cynar
@cynar@lemmy.world
- Comment on Gravity 4 days ago:
Quantum mechanical particles are very different things to classical ones.
A slightly better way of thinking about them is quantised fields. Particles and waves are simplifications of the underlying effect. There is no classical equivalent to work with to this, so we try and understand it as particle-wave duality etc.
In this case, a carrier particle is a (quantised) disturbance in the underlying field. If it has enough energy, it manifests as a physical particle. The higgs boson is an example of this. Below the required energy, you get virtual particles. These “borrow” energy, and so can never be seen directly, only inferred.
By example. Photons are the carrier particle of electromagnetism. Give the field energy and you get photons (light). Without that energy, the photons are virtual. Existing only between the 2 acting entities.
Different fields have different carrier particles. The photon is quite simple. It’s effectiveness decays as 1/r^2 . The strong force carriers are more complex. They can emit more carrier particles, allowing the field to grow with distance rather than decay.
To add more complexity. The various fields look to be aspects of the same field. At sufficient energies, they behave identically. We have figured out how to combine the electric, magnetic and weak fields. We have a handle on the strong field. The higgs field seems to also match into this. Gravity is a pain to study. We assume it should match in, but haven’t managed to work out how yet.
As for why the underlying field exists and follows the rules it does? We have no clue right now. The ‘why’ tends to follow the ‘what’, and we have yet to get a good handle on the ‘what’.
- Comment on 4D Salmon 4 days ago:
I’ve been playing 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel it’s remarkably easy to understand, all considered. It’s only partially mind bending.
- Comment on Is flirting redundant? 2 weeks ago:
As an aspie, we still flirt. We just (sometimes) flirt differently.
- Comment on How good are amphetamines for brain fog? 4 weeks ago:
It likely won’t help, though it depends on the source of the brain fog. ADHD drugs are aimed particularly at the areas of the brain associated with executive functioning. Under stimulation here can cause brain fog, among other symptoms. Critically, the body’s homeostasis system wants to boost things, but can’t. It doesn’t fight the boost from the drugs, at least in the under stimulated areas.
If the brain fog is sourced elsewhere in the brain then the amphetamines won’t help much. Even worse, a normal Brian will adapt to counter the drugs effect, causing physical addiction. You would need to constantly increase the dose to gain the same effect. That’s the reason ADHD drugs are controlled substances in most countries. People chase the dragon, and end up nuking their brain with too high a dose.
Basically, don’t do it without medical oversight.
- Comment on I'll just take the bus 4 weeks ago:
Automatics had a bit of a bad reputation, for quite a while. They don’t/didn’t play well with our road layouts. E.g. they could be slow to downshift when climbing a hill, and kick when they did decide to play along. I believe they have improved a lot, but most people are used to manuals, and so more manuals are sold. This makes automatics more expensive and rarer.
- Comment on Talented child artist 4 weeks ago:
I think it’s a bit of a generational thing. The internet has given us access to a lot more reliable information. Far more parents have learnt the difference between what’s effective and what feels good. Yelling feels good, it doesn’t actually work very well. Rolling with it, followed by a calm discussion gets far better results. Achieving this mentality is another matter, but using it as a goal helps moderate your reaction.
- Comment on Talented child artist 4 weeks ago:
You can spot the parents here.
They are expressing themselves, having fun, and off the iPad. They even put it where I don’t have to see it too often. I’ll call it a win.
- Comment on Is their any evolutionary benefit to the sneezing reflex when looking at a bright light source, or is it just an evolutionary glitch with no purpose? 5 weeks ago:
I always assumed it was a hold over from a rodent-like ancestor. Stick your nose out of a barrow, and you want to clear it to get a good sniff of the environment.
It’s definitely one of those effects that confuses people. If you don’t do it, it seems weird as hell. If you do, it seems weird that some people don’t get it.
- Comment on they come 1 month ago:
I’ve not tried tin foil. The insulation seems to be more robust, and it wants to lie flat. It’s also optimised for IR reflection, tin foil isn’t.
Downside, it’s a near perfect blackout material. I only put them up when it’s going to be ridiculously hot, and only on the sun facing side of the house.
- Comment on they come 1 month ago:
You can get wall insulation that is, effectively a stiff bubble wrap made of milar foil. It’s not even that expensive I cut it to match windows, then used suction cuts to fix it in place.
It’s amazingly effective at keeping heat out. During the 45 degree weather, I barely had to use my air conditioner, to have a comfortable temperature.
- Comment on people trashing the self-service section of the post office 1 month ago:
That’s common in the UK as well, though mostly in the cheaper supermarkets. A lot of places rely on the honour system, and convenient drop off places.
I’m of the mindset that you can judge a society quite well by how they deal with shopping trollies.
- Comment on people trashing the self-service section of the post office 1 month ago:
I’ve noticed that people often put in near minimum acceptable effort to go optional tasks. The trick seems to be to make the easiest “acceptable” solution, to be an acceptable one.
Shopping carts are another example. The perfect solution is for people to return them to the front of the store. But that’s too much effort for many. They leave them wherever they can dump it. An acceptable one is to return them to collection points. It’s not optimal, but it’s better, and most people will actually do it.
- Comment on Morpheus Actor Laurence Fishburne Reveals He Was Turned Down for The Matrix Resurrections — So He Might Not Be Back for Matrix 5 Either - IGN 2 months ago:
Resurrections is an excellent protest movie, in the punk vein.
It was protesting exactly the type of exploitation that Warner brothers did with the matrix.
