Discussion:
16 AMAZING MYSTERIES THAT SCIENCE CAN’T EXPLAIN
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Garrison Hilliard
2016-10-28 17:16:45 UTC
Permalink
PopularTrending March 17, 2016
16 AMAZING MYSTERIES THAT SCIENCE CAN’T EXPLAIN



When confronted with mysteries in life we are all too quick to head
over to Google, or any other search engine, in order to try and find
out the answer. Google itself is an invention borne by the work of
scientists years and years before our usage. In that same way we have
grown to assume that science can answer every question that is lobbed
at us, or at least go a long way toward giving us an adequate answer.
Yet, science isn’t a perfect art and the very nature of our reality
means that we will always be hunting for answers. We decided to pick
10 of the most amazing mysteries that science hasn’t been able to
explain. Keep on reading but be forewarned that these mysteries might
keep you up at night.

Cows will face directly north or south while eating, always.
Let’s face it: nobody is sitting around trying to figure out the what
direction most animals face while they are eating. For instance, our
cat would sit on its head if it meant that it could get a few extra
treats. Fortunately there are scientists out there much smarter than
us. Utilizing satellite images pulled from Google Earth, a team of
researchers found that cows always stood facing the magnetic poles
within the Earth while eating or resting. Always. Spooky, right?

Why do we need sleep?
When you consider how much time we spend sleeping it seems like a
given that we really need it. And we do! We do really need to sleep in
order to stay healthy and stay alive. However, scientists aren’t sure
why this is exactly. Every creature on the planet experiences some
form of sleep and right now one of the leading theories is that we
sleep for ‘brain maintenance’. Crazy!

Why did some mammals turn back to the ocean?
Evolution is one of the most consistent and heralded scientific
theories around today and it has survived for numerous years and
likely will continue to do so. Still, we are left with some questions.
We understand why evolution would bring animals out of the water and
onto land, but what would cause the inverse to be true such as what
happened with the ancestors of seals? Evolution from within the waters
is a much trickier situation and one that doesn’t make sense with our
current scientific understanding.

Magnets
Scientists understand how magnets work to a degree but what they don’t
understand is this: why do natural magnets ALWAYS have a north and
south pole? Further, no matter how many times you cut a magnet in half
you will always get a magnet that has a north and south pole. Pretty
strange right? Scientists can generate lab made magnets that only have
a north or south pole, but out in the wild this is simply not the case
— it has never happened simply put we just don’t know why. You know
what, let’s just set magnets aside entirely. Why do they even exist?

A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.

The Placebo Effect
If you are a child of the ’90s then the most iconic ‘placebo effect’
moment occurred in the Michael Jordan/Looney Toons crossover Space
Jam. In that film our cartoon heroes drink from a bottle labeled
‘Special Stuff’ and then they are suddenly able to defeat the vile
MonStars in a game of basketball along with the help of Bill Murray
and Michael Jordan (oh weren’t the ’90s incredible?). The thing is,
the placebo effect is real and has been shown to repeatedly occur in
controlled tests by leading scientific studies. As long as your brain
believes that your medication will work then it likely will. Pretty
crazy right? It seems like our brain is willing our body to heal
through the power of our faith in a sugar filled dummy pill. The
craziest thing of all is this: even when we realize that it is just a
placebo, the effect continues to work. The placebo effect isn’t just
restricted to pills either as it can be found widespread in your life.

The Act of Yawning
Yawning itself isn’t very exciting. In fact, the yawn is commonly used
as a symbol of boredom or fatigue. Yawning is a part of our life
pretty much from birth and it persists with us all throughout. No
matter where you live or were born, you yawn — that’s just how your
body works. The only tricky thing is this: we don’t know why exactly
we yawn. There are many theories floating around as to the
pervasiveness of our yawning but nothing is concrete. One theory
explains that we yawn due to a subtle lack of oxygen flow, thus
probing ourselves into the act of gulping down some extra oxygen. As I
wrote this I began to yawn. Crazy world we live in, right?

The Voynich Manuscript
Alright, we’ve played around with some lighter mysteries and now we
deserve to dig a little deeper. Next up we’ll talk about the
unintelligible Voynich Manuscript. The Voynich Manuscript is a 246
page book that is filled with botanical illustrations along with
written word that modern man has so far been incapable of deciphering.
Carbon dating places the book at around 1400 but our inability to
translate the words in the manuscript has made it near impossible to
place in terms of which civilization or culture it belongs to. Right
now researches are tentatively calling it a book on medicine but there
is no clear reason as to why it is incapable of being translated.

The Stone Balls of Costa Rica.
Stonehenge is a majestic place to visit and one that is undoubtedly
filled with great mystery and nobility. Was Stonehenge a religious or
spiritual place? Was it created to welcome aliens to Earth? Who knows?
In Costa Rica there is a similar mystery haunting locals but it
doesn’t quite have the curbside appeal of Stonehenge: giant stone
balls. All over Costa Rica you can find perfectly spherical stone
balls that range in size from bowling balls all the way to about eight
feet in total size. These balls are littered throughout the country
and the perfect craftsmanship makes them unlikely to have been made by
locals with crude tools. Nobody knows where they came from or how they
got there.

Powerful Cosmic Rays
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been instrumental in the
world of science for many reasons. One of those reasons is its
application to the GZK Limit. The GZK Limit sets a proposed ceiling on
how powerful cosmic rays can be when they hit Earth and filter through
our atmosphere. However, scientists across the ocean at the Akeno
Observatory of Japan have found powerful cosmic rays that have
routinely blown through this ceiling. The source of these powerful
rays has never been identified and further research has come up dry
when trying to get an answer. Surely, there’s no Marvin the Martian
pointing his gun at our planet. So what’s the deal? Activities like
this remind us that while we have come so far, there is just so very
far to go.

The Vanishing of Pilot Fred Valentich
Flight is one of the greatest marvels of modern man but continued
incidents leave us wondering just what is going on in our sky. Back in
1978 a pilot by the name of Fred Valentich simply vanished while
flying his plane. The Australian pilot was flying a Cessna 182L on a
training mission. While in the air Valentich radioed in to command,
located in Melbourne, and reported that an object was flying over him
at a high rate of speed. Metallic scraping sounds followed his voice
and soon all transmission was lost. Fred Valentich and his airplane
were never seen or heard from again. Did Valentich run into an alien
spacecraft and get abducted? Did Valentich stage the whole thing and
simply vanish with the plane? The truth is that we will never know and
perhaps that is the greatest sadness of all. There is no closure to
this great mystery and there likely never will be.

The Cocaine Mummies
Cocaine is pretty prevalent in the modern world and it sort of seems
like a timeless drug. The fact is that it hasn’t always been there and
that’s why German scientists, who tested the remnants of Egyptian
mummies, were so floored by the prevalence of the drug. Back in 1992
scientists were testing the chemical make up of Egyptian mummy
remains. Inside the bones, skin, and hair of these embalmed people the
scientists found evidence of cocaine and tobacco. These drugs weren’t
in Egypt at the time as the drug was cultivated in the Americas. There
has been no documented trading between the two communities so the
scientists were understandably baffled. Where were these mummies
getting their fix?

The Bloop.
If you are like me then nothing should scare you quite as much as the
ocean. The ocean is deep, wide, and full of mysterious unknowns. In
truth, we have barely even scratched the surface of the mysteries that
the ocean holds — and that is why The Bloop is so terrifying. Way back
in 2007 the Unite States NOAA department (National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Admin.) located a powerful, long, and loud sound emitting
from underwater. The sound seemed almost animal like but it registered
as louder than even the largest known sea creatures in the ocean could
emit. Immediately theories about Cthulu or some other beast of the
deep began to fill the internet. The truth is, we will likely never
know what made the haunting, deep, and powerful sound.

just what is on Mars?
Mars is the one planet that we’ve turned into a pop culture phenomenon
for potential life outside of our planet. Research into Mars keeps
uncovering more and more questions. For example, scientists are
capturing dark and extensive streaks near the surface of the planet
that only show up during the warm season of the planet. Scientists
don’t detect water in these areas so we are left with nothing but some
pictures and more questions. What are these streaks and where do they
go when it gets cold?

Why is being right handed the norm?
When you meet someone who is left handed you probably immediately go,
‘Whoa, that’s cool!’. What you don’t take time to realize is this; why
should being left handed be such a rare thing? Conservative estimates
show that 70% of the world’s population is right handed and extreme
estimates conclude that almost 95% of the world is right handed. Why?
What makes this happen? At some point in time we must have decided
that being right handed is ‘correct’.

What does a black hole feel like?
For a long time the prevailing opinion was that you wouldn’t feel much
of anything if you fell into a black hole, at least not until you
passed through the Event Horizon. Now scientific calculations believe
that you would head straight into a giant wall of fire, burning
instantly to nothing. We likely will never know the answer to these
gigantic questions.

Why is life so diverse near the equator?
The further you move away from cold climates and toward the equator,
the more diverse life will become. Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian
explorer, first noted how biodiversity was massively more diverse and
extraordinary near the equator as opposed to anywhere else on the
planet. There are more types of people, flowers, creatures, and even
diseases in this area. Some will point to the warmth as a result but
scientists still aren’t sure what is causing this to happen.

Where are all of the aliens at?
And no, we aren’t talking about the kind that Donald Trump seems so
obsessed with. If you play the statistical game of averages we’d
expect to have run into some lifelike creatures from out of this
world. If you follow the concept of nearly limitless planets and
galaxies then it stands to reason that there would be another planet
full of life out there. Perhaps they just don’t want to talk to us. We
can’t blame them: again, Donald Trump.

How has water always existed on Earth?
The Earth is so old that it is hard to really put it into words and
numbers won’t do it justice. We’ll just say that at one point in time
the sun was too far from the planet in order to melt the ice on Earth.
However, research shows that liquid water has been on the planet for
nearly 4 billion years — coinciding with the evolution of life. Our
main question is simple: how was the water in liquid form?

What happened to the Eil Malk Jellyfish?
We know that species of animals everywhere are constantly dying out,
mostly due to human intervention. In the year 1998 all of the
jellyfish in Eil Malk Lake were found to have died out. In the year
2000 the jellyfish had all returned as if nothing was amiss. Where did
they go? How did the jellyfish come back?

Why is sexual reproduction a thing?
Let’s avoid any discussion of the bible in this mystery. Ask yourself:
why is sexual reproduction a thing? Why would evolution mandate
literally half of a species, all men, be incapable of producing
offspring? What is the reason for this clearly disadvantaged gender?
The leading theory talks about reduction in potentially negative
mutations but there is still no concrete reason as of yet.

What is happening with Saturn’s hurricane?
Hurricanes on Earth are huge and terrifying and they are the result of
warm and cold ocean currents coming together. In 2013 a hurricane was
spotted on Saturn that showed up as 20 times larger than any hurricane
ever recorded on Earth. Where did the hurricane come from? There are
oceans on Saturn. Furthermore why doesn’t the hurricane ever vanish?
Just what is going on there?

How do butterflies know where to go?
Every year the Monarch Butterfly will go on a great journey, thousands
of miles, for their migration. The journey will months upon months.
Monarch Butterflies lay eggs when they reach the end of the journey
and then they die off, having a life cycle of just six months. Soehow
the newborn butterflies know the exact route home. How do they know
where to go?

Where is all of the lithium?
Are you ready for a lesson in science? Lithium is considered the
lightest metal that we know of. Lithium itself has an atomic number of
just 3 and despite its size the material is used extensively: bombs,
metal work, batteries and even medicine. What strikes scientists as
truly bizarre is that we don’t know why it is so rare. Everywhere
you’d think to find lithium we end up finding just a fraction of what
should be there.

