Would the SAD sufferer prefer going to work / school in the dark? I'm talking about darkness after 8 a.m. in the middle of the winter. Do you stand at a bus stop? That's a very strong memory for me in high school in 1973, when it was instituted as an energy-saver FOR ONE YEAR UNTIL THEY SAID NO MORE. I remember all the lights in the school hallways being turned up, so I doubted how much energy was saved anyway.
Dark mornings don't seem to bother me nearly as much as early dark evenings do; I don't know why, exactly. Oh, wait. Yes, I do. In the dark mornings, it's GETTING LIGHTER all the time, which is something to look forward to. In the dark evenings, it's getting DARKER. Depressing. I very much prefer permanent Daylight Savings time. And so do most people I know, especially if you're an Owl instead of a Lark.
That would also eliminate the seasons all over the Earth. No more summer, winter, spring or fall. Equatorial regions would be tropical all year long, polar regions would be winter all year long, and climate would depend solely on latitude. Not sure that would be an improvement; in fact, it would probably cause global catastrophe. Assuming you could do it, of course.....
I worry about children going to school in the dark, with our less able drivers abounding, and all the rest who will travel into danger in the dark hour.
I'm not the SAD sufferer, but I live in Seattle, so we go to work in the dark in the winter even on Standard time. I much prefer light at the end of my day to the beginning.
Did they just not "fall back" in the autumn of 1973? The law went into effect in January 1974. I remember having to walk in pitch black conditions in the street because of the snow banks.
I was HS Senior in '74 and have NO recollection of the move to permanent standard time. OF course, I was 18 at the time and the drinking age in NJ had recently been lowered, so......
I once contacted David Blatner, the author of The Joy of Pi, about an internal inconsistency in the meaning of "digits of pi." In one case, the digits of pi included the lead "3" as the first digit. In another case in the same book, it was "digits past the decimal place."
He wrote back to say his book had been out for many years, and I was the first person to have ever noticed the problem. He said it would be corrected in the next printing.
I once submitted a correction to a 30-year-old NYT article that I found online and was essentially told "tough noogies."
(It was an article on some topic or other that said Alan Jay Lerner started writing with other composers after Fritz Loewe died, when in fact Loewe had simply retired and even outlived Lerner by several years.)
The older of my two daughters was born on European Approximation of Pi Day (July 22nd or 22/7 because they write their dates the wrong way). With two engineers as parents, this was by design.
The younger of my two daughters was born on the August 16rh (8/16) or 2 cubed/2 to the fourth power. This too was by design.
Yes, but the first was unscheduled and was almost an emergency C-secton (the old dash and slash) due to a fetal heart deceleration. The second one was scheduled because of the circumstances of the first.
It seems we can only see the poll results if we have voted. I haven't had Covid, so I can't see the results for the questions after #1. Is this something that can be changed?
I paid $29.95 (sorry, forgot I wasn't supposed to mention that) for a disquisition on pi ? I was expecting less from you Gene. Much less. Guess you can take a kid out of Bronx Sci, but can't take Bronx Sci out of the kid. For a moment there, thought I was attending an after-party thrown by the Bureau of Standards. I mean the least you could have done was manage a figurative tug of the forelock to Archimedes of Syracuse (no, not the new men's basketball coach). But that's displaced water over the bathtub. Sorry. You're just going to have to do worse.
Like Gene, I don’t really believe in some invisible, magic guy in the sky controlling things….,but the notion of good ol’ irrational pi does make me think there might be a Eddie Haskell smartass type up there just effing with us
I am curious as to which of the formulas for pi you used for your computer. By the way, I think Pi Day should be celebrated at March 14, 1:59:26.535… (a.m.) UTC.
It will be based on popular perceptions about the economy.
Nobody is better than Trump at convincing people that things are bad, whether they are or not.
And the Democrats are champions at talking about all the people "left behind," even during good economic times.
