rbowman wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:

> On Fri, 1 Mar 2024 19:46:09 -0000 (UTC), RonB wrote:
>
>> I don't believe that scientists have completely figured out the atom. I
>> think when (if) they can "drill down" further they'll find smaller and
>> smaller elements.
>
> It's turtles all the way down...

The atom? Physicists have gone way deeper than the atom. But Ron is probably
right... the more energy you inject, the more you find.
A decent light book is "The Matter of Everything" by Suzie Sheehy, convering
the history of particle physics.

Oh, you can buy your own 6-coil cyclotron at Amazon, for $120, less than the
price of many textbooks. I shit you not.

--
Give your very best today. Heaven knows it's little enough.

rbowman wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:

> On Fri, 1 Mar 2024 08:17:55 -0500, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:
>
>> But mostly LA was a fun place to live, a lot to do, great restaurants,
>> the Op Amp bookstore, the La Brea tar pits, so many different cultures
>> represented.
>
> I didn't mind it. I carried a bicycle on the truck and for a while the
> terminal was near State College and Ball Rd. It was a short hope to the
> Santa Ana bike trail so I could either go down to the beach or the other
> way to a little state park iirc. Santa Ana itself was a little sketchy
> but I never had a problem. That was before it became a homeless
> encampment.
>
> What I found fascinating were the leftovers from the old days.

On the hillside of Granada Hills, north of LA, I saw some weird moving
blotches. Then realized it was a herd of sheep on the hillside.

Also a number of warning signs about rattlesnakes.

> There was a
> field of strawberries not far from the terminal, probably an acre or two
> plunked down in a commercial area. The terminal had been in La Mirada for
> a while and there was a little dairy farm a couple of blocks north.
>
> I regret I didn't get to see more of the attractions but there isn't a lot
> of sightseeing you can do with a bobtail (just the tractor with out a
> trailer) and overall the city wasn't bicycle friendly.

--
"... an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often quite often
picturesque liar."
-- Mark Twain

On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 08:58:45 -0500, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:

> On the hillside of Granada Hills, north of LA, I saw some weird moving
> blotches. Then realized it was a herd of sheep on the hillside.

https://farmerjohns.farm/mt-jumbo-sheep-herding/

The website is a little funky but is you click on the photo you can scroll
through the collection. It was very picturesque and they even dragged an
old sheep wagon up. The original guy switched from sheep to goats for some
reason but they started it last year with a bigger herd. Very green.

There were a few problems. The sheep would eat everything but the leafy
spurge they were supposed to be eating. There were enclosures for the
sheep at night that still are barren after the sheep ate everything down
to mineral soil. The sheep dogs were very protective, which is their job,
but I don't take kindly to some mutt trying to drive me off the trail.

After the photo op the sheep would go home. The the signs would spring up
along the trail advising that Parks & Rec would be spraying Tordon for
weed control. Tordon is very effective on leafy spurge unlike the sheep.
> Also a number of warning signs about rattlesnakes.

St. Patrick must have made a field trip here. The Rattlesnake National
Recreation Area is 4 miles north of town but I've never seen a rattlesnake
there or anyplace else in the county. East of the Divide is crawling with
them so to speak. The firing line at the range in Great Falls has the
usual gun safety warnings along with a note to watch out for rattlesnakes
as you walk out to check your targets.

I've also seen them when you cross the Bitterroot range into Idaho. It's a
little drier there.

There have been reports of rattlesnakes here but they've never been
confirmed. There are bullsnakes which will do a rattlesnake act, coiling
up, hissing, and shaking their tails, which don't have rattles. If you
call their bluff the next act is to roll over and play dead snake.
They're big and sort of look like a Western diamondback but they're
harmless unless you're a ground squirrel.

On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 08:55:00 -0500, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:

> Oh, you can buy your own 6-coil cyclotron at Amazon, for $120, less than
> the price of many textbooks. I shit you not.

https://www.enginediy.com/products/stark-6-coils-ring-accelerator-
cyclotron-high-tech-physics-model-1

They've got some other neat stuff. I bought one of the Stirling engine
kits. It's surprising well done for the price although the instructions
are in Chinglish.

https://www.enginediy.com/collections/stirling-engine-diy-kit

On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 08:47:42 -0500, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:

> Every time I try another language, I find it has things missing that C++
> has.
> Or it has incorporated some concept from C++ but in a stilted way. Like
> this one:

I find that handy and not particularly stilted. The Python syntax is

with open("numbers.txt", "r") as input:

Necessary? No, but if you've ever debugged a C/C++ program that leaked
file descriptors like a sieve you can appreciate the construct.

rbowman wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:

> On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 08:47:42 -0500, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:
>
>> Every time I try another language, I find it has things missing that C++
>> has.
>> Or it has incorporated some concept from C++ but in a stilted way. Like
>> this one:
>
> I find that handy and not particularly stilted. The Python syntax is
>
> with open("numbers.txt", "r") as input:
>
> Necessary? No, but if you've ever debugged a C/C++ program that leaked
> file descriptors like a sieve you can appreciate the construct.

Chris don't play dat.

--
"Elves and Dragons!" I says to him. "Cabbages and potatoes are better
for you and me."
-- J. R. R. Tolkien