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happytoes
Member for: 3.1 years

scp: 539 (+564/-25)
ccp: 251 (+260/-9)
votes given: 1772 (+1736/-36)
score: 790





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1
Aftertaste     (www.oglaf.com)

submitted by happytoes to funny 4 days ago

3 comments

This particular cartoon is suitable for all ages and work places, but the website is not.
3
What did Hamza do for Dundee?     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 6 days ago

1 comments

This video comes from a fringe political party https://homelandparty.org

It is unashamedly nationalist https://homelandparty.org/our-thinking/nationalism-explained/

Its policy pages are a little light.

"Environment" is mostly pro-farmer. Which is correct globally, but awkward for crowded island that has traded manufactures for food for centuries.

"Community Care" relies on picking the fruit of the magic money tree. My understanding is that life-span = health-span + grim-span and that recent medical progress has been adding three years to the grim-span for every year that it adds to the health span. Ignore that and the magic money tree will be plucked bare and die :-(
1
The shocking connection between complex numbers and geometry.     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to mathematics 1 week ago

0 comments

Starts by explaining meromorphic functions with pretty colored pictures. Moves on to parameterizing a circle with sine and cosine. Then it moves in for the kill, trying to rupture cerebral aneurysms by parameterizing the complex torus with the Weierstrass P functions just like it did for the circle. But instead of x^2 + y^2=1, it is y^2 = 4x^3 + 4x, an elliptic curve.
1
Peter Murrell charged with embezzlement in SNP finance probe     (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 2 weeks ago

0 comments

0
Great Moments in Unintended Consequences: Gun Buybacks, Poppy Payday, CAFE Standards (Vol. 13)     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to videos 3 weeks ago

0 comments

Exemplary video, crisply making its points. Three examples of unintended consequences, three minutes video = one minute per info nugget.

Also exemplary for what isn't there: I didn't have to sit through three minutes of pejorative adjectives against political opponents before getting to the point.
13
R.I.P. The Scottish Enlightenment 1697-2024     (marginalrevolution.com)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 1 month ago

5 comments

Marginal Revolution links to https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/20/r-i-p-the-scottish-enlightenment-1697-2024/
and has many comments bashing the Scottish Government for the oppressive speech law, due to come in on 1st April
0
The Power of Education     (www.oglaf.com)

submitted by happytoes to funny 1 month ago

0 comments

11
SNP government forced to publish 100 pages of WhatsApps it claimed didn't exist     (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 1 month ago

2 comments

Perhaps this https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/12295133/snp-chiefs-release-106-pages-whatsapp-messages/ is a better link.
2
Scotland's drug deaths soar by 10% as critics blast SNP Government for 'well-meaning' words     (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 1 month ago

0 comments

In 2023, 1,197 people died as a result of suspected drug use – up by 105 from 2022.

0
How Henri Moissan isolated Fluorine in 1886     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to science 2 months ago

0 comments

In just 4'52" this video explains why isolating Fluorine is a hopeless quest, and gives technical details of the brilliant innovations that let Henri Moissan succeed.
3
Nicola Sturgeon reported to Met Police over her deleted WhatsApp messages     (www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 2 months ago

1 comments

Silver Fox Hot Take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1FEaAAqXJk
16
FBI informant arrested for claiming Biden took bribe from Ukrainian energy company     (rumble.com)

submitted by happytoes to news 2 months ago

7 comments

2
Ceasar Cui Waltz Op 31 No 2 E Minor     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to Classical_Music 2 months ago

1 comments

*The mighty handful* was a group of five prominent 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create a distinct national style of classical music [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_(composers%29). They were
Balakirev (best remembered for [Islamey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXPeZUZkRuc)), three still prominent: Mussorgsky,Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakov. And the fifth one, no-one remembers: [César Cui](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A9sar_Cui). I don't think that I've ever heard his music until today.

I enjoyed this flowing, lilting waltz and have [found the score on IMSLP](https://imslp.org/wiki/3_Valses%2C_Op.31_(Cui%2C_C%C3%A9sar%29). I might have a go at playing it myself.

