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sidd

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #100 on: June 09, 2019, 09:44:42 AM »
I suggest that rather than learn physics from internet fora, one might want to read textbooks ?  and you will need some mathematics for quantized thinking

If you dont have much math, try Griffiths, or try susskind video. You will need some math for both.

If you have some math at undergrad level, but not much, try Feynman (v. III)

If you have the math, try Dirac, or Landau/Liftschitz or many others. In fact if you have the math, you dont need me to recommend.

Dirac is crystal clear and hard as diamond. But worth it. (as is his book on relativistic quantum field theory)

For more modern approaches to quantum field theory, Streater/Wightman, Itzykson/Zuber, Weinberg, or Bogulibov come to mind. 

But to take a larger view, quantum theory is best understood if you understand classical, pre-quantum theory theory. Goldstein and Landau come to mind there. Or what the hell, even Jackson on classical electrodynamics.

But there is no getting away from the math requirement for any of this.

Once you get thru this, Bohm and hidden variables become more understandable.

I will note from your links that Yablon has been pushing his ideas for a while, but very few accept them. Personally i think that Bohm has much more credibility in the physics community.

sidd
« Last Edit: June 09, 2019, 10:09:46 AM by sidd »

ivica

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #101 on: June 09, 2019, 11:04:20 AM »
In my view experiments should decide which idea is better to follow because only experiments can have real credibility.
Anyway my ignorance will remain boundless and somehow inspiring/motivating and that is OK for me.

nanning

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #102 on: June 09, 2019, 11:17:16 AM »
re: basic mathematics learning, to add to sidd's post,
I think you'll need calculus, linear algebra, statistics and partial differential equations to understand the above.

Some basic mathematics books I had to learn and think are good are:
Calculus: by Adams, "A complete course" (Pearson)  (Schaum's outline series (McGraw-Hill) are great for practicing)
Linear algebra:  by Lay, "Linear Algebra" (Pearson)
Differential equations and much more: Kreyszig "Advanced Engineering Mathematics" (Wiley)

For basic physics I love the books by Griffith: "Electrodynamics" and "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" (Pearson)
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

johnm33

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #103 on: June 09, 2019, 03:43:17 PM »
"Experiments Suggest Humans Can Directly Observe the Quantum"
ivica Try SMPhillips site, a physicist who was impressed by the predictive accuracy of the theosophists once he'd learnt to interpret their work correctly, they apparently acquired the skill in weeks. Worth reading 'The secret life of nature' P Tomkins iirc too at least the electron chapter.

ivica

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« Reply #104 on: June 09, 2019, 05:08:43 PM »
johnm33, thanks for the links i'll take a look...

Main intention with The Gadget post is to inspire/motivate a reader to think a bit about own body/mind and power of it.

Most people around me are not aware even of own nasal cycle, so my main interest is on elementary stuff, like breath... and how to get people to pay more attention to their basic faculties and stop doing variety of nasty things they do unconsciously to themselves.
To get people to think, feel, understand and experience little more is harder then i previously thought.

Tim

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #105 on: June 09, 2019, 06:00:05 PM »
johnm33, thanks for the links i'll take a look...

Main intention with The Gadget post is to inspire/motivate a reader to think a bit about own body/mind and power of it.

Most people around me are not aware even of own nasal cycle, so my main interest is on elementary stuff, like breath... and how to get people to pay more attention to their basic faculties and stop doing variety of nasty things they do unconsciously to themselves.
To get people to think, feel, understand and experience little more is harder then i previously thought.

Much harder than you might have thought.

Another place you might look for not just observation of, but interaction with realty at this level, is to indigenous shamanism. The Australian aboriginal noticing that reality acted more like a fluid dream, South American methods for finding the fluidity of objective reality as relayed by the Carlos Castaneda works, and even in a better, less western, understanding of what the North American indigenous were really forcing themselves to experience on their personal vision quests.

What I was teasing about with my silly post, was about this fluidity of reality, it's malleable qualities that the Australian aboriginals could force themselves into seeing on their walkabouts, as with the North American indigenous on their similar vision quests. What I was saying in my silly post, is that wherever collective minds reduce anything into a certainty, they have collapsed the wave into a particle, so to speak, as was demonstrated in the famous double slit experiment ... and those things become fixed in reality, certainties, with very little malleability anymore. Wherever things can remain probabilistic, however, the way the waves collapse can remain fluid and then still be collapsed into a number of different certainties. Careful what you make certain, in other words.

Weather, is still very uncertain to western culture. They can only predict it out a few days, and even then if something unpredictable happens, people, even people who are very certain about what they think, will shrug their shoulders and say, meh ... weather, can't really predict it. Too variable. Too chaotic. This is a great place to run your own experiments, exactly because it contains so much uncertainty. You don't need any math (that's trying to force certainty.) You just need yourself and objective reality.

