[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: The electron is a theory we use. It is so useful in understanding the way nature works that we can almost call it real. Rick Rosner: Is that Feynman again? Jacobsen: Yes. Rosner: So, that's his pragmatism again. As a kid, he would fix people's early radios. So he's a …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 741: Electrons as a Theory We Use
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: It’s Feynman again. ““From a long view of the history of mankind, seen from, say, ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics. The American Civil War will …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 740: Feynman Again, Mr., Seriously
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: This is from Goethe; Iphigenie auf Tauris from 1787. Number two; the quote is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – “Life teaches us to be less harsh with ourselves and with others.” Rick Rosner: Life teaches us to be to be less harsh with ourselves than with others. Jacobsen: And with …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 739: Iphigenie auf Tauris from 1787
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, you've been thinking about the Turing test since we last talked. It's been a little bit. I've been at competition level equestrianism for show jumping and eventing. Rick Rosner: Yeah, you've been tending to fancy horses and people. Jacobsen: Correct, this is a whole other side of things we …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 738: Turing Test in the Interim
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So Rick, what is the future of health food? I remember rambling in our sessions, both of us, over the last seven or eight years on and off about how stuff that actually is okay for you and it's delicious. Rick Rosner: Okay, so there's a bunch of different stuff. …
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: Right now in America obviously, the Democrats control the presidency and barely the House and by an even thinner margin the Senate and something like more than 80% of the time the party who has the presidency loses seats in the House and often in the Senate. So what you see …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 736: Democrats Control the Presidency
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: We’re recording now, ramble me silly. Rick Rosner: All right. So right before you started taping we were talking about how our topics and discussions have gotten ramblier and I told you that I had a good topic and then you just happened to plug into it and the topic …
[Recording Start] Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Is the Russo-Ukrainian War costing the Russians a lot? Rick Rosner: Yeah. Between the Russians lying about everything and just the uncertainty of war, we don't know how many Russians have died in this. Estimates as of last week were at least 10,000 Russian troops out of 150000 to 200000, …
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: So, your job among other things, one of the biggest aspects of your job is mucking out the stalls of nearly three dozen horses and we just looked it up and that involves among other things clearing away 35 to 50 pounds of shit per horse per day. So, you're talking …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 733: Zen and the Art of Shit Shovelling
[Recording Start] Rick Rosner: Carol had us join the Y again. We quit The Y two years ago because it made no sense to pay 69 bucks a month for a family membership. It shut down for almost a year I think and then we waited another year before joining up again because it just …
Rick Rosner 