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Home » Open thread 5/19/22

Open thread 5/19/22

The New Neo Posted on by

He had tremendous energy when he spoke. The very beginning, of course, wouldn’t be allowed today:

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Open thread 5/19/22 — 37 Comments

  1. Reading about Neo considering Substack move and the comments I noticed that there are others like my wife and I retired, living on a fixed income. We landed all right and downsized, tried to cut out unneccesary things like dish TV and landline phone however I do like my fibre optic connection for all sorts of stuff funny decisions we make about stuff like that. We have a fair amount of expenses we could cut back on further but this past couple of months we are starting to feel the pinch of inflation, especially food prices and gasoline having said all of that about us I am wondering how many other old folks who have been barely been making it and how many are being pushed over the line for the first time in their lives by this round of inflation?

    Will there come a time in the near future when the old left wing Democrats stop thinking Trump caused all of this and will the chickens come home to roost when they decide this mess has been caused in cities, states and the nation by Democrat policies. Seeing the price of the bacon I have been using for years go up over 50% in the past year and eggs close to double in price makes me an old angry man who want to yell a bit, no correct that, yell a whole lot.

  2. Wow.
    When Feynman says “inconceivable”,
    you really get the feeling that he DOES understand what that word means.

    In one of our books by Feynman, he talks about his parlor/ party trick of sending a woman alone into his closed door library to choose a single book to take out and look at. Then put it back, and come back into the main room. Then Feynman will go into the room and find that book.

    In the trick he doesn’t explain that he chooses a woman who is wearing perfume. Then when he goes into the library, he is trying to smell the books and find out where the woman was. Almost always successful.

    I often think about magnetic waves, and how some animals are able to sense them. There is evidence that humans can, too.
    https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/can-humans-sense-the-magnetic-field–65611
    Other articles have tested sharks and found some that seem to, and others not. Some speculate that men are more magnetic sensitive – which is why they often have a better “sense of direction”.

    I read that many birds can see in ultraviolet, and some plain looking beaks are resplendent in ultraviolet.

    I suspect that the human brain-electric sensor implants that are coming might allow more humans to somehow sense some of these wavelengths and the brain might learn how to interpret them.

    On the abortion question, the existence of and wide use of sonograms is based on computers adjusting ultrasound wave differences to create a visual simulation of the human fetus — the computer translates wave variations to create the visual. Our brains create mean from the visual wave differences.

    Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an alternative – but so far harder for most doctors to use without more training. (My doctors: wife, son, daughter in law, couldn’t interpret my knee MRI).

    A few decades ago there was talk of human “auras”, and even professional aura-readers. Haven’t seen anything on that lately.

    Thinking about lots of different thoughts, and senses.

  3. Such an interesting fellow. He’s proof IQ tests should be taken with a grain of salt.

  4. There are a couple stories from Feynman’s autobiography that I remember well. One is Tom Grey’s parlor trick story. The other was Feyman’s first major exposure to quantum electrodynamics if I recall correctly.

    He went to a symposium and heard a great long lecture on QED and was so excited that he then spent a long afternoon or day trying to replicate the man’s work. He was unable to achieve the same results. He was whining and complaining to this wife, at one point saying something like, “How can I be so stupid?”

    His wife snapped at him, “Of course, you’re not stupid. Do you think he [the lecturer] did all that work in a day? You can’t skip all the steps at the beginning and middle and jump to the conclusion. You’re going to have to work your way through it starting at the beginning.” Which is what Feynman did, and it worked.

  5. This little video lecture reminds me of an interesting analog in underwater acoustics which some call “acoustic daylight.” While it does work, it would seem that it is not too practical.

    The technique, known as the Acoustic Daylight Ocean Noise Imaging System (ADONIS), uses the ambient noise present in the ocean- created by everything from passing ships, breaking waves and popping of bubbles- to create images of objects in the water.
    – – –
    ADONIS scientists compare acoustic daylight’s fundamental principles to that of photography- a camera, without a flash, uses ambient light reflected off an object to create an image of that object.

    In Acoustic daylight imaging scientists use sound as their enabling medium. The ambient noise in the ocean serves as an analog of daylight field in the atmosphere.

    https://buckinghamlab.ucsd.edu/research/adonis-acoustic-daylight-ocean-noise-imaging-system/

  7. From Breitbart:

    On Wednesday’s broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) argued that handguns “are not for hunting. They’re not for protection. I think handguns are, frankly, for killing people. We need to do something about making sure that bad guys don’t get their hands on handguns.”

    So police carry handguns because they are professional assassins? And yes Sylvia, there are handguns specifically intended and used for hunting.

    Perhaps Sylvia could focus on the fact that many Democrat run cities are extremely lax in prosecuting (with existing laws) recidivist criminals (bad guys) arrested with handguns.

