Your pointless thoughts & observations

[user]

It makes absolutely no sense to me that anything to the power of 0 is one and this for me is the ultimate proof that I will never understand maths at any level and anyone claiming that maths holds some universal truths isn't willing to see that any intersection of mathematics with reality is based on coincidence and cherry picking. Maths is made up, not discovered, fuck off.

[luke viia]

2 hours ago, user said:

It makes absolutely no sense to me that anything to the power of 0 is one and this for me is the ultimate proof that I will never understand maths at any level and anyone claiming that maths holds some universal truths isn't willing to see that any intersection of mathematics with reality is based on coincidence and cherry picking. Maths is made up, not discovered, fuck off.

i honestly think this will help

there are lots of other (more thorough/general) ways to think about it but this is the simplest convincing argument i know of

 

[user]

3 hours ago, luke viia said:

i honestly think this will help

there are lots of other (more thorough/general) ways to think about it but this is the simplest convincing argument i know of

 

Really appreciate this, thanks. It helped. Although the 0^0 threw me again, I think I understand the problem with dividing by 0 but then the casual mention of 0^0 being 1 as if that makes perfect sense re-fuelled my maths rage a bit.

 

 

[zkom]

48 minutes ago, user said:

Although the 0^0 threw me again, I think I understand the problem with dividing by 0 but then the casual mention of 0^0 being 1 as if that makes perfect sense re-fuelled my maths rage a bit.

0^0 doesn't have a clear answer, but it's usually either treated as 1 or undefined. 0^0=1 is mostly out of convenience to simplify formulas and equations. Programming languages treat 0^0 as 1, "not a number" or error depending on the language, sometimes depending on whether it's done with integers or floating point numbers..

Yes, you can create your own rules for mathematics and then just use them as long as the rules are consistent so that they don't create contradictions. But will they be of any real world use is another thing. Also proving the consistency can be incredibly hard or impossible.

Is mathematics then real or not if it's man-made? Welcome to the rabbit hole that is the philosophy of mathematics..

[cichlisuite]

Woke up from strange dreams today I barely remember, but it left me with this weird feeling of desire to be a prairie drifter on a horse living off the land in 19th century.

[Rubin Farr]

Will tectonic plates and continental drift eventually lead to a 2nd Pangea millions of years from now? Seems kind of inevitable.

[zkom]

On 12/13/2021 at 2:41 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Will tectonic plates and continental drift eventually lead to a 2nd Pangea millions of years from now? Seems kind of inevitable.

Yeah, probably. The so-far theoretical continent is called Pangaea Proxima https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea_Proxima

The whole cycle of a supercontinent forming and then breaking up is called supercontinent cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercontinent_cycle

Fun fact is that Australia is moving so fast (6.9cm/2.7 inches per year) towards China that it's causing problems with GPS.

[ignatius]

low dose valium is a good bandaid for cancer drug side effects because now i don't give a shit.

[YEK]

1 hour ago, ignatius said:

low dose valium is a good bandaid for cancer drug side effects because now i don't give a shit.

Just make sure that doesn't turn into medium dose.

[sidewinder]

I can't focus (nothing new).

Sometimes I feel my monitor is too close to my desk, but sitting back in my chair doesn't feel right. I think my desk is too shallow. But I got this desk specifically for my old house because my home office was in a smaller room. Now I have a bigger home office. But I don't want to buy a new desk. It's an electric standing desk and isn't cheap. I guess I should just sit back in my chair more instead of leaning on the desk. And focus instead of bouncing from one forum to the next. 

[ignatius]

1 hour ago, yekker said:

Just make sure that doesn't turn into medium dose.

5mg once in a while is a real help. anything more would just be snooze town. i'm well experienced w/benzos to know the best practices.. as in short term and only when necessary and not routinely.  GABA levels are too easy to fuck with. 

[Rubin Farr]

7 hours ago, ignatius said:

5mg once in a while is a real help. anything more would just be snooze town. i'm well experienced w/benzos to know the best practices.. as in short term and only when necessary and not routinely.  GABA levels are too easy to fuck with. 

I’ve found a nice Indica flower that really helps my body symptoms. Done with opioids until it’s absolutely necessary.

[ignatius]

9 hours ago, Rubin Farr said:

I’ve found a nice Indica flower that really helps my body symptoms. Done with opioids until it’s absolutely necessary.

weed doesn't work well for me anymore... hasn't in decades. used to be nice but eventually it started to highlight every pain in my body and cause acid reflux as well. it's a bummer because there's a good weed shop 1/2 a block from my front door. 

[aencre]

I don’t have enough saliva to piss on their parade.

[Nebraska]

Quote

Denis Villeneuve Tackling Adaptation of Sci-Fi Classic ‘Rendezvous With Rama’

argh- not sure how i feel about this. i don't really mind villeneuve but i personally don't think he's the artist everyone else seems to believe he is. i find his films overwrought with stagnant and dreary imagery but i'm also really excited to (finally?) get a film adaptation of one of my favorite sci-fi stories EVER

[luke viia]

Dark matter and dark energy are the Ptolemaic epicycles of our generation. Fight me

[ignatius]

7 hours ago, luke viia said:

Dark matter and dark energy are the Ptolemaic epicycles of our generation. Fight me

is that a Kate Tempest lyric? 

 

[luke viia]

15 hours ago, ignatius said:

is that a Kate Tempest lyric? 

 

that was a cool performance. hadn't heard of Kae Tempest before, thx! 

But no, I was being quite literal (except the last part, PLUR, baby)

Edited December 19, 2021 by luke viia

[Nebraska]

yesterday i was talking to a co-worker (now approaching 70) who said to me "young people don't respect older people n'more"

it really made me think: a lot of homeless people are older (30% of homeless in the united states are over 50). assisted living is pretty expensive and i'm sure most saw the report by john oliver how some are scams; and the lack of affordable housing and medication etc has made things worse. as this man put it: it's real out here

two of my neighbors (who are all much older) died this past year (not covid related). one guy died alone in his house. the other guy left his wife who is now trying to figure out how to manage their estate (according to her, he handled everything so she doesn't even have a bank account in her name nor does she have a clue how to manage their investments)- on the bright side, she has family. but others don't.

i remember the say: every time an old person dies, a library burns to the ground. so it's only natural that texas is trying to ban some books from public libraries 

[ArtificialDisco]

Does anyone else think that Blue Alien Jake from Adventure Time looks like a midi input?

[Zephyr_Nova]

I had a pointless thought earlier today but I forgot what it was, which I just noticed.

[YEK]

 

 

 

[toaoaoad]

So is it common knowledge 'round here that "Port Rhombus" is a reference to wine gums? I just realized it last night... while eating wine gums.

 

[Rubin Farr]

The media rails against income disparity all the time, but what worries me is knowledge disparity.

[ignatius]

apparently i turned 50 today. i don't feel any different.