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two fish posted:Has anyone been weird about Biden being Catholic, or do those types not really care specifically about that anymore? the right wing conspiracy sphere has evolved well beyond such simple superstition, their preferred theory now is that biden doesnt actually exist, having died some time ago, and the guy on tv is actually a cgi illusion made by woke hollywood at the behest of a shadow government
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May 19, 2024 02:17
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How do governments know that their nuclear weapons are still fully operational? Is there a chance that, right now, if the order was given to use them, that a chunk of them wouldn't work at all?
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May 19, 2024 22:43
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In the past they would take some from their stockpiles and test the various components piecewise to see, now I believe there is also instrumentation and software precise/powerful enough to predict if weapons remain functional. And of course, direct testing is the best way to prove it. There is still a concern some weapons wouldn't function properly, and hopefully those questions never get answered.
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May 19, 2024 22:54
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I guess if 25% malfunctioned, the world would only be destroyed three times over rather then four times.
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May 19, 2024 23:15
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two fish posted:How do governments know that their nuclear weapons are still fully operational? Is there a chance that, right now, if the order was given to use them, that a chunk of them wouldn't work at all? most governments with nukes prioritize maintaining them on a regular schedule, i don't think it's a huge issue unless the state fails (like in the 90s when it was a very huge issue)
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May 20, 2024 04:58
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regulargonzalez posted:I guess if 25% malfunctioned, the world would only be destroyed three times over rather then four times. You joke, but last I checked, the doctrine for using nukes involves firing multiple warheads at each target. The assumption being that some fraction of them would get shot down / intercepted / fail to work, so better to overkill the target than risk it surviving unscathed (to shoot back at you).
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May 20, 2024 13:23
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They say the Tall Man of the Phantasm series has 'quantum immortality'. How precisely does that work under the film's use as 'any time he dies, another him immediately pops up'?
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May 20, 2024 17:06
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The vast majority of times that you hear the word "quantum" the meaning is "don't think too hard about this". This is one of them.
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May 20, 2024 17:12
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To that end, you can probably just replace it with "magic" in your head
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May 20, 2024 17:13
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Purveyors of woo nonsense like Deepak Chopra love using the word quantum because it gives a veneer of respectability/scienceiness to the shite that they are claiming, even though they have not the first clue about anything to do with actual science, or reality. I think the same approach can be seen in fiction sometimes, though of course without the undercurrent of "this is real, honest". Replacing it with "magic" as suggested above pretty much sums it up.
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May 20, 2024 17:28
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You're telling me Nuka Cola "Quantum" is baseless? That's not a super position to have, according to my observations. (Nevertheless, I will keep my response discrete.)
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May 20, 2024 17:34
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DildenAnders posted:You're telling me Nuka Cola "Quantum" is baseless? That's not a super position to have, according to my observations. lol
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May 20, 2024 18:22
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Also, remember that quantum just means "countable number [of atoms]". The entire thing is based on the fact that single atoms behave weirdly, but in a way that doesn't really matter on the scale of anything we can perceive.
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May 20, 2024 18:44
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thats not remotely what quantum means wtf
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May 20, 2024 19:21
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it means the smallest bit of physical matter that can exist independently , not anything about numbers of atoms. atoms are big compared to quantum
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May 20, 2024 19:32
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Is there any way to turn off the custom CSS for subforums that have it? I have a couple of threads bookmarked from those subforums and always feel jarred when I go into them.
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May 20, 2024 19:50
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RPATDO_LAMD posted:thats not remotely what quantum means wtf Think he's describing "quantized".
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May 20, 2024 19:59
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feedmyleg posted:Is there any way to turn off the custom CSS for subforums that have it? I have a couple of threads bookmarked from those subforums and always feel jarred when I go into them. No. I think it's on the list of planned features but not a high priority.
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May 20, 2024 20:03
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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:it means the smallest bit of physical matter that can exist independently , not anything about numbers of atoms. atoms are big compared to quantum this too is a terrible explanation. quantum mechanics describes the behavior of subatomic particles, usually in terms of states and field effects. it's separate from newtonian physics because newtonian physics don't work at that scale. it started in the 20s when some math guys realized that describing subatomic particles in terms of probabilistic wave functions worked better than trying to make them fit the standard model, and snowballed from there. okay that was still terrible but maybe less i dunno
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May 20, 2024 20:14
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The foundational discovery behind quantum mechanics was that subatomic particles can only exist in discrete (or countable, hence "quantum") energy states. They cannot exist in between, they will jump from one state to the other. This discovery was spurred, among other things, by astronomical observations where (iirc) light from certain sources was observed to have remarkably distinct frequency spikes rather than a smooth spectrum, since electrons jumping states that had discrete intervals and hence creating photons with that distinct energy. Also iirc investigations into the photoelectric effect. Once the theory was formed it was supported by a bunch of experiments. alnilam fucked around with this message at 20:39 on May 20, 2024 |
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May 20, 2024 20:37
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The pre-quantum mechanics definition is a specidfic amount, especially a minimum. Ian Fleming used it in this sense when he wrote the original Quantum of Solace.
