What if our galaxy is the cream in a big cup of cold coffee?

What if our galaxy is the cream in a big cup of cold coffee?

I poured a small amount of fridge-temperature cream into my just-poured same-fridge-temperature cold coffee. (Not enough time for the coffee to meaningfully increase in temperature. Lower-rate Brownian motion and regular post-pour chaotic motion still very much in effect, but with no mechanical stirring motion. My preferred cups are circular have a truncated conical tapering which obviously necessarily introduces some circular motion.) Every time I do this, the same two things happen:

1. Right away, there is a stratification effect. The cream punches straight down through the coffee and forms its own density layer, with minimal integration. (Clearly more than zero integration, but without intentional mixing, they remain quite obviously separate.) The height of the layer always seems more than the amount of cream would justify. (This must be a result of the layer taking on the additional volume of coffee post-integration.) Drink result: It's like two-two-two tasty coffee drinks in one! A nice cold bitter on top and a smooth café con crema finish. This is good, and should not be a surprise.

2. Almost simultaneously, at the punch-through location, despite the intentional lack of stirring, a swirly thing happens at the very top of the coffee-air interface. The cream stays on top, and proceeds to very gently expand in a spiral galaxy pattern, staying somewhat together. This is of course, perpendicular to the direction of the cream punching through. There is virtually no integration with the coffee layer, other than what must necessarily be happening at the invisible-to-the-naked-eye horizontal interface between the cream and the coffee. No doubt the very low temperature difference must contribute to the low rate of mixing. (Both coffee and cream are fairly miscible liquids.) Even if left alone for a few minutes, there's not much change.

The similarity to spiral galaxies finally struck me today. (Probably because I have work to do.) Are some galaxy formation mechanics a result of a more-or-less linear matter stream that suddenly collided with a bit of chaotically whirling matter, resulting in clearly separate strata in the dimension of the matter stream, leaving only the surface interaction visible? The centre of such a galaxy would be a since-closed path to a second level of organization with deep integration between the original matter stream and whatever it is that comprises the non-empty parts of space.

There are a lot of beautiful images out there that show the galactic* coffee effect far better than I could photograph. I'll leave it to you to find your own faves.

*Language nerds, this word choice was for you.

Windows Network Location Awareness

A while back I was stuck in this strange world during two conferences. My Windows 7 laptop said there was no Wi-Fi connection (red marking through the network strength indicator) but things were working. That threw me off when things weren't actually working. A colleague mentioned Windows NLA (Network Location Awareness) which could get confused depending on the nature/quality of the network(s) you flip between.

Here are some people's thoughts on the matter: https://www.google.com/?q=windows%20%22network%20location%20awareness%22

Counting the number of times a word appears in a column in Excel

How do you count the number of times a thing appears in a column of text? For example, if you're the type of person who downloads your credit card information, how many purchases did you make at any particular vendor?

If you know the number of things you're counting is small and manageable, using count (if numeric) or counta (if non-numeric) at the bottom might be the way to go. But if you don't (or can't) know, there's an elegant, nifty use of countif that solves the problem instantly - without resorting to PivotTables or any fancy stuff.

(image property of KyleMit on StackOverflow)

You can then filter, group, etc.

COUNTIF(range, criteria) - set the range to the entire column, and just count the thing next to you.

Simple. Brilliant. Love it.

Full article at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18661016/how-many-times-do-each-value-appear-in-a-column.

Microsoft Word: Find and Replace characters within parentheses

This is something I have to occasionally do, and I'm always re-learning from scratch:

Thing (I want to find and replace) with more stuff (different item to find and replace) and other info (the only consistent thing is that these are in parentheses) in-between.

1. Open the Find-Replace dialog
2. If necessary, click the More button to display and enable Use wildcards
3. The ( is a special character, so you must escape it with \ i.e. \(
4. Use the asterisk * to indicate the anythingness in-between
5. Terminate with \)
1. Your search string looks like \(*\)

Problem: How do I replace the contents between parentheses? Haven't figured that out yet. You use parentheses to demarcate items in a search string - (thing)(item)(stuff) in the Find box are represented as \1\2\3 in the Replace box. But (\()(*)(\)) in the Find box just keeps failing on me.

The trick at http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/UsingWildcards.htm doesn't quite seem to be the answer. Any ideas?

Getting Android media apps to ignore certain folders

Just learned this handy tip that I have yet to test out. On Android, you can prevent the media scanner from indexing a directory by placing a file entitled .nomedia in it.

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/138470/how-to-make-my-car-realize-my-phones-system-sounds-arent-music

http://androidforums.com/threads/whats-a-nomedia-file.307529/

Algorithms can't be racist. It simply must be that Groupon customers fit an extremely slim, beautiful, and white profile. 37/37 deals for white people can't be wrong!

(Screen cap taken 2015-12-10 22:28 Eastern.)

 

You want the simple one-sentence explanation for what caused ISIS? (Karl remarks)

(From https://www.facebook.com/Karlremarks/photos/a.401607333254173.93233.395292190552354/914863288595239)
Holy (@#*&$ I cannot like this enough. How can I get the entire world of people who think They hate Us because They hate Our freedom and are evil borne of sheer evil to read this? What comes from nothing? What is born in a vacuum? What is really that simple?

I don't know why*, but I feel the need to make it crystal clear that I do NOT in any way approve of these Daesh-bags. But it is critical - CRITICAL - to realize that these things don't come out of nothing. They are reactions. But to what? And why against us? Why do we as a population persist in the myth that we're just angels and a bearded white man in the sky has blessed us with exceptional qualities? Why do we believe we're entitled to everything on Earth and there's no recourse? Everyone is either our resource or our enemy?

I really truly ask this - not rhetorically - especially for those who deeply believe that centuries of oppression are just bygones, that ongoing crushing of land, spirit, and people are somebody else's problem - or it doesn't matter because it only happens to faceless brown hordes of non-English speaking non-humans.

There will be no considered answers. There will be no road to Damascus moments. Because this is the Internet. The medium is flat. Our discussions aren't just flattened - they're polarized because humanity is stripped from these stupid comments. They become artificial binaries (us vs. them; we're right, they're wrong; clash of civilizations; G vs E), and everything is supposed to be completely and properly conveyed in one pithy, ironic meme.

If your philosophy is small enough to fit on a bumper sticker (or a meme), clearly you need a new philosophy. Daesh is not a simple problem - it's a systemic problem with wide and deep roots. Simple solutions - especially those that turn to violence (physical, emotional, spiritual) are absolutely guaranteed to fail. You CANNOT bomb and murder people until they love you. IT DOES NOT WORK. And for those who still think killing "them" is the right answer - how's that working out for you so far?

Still with me? This blog is public. Share it. I would really like some answers.

*Probably because this is the Internet, and more people are spoiling for an easy fight than looking for hard understanding.