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Thank you +1. I had been really hoping that someone would look more carefully at my list of 4 questions to reach the answer,because it is not 'optimal' in that my questions will not work in every case. There is, however, an 'optimal' set of 4 questions that will work in every position. This set corresponds to a true 'binary search' where you halve the number of possibilities at each step. This is no accident. A 4 x 4 cell board has 16 = 24 cells. So it takes 4 binary digits to uniquely label each cell. And 16 is the maximum number of cells you can uniquely label (identify) in this way. Does this help ?

I've read the example again and noted something I find interesting. Initially it is known per the definition of the example that there is a 4 x 4 square board. In the final string 0101 this information is not present as far as I can tell, it could be column 2 & row 2 from any number of squares? This is not an error, I'm just curiously noting that the entropy of the string '0101' itself seems to differ from the result one gets from calculating the entropy step by step knowing the size of the board. A related note, @joigus as far as I can tell correctly determines that once the coin is found there is no option left; the search for the coin has only one outcome "coin found" and hence the entropy is zero. The string 0101 though, contains more information because it tells not only that the search terminated* it also tells where the coin is. Comments and corrections are welcome. *) '1' occurs twice in the string.

I think this problem can be solved by geometrical constructions rather than generically using sine rule, because the numbers, 48 and 18 degrees, have a specific property: on one hand, 48+18=66, on the other hand, 180-48=132=66x2 could be two angles of 66 degrees of an isosceles triangle with one angle of 48 degrees.

"For the first time, doctors have collected detailed brain wave activity before and after a sudden death. In their interpretation, the researchers suggest life may indeed 'flash before our eyes'—but other experts aren’t so convinced." That quote is from a Popular Science article discussing a conclusion presented by Estonia doctors from their assessment of brain waves recordings of a patient in epileptic distress who unexpectedly died amid the seizure they were monitoring. The doctors recorded evidence of gamma and alpha waves, which they associated with "dreaming and memory retrieval", "information processing and the visual cortex" respectively. In a Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience paper on this event, researchers speculated "that such activity could support a last 'recall of life' that may take place in the near-death state". Although I do agree that this patient's dying brain did experience something, I do not believe it was quite what these researchers suggest. I am not a neuroscientist; however, my years of personal study and interest in the unconscious nature of brain function suggests to me that these recordings merely support the primary nature of brain function, which envelopes an effort to maintain its metabolic balance. Brain activity engages as a metabolic response to stimuli, which is the impetus for all brain function. Our brain's metabolic responses to stimuli primarily begins--and is perceived by us--as an interpretation of that stimuli. This is our brain's effort to first understand what it is experiencing before engaging a reciprocal, metabolically counterbalancing response to that experience. If intact as it dies, I believe our dying brain proceeds to interpret what it believes it is experiencing in the absences the perceptual cues associated with life and the living. To a conscious mind, this interpretive response would present as a lucidly real experience as though the individual is entering a real place where others who are deceased have gone. To be clear, this is not about an afterlife but rather about a dying brain's understanding that it is experiencing something from which it will not recover.

I've been following this "invasion" for many years, home aquarium release is being blamed but at the very beginning it was assumed that a large number of individuals escaped from a public aquarium/lab during a hurricane and the spread began from there. I have no doubt many have been released by thoughtless home aquarists as well. The actual volume of biomass represented by the hordes of large lionfish currently occupying the ocean where there was once nothing but small native fish is very concerning if nothing else. They have even invaded the water of my coastal Carolina area, mostly deep water, but the sheer numbers being caught have only one enduring quality, they are very good to eat. Anytime a nonnative species begins to reproduce in huge numbers it is a threat and considered invasive. Sometimes, over long periods of time the ecosystem will find a new balance with the invasive species, European carp are an example of a long established species that still has negative consequences long after it's introduction but it's effect on native populations cannot be ignored even now some 250 years after it's introduction. Asian carp are an example of an evasive that has not, as of this time, settled into the ecosystem and is still very disruptive. Introducing large native predatory fish to the Asian carp's new range that had been hunted to extinction are one of the efforts currently being used to try and control them... alligator gar being one of carnivores of choice. Again the unnatural hordes of lion fish are a quite good indicator they are not harmless and native predators are not, for the most part, interested in eating them. That may change as time goes on but for now we are pretty much stuck with them. BTW, I predicted the Asian Carp invasion, not because I am smart but because I can see the writing on the wall, I was told it could never happen because of hormonal problems caused by some species of native fish that wouldn't allow Asian carp to reproduce in water where the natives lived... never say never.

I'm uncertain, but didn't Schrödinger publish some pussy records?