  8. Such an interesting fellow. He’s proof IQ tests should be taken with a grain of salt.
    –shadow

    That is a bit of a mystery. Feynman scored 125 on an IQ test, which put him in the 95th percentile — no more exceptional than one out of twenty people.

    The explanation given is that he did great on the math parts of the IQ but botched the verbal part.

    Feynman was a serious math prodigy. He got the highest US score by a large measure on the insanely competitive Putnam math exam.

    It’s hard to believe he could have done so poorly on the verbal to bring his overall score down to 125. Nonetheless. Maybe he had the worst testing day of his life.

    I got the impression Feynman enjoyed his low IQ score.

  9. Feynman is my favorite. His ability to explain at a level for everyone is part of his gift. He could see phenomena at a fundamental level which allowed him to not only explain to non-scientists, it also allowed him to make great complex advances as he could break the phenomena down to the basics.

    I know almost everyone has seen this before, but I still have to drag it out for many of those “believers in science” who have no clue how science actually operates. Again, in just a single minute Feynman distills the essence down:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL6-x0modwY

  13. Here’s a potential treat for anyone interested in Carl Jung:

    “Collection of 62 of Jung’s unknown letters revealed in Jerusalem;
    “Newly-uncovered collection is ‘a true treasure and a rare occasion for researchers, students, and all who study Jung’s heritage.”
    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/327851

  14. My nomination for Wisest Quote of the 20th Century:
    _____________________________________

    The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

    –Richard P. Feynman

  17. Neo, can you think of any time in our history where a huge group of influential party officials were so proud of their dishonesty and corruption?

    https://nypost.com/2022/05/18/justice-coming-for-dirty-51-hunter-biden-laptop-liars/

    These people have embraced evil. Proudly.

    This is taking political corruption to a whole new level. This is ugly in a particularly scary way.

    How can your liberal friends justify voting for anyone who would put them or their type in a powerful position? Do they think the country would function properly if Republicans acted the same way? Is that an America they want to live in? Or are they as morally immature as nursey school children?

    Surely they understand that people they disagree with will be justified in acting the same way. Smash mouth power politics where the law, decency, honesty and fairness are relentlessly destroyed and ground to dust doesn’t seem like a very enlightened way to live. I want better for my kids.

  18. “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”

    We sure could have used some Feynman types to battle the Covid nazis.

    Compare and contrast a Feynman with the incompetent, corrupt and incomparably SMALL Fauci. Our modern moral midget.

  19. stan:

    On a local level, yes, in certain big cities.

    And in other countries, yes. But not at the federal level in the US, as far as I know.

  20. stan:

    My friends for the most part don’t follow politics carefully, but most of them follow it enough to think that the shoe is on the other foot and that it’s the right that constitutes a grave danger. The right is racist and fascist and all those other awful “ists.”

  22. I’ve read and viewed a lot of Feynman. I’ve noticed this before, and in the clip neo posted it’s very evident: he sounds a lot like the Art Carney character, Ed Norton. Feynman even looks a bit like Carney, especially in his (Feynman’s) 30s.

    Feynman’s from Far Rockaway. I don’t know anything about New York accents. Is there a strong distinction between Far Rockaway, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens, or is it all a “New York” accent? I seem to recall New Yorkers distinguishing Brooklyn and Long Island speakers as having unique tones.

    I wonder if Carney was intentionally parodying Far Rockaway, or a particular New York accent?

  23. OldTexan,

    From the time I was in my late teens my mother would often admonish me, “Inflation is really hard on the elderly.”

    It is disgusting how cavalierly our government manipulates our currency. We print fiat currency then “buy” our own debt. It is a house of cards. Built on shifting sand. And the sandbox is on a boat tossed by waves. In a windstorm.

  24. “My friends for the most part don’t follow politics carefully, but most of them follow it enough to think that the shoe is on the other foot and that it’s the right that constitutes a grave danger. The right is racist and fascist and all those other awful “ists.” neo

    Classic examples of Stalin’s “useful idiots”.

  25. Richard Feynman was not the greatest physicist that ever lived. But he was the greatest teacher and communicator about his subject. He was beloved by his students and he inspired a generation of physicists.

    A life well lived…

  26. Feynman’s from Far Rockaway. I don’t know anything about New York accents. Is there a strong distinction between Far Rockaway, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens, or is it all a “New York” accent? I seem to recall New Yorkers distinguishing Brooklyn and Long Island speakers as having unique tones.

    https://external-preview.redd.it/1POsI9O7hp-Lx4fFH7Cxh0xbIggzGCKaJJ2IFb-tk1E.png?width=1200&height=628.272251309&auto=webp&s=d5ec07ba4a26e9416792ff079fc5baf43af48646

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsE_8j5RL3k

    These authorities say no. I think that’s disputed.