The film is akin to a new lassie film. Only the film ends with lassie being staked out in the sun and flayed alive by a teenage sociopath, whimpering the entire time. It’s a massive fuck you, intended to kill the franchise. There was just enough plausible deniability to get away, and avoid being sued for it.
- Comment on Well, that's no ordinary rabbit! 2 months ago:
I’ve also come across these. There’s a lot we don’t know, all of these could be entirely wrong.
- Comment on Well, that's no ordinary rabbit! 2 months ago:
A 15’ chicken with teeth would be terrifying.
- Comment on Anon is worried about men 2 months ago:
I fully agree. A lot of entertainment options have moved from self organising to a fire hose model. It used to be you just gave youngsters a place to go, and let them work out what to do with it. Now it’s hyper-commercialised. Everyone sits/stands there and absorbs entertainment from a central source.
It’s also not just young adults and teenagers. Pre teens and early teens have nowhere to really interact organically. Without that solid foundation of peer socialising, they are trying to build on soft sand.
- Comment on Anon is worried about men 2 months ago:
Social changes have caused chaos. A lot of the “traditional” dating methods existed to give structure to finding a partner. Unfortunately, those structures got trashed by the general update to gender roles. While these changes are great in many ways, it left young people in limbo. It was eventually replaced with online dating, for many. Unfortunately, that, in turn has been trashed by corporate takeover.
You’ve also got the outlier problem. The problematic men and women make up a small proportion of the population, but do a disproportionate amount of dating. A lot of the complaints are aimed at the problematic groups. Unfortunately, they don’t care. It’s mostly the non-problematic people who get the wrong message.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 3 months ago:
Because statistics is a relative unknown to many people. Until people have a good grounding in statistics then they often have to rely on an appeal to authority.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 3 months ago:
In reality, statistics should be trusted based on source, method and importance.
A survey of preferred ice-cream flavours by an ice-cream company can be trusted easily, even if the wording and method are a bit loose. An analysis of a potentially billion dollar drug requires FAR more scrutiny, even from multiple reliable sources. Between these 2 extremes is a spectrum of trust.
Unfortunately, most people don’t do well with shades of grey. If some statistics can’t be trusted, then none can. It’s all false news (until it happens to agree with their preconceived views).
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 3 months ago:
Even a small amount of statistic abuse will break blind trust in them. Once that trust is gone, some people will reject all of them, rather than try and differentiate.
Low grade abuse of statistics and related methods is rampant in low grade media.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 3 months ago:
There are levels of abuse, some blatant, some subtle. Leading questions are obvious, when you have the question asked. Publishing bias is difficult to spot, even for trained scientists looking for it.
Learning about statistical methods isn’t enough. People need to be taught how to weigh the data presented against the value of misleading them.
It’s a subsection of logical reasoning, and needs to be taught as part of an integrated whole.
- Comment on Cathy, do the math. 3 months ago:
Part of the problem is that statistics can be abused. It takes a reasonable amount of training to be able to differentiate between reliable statistics and potentially dodgy. Even worse, we are often presented with them, striped or context.
The best solution is to teach people how to both spot problems and seek reliable data. The proper meaning of “do your own research”. Unfortunately, a significant chunk just give up with them and only trust their gut.
- Comment on i somsone who isn’t dyslexic lexic? 3 months ago:
The dys effectively means disorder of. Lexic reading and writing ability. It’s a disorder of reading.
In the same family you have some others. Dyscalcula is a disorder of maths ability. Dyspraxia is a disorder of motor control.
Science likes Latin based words. Because it’s a dead language, the meanings don’t change/drift. Most scientific language can be deconstructed this way.
- Comment on Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have 3 months ago:
His various books explored the pros and cons of various government styles in a fairly honest way. Unfortunately, modern films don’t do well with nuances. It’s fascism on the surface, but there are echoes of the deep cracks that make it so terrifying and self destructive.
- Comment on Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have 3 months ago:
I viewed the movie as a play on the propaganda within the universe of the book (roughly the equivalent of films like “black hawk down”).
A movie playing it straight could be interesting. My only concern is how it will resonate with the current political situation. The original book was far more subtle in its view on fascism. It could easily turn into a fascist call to arms.
- Comment on How can a military buy fighter jets that the seller has kill switches for? 3 months ago:
The game changer will be swarm capable drones.
A few smart drones can be used to guide a swarm of cheaper drones on target. Additional sensor drones can feed back info to improve this.
Currently, defensive systems can cope with a drone attack. However, if you have 20 coming in from all directions, in perfect coordination, they will be overwhelmed. You don’t even need all of them to be armed, just a couple, protected by the rest.
Current drone usage is akin to the first tanks in WWI. The WWII equivalent will be terrifying.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 3 months ago:
More than I see very few of them anymore. I see more of them when I look in the junk mail, but even hotmail has gotten good a filtering out all the crap.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 3 months ago:
Does it however? I’m not up to speed on modern anti spam, but a huge number of spelling mistakes screams spam to me. I would be extremely surprised if it wasn’t the case. The best way to deliver spam is to make it indistinguishable from legit messages.
Also, the existence of spear fishing implies it’s a choice.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 3 months ago:
No evidence that we have. The spammers obviously think it’s worth doing however, and they are the ones that would have the statistics.
- Comment on What is the point of the Nicole spam? 3 months ago:
The initial fishing is a low effort, wide net. What follows actually takes the investment of man hours and/or other resources. They would rather get 1 catch they can take all the way, than 500 where 495 will figure it out later and bail.
