and forced to recant his views. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
5. Later Life and Legacy: Despite the controversy and persecution, Galileo continued his scientific work while under house arrest. He published his seminal work "Two New Sciences" in 1638, which laid the groundwork for the science of mechanics. Galileo died on January 8, 1642, in Arcetri, Italy, but his ideas continued to influence scientific thought for centuries to come.

Galileo's life and work exemplify the struggle between scientific progress and entrenched dogma. His contributions to physics, astronomy, and the scientific method have earned him a place among the greatest scientists in history.

There's this:

He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

from: Bohemian Rhapsody in which Galileo is referred to repetitively:

Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
(Galileo) Galileo, (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro, magnifico

Ok, so I was speculating what it would be like, and was far off. I did actually try it for something else and was much better than I thought.

BillTre said:

My understanding is that you have to give it a lot of direction and correcting in order to get interesting results out of it.
There's more to it than just the data set it is learning from.

This is called Prompt Engineering. It's the process of providing contextual information to a Large Language Model. The contextual information can come from the server-side pipeline that generates the response and from the user of the application.

ChatGPT has a conversational capability that integrates previously discussed topics within a conversation as context for the next response (each chat window is a separate conversation). This results in at least three types of prompt engineering occurring in every question that you ask - PE occurring in the backend pipeline, PE generated from the conversation history, and your latest question.

So, if you were talking about music somewhere in a long conversation and then suddenly asked about Galileo, it will likely respond with information related to Galileo from a song because that's the prompting that it has received from you. This is why you shouldn't put a lot of trust in a crazy response that someone claimed they got from ChatGPT unless you can see the entire conversation.