I would suggest the Taoists were also quite onto this, and had developed a methodology for observing it, and also for interacting with it consciously, rather than just blindly (as you alluded to in your statement about the subconscious.)

Good luck. Especially with formal western thinkers. They mostly only like objective certainties, and shy away from leaving such things in a fluid wave state. That's why all the math. I feel they missed the boat on what that double slit experiment was showing them about the fluidity of reality. They are working hard to collapse it into something else, and doing quite a good job of it too.

All you need is a brain and a reality to run your own experiments with this, like the indigenous did, or the Taoists. Some advice from someone with experience can help sometimes too.
.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2019, 07:11:52 PM by Tim »

johnm33

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #106 on: June 09, 2019, 07:28:48 PM »
http://www.ronaldcowen.com/
ivica Cowen is an adept, he found his own way to seeing, only realised what he'd found when he came across SMPhillips work. Probably aligns better with your interest.

ivica

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« Reply #107 on: June 09, 2019, 07:39:40 PM »
Tim, I had wink at the end of my prev reply but feeling somewhat waggish well after midnight i deleted that poor smiley at posting.

What resonates the best with me happened to be Yogic system, and that is quite similar to what you are talking, all that comes from within after all.

"Good luck. Especially with formal western thinkers."
ah, my objective reality ;)

---
In is the Only Way Out.
being == knows how to be
Human being, not human doing - says Daniel Schmidt in one of his videos.
---

Thanks again, johnm33.

Tim

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« Reply #108 on: June 09, 2019, 07:51:10 PM »
Yes, ivica, I neglected to mention the yogis and yoganinis. Kundalini yoga, in particular, is a branch that focuses heavily on reaching out and interacting with a fluid reality. All of it can be related back to the double slit discovery, which western science is working hard to stuff back into a Newtonian box of an objective, fixed reality, built on certainties. I can totally see and relate to why your interests lead you there for a looksy.

I like breath too, pranayama, it's a great thing. Good luck in your endeavors.  :)
.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2019, 08:18:36 PM by Tim »

ivica

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« Reply #109 on: June 10, 2019, 12:40:53 PM »
Short entry on pranayama ( blame Tim ;) )
   (it's not intended to teach but to give a peek in culture different then ours)

Complete Package of Pranayama for young Beginner's



The Breath.

ivica

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« Reply #110 on: June 12, 2019, 10:23:08 AM »
when so many cannot notice own breath how could they notice anything subtler, their instrumentarium is full of noise and so almost useless.

Stop Limiting Life's Possibility

"This is about realizing the full potential of what it means to be human."


"
when you are in any state of compulsiveness, you don’t see anything the way it is, it gets exaggerated.
If your bladder is full, one minute, I am talking about enlightenment, your bladder is very full, are you interested?
‘I don’t want any enlightenment' right now, going to the bathroom feels like ultimate liberation.
"

ivica

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #111 on: June 12, 2019, 08:37:43 PM »
Add to previous post: How to Stop Sabotaging Yourself

gerontocrat

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #112 on: June 16, 2019, 11:03:58 AM »
Way to go .....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48624784
Chinese tombs yield earliest evidence of cannabis use
Quote
The study suggests cannabis was being smoked at least 2,500 years ago, and that it may have been associated with ritual or religious activities.

Traces of the drug were identified in wooden burners from the burials. The cannabis had high levels of the psychoactive compound THC, suggesting people at the time were well aware of its effects.

Cannabis plants have been cultivated in East Asia for their oily seeds and fibre from at least 4,000 BC. But the early cultivated varieties of cannabis, as well as most wild populations, had low levels of THC and other psychoactive compounds.

The burners, or braziers, were found at Jirzankal Cemetery, high up in the Pamir Mountains.

The scientists think ancient people put cannabis leaves and hot stones in the braziers and inhaled the resulting smoke.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

be cause

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #113 on: June 16, 2019, 11:13:40 AM »
  .. I'll just set my pipe down .. I'm awaiting my 10th prosecution for using and sharing this wonderful herb with the sick and dying .. things change ... b.c.
Conflict is the root of all evil , for being blind it does not see whom it attacks . Yet it always attacks the Son Of God , and the Son of God is you .

gerontocrat

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« Reply #114 on: June 16, 2019, 09:15:17 PM »
Imagine that...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-48625734
Quote
Scotland's crannogs are older than Stonehenge

Crannogs were fortified settlements constructed on artificial islands in lochs.

It was thought they were first built in the Iron Age, a period that began around 800 BC.

But four Western Isles sites have been radiocarbon dated to about 3640-3360 BC in the Neolithic period - before the erection of Stonehenge's stone circle.

