Oh, that thing. It's called "Ugly thing staring at you at night". It was used to keep bad spirits at bay. You know how those Romans were, they had no easthetic taste.
Oh, that thing. It's called "Ugly thing staring at you at night". It was used to keep bad spirits at bay. You know how those Romans were, they had no easthetic taste.
Sensei
剣道家
- Nov 4, 2019
- 6,336
It's in my native language. It's actually quite difficult to settle into the English-speaking market, unless you have written a bestseller which might interest publishing houses abroad.
I think it was a Roman Dungeons & Dragons dice
Do you still have the drawing? Please share it with us!
It's long gone. I think my boss gave it to me to catch me out. This was before 3D modelling, we drew in pen on film. How do you represent a 12 sided shape in 2D?
Can you guess what I did?
Incidentally, you shudda seen my section drawing of the Roman Well, it actually couldn't be published for propriety's sake.
Quarky00
Enlightened
- Dec 17, 2019
- 1,956
Buridan's Ass !
It's all statistics but yeah . Gene = protein . 1 nucleotide out of 6000 constituteing a protein (nucleotides->amino) may slightly change that protein affinity to binding site , or yield a sligtly different reaction . 100 of those proteins could create a cascade of several very delicate changes .
There are more things along the way (DNA->protein) such as silent sequences, and certain transcription directives .
But it's still just statistics . There is no "Gene for X" , just correlation that this varients are common with these people (rather than: these proteins cause that) . And things could possibly come from a lizard .. them have receptors too ;)
eek I'm a lizard, I have lizard DNA, suddenly everything is clear
I don't know... Did you make a model out of paper?
I am envious of people who can draw. My brother got all the talent in our family. He can draw realist portraits and landscapes, it's amazing!
My drawing skills are... a circle and two sticks. Actually, let's not go there :D
Now i feel like studying genetics again, thanks Quarky. I remember years ago, someone asked me 'What does a gene look like?'. I really had to think about the answer and how to explain it to them.
Yes! I did exactly that. I drew each side in elevation then orientated them to meet edge on edge, a sort of Ikea type exploded view. I ended up presenting a cut out 3D paper model as well as the 2D blown out representation. I think my boss was impressed and pissed off at the same time.
You should have seen my Roman well drawing. I had to dangle down there for two days in a harness drawing the section. In profile it looked like two scoops dug out on either side for the construction cut/backfill, a 15 ft shaft of limestone block work and a huge bell shape at the base scoured out of the limestone bedrock.
I couldn't believe what it looked like when I showed it to the boss. Don't know if you can imagine, I'm hesitant to post a sketch here, might have to leave it to your imagination from the description. I don't think the drawing ever got published and I'm not surprised. Everyone thought I was taking the piss, but it was really accurate, honest!
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Sensei
剣道家
- Nov 4, 2019
- 6,336
Let's be honest. No one really knows exactly how bipolar disorder works, and the same goes for schizophrenia. No one understands the neurobiological mechanisms at work or why the medicines work, only that they work. It's mostly educated guesswork, basically. No theory and no statistics can be trusted to 100 %.
That being said, there are theories that are well established. Since bipolar disorder can be inherited, or rather that something which inreaces the risk of devoloping the disorder can be inherited, it's rather safe to assume that there's a genetic element. The advanced research in this field is no doubt presented in layman terms. (I've tried reading neuorobiological and genetic studies, but they are beyond me. I don't have the patience to learn dozens or even hundreds of new terms and concepts.) In layman terms, the theory is that an individual needs to have one or probably one of an unknown number of gene sequences to develop bipolar disorder. As a layman, I would assume that these gene sequences don't constitute a substantial part of the genome as it would increase the complexity which, I again assume, would lower the risk of developing the disorder substantially. After all, 1 % of any given population develops bipolar disorder and an unknown percentage develops subclinical symptoms. It might not sound like much, but it is.
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Quarky00
Enlightened
- Dec 17, 2019
- 1,956
Yeah , I hate that "is inherited" , you dont inherit an illness .. second part is true .
