On 09/14/2011 07:09 PM, andrel wrote:
> On 14-9-2011 23:52, Jim Holsenback wrote:
>> On 09/14/2011 05:48 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>>>> BUT EVEN WHEN IT'S OUT OF SIGHT THE SUN SHINES NIGHT AND DAY!!
>>>>>>
>>>>> ah ... yes you're +3 from my location. Well I've been up since 3:30am,
>>>>> the moon is full, and I just couldn't resist the sound of my kin folk
>>>>> howling in the distance ;-)
>>>>
>>>> howling vampires???
>>>
>>> I believe he's confusing vampires with werewolves...
>>
>> well no ... you guys are the vampires ... I see myself more the werewolf
>> type
>>
>
> to quote the first post: "what a bunch of vampires (me included)"

hey the moon is certainly to blame here ... since I'm able to see my 
reflection in the mirror, I'll go ahead and opt out on the vampire thing ;-)

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On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:49:02 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> On 14/09/2011 05:56 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:46:15 +0100, Invisible wrote:
>>
>>>>> Well, yeah, but I don't bother watching those things. There's
>>>>> "trivia" and then there's "on which day of the week was J. S. Bach
>>>>> born?"
>>>>
>>>> Wednesday. :)
>>>
>>> Well, there's a 14% chance you're right...
>>>
>>> (Or you just looked it up. Which you can't do on quiz shows, BTW.)
>>
>> There's a third option - I know the formula (yes, there is one) to
>> determine the day of the week mentally - so not a guess, but a
>> calculation.
> 
> That's no help; you'd still have to know the date.

True, and you could have memorised that.

Jim

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> On 09/14/2011 07:09 PM, andrel wrote:
>> On 14-9-2011 23:52, Jim Holsenback wrote:
>>> On 09/14/2011 05:48 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>>>>>> BUT EVEN WHEN IT'S OUT OF SIGHT THE SUN SHINES NIGHT AND DAY!!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> ah ... yes you're +3 from my location. Well I've been up since
>>>>>> 3:30am,
>>>>>> the moon is full, and I just couldn't resist the sound of my kin folk
>>>>>> howling in the distance ;-)
>>>>>
>>>>> howling vampires???
>>>>
>>>> I believe he's confusing vampires with werewolves...
>>>
>>> well no ... you guys are the vampires ... I see myself more the werewolf
>>> type
>>>
>>
>> to quote the first post: "what a bunch of vampires (me included)"
>
> hey the moon is certainly to blame here ... since I'm able to see my
> reflection in the mirror, I'll go ahead and opt out on the vampire thing
> ;-)

Well... Not all vampires don't cast a reflection in a mirror, especialy 
if the mirror is silver free.

Back then, when the novels were writen, mirrors had a silver and mercury 
reflective coating. Sime mercury was placed on the glass, then a foil of 
silver was spread over it. The whole was then compressed in a stack with 
felt cushions for something like 7 years. (the origin of the 7 years bad 
luck for breaking a mirror, also the price as a commoner would need to 
save for about 7 years to be able to buy one) Over 60% of the mirrors 
ended up broken and unusable after that.
In modern mirrors, the silver and mercury are mostly gone.

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Alain <aze### [at] qwertyorg> wrote:
> Back then, when the novels were writen, mirrors had a silver and mercury 
> reflective coating. Sime mercury was placed on the glass, then a foil of 
> silver was spread over it. The whole was then compressed in a stack with 
> felt cushions for something like 7 years. (the origin of the 7 years bad 
> luck for breaking a mirror, also the price as a commoner would need to 
> save for about 7 years to be able to buy one) Over 60% of the mirrors 
> ended up broken and unusable after that.

  I'm not saying I doubt that, but I have seen so many urban legends that
this kind of thing immediately tingles my BS detector. I would love to see
some credible reference to this. :)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 9/14/2011 11:46, Alain wrote:
> Shroeder's cat is always both dead and alive untill someone does observe it.

I think most people miss the point of this question, which is to ask whether 
the *cat* observes itself.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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On 9/14/2011 11:49, Warp wrote:
>    That's the copenhagen interpretation. It's not the only possibility.

Well, that's the *measurable* interpretation. :-) Speculating on why the 
measurements are what they are is unscientific unless one comes up with a 
way of testing the speculations.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   How come I never get only one kudo?

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On 15/09/2011 09:12 PM, Warp wrote:
> Alain<aze### [at] qwertyorg>  wrote:
>> Back then, when the novels were writen, mirrors had a silver and mercury
>> reflective coating. Sime mercury was placed on the glass, then a foil of
>> silver was spread over it. The whole was then compressed in a stack with
>> felt cushions for something like 7 years. (the origin of the 7 years bad
>> luck for breaking a mirror, also the price as a commoner would need to
>> save for about 7 years to be able to buy one) Over 60% of the mirrors
>> ended up broken and unusable after that.
>
>    I'm not saying I doubt that, but I have seen so many urban legends that
> this kind of thing immediately tingles my BS detector. I would love to see
> some credible reference to this. :)

I can find plenty of references to the idea that your reflection is a 
representation of your "soul", and breaking it is therefore bad luck. 
And the Romans believed that every seven years the soul was renewed.

Or that mirrors used to be extremely expensive, so if you broke 
somebody's mirror, you might have to work for them for seven years to 
repay them for it.

But basically every Google result claims that the true origins are "vague".

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On 09/15/2011 05:12 PM, Warp wrote:
> Alain<aze### [at] qwertyorg>  wrote:
>> Back then, when the novels were writen, mirrors had a silver and mercury
>> reflective coating. Sime mercury was placed on the glass, then a foil of
>> silver was spread over it. The whole was then compressed in a stack with
>> felt cushions for something like 7 years. (the origin of the 7 years bad
>> luck for breaking a mirror, also the price as a commoner would need to
>> save for about 7 years to be able to buy one) Over 60% of the mirrors
>> ended up broken and unusable after that.
>
>    I'm not saying I doubt that, but I have seen so many urban legends that
> this kind of thing immediately tingles my BS detector. I would love to see
> some credible reference to this. :)
>

You guys are cracking me up here ... this thread started as a purely 
tongue in cheek observation of nocturnal posting habits. I'm amazed at 
the over analysis that's going on now. Have mercy ... some of you could 
drain every ounce of fun out of a rousing game of trivial pursuit.

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> On 9/14/2011 11:46, Alain wrote:
> > Shroeder's cat is always both dead and alive untill someone does observe it.

> I think most people miss the point of this question, which is to ask whether 
> the *cat* observes itself.

  Isn't the interpretation such that the state of the particle/molecule/cat
is relative, not absolute? From the cat's own point of view it's definitely
alive or dead, but from an outside frame of reference both states are
superposed until observation from that frame of reference in question.

  I think that the question presented by the original thought experiment is
that, if quantum superposition is indeed the correct interpretation, whether
such superpositions apply to macroscopic objects.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Jim Holsenback <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:
> You guys are cracking me up here ... this thread started as a purely 
> tongue in cheek observation of nocturnal posting habits. I'm amazed at 
> the over analysis that's going on now. Have mercy ... some of you could 
> drain every ounce of fun out of a rousing game of trivial pursuit.

  Nothing is funnier than overanalyzing things.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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