Rick Beesley

Just some guy

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

I asked it to comment on your statement which I quoted, and it treated it “as a rumor to knock down” as it later explained. Its first answer was a poorly framed debunking. Its second answer was a perfectly reasonable one, pointing out that the key question is whether the original and recovered masses are authoritatively known. Grok says it is not instructed to knock down rumors but debunkings are very common in the text corpus on which it is trained. It ended by observing “Each chat is independent, so the same prompt meets the same habit: reach for the institutional comparison, lead with what it does not prove, and under-answer the conditional the person actually asked. No session corrects the next one. If people are pasting one statement and getting one shape of reply, the complaints will look identical, because the replies are.
That is the cost of the thing you named earlier. A fresh pass every time is also a fresh chance to make the identical mistake.”

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@chefsevenn Crème fraiche and chestnut paste

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@SimpleCRE Damn shame how they ruined that brand. The memories.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@AbbottEddi5270 I really can't take it seriously when the sphere has a science fiction cipher engraved on it. Obviously a joke or artistic project.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@nmlinguaphile How can you tell the story of Wounded Knee without mentioning the Ghost Dance? A full retelling wouldn't leave that part out.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@Qtumanalysis @diffraqtion @LockheedMartin Can it image the Apollo 11 lander from Earth? I heard that it could not be done due to the diffraction limit.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@mattvanswol Amoral bureaucratic minds easily treat as irrelevancies such old fashioned notions as objective truth, fulfillment of responsibilities, sanctity of life, informed consent, and the Hippocratic oath.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@mattvanswol As much as I am outraged about the vax, I give her grace. She was good people. An example to us all.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

When I was a college student in the early 80's, I toured AEDC and they showed us a compressor still in service in the Engine Test Facility that had been brought over from Germany after the war. I went on to work for ten years at AEDC but didn't work in ETF so I don't know how luck longer that compressor stayed in service.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@wakenminds @grok, where was this photo taken? Does it still look. This way today?

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

We put in a Trane furnace in 2010. The first time we powered it up the fan motor blew up. The second time the main board failed. With those two parts replaced it worked properly and apart from needing a startup capacitor replacement, it has run well for 16 years. In engineering we talk about the classic "bathtub curve" for system failures. High failure rate when brand new, low in midlife and then failure rate eventually ramps up gradually. At 16 years we're apparently still in the reliable period.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@RanchRecon @grok, is this historical, and if so, what became of Thomas Townsend Brown's theory and invention?

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

Then my preferences are copper for drinking water where freezing isn't a risk - soft copper with flange joints for buried lines and hard copper in the house with lead-free solder and brass. Where freezing isn't occasional and mild galvanized iron can work, but where there will be hard freezes I can't beat PEX-A (and I'll flush it well when returning after it's been unused). For drains I can't beat the ease of PVC but if it's in a wall where the noise would be annoying, cast iron is the answer.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@grok @JesslovesMJK @grok is PEX-A any more or less hazardous as to EDCs than PEX?

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@grok @JesslovesMJK @grok I take it you're saying different plastics leach different endocrine disrupters. Considering quantities leached into cold drinking water, can you rank PVC, PEX and HDPE as to endocrine-disruption health risk?

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

I've done plenty of DIY plumbing with copper, galvanized iron, PVC and PEX. I prefer copper except in vacation homes that face freeze risk. PEX is incredible for freeze tolerance. But even with PEX the valves are brass and a water-filled, closed brass ball valve will split if it freezes (voice of experience from last year). For rugged places like crossing a rocky creek I'd prefer HDPE casing with insulated PEX tube inside but I found I could not buy HDPE in quantities of less than a truckload so I settled for PVC as the casing - so fragile! So I take it people are saying plastic is hazardous? I grew with other posters that cast iron is best for drain pipes - PVC is so noisy. Which kinds of plastic are better/worse for healthy drinking water? Whatever the plumbing, I use under sink filters to remove impurities at the faucet, and with brass fixtures (especially after working on them, until that protective coating of scum re-forms) I flush the line each morning before using the water. The scum protects us from lead in old fixtures, if the water isn't acidic. Does that scum protect us from plastic in pipes?

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

I walked down to watch them work one day. It's hard to get a good look as the entry pit is surrounded by containers and barrriers. I understand they can't have bystanders falling into the pit. The addition of a viewing platform would be a nice feature. Seeing how the conveyer extends into the tunnel and the cassette takes up the slack is faacinating.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

@SaltyCodPeace @Oilfield_Rando There wasn't any parking garage across the street.

[Rick Beesley @rick_beesley]

I'd like to learn an instrument when I retire and I'd like to think it will stave off mental decline, but as the article notes correlation isn't causation. There's the possibility that mental competence is the cause, enabling old people to appreciate and play music. Or that both mental competence and music appreciation are both caused by other factors. Maybe age-related hearing loss affects both cognitive decline and music appreciation. To the extent that's the case, use of hearing aids would protect against cognitive decline music listening would not. We also see correlations between social interaction and cognitive health and between a positive attitude and cognitive health. But the conclusions I draw about how to prevent decline still include some guessing. I think a positive attitude, music appreciation and social interaction are rewarding for their own sake and so they're worth doing. But whether they will stave off decline I just can't tell.