What are the Pyrophyllite Spheres?
South African miners found a collection of metal spheres within
Pyriphyllite deposits. These spheres were carbon dated to be over 2.8
billion years old, predating intelligent life by quite a large margin.
The craziest thing about these spheres is that they have markings on
them and are balanced more accurately than we can even make them
today. Creepy!

http://www.dailyforest.com/popular/10-amazing-mysteries-science-cant-explain?utm_medium=outbrain&utm_source=outbrain&utm_campaign=10_amazing_mysteries_science_cant_explain&utm_term=5515716

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---
Bob Officer
2016-10-29 20:43:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by Garrison Hilliard
PopularTrending March 17, 2016
16 AMAZING MYSTERIES THAT SCIENCE CAN’T EXPLAIN
When confronted with mysteries in life we are all too quick to head
over to Google, or any other search engine, in order to try and find
out the answer. Google itself is an invention borne by the work of
scientists years and years before our usage. In that same way we have
grown to assume that science can answer every question that is lobbed
at us, or at least go a long way toward giving us an adequate answer.
Yet, science isn’t a perfect art and the very nature of our reality
means that we will always be hunting for answers. We decided to pick
10 of the most amazing mysteries that science hasn’t been able to
explain. Keep on reading but be forewarned that these mysteries might
keep you up at night.
Cows will face directly north or south while eating, always.
Let’s face it: nobody is sitting around trying to figure out the what
direction most animals face while they are eating. For instance, our
cat would sit on its head if it meant that it could get a few extra
treats. Fortunately there are scientists out there much smarter than
us. Utilizing satellite images pulled from Google Earth, a team of
researchers found that cows always stood facing the magnetic poles
within the Earth while eating or resting. Always. Spooky, right?
Why do we need sleep?
When you consider how much time we spend sleeping it seems like a
given that we really need it. And we do! We do really need to sleep in
order to stay healthy and stay alive. However, scientists aren’t sure
why this is exactly. Every creature on the planet experiences some
form of sleep and right now one of the leading theories is that we
sleep for ‘brain maintenance’. Crazy!
Why did some mammals turn back to the ocean?
Evolution is one of the most consistent and heralded scientific
theories around today and it has survived for numerous years and
likely will continue to do so. Still, we are left with some questions.
We understand why evolution would bring animals out of the water and
onto land, but what would cause the inverse to be true such as what
happened with the ancestors of seals? Evolution from within the waters
is a much trickier situation and one that doesn’t make sense with our
current scientific understanding.
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Placebo Effect
If you are a child of the ’90s then the most iconic ‘placebo effect’
moment occurred in the Michael Jordan/Looney Toons crossover Space
Jam. In that film our cartoon heroes drink from a bottle labeled
‘Special Stuff’ and then they are suddenly able to defeat the vile
MonStars in a game of basketball along with the help of Bill Murray
and Michael Jordan (oh weren’t the ’90s incredible?). The thing is,
the placebo effect is real and has been shown to repeatedly occur in
controlled tests by leading scientific studies. As long as your brain
believes that your medication will work then it likely will. Pretty
crazy right? It seems like our brain is willing our body to heal
through the power of our faith in a sugar filled dummy pill. The
craziest thing of all is this: even when we realize that it is just a
placebo, the effect continues to work. The placebo effect isn’t just
restricted to pills either as it can be found widespread in your life.
It isn't reduced that easily.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Voynich Manuscript
Alright, we’ve played around with some lighter mysteries and now we
deserve to dig a little deeper. Next up we’ll talk about the
unintelligible Voynich Manuscript. The Voynich Manuscript is a 246
page book that is filled with botanical illustrations along with
written word that modern man has so far been incapable of deciphering.
Carbon dating places the book at around 1400 but our inability to
translate the words in the manuscript has made it near impossible to
place in terms of which civilization or culture it belongs to. Right
now researches are tentatively calling it a book on medicine but there
is no clear reason as to why it is incapable of being translated.
It may have been a created forgery done to fool the rubes. This was done
about the time many forgeries were produced. This large influx of forgeries
include the shroud of Turin which is just one of hundreds of forged
shrouds.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Powerful Cosmic Rays
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been instrumental in the
world of science for many reasons. One of those reasons is its
application to the GZK Limit. The GZK Limit sets a proposed ceiling on
how powerful cosmic rays can be when they hit Earth and filter through
our atmosphere. However, scientists across the ocean at the Akeno
Observatory of Japan have found powerful cosmic rays that have
routinely blown through this ceiling. The source of these powerful
rays has never been identified and further research has come up dry
when trying to get an answer. Surely, there’s no Marvin the Martian
pointing his gun at our planet. So what’s the deal? Activities like
this remind us that while we have come so far, there is just so very
far to go.
Actually most of them have been sourced.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Cocaine Mummies
Cocaine is pretty prevalent in the modern world and it sort of seems
like a timeless drug. The fact is that it hasn’t always been there and
that’s why German scientists, who tested the remnants of Egyptian
mummies, were so floored by the prevalence of the drug. Back in 1992
scientists were testing the chemical make up of Egyptian mummy
remains. Inside the bones, skin, and hair of these embalmed people the
scientists found evidence of cocaine and tobacco. These drugs weren’t
in Egypt at the time as the drug was cultivated in the Americas. There
has been no documented trading between the two communities so the
scientists were understandably baffled. Where were these mummies
getting their fix?
No!

What was detected was compounds from herb which contained nicotines
alkaloids and cocaine like substances. The assumptions that the only
sources of nicotines and cocaine like substances at the plants of North or
South America.

Most all of the Solanaceae family leaves contains nicotines if I recall
corrected.

Lycaeum family of plants is very heavy on the productions of alkaloids and
have many cocaine like properties.

http://www.lycaeum.org/forum/index.php?topic=19933.0
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Why is being right handed the norm?
When you meet someone who is left handed you probably immediately go,
‘Whoa, that’s cool!’. What you don’t take time to realize is this; why
should being left handed be such a rare thing? Conservative estimates
show that 70% of the world’s population is right handed and extreme
estimates conclude that almost 95% of the world is right handed. Why?
What makes this happen? At some point in time we must have decided
that being right handed is ‘correct’.
The truth is handedness is closer to being something best plotted on a bell
curve. When the stats are plotted the norm should be ambidextrous, but
cultural action has shifted the center of the curve. I am preferentially
left handed. And tend to most everything left handed. I even use reversed
paddles with I use a paddle keyed to send Morse code. I can use either hand
with a straight key. But only like using the paddles in my left hand.

And to make the puzzle even worse, I send and receive faster using my left
hand over my write hand. I tend to pick up the pen pencil is left hand but
can write equally well with either hand.

I use a soldering gun/iron in my left hand.

Added to the mix is the echo religious dogma. Do you realize the left
handedness is condemned more times than homosexuality is, in the bible?
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity

BruceS
2016-10-30 21:04:56 UTC
Permalink
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Placebo Effect
If you are a child of the ’90s then the most iconic ‘placebo effect’
moment occurred in the Michael Jordan/Looney Toons crossover Space
Jam. In that film our cartoon heroes drink from a bottle labeled
‘Special Stuff’ and then they are suddenly able to defeat the vile
MonStars in a game of basketball along with the help of Bill Murray
and Michael Jordan (oh weren’t the ’90s incredible?). The thing is,
the placebo effect is real and has been shown to repeatedly occur in
controlled tests by leading scientific studies. As long as your brain
believes that your medication will work then it likely will. Pretty
crazy right? It seems like our brain is willing our body to heal
through the power of our faith in a sugar filled dummy pill. The
craziest thing of all is this: even when we realize that it is just a
placebo, the effect continues to work. The placebo effect isn’t just
restricted to pills either as it can be found widespread in your life.
It isn't reduced that easily.
I've seen synopses of studies showing that the placebo effect is
imaginary. Essentially, the "cure" rates among the placebo group and
the untreated group are within the margin for error. IOW, it isn't the
person believing they're getting a medication that makes them better,
they're just among those who would get better anyway. If I weren't
lazy, I'd provide a cite, or a link to a site, or some other sight.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Voynich Manuscript
Alright, we’ve played around with some lighter mysteries and now we
deserve to dig a little deeper. Next up we’ll talk about the
unintelligible Voynich Manuscript. The Voynich Manuscript is a 246
page book that is filled with botanical illustrations along with
written word that modern man has so far been incapable of deciphering.
Carbon dating places the book at around 1400 but our inability to
translate the words in the manuscript has made it near impossible to
place in terms of which civilization or culture it belongs to. Right
now researches are tentatively calling it a book on medicine but there
is no clear reason as to why it is incapable of being translated.
It may have been a created forgery done to fool the rubes. This was done
about the time many forgeries were produced. This large influx of forgeries
include the shroud of Turin which is just one of hundreds of forged
shrouds.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Powerful Cosmic Rays
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been instrumental in the
world of science for many reasons. One of those reasons is its
application to the GZK Limit. The GZK Limit sets a proposed ceiling on
how powerful cosmic rays can be when they hit Earth and filter through
our atmosphere. However, scientists across the ocean at the Akeno
Observatory of Japan have found powerful cosmic rays that have
routinely blown through this ceiling. The source of these powerful
rays has never been identified and further research has come up dry
when trying to get an answer. Surely, there’s no Marvin the Martian
pointing his gun at our planet. So what’s the deal? Activities like
this remind us that while we have come so far, there is just so very
far to go.
Actually most of them have been sourced.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Cocaine Mummies
Cocaine is pretty prevalent in the modern world and it sort of seems
like a timeless drug. The fact is that it hasn’t always been there and
that’s why German scientists, who tested the remnants of Egyptian
mummies, were so floored by the prevalence of the drug. Back in 1992
scientists were testing the chemical make up of Egyptian mummy
remains. Inside the bones, skin, and hair of these embalmed people the
scientists found evidence of cocaine and tobacco. These drugs weren’t
in Egypt at the time as the drug was cultivated in the Americas. There
has been no documented trading between the two communities so the
scientists were understandably baffled. Where were these mummies
getting their fix?
No!
What was detected was compounds from herb which contained nicotines
alkaloids and cocaine like substances. The assumptions that the only
sources of nicotines and cocaine like substances at the plants of North or
South America.
Most all of the Solanaceae family leaves contains nicotines if I recall
corrected.
Lycaeum family of plants is very heavy on the productions of alkaloids and
have many cocaine like properties.
http://www.lycaeum.org/forum/index.php?topic=19933.0
So, the claim was complete bullshit? I'll buy that, even without
reading your cite. As to the original claim, people have been chewing
coca leaves for a very long time. It's nothing new. Then again, maybe
the space aliens who built the pyramids for the ancient Egyptians also
gave them some pharmaceutical grade drugs while they were at it.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Why is being right handed the norm?
When you meet someone who is left handed you probably immediately go,
‘Whoa, that’s cool!’. What you don’t take time to realize is this; why
should being left handed be such a rare thing? Conservative estimates
show that 70% of the world’s population is right handed and extreme
estimates conclude that almost 95% of the world is right handed. Why?
What makes this happen? At some point in time we must have decided
that being right handed is ‘correct’.
The truth is handedness is closer to being something best plotted on a bell
curve. When the stats are plotted the norm should be ambidextrous, but
cultural action has shifted the center of the curve. I am preferentially
left handed. And tend to most everything left handed. I even use reversed
paddles with I use a paddle keyed to send Morse code. I can use either hand
with a straight key. But only like using the paddles in my left hand.
And to make the puzzle even worse, I send and receive faster using my left
hand over my write hand. I tend to pick up the pen pencil is left hand but
can write equally well with either hand.
I use a soldering gun/iron in my left hand.
Added to the mix is the echo religious dogma. Do you realize the left
handedness is condemned more times than homosexuality is, in the bible?
As well it should! Homosexuals don't really do anyone any harm, and
even help reduce the rate of human overpopulation. Southpaws, on the
other hand, are an Abomination Before The Lord.
Bob Officer
2016-10-31 12:20:17 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Placebo Effect
If you are a child of the ’90s then the most iconic ‘placebo effect’
moment occurred in the Michael Jordan/Looney Toons crossover Space
Jam. In that film our cartoon heroes drink from a bottle labeled
‘Special Stuff’ and then they are suddenly able to defeat the vile
MonStars in a game of basketball along with the help of Bill Murray
and Michael Jordan (oh weren’t the ’90s incredible?). The thing is,
the placebo effect is real and has been shown to repeatedly occur in
controlled tests by leading scientific studies. As long as your brain
believes that your medication will work then it likely will. Pretty
crazy right? It seems like our brain is willing our body to heal
through the power of our faith in a sugar filled dummy pill. The
craziest thing of all is this: even when we realize that it is just a
placebo, the effect continues to work. The placebo effect isn’t just
restricted to pills either as it can be found widespread in your life.
It isn't reduced that easily.
I've seen synopses of studies showing that the placebo effect is
imaginary. Essentially, the "cure" rates among the placebo group and
the untreated group are within the margin for error. IOW, it isn't the
person believing they're getting a medication that makes them better,
they're just among those who would get better anyway. If I weren't
lazy, I'd provide a cite, or a link to a site, or some other sight.
That is correct and it it ls someplace in my list of URLs...
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Voynich Manuscript
Alright, we’ve played around with some lighter mysteries and now we
deserve to dig a little deeper. Next up we’ll talk about the
unintelligible Voynich Manuscript. The Voynich Manuscript is a 246
page book that is filled with botanical illustrations along with
written word that modern man has so far been incapable of deciphering.
Carbon dating places the book at around 1400 but our inability to
translate the words in the manuscript has made it near impossible to
place in terms of which civilization or culture it belongs to. Right
now researches are tentatively calling it a book on medicine but there
is no clear reason as to why it is incapable of being translated.
It may have been a created forgery done to fool the rubes. This was done
about the time many forgeries were produced. This large influx of forgeries
include the shroud of Turin which is just one of hundreds of forged
shrouds.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Powerful Cosmic Rays
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been instrumental in the
world of science for many reasons. One of those reasons is its
application to the GZK Limit. The GZK Limit sets a proposed ceiling on
how powerful cosmic rays can be when they hit Earth and filter through
our atmosphere. However, scientists across the ocean at the Akeno
Observatory of Japan have found powerful cosmic rays that have
routinely blown through this ceiling. The source of these powerful
rays has never been identified and further research has come up dry
when trying to get an answer. Surely, there’s no Marvin the Martian
pointing his gun at our planet. So what’s the deal? Activities like
this remind us that while we have come so far, there is just so very
far to go.
Actually most of them have been sourced.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Cocaine Mummies
Cocaine is pretty prevalent in the modern world and it sort of seems
like a timeless drug. The fact is that it hasn’t always been there and
that’s why German scientists, who tested the remnants of Egyptian
mummies, were so floored by the prevalence of the drug. Back in 1992
scientists were testing the chemical make up of Egyptian mummy
remains. Inside the bones, skin, and hair of these embalmed people the
scientists found evidence of cocaine and tobacco. These drugs weren’t
in Egypt at the time as the drug was cultivated in the Americas. There
has been no documented trading between the two communities so the
scientists were understandably baffled. Where were these mummies
getting their fix?
No!
What was detected was compounds from herb which contained nicotines
alkaloids and cocaine like substances. The assumptions that the only
sources of nicotines and cocaine like substances at the plants of North or
South America.
Most all of the Solanaceae family leaves contains nicotines if I recall
corrected.
Lycaeum family of plants is very heavy on the productions of alkaloids and
have many cocaine like properties.
http://www.lycaeum.org/forum/index.php?topic=19933.0
So, the claim was complete bullshit? I'll buy that, even without
reading your cite. As to the original claim, people have been chewing
coca leaves for a very long time. It's nothing new. Then again, maybe
the space aliens who built the pyramids for the ancient Egyptians also
gave them some pharmaceutical grade drugs while they were at it.
Coco leaves are Native to S. America and not found elsewhere until after
1500.

