The h Bar

1:54 AM

A question I ask myself about UFOs is: If the gov't at some point revealed that they do actually exist, would I be surprised?

3:07 AM

@Danu Agreed with Dirac, not so convinced on Bohr.

Gaurav

3:20 AM

@Jiminion "Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering."- Arthur C. Clarke

3:38 AM

@Gaurav Or we could be not alone but they are very very very far away, which is sort of less staggering. But I appreciate the point.

4:01 AM

My wife & I get a once-in-while treat to go out without the kids and got a babysitter

Inclement weather (icy rain) killed the plans

We reluctantly let the babysitter drive home

She drover her car into a ditch about 0.5 km from the house

She's totally fine, as is the car.

But with the weather, AAA couldn't get to her at all

So she's crashing with us tonight & I sorta feel bad for letting her drive off in the first place

(NB: crashing with us means sleeping over)

DanielSank

@KyleKanos: So she crashed near you, and then with you?

@DanielSank Yes. But do note the different meanings of crash

DanielSank

:P

4:20 AM

@KyleKanos So you are paying for a young woman to spend the night at your house....hmm.

JamalS

7:44 AM

Hmm, maybe that was her plan all along... :)

Danu

8:19 AM

@KyleKanos Maybe you should consider reading the biography by Pais (who also wrote one on Einstein)

Bohr's own work may not have been as impressive as e.g. Dirac's, but his influence was enormous.

Sabre Tooth

8:44 AM

@Sofia in this SE, I am not sure who is the black hole specialists are (there are bound to be a few), I know 2 in real life though (they are not members here)

Neuneck

10:39 AM

Ping

alarge

10:52 AM

@TAbraham I know the Wikipedia page only covers the two state system. What I asked you to do was to familiarize yourself with the analysis, and to pick the constants a, b, c, d so that it corresponds to the one-site problem (with your Hamiltonian). Generalization to two-site should be rather easy (for one site you have a 2x2 matrix, for two sites you'll have 4x4; you'll get some "off-diagonal" elements from the Vij corresponding to "interaction" between the sites).

1:36 PM

Stack Exchange is currently offline. Sad Jim is sad

Which one? Or the entire Jim collective?

Neuneck

Jiminion sounds like Jim's minion :P

@Neuneck It is >:)

@Jiminion Clearly I specified that Sad Jim is sad

@Neuneck Only for a month.

2:08 PM

@Jiminion I don't appreciate that insinuation.

Q: domestic lighting - live wire is live, neutral is not

0

A ceiling light has failed and i have removed it. The circuit that it was part of (eight other downstairs lights) is working fine. BUT the supply cable from this circuit to the failed light is 'live' for the live wire but not 'live' for the neutral. So my replacement light fitting is not workin...

electricity

better for Home Improvement or EE.SE?

@JimdalftheGrey DIY.SE

dmckee

@JimdalftheGrey Home Improvement I would say.

'Course, I know nothing about what is on-topic over there.

@KyleKanos Is that a new one?

Home Improvements URL is DIY.StackExchange.com

2:15 PM

My god. Shows what I know

I find calling it Home Improvement rather funny because of Tim Allen

dmckee

I've sent it on its merry way. Hope they don't get angry with me.

@KyleKanos I agree

Tool Time with Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor

3:10 PM

@KyleKanos I will turn your face to alabaster.

3:52 PM

Also your caps lock button appears to have been on when you wrote the title. You should consider fixing that. (he said, blatantly ignoring the probability that caps lock was intended) — Jimdalf the Grey 47 mins ago

@JimdalftheGrey: One reason why caps lock should be entirely non-existent

4:10 PM

@KyleKanos It can be useful. But I think the benefit of removing arbitrary yelling on the internet outweighs the detriment of an inconvenience when it is actually useful

I cannot actually think of one instance in which I needed the capslock

Just a week or so ago, I actually disabled it in my system.

It doesn't do anything now

If you are quoting someone who was yelling quite loudly while saying a long statement, then it would be helpful

If you have a ridiculously long acronym, it could be helpful

If you are typesetting a derivation where all of the constants and variables happen to be capital letters, it can save effort

For (1) copy-paste. For (2) (a) what is "ridiculously long" and (b) most editors have change-case hotkeys

What if for (1) it was a video, not a written source

For (3) wrap all those capital constants into a new constant

Then exclamation points can just as easily emphasize yelling

4:16 PM

Exclamation points denote a sense of finality, strength, or amplitude in what is said, but that is usually applied to the end of the sentence. Like, it could mean the end of the statement is emphasized or said with gusto, but the remainder of the statement could be read as not being yelled. All caps makes it clear that the entire statement is yelled

For (3) that's not always possible

But all in all, one can just press Shift to get all caps. It's inconvenient, but the benefit of making it harder for people to caps lock on the internet is worth the minor inconvenience

4:29 PM

STOP FIGHTING!

:(

Q: If a theory gets two predictions right, how likely it is that the rest of the predictions are true too?

@Jiminion We were actually agreeing. It's just that we were agreeing agressively

2

Qmechanic

0

The question lucidly defines what I am trying to inquire, so there is no need to elucidate it any further. Another question would be, General/Special Relativity has gotten some predictions right as experimental evidence is backing it up, but is there anything that it got wrong?

quantum-mechanics general-relativity string-theory experimental-physics

Should this question be closed as being primarily opinion-based, too broad, or unclear what you're asking?

@Qmechanic I voted too broad, based on Jimdalf's comment.

5:00 PM

@Qmechanic It should be in philosophy or someplace like that. It's a valid question (as far as that goes) but it is not specific to physics.

6:11 PM

@Jim What is George Burns? Chopped liver? — dmckee ♦ 38 mins ago

@dmckee You did that on purpose didn't you

You knew there were 2 Jims and we wouldn't be able to tell who you were pinging

ACuriousMind

Who is George Burns?

someone over whose kentucky home the sun shines brightly

user54412

@ACuriousMind I'm as lost as you are.

ACuriousMind

I actually don't understand the entire comment thread there starting from Charlton Heston

Though "Morgan Freeman" indicates that all mentioned people probably played God in one form or another

user54412

I think those are people who played God

6:15 PM

He was a famous entertainer

Great voice too. A comedian, has good quotes. Essentially I'm saying you should look him up

Uh, I don't recall Heston playing God

He played Moses in The Ten Commandments

@KyleKanos No, he just did a lot of Godlike things, like playing Moses and being a Jesus character (even dying on a crosslike structure) in "The Omega Man".

Yeah, I didn't agree with that one either. But asking if the OP (whose display name is God) is Heston indicated to me that they were trying to make a reference to actors that played God

But Morgan Freeman played God in Bruce Almighty

user54412

imdb.com/name/nm0000032

6:20 PM

And Evan Almighty

George Burns played God in "Oh God" with John Denver.

user54412

Almost an Angel, uncredited role as God, says IMDB