The prehistoric monument in Wiltshire is one of Britain's best-known Neolithic features. Stonehenge's stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic period, about 2500 BC.

Another famous Neolithic site is Skara Brae, a village in Orkney inhabited between 3200 BC and 2200 BC.

Archaeologists Dr Duncan Garrow, of University of Reading, and Dr Fraser Sturt, from the University of Southampton, investigated four crannog artificial islands in the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles.

At one of the sites well-preserved Neolithic pottery had previously been found on the loch bed by Chris Murray, a former Royal Navy diver who lives in Lewis.

The archaeologists' investigation included making underwater surveys and carrying out excavations at the sites to obtain "conclusive evidence of artificial islet construction during the Neolithic".

Four crannogs in the Western Isles were found to date to the Neolithic period
The archaeologists, whose research has been published in the journal Antiquity, said the crannogs represented "a monumental effort" through the piling up of boulders on the loch bed, and in the case of a site in Loch Bhorgastail the building of a stone causeway.

They said it was possible other Scottish crannogs, and similar sites in Ireland, were also Neolithic.

Previously it was thought crannogs were built and re-used over a period of 2,500 years from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

gerontocrat

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« Reply #115 on: June 16, 2019, 09:22:12 PM »
  .. I'll just set my pipe down .. I'm awaiting my 10th prosecution for using and sharing this wonderful herb with the sick and dying .. things change ... b.c.
One of the many books I have lost was an Encyclopedia of Herbs from the 1920's- a great big book with all the medicinal benefits and warnings included. It was know as the Herbalists' Bible amongst the cognoscenti of the subject.

It included a very long chapter on the herb, its various names and varying qualities depending on where and how grown.

The book also mentioned that the US Treasury collected 5 million bucks a year from import taxes on the aforesaid herb. That's a lot of moolah in today's money.

Things certainly do "progress", not necessarily for the better.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

johnm33

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #116 on: June 16, 2019, 11:36:10 PM »
  .. I'll just set my pipe down .. I'm awaiting my 10th prosecution for using and sharing this wonderful herb with the sick and dying .. things change ... b.c.
My first job [at 15] was in a scrap [metal] yard, the old guys there were full of stories, mostly they'd served in the trenches 14-18, I wish now I'd listened more ... apparently when they were young when they couldn't afford to drink they would buy opium/heroin/diamorphine tablets, cheaper than drinking but not sociable, so they preferred to drink, legislated against by the beerocracy, they also smoked dope which they said was easily available until the mid 30s.
Then there was the stuff about trench warfare between officers and men[boys] where the officers were so despised they'd be shot from behind in an advance until the officer 'class' started to send their children to the front as lieutenants  who no-one had the heart to shoot.
best wishes bc

ivica

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« Reply #117 on: June 17, 2019, 09:13:44 AM »
2 short entertaining films to peek into culture which is different than ours

Surya Kriya - Activating the Sun within
   "If Yoga is Hindu, then Gravity is Christian.
   Yoga is not a belief system. It is a science of inner wellbeing."

Angamardana: Mastering the limbs
   "To have a body which is not nuisance,
   to have a body which cooperates with you is tremendeous boon"

nanning

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #118 on: June 17, 2019, 10:09:33 AM »
Civilisations: Supremacy over own body; distant, alien, unnatural.

mind-over-body is supremacy and therefore insanity.

I am complete = I don't have mind-over-body, I just have body.
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

ivica

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« Reply #119 on: June 18, 2019, 12:29:11 PM »
...there is no substitute for involment...

What we I can not do, we I can not do - no problem, but we I should do what we I can.
« Last Edit: June 18, 2019, 12:53:42 PM by ivica »

vox_mundi

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #120 on: June 19, 2019, 08:59:44 PM »
Learning Constrains Further Learning
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-constrains-neuroscientists.html

Why is it that a master musician can learn a new score in no time, yet encounter difficulty learning something else, like skateboarding tricks? Could there is any truth to the myth that you use only 10 percent of your brain? A recent neuroscience study at KTH Royal Institute of Technology offers some answers about the limits of new learning and how the brain adapts to developing new skills and knowledge.

While there is no question that 100 percent of our brain does indeed function, in recent years experimental observations suggest that brain activity has only about 10 degrees of freedom. Which means the neurons are wired in such a fashion that only a selected set of patterns was possible. This set was named the "intrinsic manifold" of the circuit which allows the brain to generate certain base patterns of neural activity.

... "Experimental findings suggested that the patterns in the intrinsic manifold are made up of a weighted combination of base patterns, much in same way color displays give the impression of true colors by weighting the primary colors red, blue and green," Wärnberg says. It is easy to adjust the existing color channels but extremely difficult to add a new color channel because it would require fresh mixing of the primary colors.

