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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/17/24 in all areas
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I will confess that I sometimes wear pants that say, f you, I just want to be comfortable. I have tried to advance the position that my running pants are more stylish than mere sweat pants but it's been suggested they are really just fancy sweat pants with pockets. My position is that running pants with pockets are: A. Pants. Suitable for most public venues and occasions. B. Warm. This is important in a cold windy climate. C. Have a flexibility and ability to stay up (elastic waist plus drawstring*) that makes them ideal for most physical tasks. So this approach to public pants display combines logic and empiricism in a beautiful synergy, while also serving as a superficial snobby twit detector. That said, embarassment is a useful thing for social creatures when it causes us to regret transgressions like dishonesty or foolish boasting. * belts are digital, drawstrings are analog, and analog + waists = freedom! Sounds quite stylish. My son often wears such attire, and looks splendid in it. Some people really rock black, and not just classical musicians. Though July in the American Midwest, where he lives, tends to concentrate the mind on somewhat cooler clothing choices.2 points
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I've found that I'm not best judge when it comes to self-assessment. I make mistakes in social contexts if I'm not looking for outside input. My own reasoning can only go so far since it's tightly tied to my knowledge. It's embarrassing to me when I realize I've made a mistake that could have been easily prevented by asking others. So in this context, embarrassment helps me stay humble about what I know. There's always more to learn. Are you saying you use formal logic to make decisions? I've seen many philosophers use formal logic to make a completely false statement that's still valid. Formal logic is NOT an empirical study. Most of your examples seem like cultural pressure, and the need to "fit in" with our tribe is stronger in some than others. What we wear is often signalling to others something about us, and misreading those signals can embarrass us into either better focus or figuring out personal solutions. Sometimes that personal solution is "I don't care if people make fun of this shirt, I love it!" And there are arguably situations where one should be embarrassed by their actions. It's one thing to ignore whether you're using a feminine or masculine deodorant, and quite another to skip the deodorant altogether (or much worse, douse yourself in cheap cologne/perfume) in a situation where other people have to put up with your mistake. Embarrassment is normally something felt in degrees. The bigger the offense, the more embarrassed you should feel about it. I wouldn't say it's a useless feeling, but I do think it's probably being abused by some, used to manipulate us by others, and in general something you should avoid by focusing less on the embarrassment and more on whether this is something you need to fix or not.2 points
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There was an older multiverse model that has matter in one universe with antimatter and time reversal in the other universe. It long ago fell out of any research interest. ( due to better understanding of anti-matter in that the time reversal is a mathematical treatment for symmetry purposes and not actuality)1 point
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There's a BUNCH of people these days who believe in a vertical morality, where they position others on a scale of right/wrong with themselves as judge, using a hodge-podge of religious teachings and confirmation biases to determine whether they're worse or better than others. The best of them only judge your worst behaviors, but too many cast a broader net, trying to put you below them on the morality scale because of the music you listen to, or the way your hair looks, or the money they think you don't have. Humans brains naturally look for patterns. They give us conventions we use to assess situations in our lives, based on typical experiences. Historically, noticing things that diverged from typical patterns has saved lives and enriched many individuals. "A critical eye" is often applauded in many societies, and may embolden your parents to "fix" your broken biker look. Most parents secret unreasonable wish is that their kids not get picked on for any reason, that they fit in, and get along with everyone. And then some folks take it to extremes. They don't think of things as typical or divergent, they think of them as right or wrong. I think these folks need to realize how worthless and destructive this kind of judgement is. I had a friend once who wore wildly colorful clothes, and if anyone called him out for it, he just said, "If I look just like you, why do we need you?" Loved that guy.1 point
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We have a referendum every four years. Surely we have the right to change our minds.1 point
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“For a start, the battles were considered a fine days entertainment, that seems to answer most of this” (emphasis added)1 point