Perhaps Cui is neglected because, as an engineering professor and military general, as well as being a composer, he is just too bad-ass for the small men of today to admit that he even existed.
8
The Real Reason Jimmy Savile Was Never Caught     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to UnitedKingdom 2 months ago

2 comments

Short answer: He was a procurer. Ten minute excerpt from a longer video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4v7AnxCNxA
3
The South African pothole     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to FunnyVideos 3 months ago

1 comments

Yet another David Attenborough paraody.
6
Scientific Misconduct and Fraud: The Final Nail in Psychiatry’s Antidepressant Coffin     (www.counterpunch.org)

submitted by happytoes to science 3 months ago

0 comments

This story caught my eye for a different reason from the scientific fraud narrative.

What do we mean when we say that drug A is better than drug B ? Using "drug A" and "drug B" as names clashes with English grammar. In the interests of euphony, I've used a name generator and will call them Aproxin and Benzolax. Here are three different things that we might mean when we say that Aproxin is better than Benzolax because Aproxin works for 40% of patients, but Benzolax only works for 30%.

First meaning: Independent. Some lucky folk respond well to both 0.4 x 0.3 = 12%. Some patients (0.4 x 0.7 = 28%) only respond to Aproxin. Others (0.6 x 0.3 = 18%) only respond to Benzolax. Many (0.6 x 0.7 = 42%) benefit from neither.

Second meaning: Dominant. Hope that you are one of the 40% who respond to Aproxin. That forty percent splits into three quarters who also respond to Benzolax, and one quarter who don't respond to Benzolax. Notice the cunning with which I have contrived the numbers in my made up example. That is all of the 30% who respond to Benzolax accounted for. No-one responds to Benzolax and not to Aproxin. 60% of patients are out of luck. Obviously you try Aproxin first. If it doesn't help, give up. Benzolax has found itself in a context in which it is entirely useless.

Third meaning: Sequential. Weirdly, no-one responds to both drugs. You try Aproxin first. If it doesn't work, you move on to Benzolax. Notice how this messes with the numbers. If 40% respond to Aproxin, that leaves 60% moving on to Benzolax. Half of those who try Benzolax (under this treatment protocol) benefit. That is 50%, up from the 30% who benefited in the old days before Aproxin was discovered.

Notice how the discovery of Aproxin affects the sales of Benzolax. In the Dominant case, Benzolax becomes obsolete. In the Sequential case, a superficial reading/misunderstanding of the numbers makes it look as though the discovery of Aproxin makes Benzolax work better.

So how do you compare drugs? I've noticed that trials generally do a naive random assignment. You get numbers for the effectiveness of each drug as though the other drugs didn't exist. But how do the medicines relate? Independent? Dominant? Sequential? Not one of the extreme cases? The trials don't say. But it does matter for treatment.

At the heart of the article is STAR*D, Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/epdf/10.1176/ajp.2006.163.11.1905 Some-one has actually gone ahead and tried to measure what happens when you try drugs in sequence. They cheat which is the usual money grubbing of modern science. On the other hand, that are looking at the medically important comparison, which is progress.
2
Radu Lupu plays Brahms - 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to Classical_Music 3 months ago

1 comments

1971 recording. Beautiful tone. A little slow. I would love to learn to play these three pieces myself. So Radu Lupu's performance is reassuring: there is no need to rush, despite Brahms writing No 2 using lots of demi-semi-quavers. The technical challenge of No 1 is that the right hand has to play the tune with the middle fingers while playing accompanying octaves with the thumb and little finger. Radu Lupu is inspiring to me; not only is this is really possible, he shows that it is very easy :-)
0
Digging up a Nicola Sturgeon scandal from 2010     (caltonjock.com)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 3 months ago

0 comments

This blog post is about her pleading for leniency for fraudster Abdul Rauf.

I followed the link from a youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvUE7X-2mjY titled "SNP Nicola Sturgeon has a very dubious past. This is old news but not widely known."