And of course the moment Trump was elected, he started crowing about how suddenly the economy was better, to the point where even people who should know better started just conceding the economy issue to him.
In Season 1, Episode 11 of Murdoch Mysteries, there is a character, Mr. Horton, who is said to be able to recite a thousand digits of pi. But the show was set in 1895 at that point. William Shank's calculation of 1853 was only 707 digits long and there was was an error in 528th place which wasn't discovered until 1946. This is typical of TV writers and their lack of attention to detail.
How would anyone have been able to independently confirm his claim? He could have just made up a sequence of digits and been able to repeat them because they had a pattern he knew about, but was hard to discern.
Murdoch Mysteries also had an episode in which the detective had indicated pressure in Pascals on his blackboard. The unit wasn't even adopted until 1971.
You wanna go wonk ? I'll see your epidemiology and pi obsession and raise you Bayes' rule or theorem for calculating conditional probabilities. AI researchers use it to help machines recognize patterns and make decisions as with autonomous vehicles, for example. Bayesian software sorts spam from email, assesses medical and homeland security risks and decodes DNA. Cognitive scientists conjecture that our brains incorporate Bayesian algorithms as they perceive, deliberate, decide And as with many seemingly elegant but commonsensical tools, it can also be used to promote superstition and pseudoscience. In other words, if you aren’t scrupulous in seeking alternative explanations for the evidence which you're using to generate the probabilities, the evidence will likely just confirm what you already believe.
Well, since Detective Murdoch effectively invented every tool on investigation, maybe he also knew pi to 1000 digits and predicted that when there would be an International System of Units, they would want to honor Pascal with the unit of pressure! :-)
Been following mask debate and trials since onset. I'm MD researcher, do RCTs. The data on masks in community setting best described as piss-poor: masks are surgical masks with some ability to limit what you spread, but offer little protection with what you breathe in - they are not air tight; people notoriously unreliable with how diligently they wear masks. With regard to individual masking, wearing N95 appropriately would be very protective, a KN95 less so. A surgical mask not much. If I travelled by bus/subway I would wear N95. Meanwhile I caught Covid via my adult daughter, who is a diligent mask wearer and got it anyway. She gave it to my husband and I did not scramble to the guest room when he said he wasn't feeling well. Oh well......
On the topic, my GF found the place under the cabinet where I kick the last piece of dust, food particle, etc. I’m trying to hide from her as she is inspecting my cleaning. So when she leaves, I can use it. When she returns, I need to have swept or vacuumed it. This reflects the gaming of both your GF and Art Buchwald.
I'm a founding member and all I've ever gotten from Substack is two emails a month suggesting I read something else, not about the Gene Pool. There's nothing in my junk, trash or archives. What you describe, I get sometime between 12:58 and 1:26. Except today it was 11:59.
Did you already click on the hamburger menu next to your avatar in the upper right & select "Settings"? From there, you can review and change your general notification settings as well as drill-down to settings for this chat in particular.
More of a question than a comment. My COVID, if it was COVID, began at the end of February 2020. Doctor denied that COVID was even possible. (I had not been on a cruise or to China and had not associated knowingly with anyone who had.) I'm not sure how to respond to the polls, or whether I should skip them.
<sigh> Not the administration at the time. The people who told us this new coronavirus was not airborne and that we should stock up on hand sanitizer. Etc.
Would the SAD sufferer prefer going to work / school in the dark? I'm talking about darkness after 8 a.m. in the middle of the winter. Do you stand at a bus stop? That's a very strong memory for me in high school in 1973, when it was instituted as an energy-saver FOR ONE YEAR UNTIL THEY SAID NO MORE. I remember all the lights in the school hallways being turned up, so I doubted how much energy was saved anyway.
Dark mornings don't seem to bother me nearly as much as early dark evenings do; I don't know why, exactly. Oh, wait. Yes, I do. In the dark mornings, it's GETTING LIGHTER all the time, which is something to look forward to. In the dark evenings, it's getting DARKER. Depressing. I very much prefer permanent Daylight Savings time. And so do most people I know, especially if you're an Owl instead of a Lark.