Similarly, creating patterns that lie outside the original manifold requires a thorough rewiring of the neurons—something animals find difficult, if not impossible, to do.

The research offers an explanation of how such manifolds of neural activity contribute to the computations the brain makes. In the process of learning a set of tasks the brain acquires a connectivity to perform the task efficiently, but this new connectivity constrains the neural activity and precludes learning of a different set of tasks, Kumar says. "In effect, learning constrains learning.

"It explains why once you have learned how to drive on the left side of road, like in India or the UK, you find it difficult to drive in Europe or the U.S., where they drive on the right," he says.



Open Access: Emil Wärnberg et al. Perturbing low dimensional activity manifolds in spiking neuronal networks, PLOS Computational Biology (2019)
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

gerontocrat

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« Reply #121 on: June 19, 2019, 10:37:33 PM »
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/19/nuclear-weapons-pentagon-us-military-doctrine

"be afraid, be very afraid". But this time - not a joke.

I remember as a teenager in October 1962 with my brother pressing my ear against the living room door as my parents discussed where to run to as it looked like they were going to drop the bomb. We were less than 50 miles from London. Dad wanted us to run to Wales. Mother told him not to be daft. Better to be instantly fried than die horribly from radiation plus starvation and exposure.

A long preamble to....

Nuclear weapons: experts alarmed by new Pentagon 'war-fighting' doctrine

US joint chiefs of staff posted then removed paper that suggests nuclear weapons could ‘create conditions for decisive results’

Quote
The Pentagon believes using nuclear weapons could “create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability”, according to a new nuclear doctrine adopted by the US joint chiefs of staff last week.

The document, entitled Nuclear Operations, was published on 11 June, and was the first such doctrine paper for 14 years. Arms control experts say it marks a shift in US military thinking towards the idea of fighting and winning a nuclear war – which they believe is a highly dangerous mindset.

“Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability,” the joint chiefs’ document says. “Specifically, the use of a nuclear weapon will fundamentally change the scope of a battle and create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.”

At the start of a chapter on nuclear planning and targeting, the document quotes a cold war theorist, Herman Kahn, as saying: “My guess is that nuclear weapons will be used sometime in the next hundred years, but that their use is much more likely to be small and limited than widespread and unconstrained.”

Kahn was a controversial figure. He argued that a nuclear war could be “winnable” and is reported to have provided part of the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr Strangelove.

The Nuclear Operations document was taken down from the Pentagon online site after a week, and is now only available through a restricted access electronic library. But before it was withdrawn it was downloaded by Steven Aftergood, who directs the project on government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists.

A spokesman for the joint chiefs of staff said the document was removed from the publicly accessible defence department website “because it was determined that this publication, as is with other joint staff publications, should be for official use only”.

In an emailed statement the spokesman did not say why the document was on the public website for the first week after publication.

Aftergood said the new document “is very much conceived as a war-fighting doctrine – not simply a deterrence doctrine, and that’s unsettling”.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2019, 10:46:10 PM by gerontocrat »
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

ivica

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #122 on: June 21, 2019, 04:20:18 AM »
Human wellBeing
   2014...

   June 21st: International Day of Yoga
Quote
India's Permanent Mission to the UN organized celebrations at the United Nations on 20 and 21 June 2016. A special event titled "Conversation with Yoga Masters – Yoga for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals" was the centerpiece.
   Here is Sadhguru's full address to the UN, a day before the IDY 2016.

And Now Yoga
   
   "Sadhguru looks at the four paths of yoga, and how the best way to progress is through the right combination of these four."

A Summary
   Really worth a watch, it can put a smile! on your face .


vox_mundi

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« Reply #123 on: June 27, 2019, 01:00:37 AM »
Recalculating ...

Denver Airport Drivers Get Stuck in Mud Using Google Maps   
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-denver-airport-drivers-stuck-mud.html

Denver drivers using Google Maps to get to the city's airport last weekend and trying to avoid a traffic jam were sent on a detour that took them down a narrow, muddy dirt road.

Connie Monsees told KMGH-TV there were about 100 cars on Sunday lined up on the road.

She says some cars got stuck behind others that could not move and that other vehicles could not make it across several deep ditches.


