A selection of music to read by. Or not. No cookie monsters! But really bad vocals on Music the 2nd… threedoor and MikeS will and would be pleased.
Music the 1st. Music the 2nd. Music the 3rd.
This was pulled from a ‘Random Thoughts’ selection when my verbosity got the best of me and it went a little long. A little short for a fleshed out stand alone piece, a little long for a Random Thought item. Maybe the quantum measurement event of you, the reader, reading it will send us along the realization of the universe in which some useful discussion occurs to explore some of the ideas herein. Or just collapse the wave function of the entire universe. We’ll see.
I came across a reference to the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) of quantum mechanics (QM) in a podcast recently, maybe Darkhorse? I’ve always been pretty skeptical of MWI (as was this person though for what I thought was a rather ill thought out reason) as it just seems like a very 0th order idea that can sound neat, but really isn’t science.
By way of background (and at a very superficial level), in the standard (or at least most widely taught as it has the best developed mathematical tools) ‘interpretation’ of QM (the Copenhagen Interpretation), nature is inherently in-deterministic, probabilistic, and the act of measurement – a quantum measurement – is central to reality; complementary properties like position and velocity for a particle can never be specified/measured simultaneously. One of the central properties that obtains from these sorts of axioms (whether they are really axioms or principles derived from observations of quantum systems is perhaps chicken vs egg) is that the reality of object is the wave function, a sort of ‘probabilistic field’ that will tell you, for example, what the likelihood is that a particle will have a certain position or velocity. One of the experimental examples of this is the double slit experiment, wherein if you pass a beam of light through two slits, it will behave as a wave, producing an interference pattern on a screen behind the slits. However, electromagnetic radiation is mediated/carried by photons; if you actually measure which slit a photon passes through (so you know the location of the photon), light will act as a particle rather than a wave and produce to bright bands on the screen. This well established phenomena leads to the idea of wave function ‘collapse’; prior to the measurement, the photons wave function is such that it passes through both slits and produces interference. If you measure which slit the photon passes through, the wave function ‘collapses’ to a photon that passes through a single slit and you destroy the wave interference. Schrödinger’s Cat is a macroscopic gedankenexperiment of this phenomena.
What is a wave function? What does it mean to ‘collapse’ when there is a quantum measurement? There’s no real satisfactory explanation of these concepts, so, while pretty widely tolerated (and having a useful explanatory and predictive mathematical framework associated with it), this view of QM is somewhat unsatisfactory. The MWI arose as a way of bypassing the need to define what a wave function is or what a ‘collapse’ is in the context of a quantum measurement. In MWI, all possible outcomes, all possible paths, exist simultaneously. When we perform a quantum measurement, rather than some wave function collapse, we simply continue on in the universe that manifests that particular outcome of the measurement. All the other possible outcomes continue to exist is non-interacting universes. In the case of the double slit experiment, rather than a wave function collapse when we measure which slit the photon passes through, we simply continue on in the universe where the photon passed through the slit we measured while all the other possible outcomes of the quantum measurement continue to exist in other universes which we cannot communicate with. For Schrödinger’s Cat, a universe exists for both a live cat and a dead cat.
While this gains a deterministic universe, it seems even less ‘sciency’ than the wave function/collapse. Both are unfalsifiable but at least one might envision we could identify, at some point, what a wave function is (beyond a mathematical convenience) and define what a ‘collapse’ means. But, really by construction, you can never observe the non-interacting infinite parallel universes that must exist in the MWI (some experiments have claimed to ‘disprove’ the MWI, but I haven’t read up on how such a thing is even possible let alone the mechanistic approach). But beyond it not being any particular improvement – except the determinism, which is really no small thing I suppose – it’s no more aesthetically pleasing. For one, note that a quantum measurement does not require a sentient being to either initiate it or observe it – it is any event that changes the quantum state of a system. So at any instant, there are an infinity of quantum measurements occurring – every subatomic collision, every photon interaction with an atom, molecule, or brick. Down to some quantization of time and space, there are an infinite number of time instances, each with an infinite number of possible spatial realizations of a quantum measurement. So you need an uncountably – to put it mildly – infinite number of universes to exist. None of which can be sensed, observed, inferred except for the one we happen to occupy. It is not a binary tree of branching into two universes at moments we as humans recognize as having two possible outcomes (though that’s almost always how it’s presented); It’s an infinite number of universes always existing at an infinite number of time slices.
