PhysicsMonkey's recent activity
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Comment on Animation of Earth's magnetic pole shift in ~science
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Comment on How do you summon the muse? in ~creative
PhysicsMonkey LinkJust pick up the guitar once a day. No matter what. Play at least a note. Putting it right back down is totally OK. It's surprising that those times when I expect that, but it doesn't happen, are...Just pick up the guitar once a day. No matter what. Play at least a note. Putting it right back down is totally OK. It's surprising that those times when I expect that, but it doesn't happen, are often when I feel I'm most locked in to bridging the gap between thought and sound.
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Comment on Dollars on the margins - $15/hr minimum wage as a public health measure in ~health
PhysicsMonkey Link Parent"Much of the variation in life expectancy across areas is explained by differences in health behaviors, such as smoking and exercise. Differences in life expectancy among the poor are not strongly..."Much of the variation in life expectancy across areas is explained by differences in health behaviors, such as smoking and exercise. Differences in life expectancy among the poor are not strongly associated with differences in access to health care or levels of income inequality. Instead, the poor live longest in affluent cities with highly educated populations and high levels of local government expenditures, such as New York and San Francisco."
If you're drawing any conclusions contrary to this, then you're misinterpreting the data.
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Comment on Dollars on the margins - $15/hr minimum wage as a public health measure in ~health
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentI do. My position is that each individual is in a better position to determine what they need than the government is. A teenager working a summer job does not have the same needs as a single mom,...This comment doesn't seem to touch on the idea that people require a certain amount of money (in the form of a minimum wage) to even be able to afford housing and other necessities when working a full time job.
I do. My position is that each individual is in a better position to determine what they need than the government is. A teenager working a summer job does not have the same needs as a single mom, and their work ethic and skills should reflect that. Each of them is able to negotiate a wage they think is "good" for them in their situation, and free to seek other employers if they don't like the way the negotiation went with one.
This is simply a free market in action.Would we just expect people to not work jobs that wouldn't pay them enough to survive? What if hardly any jobs do?
Yes, under the assumption what those people want from that job is being paid enough to survive.
Those jobs can't exist if they can't support workers to create a product that consumers want. If the business can't find a way to be profitable (enough) for all parties involved, then it's doomed to fail, anyway.
I'm in favor of UBI, but that's not the topic of this thread.
If the workforce is saturated, then new innovations and new jobs are needed. Entrepreneurs need to jump in and create new, different jobs all the time. Most businesses are not huge corporations, they're local stores and mom-n-pop operations.
Increasing minimum wage directly undercuts these small business owners specifically, while having little effect on the largest corporations whom are able to adjust. -
Comment on Dollars on the margins - $15/hr minimum wage as a public health measure in ~health
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentWhat you have in quotes is not what I said, and the rest of your post is running off that tangent which is antithetical to the context of the thing you misquoted to begin with. Correlation is not...What you have in quotes is not what I said, and the rest of your post is running off that tangent which is antithetical to the context of the thing you misquoted to begin with.
Correlation is not causation. The data you present does not indicate the conclusions you're drawing from it. That gap is in favor of women, historically lower wage earners - which directly undermines your correlation, anyway.
Did you read your own link?
"Differences in life expectancy among the poor are not strongly associated with differences in access to health care or levels of income inequality."
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Comment on Dollars on the margins - $15/hr minimum wage as a public health measure in ~health
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentThere's no way I can unpack all of that. The inflation thing seems short-sighted. You look at first-order effects, but then stop. When food costs go up, because the majority of the food industry...There's no way I can unpack all of that.
The inflation thing seems short-sighted. You look at first-order effects, but then stop. When food costs go up, because the majority of the food industry is supported by minimum wage workers at the consumer level, that's going to ripple through everything in the economy."Scientifically untrue" - you cherry pick your data in half of it, and you are talking about one of the things that makes it complicated in the other half. Disempowered people have historically worked for lower wages, yes, but it's also historically true that this is lessening as time goes on, not due to wage laws, but due to social progress. As to the fact that some people are incapable of negotiating for themselves, then yes... I feel it's our social duty to address that. We, as a society need to be better about empowering all people to affect change in their lives. However, throwing money at the problem doesn't address the underlying problem of empowerment.
