Zompist Bboard Again

The LCK made it to the front page of Hacker News! (I commented, of course.)

Earlier this weeks I learned that not all ECG machines use glue to attach the electrodes to the patients' skin. Turns out some use suction cups instead. Huh. Didn't see that coming.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 8:39 am Earlier this weeks I learned that not all ECG machines use glue to attach the electrodes to the patients' skin. Turns out some use suction cups instead. Huh. Didn't see that coming.

And here I was not knowing that ECG machines used glue at all. The things you learn…

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 8:57 am

And here I was not knowing that ECG machines used glue at all. The things you learn…

I might have phrased that poorly. I don't mean separately applied glue, more like just enough glue on the electrodes themselves to make them sticky.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 9:00 am

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 8:57 am

And here I was not knowing that ECG machines used glue at all. The things you learn…

I might have phrased that poorly. I don't mean separately applied glue, more like just enough glue on the electrodes themselves to make them sticky.

Oh. I think I’d call that ‘(an) adhesive’ — to me, ‘glue’ implies that you don’t want it coming unstuck. Which would obviously be a little inconvenient with electrodes.

(While I’m correcting English: earlier you wrote ‘earlier this weeks’ for ‘earlier this week’, though I’ll assume that was a typo.)

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 9:05 am

Oh. I think I’d call that ‘(an) adhesive’ — to me, ‘glue’ implies that you don’t want it coming unstuck. Which would obviously be a little inconvenient with electrodes.

Thank you!

(While I’m correcting English: earlier you wrote ‘earlier this weeks’ for ‘earlier this week’, though I’ll assume that was a typo.)

Yes, it was.

109° today. I know I could say 42.8 but in this case the Americans are right, 109 sounds cooler (or perhaps hotter).

Darren wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 12:46 am 109° today. I know I could say 42.8 but in this case the Americans are right, 109 sounds cooler (or perhaps hotter).

So human bodies have to somehow keep themselves cooler than the surrounding air, or else they die?

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 6:13 am

Darren wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 12:46 am 109° today. I know I could say 42.8 but in this case the Americans are right, 109 sounds cooler (or perhaps hotter).

So human bodies have to somehow keep themselves cooler than the surrounding air, or else they die?

This is accomplished via evaporative cooling, also known as sweating.

Travis B. wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 8:17 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 6:13 am

Darren wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 12:46 am 109° today. I know I could say 42.8 but in this case the Americans are right, 109 sounds cooler (or perhaps hotter).

So human bodies have to somehow keep themselves cooler than the surrounding air, or else they die?

This is accomplished via evaporative cooling, also known as sweating.

Or just stay in water until things cool off.

linguistcat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 2:45 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 8:17 am

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 6:13 am

So human bodies have to somehow keep themselves cooler than the surrounding air, or else they die?

This is accomplished via evaporative cooling, also known as sweating.

Or just stay in water until things cool off.

Unless the water gets too hot¹ – then you have no way of cooling down

¹ Admittedly I do not live in a hot country and struggle with temperatures over ~25°C, so I have no idea how realistic this is.

Lērisama wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 4:03 pm

linguistcat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 2:45 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 8:17 am

This is accomplished via evaporative cooling, also known as sweating.

Or just stay in water until things cool off.

Unless the water gets too hot¹ – then you have no way of cooling down

¹ Admittedly I do not live in a hot country and struggle with temperatures over ~25°C, so I have no idea how realistic this is.

I'm sure this is possible, but water can hold a lot more heat energy than air. But that's also part of why humid heat is so much worse than dry heat (the other part being that sweat can't evaporate). Unless the WATER is getting up to body temp, still better to go into the water if you can.

Darren wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 12:46 am 109° today. I know I could say 42.8 but in this case the Americans are right, 109 sounds cooler (or perhaps hotter).

I'm reading this with some envy (though spring is early this year, or at least we're getting a preview.)

Thankfully our ocean comes pretty much uninterrupted from the shores of Antartica, so it's usually cool. It's worth noting that the humidity was around 18% that day which made it bareable. I can say from experience that warm weather in the UK feels hot out of proportion; it was about 30 degrees there when I was there once and felt cloyingly hot, but 30 here feels like a mild spring day.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2025 2:14 am
I'm reading this with some envy (though spring is early this year, or at least we're getting a preview.)

Interesting. Here, we've actually got a light layer of snow right now.

I have been getting a good number of new users of zeptoforth since my 1.10.0 release. This means having to support new users unfamiliar with zeptoforth or Forth in general, which has always been a dimension of zeptoforth since other people started using it, but which has grown recently. Part of developing zeptoforth is not the mere acts of programming or even collaborating with other programmers, which I have also been doing a good bit in recent times, but also doing tech support. While zeptoforth is no longer really a single-programmer project, as I not infrequently get contributions from other programmers these days, I am still its primary developer, and still the primary person doing support for it.

I didn't put this in the contradictory feelings thread, because in a way I feel that thread is for things with at least vague negatives to them, but I don't see this as a negative at all. I don't really mind doing tech support for new users, as I enjoy the fact that new people are using zeptoforth and that I can help bring people to Forth in general. While some people don't have much tolerance for "noobs", I feel that if you want people to actually use your software, you should expect there to be new users who are not familiar with it, and you should help them out when you can.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2025 2:33 am

Ares Land wrote: ↑Fri Feb 14, 2025 2:14 am
I'm reading this with some envy (though spring is early this year, or at least we're getting a preview.)

Interesting. Here, we've actually got a light layer of snow right now.

We have gotten more snow here from last Wednesday through today than we got in all of January, which was the driest January here on record.

I can't find the Forgotten Library website where I read books on Confucianism and China. I don't see it in the Internet Archive. I can't find the other website where I read the Korean Neo-Confucian texts on equanimity and harmony either.

I have wondered how my life would have turned out if I had remained a conservative rather than going left wing. Presumably there's an alternate timeline where I post stuff like "It's well-known that mass shootings are actually caused by nu metal, not guns, but the satanically controlled media doesn't want to talk about that".

Lērisama wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 4:03 pm

linguistcat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 2:45 pm

Travis B. wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2025 8:17 am

This is accomplished via evaporative cooling, also known as sweating.

Or just stay in water until things cool off.

Unless the water gets too hot¹ – then you have no way of cooling down

¹ Admittedly I do not live in a hot country and struggle with temperatures over ~25°C, so I have no idea how realistic this is.

I've been plenty in environs hotter than body temperature. it's much more pleasant if the humidity is low, else you just sweat and the sweat remains, warm, on your skin. it's not easy on the body, it really tires you out though of course as with so much training and habit matter: most people do fine -they're not happy, but they're not in deathly peril- if you leave them in 40-43°C for an afternoon as long as they're in the shade and they can keep relatively still. otherwise, it's dangerous. I don't think I've experienced more than 43, 44 at the very most. cool water is, like AC, lovely when the weather is hot, but it's by no means necessary as a matter or survival... for most people, that is, heat waves are known to kill after all.