Chinahand's Random Stuff

[Albert Tatlock]

Saw this graphic in the FT comparing the reigns of Victoria with Elizabeth II.

 

I was really surprised. The UK, in a time when it is meant to be in its decline, actually grew its economy on a per capita basis far more between 1952 and now than it grew between the 1838 and 1901.

 

 

As ever the reality of our decline is hugely overblown with our society creating wealth at levels far above those of Victorian times.

 

There's no doubt there are still many many problems within society, but patient efforts to find solutions have resulted in real progress, and that progress over the last 60 years has been greater than a time nostalgically seen as a golden age.

 

That isn't the image of society so many doom mongers try to put out.

 

I love it when data bursts their defeatist bubble.

 

Let's create some wealth, and provide people with opportunity.

 

The small detail you are missing is that banks were not allowed to simply print money in Victorian times, and that 97% of modern Elizabeathan money is actually debt based on imaginary money.

[Chinahand]

There's something about the music of Neil Young which just hits a part of the soul. It's jagged, but plaintive, and really says something ... though what I don't know.

 

[Lao]

There's something about the music of Neil Young which just hits a part of the soul. It's jagged, but plaintive, and really says something ... though what I don't know.

 

 

Perhaps, but I've heard it said that a southern man don't need him around anyhow.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Lao

[Chinahand]

Friday lunch time and why not, just for fun, some Theoretical Computational Mathematics.

 

The Busy Beaver Turing Machine

 

 

 

 

[Chinahand]

And a wonderfully evocative video on NP v P with all sorts of allusions to creativity and art.

 

 

Far more fun than banging heads against Flat Earth Walls!

[paul's got wright]

There's something about the music of Neil Young which just hits a part of the soul. It's jagged, but plaintive, and really says something ... though what I don't know.

 

now we're talkin china! listening to neil young makes me feel better, no matter how i feel x

[woolley]

 

Saw this graphic in the FT comparing the reigns of Victoria with Elizabeth II.

 

I was really surprised. The UK, in a time when it is meant to be in its decline, actually grew its economy on a per capita basis far more between 1952 and now than it grew between the 1838 and 1901.

 

 

As ever the reality of our decline is hugely overblown with our society creating wealth at levels far above those of Victorian times.

 

There's no doubt there are still many many problems within society, but patient efforts to find solutions have resulted in real progress, and that progress over the last 60 years has been greater than a time nostalgically seen as a golden age.

 

That isn't the image of society so many doom mongers try to put out.

 

I love it when data bursts their defeatist bubble.

 

Let's create some wealth, and provide people with opportunity.

The small detail you are missing is that banks were not allowed to simply print money in Victorian times, and that 97% of modern Elizabeathan money is actually debt based on imaginary money.

 

This is simply a manifestation and verification of the old adage lies, damned lies and statistics. Tatlock's comment is apposite. It compares a time when we were the workshop of the world possessing an empire to provide the raw materials with a time of decline when we have imagined huge wealth and paid ourselves accordingly to live beyond our means whilst sinking deeper and deeper into debt. Nonsense.

[Chinahand]

A sad story of Scientific curiosity.

 

 

As a childhood fan of Wilard Price this is one of his occasional errors - and a wonderful example where you should follow traditional african lore and not "naturalists in their laboratories"!!

 

[woolley]

Scientific curiosity is a worry. Can we trust them for instance, messing around with sub-atomic particles in gigantic accelerators? I mean, the maths says it's good and cannot spin out of control, but scientists have encountered unforeseen effects in the past. Indeed it is part of their raison d'etre.

 

I suppose philosophically, the biggest worry of all is that by definition only they understand what they are messing with at the sharp end, so only they can decide whether it's safe or not. And there's always going to be that inner voice saying to them "what if I push it that bit further?".

[Chinahand]

The largest accelerators humanity has created are thousands of times slower than cosmic rays smashing into the atmosphere.

 

It is a serious issue and accelerators do have dedicated committees to think about whether they are about to create a black hole or whatever, but the TL/DR version is that nature every day throws things at the Earth with thousands of times the energy we have to create a wormhole or whatever and they haven't. Hence with our little toys it is very very unlikely we'll do anything.

 

It is pretty awesome that protons from quasars billions of lightyears away hit the atmosphere with such huge energies they exceed the speed of light in the atmosphere and give off the photonic equivalent of a sonic boom - they also are going so fast that time is slowed down so their nuclear decay reactions have half lives multiple times longer than the same substance sitting in a laboratory. Working out WTF was going on took an awful lot of patience and study - a lot of it at Durham university ;-).

 

Domesticating the horse was probably the most dangerous thing humanity has ever done. The nomadic herder who did it was probably accused of being over curious and the result has been wars, cultural extinctions and massive spread of disease etc.

 

Though I do admit H bombs are very scary things, but so are asteroids.

 

Humanity is only one small player in all this and nature, especially microbes are far more willing to try things out than we are, with consequences great and small.

 

You can't analyse all the consequences of what you do. The result would be total paralysis. Give it your best shot and get on with it.

 

That's what they've done at Cern and at the Manhattan Project. Life's rich pageant prospers and decays, lives and dies. C'est la vie.

[woolley]

"Hence with our little toys it is very very unlikely we'll do anything."

 

"You can't analyse all the consequences of what you do."

 

Hmmmm.

[Chinahand]

I enjoy The Oatmeal Webcomic.

 

It's thought provoking.

 

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/plane

[Chinahand]

With the news about Charlie Sheen's HIV status - always practice safe sex, folks, especially when being gratuitously promiscuous - I looked up Ricky Gervais's Golden Globes opening monologue from 2011.

 

 

It is classic Gervais, slightly crap, slightly cringeworthy, slightly edgy. You can't quite believe he's getting away with it ... but it does make you laugh, though in a slightly OMG sort of way.

 

Enjoy.

 

Oh and obviously NSFW.

 

 

[Chinahand]

Now folks when you head away from home always remember to keep in touch with your parents.

 

Skype is really convenient for doing this:

 

[Chinahand]

I really enjoy Veritasium: