You're... years old and you've only just realised...

You're... years old and you've only just realised...

Author
Discussion

boxst

3,699 posts

144 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
nickfrog said:
On the subject I only discovered the below at the age of 45. (which side you refuel on).

My daughter who is currently learning to drive showed this to me. I never realised and I'm very very old smile

hairy v

1,167 posts

143 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
paua said:
Public service announcement - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRPfudNNd8Y
clap

FWIW

3,042 posts

96 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
GiantCardboardPlato said:
QuickQuack said:
How to say you know nothing about doing a PhD without saying you know nothing about doing a PhD.

There IS an exam at the end of the PhD. It's the PhD viva (viva voce), an oral exam. Once you have performed your original research, written your thesis (usually between 60,000 and 100,000 words) and submitted it and it has been assessed as of an acceptable standard to satisfy the PhD criteria (not all theses pass, many theses are failed), you then have to "defend" it in an oral examination. Your entire thesis and research is picked apart by 2 examiners, usually 1 internal and 1 external to the institution, and this oral examination can last several hours. It's usually a harrowing experience.

Publishable quality has a very specific meanining in this instance; it means in a peer reviewed scientific journal, not just self publishing via Amazon. It's an extremely high bar to reach. You can't just scribble something down, send it in and expect it to be published. Any original research submitted for publication has to fulfil several criteria and it will be scrutinised very thoroughly by other expert scientists in that field. It might seem like a very short, throw-away criteria, but that single sentence automatically turns it into the multi-page publication criteria of many of the scientific journals, and adds the rigour of peer-review into it. Those 8 words mean more than an 80 page syllabus.

Whoever said that a PhD is 4 years of doing something you're really interested in with no marks and no exams is talking out of their arse and knows absolutely nothing about proper academic qualifications.

Edited by QuickQuack on Thursday 30th March 17:59
Ok cheers I’ll remember that tomorrow when I arrive at work for my group meeting with my research group of 8 PhD students and 5 PDRAs. Thanks. I suppose I’ll make a note of it for the 3rd PhD viva that I’ll be examining this year, next month, too.

Yeah the viva is an exam, but its more a long chat, on something you’re interested in, between experts, of whom the candidate is almost always the most knowledgable, Albeit rarely the most experienced, about the specific area their work covers.
Love it when that happens biggrin

nickfrog

20,871 posts

216 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
boxst said:
nickfrog said:
On the subject I only discovered the below at the age of 45. (which side you refuel on).

My daughter who is currently learning to drive showed this to me. I never realised and I'm very very old smile
Just to say thank you as I feel a bit better now.

DickyC said:
No, bongtom is right, it's not 100% accurate.

If manufacturers (yes, you Mercedes) produce a vehicle with a limited market, they will use existing instrument clusters that suit the economics rather than the side of the fuel filler.

/former vehicle delivery operative
Fair enough there must be outliers out there. Thankfully the one on my car is 100% accurate, I calibrated it the other day. Right is indeed right wink

Or is it left?

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
DavieW said:
I only found out yesterday that in an email, CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blind Carbon Copy. I knew what they did but not the meaning.
That's why the patron saint of copying in people on emails is St Francis of a CC

getmecoat

boxst

3,699 posts

144 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
TwigtheWonderkid said:
DavieW said:
I only found out yesterday that in an email, CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blind Carbon Copy. I knew what they did but not the meaning.
That's why the patron saint of copying in people on emails is St Francis of a CC

getmecoat
I'm feeling slightly better as I knew that. But only because I took typing classes years ago so I could be better at writing / entering programs.

Doofus

25,732 posts

172 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
DavieW said:
I only found out yesterday that in an email, CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blind Carbon Copy. I knew what they did but not the meaning.
But do you know what a carbon copy actually is?

Short Grain

2,743 posts

219 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
Alickadoo said:
Short Grain said:
I'm 61 and just realized other people have problems putting a duvet cover on. A King Size duvet does take a bit more effort though, when you're on your own. Only realized after watching my sister and her husband struggling, together, to do it! I didn't show them the easy way to do it though, he's a know it all with far too high an opinion of himself, so fk 'im!! evil

So what is the Short Grain method?
Duvet cover inside out, hands inside grasping the bottom corners, grab top duvet corners, shake cover down over duvet et voila, right way out! Do up buttons or clips. sit down with a beer, to congratulate yourself on a job well done wink

my sister and bil make an easy job look really difficult! I'll maybe show 'em next time they're struggling with it, for a beer of course! hehe

Milkyway

9,291 posts

52 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all

nickfrog

20,871 posts

216 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
Doofus said:
But do you know what a carbon copy actually is?
Exactly. Only old gits like me (probably) know.

NNH

1,515 posts

131 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
Doofus said:
DavieW said:
I only found out yesterday that in an email, CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blind Carbon Copy. I knew what they did but not the meaning.
But do you know what a carbon copy actually is?
My dad worked for Xerox in the 1970s and when he copied a colleague on a memo, he was supposed to write/type xc (Xerox copy) instead of cc.