“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

ivica

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« Reply #124 on: June 29, 2019, 09:56:33 AM »
Saturday mUSING: Food for thought <eh> on Experience > Thought > Word

in attempt of expressing inner experience to outer world, in transition from inward to outward, from experience to word, how much is lost in such communication attempt?

an example, an almost random pick of source: In the beginning was the λόγος ...
Quote
Hence λόγος is, first of all, a collecting or collection both of things in the mind, and of words by which they are expressed. It therefore signifies both the outward form by which the inward thought is expressed, and the inward thought itself,
and then someone translates λόγος with Word, eh .

be cause

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« Reply #125 on: June 29, 2019, 10:18:55 AM »
I'm an Umbanda Daime man myself .. :)   b.c.
Conflict is the root of all evil , for being blind it does not see whom it attacks . Yet it always attacks the Son Of God , and the Son of God is you .

vox_mundi

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« Reply #126 on: July 05, 2019, 05:40:45 PM »
2019: Homeowners in Florida Encouraged to Kill Invasive Iguanas ‘Whenever Possible’
https://gizmodo.com/homeowners-in-florida-encouraged-to-kill-invasive-iguan-1836105688

With the spread of green iguanas spiraling out of control in Florida, the state’s wildlife agency is urging homeowners to take it upon themselves to exterminate the non-native lizard, and without the need for permits.

To tackle the spread of green iguanas, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is now encouraging residents to kill the animals on their own property, as well as 22 areas of public land.

These resilient animals are currently experiencing a population spurt in Florida, with climate change and shifts in vegetation a likely contributing factor.

... Green iguanas are normally found in Central America, some eastern Caribbean islands, and the tropical portions of South America. The lizards were introduced to Florida in the 1960s, and can now be found in most parts of the state, with sightings as far north as Pensacola and Panama City Beach.

------------------------

Apparently, last years efforts were not entirely successful ...

2018: To Combat Iguana Problem, Researchers Bash In Reptiles' Heads
https://phys.org/news/2018-03-combat-iguana-problem-bash-reptiles.html

Their work is part of a $63,000 research project, contracted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, designed to find the best way to remove iguanas and then offer tips to homeowners on how to purge the pests from their yards.

... "Most of what we're doing is blunt force trauma," said Jenny Ketterlin, a wildlife biologist and research coordinator with UF. "Hitting their head very hard against a solid object."

-------------------------

Seems like a lot of protein is going to waste ...

Chicken of the Trees: Eating South Florida's Iguanas
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/fl-reg-eating-iguana-south-florida-invasive-20180627-story.html

Iguana is a staple in the Caribbean, where the reptiles are a native species and are known as “pollo de los árboles,” or chicken of the trees. Their meat contains more protein than chicken, and members of some cultures believe it has medicinal properties. ... Because he captures so many, Wood said he feeds some to his alligators and turns others into wallets.

Iguana Meat - Boneless - 1 Lb. : $59.99 https://www.exoticmeatmarkets.com/Buy-Boneless-Wild-Iguana-Meat-p/iguanaboneless1601.htm

-----------------------------

A Simpsons episode comes to mind ...


Everybody Wants To kill Bart's Lizards

« Last Edit: July 05, 2019, 05:46:06 PM by vox_mundi »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

kassy

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #127 on: July 06, 2019, 04:56:25 PM »
Florida Fried Iguana sounds like a good idea to me.
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nanning

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« Last Edit: July 09, 2019, 10:08:46 AM by nanning »
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

vox_mundi

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #129 on: July 09, 2019, 06:49:12 AM »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #130 on: July 09, 2019, 06:40:42 PM »
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/19/nuclear-weapons-pentagon-us-military-doctrine

"be afraid, be very afraid". But this time - not a joke.

I remember as a teenager in October 1962 with my brother pressing my ear against the living room door as my parents discussed where to run to as it looked like they were going to drop the bomb. We were less than 50 miles from London. Dad wanted us to run to Wales. Mother told him not to be daft. Better to be instantly fried than die horribly from radiation plus starvation and exposure.

Nuclear weapons: experts alarmed by new Pentagon 'war-fighting' doctrine

US joint chiefs of staff posted then removed paper that suggests nuclear weapons could ‘create conditions for decisive results’

Quote
The Pentagon believes using nuclear weapons could “create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability”, according to a new nuclear doctrine adopted by the US joint chiefs of staff last week.


Sounds like Brig. Gen. Jack Ripper -  minus 'our precious bodily fluids'

-----------------------------------------

Pentagon Looks to Virtual Reality to Prepare Troops for Nuclear War
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2019/07/pentagon-looks-virtual-reality-prepare-troops-nuclear-war/158245/

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency on Tuesday began seeking information on virtual reality training systems that would allow troops to rehearse different scenarios involving “radiological threats.”

The agency, which focuses on countering weapons of mass destruction, could one day use the tech to train troops to intercept radiological weapons on the battlefield, respond to radioactive contamination and even prepare for full-fledged nuclear war, officials wrote in the solicitation.

https://www.fbo.gov/index.php?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=7925a9c0ffff43ef6e8b4ba2aa86d39b&tab=core&_cview=0

Quote
... This SSN seeks information on existing solutions for virtual training and testing platforms for DoD combat forces operating in a battlefield nuclear warfare (BNW) environment, or performing radiological threat objects find and interdict operations. ... Radiological/nuclear considerations may include everything from point radiation sources, area contamination, and nuclear weapon detonation.