I'm more interested in the blog itself Caltonjock https://caltonjock.com/ which seems to be active and busy digging into the details of Scottish politics.
5
Sounding the Sumburgh Foghorn     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to Scotland 4 months ago

1 comments

> Out of use since 1987, the foghorn was painstakingly restored by Brian Johnson. Shown in the video is the annual Foghorn sounding at Sumburgh Lighthouse, Shetland, Scotland. Brian starts up the 1951Kelvin K-Series Diesel 44hp Engines. The engines power the Alley and MacLellan compressors, which in turn, power the foghorn.

I am old and cannot resist the nostalgia of chunky old machinery, which this short, skillfully edited video, shows off beautifully.
5
Murray Rothbard catches a glimpse of what is going on, in 1993     (twitter.com)

submitted by happytoes to whatever 4 months ago

3 comments

10
Planetary Roller Screws     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to Machining 4 months ago

4 comments

I've got a small manual lathe that I bought second hand. My father taught me the technique of taking up backlash. When you need to move the top slide out, to increase the diameter of the cut, move it too far, then screw it in to the required setting. This ensures that every setting is set pushing the top slide in. This technique works, but is annoying. On a worn old lathe it is essential.

But how does modern CNC machinery work? It seems to zip back and forth by turning the lead screw, with out regard to backlash. I think there was a short era of using two nuts, held apart by a strong spring that both takes out the backlash and creates lots of friction. Then came recirculating ball screws. The rolling of the ball bearings solves the problem of friction. Accurate manufacturing of the ball race helps, and finally backlash is eliminated by having the nut done up tight.

Then I saw this video, which looks like it is the next stage, with all the baby thread rollers rotating around the lead screw. They claim repeatability of 0.006mm. I guess this is the possible error between screwing in and screwing out to your setting. I'm not involved in this technology, I just like to watch and keep up to keep in touch with how things work.
8
Tetrataenite Powerful Magnets Without Rare Earths     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to technology 4 months ago

1 comments

This is a fun video with a twist at the end. Starts with how "rare earths" are not rare in the sense of low abundance, but rare in the sense of being difficult to extract from ore. He illustrates this with smelting copper, medieval style! But he brings the story bang up to date with a paper from 2022 about adding a bit of Phosphorus to a Nickel Iron mix to make Tetrataenite. Now that people know how to make Tetrataenite, it may be an alternative to Neodymium for magnets.
2
Why I Don’t Think the Population Will Collapse in the Long Run     (fee.org)

submitted by happytoes to eugenics 5 months ago

4 comments

Peter Jacobsen's article is not exclusively *bio*realist. It is packed with uncomfortable truth bombs. For example


> The paper found that countries which were ethnically heterogeneous tended to have higher fertility rates. The reason? Higher population is important for different ethnicities in these countries competing for government resources.
2
Why Railroads Don't Need Expansion Joints     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to technology 5 months ago

4 comments

Somewhat slow explanation, but the guy gets out his blow torch to heat things up, and uses a spanner and a screw thread to demonstrate the tension stuff. I love these kind of practical demonstrations.
2
Geometry problem solved three different ways     (www.youtube.com)

submitted by happytoes to mathematics 5 months ago

2 comments

Secondary school mathematics emphasizes method. Here is *the* way to do it. This spills over into proof. We ask "what is *the* proof". I like this video because the problem is not too hard, there seems to be little room for alternative approaches. Yet the video solves the problem in three *distinctly* different ways. That pushes back against the error of thinking that there is only one method and only one proof.

I also liked this video because the problem comes up later in trying to compute pi. One idea for computing pi is that tan(pi/4) = 1. That suggests a plan: find a power series for arctan and use it to evaluate pi = 4 arctan(1).

Since arctan is the integral of 1(1 + x^2) we can use the power series 1/(1 + x^2) = 1 - x^2 + x^4 - x^6 + x^8 - ...

Integrate term by term to get a power series for arctan. Evaluate at 1. Notice that 1 is the radius of convergence of the power series. It converges at 1, but slowly. The plan hasn't really worked.

But, spoiler ahead, what if we had some clever identity such as pi/4 = arctan(1/2) + arctan(1/3)? We would have to evaluate the power series twice, for 1/2 and for 1/3, but both converge geometrically; that makes a much better plan, and many more significant digits for our labor. The video doesn't go there, but the problem it solves is the problem of the clever identity that you will want later for computing pi