How that is science is beyond me. Much like a ‘wave function’ collapse, it really just sweeps our lack of understanding behind a largely unfalsifiable screen. That’s not the realm of science but rather the metaphysics of religion. If one needs to postulate an infinite infinity of simultaneously existing universes encompassing all the possible tracks or the ‘collapse’ of something that we cannot define let alone define what ‘collapse’ means, you might as well just go with a bearded guy on a cloud throne. That metaphysics at least has the benefit of being informed, hopefully, by 1000s of generations of actual human experience so as to reflect some value in the accrued knowledge of how to be. Quantum mechanics is a useful description of reality and the mechanisms of how to work within its formalism prove invaluable in designing and understanding countless devices and ideas. But the fundamental notion of what it is, is completely in the realm of religious metaphysics at this stage and until the interpretations are, at the very least, falsifiable, they are not scientific.
#metoo
I think a bunch of SF writers got high and came up with this shit. That’s all it’s good for.
Somewhere, in a number of infinite universes, people are throwing green dildos at the Dallas Cowboys.
In an infinite number of infinite universes, an infinite number of people are throwing an infinite number of dildos of infinite shades of green at the Dallas Cowboys.
In all of those universes, Troy Aikman is boring AF.
In all the infinite universes, and all the possibilities, the Cowboys still fail to win a Superbowl.
Minnesoda Vikings has a sad.
Yeah, it was Darkhorse.
The spaceX flight was perfect, it burned a bit but landed next to a spacex ship, amazing.
/sorry Putrid
No need to pologize; I consider comments on anything I throw against the wall to be open from moment the 1st.
Sciency….
And absolutely amazing. Grabbed shot from SpaceX stream
The vapor cone on liftoff was amazing
I understood the “Good Evening Class” but after that I was lost which isn’t all that unusual but still…
My brain is broken but very interesting Putrid. Thanks for the thought piece
Don’t thank him unless he’s supplying acid tabs.
I’ve got some acetic acid I can put on paper squares.
“Don’t thank him unless he’s supplying acid tabs.”
Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!!!!
*holds out hand, drenched in anticipation*
OBE mirrors my thoughts for the moment. I also just woke up after a four-hour nap. (It’s my Saturday. I don’t got shit tomorrow.)
I’m quite science-y and I love it, but my math-y is near non-existent. Combine the two, and I ‘know’ very little, other than what I can read and remember.
Under what criteria would a new universe spawn? Do they all get instant mass for the infinite proliferation? Or is there some deduplication where identical zones are reused until some deviation enters them?
I’m going to need some evidence before I can really start to accept this academic brain wanking as a possibility.
I don’t think of it as ‘spawning’. That way lies (even more) madness. You end up with the problem you describe. What criteria create a ‘spawn’? Without imparting some sort of conciseness to determine with events are meaningful, at every infinite instant of time there are an infinite number of possibilities – for the scattering direction of a photon, for a particle moving in a random walk, etc. Infinite to the infinite. I ‘imagine’ it as simply picking a particular path rather than spawning a whole new universe.
But it’s all pretty unsatisfactory. Both wavefunction collapse and many worlds are the modern ‘sophisticated’ version of Zeus is throwing thunderbolts to explain thunder. Maybe one day we’ll figure out what the observations associated with quantum phenomena mean is some real way, but up until then, it’s really religion disguised as science. But sometimes you need that academic brain wanking to drive the bus until something else manifests. My ‘objection’ (probably too strong a word) is treating that wanking as anything more than that, as if it really has some physical reality to it and is more ‘real’ than any other philosophers ruminations about the metaphysics of the universe.
Simplest explaination is single universe where we have imperfect means of measurement. As such there are gaps in what we can observe and we end up inventing an aether to explain the gaps.
I’ve found the proper car for Evan.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/257075253947
We may need to crowd fund it though…
It’s in Pennsylvania.
That’s where the cool kids are. Duh.
You can’t fool me, I’ve been to Pennsylvania.
Not the cool parts.
Sounds to me like you’re Livin in the fridge
I found another one. Perfection.
https://ebay.us/m/31wn2e
It’s no fun if Evan doesn’t play. Hopefully he goes back and starts on the last thread when he notices.
The lack of a radiator has me concerned that it will have trouble.
Also it is packed with garbage. Just a monstrous mess.
This looks delightful. Needs a new interior.
https://ebay.us/m/DdWC0O
I’d rather have something resembling a stock Model A than whatever it is they’ve done to that poor thing.
lol WTF
I feel like someone is punk’ing us
Semi float 14 bolt, 10 bolt front end, tacked on suspension brackets…
$2500,
Tops.
Looked at the rest of the pictures of the van.
$1500 tops.
No brake lines.
No steering
No drivelines
Lift is about 4” too high.
