The h Bar

12:00 AM

@0celo7 Lactose intolerance is a well-established heritable trait - many populations that didn't herd cattle for as long as others have a significantly higher incidence of it, since there was no selection pressure for lactose tolerance for them

Bernardo Meurer

@0celo7 Are M, K & R over there?

Physics Meta

0

Q: Why is this answer not considered spam?

This answer mentions concepts ("canonical particles" and their "radius of hardness") that only appear in the website it links to and in a book recently published (by a company of questionable reputation, see here and here). Besides the crackpot smell of the answer, to me it seems to have been po...

@Semiclassical ?

not directed at you

@ACuriousMind I know.

Your point?

@BernardoMeurer K

Bernardo Meurer

12:03 AM

Facetime me !

0celo7

No, Bob is here

Bernardo Meurer

bah

I already deleted my macOS VM

don't worry

0celo7

@Semiclassical I'm a very skeptical person, so if someone tells me they can't drink milk my eyebrow raises.

Mithrandir24601

@0celo7 Some sort of other intolerance to something(s) else in dairy and egg. The real problem is that the resulting increase in histamines triggers (some of) my white bloods cells (I think) to attack my throat... Which causes it to swell up and makes it difficult to breathe. Similar to, but not (quite) as sever as an allergy. Still super-scary when you're ill with throat problems

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 My point is that we understand the physiological cause of lactose intolerance perfectly well - it is not a "weakness of the mind", it's a lack of lactase.

0celo7

12:05 AM

@ACuriousMind I know, but it might be a placebo effect.

ACuriousMind

How do you mean?

0celo7

Not being lactose intolerant, I can't try it myself.

@ACuriousMind Maybe one can become tolerant via exposure

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 You can't change your genetic makeup via "exposure"

Semiclassical

unless you count hard radiation exposure, and the consequences of that tend usually to be pretty bad

0celo7

@ACuriousMind Maybe, maybe not. I'd have to trust other people on that and we both know I can't do that.

ACuriousMind

12:07 AM

People with lactose intolerance have a gene that shuts off lactase production after the infant age. There's nothing you can do about that

0celo7

@Mithrandir24601 That sucks, cheese is pretty awesome :(

ACM with the double negative Freudian slip

Mithrandir24601

@0celo7 I have heard of people who have done this - the question is, were they truly intolerant in the first place, or does it actually work? In my case, I'm not willing to risk an emergency trip to hospital to try out your theory :P Although in a couple of months, I've got an appointment to see if the corticosteroids have done their job and cured the major problem

ACuriousMind

No, ACM with the "It's 1 am and I'm taking your hyperskeptic bait again" slip :P

Semiclassical

there's a simple test for this, of course: give a lactose-intolerant person lactose without them realizing it.

0celo7

@ACuriousMind It's only bait because I'm saying it out loud. I really do think these things.

Semiclassical

12:09 AM

problem is, simple != ethical

0celo7

@Semiclassical My "allergic to shellfish" sister can eat shellfish if she doesn't know she's eating it.

Semiclassical

ok? that's one example.

0celo7

That has caused me to be skeptical of any and all food-related stuff.

ACuriousMind

Then she's not allergic. Anecdotes are not data.

Semiclassical

plus it can matter very much with allergies how the food is prepared.

Mithrandir24601

12:10 AM

@0celo7 People keep telling me that and I'm still as confused as ever about this - I never liked cheese to begin with

0celo7

@ACuriousMind I know.

Semiclassical

tomato allergies can often be like that, from what i've heard

Mithrandir24601

@Semiclassical Someone tried that on me once. I managed three bites

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Have you ever read anything by or about Hume? You'd like him.

Mithrandir24601

(I believed them when they said they just forgot though)

Semiclassical

12:12 AM

I mention tomato allergies not because i've had any contact with it, but because I remember reading this story: notalwaysright.com/say-tomato-say-death/88563

(which to be fair is itself anecdotal)

0celo7

@ACuriousMind Not recently. My hyperskepticism is recent so when I (probably) learned about him in school I probably thought he was crazy.