"This is a line fed to you by people who want to..." - Slow your roll, man. That's my thought based on my own life experiences. They are free people, free to make the compromises in their lives they choose to make, free to spend their time how they like. To the extent that there are awesome people who just need a boost to get up to speed and live an awesome life, yes absolutely we should help them. To the extent that a teenager working at McDonalds is not doing work commensurate with an adult processing insurance claims, then no... those people are free to negotiate different wages, and have very different needs in their employment.
Businesses should care about paying the minimum to get the quality of work they need.
Employees should care about getting the maximum value for their current ability.
This is a perfectly healthy arrangement in a free market economy.You get kinda hysterical in the final bit. It's difficult to take any of it seriously due to the obvious emotional content. You say I'm rooted in ignorance when I feel I've devoted a lot of time trying to honestly understand the depths of the consequences of having or increasing a minimum wage. I'm engaging you in this conversation to help understand the situation more.
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Comment on Dollars on the margins - $15/hr minimum wage as a public health measure in ~health
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentIf you're offered a job by a company in a country that has no minimum wage, do you take that job for a lower wage than you'd take it if it was an American company? If you do so, it's for other...If there were no minimum wage, how would we ensure employers pay employees enough money for them to not only survive, but to live?
If you're offered a job by a company in a country that has no minimum wage, do you take that job for a lower wage than you'd take it if it was an American company? If you do so, it's for other reasons, and not some minimum wage law.
The law has nothing to do with your ability to earn enough to not only survive, but to live.
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Comment on Dollars on the margins - $15/hr minimum wage as a public health measure in ~health
PhysicsMonkey LinkIt's complicated, but I think minimum wage is ultimately bad for people and the economy as a whole. It ultimately triggers inflation. Few businesses can afford to pay higher wages, and all...It's complicated, but I think minimum wage is ultimately bad for people and the economy as a whole.
It ultimately triggers inflation. Few businesses can afford to pay higher wages, and all employees are already voluntarily working for a wage they negotiated with their employer on the free market.
To the first point, it's a 0-sum game. If wages uniformly go up, that money has to come from somewhere. It's not clear that customers will remain as loyal when prices change. Those price changes are extensive because minimum wage is extensive, and therefore all prices must rise.
To the second point, I only worked for minimum wage for my very first job ever. For every job after that, I negotiated a higher wage because I was not an un-trained, un-skilled worker anymore. I was a 17 year-old nerd with poor social skills. Literally anyone can do it. People accepting the offered wage are tacitly saying it is agreeable to them for their time. To the extent that we, as a society, should help those unable to negotiate for themselves a bit, that's great, but I don't really think that's what's going on.
I think people for the most part accept a minimum wage job because they want minimum responsibility and/or have no experience. They have no skills to offer an employer that would actually increase the profitability of the business, so the employer is not incentivized to pay them more. It's not that they're unable to negotiate for themselves; it's that they literally don't care whether or not their presence on the job increases the profitability of their company. If they're just too lazy to care, then I'm reluctant to select them as a group to target for relief with tax money.I want what's fair for people who are in need, but I don't want to hand a bunch of money to selectively lazy people.
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Comment on Recommended two-player board games under sixty minutes in ~games.tabletop
PhysicsMonkey LinkMy gal and I started collecting games a couple years ago and we also love Seven Wonders Duel. Santorini is amazing. The rules are deceptively simple, but despite the small board and simple rules,...My gal and I started collecting games a couple years ago and we also love Seven Wonders Duel.
Santorini is amazing.
The rules are deceptively simple, but despite the small board and simple rules, it ends up being a fun strategy game about midway through and by the end, you're so engaged. The slow build is so natural and inviting that you don't even realize how it drew you in.