The fact the analysis found coco leave like by products is the assumption
those by products could only be found in coco leaves.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Why is being right handed the norm?
When you meet someone who is left handed you probably immediately go,
‘Whoa, that’s cool!’. What you don’t take time to realize is this; why
should being left handed be such a rare thing? Conservative estimates
show that 70% of the world’s population is right handed and extreme
estimates conclude that almost 95% of the world is right handed. Why?
What makes this happen? At some point in time we must have decided
that being right handed is ‘correct’.
The truth is handedness is closer to being something best plotted on a bell
curve. When the stats are plotted the norm should be ambidextrous, but
cultural action has shifted the center of the curve. I am preferentially
left handed. And tend to most everything left handed. I even use reversed
paddles with I use a paddle keyed to send Morse code. I can use either hand
with a straight key. But only like using the paddles in my left hand.
And to make the puzzle even worse, I send and receive faster using my left
hand over my write hand. I tend to pick up the pen pencil is left hand but
can write equally well with either hand.
I use a soldering gun/iron in my left hand.
Added to the mix is the echo religious dogma. Do you realize the left
handedness is condemned more times than homosexuality is, in the bible?
As well it should! Homosexuals don't really do anyone any harm, and
even help reduce the rate of human overpopulation. Southpaws, on the
other hand, are an Abomination Before The Lord.
.... .. .... ..
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-10-31 15:04:57 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Placebo Effect
If you are a child of the ’90s then the most iconic ‘placebo effect’
moment occurred in the Michael Jordan/Looney Toons crossover Space
Jam. In that film our cartoon heroes drink from a bottle labeled
‘Special Stuff’ and then they are suddenly able to defeat the vile
MonStars in a game of basketball along with the help of Bill Murray
and Michael Jordan (oh weren’t the ’90s incredible?). The thing is,
the placebo effect is real and has been shown to repeatedly occur in
controlled tests by leading scientific studies. As long as your brain
believes that your medication will work then it likely will. Pretty
crazy right? It seems like our brain is willing our body to heal
through the power of our faith in a sugar filled dummy pill. The
craziest thing of all is this: even when we realize that it is just a
placebo, the effect continues to work. The placebo effect isn’t just
restricted to pills either as it can be found widespread in your life.
It isn't reduced that easily.
I've seen synopses of studies showing that the placebo effect is
imaginary. Essentially, the "cure" rates among the placebo group and
the untreated group are within the margin for error. IOW, it isn't the
person believing they're getting a medication that makes them better,
they're just among those who would get better anyway. If I weren't
lazy, I'd provide a cite, or a link to a site, or some other sight.
That is correct and it it ls someplace in my list of URLs...
It's a good thing *someone* isn't as lazy as I am.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Voynich Manuscript
Alright, we’ve played around with some lighter mysteries and now we
deserve to dig a little deeper. Next up we’ll talk about the
unintelligible Voynich Manuscript. The Voynich Manuscript is a 246
page book that is filled with botanical illustrations along with
written word that modern man has so far been incapable of deciphering.
Carbon dating places the book at around 1400 but our inability to
translate the words in the manuscript has made it near impossible to
place in terms of which civilization or culture it belongs to. Right
now researches are tentatively calling it a book on medicine but there
is no clear reason as to why it is incapable of being translated.
It may have been a created forgery done to fool the rubes. This was done
about the time many forgeries were produced. This large influx of forgeries
include the shroud of Turin which is just one of hundreds of forged
shrouds.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Powerful Cosmic Rays
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been instrumental in the
world of science for many reasons. One of those reasons is its
application to the GZK Limit. The GZK Limit sets a proposed ceiling on
how powerful cosmic rays can be when they hit Earth and filter through
our atmosphere. However, scientists across the ocean at the Akeno
Observatory of Japan have found powerful cosmic rays that have
routinely blown through this ceiling. The source of these powerful
rays has never been identified and further research has come up dry
when trying to get an answer. Surely, there’s no Marvin the Martian
pointing his gun at our planet. So what’s the deal? Activities like
this remind us that while we have come so far, there is just so very
far to go.
Actually most of them have been sourced.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Cocaine Mummies
Cocaine is pretty prevalent in the modern world and it sort of seems
like a timeless drug. The fact is that it hasn’t always been there and
that’s why German scientists, who tested the remnants of Egyptian
mummies, were so floored by the prevalence of the drug. Back in 1992
scientists were testing the chemical make up of Egyptian mummy
remains. Inside the bones, skin, and hair of these embalmed people the
scientists found evidence of cocaine and tobacco. These drugs weren’t
in Egypt at the time as the drug was cultivated in the Americas. There
has been no documented trading between the two communities so the
scientists were understandably baffled. Where were these mummies
getting their fix?
No!
What was detected was compounds from herb which contained nicotines
alkaloids and cocaine like substances. The assumptions that the only
sources of nicotines and cocaine like substances at the plants of North or
South America.
Most all of the Solanaceae family leaves contains nicotines if I recall
corrected.
Lycaeum family of plants is very heavy on the productions of alkaloids and
have many cocaine like properties.
http://www.lycaeum.org/forum/index.php?topic=19933.0
So, the claim was complete bullshit? I'll buy that, even without
reading your cite. As to the original claim, people have been chewing
coca leaves for a very long time. It's nothing new. Then again, maybe
the space aliens who built the pyramids for the ancient Egyptians also
gave them some pharmaceutical grade drugs while they were at it.
Coco leaves are Native to S. America and not found elsewhere until after
1500.
The fact the analysis found coco leave like by products is the assumption
those by products could only be found in coco leaves.\
Right. I was referring to the implication in the OP that cocaine use
is a very recent thing. I don't know what other plants may have
similar chemicals in them, or where those might be found.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Why is being right handed the norm?
When you meet someone who is left handed you probably immediately go,
‘Whoa, that’s cool!’. What you don’t take time to realize is this; why
should being left handed be such a rare thing? Conservative estimates
show that 70% of the world’s population is right handed and extreme
estimates conclude that almost 95% of the world is right handed. Why?
What makes this happen? At some point in time we must have decided
that being right handed is ‘correct’.
The truth is handedness is closer to being something best plotted on a bell
curve. When the stats are plotted the norm should be ambidextrous, but
cultural action has shifted the center of the curve. I am preferentially
left handed. And tend to most everything left handed. I even use reversed
paddles with I use a paddle keyed to send Morse code. I can use either hand
with a straight key. But only like using the paddles in my left hand.
And to make the puzzle even worse, I send and receive faster using my left
hand over my write hand. I tend to pick up the pen pencil is left hand but
can write equally well with either hand.
I use a soldering gun/iron in my left hand.
Added to the mix is the echo religious dogma. Do you realize the left
handedness is condemned more times than homosexuality is, in the bible?
As well it should! Homosexuals don't really do anyone any harm, and
even help reduce the rate of human overpopulation. Southpaws, on the
other hand, are an Abomination Before The Lord.
.... .. .... ..
I think most of us can agree that being left-handed is at least as
abhorrent (if not more so) as making images of things, mixing
fabrics, or even making and eating a bacon cheeseburger.
BruceS
2016-10-31 17:09:53 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
And now I realize I was seeing that backwards. Presumably, your
comment was meant to indicate that the puna *is* a big cat, since small
cats purr while big cats roar. It does neither, and from what I can
find, whether it is "big" or not depends on whom you ask. So, if the
puma is being considered "big" for lack of purring, then we have *two*
big cats in North America, while if it's considered "small" for lack of
roaring (I don't think the scream counts), then we only have the one.

Do you have an authoritative source, preferably with showing the clades
and how they relate?
Bob Officer
2016-11-01 05:45:53 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
And now I realize I was seeing that backwards. Presumably, your
comment was meant to indicate that the puna *is* a big cat, since small
cats purr while big cats roar. It does neither, and from what I can
find, whether it is "big" or not depends on whom you ask. So, if the
puma is being considered "big" for lack of purring, then we have *two*
big cats in North America, while if it's considered "small" for lack of
roaring (I don't think the scream counts), then we only have the one.
Do you have an authoritative source, preferably with showing the clades
and how they relate?
I am not that sure. I might have run across years ago when I worked as a
summer camp naturalist. While my speciality was stars and constellations
with a mix of geology and tide pool sea life... I had to know enough of the
other facts and stuff from different guide books.

I was lucky the prior naturalist left all sorts of notes and stuff for me.
I worked 5 summers, and made my own copies of his notes and built them into
a set of localized guide booklets. Then when I was a summer camp director
later in time, I used that same style of guide booklets to build
presentations geared for 10-17 year old children.

To the best of knowledge those guide books are still being used. Maybe I
should have had them published?

I gave up the summer camp director job, and worked full time the last 13
years to maximize my pension.

I now just play at the electronics bench and have rediscovered the joy of
ham radio. While CW is not required any more. I am working at regaining the
CW skill I had 45 years ago. I have some hearing damage and have trouble
hearing the spaces at speeds over 15 WPM.
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-11-01 14:32:10 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
And now I realize I was seeing that backwards. Presumably, your
comment was meant to indicate that the puna *is* a big cat, since small
cats purr while big cats roar. It does neither, and from what I can
find, whether it is "big" or not depends on whom you ask. So, if the
puma is being considered "big" for lack of purring, then we have *two*
big cats in North America, while if it's considered "small" for lack of
roaring (I don't think the scream counts), then we only have the one.
Do you have an authoritative source, preferably with showing the clades
and how they relate?
I am not that sure. I might have run across years ago when I worked as a
summer camp naturalist. While my speciality was stars and constellations
with a mix of geology and tide pool sea life... I had to know enough of the
other facts and stuff from different guide books.
In that case, it may have changed since. Biologists keep refining
their classifications. I learned on the old Kingdom Phylum Class Order
Family Genus Species arrangement, with for example the idea that humans
evolved from a common ancestor of both apes and humans. The current
system seems to have dropped all levels but Species (which is a bit
awkward in itself) as meaningless distinctions, and classifies humans
as a *king* of ape, which in turn are a kind of monkey. So now, we can
say with confidence that we are not descended from monkeys, we are
monkeys.
Post by Bob Officer
I was lucky the prior naturalist left all sorts of notes and stuff for me.
I worked 5 summers, and made my own copies of his notes and built them into
a set of localized guide booklets. Then when I was a summer camp director
later in time, I used that same style of guide booklets to build
presentations geared for 10-17 year old children.
I've been that sort at several jobs, leaving behind tools and
mechanisms that made the job easier not only for myself but for those
who followed me. I've met up with former coworkers who confirmed how
handy those were. A couple of former coworkers (from different jobs)
both told me that they were better programmers for having worked with
me and seen the sort of thing I do. All because I'm lazy.
Post by Bob Officer
To the best of knowledge those guide books are still being used. Maybe I
should have had them published?
I gave up the summer camp director job, and worked full time the last 13
years to maximize my pension.
LOL, pensions! I've never had one of those, except for a very
small amount in one with a state government I worked for. All my
other employers have gone with the system that employees can save for
their own retirement, with some of them helping out a bit. Part of my
career I've been self-employed, so I was able to be very generous with
the employer matching on the retirement plan there. IIRC, the employee
portion was something like $11K (maxed out per fed limits), but the
*employer* was more like $30K, with both parts tax deferred.
Post by Bob Officer
I now just play at the electronics bench and have rediscovered the joy of
ham radio. While CW is not required any more. I am working at regaining the
CW skill I had 45 years ago. I have some hearing damage and have trouble
hearing the spaces at speeds over 15 WPM.
I never got into ham, though a couple of times I considered it. My
hearing could be a problem for that, so I'm probably better off just
going with things like Usenet, where it doesn't matter. I can still
find plenty of people from all over the world to talk with, and don't
need any special equipment or license for it. A friend who was into
that gave me a set of flash cards for Morse, but I didn't spend much
time on them before oh look a squirrel!
Bob Officer
2016-11-02 03:07:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
And now I realize I was seeing that backwards. Presumably, your
comment was meant to indicate that the puna *is* a big cat, since small
cats purr while big cats roar. It does neither, and from what I can
find, whether it is "big" or not depends on whom you ask. So, if the
puma is being considered "big" for lack of purring, then we have *two*
big cats in North America, while if it's considered "small" for lack of
roaring (I don't think the scream counts), then we only have the one.
Do you have an authoritative source, preferably with showing the clades
and how they relate?
I am not that sure. I might have run across years ago when I worked as a
summer camp naturalist. While my speciality was stars and constellations
with a mix of geology and tide pool sea life... I had to know enough of the
other facts and stuff from different guide books.
In that case, it may have changed since. Biologists keep refining
their classifications. I learned on the old Kingdom Phylum Class Order
Family Genus Species arrangement, with for example the idea that humans
evolved from a common ancestor of both apes and humans. The current
system seems to have dropped all levels but Species (which is a bit
awkward in itself) as meaningless distinctions, and classifies humans
as a *king* of ape, which in turn are a kind of monkey. So now, we can
say with confidence that we are not descended from monkeys, we are
monkeys.
Just we are vertebrates...and all apes and monkeys share a common
proto-ancestor. Just as bears, and IIRC raccoons and I am trying to recall
what other animal seem share a common ancestor.