Semiclassical

@Mithrandir24601 ahh. it wasn't an accident in this story :/

0celo7

Heh, I should think causality is irrational. Funny for a relativist.

@Mithrandir24601 it took me a decade to like cheese

I think most foods are acquired tastes

ACuriousMind

> The intense view of these manifold contradictions and imperfections in human reason has so wrought upon me, and heated my brain, that I am ready to reject all belief and reasoning, and can look upon no opinion even as more probable or likely than another

Mithrandir24601

@0celo7 Yeah, quite possibly

0celo7

12:15 AM

@ACuriousMind Hey, that's a more eloquent version of my trolling

@Mithrandir24601 Objectively disgusting foods that are actually pretty good: mushrooms, brussel sprouts, broccoli, feta, sour cream, coffee

I could go on

eggs are pretty gross in concept

I think Indians have issues with eggs

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 Chicken Schnitzel: Slathering the mother in a crust made of her unborn children.

Mithrandir24601

@0celo7 awful, no way, worst thing ever, do you want me to die?, Again: do you want me to die?, Smells really nice but still tastes awful :P

0celo7

@ACuriousMind and dried weeds

ACuriousMind

Yeah, but that doesn't sound quite so metal :P

Mithrandir24601

@0celo7 Ugh, one of my flatmates sometimes fries an egg for breakfast. I have to confine myself to my room for about half an hour when they do that

0celo7

12:21 AM

"an egg"

Europeans

Mithrandir24601

@0celo7 :P

0celo7

also, wtf

what is wrong with eggs

what do you eat?

@ACuriousMind Does the alignment of the roman numerals bother you? i.gyazo.com/bd7850e0b86ef2f471fc95bd06ec72d6.png

ACuriousMind

I don't see anything wrong with them

0celo7

@ACuriousMind the text right after isn't aligned from line to line

ACuriousMind

Sure, because the start of the numerals is aligned

It doesn't bother me

0celo7

12:26 AM

k

Mithrandir24601

@0celo7 Meat's good :) I love fish as well :) Essentially the list you typed above is virtually everything I don't like (aside from dairy and egg products)

@0celo7 Same problem with dairy, although to be honest I'm not so sure on this and am just not willing to risk it until I get the all-clear that my throat/immune system/whatever it is, is back to normal

0celo7

European who likes fish -- crazy.

I grew up as the weirdo American who liked fish.

Mithrandir24601

I had trout for dinner tonight :) It was really very nice :)

0celo7

Trout is very good

Mithrandir24601

Although a few months ago, I somehow managed to cook some salmon to perfection - I can still remember that it was on a wet Friday evening, I went to the pub afterwards and all I could think about was how ridiculously incredible that salmon tasted. Never had fish like it before or since

skullpatrol

12:39 AM

::prepares for "trout" to be flagged as offensive::

:-)

ACuriousMind

@Mithrandir24601 Two possible readings: 1. That salmon was incredibly awesome. 2. You need more excitement in your life.

Mithrandir24601

@ACuriousMind Hint: In my spare time, I get to play around/practise martial arts with swords. Occasionally, I'll even use a sharp one, so I don't think I need any more excitement ;)

skullpatrol

~~You need more excitement in your life.~~

Sir Cumference

For those who celebrated, ya all have a good thanksgiving?

skullpatrol

Thanks pal. Same to you :-)

0celo7

1:01 AM

@ACuriousMind Is it obvious that a harmonic function $h$ with the same scaling as $|x|^{2-n}$, must in fact be that?

Something something maximum principle?

maybe

well, a multiple of that

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 What does "with the same scaling" mean?

0celo7

homogenous with the same degree

Semiclassical

so $h(x)|x|^{n-2}$ has a finite limit as $|x|\to\infty$

without loss of generality you can assume that it's specifically $h(x)|x|^{n-2}\to 1$, though

in which case one probably wants to look at the function $h(x)-|x|^{2-n}$?