Sagrada is a lower-level strategy game that is super-easy to talk over and never lose track of whose turn it is or what's going on in the game. Perfect for 2 - 4 players that are in a talkative mood. Has rules for solitaire game, which my gal says is fun, but I haven't tried. -
Comment on Is the Earth flat? in ~science
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentA poor interpretation of the Equivalence Principle suggest similar, but only when you misunderstand the statement. The EP says inertial mass is the same as gravitational mass. That is, the mass...A poor interpretation of the Equivalence Principle suggest similar, but only when you misunderstand the statement.
The EP says inertial mass is the same as gravitational mass. That is, the mass that causes gravity is the same as the mass that is accelerated by forces. Physically, these don't "have" to be the same, but it seems that in our universe, they are.
The interpretation, "In a closed room, no experiment can tell the difference between being stationary near the surface of Earth, or being accelerated by a "hand of God" at 9.8 m/s^2." is meant to help people not as hot on physics as Einstein to understand what the implications of the EP are.
However, you have to forget the "in a closed room" part for the EP to say the Earth is accelerating through spacetime. We're not in a closed room. We have satellites and know the difference between a closed room and a planet. -
Comment on r/Apple is legit? in ~talk
PhysicsMonkey LinkWhen someone whom is not a tech-head spends $1,000 on their piece of tech, you will not be able to convince them that their tech isn't the best. Their only metric for knowing quality is cost. This...When someone whom is not a tech-head spends $1,000 on their piece of tech, you will not be able to convince them that their tech isn't the best. Their only metric for knowing quality is cost.
This is not all Apple fans, but it is a significant bunch of them.There are legit fans that keep themselves up-to-date and informed about the cutting edge of tech and what future tech will look like. They're interested in getting to the new tech they envision, and Apple is excellent at marketing their brand, which suits that "bring the future now" idea to a T.
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Comment on How did the police know you were near a crime scene? Google told them in ~tech
PhysicsMonkey LinkI'm not surprised to see that when the average person is carrying a data collecting device on their person at almost all times, the power systems that exist to exert control will find ways of...I'm not surprised to see that when the average person is carrying a data collecting device on their person at almost all times, the power systems that exist to exert control will find ways of abusing that fact.
I can't predict the ways that our cell phones will be used to reduce our liberty, but this is not really surprising.
Really, though... Criminals aren't exactly known for their adherence to rational risk/reward analysis. Kinda seems obvious in retrospect that carrying a personal tracking device on your person when you do crimes is prob. not in your best interests.
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Comment on Is the Earth flat? in ~science
PhysicsMonkey LinkPeople don't change their minds because someone condescended them. At least, not in the way the condescending party was hoping for. Besides, anyone who's taken an introductory course that covers...People don't change their minds because someone condescended them. At least, not in the way the condescending party was hoping for.
Besides, anyone who's taken an introductory course that covers Einstein's relativity should recall that everything is flat if you go past it fast enough, given relativistic space contraction and all.
Seriously, though... the amount of cognitive dissonance that you have to hold in your brain to assert the Earth is flat is beyond anything logic can deal with. The sheer amount of data you have to ignore and malevolence you have to assert on vast numbers of people is just absurd.
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Comment on 'Esquire' criticized for cover story on 'what it’s like to grow up white, middle class, and male' in ~life
PhysicsMonkey LinkThose voices that claim they want equality, but clearly don't, get way too much press.Those voices that claim they want equality, but clearly don't, get way too much press.
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Comment on What's the userbase of Tildes like? (+ some misc. Tildes questions) in ~tildes
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentNO! That's not true! You're not my father! :p Thanks, though. I'm enjoying this site so far.NO! That's not true! You're not my father!
:p
Thanks, though. I'm enjoying this site so far. -
Comment on What's the userbase of Tildes like? (+ some misc. Tildes questions) in ~tildes
PhysicsMonkey LinkWow. I'm the old guy in the house? I'm 42, born and living in St Louis, MO, working in physics as the demonstration guy. I still can't believe they pay me to play with lasers and blow things up....Wow. I'm the old guy in the house?
I'm 42, born and living in St Louis, MO, working in physics as the demonstration guy. I still can't believe they pay me to play with lasers and blow things up. It's an absolute dream job for me.