Dr Strangelove - Major Kong Rides 'The Bomb'

... We'll meet again
Don't know where
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

b_lumenkraft

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #131 on: July 11, 2019, 07:33:08 PM »
Let's talk about the government's relationship with the environment...


b_lumenkraft

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #132 on: July 11, 2019, 09:39:38 PM »
In memory of Wilhelm Blumberg, who was arrested for calling the swastika flag a cunt cloth.


philopek

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #133 on: July 11, 2019, 09:52:30 PM »
In memory of Wilhelm Blumberg, who was arrested for calling the swastika flag a cunt cloth.



+1

kassy

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #134 on: July 13, 2019, 09:46:50 AM »
Cool video of sharks feeding on a dead swordfish and an Atlantic wreckfish snacking a shark in this article:

https://www.sciencealert.com/watch-noaa-captured-this-deep-sea-fish-lazily-choking-down-a-shark
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Tunnelforce9

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #135 on: July 14, 2019, 07:32:18 AM »
Quote
About 100,000 oil wells are now drilled every year...


http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190708-the-mystery-of-unexplained-earthquakes

gerontocrat

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #136 on: July 14, 2019, 09:17:45 PM »
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

vox_mundi

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #137 on: July 19, 2019, 06:04:31 PM »
Humans Aren't Designed to Be Happy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-07-humans-happy.html



Humans are not designed to be happy, or even content. Instead, we are designed primarily to survive and reproduce, like every other creature in the natural world. A state of contentment is discouraged by nature because it would lower our guard against possible threats to our survival.

A huge happiness and positive thinking industry, estimated to be worth US$11 billion a year, has helped to create the fantasy that happiness is a realistic goal. Chasing the happiness dream is a very American concept, exported to the rest of the world through popular culture. Indeed, "the pursuit of happiness" is one of the US's "unalienable rights." Unfortunately, this has helped to create an expectation that real life stubbornly refuses to deliver.

Because even when all our material and biological needs are satisfied, a state of sustained happiness will still remain a theoretical and elusive goal, as Abd-al-Rahman III, Caliph of Córdoba in the tenth century, discovered. He was one of the most powerful men of his time, who enjoyed military and cultural achievements, as well as the earthly pleasures of his two harems. Towards the end of his life, however, he decided to count the exact number of days during which he had felt happy. They amounted to precisely 14.

... experts in this field argue that nature's failure to weed out depression in the evolutionary process (despite the obvious disadvantages in terms of survival and reproduction) is due precisely to the fact that depression as an adaptation plays a useful role in times of adversity, by helping the depressed individual disengage from risky and hopeless situations in which he or she cannot win. Depressive ruminations can also have a problem solving function during difficult times.

or ...



It's your choice.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

kassy

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #138 on: July 19, 2019, 08:59:52 PM »
Meh depression is when you don´t do all kind of stuff which would be good to do. It is not an advantage. Also you are much more likely to ruminate in non-constructive circles.

On a more general not we might be designed to be not satisfied...always other places to go which is different from our near relatives. Maybe it fits that we get depressed if we are stuck in a spot somehere? 
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

TerryM

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #139 on: July 19, 2019, 10:11:59 PM »
Meh depression is when you don´t do all kind of stuff which would be good to do. It is not an advantage. Also you are much more likely to ruminate in non-constructive circles.

On a more general not we might be designed to be not satisfied...always other places to go which is different from our near relatives. Maybe it fits that we get depressed if we are stuck in a spot somehere?


Weren't there experiments some decades ago where they overcrowded rats and found they became depressed as well as aggressive? If isolation and overcrowding both lead to depression, perhaps the evolutionary advantage is that we evolved to live in proximity to each other without overcrowding or isolation.


Terry

kassy

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #140 on: July 23, 2019, 11:42:48 AM »
This month the world has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon. But this week sees another scientific anniversary, perhaps just as important for the future of civilisation.

Forty years ago, a group of climate scientists sat down at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts for the first meeting of the "Ad Hoc Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate". It led to the preparation of what became known as the Charney Report – the first comprehensive assessment of global climate change due to carbon dioxide.

It doesn't sound as impressive as landing on the Moon, and there certainly weren't millions waiting with bated breath for the deliberations of the meeting.

But the Charney Report is an exemplar of good science, and the success of its predictions over the past 40 years has firmly established the science of global warming.

...