ACuriousMind

@0celo7 So $h$ is a function on $\mathbb{R}^n$ with $h(\alpha x) = \alpha^{2-n} h(x)$?

0celo7

yeah, but this might be the wrong line of questioning that I need

I'm reading some vague papers

vzn

1:10 AM

@Mithrandir24601 by any chance do you have any small )( percent of interest in new physics compared to food/ lactose intolerance...?

0celo7

It’s not clear what exactly the growth of this guy is.

They just say it has some growth k and I guess I need to assume it’s an integer.

Sir Cumference

TIL there is an ugly formula for cubic polynomials (in the same vein as the quadratic formula), and an even uglier formula for 4th degree polynomials. But according to a theorem, there is no general formula for polynomials of 5th degree or higher.

Semiclassical

yeah

the formula for the cubic was a route to complex numbers, in fact

Sir Cumference

@Semiclassical Neat

Semiclassical

there were polynomials with real roots but which, if you wanted to use Cardan's formula, required you to use complex numbers in the course of the computation

0celo7

1:18 AM

I went to a seminar where they showed a method for computing roots of cubics. It wasn’t fun.

Semiclassical

yeah

Sir Cumference

@0celo7 Oh...that was an option for a 1 credit class for me.

I was thinking of taking it, but guess it doesn't sound cool

ACuriousMind

@SirCumference Galois theory is neat ;)

You can use the same line of reasoning to show that certain constructions with compass and straightedge are impossible

Sir Cumference

@ACuriousMind Though probably above me. Apparently I should've taken Algebra before that

ACuriousMind

(The original proof of Abel-Ruffini didn't use Galois theory, though)

Semiclassical

1:19 AM

what matters with the cubic formula is not what it looks like---it's not a very pleasant thing to look at---but that it exists at all

of course, the cubic formula was even more unpleasant in its original formulation where algebra wasn't so well-developed yet

0celo7

You do this thing that kills off the quadratic coefficient

That's about all I took from the talk

the rest was really involved

you keep iteratively solving quadratics which makes the whole thing awful

even solving $x^3-x^2+x-1$ is horrific

Semiclassical

yeah, getting to the depressed cubic isn't hard

it's everything after that

ACuriousMind

:(^3 + :(^2 - :( = 0

3

^depressed cubic

0celo7

1:35 AM

there was a joke about trying to depress the depressed cubic

I think the result was a grad student

something like that

@ACuriousMind No, you remove the quadratic term, not the constant :P

ACuriousMind

:(

0celo7

god, this terminology

the exceptional growths are $\{k\in\Bbb Z: k\ne -1,-2,\dotsc, 3-n\}$

so most numbers are exceptional

I think these guys don't English

like, call them the harmonic numbers or something

if I write a book on global GR I will do that

Sir Cumference

I feel like the only one who likes the new SE topbar...

0celo7

Ok apparently it is this theorem that I need.

shai horowitz

2:48 AM

hey quick question about the equivalence principle. what accelerating reference frame exist such that all point are pulled radially inward to the center yet maintain a constant distance.

0celo7

@shaihorowitz there isn't one, the equivalence principle is local, i.e. it doesn't capture "large scale" behavior like that.

shai horowitz

does this mean we can distinguish gravity from acceleration looking at large scale interactions?

0celo7

yeah, that's kinda what we did

Slereah

3:05 AM

yes

ie

tidal forces

0celo7

dang, Yvonne might have a theorem I need

why does she always show up

too many hypotheses though

0celo7

3:45 AM

I got it

finally

only took like 3 hours

0celo7

4:20 AM

Nevermind, there seems to be another huge error

I refuse to call anything in this field a theorem at this point, everything is a damn conjecture

shai horowitz

what field

also how does the graviton relate to the equivalence principle, it seems a way of locally detecting gravity

Semiclassical

the graviton isn't going to come up if you're just doing GR

it's only when you start trying to treat gravitation in the context of QFT that you need it. GR says nothing about that.