You know who else drove Volkswagens?
Filthy hippies
🤮
Dean Jones?
Jerry Seinfeld?
I was expecting a bumper car.
Another night of making metal stick together. Progress, not perfection. This old dog is still learning new tricks.
There are probably reasons why it hasn’t been done before (cost and space limitations most likely), but I wonder about the benefit of using some kind of rig to help with welding. Sort of like a cross between a tensor lamp and one of those pivoting alligator clip gizmos. Crocodile clip specimen holder, I think it’s called.
suggested music: bluegrass + death metal = bloodbath banjo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XszYJDWBuYE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip5e9NUvX6A
Ive seen plenty of wire feeders on gimbals
Old worn out three lathe three jaws for welding pipe
Recently I’ve been spending too much on Fireball Tool clamps and jigs. I doubt I’ll ever buy an official welding table though.
I need to take some classes myself.
This pipeline welding robot is neat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJoQOj0pYHM
If I was a smarter man, I’d have taken a welding class back in 2010 while hunting for my first engineering job. Oh well. The welding class here for FL residents is crazy cheap – $440 for 18 weeks @ 12 hours per week. I paid $9500 for my first welding course in GA when I was in the Army. I heard stuff about tuition assistance, etc, but at that point, I’d been shoved in an insane asylum and had no further interest in Army paperwork or bureaucracy of any sort. I made enough in 3 months at my first welding job to cover the cost of the class. I remember showing the receipt to Army psychiatrist in the insane asylum and saying “look, if I was suicidal, why did I just plunk down almost 10K for a welding class?”
It’s been almost 5 years and the whole ordeal still bothers me. Tomorrow I will swim and go to a newly discovered Thai/Vietnamese food truck. Now I don’t have to drive to Gainesville for that grub. Perhaps I’ll try the Greek food truck on Friday.
I have a couple of the old school acorn platen tables.
They likely inflated their prices knowing they would get military tuition assistance.
I built a table out of 2 1/2” plate. It’s 29” on a side. I need to cut it apart and figure out if I can get it on the mill. I think with the big head I have for the mill I can true it up. It’s most 1/16” out of level across.
I have some fairly simple ‘robots’ in my welding truck. All based on old Stoody Crusher Matic III stuff from the 70s. Gear my dad built in the 90s with a few updates over the decades.
I do rolls crusher rebuilding for a living.
I like this auto grinder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAdelv4GIRg
On the other, grinding with a 2 hand Metabo builds upper body strength. And character!
Sparky sparky time is fun.
I just learned from ESPN that tennis is not thriving in “under-resourced communities”. 😢
Are they likewise bemoaning the scourge of “polo deserts.” 🙄
Hey now, have some sympathy for yacht-deprived Americans and the horseless.
My brain bends thinking about this stuff.
amusing – childless pet mom says men doing housework will solve fertility crisis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Goldin#Personal_life
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/to-raise-fertility-rates-it-s-not-women-who-need-to-step-up-it-s-men/ar-AA1LglPZ
Here that, you lazy shits? Those dishes won’t do themselves.
Alice in Quantumland is a fun primer for kids of all ages. Plus it’s by an actual physicist.
https://drexel.edu/coas/faculty-research/faculty-directory/physics/Robert-Gilmore/
PhD in 1967?
Does he even common core math?!
QUIET, YOU!
***
Calculus for the Practical Man was the book that caught his attention, and he started learning from it, taking notes meticulously as he went along. Feynman found Algebra for the Practical Man easy but did not find trigonometry useful or interesting. However, calculus was different.
***
SAT, ASVAB, etc only test about 60 different concepts. I tried to go straight into just teaching those concepts, but oh no, you must follow the book, syllabus, treasure map herp herp herpa derp. I’ve forgotten more math than 99% of people will ever know, but that’s reason to ignore what some windowlicker bureaucrat has to say.
Shorter: there is no point in trying to teach kids anything until they are taught by their parents how to behave.
“Shorter: there is no point in trying to teach kids anything until they are taught by their parents how to behave.”
Biggest issue in the black community: 70% born without fathers. Wasn’t always so, and nothing will change until that cycle ends.
The first time I got asked for a pencil, it was from a high school senior wearing expensive shoes at the end of a school year. I was annoyed, but since there was one in easy reach, I handed it to him. In retrospect, I should have simply ignored him.
The second time, at a different school, a 10th grader asked for a pencil at the beginning of the school year. This time, after I handed it to him, I said “this is the last pencil you’ll ever get from me, because you’ve been coming to school for 9 years and should know better.” He started murmuring tough guy stuff til I glared and him.
