Yes. It's a different world now when I'm discussing a topic with someone and can easily pull up Wikipedia, IMDB and the like on my phone. Or with a little more effort can find an old issue of Wireless World or la Revue de l'Audiophile. If I'm suck on some unfamiliar piece of gear at work, I can pull up the user manual just like that, or find if there are known issues. Even the mundane like looking up a restaurant menu and prices before going is a game changer.
Sure, there is dubious info out there a-plenty, but good info has never been so easy to find, 24/7.
But part of the problem is that it is very easy to find BS that support ones absurd ideas as well. That doesn't help. There is no easy way around doing some of your own legwork.
Jan
There is something in many humans that prefers a wrong answer given with certainty over a correct answer that is properly framed.
Wikipedia is still a nightmare, it really depends on the article. IT is sometimes fun to just keep clicking random to see what comes up. Mostly articles about things, places and "famous" people especially politicians and sports figures. Maybe 0.1% of the articles have any utility whatsoever in the sense that better info can't be found elsewhere.
I did a bit more work on water flow to the bathroom. The pipes are 3/4 inch and at about 55C at the tank exit, the bigger pipes the waste water. Drawing off 3 litres does take the temperature to about 35 C when it was 20 C ( the pipe volume should be about 1 litre as pointed out to me ). It seems that for now the water can cool in that short distance. Like evolution I am not able to see all the parts even though a short distance when under the floor. I don't doubt if I Googled it answers would come. A seemingly simple problem is far from it. A Flat Earth "say what I see" isn't helping me. The specific heat capacity of water is very high and water is a poor heat conductor, it seems unlikely the water would cool so quickly over 4 metres. As far as I know nothing of note is on the pipe circuit.
What I dislike is that evolution is served up to people much as the previous ideas were by the power mongers. Like my bath water problem, it needs more thought ( yes I do know the common thinking on evolution, I choose to think it's wrong ). Here is my best stab at correcting the usual view ( common view ) . Evolution needs very gradual change. At no one time is one great leap made, dark or light skin as an example. This way the familly unit remains strong. The big problem is some links survive that shouldn't like apes. The branch effect. Like my pipes under the floor so much is hidden. I could understand that except to say it needs the hidden pipes to work. Then we are left with horse to man etc via mouse. I was always worried that so little life existed for perhaps 3 billion years although the planet was ready. I guess things weren't exactly right ( come on, that's nonsense ). As a science I am glad it's not the Nuclear one.
What I have learnt is most people look to me to give less than a damn about this ( and most other things ? ). However the linked need to understand climate comes into it. I suspect looking back we will find we did all the right things for mostly the wrong reasons. Great industries wll be made when the science was far from proven or understood. It will make possible many related things. It's worth giving a damn you know. When transport it was a big deal to make a locomotive light enough. Then to make the rails strong enough. The rest is history. To make the hot gas go over tubes to make more steam a big leap forward. To exhaust steam into the smokebox to draw the fire. Which takes me back to my bathroom and Nuclear power where things so simple do go wrong like putting you diesel powered pumps at sea level.
Do you remember how dreadfully Richard Feynman was treated over his simplistic evaluation of the Chalenger disaster. What seems to have been his function was to rubber stamp the general findings. A man who was near to death with a big reputation was what they wanted. One glass of ice water and some o-rings showed it was that simple and nothing else to know. One man because of an open mind found a truth NASA was unable to find for whatever reason. I think a USAF man did tell Feynman he had doubts in that area. I suspect if anyone other than Feynman listening he would have been at best laughed at. Wouldn't it have given the investigators a boost if they could have said Feynman was out of his depth. Of all the people on the planet they couldn't. His simple proof made anyone who doubted a fool. And fools were not hard to find in the end. Pasteaur knew how bacteria spread. Many had to die before he found a test so simple it made the doctors look what they were, fools. Between Doctors and Leeches the latter were the good guys.
What I dislike is that evolution is served up to people much as the previous ideas were by the power mongers. Like my bath water problem, it needs more thought ( yes I do know the common thinking on evolution, I choose to think it's wrong ). Here is my best stab at correcting the usual view ( common view ) . Evolution needs very gradual change. At no one time is one great leap made, dark or light skin as an example. This way the familly unit remains strong. The big problem is some links survive that shouldn't like apes. The branch effect. Like my pipes under the floor so much is hidden. I could understand that except to say it needs the hidden pipes to work. Then we are left with horse to man etc via mouse. I was always worried that so little life existed for perhaps 3 billion years although the planet was ready. I guess things weren't exactly right ( come on, that's nonsense ). As a science I am glad it's not the Nuclear one.