Anders Johansson

Hello, dear knowledgeable physics people. Is there some obvious reason or simple proof that the potential operator in QM is «diagonal» in the posisiton basis, i.e. <x'|V|x> = delta(x - x')?

0celo7

@Semiclassical There are more errors in the new positive mass papers

This has to be wrong

Anders Johansson

Sorry, I missed a V(x) on the RHS

(@myself)

0celo7

4:32 AM

@AndersJohansson because it's a function of a diagonal operator

Semiclassical

the positive mass theorem conjecture: every paper on the positive mass theorem has at least one error.

6

0celo7

@Semiclassical You just got the inspirational quote spot on my thesis.

Semiclassical

woo

0celo7

I had something from R. Thom before, but you win

Semiclassical

lol, nice

shai horowitz

4:33 AM

does a paper with n-1 errors still contain errors

0celo7

I'm gonna email my advisor, who will probably say something like "you're supposed to be the expert on this stuff"

shai horowitz

well you are

Semiclassical

of course, this means that any paper you write on the positive mass theorem will aim to be a counterexample to my conjecture :P

Anders Johansson

@Ocelo7: So the position eigenstates are eigenstates of V, so that V can be expanded as V = int dx V(x) |x> <x, giving <x'|V|x''> = V(x') delta(x'-x'')?

shai horowitz

ive been thinking about negative mass with positive energy its amusing mathematically, but doesnt seem to exist

mass such that $mv+(-m)v=0 for all v$

0celo7

4:39 AM

@AndersJohansson I think so, yes.

Anders Johansson

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you very much!

0celo7

@Semiclassical Of course this is at best laziness, at worst an error.

0celo7

5:04 AM

::does some calculations::

maybe I just need to sacrifice more goats to Trudinger's spirit

John Rennie

5:21 AM

@Phase Laptops weren't invented when I was a grad student :-)

skullpatrol

5:42 AM

Some of these prices need filling in.

The Osborne 1 is considered the first true mobile computer by most historians. Adam Osborne founded Osborne Computer and formed the Osborne 1 in 1981

"Most" doesn't include JR :P

John Rennie

The Osbourne 1 was portable in the sense that anything is portable if you're prepared to put enough effort into moving it

skullpatrol

6:12 AM

Fair enough :-)

John Rennie

anyway, I started my PhD in 1983 so the Osbourne 1 only preceded me by two years!

Bernardo Meurer

@JohnRennie Morning John!

I have a life question

Should I accept my worthlessness or should I buy a bed frame?

John Rennie

@BernardoMeurer if you have money spend it on laptops - food as a second option

As for your worthlessness, we are all lying in the gutter but some of us are looking up at the kerb :-)

Bernardo Meurer

Alright, I'll invest in a lamp then

I've been meaning to get one for a while

Fuck, I just rubbed Bengay in my eye

John Rennie

6:27 AM

You in pain?

(apart from existential pain that is)

Bernardo Meurer

Yeah, I tried running today

As (I think) you know I got hit by a car a couple years ago

So if I do anything my right foot hurts like death

But I need to lose weight, so I'm making an effort

skullpatrol

For me, gradually cutting down on food works best.

John Rennie

To be fair exercise is a poor way to lose weight, though a good way to improve overall health.

Bernardo Meurer

Well, the best way is to eat healthy

John Rennie

Running burns about 100 calories per mile, so it takes a lot of miles to burn off a Big Mac.

Bernardo Meurer

6:33 AM

But I have learned that I cannot achieve that

John Rennie

If your cardiovascular helth is good then a bit of extra weight isn't a big deal. Do whatever feels good!

Anyhow what is it with the bed? Are you using a mattress on the floor?

Bernardo Meurer

I don't care for my health, I just want a damn girlfriend lol

skullpatrol

Healthy, small portions sounds ideal :-)

Bernardo Meurer

Yeah, I have a mattress on the floor

skullpatrol

Find a girl friend at the gym :P

Bernardo Meurer

6:36 AM

Meh, I don't like gyms

I feel really uncomfortable

skullpatrol

How about at the running track?

