unhatched fishes and turtle excluding devices

[Plasma Man]

I have the same thing, but I don't start moulting unless I got really sunburned. That tends not to happen, as I happen to be a member of what seems to be a minority that believes putting sunblock on is better than sunburn.

In vaguely sun-related news, yesterday, for the first time this year, I had my first sitting-out-in-the-pub-garden pint. Very nice.

[Angua]

Work not getting done.

Chocolate cupcakes are currently in the process of cooking.

Win? Loss? Hard to decide.

Somewhat ironically, said work is researching an essay on how individual flavour preference develops.

[OBrien]

I didn't do any work yesterday, but I did make peanut butter and chocolate cookies round a mates house. I say cupcakes are a win.

[Giant Speck]

I didn't do any work yesterday, but I did make peanut butter and chocolate cookies round a mates house. I say cupcakes are a win.

Now I have a craving for peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes. Or maybe chocolate cupcakes topped with peanut butter. I've made brownies like that before; I'm sure cupcakes prepared the same way would taste just as good.

[Angua]

I don't think my boyfriend would be too happy about that. The British seem to have a weird dislike for peanut butter, especially mixing peanut butter with sweet things.

Not sure why, but my cousins always insisted that peanut butter and chocolate sounded like a terrible combination. Which means I have a hard time finding Reese's peanut butter cups here (I once found them in a news stand in Sheffield, and it was awesome).

[OBrien]

Really? Every one I know either loves it or thinks it sounds good but don't particularly like peanut butter that much.

[roband]

I don't think my boyfriend would be too happy about that. The British seem to have a weird dislike for peanut butter, especially mixing peanut butter with sweet things.

Not sure why, but my cousins always insisted that peanut butter and chocolate sounded like a terrible combination. Which means I have a hard time finding Reese's peanut butter cups here (I once found them in a news stand in Sheffield, and it was awesome).

Selfridge's at Birmingham Bullring.
They have so much American style stuff. Fairly pricey, but not overly so.

I can't believe I just helped someone eat chocolate and peanut butter together I feel ill just thinking about that combo!

[Angua]

Maybe I just ended up with the weird ones.

[OBrien]

Selfridge's at Birmingham Bullring.
They have so much American style stuff. Fairly pricey, but not overly so.

Really? Selfridges is just terrible, especially with their prices.

Maybe I just ended up with the weird ones.

They are often the best ones.

[roband]

Sure, but guaranteed finding them at a high price surely beats struggling to find them at any price?

[Angua]

The mission currently sells rootbeer at £2.50 a can. While I would really, really like to have some rootbeer, that's just frustrating. I'm not spending that much on a can of rootbeer. (It is the normal sized can you would get for any fizzy drink).

[OBrien]

Sure, but guaranteed finding them at a high price surely beats struggling to find them at any price?

Toasted Nutella and peanut butter sandwiches usually taste better and are usually cheaper than Reeces cups, I find.

The mission currently sells rootbeer at £2.50 a can. While I would really, really like to have some rootbeer, that's just frustrating. I'm not spending that much on a can of rootbeer. (It is the normal sized can you would get for any fizzy drink).

I know it's not the same but Ginger beer is probably your best option for this sort of thing in England. I recommend Old Jamaica.

[roband]

Yeah, I've looked at buying imported Vanilla Coke, but damn it's expensive

[Angua]

Ginger beer is nowhere near Root beer (I'm from the Caribbean - I know my ginger beer ).

I tried a British version of root beer once, but it wasn't the same. I've recently found out American rootbeer has wintergreen in it, which isn't a common flavouring in the UK, so that could be it.

[OBrien]

Ah, fair enough. You're pretty much screwed then, unless there happens to be a corner shop near you that does cheap, imported soft drinks but most of those get their stuff from North Africa or Eastern Europe nowdays.

[Mumpy]

For Oxford, Have you tried Palms in the covered market? They do some americanish stuff. Plus Reeses cups are everywhere! Personally I can't stand them, but they are sold in various corner shops all around the Cowley road, at least.

[Angua]

I need to venture down to Cowley more often. One of the downsides to not having to move out of college accommodation!

I haven't been into Palms for a long time. Probably time for me to return to see what's up!

[Mumpy]

You do! But please don't come down here for fuzzy ducks. That will just depress me.

[Angua]

Meh, clubbing isn't really my thing. I really only go down Cowley because that's where the women's pool team practices.

[Tomlidich the second]

Meh, clubbing isn't really my thing. I really only go down Cowley because that's where the women's pool team practices.

so a baby seal walks into a club.......

[UniqueScreenname]

I love ginger beer. Almost as good as ginger ale, but I suppose it depends on my mood. Ginger beer is more intense, so I can't drink it as often.