Milkyway

9,291 posts

52 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
NNH said:
Doofus said:
DavieW said:
I only found out yesterday that in an email, CC stands for Carbon Copy and BCC for Blind Carbon Copy. I knew what they did but not the meaning.
But do you know what a carbon copy actually is?
My dad worked for Xerox in the 1970s and when he copied a colleague on a memo, he was supposed to write/type xc (Xerox copy) instead of cc.
Looks like that they are still quite popular.
Used to have about four layers to get though, and usually unreadable by the last copy.
White, Blue, yellow & pink for all the various departments.
How did we all survive. yikes


Edited by Milkyway on Friday 31st March 20:40

Alickadoo

1,593 posts

22 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
Short Grain said:
Alickadoo said:
Short Grain said:
I'm 61 and just realized other people have problems putting a duvet cover on. A King Size duvet does take a bit more effort though, when you're on your own. Only realized after watching my sister and her husband struggling, together, to do it! I didn't show them the easy way to do it though, he's a know it all with far too high an opinion of himself, so fk 'im!! evil

So what is the Short Grain method?
Duvet cover inside out, hands inside grasping the bottom corners, grab top duvet corners, shake cover down over duvet et voila, right way out! Do up buttons or clips. sit down with a beer, to congratulate yourself on a job well done wink

my sister and bil make an easy job look really difficult! I'll maybe show 'em next time they're struggling with it, for a beer of course! hehe
You might have got how to put a duvet cover on - which is the method i quoted BTW, but you don't know how to do quoting on the PistonHeads forum.

wibble cb

3,586 posts

206 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
TorqueDirty said:
LimaDelta said:
I was yesterday years old when I discovered (thanks to @Rainmaker1973 on Twitter) that six different every-day vegetables are the result of human driven selective breeding of Brassica Oleracea.

That is really interesting.

But I think many would agree that they should have stopped at 5.

Brussels sprouts ......................... just saying!

Edited to remove unnecessarily energetic swearing about said Brussels Sprouts



Edited by TorqueDirty on Friday 31st March 12:01
Interesting yet what a waste of effort, as none actually tastes any good

NNH

1,515 posts

131 months

Friday 31st March 2023
quotequote all
DodgyGeezer said:
alternatively just put the far end of the duvet in and use a peg to keep each corner in place...


Mrs DG only recently realised how to pronounce 'hyperbole' - in fairness it's not a word that comes up that often in speech, film, telebox or otherwise
Is that like the SuperBole but with an even longer halftime show?

QuickQuack

2,144 posts

100 months

Saturday 1st April 2023
quotequote all
FWIW said:
GiantCardboardPlato said:
QuickQuack said:
How to say you know nothing about doing a PhD without saying you know nothing about doing a PhD.

There IS an exam at the end of the PhD. It's the PhD viva (viva voce), an oral exam. Once you have performed your original research, written your thesis (usually between 60,000 and 100,000 words) and submitted it and it has been assessed as of an acceptable standard to satisfy the PhD criteria (not all theses pass, many theses are failed), you then have to "defend" it in an oral examination. Your entire thesis and research is picked apart by 2 examiners, usually 1 internal and 1 external to the institution, and this oral examination can last several hours. It's usually a harrowing experience.

Publishable quality has a very specific meanining in this instance; it means in a peer reviewed scientific journal, not just self publishing via Amazon. It's an extremely high bar to reach. You can't just scribble something down, send it in and expect it to be published. Any original research submitted for publication has to fulfil several criteria and it will be scrutinised very thoroughly by other expert scientists in that field. It might seem like a very short, throw-away criteria, but that single sentence automatically turns it into the multi-page publication criteria of many of the scientific journals, and adds the rigour of peer-review into it. Those 8 words mean more than an 80 page syllabus.

Whoever said that a PhD is 4 years of doing something you're really interested in with no marks and no exams is talking out of their arse and knows absolutely nothing about proper academic qualifications.

Edited by QuickQuack on Thursday 30th March 17:59
Ok cheers I’ll remember that tomorrow when I arrive at work for my group meeting with my research group of 8 PhD students and 5 PDRAs. Thanks. I suppose I’ll make a note of it for the 3rd PhD viva that I’ll be examining this year, next month, too.

Yeah the viva is an exam, but its more a long chat, on something you’re interested in, between experts, of whom the candidate is almost always the most knowledgable, Albeit rarely the most experienced, about the specific area their work covers.
Love it when that happens biggrin
You might love it, but only through misunderstanding and through a wrong impression. It's entirely subject dependent. In proper subjects, as mentioned earlier in a previous post, my experience prevails.

First degree in medicine
Intercalated BSc in Infection and Immunity
PhD in biochemistry
Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine
Member/Fellow of 2 separate Royal Medical Colleges

I'm in charge of drug R&D from preclinical lab development to Ph III studies as CMO in pharma. I'm in charge of those who are in charge of the individual research teams and the PhD students.

Not all doctors are equal.

