Random Thoughts XV: Temere Cogito, Ergo . . .

[Fat Bastard]

Indeed. The blood doesn't always gush. My peripheral nervous system is screwed though.

 

[r16]

it is a new 1984 thing . Game streamers or whatever . Gen Z , appearing quite not braindead to their elders , because they didn't try to get some brains i the first place according to observations and whatnot will only care for , like , games . The most famous in this country apparently exposed some big monetary corruption in Twich (whatever the hell it ever is) so became active in Twitter and he does quite fine as a racist and a fake democrat and a fake patriot , made stronger by an incidentally unlawful or whatever arrest recently . Gen Z will get political identity from ... gamers .

 

[Broken_Erika]

DougDoug does some interesting Twitch Streams.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

For the past couple of days I've been seeing a bright white moon high up in the sky. Tonight it's a dull red and hanging low

 

[Voidwalkin]

Apocalypse surely looms

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

There was a beautiful sunset before that

In my hometown we have tall buildings everywhere. Returning to university and I realised how much difference an open view makes. The sunset was all over the field of view. It's mostly why I've appreciated sunsets here more than back home, I can see more of them

 

[Farm Boy]

It's hard to give up at any cost, once you're used to it.

 

[Voidwalkin]

Speaking as a guy raised in the hills, not often seen that. Next hill always blocks the way.

Felt the plains were vacant when I went west. Didn't like it at all. Sunset never made back the feeling of all that empty.

 

[Farm Boy]

I have a friend that moved from the prarie to the Appalachians. His theory is very straightforward. He points out to me all the trees along the state park property boundary, spray painted pink and ribboned, saying it's a "keep off." He also talks about meth cooking country and the dangers of accidental trespass. He claims this mentality is because they can't see thier neighbors, so everything is an intrusion. Round where we come from, if there is unusual smoke coming 5 miles away in the direction of your friend's place, you're taking an impromptu cruise just to make sure.

 

[Narz]

How far one can see changes the whole brain/way of seeing the world. Pygmies in the dense jungle experience reality differently than tribes on the open steepe

 

[Gori the Grey]

And the fact that most of us don't look further than a screen (telling word, that) two feet in front of our faces is altering our mindscape just as surely.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

How far one can see changes the whole brain/way of seeing the world. Pygmies in the dense jungle experience reality differently than tribes on the open steepe

 

[Valka D'Ur]

How far one can see changes the whole brain/way of seeing the world. Pygmies in the dense jungle experience reality differently than tribes on the open steepe

Yep. I noticed that during my trips to and from BC. After you start getting into the mountains and leave the prairies behind, you either feel too closed-in or you feel energized. It's the latter for me, probably due to higher elevation, cooler air, and all those beautiful mountains, lakes, and rivers. It's even more special since I took that physical geography course in college and finally understood exactly what I was looking at and how it got that way.

Alberta isn't flat by any means, or at least the western half isn't. I'm surrounded by hills here - I live on a hill, but can see a range of hills off to the east/southeast. It's just not as high as the actual foothills.

It's really annoying. That comet that's come around isn't going to be back for tens of thousands of years, and we're told that we need to look for it low on the horizon.

Because of all the trees here, I don't have any horizon to look on! Trees in the way, buildings in the way, no way to go outside the city... I'm not going to get to see this comet for myself.

And the fact that most of us don't look further than a screen (telling word, that) two feet in front of our faces is altering our mindscape just as surely.

I have my computer set up so I can always have a convenient glance out the window. There are some pine trees in a little picnic area on the grounds, with a healthy bird population (though I sincerely wish the pigeons would all get kidnapped by the Vogons because they're so damn annoying). And I've got a great view right now of the Moon and Jupiter, high in the eastern sky (it's a few minutes past midnight). There's too much light pollution to see any stars, unfortunately.

Even so, this view is necessary for my mental health. Prior to moving to this apartment, I spent ten years either in basement suites where the only thing I could see was a parking lot or in an apartment with a limited view of the sky and a great view of a blank cement wall.

 

[Kyriakos]

In G.H. Hardy's book, A Mathematician's Apology, he suggests to people two ancient theorems that show the beauty of mathematics directly; those are Euclid's proof that there are more than finitely many primes, and Hippasos of Metapontion's proof that sqr2 is not a rational number.
But imo already with Thales the beauty is striking. Here is a sketch of how he solved the practical problem of estimating distance of a ship to the shore - with his method you could approximate it virtually as close as you wished.

I find it charming that he related the angle you had to turn to face the ship, to distance. Naturally, the larger the similar triangle is to your reference one, the larger that angle will be as well=> if the ship is incredibly distant in relation to the point Γ on the shore, you hardly have to turn to see it on the horizon directly in front and thus the complementary angle to that will be almost a right one.
It's an intuitive way to work with trigonometry (eg @Samson to recall without mnemonics what sin is, as long as you remember that sin 90=1)

 

[Gori the Grey]

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!

 

[Takhisis]

OMG THANKS FOR REMINDING ME

 

[Valka D'Ur]

THERE'S A HOLIDAY FOR THIS?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

THERE'S A HOLIDAY FOR THIS?

THERE'S A HOLIDAY FOR PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING I THINK

 

[warpus]

How far one can see changes the whole brain/way of seeing the world. Pygmies in the dense jungle experience reality differently than tribes on the open steepe

I will never forget the first night we spent in the Andes. It was my first ever time seeing the southern hemisphere sky at night without any light pollution at all. It was.. amazing. It's such a weird sensation to see completely different stars than the ones you are used to.. like.. completely different. It must be a subconscious thing of some sort, because I don't exactly study the stars. I couldn't tell you what stars are where in the northern hemisphere sky, if you put me in a room and asked me to draw out the night sky. I could draw a couple constellations but that's it. I don't have the sky memorized in any way.. Yet when I looked at the sky there on that day in Peru, I got this very strange sensation, almost like I was on another planet. My body and mind knew something was VERY different. Such an odd sensation. We all exited our tents and looked up and a couple people loaded up night sky apps on their phones to figure out exactly what we were looking at, which stars, etc.

It was such a beautiful sight, so many stars visible all over the place, and the milky way was a very distinct band running across the sky as well. It really made you appreciate what the Incas and other indigenous tribes in South America saw when they looked up, and why they based so much of their mythology on the sky and the movements of the stars.

A similar memory I have was when we camped in Algonquin Park, years ago now (before my trip to Peru), which is very in the middle of nowhere (in Canada, northern hemisphere). Zero light pollution. The stars were magnificent. Did the fact that some of us consumed magic mushrooms help? Yes, but the point is that you just don't get views of the stars like that in any city, and not even if you drive to the outskirts. Seeing the stars with zero light pollution is amazing.. and that first night in the mountains in Peru.. WOW.. It was that sensation of seeing the stars like that.. all over the sky.. and them being so different. I can't describe the sensation I felt at all, but will never forget it.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I had a very similar experience too, some years ago. Went hiking, and at night the lights went off at the place we were staying. Everything was pitch-black, someone managed to get to the door and open it, we stumbled out into the open. Up in the sky was a most beautiful scene: an entire band of the Milky Way spanning the sky. We were all city-kids, from one of the world's most polluted cities too, and we were awestruck, spending more than an hour just looking up at the sky, even after the lights had come back on.

Since then I've always made it a point to look up at the night sky whenever we go the mountains, but I've never seen the Milky Way since. And if the lights hadn't gone out that night, I wouldn't have seen it then.