The students who ask for pencils, etc are always from the same demographic. Make dunce caps great again. Better yet, just pull the plug on the whole farce, refund the taxpayers, fire the teachers and paper pushers, and auction off the buildings, books, and other valuables. Let the parents figure out how to handle their fuck trophies on their own time and dime so no one else has to.
The book I’m reading about China has an annoyed teacher who hits misbehaving students with his fan. Spare the rod, spoil the child.
compare and contrast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0knaGorMgDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F39jZ1UHau0
It’s interesting that proof is just the Germanic version of test. In others, the only way to know something is true is through experience, which also shares a root with “experiment”. That word is garbled Latin for, you guessed it, proof or test.
Does the plane fly? Does the medicine cure? Does whatever you made do what you want consistently? Then your understanding of it is good enough until someone else can make something better.
Glibz After Dark.
https://d3ynq0lna1da74.archive.is/YQO3Q/2c0c6258fa3bba2c55c4d94d52dcfb6e803e72ff.jpg
NSFW.
https://dgn8870n9mqa19.archive.is/GBkVl/69866c8879b0c734c6ea5026510e288df51b8542.jpg
NSFW.
https://d3l5a73fxlnyhv.archive.is/WxY96/50475b1a381201f4037a63269beb8bd596ca9319.jpg
NSFW.
https://dg11k40vwp7jrd.archive.is/CRTKy/12a0a811cb87310e5206ce66f473c8665f9e6f28.jpg
NSFW.
https://d4mvggnf2ghgz7.archive.is/8AWXl/5d1cef68d3d0f1d4a8917f1d6d65f00815f92324.jpg
NSFW.
Oh, yes, a Goddess
Number 1
How’s this?
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2025/08/cosplay-fun.html
I love ya Q. Good picks and would inseminate all. HOWEVER: I want my lithe girls ’round.
I’m 135lb; I want more svelte-ness in my life. Cuz, yes, I like tiny gals I can smother in cuteness.
(Glib applications are welcome.)
There is a popular myth that learning should be easy and fun. It can be, but often it isn’t. Having fun is not the point of learning.
When I was in the Army, I didn’t eat carefully and exercise a lot because I liked it. I did it because I had to meet standards in order to stay in and keep doing the job I trained hard for. Translating Arabic is what I cared about, not any of the other crap.
Whatever. Now I care about welding, and I will get good enough at it to make a living come hell or high water.
And another thing: AI works on probability, so if enough people on the internet say the moon is made of green cheese, that’s what the chatbot will say. It’s not based on accuracy, only which word patterns are the most common.
I love and appreciate all of this.
Understand? Not all. But it’s a start on my end. Thanks for this.
blowgun hog hunting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvWqYEcP5Y
Sounds like something Tres would do…
I’m upset I didn’t start my work after thinking through a possible lede:
A Digital Personal Shopper, I’m an individual gear in grocery factory-work, ensuring you get what you need from where you need it.
Happy national peach day Glibs!
🍑🍑🍑
🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6epzmRZk6UU
🎶🎶. 80s style
Happy National Peach Day!
Good morning, Sean, EfE, Ted’S., Derpy, and U!
Morning.
I hate wednesdays. Not for being the middle of the week, but for being the day in which management has decreed “everyone in the office”. So many loud and annyoing voices, even during my typical quiet time before the start of the workday.
Just SHUT UP ALREADY!
The shouting was directed at the chattering folks in the office and their inane prattle.
😖
How goes things with you?
(I understood the intended recipients of the rant. 👍)
Things go pretty well. I’ve decided to take Thursday and Friday off, but the decision was finally prompted by the need to do some cleaning that I never feel like doing on a regular weekend. However, this means I really should finish drafting the Board meeting minutes today, as my boss (who reads, revises, and gives initial approval to them) is on vacation NEXT week, and by the time he gets back, it’ll be time to get ready for the NEXT meeting.
So, I should not disturb you while you’re working over the long weekend?
Interrupt me when I’m doing housework? Oh, heavens yes! PLEASE do!
The cat may be self-cleaning, but the kitchen isn’t.
It sure is interesting which fatal police shootings make the news, and which don’t.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiX1PQMOam8
Fuck SEPTA.
Raise your rates and STFU.
What did they do this time?
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/septa-cuts-philadelphia-cherelle-parker/?intcid=CNR-02-0623
Nope. Transit is for the poors and therefore it must be priced at what the poors can pay.