Ever see the big wheel display of moths and butterflies arranged by common
order?

The tree of life is odd and we only see part of it.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I was lucky the prior naturalist left all sorts of notes and stuff for me.
I worked 5 summers, and made my own copies of his notes and built them into
a set of localized guide booklets. Then when I was a summer camp director
later in time, I used that same style of guide booklets to build
presentations geared for 10-17 year old children.
I've been that sort at several jobs, leaving behind tools and
mechanisms that made the job easier not only for myself but for those
who followed me. I've met up with former coworkers who confirmed how
handy those were. A couple of former coworkers (from different jobs)
both told me that they were better programmers for having worked with
me and seen the sort of thing I do. All because I'm lazy.
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the lazy ones
were the best, because we only did things one time.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
To the best of knowledge those guide books are still being used. Maybe I
should have had them published?
I gave up the summer camp director job, and worked full time the last 13
years to maximize my pension.
LOL, pensions! I've never had one of those, except for a very
small amount in one with a state government I worked for. All my
other employers have gone with the system that employees can save for
their own retirement, with some of them helping out a bit. Part of my
career I've been self-employed, so I was able to be very generous with
the employer matching on the retirement plan there. IIRC, the employee
portion was something like $11K (maxed out per fed limits), but the
*employer* was more like $30K, with both parts tax deferred.
I always had a small side business.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I now just play at the electronics bench and have rediscovered the joy of
ham radio. While CW is not required any more. I am working at regaining the
CW skill I had 45 years ago. I have some hearing damage and have trouble
hearing the spaces at speeds over 15 WPM.
I never got into ham, though a couple of times I considered it. My
hearing could be a problem for that, so I'm probably better off just
going with things like Usenet, where it doesn't matter. I can still
find plenty of people from all over the world to talk with, and don't
need any special equipment or license for it. A friend who was into
that gave me a set of flash cards for Morse, but I didn't spend much
time on them before oh look a squirrel!
LOL. No code and simple equipment. at 11pm last night after everyone had
gone off an hour before, while listening to the light crackle of electrons
turning into arctic plasma, I heard a voice on 75 meters a voice "calling
the US mainland". It was a ham operator on the big island in Hawaii. I
handled a phone call to the northwest where power was off. I found a ham
operator willing to do a health and welfare check on his parents who had
been without phone or power for three days. 40 minutes later the ham had
driven to their house got his parents on a mobile radio. There is regular
group which meets at 9:00pm nightly and usually is all done chatting back
by 10:30, you know a bunch of old folks. All in the same 58-72 age bracket.

And the cost of a good used HF radio is often less than a laptop. The radio
I was working was working on is a 1985 vintage icom radio, bought for less
than 90 bucks. I have about 40 in parts and few hours work, which I more or
less discount. I will sell that radio for 135 or 150 if I don't have to buy
any more parts... I usually those in a 15/20/40 meter antenna kit for
another 15 bucks. With instructions to make simple antennas in several
different configurations.

I enjoy working on these things.
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-11-02 15:34:34 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
And now I realize I was seeing that backwards. Presumably, your
comment was meant to indicate that the puna *is* a big cat, since small
cats purr while big cats roar. It does neither, and from what I can
find, whether it is "big" or not depends on whom you ask. So, if the
puma is being considered "big" for lack of purring, then we have *two*
big cats in North America, while if it's considered "small" for lack of
roaring (I don't think the scream counts), then we only have the one.
Do you have an authoritative source, preferably with showing the clades
and how they relate?
I am not that sure. I might have run across years ago when I worked as a
summer camp naturalist. While my speciality was stars and constellations
with a mix of geology and tide pool sea life... I had to know enough of the
other facts and stuff from different guide books.
In that case, it may have changed since. Biologists keep refining
their classifications. I learned on the old Kingdom Phylum Class Order
Family Genus Species arrangement, with for example the idea that humans
evolved from a common ancestor of both apes and humans. The current
system seems to have dropped all levels but Species (which is a bit
awkward in itself) as meaningless distinctions, and classifies humans
as a *king* of ape, which in turn are a kind of monkey. So now, we can
say with confidence that we are not descended from monkeys, we are
monkeys.
Just we are vertebrates...and all apes and monkeys share a common
proto-ancestor. Just as bears, and IIRC raccoons and I am trying to recall
what other animal seem share a common ancestor.
It goes further than apes and monkeys having a common ancestor. The
idea is that there is no set of attributes which apply to all of what
we used to refer to as "monkeys" but do not also apply to all apes.
That means that apes are a subset of monkeys, not distinct from them.
I have some resistance to this system, as it seems to me that it
removes some useful terms. For instance, what word do we have for
monkeys that are not apes, or lizards that are not snakes, or any
number of other subset situations that used to be considered distinct
groups? Still, it seems that facts are considered (by those stuck-up
biologists) more important than my opinions.
Post by Bob Officer
Ever see the big wheel display of moths and butterflies arranged by common
order?
The tree of life is odd and we only see part of it.
I don't think I've seen that wheel, but I have seen some very complex
diagrams of other subsets of life. Life simply doesn't conform to a
nice, simple, organized system for our convenience. That's what
happens when you let a bunch of random, directionless mechanisms work,
instead of using any sort of intelligent designer.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I was lucky the prior naturalist left all sorts of notes and stuff for me.
I worked 5 summers, and made my own copies of his notes and built them into
a set of localized guide booklets. Then when I was a summer camp director
later in time, I used that same style of guide booklets to build
presentations geared for 10-17 year old children.
I've been that sort at several jobs, leaving behind tools and
mechanisms that made the job easier not only for myself but for those
who followed me. I've met up with former coworkers who confirmed how
handy those were. A couple of former coworkers (from different jobs)
both told me that they were better programmers for having worked with
me and seen the sort of thing I do. All because I'm lazy.
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the lazy ones
were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to generalize
the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing that code and
only write the parts that are different. One example of that is what
we call "collections", where we store a lot of the same sort of thing.
Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten that kind of code
(copying from existing, working code and modifying it) for each new
kind of thing being stored. I wrote a bunch of generic collection code
long ago, and just keep reusing it. Maintenance is a lot easier that
way. If a bug is found in the binary tree code, it only has to be
fixed once, not for every kind of binary tree used. I also made the
interfaces similar between different kinds of collections, so code that
uses a singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding was
supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and intuitive for
programmers to isolate common things and incorporate them into other
things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot of copy-and-paste
by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was to write an
intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the problem is
people. In software development, we keep getting new languages and
tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real problem is with the
coders, not the tools.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
To the best of knowledge those guide books are still being used. Maybe I
should have had them published?
I gave up the summer camp director job, and worked full time the last 13
years to maximize my pension.
LOL, pensions! I've never had one of those, except for a very
small amount in one with a state government I worked for. All my
other employers have gone with the system that employees can save for
their own retirement, with some of them helping out a bit. Part of my
career I've been self-employed, so I was able to be very generous with
the employer matching on the retirement plan there. IIRC, the employee
portion was something like $11K (maxed out per fed limits), but the
*employer* was more like $30K, with both parts tax deferred.
I always had a small side business.
I only created mine to be able to do 1099 contracts. Unfortunately,
due to federal government interference, few clients are willing to go
that route anymore. Instead, they bring in a contracting company to do
the "payrolling", and I end up a W-2 employee of that company,
generally with little to no benefits, and clearly losing some of what
the client is willing to pay. On one of my recent gigs, the
contracting company recruiter claimed it was a 1099 position with them,
so even though there'd be a middleman I'd still have some of the other
advantages of independent contracting. Unfortunately, it turned out to
be W-2, and they had no 401K at all. Kind of pissed me off a bit, but
it was still good work for a good rate, so I took it.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I now just play at the electronics bench and have rediscovered the joy of
ham radio. While CW is not required any more. I am working at regaining the
CW skill I had 45 years ago. I have some hearing damage and have trouble
hearing the spaces at speeds over 15 WPM.
I never got into ham, though a couple of times I considered it. My
hearing could be a problem for that, so I'm probably better off just
going with things like Usenet, where it doesn't matter. I can still
find plenty of people from all over the world to talk with, and don't
need any special equipment or license for it. A friend who was into
that gave me a set of flash cards for Morse, but I didn't spend much
time on them before oh look a squirrel!
LOL. No code and simple equipment. at 11pm last night after everyone had
gone off an hour before, while listening to the light crackle of electrons
turning into arctic plasma, I heard a voice on 75 meters a voice "calling
the US mainland". It was a ham operator on the big island in Hawaii. I
handled a phone call to the northwest where power was off. I found a ham
operator willing to do a health and welfare check on his parents who had
been without phone or power for three days. 40 minutes later the ham had
driven to their house got his parents on a mobile radio. There is regular
group which meets at 9:00pm nightly and usually is all done chatting back
by 10:30, you know a bunch of old folks. All in the same 58-72 age bracket.
As I've explained to others, that's "middle aged", not "old". The
first 50 years are "young", the next 50 "middle aged", and the final 50
"old". I'm just barely middle aged myself.
Post by Bob Officer
And the cost of a good used HF radio is often less than a laptop. The radio
I was working was working on is a 1985 vintage icom radio, bought for less
than 90 bucks. I have about 40 in parts and few hours work, which I more or
less discount. I will sell that radio for 135 or 150 if I don't have to buy
any more parts... I usually those in a 15/20/40 meter antenna kit for
another 15 bucks. With instructions to make simple antennas in several
different configurations.
I enjoy working on these things.
That's the best reason to do it. I used to like messing around with
electronics (still have a bunch of tools and parts), but now I have
more fun with home brewing. I also use to do a lot of bicycling, but
that's gone by the wayside the last few years too.
Bob Officer
2016-11-04 03:59:53 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
And now I realize I was seeing that backwards. Presumably, your
comment was meant to indicate that the puna *is* a big cat, since small
cats purr while big cats roar. It does neither, and from what I can
find, whether it is "big" or not depends on whom you ask. So, if the
puma is being considered "big" for lack of purring, then we have *two*
big cats in North America, while if it's considered "small" for lack of
roaring (I don't think the scream counts), then we only have the one.
Do you have an authoritative source, preferably with showing the clades
and how they relate?
I am not that sure. I might have run across years ago when I worked as a
summer camp naturalist. While my speciality was stars and constellations
with a mix of geology and tide pool sea life... I had to know enough of the
other facts and stuff from different guide books.
In that case, it may have changed since. Biologists keep refining
their classifications. I learned on the old Kingdom Phylum Class Order
Family Genus Species arrangement, with for example the idea that humans
evolved from a common ancestor of both apes and humans. The current
system seems to have dropped all levels but Species (which is a bit
awkward in itself) as meaningless distinctions, and classifies humans
as a *king* of ape, which in turn are a kind of monkey. So now, we can
say with confidence that we are not descended from monkeys, we are
monkeys.
Just we are vertebrates...and all apes and monkeys share a common
proto-ancestor. Just as bears, and IIRC raccoons and I am trying to recall
what other animal seem share a common ancestor.
It goes further than apes and monkeys having a common ancestor. The
idea is that there is no set of attributes which apply to all of what
we used to refer to as "monkeys" but do not also apply to all apes.
That means that apes are a subset of monkeys, not distinct from them.
I have some resistance to this system, as it seems to me that it
removes some useful terms. For instance, what word do we have for
monkeys that are not apes, or lizards that are not snakes, or any
number of other subset situations that used to be considered distinct
groups? Still, it seems that facts are considered (by those stuck-up
biologists) more important than my opinions.
Post by Bob Officer
Ever see the big wheel display of moths and butterflies arranged by common
order?
The tree of life is odd and we only see part of it.
I don't think I've seen that wheel, but I have seen some very complex
diagrams of other subsets of life. Life simply doesn't conform to a
nice, simple, organized system for our convenience. That's what
happens when you let a bunch of random, directionless mechanisms work,
instead of using any sort of intelligent designer.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I was lucky the prior naturalist left all sorts of notes and stuff for me.
I worked 5 summers, and made my own copies of his notes and built them into
a set of localized guide booklets. Then when I was a summer camp director
later in time, I used that same style of guide booklets to build
presentations geared for 10-17 year old children.
I've been that sort at several jobs, leaving behind tools and
mechanisms that made the job easier not only for myself but for those
who followed me. I've met up with former coworkers who confirmed how
handy those were. A couple of former coworkers (from different jobs)
both told me that they were better programmers for having worked with
me and seen the sort of thing I do. All because I'm lazy.
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the lazy ones
were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to generalize
the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing that code and
only write the parts that are different. One example of that is what
we call "collections", where we store a lot of the same sort of thing.
Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten that kind of code
(copying from existing, working code and modifying it) for each new
kind of thing being stored. I wrote a bunch of generic collection code
long ago, and just keep reusing it. Maintenance is a lot easier that
way. If a bug is found in the binary tree code, it only has to be
fixed once, not for every kind of binary tree used. I also made the
interfaces similar between different kinds of collections, so code that
uses a singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding was
supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and intuitive for
programmers to isolate common things and incorporate them into other
things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot of copy-and-paste
by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was to write an
intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the problem is
people. In software development, we keep getting new languages and
tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real problem is with the
coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
To the best of knowledge those guide books are still being used. Maybe I
should have had them published?
I gave up the summer camp director job, and worked full time the last 13
years to maximize my pension.
LOL, pensions! I've never had one of those, except for a very
small amount in one with a state government I worked for. All my
other employers have gone with the system that employees can save for
their own retirement, with some of them helping out a bit. Part of my
career I've been self-employed, so I was able to be very generous with
the employer matching on the retirement plan there. IIRC, the employee
portion was something like $11K (maxed out per fed limits), but the
*employer* was more like $30K, with both parts tax deferred.
I always had a small side business.
I only created mine to be able to do 1099 contracts. Unfortunately,
due to federal government interference, few clients are willing to go
that route anymore. Instead, they bring in a contracting company to do
the "payrolling", and I end up a W-2 employee of that company,
generally with little to no benefits, and clearly losing some of what
the client is willing to pay. On one of my recent gigs, the
contracting company recruiter claimed it was a 1099 position with them,
so even though there'd be a middleman I'd still have some of the other
advantages of independent contracting. Unfortunately, it turned out to
be W-2, and they had no 401K at all. Kind of pissed me off a bit, but
it was still good work for a good rate, so I took it.
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has almost
gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a CnC to do
just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off corners. And it is
small niche type market and could be close to market saturation. The item
very durable, it simple does not wear out.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I now just play at the electronics bench and have rediscovered the joy of
ham radio. While CW is not required any more. I am working at regaining the
CW skill I had 45 years ago. I have some hearing damage and have trouble
hearing the spaces at speeds over 15 WPM.
I never got into ham, though a couple of times I considered it. My
hearing could be a problem for that, so I'm probably better off just
going with things like Usenet, where it doesn't matter. I can still
find plenty of people from all over the world to talk with, and don't
need any special equipment or license for it. A friend who was into
that gave me a set of flash cards for Morse, but I didn't spend much
time on them before oh look a squirrel!
LOL. No code and simple equipment. at 11pm last night after everyone had
gone off an hour before, while listening to the light crackle of electrons
turning into arctic plasma, I heard a voice on 75 meters a voice "calling
the US mainland". It was a ham operator on the big island in Hawaii. I
handled a phone call to the northwest where power was off. I found a ham
operator willing to do a health and welfare check on his parents who had
been without phone or power for three days. 40 minutes later the ham had
driven to their house got his parents on a mobile radio. There is regular
group which meets at 9:00pm nightly and usually is all done chatting back
by 10:30, you know a bunch of old folks. All in the same 58-72 age bracket.
As I've explained to others, that's "middle aged", not "old". The
first 50 years are "young", the next 50 "middle aged", and the final 50
"old". I'm just barely middle aged myself.
Well the no code is the current nice draw. And if you have trouble hearing
there is digital modes of all sorts.
I know a guy that works moon bounce...
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
And the cost of a good used HF radio is often less than a laptop. The radio
I was working was working on is a 1985 vintage icom radio, bought for less
than 90 bucks. I have about 40 in parts and few hours work, which I more or
less discount. I will sell that radio for 135 or 150 if I don't have to buy
any more parts... I usually those in a 15/20/40 meter antenna kit for
another 15 bucks. With instructions to make simple antennas in several
different configurations.
I enjoy working on these things.
That's the best reason to do it. I used to like messing around with
electronics (still have a bunch of tools and parts), but now I have
more fun with home brewing. I also use to do a lot of bicycling, but
that's gone by the wayside the last few years too.
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more per
day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just below the
wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then start riding up,
by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8 miles up,the grade to
the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I ride down to the flats and
start back up. I make two complete climbs and descents and a partial
descent and ascent as a cool down. Total of 27 miles...
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-11-04 16:07:05 UTC
Permalink
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the
lazy ones were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to
generalize the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing
that code and only write the parts that are different. One example
of that is what we call "collections", where we store a lot of the
same sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten
that kind of code (copying from existing, working code and
modifying it) for each new kind of thing being stored. I wrote a
bunch of generic collection code long ago, and just keep reusing
it. Maintenance is a lot easier that way. If a bug is found in
the binary tree code, it only has to be fixed once, not for every
kind of binary tree used. I also made the interfaces similar
between different kinds of collections, so code that uses a
singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding
was supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and
intuitive for programmers to isolate common things and incorporate
them into other things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot
of copy-and-paste by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was
to write an intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the
problem is people. In software development, we keep getting new
languages and tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real
problem is with the coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
I'm missing something, possibly because I don't know enough about
Morse. How is it a binary tree? In software, a binary tree is a
structure to store things in order. It makes search times on the
order of the base-two logarithm of the number of things being stored,
which is great for large collections though meaningless for small ones.
Maybe there's a joke there that's going over my head, or under my feet.

