The Science Thread

[pibbuR]

Dogs’ brain activity shows they recognize the names of objects

Their reaction to the person naming an object might have masked signs of recognition.

arstechnica.com

pibbuR who based on experience claims cats also understand language. If he told his cat "Come here or don't" she would come there or remain sleeping.

 

[Redglyph]

My cat used to recognize the sound of food.

 

[pibbuR]

My cat used to recognize the sound of food.

You fed it alive versions of meat?

 

[Redglyph]

You fed it alive versions of meat?

No, but opening the can had a specific sound to it.

I did try to give him a mouse, once, but I think he was to well fed to care. He just look at the mouse running away and took a nap. I had another cat before which was more the hunter type (the one leaving little 'presents' everywhere...).

 

[pibbuR]

Want to break the geekiest world record of them all? Here's how engineers spent 75 days to calculate Pi to 105 trillion digits — just in time for Pi day

They broke their previous record of 100 trillion digits

www.techradar.com

Using a "dual processor 128-core AMD EPYC 9754 Bergamo system, equipped with 1.5TB of DRAM and nearly a petabyte of Solidigm QLC SSDs"

"The journey to 105 trillion digits of Pi – the new record - was not without fresh challenges."

• Performance-related issues, which led them to delve into the intricacies of parallel computing and hardware interactions. Ouch!
• CPU hazard specific to the Zen4 architecture involving super-alignment and its effects on memory access patterns. Ouch!!!
• a critical floating-point arithmetic error within the AVX512 code path of the N63 multiply algorithm. OUCH!!...!

pibbuR who assumes using his AMD 5950x CPU, 64GB RAM and let's not forget his 2080Ti he would need slightly more time (but of course is eager to implement the algorithm).

PS. For a while I assumed since in Pi, being an irrational number (infintely many decimals and no (ending) repeating sequences), you would find any combination of for instance Ascii codes in it. Therefore every piece of work by Shakespeare, including plays he would have written if he lived longer (he reached level 52). This not necessarily true. There's no guarantee that in an irrational number you'll find every possible combination of digits. Consider Pi without the digit 9 in it's decimal expansion (3.1415265358732384626433832750288417163375105820744452307816406286...). It's still an infinite string of digits without repetitions. But you won't find 'O' (ascii code 79) in there. DS.

PPS. You can of course create a number being a decimal expansion of ascii codes. For instance 0.731103297321041111081013210511032116104101321031141111171101003211610410111410132108105118101100329732104111989810511646 translates to "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.". This means that in principle The Hobbit" can be represented as a point on a meterstick. DS.

PPPS. Shakespeare was married to Anne Hathaway. DS

 

[Redglyph]

But what are they going to do with all those digits?

*quickly runs away to avoid incoming insults*

 

[pibbuR]

But what are they going to do with all those digits?

*quickly runs away to avoid incoming insults*

Philistine!!!!

pibbuR to whom "because they're there" is (more than) good enough.

 

[soola]

No, but opening the can had a specific sound to it.

I did try to give him a mouse, once, but I think he was to well fed to care. He just look at the mouse running away and took a nap. I had another cat before which was more the hunter type (the one leaving little 'presents' everywhere...).

I do the R2-D2 whistle when I feed my cat and he comes running/power-walking every time. It’s the sound R2 makes when Luke forces the ship out of the swamp.

 

[soola]

I guess this is a science thread so I’ll give my scientific reasoning:

-cats are particularly good at picking up bird songs (whistle)
-my small house sucks at delivering sound from one end to another but through developing audio apps I’ve found that whistles are particularly good at traveling longer distances

 

[Redglyph]

I guess this is a science thread so I’ll give my scientific reasoning:

-cats are particularly good at picking up bird songs (whistle)
-my small house sucks at delivering sound from one end to another but through developing audio apps I’ve found that whistles are particularly good at traveling longer distances

There's no shame in admitting you often watch SW movies, you know. I mean, you'll find other fans, here.

 

[pibbuR]

I'm already considering replacing my warning/SMS sound with R2D2.

pibbuR who is tempted

PS. OTOH, I'm quite happy with my current one, Bugs Bunny yelling "I demand you get rid of this immediately". But, R2D2 will be more discrete and probably not raise as many eyebrows, so... Decisions, decisions.....

BTW, I will never replace my ringing tone which is the cackling of the bird Anhima Cornuta. DS

 

[pibbuR]

NASA to launch rockets into Moon’s shadow during Great North American Eclipse

NASA plans to launch three sounding rockets from Virginia during the total solar eclipse on April 8, to study how Earth’s atmosphere is affected by the temporary darkness. During the 2017 total solar eclipse, the space agency said scientists detected atmospheric changes.

www.foxweather.com

"When the total solar eclipse passes over North America on April 8, the sights of the Moon and the Sun will not be the only features flying high above Earth - NASA is planning to launch a series of rockets to study the impacts the event will have on the atmosphere"

From planning to launch in less than 10 days!

pibbuR who assumes when they got the idea, startet to think of it hopefully earlier than last tuesday.

 

[Carnifex]

I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for this in over a weeks' time from now.

 

[pibbuR]

A very good lecture about neutrinos (55 minutes)

pibbuR who in some ways (if disregarding body mass and volume. And speed.) can be compared to neutrinos.

 

[pibbuR]

When and How to Spot the ‘Devil Comet’:

April 2024 – Watch the Skies

blogs.nasa.gov

pibbuR who observes it's yet another comet he will never see again.

PS. There is a chance for a second look at Halley's in 2061. I just have to turn 107, which in principle isn't completely impossible. DS.

 

[pibbuR]

RIP Peter Higgs.

Died on the eighth this month at the age of 94. Fortunately he got to see the detection of his particle.

pibbuR

 

[Carnifex]

Ahh yes I read about that yesterday, RIP indeed.

 

[JDR13]

Japan is joining the U.S. Artemis Program with the goal of landing on the moon.

Japanese astronauts will join NASA moon landings in return for lunar rover

The first non-American to walk on the moon will be a Japanese astronaut, based on a new agreement between the United States and Japan. Two JAXA astronauts will fly on future Artemis landing missions in return for Japan providing a pressurized moon rover.

www.collectspace.com

It's exciting that this might happen by 2026. I wasn't even born yet the last time astronauts were on the lunar surface.

 

[pibbuR]

I rember exactly where I was that day in '69.

Fascinating/strange that unlike now, back then it took only 8 years from America's first man in space to the moon landing. But then there was the competion with the Sovjets, NASA (probably) had far more money (relatively speaking), and they were willing to take more risks. As far as I remember, one of the Apollo 8 astronauts said he expected a 50% chance of returning home.

pibbuR who like the jdr (version 13.0) is excited about the Japanese contribution.

 

[JDR13]

Fascinating/strange that unlike now, back then it took only 8 years from America's first man in space to the moon landing. But then it was the competion with the Sovjets, NASA (probably) had more money (relatively speaking), and they were willing to take more risks.

Shhh.. don't get the conspiracy theorists talking.

I recently had a run in with a couple of posters on a local neighborhood message board who were dead set on explaining to us "sheep" that no human has actually been on the moon.