Cracker Barrel decides losing money sucks.
https://www.wfmz.com/business/cracker-barrel-relents-says-its-old-logo-will-return/article_ecbd5a95-4026-5f4e-80dc-fedc9818446f.html
No promises to fix their food though. 🤷🏼♂️
Are they going to eject CEO Problem Glasses too?
I thought the food was part of their kitsch?
Aside from whether one likes their food or not, all it takes is one bad exec with a stupid vision to totally screw a solid brand. Like the Bud Light and Jaguar rebrands they should have seen the reaction coming a mile away (and probably did but got steamrolled).
I just want this issue to go away – the world is stupid enough already.
Multiverse or not, I think it’s possible that the universe is the inside of a black hole.
And that there are 13 dimensions, that we can perceive only a subset of them, and dark matter and energy are protections of regular matter and energy in the dimensions we cannot perceive into those we can.
Or, rather than not being able to perceive the other dimensions, we exist in a 4-dimensional subspace of the 13-dimensional hyperspace.
The black hole idea is intriguing no doubt. If that’s the case we exist in kind of a Russian nesting doll of universes. Then again, it’s all a simulation so it doesn’t matter.
This universe does not behave the way our models predict the inside of a black hole to behave.
If you just mean there’s a horizon around the universe, that’s kind of obvious (depending on definition).
Perhaps those models are as useful as Covid and climate models.
True, caring about the inside of a black hole is pretty useless.
Mornin’, reprobates!
Good morning, ‘patzie and ChipP!
Good morning. But it’s only morning on a sliver of one planet around an unremarkable star in a remote arm of an average galaxy among hundreds of billions inside of a black hole floating in who-knows-what?
I work with what I’ve got. 😄🌞(::searches in vain for Earth emoji::)
🌎
I’ve got an emoji with the lesser hemisphere as well.
Thank you, Ted’S.! The trouble is that a recent Windows update broke the emoji search function, and I’m hesitant to undo the update in case there was some vital security fix (HA! Yeah, I know. As if!) Do you know in which general “section” that emoji was?
I’m not on a Windows computer.
#meneither
🌍🌏
Mornin, GT, CP. While on vacation, I picked up a book by John C. Wright, an author is never heard of (which, to be fair, is true of 99.99% of authors). He is a master of sciency, mathy gobbledygook, and I want more. Aging does strange things to one’s mind, I fear.
Today I am declining all of my meetings and going full Do Not Disturb … meaning I’m turning off Teams and email, rather than leaving them on and getting pissy with anyone who messages or emails me.
And thus Chipping misses all the real emergencies, the business burns down and he’s out of a Job.
Good luck in your job search, Chipping.
Or in a more realistic scenario, management goes “Chipping has left work without permission, You’re fired.”
I explicitly said I don’t want to be disturbed and you replied to my post. Rude.
What? You don’t want people to follow your example and shove their business in your notifications?
Hypocrite.
Fighting the good fight, I see. Contra UCS, your unavailability will make your superiors, who have no idea what you actually do, think you are engaged in something incredibly important, and you will be promoted for your initiative and dedication.
This is correct. The scarcer your time is, the more valuable others perceive it. Supply and Command.
😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
He’s GovSec. Promotion is entirely political.
Ask yourself this – if you had a subordinate who was unreachable and you had no idea IF they even did work, would you promote them? As a manager, I’d be coaching them to improve their communication, and getting a better visibility in what they are spending all that expensive time on. They’d be in danger of being let go if I can’t identify their function after performing due diligence.
Just change your name to Reconnecting and no one will ever bother you on Zoom, Teams, etc.
As for email, just have a vague autoreply to discourage any follow up messages.
And if you mix red dye with vodka or rum and put it in a cough syrup bottle, you can get drunk at work and people will stay away from you because they think you’re sick.
visual aids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bXjWRXDFV8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WudqYGYZT9M
These are all excellent ideas. I would subscribe to your leadership coaching blog.
Some days I too feel like going full Falling Down.
The problem behind the problem: Math(tm) is really good at predicting and modeling reality.
The problem: Math(tm) is a language. There’s a reason that Copenhagen and MW are called “interpretations.” When interpreting/translating math into a language that we use in living, we wind up with implications/meanings that don’t make sense to us because of the process of translation. We don’t expect translating poetry between languages to be completely successful; we should also not have that expectation regarding math.
If you don’t get bent out of shape not understanding why people love Sappho, Pushkin or Omar Kayam, don’t worry about understanding QM.
(yes, I’m in the “shut up and calculate” camp.)
The backbone of ATac terminal automation has stepped forward from 1991 to 2005 finally. RHEL is live!
Your new ATC system that Duffy promised!
I don’t remember that….