My friend's grandfather makes root beer, and it was the best root beer I've ever had. Sweeter than usual, but not like the A&W candies that makes the sweetness overwhelming.

[The Cat]

Thursday 30 is a joy. I look forward every week. Crazy Bee playing center!

[Steax]

Ubi wubonduber ubif ubanubyubone knubows whubat thube fubuck ubi'm duboubing ubin thubis pubost.

"It's first grade, Spongebob!"

Still no. It's Ubbi Dubbi from ZOOM.

................. Is it bad that I still remember their experiments with marshmallows, the cheesy faked-earthquake kid-made videos, the zebra cake recipes and I can still someone innately speak in ubbi dubbi?

[The Scyphozoa]

The only things I remember are Ubbi Dubbi, the girl who dislikes [set] but likes [subset of that set that has the same letter twice] (e.g. dislikes shoes but likes boots), and something about spring-powered cars.

[darknut]

so i've got a random fleeting question (random like the plague) see what i did there

theres a thing i cant remember the name of, i think its something like "the [some guys name] princible"
something along the line of you cant be sure of the non-existance or impossibility of something because theres always a non 0% change of it being possible.
or something to that effect

[Thesh]

I wonder if it would be possible to departmentalize congress. So you have a congress for the department of firearms and explosives, one for the department of health care and social welfare, a department for recreational drugs, and so on and so forth. That way I could vote democrats into the health care and social welfare, libertarians into the department of illicit drugs, and libertarians into the department of firearms and explosives.

[SurgicalSteel]

Having thought about your idea for about a minute, I like it a lot. I wonder if there would be a need for a sort of integration department to kind of help the various departments work together, since I imagine any one of the departments working with complete disregard for the others could be bad.

[Thesh]

Yeah, figuring out how to implement it effectively would take a lot more thought than I'm able to devote to it.

[UniqueScreenname]

Ubi wubonduber ubif ubanubyubone knubows whubat thube fubuck ubi'm duboubing ubin thubis pubost.

"It's first grade, Spongebob!"

Still no. It's Ubbi Dubbi from ZOOM.

................. Is it bad that I still remember their experiments with marshmallows, the cheesy faked-earthquake kid-made videos, the zebra cake recipes and I can still someone innately speak in ubbi dubbi?

All I remember is that I loved it passionately and if I ever missed it I flipped out. Just like Jeopardy nowadays. (Yes, I am that much of a nerd.)

[SlyReaper]

Screech: I've been wondering something about muon catalyzed cold fusion. The idea is that if you replace the electrons in atoms with muons, the nuclei are drawn 207 times closer to each other because muons are 207 times more massive than electrons. But how does that follow? A few steps seem to have been skipped there. There are citations for it on Wikipedia but to books I don't have.

[Angua]

I love reading papers written in the 30's. Even though they're scientific, they still have the quaint turn of phrases that you get in novels written back then, and have a lovely feel.

[eSOANEM]

Screech: I've been wondering something about muon catalyzed cold fusion. The idea is that if you replace the electrons in atoms with muons, the nuclei are drawn 207 times closer to each other because muons are 207 times more massive than electrons. But how does that follow? A few steps seem to have been skipped there. There are citations for it on Wikipedia but to books I don't have.

We did this at a summer school I was on which was based on some introductory QM.

You can derive the bohr radius (in a slightly hand-wave-y way) from the Schroedinger equation by first finding the energy of the ground state of an infinite one-dimensional potential well of width "r".

This, in some sense, gives you the energy the particle must have in order to be localised to an interval of width "r". As I recall this goes something like 1/r²

If you then sum this with the classical electrostatic potential energy of an electron (or muon) from a proton (which goes like -1/r), you get a function for some sort of effective potential well an electron (or muon) experiences when around a hydrogen nucleus. This function has a nice minimum at some distance. If you find what this distance is, it comes out as the Bohr radius (despite the fact that this derivation is on very shakey ground), furthermore, the depth of the effective potential well there is equal to the ionisation energy of a hydrogen atom.

If you repeat this process with a muon instead of an electron, the radius you get is the orbital distance of a muon from a hydrogen nucleus.

[SecondTalon]

So, as those of you who follow US College Sports Basketball know, Kentucky has two teams (University of Kentucky, University of Louisville) in the Finals. Assuming I'm reading it right, UK is against Ohio and UofL is against Kansas.

While it's sports and I don't give a shit, I really, really, really fucking hope one or both of them don't make it. Because if they both do, it means the final game of the entire tournament will be UK vs UofL.

As you may guess from my location, I live in Louisville. Which is located in Kentucky.