It's really about tiny variants of DNA/protein , and lots of small chances , like you wrote (so well).
I think 'inherited tendency' is used, when scientists publish 'gene for X' -- you know science is doing badly..
I'm sure @Underscore does and can make a model of it!
Really enjoyed your dialogue here btw
Regarding to the original post: I read and saw documentaries about the "block universe" a concept for time and free will.
Humans usually thought about time as if it was a stream onto which everything was floating, from past > present > future, "behind" was the past, "ahead" the future, at the moment the present, that has already gone (Do you know this Documentary with Brian Greene? He nicely visualized everything.). As my understanding, the block universe theory (?) is today -- correct me, if I'm wrong -- the standard way of thinking about time and also in a way of free will, that is, everything exists at the same time; past, present and future (like a block), that would mean there is no free will, as we understand it with our linearly-time-perceiving-human-brains, -- free will in our terms of having the possibility to freely without restrictions choose from an infinite set of actions A = {a_1, a_2, a_3, ...} at certain time t e R (real numbers). One action of A could be called a_ctb.
Looking at the weird microscopic level, where quantum physics usually comes into play, maybe also in the human brain, if these processes can even occur their, (do you know about these birds, that basically orient themselves in space with their "quantum compasses", that have a sense for the North and South Pole) a decision or at least an illusion of a decision is made, that causes one to select action a_ctb from set A at time t_ctb from R. Everything is determined since the "beginning" (sorry for my all time vagueness) of the universe. Which would mean, that if we didn't got brains, that perceive time as linear, we would basically see our whole life from start to end (at the same time (?)) in front of us. So free will and the decision to take a certain action (including the action to ctb) are basically illusions made by our brains, that is "best" adapted for living on a planet like earth. I'm not sure if there is any deeper understanding for scientists at present; certainly not for me though, sorry, for my limited understanding of everything, it probably just sounds like meaningless ramble ... typing and thinking without sleep is exhausting ...
Humans usually thought about time as if it was a stream onto which everything was floating, from past > present > future, "behind" was the past, "ahead" the future, at the moment the present, that has already gone (Do you know this Documentary with Brian Greene? He nicely visualized everything.). As my understanding, the block universe theory (?) is today -- correct me, if I'm wrong -- the standard way of thinking about time and also in a way of free will, that is, everything exists at the same time; past, present and future (like a block), that would mean there is no free will, as we understand it with our linearly-time-perceiving-human-brains, -- free will in our terms of having the possibility to freely without restrictions choose from an infinite set of actions A = {a_1, a_2, a_3, ...} at certain time t e R (real numbers). One action of A could be called a_ctb.
Looking at the weird microscopic level, where quantum physics usually comes into play, maybe also in the human brain, if these processes can even occur their, (do you know about these birds, that basically orient themselves in space with their "quantum compasses", that have a sense for the North and South Pole) a decision or at least an illusion of a decision is made, that causes one to select action a_ctb from set A at time t_ctb from R. Everything is determined since the "beginning" (sorry for my all time vagueness) of the universe. Which would mean, that if we didn't got brains, that perceive time as linear, we would basically see our whole life from start to end (at the same time (?)) in front of us. So free will and the decision to take a certain action (including the action to ctb) are basically illusions made by our brains, that is "best" adapted for living on a planet like earth. I'm not sure if there is any deeper understanding for scientists at present; certainly not for me though, sorry, for my limited understanding of everything, it probably just sounds like meaningless ramble ... typing and thinking without sleep is exhausting ...
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Another perspective! welcome!
And wow, bringing the concept of time into it. Even more ephemeral and misunderstood than free will.
We do, ostensibly, live in a cause and effect universe, where time always progresses only forward and everything in 'existence' is an energy/matter pattern expressed over time.