In 1972 John Sawyer, the head of research at the UK Meteorological Office, wrote a four-page paper published in Nature summarising what was known at the time, and predicting warming of about 0.6°C by the end of the 20th century.
In 1972 John Sawyer, the head of research at the UK Meteorological Office, wrote a four-page paper published in Nature summarising what was known at the time, and predicting warming of about 0.6°C by the end of the 20th century.

https://www.sciencealert.com/while-we-celebrated-the-moon-landing-we-hit-another-critical-science-anniversary

https://www.bnl.gov/envsci/schwartz/charney_report1979.pdf
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

vox_mundi

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« Reply #141 on: July 23, 2019, 04:51:02 PM »
New Research Casts Doubts On Safety of World's Most Popular Artificial Sweetener
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-07-safety-world-popular-artificial-sweetener.html

Professor Erik Millstone and Dr. Elisabeth Dawson have forensically detailed serious flaws in the reassurance provided in 2013 by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) about the safety of aspartame—more commonly known as Nutrasweet.

The new study points out the EFSA panel discounted the results of every single one of 73 studies that indicated that aspartame could be harmful while treating 84% of studies providing no prima facie evidence of harm as unproblematically reliable.

Since 1974, studies and scientists have warned of the risks of brain damage, liver and lung cancer, brain lesions and neuroendocrine disorders from consuming Nutrasweet, which is found in thousands of products around the world including diet soft drinks.

Prof Millstone, a University of Sussex expert on food chemical safety policy, is calling for the suspension of authorisation to sell or use aspartame in the EU pending an independent and thorough re-examination of relevant evidence—including key documents that Prof Millstone says were omitted from the dossier the panel reviewed.

He is also advocating a radical overhaul of EU food safety processes including an end to behind closed door discussions.

He said: "Our analysis of the evidence shows that, if the benchmarks the panel used to evaluate the results of reassuring studies had been consistently used to evaluate the results of studies that provided evidence that aspartame maybe unsafe then they would have been obliged to conclude there was sufficient evidence to indicate aspartame is not acceptably safe.

Among the flaws in the study highlighted by the University of Sussex research, the panel:

- Breached EFSA guidelines on risk assessment transparency on multiple grounds
- Adopted a low-hurdle for the acceptability of negative studies—including studies previously dubbed "woefully inadequate" and "worthless" by experts
- Applied unreachably high hurdles for 'positive' studies indicating adverse effects—even though many of those 73 studies were far more reliable than most of the studies that provided no indication of risk.
- Demonstrated puzzling anomalies including inconsistent and unacknowledged assumptions


Open Access: Erik Paul Millstone et al. EFSA's toxicological assessment of aspartame: was it even-handedly trying to identify possible unreliable positives and unreliable negatives?, Archives of Public Health (2019)

------------------------------












https://www.pixton.com/ca/comic/83ls94kv

connect the dots
« Last Edit: July 23, 2019, 10:16:15 PM by vox_mundi »
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

nanning

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #142 on: July 24, 2019, 06:46:35 PM »
I have invented a simple game. Played it a lot with undergraduate fellow students. Maybe it's not new?

You need an atlas. Or wikipedia.
One person thinks of a place on Earth, mentions it and the others have to think of the possible longitude/latitude coordinates. The one who's closest 'wins'. It can also be played the other way arount with one person stating a set of coordinates.

It's fun and can be played with varying degrees of difficulty, and is good for you :).
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

gerontocrat

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« Reply #143 on: July 24, 2019, 09:18:02 PM »
Meh depression is when you don´t do all kind of stuff which would be good to do. It is not an advantage. Also you are much more likely to ruminate in non-constructive circles.

On a more general not we might be designed to be not satisfied...always other places to go which is different from our near relatives. Maybe it fits that we get depressed if we are stuck in a spot somehere?
There is being depressed, and there is depression,

Sometimes just about everything goes to shit. That can make someone depressed, but it is not the illness known as depression.

Depression (as I know only too well) is independent of external circumstances. Things might be going to shit but ho hum, no matter. Then again, one wakes up in the morning and the whole world is horrible, ghastly, vile. But things are actually going OK.

Obviously the worst is when externally things are crap and depression has arrived.

There is no cure, there are only mechanisms one can learn to get through it. That for me does not include medication of any description..
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

TerryM

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« Reply #144 on: July 25, 2019, 01:06:01 AM »

There is being depressed, and there is depression,

There is no cure, there are only mechanisms one can learn to get through it. That for me does not include medication of any description..
Ramen!
To the best of my knowledge all anti-depression meds are a dangerous scam perpetrated by Big Pharmacy. Time doesn't just wound all heals, it will also heal most wounds. ;)


I've never met a Mensan who wouldn't admit to having suffered from clinical depression.  :)
Terry

DrTskoul

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« Reply #145 on: July 25, 2019, 04:23:43 AM »

There is being depressed, and there is depression,

There is no cure, there are only mechanisms one can learn to get through it. That for me does not include medication of any description..
Ramen!
To the best of my knowledge all anti-depression meds are a dangerous scam perpetrated by Big Pharmacy. Time doesn't just wound all heals, it will also heal most wounds. ;)


I've never met a Mensan who wouldn't admit to having suffered from clinical depression.  :)
Terry

That shows age generational gap - an attitude of a different era, like my mother in law. Like the old hat industrial chemist where injury of limb and health where a token of a successful career.

