
Half full or empty
...coffee-cup-half-full type...
As an engineer, I reject the half full/empty premise and submit that the cup was not produced with the correct specification.
Another coffee, please. Yes, I know we're about to start. There is always time for one more coffee. It's good for your brain. Thanks. Could you hold my cup for a moment? I need to visit the restroom. Yes, I know we're about to start; you told me that already. There is always time for coffee AND a comfort break. Yes, I know the …
Aha, my friends, you now see that our mental conditioning technique has worked after all. Our friend A, originally given a whimsical and moderately embarrassing animal-themed name by his parents, now *truly* believes he is really called the much less socially troublesome name "Alister" instead. And since all the altered documentation has been in place for some time, I think we can call this a wrap!
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Hmm, mind you, there is still the "Dabbs". Do you think we could maybe do better? :-)
Growing up I always saw the evenings and the future as peaceful and mentally quiet, with wonderful music playing (LP's on the record deck) and everyone sitting around talking while sharing a puff with each other and passing the album covers around, enjoying company and conversations.
But now that's illegal and we're drinking coffee and posting on social media instead, is this our caffeinated future?
"My entire lab really loved this project."
Back in the day N Ireland didn't use the blow-in-the-bag breathalyser. They had a device using wet chemistry, colorimetry and operator input to obtain the final reading. The RUC operators needed training courses and the training courses needed other RUC officer volunteers to be test subjects (I don't thing there were any conscripts) and consume alcohol. There was a slight downside in that it involved having several blood samples taken over the course of the day although I suppose they were feeling less pain as the day progressed.
A colleague had the job of managing herding the volunteers. She reported that some of them got a bit upset that the course was paused for the lunch break and broke into the drinks cupboard.
Hey, you just triggered a memory of something I hadn't thought about in donkeys' years - the original breathalyser used by police at the roadside.
It, too, used wet chemistry - you blew through a tube of crystals into a bag and the colour change in the crystals reflected the approximate amount of alcohol present in your breath and likely got you a trip to the station.
"Call that wet chemistry?"
As a chemist, yes ;-)
I would imagine the one you used was intended to be more accurate as it used a colorimeter to assess the colour change, but I would also imagine it was still based on potassium dichromate. The dichromate has to be wet or moist for it to react with the alcohol.
But anyway, you did remind me of something I hadn't thought about for decades.
It's fun to microwave Peeps (those marshmallow ducks with the colored sugar coating). You can see them "breathe" when the microwave is set on 50% duty cycle, and if it has a turntable you can see when they go through the hot spots in the cavity.
Best of all, after a minute, you get that wonderful roasted marshmallow smell, and you get to eat the test subject!
For the french speaking audience: Un caoua SVP!
If the algorithm predicts that the algorithm isn't going to be very good and you're going to need a bigger algorithm, that's when you know it's started to truly understand the world - when it starts making more work for itself in order to keep its job. That's when you'll know that it's passed the Consultancy Horizon.