However, as far as I'm aware, the mathematics under-pinning physics works irrespective of the direction of time. If there are more temporal spatial directions than the ones we perceive, then it would be entirely possible for, say a five dimensional creature, to experience cause and effect, and thus free will in a different way. I'm thinking of that guy in Men in Black 3 Griffin or even The Doctor (though he has a time machine and cheats). Then we get into M theory and everything goes a bit weird, with ten or eleven or 26 dimensions. Personally, I don't regard time as the '4th dimension', I regard is as 'the next dimension up' which for us is the fourth.
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Hello RareDisease and welcome to SS and to this particular thread!
I am not sure with Brian Greene documentary you are referring to (the guy is so wonderfully prolific). Is it the one where he is having a drink in the quantum coffee shop?
If my memory serves me well, in that documentary he was making the point that all scenarios co-exist simultaneously. And that some this strangeness was a result of how the universe works at the quantum level.
Maybe you could post the link.
I have one of his books, called The elegant universe. It contains one of the best explanations of relativity I have read. I am a philologist, so I read science like a story, I do not understand the mathematics behind it. That's why I am grateful that scientists like Brian Greene and Neil DeGrasse Tyson who write about astronomy and physics in a way that is accesible to everyone.
I don't understand the maths either, tbh no one but theoretical physicist at the bleeding edge of their field can. It pisses me off that the maths is beyond me. I can study all I want but I simply lack the ability to understand anything beyond A level maths and that is tough enough.
Lol tomorrow I have to research tree henge for the cremation thread. Ancient burial practices was one of my interest at uni.
iirc it's a henge. With a tree in it getting you back there for the clever rocks muhahaha.
I do apologise my memory fails me it was nicknamed seahenge not tree henge. It did have an upturned tree in it which is way odd, never seen anything else like it.
en.m.wikipedia.org
And just to be contentious
getting you back there for the clever rocks muhahaha.I do apologise my memory fails me it was nicknamed seahenge not tree henge. It did have an upturned tree in it which is way odd, never seen anything else like it.
Seahenge - Wikipedia
Don't blame you mate, the universe IS overwhelming when you stop to think about it. Best not to tbh, bit for some of us that ship has sailed.
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21st century BC!
Does your heart skip a beat as well when you read those words?
Imagine bronze age humans, raising monuments, performing rituals, dacing to the same rhytm of life and death as we do today.
The whole cycle repeats itself, again and again.
We are indeed but specks of dust in the hourglass of time.
Does your heart skip a beat as well when you read those words?
Imagine bronze age humans, raising monuments, performing rituals, dacing to the same rhytm of life and death as we do today.
The whole cycle repeats itself, again and again.
We are indeed but specks of dust in the hourglass of time.
It probably should but I routinely worked on far older sites so it was par for the course.
Most don't realise, but the patterns that we see in modern society can be seen clearly in the archaeological record.
As soon as we started using tools there started a clock ticking that will end with our extinction. The very thing that raised us above the 'animals' will be the same thing that destroys us. Unless we can be better.
Quarky00
Enlightened
- Dec 17, 2019
- 1,956
When can we discuss the sexagecimal system?
Oh Plimpton 322 & YBC 7289
Yes but where did those 60 seconds came from?;)
Lol pumping hard Babylonian maths
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When can we discuss the sexagecimal system?
Oh Plimpton 322 & YBC 7289
Yes but where did those 60 seconds came from?;)
Lol pumping hard Babylonian maths
How wonderous and beautifully simple is it not that the Babylonians said: let's divide the circle into 360 degrees!
They didn't like maths any more than we do.
That's why they chose a number which is easily divided by all the numbers from 1 to 9, apart from 7.
Seven Seagal is Hard to kill. Did I get that name right?
I think the word second is from partia minutae secunda (second little part). And the word minute is from partia minutae prima (first little part). They are referring to the parts into which you divide a degree.
Sorry if my bad Latin offends anyone.
That's because you listen too much to A flock of seagulls
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My favourite Latin phrase is...
Sic transit gloria mundi
Now we are very off topic, but it's your thread so hey. And as a holist it's actually on topic for me.
Mine is Hannibal ante portas.
The guy gets my thumbs up for crossing the Alps with elephants
I am off to bed now. Good night, dear friend!
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