Living in a material world

[Faux Newbie]

I agree, it doesn't really matter. I'm far more concerned with questions that can be answered properly. But who knows, maybe we will be able to prove what SoCo said at some point. Not my wheelhouse, I'm just a tourist. Still, I find the topic interesting on the surface, but the deeper it gets, the less I'm interested. Fancy that, lol. I gave up on philosophy a long time ago. I find the lab far more interesting.

Actually, that's also an area where SOME aspects of Chinese philosophy are interesting to me. They tend to distinguish consciousness from thought. In Chinese tradition, thought is a sense, like smell, taste, touch, etc, not an isolated things with its own existence, but a sensory response to stimuli. This is fairly consistent with a lot of research.

Consciousness is seen as a separate thing. Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is not as convincing in this view, unless restated as "I think, therefore something to observe that thought is", whether it is a self existent "I", or a bundle of synapses also responding to stimuli, I find an interesting question, and so far, it looks like the latter is more likely.

[Syn7]

Here we go...

Supreme Court Rejects Contraceptives Mandate for Some Corporations

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/us...tion.html?_r=0


California just passed a resolution for a constitutional amendment to reform the election process based on Article V of the United States Constitution. They are the second state to do this, behind Vermont. Illinois is next, it's already passed in the upper house and has left committee in the lower house. 2 down, 32 to go.

The goal is to pass a 28th amendment overturning horrible SCOTUS decisions including Citizens United v. FEC and Buckley v. Valeo. Hopefully they can pull out the foundations underlying so many ridiculous decisions. That's one house of cards I am dying to see come crashing down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/up...-win.html?_r=0

Like a boss!!!

Way to go Larry!



I see that people here are quite silent about this topic... I'm curious where you guys stand. Do you agree with the proposed amendments? Do you believe it's possible, likely, far fetched, what?

[Syn7]

Actually, that's also an area where SOME aspects of Chinese philosophy are interesting to me. They tend to distinguish consciousness from thought. In Chinese tradition, thought is a sense, like smell, taste, touch, etc, not an isolated things with its own existence, but a sensory response to stimuli. This is fairly consistent with a lot of research.

Consciousness is seen as a separate thing. Descartes' "I think, therefore I am" is not as convincing in this view, unless restated as "I think, therefore something to observe that thought is", whether it is a self existent "I", or a bundle of synapses also responding to stimuli, I find an interesting question, and so far, it looks like the latter is more likely.

Yeah, that was a part of the draw for me too. BUT, as I get older I care less. I find the topic interesting, as you can see in the other threads, but I have no real personal investment here. Nothing I feel I need to validate or anything like that. And I just like to argue whatever is on my mind as an exercise in sharpening my rhetoric and wit for when it does matter. Cry in training, laugh in battle, ya heard!

[Faux Newbie]

Yeah, that was a part of the draw for me too. BUT, as I get older I care less. I find the topic interesting, as you can see in the other threads, but I have no real personal investment here. Nothing I feel I need to validate or anything like that. And I just like to argue whatever is on my mind as an exercise in sharpening my rhetoric and wit for when it does matter. Cry in training, laugh in battle, ya heard!

Yeah, I'm not going to get in a death match over free will. But, I do find this stuff useful for myself.

[SoCo KungFu]

And I just like to argue whatever is on my mind as an exercise in sharpening my rhetoric and wit for when it does matter. Cry in training, laugh in battle, ya heard!

This is essentially the only reason I come here. The interesting martial arts discussions have long since died. So its this, and I suppose the beer thread.

[GoldenBrain]

A couple of days ago I set up a little experiment for our 2 year old prodigy to show him how to turn super cooled water nearly instantly into ice using a process called nucleation. The way to do this is to put a bottle of purified water in the freezer for 2 hr 45 min. This will create super cooled water which is water that is below freezing temps but not frozen because of the lack of impurities. I used spring water and it worked fine. Next, carefully take the bottle out of the freezer because if you tap or shake it too hard it will start the process of nucleation and freeze solid inside the bottle. Pour the water into a container and touch an ice cube to the water which is what I did in the first picture. The water will turn to ice and capture the cube within a second or two. You can also put a few ice cubes into a container and carefully pour the water over them to do what I did in the video.

Enjoy!

[Syn7]

The worst is when that happens with your beer.



You gotta do this one. Maybe a lil too much to learn from for a two year old but still good times.



23 hz is the best one. I haven't done this for any kids, but I imagine they would flip their lid over it. I'm sure you can find some sort of tone generator online for free. If not I can make em for you.



You should also play with gyroscopic precession. More good times. Very counterintuitive, and those are always the most fun. I'm sure you could rig up something small and safe. most people just use a bike wheel and some kind of extended axle. Maybe you can make one out of a castor or whatever. Just seems safer that way with one so young.