  27. My friends for the most part don’t follow politics carefully, but most of them follow it enough to think that the shoe is on the other foot and that it’s the right that constitutes a grave danger. The right is racist and fascist and all those other awful “ists.”

    That’s what you’d expect when political affiliation is a matter of identity. It did not used to be that way outside the Solid South and large chunks of the population reacted to external conditions.

  28. Richard Feynman was not the greatest physicist that ever lived. But he was the greatest teacher and communicator about his subject. He was beloved by his students and he inspired a generation of physicists.

    –Roy Nathanson

    Cal Tech has preserved Feynman’s two-year physics course from the early 60s in a wonderful set of web pages, including audio recordings of his lectures.

    https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

    It’s on my bucket list to get to these — one of the reasons I’m taking calculus. Sometimes I peek ahead and look up a physics topic in the table of contents. Even though I’m not really prepared to get the full import, Feynman’s voice is so clear and calm, I’m getting something worthwhile.

    Try his lecture on the famous Double-Slit Experiment and see what I mean:

    https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/III_01.html

    There were giants in those days.

  30. Griffin, I saw that video listed when I was looking at Feynman videos. Haven’t seen it yet.
    ____

    I almost forgot that I attended a Feynman lecture once. (How is that possible?) I was at Los Alamos for a time, and the lab put on a lecture series. I think it was something like the 40th anniversary of the Trinity test or similar, and Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, and R.P. Feynman were there. Anyone who had ever picked up a physics textbook simply had to attend.

    Feynman’s lecture topic was to attempt to compute the minimum amount energy a quantum computer gate or element must consume in carrying out one logic step. There was an answer and it was not zero, though it was vastly smaller than that of any of our electronic gizmos. The amazing thing was that the calculation was independent of any particular embodiment of a hypothetical quantum computer. It was very new stuff then and so could have been all wrong; not that I’d know.

  31. He got the highest US score by a large measure on the insanely competitive Putnam math exam.

    The scores of the top five finishers are not published or ranked. I learned this when a friend placed seventh (sophomore), and in the top five (junior). Then he graduated.

  32. Anyway, I was among the first five. I have since found out from somebody from Canada, where it was scored, who was in the scoring division—he came to me much later and he told me that it was astonishing. He said that at this examination, “Not only were you one of the five, but the gap between you and the other four was sensational.” He told me that. I didn’t know that. That may not be correct, but that’s what I heard.

    –“Interview of Richard Feynman by Charles Weiner on 1966 March 5, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA.”
    https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/14085/did-feynman-win-the-putnam-by-a-large-margin

  33. Art Deco,

    I was really enjoying the Wired YouTube video you linked then it shifted to Miami and the woman used the word Latinx several times to refer to Spanish speakers there (even though 90+% of them hate that term and don’t recognize it) and then she went on and on apologizing and explaining that, of course, her statements about dialects were not opinions and there are many ways to pronounce words and nothing is incorrect or wrong…

    I stopped watching. Why are some academics so determined to turn every subject into an olympic event of self-flagellation?

    Professor Henry Higgins, why have you abandoned us at our time of need?!

  34. Hi, Rufus. Though I live in upstate and didn’t grow up exposed to New York accents, I think there is a distinction to be found between Long Island and NYC proper with respect to accent. I don’t think I can describe it in words, but I’ve heard enough examples of the difference that I feel fairly confident in my guesses (and it is a guess for me, most of the time).

    We get enough downstaters up this way that one has sufficient opportunity to stay in practice. I daresay walking around Saratoga during track season and trying to place which of the passers-by are from which area of downstate would be an amusing exercise for those inclined to tolerate that season of fun and festivities. (I stay clear of Saratoga in track season myself.)

  35. They’re gunning for Musk now.
    For reasons that are obvous….

    Tara Reade, eat your heart out….

    “Elon Musk says claims he paid ‘$250,000’ to silence SpaceX flight attendant’s 2016 sexual harassment claims are from ‘far left activist/actress with political ax to grind’ to stop him buying Twitter…”—
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10836019/Elon-Musk-hits-says-attacks-against-viewed-POLITICAL-lens.html

    …as “Biden” looks, with a frisson of arousal at the possibility of cutting yet another ally off at the knees…

    “US warns there could be NO Transatlantic trade deal as it wades into Northern Ireland Brexit row and Nancy Pelosi brands Boris’s plan to ditch protocol ‘deeply concerning'”—
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10836357/US-wades-Northern-Ireland-Brexit-rules-row-warning-Boris.html

  37. There are dozens of videos on the double-slit experiment, but Feynman’s still my favorite.

    https://youtu.be/b0EChbwSuuQ

    If you have an hour this is easy to follow and very enlightening. Even if you don’t it’s cool to watch a bit and see Feynman lecture as a young man.

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