Like pain, depression is a very subjective experience and outside conspiracy theories of big pharma (which indeed tries to maximize use of their products - like our free market MBAs teachings), medications - both pain and depression do help some people from severe suffering - who are you to say "suck it up". I respect both of your comments and input on all matters. But on this you are utterly wrong!!

Cheers

nanning

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #146 on: July 25, 2019, 06:44:33 PM »
Perhaps readers of this forum are troubled by wasps. I have a solution (for the wasps at 53N).

If they bother me (trying to crawl into my bottle of beer, restless hovering very close to my face or ears, trying to enter my rücksack etc.). When they are hovering in one of mentioned domains (I let them crawl all over me outside of those domains if they want), my indexfinger comes out and folows the swinging movements of the wasp. If it keeps bothering on and on, coming back even though it's discouraged away from the domain using your indexfinger, then clap your hands together close to the wasp. If that doesn't work, clap your hands together killing the wasp. I hardly ever have to kill a wasp and never get stung. Slow movements, easy, not really important ;).
Maybe it's of use to some.

edit: even->ever
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

nanning

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« Reply #147 on: July 27, 2019, 10:10:30 AM »
Whistling.  Do you whistle?

I like to whistle. Not always to known tunes but some tunes are nice to whistle. In the 'good music'-thread I posted Margaret Whiting as an example but there are many more nice tunes for whistling. Another one I really like is . This song is covered by in Dutch with a very nice text and when I whistle the tune I play Gerard's lyrics in my head which is not easy at first.

Does any of you have examples or proposals for songs that are nice to whistle?
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

gerontocrat

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Re: Unsorted
« Reply #148 on: July 27, 2019, 12:33:34 PM »

There is being depressed, and there is depression,

There is no cure, there are only mechanisms one can learn to get through it. That for me does not include medication of any description..
Ramen!
To the best of my knowledge all anti-depression meds are a dangerous scam perpetrated by Big Pharmacy. Time doesn't just wound all heals, it will also heal most wounds. ;)


I've never met a Mensan who wouldn't admit to having suffered from clinical depression.  :)
Terry

That shows age generational gap - an attitude of a different era, like my mother in law. Like the old hat industrial chemist where injury of limb and health where a token of a successful career.

Like pain, depression is a very subjective experience and outside conspiracy theories of big pharma (which indeed tries to maximize use of their products - like our free market MBAs teachings), medications - both pain and depression do help some people from severe suffering - who are you to say "suck it up". I respect both of your comments and input on all matters. But on this you are utterly wrong!!

Cheers
Did I say no-one should take meds / drugs ? I am the lucky one to have found a way of avoiding them most of the time. There are many days when alcohol and at least temporary oblivion are an enormous temptation. Like when people tell you you are utterly wrong about an opinion never expressed and never held.
 
It is different for everybody.

One of my Bros takes meds sometimes. They work for a bit and then.. side-effects take over.

Me, when they took me away they gave me meds and I had to beg them to stop. Depression turned into a continuous internal scream a la Edvard Munch.

At the pub I met lots of people who managed to control the disease with moderate medication but only after years of fits and starts, and still having to change drug types and dosages regularly.

In the UK Mental Health budgets were starved, and your Doc is allowed just 12 minutes with you. So it is so easy for a Doc to throw pills at you when there is no time to find out some sort of solution and inadequate or no counselling resources available. The Doc has that choice or nothing.

They chucked me out when I told them that though suicide was thought about every day, I had developed a sort of CBT response to avoid turning thought into action.

And the people who own and boss big Pharma are a bunch of shits. As in total shits. Opioids rule, OK?

__________________________________________________
brrrrr. Just visited a part of my brain best left alone. A goose walked over my grave.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

DrTskoul

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« Reply #149 on: July 27, 2019, 02:00:43 PM »
I might have been to hard with you vs Terry, Gero but I saw the comments together and I saw red. My wife has had chronic pain for a decade due to back injury and is treated like a junkie by the doctors because she complains about being in severe pain. And you hear comments from people to essentially suck it up and it’s not that bad.  When pain and depression depend on the individual’s biochemistry!!

I apologize..