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May 20, 2024 22:06
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:this too is a terrible explanation. I was just paraphrasing the actual definition of the word quantum
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May 21, 2024 00:16
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Yngwie Mangosteen posted:I was just paraphrasing the actual definition of the word quantum oh, you're right, i misunderstood! soz
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May 21, 2024 01:50
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:You joke, but last I checked, the doctrine for using nukes involves firing multiple warheads at each target. The assumption being that some fraction of them would get shot down / intercepted / fail to work, so better to overkill the target than risk it surviving unscathed (to shoot back at you). - You launch your entire arsenal exclusively at military targets in a complete surprise attack - All of your missiles work and lots of the enemy ones don't - All of your military follows orders to launch and lots of enemy ones don't - Your super secret newly developed & untested interception technology works great, but the enemy can't intercept your stuff very well the counterstrike from whatever survives (aimed at population centers) will still kill everyone they know and care about. You don't want Kennedy/Khrushchev to ever think "our momentary secret advantage might let us win if we surprise attack now, and if we don't attack now they'll eventually figure out and counter it"
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May 21, 2024 03:31
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I've read that back in the day, the 80s or so, that some companies would sell a two part diet shake; the first shake would contain tapeworm eggs, which would do their part in helping people lose weight, and then they would send you the next round of shakes, which contained something to kill the tapeworms and purge them from your system. I don't recall where I read this, but I think they would be unaware of what they were consuming. It sounds like two things to me; total bullshit, and just plausible enough that I figured someone here might know
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May 21, 2024 07:14
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In this age, if I want to feed a huge text into a text-to-speech so I can turn it into a decent audiobook - any recommendations?
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May 21, 2024 11:25
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VagueRant posted:In this age, if I want to feed a huge text into a text-to-speech so I can turn it into a decent audiobook - any recommendations? The best one I’ve used for this is the engine in Microsoft Edge. In my testing, it got messed up after about 20 pages of reading a pdf though.
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May 21, 2024 12:09
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VagueRant posted:In this age, if I want to feed a huge text into a text-to-speech so I can turn it into a decent audiobook - any recommendations? The best thing I have found is https://github.com/p0n1/epub_to_audiobook which is a command line program that converts an epub file to an audioobook, but it's also somewhat broken so I had to edit out the part that tries to add pauses for it to not end up missing chunks of chapters and breaking when there are brackets in the text (at least when you tell it to use the Edge tts api; it might work better if you have it use a paid api). Hopefully someone will make something like this that works better soon; it seems like all the hard bits are in place already.
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May 21, 2024 13:31
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Leave posted:I've read that back in the day, the 80s or so, that some companies would sell a two part diet shake; the first shake would contain tapeworm eggs, which would do their part in helping people lose weight, and then they would send you the next round of shakes, which contained something to kill the tapeworms and purge them from your system. Along similar lines, I remember reading about a de-worming pill that was actually just an opaque capsule containing a long strand of rubber. The capsule would dissolve in your digestive tract, and eventually you'd poop out the "worm". Works every time!
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May 21, 2024 17:22
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Is there a good way I can remove this dumb brand logo from my ebike? It’s not a decal. Probably silkscreened. I dont want to scuff up the paint. Is there a way to maybe dissolve it?
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May 22, 2024 00:51
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probably easier to paint over it, especially if that battery(?) is removable
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May 22, 2024 01:00
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Vinyl wrap it
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May 22, 2024 02:12
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Back during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US, how did the average person view it? Was it something that everyone was constantly terrified of?
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May 22, 2024 02:50
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two fish posted:Back during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US, how did the average person view it? Was it something that everyone was constantly terrified of? On television. Or that letter C. Everett Koop mailed to everyone. I'm not joking about that last part.
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May 22, 2024 02:52
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A lot of people thought it was God's punishment to gay people, it wasn't well understood how it was transmitted or anything but a ton of the people catching it were gay men. Even people who weren't religious homophobes were pretty scared of it and by extension of getting too close to gay people or anyone who might have it because there wasn't much research being done on it since Reagan and Fauci pretty much ignored it and were pretty happy to let a bunch of gay people die.
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May 22, 2024 04:45
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:describing subatomic particles in terms of probabilistic wave functions worked better than trying to make them fit the standard model All descriptions of quantum mechanics that aren't pure math are terrible, and even the pure math ones are (pretty drat good) approximations. That said, you can actually do a thing at home to see the existence of probabilistic wave functions, specifically for photons. It's the Double-slit Experiment You're going to need a room you can make dark with a wall you can project on to. Take or make a box and cut two apertures, vertical slits work best. Cover the two slits so that you can easily remove one or the other, or both slits. Put a light source in the box, cover the slits and turn out the lights. First, uncover one of the slits. You get a projection on the wall of a nice, definite beam of light from the slit. Cover the first slit and uncover the second. Same beam of light effect hits the wall somewhere else. That's photons acting as a wave with a 100% probability of landing in a direct line from the slit to the wall. The probabilistic wave function is very simple. Now uncover the first slit again. Now you have slightly dimmer spots of light where the original beam landed, and a number of even dimmer spots between them. The wave functions emanating from each slit are interfering with each other. The new spots of light on the wall are where you have constructive interference creating a high enough probability each photon hits there, that there are enough of them to actually see. I highly recommend actually doing this at least once in your life, it's worth seeing the fundamental nature of reality play out in someone's living room.
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May 22, 2024 05:39
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two fish posted:Back during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US, how did the average person view it? Was it something that everyone was constantly terrified of? I was a teenager at that time and the fear of aids was omnipresent among my age cohort.
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May 22, 2024 12:57
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man
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Heck I was a teen in the mid-90's through early 00's, and it was a constantly referenced thing that was deeply feared.
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May 22, 2024 16:11
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Is there like a "random product" recommendations thread? Having an urge to get a nice, high quality water bottle - just something for my desk, but ideally easy to open spill proofish.
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May 22, 2024 18:27
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Oxyclean posted:Is there like a "random product" recommendations thread? i like my owala water bottle it has a spring loaded flip top you can open one handed and a pretty unique spout design that lets you either drink from a built-in straw or from the bottle's open mouth  it also has a guard that clicks in place over the button so i can throw it in a bag without worrying that something will bump the latch and get all my stuff wet i got the clear one since i like seeing how much is left but they also make metal bottles if you're into that kinda thing
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May 22, 2024 18:48
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