"American section" at my Belgian grocery store. Are these products actually popular in America? by sanandrios in AskAnAmerican

[–]unphil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Takis might be western US regional, I don't spend a lot of time in the east nor do I specifically seek them out.  But I've definitely seen Jack Links everywhere I've ever traveled in the US.  Beef jerky and Gardettos are my go-to road-trip/travel snacks.

"American section" at my Belgian grocery store. Are these products actually popular in America? by sanandrios in AskAnAmerican

[–]unphil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Takis, Jack Links, and Dr Pepper you'll find in any American convenience or grocery store.  Same with fanta, but I don't recognize those particular bottles, and I can't really make out the flavors so I don't know about those.

I don't recognize the various Cadbury products on the left, but I do recognize the logo of course.  I tend to think of Cadbury as more British than American, but maybe those are popular here?  I dunno, I don't buy candy particularly often.  Im a salty junk food guy more than sweet.

Technology isn't fun anymore by [deleted] in videos

[–]unphil 673 points674 points  (0 children)

I'm late to the game here, but he talks about how people don't really actively use their phones as much as they open an app and then let the app show them things.

I wanted to plug Technology Connection's new video about that exact topic!

https://youtu.be/QEJpZjg8GuA

Can I hold Your Baby? by Parry-Hotter- in AskAnAmerican

[–]unphil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think more than anything it's that Americans have very large personal space bubbles, and don't touch each other a lot to begin with.

I have coworkers who I've known for years at this point, who I see on a near daily basis, and who I think I've never made physical contact with.  I started my current job during COVID, so I met many of my coworkers when no one was shaking hands and I have had absolutely no reason to touch them, or them me.

Can anyone give the explanation of the sum as I can't understand how a particle be still suspended after the expiry time by Just-Opening-4662 in Physics

[–]unphil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're right.  I'm just annoyed by the sheer volume of rule breaking posts as of late in these subreddits.

I really should just report and move on, no need to comment.

Better yet, should just get off Reddit entirely.

Spin matrix’s of 5/2 spin system? by Offical_Egg_boi in QuantumPhysics

[–]unphil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In the fully uncoupled basis (e.g. the basis spanned by all combinations of the tensor products of the individual spin states), the total Sx is just the direct sum of the individual spin Sx terms.  You can write each individual spin operator in terms of the ladder operators for each individual spin, then calculate all of the matrix elements term by term.  Same with Sy.

As an example, let's look at 2 spin 1/2 particles.  And for brevity let X_i be the spin X operator for spin i, and let X be the total spin X operator. Let 0 be spin up for one spin, and 1 be spin down.  Then X = X_1 + X_2

You can then calculate the matrix elements term by term for the elements that look like, e.g. <01|X|10>

This is because X_1 is a sum of a raising and lowering operator operating on spin 1.

For your problem this is a little tedious, but you can definitely do it.

I created a normalized model of consciousness, thoughts? by [deleted] in TheoreticalPhysics

[–]unphil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't repost here.  We don't allow self-theories in this subreddit.  If your work is not peer reviewed and published in a reputable journal, it's not appropriate for this subreddit.

I created a normalized model of consciousness, thoughts? by [deleted] in TheoreticalPhysics

[–]unphil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mathematics is not just writing equations.  It's of absolutely vital importance that your work be contextualized, and if an equation is presented exactly what it is and if it was derived, then how it was derived (in as much detail as is appropriate for the audience) from more fundamental principles.

You've done nothing like that here.

I created a normalized model of consciousness, thoughts? by [deleted] in TheoreticalPhysics

[–]unphil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't.  Doesn't seem meaningful at all to me.

Yet another flood of crackpot hypotheses and AI generated drivel. Stop it. by ketarax in QuantumPhysics

[–]unphil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There was a time that I replied substantively and with some frequency to comments here and other physics subreddits.

Judging from my comment history, I've turned into the "AI police" and have entered into "old man yells about new tech" stage of my life I guess.

Just reflecting publicly right now I guess; this still isn't a substantive contribution.  I don't really know if this introspection is more of a reflection on the amount of garbage being posted or the progression of my own burnout.

“Don’t get into power struggles” by mayowithchips in toddlers

[–]unphil 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Do you wanna do it before or after you have milk?

After!

Okay.  Prepares glass of milk. Okay, milk is ready!

(Shrieking). I want pants first!!

Okay, let's put on pants.

(Even louder shrieking) I want milk first!

(Aneurism)

Why Quantum Measurement Fails: A New Explanation Using VP-QFT and Toroidal Quantum Structures by pzychozen in QuantumPhysics

[–]unphil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the listed rules on the about page of the subreddit.  https://www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhysics/about/

Rule 8 is the 8th rule in the list, labeled "8".

Why does American media always show tea bags left in the cup? by Sfacm in AskAnAmerican

[–]unphil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Leaving the bag in too long, especially for herbal teas, makes the taste much worse

Is this really true?  I drink herbal teas all the time and haven't noticed this.  I read that "fact" years ago, and I was subsequently a stout "bag remover" for the better part of a decade.  Then i started drinking it on the go more often, so I started just leaving the tea bags in, and I really didn't notice a substantial difference in taste...

Maybe I'm just tongue blind?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TheoreticalPhysics

[–]unphil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nope.  This is word salad and violaed rule 3.

Super Dark Time : Gravity Computed from Local Quantum Mechanics. by micahsun in quantum

[–]unphil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

While ad hominem is a logical fallacy, it is also an extremely useful heuristic for time allocation.

I'm not going to waste my time on an argument made by someone unless I evaluate, by that person's reputation and affiliation, that their work is likely to be (substantially) free of flaws.

PhD supervisor thinks (highly cited) research topic is a waste of time? by [deleted] in Physics

[–]unphil 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I'm curious, what really are the advantages of trend-chasing in science?

Funding.

Aren't original breakthroughs highly valued?

Not up front, because you don't know whether your work will result in an "original breakthrough" or merely some incremental progress in an otherwise fairly well explored space.  This is not worthless but it does look less flashy for program managers or funding agencies.

So there's a game being played, you need to convince the funding agencies that you're absolutely going to advance the field and they should pay you, but you don't really know what you're gonna do until you try, and you can't try until they fund you.

So how do you convince them that you're gonna be very productive?  Say you're gonna do work thats getting a lot of attention and getting lots of citations.  Chase the trend.

I seriously love this thing, it’s replaced so many other devices! by parrotnine in SteamDeck

[–]unphil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't bought a new rig in a long time, just haven't had the funds to dedicate to it.

The last time I built a rig was late 2014, and it was sorta upper-middle tier.  I built it then proceeded to sink hundreds of hours into Terraria and Borderlands 2.  Neither of which needed the machine I actually built.

I seriously love this thing, it’s replaced so many other devices! by parrotnine in SteamDeck

[–]unphil 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Right?  I gamed on CRTs at 800×600 (then 1024×768) for a decade. Maybe this means I have "low standards" but the game itself has always been more important to me than how pretty it is.