I'm on this site because someone said nice things to me on another forum and offered me an invite code. I'm a sucker for flattery, so here I am.
Seems nice enough. Less vitriol than I'd expect in a forum with a lot of current events posts. Very little physics to discuss, though, so... ya know... maybe it'll get better. :p -
Comment on What does any of this have to do with physics? in ~science
PhysicsMonkey LinkStarts out strong, but kinda dithers into gratuitousness at the end. The final bit where he tried to evoke Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a nice homage, but really felt jarring to...Starts out strong, but kinda dithers into gratuitousness at the end. The final bit where he tried to evoke Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a nice homage, but really felt jarring to the rest of his narrative voice.
He captures the naivete of grad students quite well, though. I'm sure many of them experience a similar disenchantment with the real world after university life, so props to him for capturing that as well.Oh, and nothing of that has anything to do with physics, aside from the fact he talks a lot about doing physics.
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Comment on I was wrong about Google and Facebook: There’s nothing wrong with them (so say we all) in ~tech
PhysicsMonkey LinkThere's an XKCD comic where he points out that customer benefit programs are easier to understand when you put them in context: We'll pay you $1.27 for your name, $2.16 for your address, $0.59 for...There's an XKCD comic where he points out that customer benefit programs are easier to understand when you put them in context:
We'll pay you $1.27 for your name, $2.16 for your address, $0.59 for your phone number, ....Social media platforms are still businesses that need to make money. Is it really that surprising that they make money by selling the information commodity that is your personal account info?
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Comment on Not having downvotes is a godsend in ~tildes
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentI'm not telling anyone to feel like me. It seems the responses to my post are people offended that I told them what they feel is wrong. I'm not doing that, and it shouldn't even need to be said....I'm not telling anyone to feel like me. It seems the responses to my post are people offended that I told them what they feel is wrong. I'm not doing that, and it shouldn't even need to be said. I'm talking about my own feelings and if you can find Truth in them, then take it. If not, then leave it.
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Comment on Not having downvotes is a godsend in ~tildes
PhysicsMonkey Link ParentYeah, but I don't sort by votes, I sort by most recent, so the votes have no bearing on how I interact with reddit. The visibility thing is a wash if you mean the collapsed comments because it's...Yeah, but I don't sort by votes, I sort by most recent, so the votes have no bearing on how I interact with reddit.
The visibility thing is a wash if you mean the collapsed comments because it's clear people are opening and reading the collapsed comments because the vote counts keep changing, even on highly negative vote counts.My point: while the vote system affect visibility, it only does so for people playing the vote-count game. It's easy to ignore them and make it so they have no bearing on what you see on reddit.
I don't know exactly what you mean by phases, but I see it hit periods of relative stability when the poles are opposed, and periods of transient behavior where the poles are at other angles than 180 degrees apart.
Implications for advancements to the Standard Model are minimal.
Implications for understanding why the Earth has a magnetic field after 4.5 billion years to settle down temperature imbalances are still left open. Unless I missed something, they mention convection driving the dynamo. That convection transfers heat from hot to cold as the laws of thermodynamics say it has to. 4.5 billion years is a long time for there to still be a temperature difference left to drive anything, especially when it's been driving it the whole time.
This is where the Standard Model could come into play, but I can't emphasize enough how thorough it is and how ridiculously well tested it's been for decades. When we're not talking about Einstein's Relativity, the Standard Model tends to be king... tends to be... and I don't think anyone has a plausible hypothesis for the heat source. So if it's shown to be there, something's going to be discovered.
It's still an open question in physics as to why the Earth has a magnetic field. This video's model fits the currently popular hypothesis of vast currents of fluid iron moving in a dynamo. We can't test it directly, though. It's the curse of a geophysicist that everything they want to know about is behind a 60 km thick wall of rock under their feet.
The model in the video looks plausible. It does not look predictive.
I'm not qualified to hand out Nobels, and they probably wouldn't take my advice, but that's how big a deal it will be when we have a predictive model of how the Earth's magnetic field will change over time.