Bernardo Meurer

Yeah, I could do that, the uni's track is only a couple miles away and is open at night

skullpatrol

pool, etc.

Bernardo Meurer

Yeah, I don't know

I just used to be really fit when I was taking my sabbatical in Rio

I biked a lot, like almost 100K every single day

And I just miss being that comfortable with my body

Idk, just thoughts :)

skullpatrol

Wow! They say biking burns the most calories.

Bernardo Meurer

6:43 AM

Yeah, I could bike here in SB too but the track is not long enough and circling isn't as much fun

Also, my back really hurts nowadays

skullpatrol

I used to use a stationary bike.

John Rennie

@BernardoMeurer that's pretty standard student life :-)

Bernardo Meurer

There's some kits to use a normal bike as a stationary, I've considered

John Rennie

Why buy a bed when there are so many more important things to buy (hi-fi, laptops, ...)?

Bernardo Meurer

I already own a hi-fi and a laptop!

And quite good hi-fi and laptop too :)

Sid

6:47 AM

@BernardoMeurer you are either getting old or you are too tall.

Bernardo Meurer

@Sid I'm 19 and 6'

Sid

Yep. Too tall

Bernardo Meurer

:/

That's not that tall even

Sid

@JohnRennie because people would rather sit on a bed and work on a laptop rather than sit on a chair and do the same

John Rennie

@BernardoMeurer If you want a bed get a bed. Sadly I have no spare ones I could send you :-)

Bernardo Meurer

6:51 AM

Hehehehe

Nah, I don't need a bed

And I am set to get a free couch

John Rennie

How is the hi-fi? Have you managed to put together anything to match the setup you had in Portugal?

Bernardo Meurer

@JohnRennie I just saved enough to (finally!) ship my equipment here

John Rennie

YESSSSSSSSSSS! :-))))))))))))

Bernardo Meurer

I couldn't sell it, people were bidding to low for me to accept selling something I love so much

John Rennie

Has it arrived yet?

Sid

6:53 AM

I haven't taken a bath in 3 days. And now, I have a cold and don't want to bath...

Bernardo Meurer

No, my ex-gf is in Ljubliana at the moment, she gets back on the start of next month and then she'll ship it

John Rennie

That's brilliant! When you have a i-fi system you really love it's so painful to have to part with it.

Bernardo Meurer

It will be here by the time I'm back from Rio :)

Yeah! And I liked that one because I bought it with money I worked for

And you gave me the amp which also made it special

I'm just really happy I don't have to sell it

John Rennie

I've got two more 15" laptops like yours I want to find a good home for, but no-one wants such big heavy laptops.

Bernardo Meurer

::ponders building a computing cluster::

Sid

6:58 AM

@JohnRennie well, no one but you.

John Rennie

@Sid I bought them for working away from home. I need a 1920x1080 screen and you need big laptop to support the high res. But the laptops have a 15" screen and as I got old that was too small so I bought a laptop with a 17" screen to replace them. So now they're just sitting in a cupboard unused.

Bernardo Meurer

@JohnRennie What CPU do they have?

Sid

@JohnRennie do you have a picture of your laptop?

John Rennie

@BernardoMeurer one has an i7-3540M and the other an i5-4100M. So they're both pretty damn powerful.

@Sid one is a Dell Latitude E6530 and the other a Latitude E6540. But sending laptops to India is fraught process because your customs intercept them and cause all sorts of problems.

skullpatrol

How much would you sell one for?

Bernardo Meurer

7:05 AM

@JohnRennie Hmmm

Sid

@JohnRennie Ew.. Dell..

Bernardo Meurer

::looks at ISA specs for Ivy Bridge::

@Sid Dells are great machines :)

I don't like Dell.

May I ask why?

IBM?