[GoldenBrain]

Great ideas thanks! I think we can find something small enough for the gyroscope so he doesn't get hurt. I think he would love both of these experiments. Right now we're doing more sensory type stuff like making our own play dough, cloud dough, green slime...etc., you know 2 year old stuff. The ice thing was more for mommy and daddy with the added bonus of giving him some instant slush to play with. We never under estimate his ability to comprehend though so anything is on the table for learning. This little man is already reading books (about 200 simple childrens books now), speaking in full clear sentences, working out simple math and counting over 3 digits...etc. I could and obviously would love to go on but it would start to get annoying.

I'll post a video of the sound experiment if we decide to tackle that one. I think I have everything I need except the software but that should be relatively easy to locate.

[Syn7]

Non newtonian fluid. Cornstarch and water. That is tons of fun for the lil ones.

[GoldenBrain]

Non newtonian fluid. Cornstarch and water. That is tons of fun for the lil ones.

Oobleck is awesome! That's the first sensory experiment we did with him. Well the first was tubs of medium like colored rice with little animals and shapes and stuff mixed in for him to discover. My wife calls them sensory bins. The oobleck though...wicked fun.

It's funny... I couldn't remember the name oobleck so I asked my wife what that stuff was called that we made with cornstarch and water and of course being the brilliant lady that she is she yells out oobleck. So, the funny part is now they are making a batch up. I love my life!

[Syn7]

So I made some up for my friends lil son(this is like 5 or 6 years ago now) while we were rocking the BBQ. So I ball it up and hold onto it keeping it firm then hand it to him and it falls through his fingers. I scraped it up, balled it up and was like "I don't know what you're doing wrong, what's up with that" and hand it back and it obviously falls through his fingers again. He's like five at the time and seemed like he was having having fun. So I did it again and boom, he starts crying. I felt so bad, lol.

[Syn7]

Another fun one we did was we made bath bombs with lil prizes inside. I can't remember exactly how we made them, but it was mostly baking soda and cooking oil(canola I think, can't remember). A quick google search should get you the recipe.

It's fun how kids react to things we take for granted. I made the simple wire/magnet/battery motor for my friends daughter and she thought it was the greatest thing ever. It's too bad so many of us lose that wonder.

[GoldenBrain]

Yeah, there's nothing that'll break your heart like a little kid crying because of something you did. That photo was a ball only seconds before I took the shot. That stuff is really cool. The stuff was all over him and that part of the kitchen in minutes, but thankfully because of it's non newtonian fluid properties it cleans up pretty easily.

My wife mostly does the bathing so lately they have been painting with a mix of shaving cream and food coloring. He'll have it all over the tile but in the end it just washes off. We don't do anything that could be toxic so this painting thing is perfect.

I'm going to have to search for that bath bomb idea. Sounds fun.

You mentioned magnets. Oh man is this fun. To a 2 year old it's high level magic to move something on top of the table with a magnet below amongst other things you can do with them.

[Syn7]

The same day I did the motor thing I took a flat sheet like neodymium magnet in a napkin and left it in front of me and put my hand on it palm up and then took another neodymium magnet but the cylindrical kind that had N and S on it and put it in my hand then told her to flip it over, and of course it just flips back. It was funny to watch em try to figure it out. Even adults didn't notice than when I wanted it to not flip I just showed the back of my hand then did it away from the napkin, and the know it's a magnet. So simple yet such a huge reaction. Then I ruined the wonder and amazement by explaining exactly what I did and how it works, of course.


Ya, clean experiments with kids = good. I don't know if you would actually want to bathe in the ones we made. We just used tubs of water. Dip them in, pull them out and they kinda bubble away or just drop them in and watch it reveal its secret whatever. I'm sure you could make actual bath bombs that have surprises in them though. I just said bath bomb cause that's what it was like.


Make a Van de Graaff generator. The sphere would be the hardest part to source, but you can use old mixing bowls or something. It doesn't have to be round, just hollow. I used a coke can to make one when I was like 12, so you get the idea. Once you have the parts you can make it in like half an hour. Kids love em.

[GoldenBrain]

More magnet magic ideas. Love it!

The Van de Graaff generator sounds fun. It wouldn't work on me because I shave my head. Not clean, but no guard on the Oster Classic 76 close. On the kiddo and momma it would be a sight. What else can you do with those other than make your hair stand up? Are they like a small Tesla coil? I'll read up on them because my knowledge of electricity is better than most but very limited to your level of understanding.

I have to tell you that I've always held you in high regard, but the fact that you use your super powers of electrical engineering and other science genius for the kids boosts your cool factor by a good measure.