I would just alter Earth's axial tilt from 23.5 degrees to zero so it would make everyone's days 12 light and 12 dark hours all year. Problem solved.
...provided that the Earth is indeed, a sphere.
Well .... yes. On Discworld, the situation has to be redefined...... The turtle must be considered. And the elephants.
That would also eliminate the seasons all over the Earth. No more summer, winter, spring or fall. Equatorial regions would be tropical all year long, polar regions would be winter all year long, and climate would depend solely on latitude. Not sure that would be an improvement; in fact, it would probably cause global catastrophe. Assuming you could do it, of course.....
I worry about children going to school in the dark, with our less able drivers abounding, and all the rest who will travel into danger in the dark hour.
Pat, the medical community agrees with you.
I'm not the SAD sufferer, but I live in Seattle, so we go to work in the dark in the winter even on Standard time. I much prefer light at the end of my day to the beginning.
Did they just not "fall back" in the autumn of 1973? The law went into effect in January 1974. I remember having to walk in pitch black conditions in the street because of the snow banks.
I was HS Senior in '74 and have NO recollection of the move to permanent standard time. OF course, I was 18 at the time and the drinking age in NJ had recently been lowered, so......
As I remember it was a move to permament DST.
I was in elementary school and remember our parents walking us to school with flashlights. It was AWFUL. I cannot wake up when it is dark outside.
I once contacted David Blatner, the author of The Joy of Pi, about an internal inconsistency in the meaning of "digits of pi." In one case, the digits of pi included the lead "3" as the first digit. In another case in the same book, it was "digits past the decimal place."
He wrote back to say his book had been out for many years, and I was the first person to have ever noticed the problem. He said it would be corrected in the next printing.
We all salute you.
I once submitted a correction to a 30-year-old NYT article that I found online and was essentially told "tough noogies."
(It was an article on some topic or other that said Alan Jay Lerner started writing with other composers after Fritz Loewe died, when in fact Loewe had simply retired and even outlived Lerner by several years.)
I don’t mind having to refresh for more answers but would it be possible to have it come to first new? Having to scroll through each time is a PIA
The older of my two daughters was born on European Approximation of Pi Day (July 22nd or 22/7 because they write their dates the wrong way). With two engineers as parents, this was by design.
The younger of my two daughters was born on the August 16rh (8/16) or 2 cubed/2 to the fourth power. This too was by design.
Let me presume the births were by Caesarean.
Yes, but the first was unscheduled and was almost an emergency C-secton (the old dash and slash) due to a fetal heart deceleration. The second one was scheduled because of the circumstances of the first.
Yeh, that's a lot more believable than that you had both engineered the date of her ovulations.
It seems we can only see the poll results if we have voted. I haven't had Covid, so I can't see the results for the questions after #1. Is this something that can be changed?
After the time to answer expires, you'll be able to see all the final tallies. (In my experience)
I paid $29.95 (sorry, forgot I wasn't supposed to mention that) for a disquisition on pi ? I was expecting less from you Gene. Much less. Guess you can take a kid out of Bronx Sci, but can't take Bronx Sci out of the kid. For a moment there, thought I was attending an after-party thrown by the Bureau of Standards. I mean the least you could have done was manage a figurative tug of the forelock to Archimedes of Syracuse (no, not the new men's basketball coach). But that's displaced water over the bathtub. Sorry. You're just going to have to do worse.
Like Gene, I don’t really believe in some invisible, magic guy in the sky controlling things….,but the notion of good ol’ irrational pi does make me think there might be a Eddie Haskell smartass type up there just effing with us
I am curious as to which of the formulas for pi you used for your computer. By the way, I think Pi Day should be celebrated at March 14, 1:59:26.535… (a.m.) UTC.
It will not be based on the economy.
It will be based on popular perceptions about the economy.
