RPMiller Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER So, my guess would be that he would probably fall over from exhaustion just trying to keep up with answers to his questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Well, he might decide we were just another instance of those time-traveling Bill & Ted morons and go with the flow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER They got along rather well, didn't they. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMiller Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER No, I think that was a different guy by the name of So-crates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveZilla Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Can someone verify/falsify this? Supposedly, Los Angeles has ordered 10,000 (over an unknown time) of the Martin Jetpacks for Police, Fire, Rescue, etc. The company is real, and their website even mentions a deal with a "foreign government" (they are in New Zealand). But... 10,000 of them? At $100 K a pop? That's a Billion dollars! For a city in a state that (iirc) was (or still is) near bankruptcy? Then there is the additional cost of training for the 'pilots' and the maintenance crews. The only online source I can find is (cringe) The Weekly World News. Yes, the same rag that brought you Bat Boy. If that was it, I wouldn't even be posting this question. But, there is that entry on the company's own website. Maybe there is a deal, but the number has been exaggerated by TWWN? And it looks (to me) like Fox might have (hesitantly) fallen for the story. Currently, I am about 80% disbelieving, 15% uncertain, and 5% hopeful that it is not a *total* fabrication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Agreed. But it is fascinating that he should come up with the year 2012' date=' since we all know that is the end of time. [/quote'] October 2010 is another "wave of novelty" according to the same psychonaut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Huh. The Mayan baktun rolls over in December. I wonder if he misremembered something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMiller Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER October 2010 is another "wave of novelty" according to the same psychonaut. Oh! Do tell! What exciting things do we have in store this month? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER It being October 2010, all I can think is a new low in campaign attack ads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER It being October 2010' date=' all I can think is a new low in campaign attack ads. [/quote'] Not having to do with 10/10/10? Possibly at 10:10? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Which 10:10? Universal time? Someone else's? Horrible vagueness there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archermoo Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Which 10:10? Universal time? Someone else's? Horrible vagueness there. Well obviously in {whatever time zone the reader is in}, duh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Well obviously in {whatever time zone the reader is in}, duh. It's a rolling special event. heck, you can do it AM and PM! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMiller Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Which 10:10? Universal time? Someone else's? Horrible vagueness there. Well obviously in {whatever time zone the reader is in}, duh. ROFL I'm glad I'm not the only one that raises an eyebrow at mentions of a specific time. So it will start everywhere simultaneously... and then move around the world in a western direction... affecting each time zone independently... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Wave equation and its closely related quantum mechanical cousin' date=' Schrödinger equation. Real equations that relate spatial or other physical behavior to rates of change (and hence time). So 'everything is in flux'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I am pretty sure the ancient Greeks would not recognize the partial derivative signs' date=' so it would be (figurative) Greek to them.[/quote'] maybe the Pythagoreans would or could understand the maths. I wonder how many questions Socrates would have if you were to show him modern-day physics. *smiles* You assume (I take it) the character interpretation of Plato rather than the person? And what about the reverse? Socrates* teaching modern physics a thing or two? * or some of the pre-socratics or Plato for that matter/manner... First one: "... Can I go home' date=' please?"[/quote'] *chuckle* Socrates when home, weren't you paying attention . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Intuition is notoriously fallible when it comes to modern physics. Pardon me. Ok now that I've composed myself... How many discoveries in physics have been because of relativity seemingly random inspirations? I'd credit intuition for that. Though there'd be the problem of language: lots of the concepts needed to explain such things weren't there at his time. From my recollection of early Greek philosophy, it had concepts including infinite space and something that may be identified as an atomic theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Huh. The Mayan baktun rolls over in December. I wonder if he misremembered something. 1) he died so we can't ask him for sure 2) his work involved the I Ching so totally non-Mayan related. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Oh! Do tell! What exciting things do we have in store this month? I'm as interested as you. Really. His psychnaut activities related that novelty to time periods of history, one being the Age of Reason, another The Rennenacience, and the lastest being the US presidentisl elections that elected Obama. Weird, yep. Kooky? Yep probably that too. But will something major occur? We will just have to wait and see. Edit: to dispel one thing: the date is just October 2010. No time nor day was given. (disclaimer: will have to edit this post later with the info I first came in contact with it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER And what about the reverse? Socrates* teaching modern physics a thing or two? * or some of the pre-socratics or Plato for that matter/manner... Why do you immediately assume that those who do know something about modern physics are necessarily ignorant of classical philosophy, its contributions to Western thought, and actively cultivate and maintain that ignorance? That's the implication you make there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER 1) he died so we can't ask him for sure. Memo to self: put testable but wild-a** predictions into a time when I will not be alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMiller Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Why do you immediately assume that those who do know something about modern physics are necessarily ignorant of classical philosophy' date=' its contributions to Western thought, and actively cultivate and maintain that ignorance? That's the implication you make there.[/quote'] I have to agree. As far as I'm aware, all the science degree programs are required to take philosophy. And in my case, my philosophy professor went out of his way to point out the importance of philosophy to modern science. I naturally assume that all scientists have studied philosophy, and arguably, in a classical sense, are still philosophizing to this day by asking questions and getting answers (sometimes ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMiller Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Memo to self: put testable but wild-a** predictions into a time when I will not be alive. Hehehe, you should start a "testable but wild-a** predications" thread where anyone can make predictions, but they must be beyond the person's life expectancy (say, when they would be 100?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Well, to be fair, I've never had a philosophy course. (Nor have I had a course in economics, or college level chemistry or biology. But I have had a college level courses in English literature, and German literature, and music theory, and history, and other stuff. I have read some philosophy, but it's been self-directed and unsystematic.) The institution I work at has philosophy courses as part of their required core program (there's also required theology in that core program), but that wasn't the case when and where I was an undergrad. But, introductory physics (and astronomy) classes usually acknowledge Aristotelean physics at least early on, and are at pains to point out where those are wrong and incomplete because Aristotelean mechanics is more or less what most folks think about how stuff moves and works based on common human-scale experience. Physics education research has examined these quasi-Aristotelean naive ideas about mechanics and found some common errors, things which require major effort to overcome. Work in other branches of physics isn't as far along. It is interesting, for example, that folks harp on some of the counterintuitive things about modern physics but never try wrapping their mind around broad branches of classical physics, like rotational mechanics (gyroscopes, tops, flywheels), electricity and magnetism, or hydrostatics (Archimedes' principle, anyone?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPMiller Posted October 5, 2010 Report Share Posted October 5, 2010 Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Ah, that could just be a California thing? I know both the JC I went to, and the state university, that I didn't go to, had philosophy as recommended and required courses, and the university that I go to now definitely has it, but to be fair it is also a Jesuit University and requires Theology as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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