<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has
almost gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a
CnC to do just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off
corners. And it is small niche type market and could be close to
market saturation. The item very durable, it simple does not wear
out.
I'm intrigued. What sort of item is it? Is there room to improve the
tools, jigs, etc. to make it easier for you?

<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
Bob Officer
2016-11-05 02:01:59 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the
lazy ones were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to
generalize the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing
that code and only write the parts that are different. One example
of that is what we call "collections", where we store a lot of the
same sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten
that kind of code (copying from existing, working code and
modifying it) for each new kind of thing being stored. I wrote a
bunch of generic collection code long ago, and just keep reusing
it. Maintenance is a lot easier that way. If a bug is found in
the binary tree code, it only has to be fixed once, not for every
kind of binary tree used. I also made the interfaces similar
between different kinds of collections, so code that uses a
singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding
was supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and
intuitive for programmers to isolate common things and incorporate
them into other things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot
of copy-and-paste by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was
to write an intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the
problem is people. In software development, we keep getting new
languages and tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real
problem is with the coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
I'm missing something, possibly because I don't know enough about
Morse. How is it a binary tree? In software, a binary tree is a
structure to store things in order. It makes search times on the
order of the base-two logarithm of the number of things being stored,
which is great for large collections though meaningless for small ones.
Maybe there's a joke there that's going over my head, or under my feet.
I thinks should be a starting point:
https://www.mathworks.com/moler/exm/chapters/morse.pdf

Or do a google search on "morse code binary tree"
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has
almost gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a
CnC to do just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off
corners. And it is small niche type market and could be close to
market saturation. The item very durable, it simple does not wear
out.
I'm intrigued. What sort of item is it? Is there room to improve the
tools, jigs, etc. to make it easier for you?
I make the jigs so it is just simple push aluminum stock to the stop and
operate a cut off saw then clap the pieces and drill and then chamfer the
holes. The last process is rounding off the sharp corners. Packaging and
mailing. I do about 150 pieces a day over a three or four day period. No
advertising costs for me, it is all sold in small independent craft shops.
Word of mouth seems to work well.
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
I have done couple century's this year, and one double century last year
maybe ten century's last year. I passed on doing the double because I ran
net control for the course, ham radio operators furnished most of the
communications because the majority of your course was outside cell
coverage. The last fees year I been working more back up and support for
rides rather than riding. I did a grandfondo a few years back and it was
fun, but crowded. I actually rode with my radio and was field support for
the VIP/Pros which were riding that day. Too many riders for my taste.
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-11-06 02:30:13 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the
lazy ones were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to
generalize the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing
that code and only write the parts that are different. One example
of that is what we call "collections", where we store a lot of the
same sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten
that kind of code (copying from existing, working code and
modifying it) for each new kind of thing being stored. I wrote a
bunch of generic collection code long ago, and just keep reusing
it. Maintenance is a lot easier that way. If a bug is found in
the binary tree code, it only has to be fixed once, not for every
kind of binary tree used. I also made the interfaces similar
between different kinds of collections, so code that uses a
singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding
was supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and
intuitive for programmers to isolate common things and incorporate
them into other things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot
of copy-and-paste by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was
to write an intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the
problem is people. In software development, we keep getting new
languages and tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real
problem is with the coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
I'm missing something, possibly because I don't know enough about
Morse. How is it a binary tree? In software, a binary tree is a
structure to store things in order. It makes search times on the
order of the base-two logarithm of the number of things being stored,
which is great for large collections though meaningless for small ones.
Maybe there's a joke there that's going over my head, or under my feet.
https://www.mathworks.com/moler/exm/chapters/morse.pdf
Or do a google search on "morse code binary tree"
OK, that just looks like a somewhat arbitrary way to build a binary
tree from Morse codes. You could just as easily make the left-right
decision based on textual order. As for storage, a binary tree is
generally not a good collection class for such a small collection.
For storing Morse letters based on the sequence of dots and dashes,
it would be simpler and smaller to simply put them in an array, with
the index being based on a five-bit integer, either using dots as
zeros and dashes as ones or the other way around, and either starting
with the least-significant bit or the most, so there would be four
different obvious ways to do the index. This would require only a
array of 32 items, each a single byte, with no overhead. It's a sort
of hash table with no collisions. With no parsing required, access is
extremely fast.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has
almost gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a
CnC to do just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off
corners. And it is small niche type market and could be close to
market saturation. The item very durable, it simple does not wear
out.
I'm intrigued. What sort of item is it? Is there room to improve the
tools, jigs, etc. to make it easier for you?
I make the jigs so it is just simple push aluminum stock to the stop and
operate a cut off saw then clap the pieces and drill and then chamfer the
holes. The last process is rounding off the sharp corners. Packaging and
mailing. I do about 150 pieces a day over a three or four day period. No
advertising costs for me, it is all sold in small independent craft shops.
Word of mouth seems to work well.
Given that you're nearing your limit on capacity, I would think
advertising would be a bad thing. That sounds like a nice business to
be in, in any case, building things that help other people build things.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
I have done couple century's this year, and one double century last year
maybe ten century's last year. I passed on doing the double because I ran
net control for the course, ham radio operators furnished most of the
communications because the majority of your course was outside cell
coverage. The last fees year I been working more back up and support for
rides rather than riding. I did a grandfondo a few years back and it was
fun, but crowded. I actually rode with my radio and was field support for
the VIP/Pros which were riding that day. Too many riders for my taste.
I'm trying to picture the timing on a double century. Even if you
start out very early in the day and keep up a good pace, that seems
extreme. For instance, keeping up a average speed of 20mph for 10
hours? No thanks! After 100 miles, I'm generally pretty knackered,
and just want a shower, change of clothes, aspirin, and plenty of beer.
After that, I usually don't want to look at a bicycle for a few days.
I'm not into the group rides, though that's what those two-day rides
were, with the National MS Society. I got really tired of those, with
all the riders who shouldn't be allowed on public roads. We had teams
riding four across, blocking the entire lane (so they could talk), and
going far slower than many riders want to go. We also had riders who
ran red lights, etc., like we were somehow entitled because we were
part of a charity event. The organizers made a very light effort to
get people to stop doing these things, but they really wanted as many
riders (donations!) as possible, so they weren't very serious. I've
also done a bit of riding with one other person (three different ones
at different times), but the vast majority of my miles have been solo.
I'm the same way with the motorcycle. I like riding two up with my
wife, but have only done group riding a couple of times, and didn't
like it much. For that matter, I'm the same way with cars!
Bob Officer
2016-11-07 04:54:13 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the
lazy ones were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to
generalize the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing
that code and only write the parts that are different. One example
of that is what we call "collections", where we store a lot of the
same sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten
that kind of code (copying from existing, working code and
modifying it) for each new kind of thing being stored. I wrote a
bunch of generic collection code long ago, and just keep reusing
it. Maintenance is a lot easier that way. If a bug is found in
the binary tree code, it only has to be fixed once, not for every
kind of binary tree used. I also made the interfaces similar
between different kinds of collections, so code that uses a
singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding
was supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and
intuitive for programmers to isolate common things and incorporate
them into other things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot
of copy-and-paste by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was
to write an intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the
problem is people. In software development, we keep getting new
languages and tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real
problem is with the coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
I'm missing something, possibly because I don't know enough about
Morse. How is it a binary tree? In software, a binary tree is a
structure to store things in order. It makes search times on the
order of the base-two logarithm of the number of things being stored,
which is great for large collections though meaningless for small ones.
Maybe there's a joke there that's going over my head, or under my feet.
https://www.mathworks.com/moler/exm/chapters/morse.pdf
Or do a google search on "morse code binary tree"
OK, that just looks like a somewhat arbitrary way to build a binary
tree from Morse codes. You could just as easily make the left-right
decision based on textual order. As for storage, a binary tree is
generally not a good collection class for such a small collection.
For storing Morse letters based on the sequence of dots and dashes,
it would be simpler and smaller to simply put them in an array, with
the index being based on a five-bit integer, either using dots as
zeros and dashes as ones or the other way around, and either starting
with the least-significant bit or the most, so there would be four
different obvious ways to do the index. This would require only a
array of 32 items, each a single byte, with no overhead. It's a sort
of hash table with no collisions. With no parsing required, access is
extremely fast.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has
almost gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a
CnC to do just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off
corners. And it is small niche type market and could be close to
market saturation. The item very durable, it simple does not wear
out.
I'm intrigued. What sort of item is it? Is there room to improve the
tools, jigs, etc. to make it easier for you?
I make the jigs so it is just simple push aluminum stock to the stop and
operate a cut off saw then clap the pieces and drill and then chamfer the
holes. The last process is rounding off the sharp corners. Packaging and
mailing. I do about 150 pieces a day over a three or four day period. No
advertising costs for me, it is all sold in small independent craft shops.
Word of mouth seems to work well.
Given that you're nearing your limit on capacity, I would think
advertising would be a bad thing. That sounds like a nice business to
be in, in any case, building things that help other people build things.
And I know there are people that scout ads looking for ideas to improve
upon or had made for the import market from china.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
I have done couple century's this year, and one double century last year
maybe ten century's last year. I passed on doing the double because I ran
net control for the course, ham radio operators furnished most of the
communications because the majority of your course was outside cell
coverage. The last fees year I been working more back up and support for
rides rather than riding. I did a grandfondo a few years back and it was
fun, but crowded. I actually rode with my radio and was field support for
the VIP/Pros which were riding that day. Too many riders for my taste.
I'm trying to picture the timing on a double century. Even if you
start out very early in the day and keep up a good pace, that seems
extreme. For instance, keeping up a average speed of 20mph for 10
hours? No thanks! After 100 miles, I'm generally pretty knackered,
and just want a shower, change of clothes, aspirin, and plenty of beer.
They are run in the summer. 15-16 hours and yes all I want is a hot tube
and beer.
Post by BruceS
After that, I usually don't want to look at a bicycle for a few days.
I usually ride about five miles the next Ray just to stay lose. I general
slack off a few days. I really didn't ride much this year, just enough to
stay in shape, I am off my peak.
Post by BruceS
I'm not into the group rides, though that's what those two-day rides
were, with the National MS Society. I got really tired of those, with
all the riders who shouldn't be allowed on public roads. We had teams
riding four across, blocking the entire lane (so they could talk), and
going far slower than many riders want to go. We also had riders who
ran red lights, etc., like we were somehow entitled because we were
part of a charity event. The organizers made a very light effort to
get people to stop doing these things, but they really wanted as many
riders (donations!) as possible, so they weren't very serious. I've
also done a bit of riding with one other person (three different ones
at different times), but the vast majority of my miles have been solo.
I ridden a few time with my nephews racing team. I usually get dropped
after 15 or twenty minutes unless we are in the mountains. I once rode with
a Sac State women's team from outside of Placerville to the old iron
mountain ski area. Nice ride and great scenery...
Post by BruceS
I'm the same way with the motorcycle. I like riding two up with my
wife, but have only done group riding a couple of times, and didn't
like it much. For that matter, I'm the same way with cars!
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-11-07 17:41:53 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the
lazy ones were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to
generalize the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing
that code and only write the parts that are different. One example
of that is what we call "collections", where we store a lot of the
same sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten
that kind of code (copying from existing, working code and
modifying it) for each new kind of thing being stored. I wrote a
bunch of generic collection code long ago, and just keep reusing
it. Maintenance is a lot easier that way. If a bug is found in
the binary tree code, it only has to be fixed once, not for every
kind of binary tree used. I also made the interfaces similar
between different kinds of collections, so code that uses a
singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding
was supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and
intuitive for programmers to isolate common things and incorporate
them into other things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot
of copy-and-paste by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was
to write an intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the
problem is people. In software development, we keep getting new
languages and tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real
problem is with the coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
I'm missing something, possibly because I don't know enough about
Morse. How is it a binary tree? In software, a binary tree is a
structure to store things in order. It makes search times on the
order of the base-two logarithm of the number of things being stored,
which is great for large collections though meaningless for small ones.
Maybe there's a joke there that's going over my head, or under my feet.
https://www.mathworks.com/moler/exm/chapters/morse.pdf
Or do a google search on "morse code binary tree"
OK, that just looks like a somewhat arbitrary way to build a binary
tree from Morse codes. You could just as easily make the left-right
decision based on textual order. As for storage, a binary tree is
generally not a good collection class for such a small collection.
For storing Morse letters based on the sequence of dots and dashes,
it would be simpler and smaller to simply put them in an array, with
the index being based on a five-bit integer, either using dots as
zeros and dashes as ones or the other way around, and either starting
with the least-significant bit or the most, so there would be four
different obvious ways to do the index. This would require only a
array of 32 items, each a single byte, with no overhead. It's a sort
of hash table with no collisions. With no parsing required, access is
extremely fast.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has
almost gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a
CnC to do just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off
corners. And it is small niche type market and could be close to
market saturation. The item very durable, it simple does not wear
out.
I'm intrigued. What sort of item is it? Is there room to improve the
tools, jigs, etc. to make it easier for you?
I make the jigs so it is just simple push aluminum stock to the stop and
operate a cut off saw then clap the pieces and drill and then chamfer the
holes. The last process is rounding off the sharp corners. Packaging and
mailing. I do about 150 pieces a day over a three or four day period. No
advertising costs for me, it is all sold in small independent craft shops.
Word of mouth seems to work well.
Given that you're nearing your limit on capacity, I would think
advertising would be a bad thing. That sounds like a nice business to
be in, in any case, building things that help other people build things.
And I know there are people that scout ads looking for ideas to improve
upon or had made for the import market from china.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
I have done couple century's this year, and one double century last year
maybe ten century's last year. I passed on doing the double because I ran
net control for the course, ham radio operators furnished most of the
communications because the majority of your course was outside cell
coverage. The last fees year I been working more back up and support for
rides rather than riding. I did a grandfondo a few years back and it was
fun, but crowded. I actually rode with my radio and was field support for
the VIP/Pros which were riding that day. Too many riders for my taste.
I'm trying to picture the timing on a double century. Even if you
start out very early in the day and keep up a good pace, that seems
extreme. For instance, keeping up a average speed of 20mph for 10
hours? No thanks! After 100 miles, I'm generally pretty knackered,
and just want a shower, change of clothes, aspirin, and plenty of beer.
They are run in the summer. 15-16 hours and yes all I want is a hot tube
and beer.
LOL, after that much time on a bicycle, I'm really not in the mood for
a "hot tube". Maybe one of these days I should shoot for one of those
rides, though I'd have to work up to it gradually. I could get in a
century relatively early, like early June, and go for a 150 day in
July, maybe make it to 200 in August or September. If I could do
that, I'd feel a lot better about having been getting lazier over the
last couple of years.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
After that, I usually don't want to look at a bicycle for a few days.
I usually ride about five miles the next Ray just to stay lose. I general
slack off a few days. I really didn't ride much this year, just enough to
stay in shape, I am off my peak.
I didn't ride nearly enough to stay in shape. I'm so far off my peak,
I really should get the trainer out for the cold weather, try to get
back in some semblance of shape for next year.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm not into the group rides, though that's what those two-day rides
were, with the National MS Society. I got really tired of those, with
all the riders who shouldn't be allowed on public roads. We had teams
riding four across, blocking the entire lane (so they could talk), and
going far slower than many riders want to go. We also had riders who
ran red lights, etc., like we were somehow entitled because we were
part of a charity event. The organizers made a very light effort to
get people to stop doing these things, but they really wanted as many
riders (donations!) as possible, so they weren't very serious. I've
also done a bit of riding with one other person (three different ones
at different times), but the vast majority of my miles have been solo.
I ridden a few time with my nephews racing team. I usually get dropped
after 15 or twenty minutes unless we are in the mountains. I once rode with
a Sac State women's team from outside of Placerville to the old iron
mountain ski area. Nice ride and great scenery...
Sometimes the nice scenery is just what you need as incentive to keep
going.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm the same way with the motorcycle. I like riding two up with my
wife, but have only done group riding a couple of times, and didn't
like it much. For that matter, I'm the same way with cars!
We seem to have completely lost the OP, who thought there were a bunch
of things science couldn't explain. Oh well. I like Dara O'Briain's
bit about that. He says it's true science doesn't know everything,
because if it did, it would stop. Also, science *knows* it doesn't
know everything. Then there's Aron Ra's take, which goes along the
lines that science doesn't know everything, but religion doesn't know
anything. All in all though, Dara is more fun.
Bob Officer
2016-11-07 18:40:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the
lazy ones were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to
generalize the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing
that code and only write the parts that are different. One example
of that is what we call "collections", where we store a lot of the
same sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten
that kind of code (copying from existing, working code and
modifying it) for each new kind of thing being stored. I wrote a
bunch of generic collection code long ago, and just keep reusing
it. Maintenance is a lot easier that way. If a bug is found in
the binary tree code, it only has to be fixed once, not for every
kind of binary tree used. I also made the interfaces similar
between different kinds of collections, so code that uses a
singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding
was supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and
intuitive for programmers to isolate common things and incorporate
them into other things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot
of copy-and-paste by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was
to write an intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the
problem is people. In software development, we keep getting new
languages and tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real
problem is with the coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
I'm missing something, possibly because I don't know enough about
Morse. How is it a binary tree? In software, a binary tree is a
structure to store things in order. It makes search times on the
order of the base-two logarithm of the number of things being stored,
which is great for large collections though meaningless for small ones.
Maybe there's a joke there that's going over my head, or under my feet.
https://www.mathworks.com/moler/exm/chapters/morse.pdf
Or do a google search on "morse code binary tree"
OK, that just looks like a somewhat arbitrary way to build a binary
tree from Morse codes. You could just as easily make the left-right
decision based on textual order. As for storage, a binary tree is
generally not a good collection class for such a small collection.
For storing Morse letters based on the sequence of dots and dashes,
it would be simpler and smaller to simply put them in an array, with
the index being based on a five-bit integer, either using dots as
zeros and dashes as ones or the other way around, and either starting
with the least-significant bit or the most, so there would be four
different obvious ways to do the index. This would require only a
array of 32 items, each a single byte, with no overhead. It's a sort
of hash table with no collisions. With no parsing required, access is
extremely fast.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has
almost gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a
CnC to do just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off
corners. And it is small niche type market and could be close to
market saturation. The item very durable, it simple does not wear
out.
I'm intrigued. What sort of item is it? Is there room to improve the
tools, jigs, etc. to make it easier for you?
I make the jigs so it is just simple push aluminum stock to the stop and
operate a cut off saw then clap the pieces and drill and then chamfer the
holes. The last process is rounding off the sharp corners. Packaging and
mailing. I do about 150 pieces a day over a three or four day period. No
advertising costs for me, it is all sold in small independent craft shops.
Word of mouth seems to work well.
Given that you're nearing your limit on capacity, I would think
advertising would be a bad thing. That sounds like a nice business to
be in, in any case, building things that help other people build things.
And I know there are people that scout ads looking for ideas to improve
upon or had made for the import market from china.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
I have done couple century's this year, and one double century last year
maybe ten century's last year. I passed on doing the double because I ran
net control for the course, ham radio operators furnished most of the
communications because the majority of your course was outside cell
coverage. The last fees year I been working more back up and support for
rides rather than riding. I did a grandfondo a few years back and it was
fun, but crowded. I actually rode with my radio and was field support for
the VIP/Pros which were riding that day. Too many riders for my taste.
I'm trying to picture the timing on a double century. Even if you
start out very early in the day and keep up a good pace, that seems
extreme. For instance, keeping up a average speed of 20mph for 10
hours? No thanks! After 100 miles, I'm generally pretty knackered,
and just want a shower, change of clothes, aspirin, and plenty of beer.
They are run in the summer. 15-16 hours and yes all I want is a hot tub
and beer.
I hate apples autocorrect sometimes, well most the time.
Post by BruceS
LOL, after that much time on a bicycle, I'm really not in the mood for
a "hot tube". Maybe one of these days I should shoot for one of those
rides, though I'd have to work up to it gradually. I could get in a
century relatively early, like early June, and go for a 150 day in
July, maybe make it to 200 in August or September. If I could do
that, I'd feel a lot better about having been getting lazier over the
last couple of years.
You have to work up to it. Since most all the centuries around here have
some Mountian climbs training going up hill and down is important. Down
hill is more important because the temptation of go just a little too fast
is right there.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
After that, I usually don't want to look at a bicycle for a few days.
I usually ride about five miles the next Ray just to stay lose. I general
slack off a few days. I really didn't ride much this year, just enough to
stay in shape, I am off my peak.
I didn't ride nearly enough to stay in shape. I'm so far off my peak,
I really should get the trainer out for the cold weather, try to get
back in some semblance of shape for next year.
I ride almost every day. I layer up, as winter comes. There are lots of
commuters around here I either wait for them to be done or ride before peak
rush. Now that fall is here I ride after 800am.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm not into the group rides, though that's what those two-day rides
were, with the National MS Society. I got really tired of those, with
all the riders who shouldn't be allowed on public roads. We had teams
riding four across, blocking the entire lane (so they could talk), and
going far slower than many riders want to go. We also had riders who
ran red lights, etc., like we were somehow entitled because we were
part of a charity event. The organizers made a very light effort to
get people to stop doing these things, but they really wanted as many
riders (donations!) as possible, so they weren't very serious. I've
also done a bit of riding with one other person (three different ones
at different times), but the vast majority of my miles have been solo.
I ridden a few time with my nephews racing team. I usually get dropped
after 15 or twenty minutes unless we are in the mountains. I once rode with
a Sac State women's team from outside of Placerville to the old iron
mountain ski area. Nice ride and great scenery...
Sometimes the nice scenery is just what you need as incentive to keep
going.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm the same way with the motorcycle. I like riding two up with my
wife, but have only done group riding a couple of times, and didn't
like it much. For that matter, I'm the same way with cars!
We seem to have completely lost the OP, who thought there were a bunch
I enjoy thread drift. Maybe a little too much. You understand after all
these years I am tired of the petty debates, logical inconsistencies, and
apparent lack of critical thinking. It isn't even fun to bait trolls
anymore. I used to enjoy some of the far ranging discussion which took
place here and in sci.astro*.*