Nobody is better than Trump at convincing people that things are bad, whether they are or not.
And the Democrats are champions at talking about all the people "left behind," even during good economic times.
And of course the moment Trump was elected, he started crowing about how suddenly the economy was better, to the point where even people who should know better started just conceding the economy issue to him.
In Season 1, Episode 11 of Murdoch Mysteries, there is a character, Mr. Horton, who is said to be able to recite a thousand digits of pi. But the show was set in 1895 at that point. William Shank's calculation of 1853 was only 707 digits long and there was was an error in 528th place which wasn't discovered until 1946. This is typical of TV writers and their lack of attention to detail.
Those bastards
Maybe he did his OWN calculation?
How would anyone have been able to independently confirm his claim? He could have just made up a sequence of digits and been able to repeat them because they had a pattern he knew about, but was hard to discern.
Murdoch Mysteries also had an episode in which the detective had indicated pressure in Pascals on his blackboard. The unit wasn't even adopted until 1971.
The fact that there was no actual Fort Courage totally ruined F-Troop for me.
You wanna go wonk ? I'll see your epidemiology and pi obsession and raise you Bayes' rule or theorem for calculating conditional probabilities. AI researchers use it to help machines recognize patterns and make decisions as with autonomous vehicles, for example. Bayesian software sorts spam from email, assesses medical and homeland security risks and decodes DNA. Cognitive scientists conjecture that our brains incorporate Bayesian algorithms as they perceive, deliberate, decide And as with many seemingly elegant but commonsensical tools, it can also be used to promote superstition and pseudoscience. In other words, if you aren’t scrupulous in seeking alternative explanations for the evidence which you're using to generate the probabilities, the evidence will likely just confirm what you already believe.
Well, since Detective Murdoch effectively invented every tool on investigation, maybe he also knew pi to 1000 digits and predicted that when there would be an International System of Units, they would want to honor Pascal with the unit of pressure! :-)
Been following mask debate and trials since onset. I'm MD researcher, do RCTs. The data on masks in community setting best described as piss-poor: masks are surgical masks with some ability to limit what you spread, but offer little protection with what you breathe in - they are not air tight; people notoriously unreliable with how diligently they wear masks. With regard to individual masking, wearing N95 appropriately would be very protective, a KN95 less so. A surgical mask not much. If I travelled by bus/subway I would wear N95. Meanwhile I caught Covid via my adult daughter, who is a diligent mask wearer and got it anyway. She gave it to my husband and I did not scramble to the guest room when he said he wasn't feeling well. Oh well......
On the topic, my GF found the place under the cabinet where I kick the last piece of dust, food particle, etc. I’m trying to hide from her as she is inspecting my cleaning. So when she leaves, I can use it. When she returns, I need to have swept or vacuumed it. This reflects the gaming of both your GF and Art Buchwald.
One minute's notice that the chat starts an hour early?!! C'mon.
I'm a founding member and all I've ever gotten from Substack is two emails a month suggesting I read something else, not about the Gene Pool. There's nothing in my junk, trash or archives. What you describe, I get sometime between 12:58 and 1:26. Except today it was 11:59.
Did you already click on the hamburger menu next to your avatar in the upper right & select "Settings"? From there, you can review and change your general notification settings as well as drill-down to settings for this chat in particular.
Yes, everything's on, but I appreciate the help.
More of a question than a comment. My COVID, if it was COVID, began at the end of February 2020. Doctor denied that COVID was even possible. (I had not been on a cruise or to China and had not associated knowingly with anyone who had.) I'm not sure how to respond to the polls, or whether I should skip them.
I know someone who feels he got it then, too. There is an answer in the polls for you! You think you did.
In February 2020, the "science" we were listening to was lies.
Lies? You think they knew the right answers but told us something else?
Certainly.
<sigh> Not the administration at the time. The people who told us this new coronavirus was not airborne and that we should stock up on hand sanitizer. Etc.