I really, really, really don't want to deal with the bullshit that would be the aftermath of that game. It's bad enough when the two Football teams go against each other in a non-tournament setting. And Kentucky, on the whole, sucks at Football and is surprisingly good at Basketball.

[Garm]

So, as those of you who follow US College Sports Basketball know, Kentucky has two teams (University of Kentucky, University of Louisville) in the Finals. Assuming I'm reading it right, UK is against Ohio and UofL is against Kansas.

While it's sports and I don't give a shit, I really, really, really fucking hope one or both of them don't make it. Because if they both do, it means the final game of the entire tournament will be UK vs UofL.

As you may guess from my location, I live in Louisville. Which is located in Kentucky.

I really, really, really don't want to deal with the bullshit that would be the aftermath of that game. It's bad enough when the two Football teams go against each other in a non-tournament setting. And Kentucky, on the whole, sucks at Football and is surprisingly good at Basketball.

UofK is playing UofL in the Semi-final round. KU (Rock Chalk Jayhawk Kaaaayyyyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu) is up against The Ohio State. So you've got the all Kentucky matchup but at least it's not in the finals.

It's been a pretty boring March Madness this year. Such a disappointment.

[SecondTalon]

UofK is playing UofL in the Semi-final round.

OH GOD NO

[SlyReaper]

Screech: I've been wondering something about muon catalyzed cold fusion. The idea is that if you replace the electrons in atoms with muons, the nuclei are drawn 207 times closer to each other because muons are 207 times more massive than electrons. But how does that follow? A few steps seem to have been skipped there. There are citations for it on Wikipedia but to books I don't have.

We did this at a summer school I was on which was based on some introductory QM.

You can derive the bohr radius (in a slightly hand-wave-y way) from the Schroedinger equation by first finding the energy of the ground state of an infinite one-dimensional potential well of width "r".

This, in some sense, gives you the energy the particle must have in order to be localised to an interval of width "r". As I recall this goes something like 1/r²

If you then sum this with the classical electrostatic potential energy of an electron (or muon) from a proton (which goes like -1/r), you get a function for some sort of effective potential well an electron (or muon) experiences when around a hydrogen nucleus. This function has a nice minimum at some distance. If you find what this distance is, it comes out as the Bohr radius (despite the fact that this derivation is on very shakey ground), furthermore, the depth of the effective potential well there is equal to the ionisation energy of a hydrogen atom.

If you repeat this process with a muon instead of an electron, the radius you get is the orbital distance of a muon from a hydrogen nucleus.

Okay, but I think I'm still missing something. Unless there's an m term that goes in the effective-potential-at-distance-r formula, I don't see how multiplying lepton mass by X results in that lepton orbiting X times closer to the nucleus.

It's times like this I regret not taking the QM course at uni.

[I Am Raven]

So, any of you feel like getting really sad?
(Tis a music video. Fanmade. Gets me down no matter what.)

[Garm]

UofK is playing UofL in the Semi-final round.

OH GOD NO

I'm sorry for your loss.
If it's any consolation, I think UofK will probably win. And it's all down in New Orleans.

[eSOANEM]

Okay, but I think I'm still missing something. Unless there's an m term that goes in the effective-potential-at-distance-r formula, I don't see how multiplying lepton mass by X results in that lepton orbiting X times closer to the nucleus.

I think the confinement energy is the mass-dependent term. I'm not sure. When I'm at school tomorrow I'll have a go deriving it. I expect a 1/m coefficient comes out from the differential term of the Schroedinger equation.

Edit: yes it does, I've worked through the derivation and it's given in the spoiler:

Spoiler:

for an infinte square potential well:

\frac{-\hbar^2}{2m}\cdot\frac{d^2}{dx^2} \Psi = E \cdot \Psi

Solutions are sinusoidal with argument k\Psi

So

\frac{\hbar^2k^2}{2m}=E

and k is the wavenumber so in the groundstate of a well of width r:

k=\frac{\pi}{r}

so:

E_{confinement}=\frac{\pi^2\hbar^2}{2mr^2}

therefore:

V_{effective} = \frac{\pi^2\hbar^2}{2mr^2} - \frac{e^2}{4\pi\epsilon_0r}

The radius of the lepton's orbit is the radius at which the minimum occurs.

[SecondTalon]

UofK is playing UofL in the Semi-final round.

OH GOD NO

I'm sorry for your loss.
If it's any consolation, I think UK will probably win. And it's all down in New Orleans.

I think UK will probably win

OH GOD NO

(Note: That would be my reaction if UofL was your projected winner. Or if you projected a tie. Or if you said they'd just hold hands and sing. Really, any possible outcome at all results in the same reaction on my part.)