Those were the days.
Post by BruceS
of things science couldn't explain. Oh well. I like Dara O'Briain's
bit about that. He says it's true science doesn't know everything,
because if it did, it would stop. Also, science *knows* it doesn't
know everything. Then there's Aron Ra's take, which goes along the
lines that science doesn't know everything, but religion doesn't know
anything. All in all though, Dara is more fun.
That about it. And science is fun, because it demands to be questioned,
examined, taken apart and rebuilt to be more complete.
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-11-08 16:49:45 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I worked with lots of people, both the smart and the lazy, the
lazy ones were the best, because we only did things one time.
That's been key for me. Instead of writing a bit of code that's
similar to something I've written before, I find a way to
generalize the common parts, so I (and coworkers) can keep reusing
that code and only write the parts that are different. One example
of that is what we call "collections", where we store a lot of the
same sort of thing. Everywhere I've worked, people have rewritten
that kind of code (copying from existing, working code and
modifying it) for each new kind of thing being stored. I wrote a
bunch of generic collection code long ago, and just keep reusing
it. Maintenance is a lot easier that way. If a bug is found in
the binary tree code, it only has to be fixed once, not for every
kind of binary tree used. I also made the interfaces similar
between different kinds of collections, so code that uses a
singly-linked list can be changed to use a binary tree if that
makes sense based on usage, or vice versa. Object oriented coding
was supposed to "fix" this situation, by making it easy and
intuitive for programmers to isolate common things and incorporate
them into other things, but it hasn't worked well. I've seen a lot
of copy-and-paste by OO programmers, when the obvious solution was
to write an intermediate class. To borrow from Douglas Adams, the
problem is people. In software development, we keep getting new
languages and tools, supposedly to improve coding, but the real
problem is with the coders, not the tools.
Yes. One of the best examples of binary trees is actually morse code.
I'm missing something, possibly because I don't know enough about
Morse. How is it a binary tree? In software, a binary tree is a
structure to store things in order. It makes search times on the
order of the base-two logarithm of the number of things being stored,
which is great for large collections though meaningless for small ones.
Maybe there's a joke there that's going over my head, or under my feet.
https://www.mathworks.com/moler/exm/chapters/morse.pdf
Or do a google search on "morse code binary tree"
OK, that just looks like a somewhat arbitrary way to build a binary
tree from Morse codes. You could just as easily make the left-right
decision based on textual order. As for storage, a binary tree is
generally not a good collection class for such a small collection.
For storing Morse letters based on the sequence of dots and dashes,
it would be simpler and smaller to simply put them in an array, with
the index being based on a five-bit integer, either using dots as
zeros and dashes as ones or the other way around, and either starting
with the least-significant bit or the most, so there would be four
different obvious ways to do the index. This would require only a
array of 32 items, each a single byte, with no overhead. It's a sort
of hash table with no collisions. With no parsing required, access is
extremely fast.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I have a small independent enterprise. The current "thing" has
almost gotten to big for a one man shop. I hate to contract out to a
CnC to do just a few small runs of drilling holes and rounding off
corners. And it is small niche type market and could be close to
market saturation. The item very durable, it simple does not wear
out.
I'm intrigued. What sort of item is it? Is there room to improve the
tools, jigs, etc. to make it easier for you?
I make the jigs so it is just simple push aluminum stock to the stop and
operate a cut off saw then clap the pieces and drill and then chamfer the
holes. The last process is rounding off the sharp corners. Packaging and
mailing. I do about 150 pieces a day over a three or four day period. No
advertising costs for me, it is all sold in small independent craft shops.
Word of mouth seems to work well.
Given that you're nearing your limit on capacity, I would think
advertising would be a bad thing. That sounds like a nice business to
be in, in any case, building things that help other people build things.
And I know there are people that scout ads looking for ideas to improve
upon or had made for the import market from china.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
I have done couple century's this year, and one double century last year
maybe ten century's last year. I passed on doing the double because I ran
net control for the course, ham radio operators furnished most of the
communications because the majority of your course was outside cell
coverage. The last fees year I been working more back up and support for
rides rather than riding. I did a grandfondo a few years back and it was
fun, but crowded. I actually rode with my radio and was field support for
the VIP/Pros which were riding that day. Too many riders for my taste.
I'm trying to picture the timing on a double century. Even if you
start out very early in the day and keep up a good pace, that seems
extreme. For instance, keeping up a average speed of 20mph for 10
hours? No thanks! After 100 miles, I'm generally pretty knackered,
and just want a shower, change of clothes, aspirin, and plenty of beer.
They are run in the summer. 15-16 hours and yes all I want is a hot tub
and beer.
I hate apples autocorrect sometimes, well most the time.
I generally ignore typos, whether autocorrect-induced or not, but some
just work, and provide amusement.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
LOL, after that much time on a bicycle, I'm really not in the mood for
a "hot tube". Maybe one of these days I should shoot for one of those
rides, though I'd have to work up to it gradually. I could get in a
century relatively early, like early June, and go for a 150 day in
July, maybe make it to 200 in August or September. If I could do
that, I'd feel a lot better about having been getting lazier over the
last couple of years.
You have to work up to it. Since most all the centuries around here have
some Mountian climbs training going up hill and down is important. Down
hill is more important because the temptation of go just a little too fast
is right there.
It's hard to be truly flat around here (west Denver metro) too. As far
as "too fast" goes, that's a term I'm unfamiliar with. My wife would
like for me to learn the concept, especially considering the protective
gear I wear.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
After that, I usually don't want to look at a bicycle for a few days.
I usually ride about five miles the next Ray just to stay lose. I general
slack off a few days. I really didn't ride much this year, just enough to
stay in shape, I am off my peak.
I didn't ride nearly enough to stay in shape. I'm so far off my peak,
I really should get the trainer out for the cold weather, try to get
back in some semblance of shape for next year.
I ride almost every day. I layer up, as winter comes. There are lots of
commuters around here I either wait for them to be done or ride before peak
rush. Now that fall is here I ride after 800am.
When I was riding regularly, I adjusted my schedule according to the
weather. Sometimes I found myself on a trail parallel to a freeway
with rush-hour traffic. That was always kind of fun, going faster on
my bicycle than a lot of the car traffic. I avoided surface streets
during rush hour though.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm not into the group rides, though that's what those two-day rides
were, with the National MS Society. I got really tired of those, with
all the riders who shouldn't be allowed on public roads. We had teams
riding four across, blocking the entire lane (so they could talk), and
going far slower than many riders want to go. We also had riders who
ran red lights, etc., like we were somehow entitled because we were
part of a charity event. The organizers made a very light effort to
get people to stop doing these things, but they really wanted as many
riders (donations!) as possible, so they weren't very serious. I've
also done a bit of riding with one other person (three different ones
at different times), but the vast majority of my miles have been solo.
I ridden a few time with my nephews racing team. I usually get dropped
after 15 or twenty minutes unless we are in the mountains. I once rode with
a Sac State women's team from outside of Placerville to the old iron
mountain ski area. Nice ride and great scenery...
Sometimes the nice scenery is just what you need as incentive to keep
going.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm the same way with the motorcycle. I like riding two up with my
wife, but have only done group riding a couple of times, and didn't
like it much. For that matter, I'm the same way with cars!
We seem to have completely lost the OP, who thought there were a bunch
I enjoy thread drift. Maybe a little too much. You understand after all
these years I am tired of the petty debates, logical inconsistencies, and
apparent lack of critical thinking. It isn't even fun to bait trolls
anymore. I used to enjoy some of the far ranging discussion which took
place here and in sci.astro*.*
Those were the days.
Thread drift is pretty much automatic with me, whether in a forum like
this or in spoken conversation. I've never been too much of a troll,
though there have been some I really enjoyed watching, and even
encouraging a bit. As to the OP, I'd hoped he'd get just a *little*
bit involved after starting the thread, possibly before it drifted, but
he seems to have just been a hit-and-run type.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
of things science couldn't explain. Oh well. I like Dara O'Briain's
bit about that. He says it's true science doesn't know everything,
because if it did, it would stop. Also, science *knows* it doesn't
know everything. Then there's Aron Ra's take, which goes along the
lines that science doesn't know everything, but religion doesn't know
anything. All in all though, Dara is more fun.
That about it. And science is fun, because it demands to be questioned,
examined, taken apart and rebuilt to be more complete.
It's unfortunate that some take on the mantle of science, but don't
accept the responsibilities. Instead of challenging, testing, and
trying to break their hypotheses, they do whatever they can to
reinforce their foregone conclusions. Science is *about* the doubt,
the questioning, and the revisions as needed. Everything is a bit
tentative, vs. the sure knowledge of dogma.
Bob Officer
2016-11-08 19:21:03 UTC
Permalink
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
<more snip>
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
<snip>
Post by Bob Officer
I do both road and cross country on my bike, usually 20 miles or more
per day. We have a canyon with a real wall. I drive up to a perk just
below the wall, park and then ride down the hill to a flat, and then
start riding up, by the time I get to the wall I am warmed up. The 8
miles up,the grade to the top of the wall is hard exercise. Then I
ride down to the flats and start back up. I make two complete climbs
and descents and a partial descent and ascent as a cool down. Total
of 27 miles...
I used to average something like 1300 miles per season, with a pretty
random mix of 10 - 20 miles rides, 30 - 50, a small number of longer,
and either a century or a two-day ride of about 150 each year. I don't
recall any ride of even 20 miles in 2016, and didn't even have many of
the short ones. I'm having shoulder issues, which I'm getting tested
for, and hope to get resolved. Then I'll have fewer excuses. I've also
considered getting a recumbent bike, which would solve a few problems at
once.
I have done couple century's this year, and one double century last year
maybe ten century's last year. I passed on doing the double because I ran
net control for the course, ham radio operators furnished most of the
communications because the majority of your course was outside cell
coverage. The last fees year I been working more back up and support for
rides rather than riding. I did a grandfondo a few years back and it was
fun, but crowded. I actually rode with my radio and was field support for
the VIP/Pros which were riding that day. Too many riders for my taste.
I'm trying to picture the timing on a double century. Even if you
start out very early in the day and keep up a good pace, that seems
extreme. For instance, keeping up a average speed of 20mph for 10
hours? No thanks! After 100 miles, I'm generally pretty knackered,
and just want a shower, change of clothes, aspirin, and plenty of beer.
They are run in the summer. 15-16 hours and yes all I want is a hot tub
and beer.
I hate apples autocorrect sometimes, well most the time.
I generally ignore typos, whether autocorrect-induced or not, but some
just work, and provide amusement.
My worst auto correct was in sci.astro in the 1980s.

It was a discussion of stellar velocities and involved the word shift.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
LOL, after that much time on a bicycle, I'm really not in the mood for
a "hot tube". Maybe one of these days I should shoot for one of those
rides, though I'd have to work up to it gradually. I could get in a
century relatively early, like early June, and go for a 150 day in
July, maybe make it to 200 in August or September. If I could do
that, I'd feel a lot better about having been getting lazier over the
last couple of years.
You have to work up to it. Since most all the centuries around here have
some Mountian climbs training going up hill and down is important. Down
hill is more important because the temptation of go just a little too fast
is right there.
It's hard to be truly flat around here (west Denver metro) too. As far
as "too fast" goes, that's a term I'm unfamiliar with. My wife would
like for me to learn the concept, especially considering the protective
gear I wear.
Dropping from the top of Mount Hamilton into San Jose. 4,000+ feet to near
sea level 22 miles.