What I have learnt is most people look to me to give less than a damn about this ( and most other things ? ). However the linked need to understand climate comes into it. I suspect looking back we will find we did all the right things for mostly the wrong reasons. Great industries wll be made when the science was far from proven or understood. It will make possible many related things. It's worth giving a damn you know. When transport it was a big deal to make a locomotive light enough. Then to make the rails strong enough. The rest is history. To make the hot gas go over tubes to make more steam a big leap forward. To exhaust steam into the smokebox to draw the fire. Which takes me back to my bathroom and Nuclear power where things so simple do go wrong like putting you diesel powered pumps at sea level.
Do you remember how dreadfully Richard Feynman was treated over his simplistic evaluation of the Chalenger disaster. What seems to have been his function was to rubber stamp the general findings. A man who was near to death with a big reputation was what they wanted. One glass of ice water and some o-rings showed it was that simple and nothing else to know. One man because of an open mind found a truth NASA was unable to find for whatever reason. I think a USAF man did tell Feynman he had doubts in that area. I suspect if anyone other than Feynman listening he would have been at best laughed at. Wouldn't it have given the investigators a boost if they could have said Feynman was out of his depth. Of all the people on the planet they couldn't. His simple proof made anyone who doubted a fool. And fools were not hard to find in the end. Pasteaur knew how bacteria spread. Many had to die before he found a test so simple it made the doctors look what they were, fools. Between Doctors and Leeches the latter were the good guys.
There's a fun little experiment: Starting at any Wikipedia page, click on the first link in the main text of the article. Repeat until you reach the Philosophy page. It won't take as many clicks as you might think.
There is, of course, a Wikipedia page discussing this:
Wikipedia:Getting to Philosophy - Wikipedia
I was very lucky when at college. Half the class were RAF people about to leave the RAF who needed a piece of paper. One tutor was trying to teach subjects that the RAF guys were not allowed to listen to. When the tutor didn't take them serriously they got up to leave the room saying they should get the Police as he had been warned, it is a serrious offence even if Right Wing ideas ( it was the opposite ). In despiraton he said " would you like to learn philosophy" ? We all did and it was great. The tutor was in his element and so were we. He the tutor also changed into a much more likable person who in this way evolved. When trying to teach " subversion " he was always stone faced. I am certain he didn't mean to and it was the culture of his cohort. When showing us how a time paralell to the good book had produced ideas as modern as today he looked relaxed and animated. I owe a lot to the RAF as both my dad and these guys were my great tutors ( Dad was an RAF rader instructor and builder, Germany circa 1949-1953 ). The RAF guys knew more than was being taught. No question was too hard for them. The had done it for real.
Fossils often show a lifeform has remained unchanged to perhaps 150 million years. This shows the remarkable stability of the DNA. If one makes more investigations this is the typical situation. For evolution to work as thought it should be true that all lifeforms change albeit very slowly. Regardless of where you sit on the fence with this it is remarkable that something didn't mutate. I am reasonably happy the branch theory of evolution can work. What makes me unhappy is that even the smallest evidence to help us find an evolution event is not easy to find. If the Police used this as evidence to put you in gaol your lawyer would have you out in ten minutes.
Fossils often show a lifeform has remained unchanged to perhaps 150 million years. This shows the remarkable stability of the DNA. If one makes more investigations this is the typical situation. For evolution to work as thought it should be true that all lifeforms change albeit very slowly. Regardless of where you sit on the fence with this it is remarkable that something didn't mutate. I am reasonably happy the branch theory of evolution can work. What makes me unhappy is that even the smallest evidence to help us find an evolution event is not easy to find. If the Police used this as evidence to put you in gaol your lawyer would have you out in ten minutes.
From my studies DNA is a fruitful science. Very few lies or half truths. Such as they are, are work in progress. This was an unexspected branch.
Quantum no-hiding theorem experimentally confirmed for first time
Quantum no-hiding theorem experimentally confirmed for first time
Funny coincidence, something reminded me of Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers yesterday who retired to Bangor and passed away from pulmonary disease a few years ago.
Captured exactly a month ago; Does it take a month to add some curvature?
http://mobile.reuters.com/video/2017/07/26/nasa-astronaut-captures-aurora-space-spe?videoId=372185038
http://mobile.reuters.com/video/2017/07/26/nasa-astronaut-captures-aurora-space-spe?videoId=372185038
- Status
- Not open for further replies.