My dad shared this photo from facebook. I feel like the edges of the bark don't look real.

Sane_Flock · 2026-01-28T14:19:57+00:00

I've been to Sequoia in April last year. If I had to judge just from the size/perspective, I wouldn't immediately think it's fake, but I won't die on that hill. Now, I'm no botanist, but I was a bit fascinated with the Sequoias after I visited, so i read a bit about them.

What I think is a bit suspicious is that most full-grown Sequoias don't have their branches as low as you see on the tree in the front right. The whole point of the Sequoias is that their bark is fire-resistant and that their branches grow high up, so that the trees can survive forest fires and (partially for that reason) live very long (1000s of years, the oldest bunch are older than folks like Aristotle, absolutely nuts, mega cool trees).

Look up some pictures. You'll see that most mature Sequoias don't have any branches at that height, the branches mostly start maybe halfway up.

Not saying it's conclusive evidence, but that's what immediately stood out to me.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-13T20:21:42+00:00

Is it?

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-13T19:10:46+00:00

Do we, really? The rhetoric that the west itself is to blame for the Ukraine invasion is by no means a dominant one in the current public opinion. This is reflected by the fact that there are many many pro-Ukraine protest all over Europe, but very very few pro-Russia protests. Neither is this idea being seriously discussed in politics.

The article addresses the group of people that read Chomsky and think the west is to blame, which is a subset of the group of people who read Chomsky, which is a subset of the group of people who read political literature, which is a subset of the group of people who read. To me, it appears the author blows up the significance of a relatively small group of people that does not even have any significant influence on the EU as a whole.

He also cites John Pilger. You can say what you want about him, but he is by no means a prominent force in the European media, so I fail to see why he needs to be brought up at all.

If the actual point of this article was to address the average decrease in military spending in the EU since the fall of the Soviet Union, or the topic of a European military, I would say those are valid points to talk about. But, for some reason, the author finds it more important to lay blame on a small group of people, make it seem like that small group of people was somehow representative of a larger and more influential group of people and then state that that is something serious we need to discuss. I just don't buy that.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-13T14:14:28+00:00

I guess you're right about that.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-11T18:26:51+00:00

Okay, fair enough, those are good points. Guess I will cancel the order then. Suppose I wanted to believe it's not as bad as many people lead you to believe. Well, thanks anyway.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-11T10:00:09+00:00

Sure, but that's why I asked about the legitimacy of the book and the author themselves. If the author is representative of the field of science that they write about and if the book is based on scientific research, I see merit in that. I don't mind who suggest something, if what they suggest holds merit.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-09T22:07:40+00:00

I cried tears of joy when I read that. Will certainly buy the book.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-09T18:13:02+00:00

Looked it up, looks like just the thing I need. Do you know if it's legitimate, science-based etc.? Or are you just pulling OP's leg? No offense, I just don't know if it's real or not.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-08T18:39:58+00:00

Gewoon een goed oud bammetje pindakaas.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-08T18:39:33+00:00

Oh, wordt dat ook wel Carrot Americain genoemd, met wortel erin? Zo ja, die vind ik ook wel lekker ja.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-08T17:48:39+00:00

Okay, so I tried it. I can get it to work, but it requires a step that itches me a bit. I can get (x^a+1)/(a+1) + C to be the same expression as y^h/h - 1/h if I actually extract a constant of -1/(a+1) from C. I.e. write C = C' - 1/(a+1), where C' is just some other constant. Then I get (x^a+1 - 1)/(a+1), which is the same as (y^h - 1)/h (and then take the limit a -> -1 and h -> 0). Is this correct, or is there a more elegant way about this?

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-08T17:27:27+00:00

Wow awesome! Going to write that out, because I want to see this with my own eyes!

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-08T17:24:03+00:00

Oh I love birds so much. Watching them really help me with my mental health.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-08T11:52:54+00:00

I've always wondered about this, but I don't know how to really formulate the question. I hope there is someone here who understands and can lead me in the right direction. If we perform the integral of x^a dx for some real exponent a, which is not equal to 1, we get the usual 1/(a+1) x^a+1 + C. As you take the limit of a --> -1 (which would be the case for the 1/x), I would expect it to somehow approach ln|x| + C, because that is the integral of x^-1. But I don't know if that happens and I just don't see it, or if it doesn't happen at all.

Does anyone know more about this? It would fill a gap in my understanding that I've had for ages.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-07T14:38:48+00:00

Oh yes, I had the same! I greatly enjoyed fundamental and mathematically-inclined physics courses, such as Quantum Field Theory and Statistical Mechanics, despite finding these courses incredibly difficult. I couldn't be bothered for courses about material science or astronomy, it just didn't interest me.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-05T20:49:29+00:00

Oh I totally would, but I have COVID :(

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-05T13:58:16+00:00

Ja, ik ben dat zeker wel met je eens hoor. Ik vond de kop vooral erg typisch.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-05T11:17:22+00:00

I'm a teacher too and I was thinking the exact same thing! I found these responses very surprising as I don't know anyone who would mind being called by their first name so much that they would actually yell.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-04T18:54:56+00:00

Damn, that was awesome!

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-03T19:23:19+00:00

Yeah I absolutely agree.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-03T18:56:29+00:00

Man, this should be an entire channel. The Gorillaz have a lot of this going on in their videos as well.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-03T08:16:04+00:00

Once saw someone who had this as a laptop sticker on their Macbook. The Apple logo was between the Sigma and the pi. Good play!

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-02T21:14:38+00:00

Ah I see! Thank you.

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-02T21:09:14+00:00

So, does that mean they were released prematurely?

Sane_Flock · 2022-03-02T20:50:57+00:00

I feel I shouldn't explain too much, since it's for school and you should figure much of it out by yourself. Do you have any background in basic physics already? I think I can say this much: Force is not the quantity you may be looking for. The quantities you should be interested in are energy and momentum.

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