The ride is generally either Livermore or Patterson to San Jose. The
Patterson to San Jose ride makes a double climb and descent.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
After that, I usually don't want to look at a bicycle for a few days.
I usually ride about five miles the next Ray just to stay lose. I general
slack off a few days. I really didn't ride much this year, just enough to
stay in shape, I am off my peak.
I didn't ride nearly enough to stay in shape. I'm so far off my peak,
I really should get the trainer out for the cold weather, try to get
back in some semblance of shape for next year.
I ride almost every day. I layer up, as winter comes. There are lots of
commuters around here I either wait for them to be done or ride before peak
rush. Now that fall is here I ride after 800am.
When I was riding regularly, I adjusted my schedule according to the
weather. Sometimes I found myself on a trail parallel to a freeway
with rush-hour traffic. That was always kind of fun, going faster on
my bicycle than a lot of the car traffic. I avoided surface streets
during rush hour though.
We do not have enough trails. The Denver area is nice.
My late sister lived in Brookfield.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm not into the group rides, though that's what those two-day rides
were, with the National MS Society. I got really tired of those, with
all the riders who shouldn't be allowed on public roads. We had teams
riding four across, blocking the entire lane (so they could talk), and
going far slower than many riders want to go. We also had riders who
ran red lights, etc., like we were somehow entitled because we were
part of a charity event. The organizers made a very light effort to
get people to stop doing these things, but they really wanted as many
riders (donations!) as possible, so they weren't very serious. I've
also done a bit of riding with one other person (three different ones
at different times), but the vast majority of my miles have been solo.
I ridden a few time with my nephews racing team. I usually get dropped
after 15 or twenty minutes unless we are in the mountains. I once rode with
a Sac State women's team from outside of Placerville to the old iron
mountain ski area. Nice ride and great scenery...
Sometimes the nice scenery is just what you need as incentive to keep
going.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
I'm the same way with the motorcycle. I like riding two up with my
wife, but have only done group riding a couple of times, and didn't
like it much. For that matter, I'm the same way with cars!
We seem to have completely lost the OP, who thought there were a bunch
I enjoy thread drift. Maybe a little too much. You understand after all
these years I am tired of the petty debates, logical inconsistencies, and
apparent lack of critical thinking. It isn't even fun to bait trolls
anymore. I used to enjoy some of the far ranging discussion which took
place here and in sci.astro*.*
Those were the days.
Thread drift is pretty much automatic with me, whether in a forum like
this or in spoken conversation. I've never been too much of a troll,
though there have been some I really enjoyed watching, and even
encouraging a bit. As to the OP, I'd hoped he'd get just a *little*
bit involved after starting the thread, possibly before it drifted, but
he seems to have just been a hit-and-run type.
Sort of ruins the day for atroll when he can't control the content of the
replies.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
of things science couldn't explain. Oh well. I like Dara O'Briain's
bit about that. He says it's true science doesn't know everything,
because if it did, it would stop. Also, science *knows* it doesn't
know everything. Then there's Aron Ra's take, which goes along the
lines that science doesn't know everything, but religion doesn't know
anything. All in all though, Dara is more fun.
That's about it. And science is fun, because it demands to be questioned,
examined, taken apart and rebuilt to be more complete.
It's unfortunate that some take on the mantle of science, but don't
accept the responsibilities. Instead of challenging, testing, and
trying to break their hypotheses, they do whatever they can to
reinforce their foregone conclusions. Science is *about* the doubt,
the questioning, and the revisions as needed. Everything is a bit
tentative, vs. the sure knowledge of dogma.
No knowledge is assured, except for the concept, there is more to learn.
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
BruceS
2016-11-08 22:18:41 UTC
Permalink
<with yet more snippage>
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I hate apples autocorrect sometimes, well most the time.
I generally ignore typos, whether autocorrect-induced or not, but some
just work, and provide amusement.
My worst auto correct was in sci.astro in the 1980s.
It was a discussion of stellar velocities and involved the word shift.
At least that red shit is going away from you.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
You have to work up to it. Since most all the centuries around here have
some Mountian climbs training going up hill and down is important. Down
hill is more important because the temptation of go just a little too fast
is right there.
It's hard to be truly flat around here (west Denver metro) too. As far
as "too fast" goes, that's a term I'm unfamiliar with. My wife would
like for me to learn the concept, especially considering the protective
gear I wear.
Dropping from the top of Mount Hamilton into San Jose. 4,000+ feet to near
sea level 22 miles.
The ride is generally either Livermore or Patterson to San Jose. The
Patterson to San Jose ride makes a double climb and descent.
One of the routes I like goes from my house, about 5600' to just over
7300' in just over 7 miles. It feels like a great accomplishment going
up, and is a blast going down. There are a couple of stops on the way
down, but then I can get to my top pedaling speed, then get into a
really tight tuck. I can just imagine dropping 4,000' in about three
times that distance.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
I ride almost every day. I layer up, as winter comes. There are lots of
commuters around here I either wait for them to be done or ride before peak
rush. Now that fall is here I ride after 800am.
When I was riding regularly, I adjusted my schedule according to the
weather. Sometimes I found myself on a trail parallel to a freeway
with rush-hour traffic. That was always kind of fun, going faster on
my bicycle than a lot of the car traffic. I avoided surface streets
during rush hour though.
We do not have enough trails. The Denver area is nice.
My late sister lived in Brookfield.
I'm not familiar with Brookfield. What part of town is that? I agree
that we have a good trail system here, though I still end up doing a
lot of my riding on roads.

<snip>

Bob Officer
2016-11-01 05:37:29 UTC
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Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
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Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
A Cats Purr
Is there anything more symbolic of domesticated contentment than the
purr of a cat? If there is we haven’t heard of it. If you have a cat
then you know just how content your kitty is when they are purring and
there is little more rewarding for a cat owner than to bask in the
love of an adoring cat. Yet, this simple act of purring has kept
scientists on the edge of pulling out their hair for as long as
they’ve been studying our feline friends. Scientists today cannot
figure out how exactly cats manufacture their purring. Scientists to
this day don’t have a solid answer down but the leading hypothesis is
that cats use the vocal folds in their larynx in order to create the
vibrating sounds we interpret as purrs. Why do domesticated cats all
choose to do this? No idea.
Actually felines are divided into two major classes. Large and small cats.
One purrs and the other doesn't.
I only read through any of this because I saw your name on the reply,
so feel free to be complimented. The above is why cheetahs, as large
as they are, are "small cats". We only have one kind of "big cat"
living wild in North America.
The puma does not purr.
The puma is not a "big cat". Jaguars, OTOH, are, and while most of
their range is S America, they not only reach up into Mexico, they've
been spotted as far north as my state, Colorado.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Placebo Effect
If you are a child of the ’90s then the most iconic ‘placebo effect’
moment occurred in the Michael Jordan/Looney Toons crossover Space
Jam. In that film our cartoon heroes drink from a bottle labeled
‘Special Stuff’ and then they are suddenly able to defeat the vile
MonStars in a game of basketball along with the help of Bill Murray
and Michael Jordan (oh weren’t the ’90s incredible?). The thing is,
the placebo effect is real and has been shown to repeatedly occur in
controlled tests by leading scientific studies. As long as your brain
believes that your medication will work then it likely will. Pretty
crazy right? It seems like our brain is willing our body to heal
through the power of our faith in a sugar filled dummy pill. The
craziest thing of all is this: even when we realize that it is just a
placebo, the effect continues to work. The placebo effect isn’t just
restricted to pills either as it can be found widespread in your life.
It isn't reduced that easily.
I've seen synopses of studies showing that the placebo effect is
imaginary. Essentially, the "cure" rates among the placebo group and
the untreated group are within the margin for error. IOW, it isn't the
person believing they're getting a medication that makes them better,
they're just among those who would get better anyway. If I weren't
lazy, I'd provide a cite, or a link to a site, or some other sight.
That is correct and it it ls someplace in my list of URLs...
It's a good thing *someone* isn't as lazy as I am.
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Voynich Manuscript
Alright, we’ve played around with some lighter mysteries and now we
deserve to dig a little deeper. Next up we’ll talk about the
unintelligible Voynich Manuscript. The Voynich Manuscript is a 246
page book that is filled with botanical illustrations along with
written word that modern man has so far been incapable of deciphering.
Carbon dating places the book at around 1400 but our inability to
translate the words in the manuscript has made it near impossible to
place in terms of which civilization or culture it belongs to. Right
now researches are tentatively calling it a book on medicine but there
is no clear reason as to why it is incapable of being translated.
It may have been a created forgery done to fool the rubes. This was done
about the time many forgeries were produced. This large influx of forgeries
include the shroud of Turin which is just one of hundreds of forged
shrouds.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Powerful Cosmic Rays
Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been instrumental in the
world of science for many reasons. One of those reasons is its
application to the GZK Limit. The GZK Limit sets a proposed ceiling on
how powerful cosmic rays can be when they hit Earth and filter through
our atmosphere. However, scientists across the ocean at the Akeno
Observatory of Japan have found powerful cosmic rays that have
routinely blown through this ceiling. The source of these powerful
rays has never been identified and further research has come up dry
when trying to get an answer. Surely, there’s no Marvin the Martian
pointing his gun at our planet. So what’s the deal? Activities like
this remind us that while we have come so far, there is just so very
far to go.
Actually most of them have been sourced.
Post by Garrison Hilliard
The Cocaine Mummies
Cocaine is pretty prevalent in the modern world and it sort of seems
like a timeless drug. The fact is that it hasn’t always been there and
that’s why German scientists, who tested the remnants of Egyptian
mummies, were so floored by the prevalence of the drug. Back in 1992
scientists were testing the chemical make up of Egyptian mummy
remains. Inside the bones, skin, and hair of these embalmed people the
scientists found evidence of cocaine and tobacco. These drugs weren’t
in Egypt at the time as the drug was cultivated in the Americas. There
has been no documented trading between the two communities so the
scientists were understandably baffled. Where were these mummies
getting their fix?
No!
What was detected was compounds from herb which contained nicotines
alkaloids and cocaine like substances. The assumptions that the only
sources of nicotines and cocaine like substances at the plants of North or
South America.
Most all of the Solanaceae family leaves contains nicotines if I recall
corrected.
Lycaeum family of plants is very heavy on the productions of alkaloids and
have many cocaine like properties.
http://www.lycaeum.org/forum/index.php?topic=19933.0
So, the claim was complete bullshit? I'll buy that, even without
reading your cite. As to the original claim, people have been chewing
coca leaves for a very long time. It's nothing new. Then again, maybe
the space aliens who built the pyramids for the ancient Egyptians also
gave them some pharmaceutical grade drugs while they were at it.
Coco leaves are Native to S. America and not found elsewhere until after
1500.
The fact the analysis found coco leave like by products is the assumption
those by products could only be found in coco leaves.\
Right. I was referring to the implication in the OP that cocaine use
is a very recent thing. I don't know what other plants may have
similar chemicals in them, or where those might be found.
I recall that from college level botany class.
The alkaloids are the way the plant tries to protect itself. It is a
defense mechanism.
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by BruceS
Post by Bob Officer
Post by Garrison Hilliard
Why is being right handed the norm?
When you meet someone who is left handed you probably immediately go,
‘Whoa, that’s cool!’. What you don’t take time to realize is this; why
should being left handed be such a rare thing? Conservative estimates
show that 70% of the world’s population is right handed and extreme
estimates conclude that almost 95% of the world is right handed. Why?
What makes this happen? At some point in time we must have decided
that being right handed is ‘correct’.
The truth is handedness is closer to being something best plotted on a bell
curve. When the stats are plotted the norm should be ambidextrous, but
cultural action has shifted the center of the curve. I am preferentially
left handed. And tend to most everything left handed. I even use reversed
paddles with I use a paddle keyed to send Morse code. I can use either hand
with a straight key. But only like using the paddles in my left hand.
And to make the puzzle even worse, I send and receive faster using my left
hand over my write hand. I tend to pick up the pen pencil is left hand but
can write equally well with either hand.
I use a soldering gun/iron in my left hand.
Added to the mix is the echo religious dogma. Do you realize the left
handedness is condemned more times than homosexuality is, in the bible?
As well it should! Homosexuals don't really do anyone any harm, and
even help reduce the rate of human overpopulation. Southpaws, on the
other hand, are an Abomination Before The Lord.
.... .. .... ..
I think most of us can agree that being left-handed is at least as
abhorrent (if not more so) as making images of things, mixing
fabrics, or even making and eating a bacon cheeseburger.
I still don't like bacon... I prefer ground sausage mixed into the beef
with a little garlic.
--
Dunning's work explained in clear, concise and simple terms.
John Cleese on Stupidity
http://youtu.be/wvVPdyYeaQU
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