The Russians and the Germans in recent history have bulldozed their neighbours in this way Both have lived to regret their short term gains The populations they trampled over did not forget and to this day Germany is vulnerable to rebukes from the likes of Greece when they need an easy scapegoat Russia is storing up resentment and scorn over the coming generations, especially as it does not have the wherewithal to have an uncontested empire like the British once did It feels to me that the people around Putin are not free to speak their minds even if they realize that Russia is going down the wrong path ( "wrong" in the sense of "against its own interests")

Why does the universe need our puny little questions (What if I get caught? How many calories in that cupcake? Does this baby need changing? What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?) to learn about itself? If it was one big mind, it would already know. If it's made up of zillions of little tiny mind, such as a spoon, bacterium or asteroid might have, wouldn't they all be asking their individual puny little questions? I suppose all of those input as a vast cacophony of answered and unanswered questions could inform the universe about its own multifoliate outward appearance. OTOH, I wonder about the difference between mind and mind-like aspect. It seem to me the latter is more akin to a soul than a reasoning, questioning mind. I'm okay with a universal soul; can provisionally accept monads of consciousness (not the sleeping animals or hive-minds) - but not one big computer whose ultimate task is to arrive at either 42 or "Let there be Light!"

It depends on why you think it's a strawman...

My theory: any areas the Russians attempt to permanently "liberate" will have already been judged to have a population sufficiently in favor of a Russian presence. They will expand Luhansk and Dontesk only so far as these territories can be held indefinitely. Or they'll steamroll the entire country and make it a puppet regime for the next 100 years; that's another possibility.

I think it's more of a middleman with a giant hunger for thinking rationally without clutching at straws.

This list really boils down to: 1. Use physical violence à la Corleone (1-6) 2. Use physical violence à la Torquemada (7) Which in turn, and except for matters of stylistic approach, both boil down to: 0. Use physical violence. One might as well list among them the "technique" of throwing a dead-horse's head into someone's bed. Even this last one seems to me far more imaginative, if similarly brutal. The direction in which I would like to move, which I would more devoutly wish all of us to explore, is not one that lists every single part of a human body on which one can inflict pain. That's not a very useful list, to me at least. I said it before: Using physical pain in its manifold forms is not the only perspective we can adopt. It strikes me how how much harder fiction writers have speculatively explored this possibility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(novel)#Part_2:_The_Ludovico_Technique And how little effort we, people who love science, are willing to use to explore alternatives that could be more humane, more reasonable, and allegedly more efficient. Just a thought. It could be split to Speculations, if moderators deem it appropriate.

Tell that to the victims of US airstrikes, CIA training camps for terrorists, arms exports to warring factions, and various intrusions in to Muslim countries since 1947. If you're so keen on the value of numbers, compare those. Violence begets violence; a culture of violence condones torture.

The New York Post is a tabloid owned by the Murdochs. It is not ever trustworthy as a source.

This is bull. Trump was the one that got support for the Ukraine removed from the GOP platform in 2016 and Trump did nothing but suck up to Putin at every opportunity during his presidency. Support for Putin would be one thing that would be entirely predictable. The one thing that would have been out of Trump's control would be the reaction of the US, which might have forced him into acting, and possibly making Trump look weak. It's entirely possible Putin waited for Trump to be out of power so that the GOP could attack Biden regardless of his response; whatever happened would be "wrong" (their stance for virtually everything)

Very interesting +1, I'll watch the rest tomorrow and get back to you. The rugby's about to start... 🤞

I think there is another solution. You will feel a rather unpleasant mental resistance when you think about this problem, it is the strength of the will of the Aliens that you will feel, if we are enough of us to counter it with our minds we can weaken their will and they will give up their desires and their weapon around the Earth.

Modern Ukraine was created peacefully in 1991 by the Russian leadership. On it's creation, it declared itself a neutral state. Since the current leadership has repeatedly stated it's desire to join a military alliance whose only reason for existence is to fight Russia, I can see why the Russians should take exception to it. Ukraine was part of the empire of the Russian Czars for hundreds of years, and part of the USSR for about seventy years. It's been a country for just thirty years. Since they are keen to abandon their agreed neutrality, I don't blame Putin for kicking off.

BC 3000: Caeser conquers the whole world. Lifespan of Roman empire: centuries. Ad 30: Jesus conquers the Christian world. lifespan of christendom: eternal AD 400: Muhammed conquers the Muslim world. lifespan of islam: eternal 1500 AD: Queen Elizabeth conquers 60 percent of the world. lifespan of commonwealth: centuries. 1945: Hitler conquers Euro Asia. Lifespan of the Nazi empire: 5 years. Trends The further we progress into the future, the more difficult it becomes to establish empires. (Roman empire vs Third Reich tenure) Therefore, evolution is a stumbling block to dictatorship. White people like Caeser are better at invading nations and establishing empires, and brown people like Jesus are better at invading the psychology and establishing new religions. Conclusion The perfect empire would be run by a white person/brown person pair who invaded on both psychological and military grounds, in 3000 BC.

I call upon Swansont to publicly showcase his pussy records. How much pussy does he get per week? Zero, even to a science nerd, is still embarassingly low.