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In your defence Dim, near the start of the war, there was a battle that, from some in the North's point of view prior to the battle...fit that description enough to bring sightseers. "On July 21, 1861, Washingtonians trekked to the countryside near Manassas, Virginia, to watch Union and Confederate forces clash in the first major battle of the American Civil War. Known in the North as the First Battle of Bull Run and in the South as the Battle of First Manassas, the military engagement also earned the nickname the “picnic battle” because spectators showed up with sandwiches and opera glasses. These onlookers, who included a number of U.S. congressmen, expected a victory for the Union and a swift end to the war that had begun three months before." https://www.history.com/news/worst-picnic-in-history-was-interrupted-by-war Otherwise no. Far from it.1 point
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I wonder whether that is because the views are sufficiently superficial that things could be argued either way? The issue I feel is that generally speaking a consensus can only form if folks use the same basis, and arrive at least at a set of conclusions. One might disagree in the areas of uncertainties, but at least agree on the same set of facts. This, however, is no longer the case. Especially when we look at social media, including youtube. I think when wikipedia came up tech folks argued that social media and all the free information would disrupt science and our general understanding of the world. I think they were right, just not in the way they thought they would be.1 point
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Nothing exploded. Nothing imploded. The universe itself expanded in all directions. There is no outside the universe. There is no before the universe. We're talking about spacetime so time itself didn't yet exist given current models. We clearly have more to learn, and will hopefully arrive upon improved models in the future. For now, however, humans are apes and our tiny ape brains evolved to understand survival in the savannahs and reproduction in the trees and these cosmic inflationary concepts don't generally lend themselves to simple visualization. The map is not the territory and we're looking right now at maps.1 point
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Genetic diversity. You’re getting genes from two different individuals each generation, or possibly each instance of mating.1 point
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Researchers in the Graduate school of Engineering at Chiba University Japan have discovered that adding caffeine to specific platinum electrodes can enhance the efficiency of hydrogen fuel cells. https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=62709#:~:text=Despite%20their%20promise%2C%20fuel%20cells,platinum%20electrodes%20by%2011%20times. Their study which was published in Communications Chemistry on February 3rd, 2024 claims that Professor Nagahiro Hoshi, along with colleagues Masashi Nakamura, Ryuta Kubo, and Rui Suzuki conducted their experiments by submerging platinum electrodes of varying types in a caffeine-containing electrolyte. They discovered that caffeine increases the ORR (oxygen reduction reaction) activity by up to 11 times with Pt(111), and by 2.5 times, with Pt(110) at a molar concentration of 1 × 10^−6 . This can potentially increase fuel cell efficiency, and decrease the need for extra platinum catalysts. The really intriguing question is however, what prompted this line of research ? Did someone accidentally drop an extra strong cup of コーヒー or kawa in the electrolyte one morning ?1 point
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This had to be it. "I didn't spill coffee on the electrode, I applied a caffeine/sugar solution in the hopes of increasing fuel cell efficiency!"1 point
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The term transmutation was first consciously applied to modern physics by Frederick Soddy when he, along with Ernest Rutherford, discovered that radioactive thorium was converting itself into radium in 1901. At the moment of realization, Soddy later recalled, he shouted out: "Rutherford, this is transmutation!" Rutherford snapped back, "For Christ's sake, Soddy, don't call it transmutation. They'll have our heads off as alchemists. As for changing gold into iron1 point
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-1 points
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I am neither a physicist nor a mathematician.-1 points
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I think that the things are more complicated. As I explained in my first post, the objects that we observe are only a little part of a colossal galaxy cluster around a colossal black hole. The motion of objects that we observe is influenced not only by the colossal black hole but also by the other objects in the colossal galaxy cluster. In addition, as I said in some of my posts, it is possible that there are other colossal galaxy clusters and colossal black holes that influence the motion of objects that we observe.-1 points
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I mean mathematically complicated. I mean that the calculations are more complicated. I said "simplest cause" because it does not require other hypotheses such as quintessence, massive gravity or multiverse.-1 points
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Indeed, but there's a lot of context missing in your emphasis... We determine who we are by what we do. One day we might agree...-1 points
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-5 points