7:07 AM

You mean Lenovo?

skullpatrol

sure

Bernardo Meurer

They are also great machines

I love the design of the thinkpads

skullpatrol

iPad?

Bernardo Meurer

No keyboard

John Rennie

@skullpatrol whereabouts in the world are you? India?

Bernardo Meurer

7:10 AM

@JohnRennie I thought he was american

John Rennie

@Sid Heretic! Burn him!

Sid

Dell is just a bulky piece of crap with a not so good battery life. Basically, the two things that I consider important sucks in Dell.

skullpatrol

Sorry guys, can't say :P @JohnRennie

Bernardo Meurer

@Sid I have accidentally ran over my dell with a car and it's just fine

So what you call bulky I call sturdy

Battery life is indeed not great

John Rennie

@Sid the Latitude range are business laptops and designed to be sturdy so they'll survive rattling around in a reps car for years. I rely on my Dells for the work that pays for me to live.

But if your ideal laptop is a Macbook then, yes, I agree that the Dells are not for you.

skullpatrol

7:16 AM

iPhone Xs are ridiculously priced, IMO.

SBM

Hello.

Bernardo Meurer

@JohnRennie I'm still salivating on that Precision of yours

skullpatrol

heya

Sid

@JohnRennie I don't use MacBook. Maybe I should get one of them when I have enough money

John Rennie

@BernardoMeurer it's a monster! :-)

I had to buy a laptop backpack to carry it around. It's just too heavy to carry in the usual laptop bag.

Bernardo Meurer

7:23 AM

Lol

Goodness

skullpatrol

cool

black leather?

John Rennie

The 17" Precisions aren't really laptops. They're more portable workstations.

It has the biggest PSU I've ever seen on a laptop!

@skullpatrol sadly not, just a cheap nylon bag.

skullpatrol

Still :-)

You must look like a "hipster" :-p

(carrying it)

John Rennie

I've always used a backpack to carry stuff, from schooldays right up to the present. No-one has ever accused me of looking like a hipster :-)

skullpatrol

They're the ones with the black leather packs.

John Rennie

7:30 AM

Possibly carrying backpacks doesn't have the same social implications in the UK as it does in the US ...

skullpatrol

:-)

Bernardo Meurer

I use a backpack?

Am I a hipster

oh my god

I am

John Rennie

It's the end!

Bernardo Meurer

::starts burning vinyl records::

John Rennie

The realisation that despite your best efforts you have become .. a hipster!

Bernardo Meurer

7:32 AM

Hehehe

I will only be a Hipster when I'm writing a C compiler in Scheme and a Scheme compiler in C

and then make one compile the other in circle

into eternity

skullpatrol

Hipster

It's hip to be square.

Bernardo Meurer

I literally ate nothing today

I just realized

Weird

skullpatrol

Good way to lose weight.

Bernardo Meurer

@JohnRennie Imagine some 8 years from now when the current laptops are cheap :)

John Rennie

@BernardoMeurer Meh. Modern laptops seem to be going down the route of long battery life and light weight, but less raw power.

Bernardo Meurer

7:42 AM

@JohnRennie Well, certainly that's a large section of the market, but high performance laptops still exist

vide Gaming laptops and Dell XPS

skullpatrol

Hipsters want high priced gadgets :-)

Just look at the waiting list for the iPhone X.

John Rennie

@BernardoMeurer anyway, my i7-4810 should be arriving today and if it works (a big if) that's going to make my new E6440 a pretty MOFO laptop :-)

Bernardo Meurer

Why is it a big if?

CPU's live for quite a while in my experience

John Rennie

Dells will only allow a CPU if the BIOS specifically supports it. That's quite common with business systems.

I guess it's to stop people upgrading to crazy CPUs then blaming Dell when it crashes and burns.

Bernardo Meurer

7:58 AM

Patch the BIOS!

Just did my nightly prayer asking for the die shrink to 10nm

Sid

Two of my friends have a Dell Latitude and an HP respectively. Wonder why anyone would buy those

Unless they got it for free, of course..

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