Pinkie15

1,248 posts

79 months

Saturday 1st April 2023
quotequote all
LimaDelta said:
I was yesterday years old when I discovered (thanks to @Rainmaker1973 on Twitter) that six different every-day vegetables are the result of human driven selective breeding of Brassica Oleracea.

Wheat, barley, maize, corn, etc ... is going to blow your mind (Zea mays)

FWIW

3,042 posts

96 months

Saturday 1st April 2023
quotequote all
QuickQuack said:
FWIW said:
GiantCardboardPlato said:
QuickQuack said:
How to say you know nothing about doing a PhD without saying you know nothing about doing a PhD.

There IS an exam at the end of the PhD. It's the PhD viva (viva voce), an oral exam. Once you have performed your original research, written your thesis (usually between 60,000 and 100,000 words) and submitted it and it has been assessed as of an acceptable standard to satisfy the PhD criteria (not all theses pass, many theses are failed), you then have to "defend" it in an oral examination. Your entire thesis and research is picked apart by 2 examiners, usually 1 internal and 1 external to the institution, and this oral examination can last several hours. It's usually a harrowing experience.

Publishable quality has a very specific meanining in this instance; it means in a peer reviewed scientific journal, not just self publishing via Amazon. It's an extremely high bar to reach. You can't just scribble something down, send it in and expect it to be published. Any original research submitted for publication has to fulfil several criteria and it will be scrutinised very thoroughly by other expert scientists in that field. It might seem like a very short, throw-away criteria, but that single sentence automatically turns it into the multi-page publication criteria of many of the scientific journals, and adds the rigour of peer-review into it. Those 8 words mean more than an 80 page syllabus.

Whoever said that a PhD is 4 years of doing something you're really interested in with no marks and no exams is talking out of their arse and knows absolutely nothing about proper academic qualifications.

Edited by QuickQuack on Thursday 30th March 17:59
Ok cheers I’ll remember that tomorrow when I arrive at work for my group meeting with my research group of 8 PhD students and 5 PDRAs. Thanks. I suppose I’ll make a note of it for the 3rd PhD viva that I’ll be examining this year, next month, too.

Yeah the viva is an exam, but its more a long chat, on something you’re interested in, between experts, of whom the candidate is almost always the most knowledgable, Albeit rarely the most experienced, about the specific area their work covers.
Love it when that happens biggrin
You might love it, but only through misunderstanding and through a wrong impression. It's entirely subject dependent. In proper subjects, as mentioned earlier in a previous post, my experience prevails.

First degree in medicine
Intercalated BSc in Infection and Immunity
PhD in biochemistry
Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine
Member/Fellow of 2 separate Royal Medical Colleges

I'm in charge of drug R&D from preclinical lab development to Ph III studies as CMO in pharma. I'm in charge of those who are in charge of the individual research teams and the PhD students.

Not all doctors are equal.
Even better! biggrinclap

GiantCardboardPlato

4,052 posts

20 months

Saturday 1st April 2023
quotequote all
We are dealing with someone who, from the look of those two posts, values accreditations and qualifications more than education and expertise. They are not the same thing, but only somebody who thought they were would write the really odd stuff about how special (and ‘harrowing’) writing a thesis and doing a PhD viva is.

PhDs and vivas may sometimes have been like that, they have never always been like that, and they are increasingly less and less like that. The insistence that the single data point (‘my experience’) is universally applicable is in fact the very definition of unscientific thinking.

A PhD really is as simple as 4 years spent spending studying something you love, then communicating it to experts in a thesis and a viva. Why the fk would anyone do it if it wasn’t fun? Perhaps some people like the certificate?

The arrogance and intellectual snobbishness is palpable - the idea that an alternative experience or conception of what a PhD is, isn’t just a different experience, but is in fact disqualified from validity at all (‘in a proper discipline’).

Rigour is not cognate with having a nasty time. Scientific excellence isn’t about discomfort. A PhD _IS_ fun. It is also difficult, sure, but difficult like a long, satisfying, hike, or making the death star out of Lego. You will spend most of your time feeling stupid and confused (the good way). Most weeks, you’re not only searching for an answer, you’re trying to establish if the question you are asking even makes sense, or work out what question it _IS_ that you are even asking in the first place. This is what discovery and research is about. It’s exploration. It’s exhilarating and exciting and just a joyful thing to be doing. It really is the best job in the world. (the other poster would agree here, I expect).

Nobody who cares about the science (rather than the ‘authority’ or the ‘qualification’) would set out to make a PhD viva a harrowing experience. As a PhD examiner, I want the candidate to talk through their work with me. I want them to establish that their observations are well founded and measurements accurately made, to a rigorous technical standard. To show me how those observations build into an argument that supports their conclusions. To talk me through possible weaknesses in those conclusions, and to propose experiments that could address them. I need them to be able to talk about these things with me as a scientific equal. I can do all of those things, which I do need to do to ensure rigour and ensure the work merits a PhD, without terrorising anyone. The candidates themselves get to spend 3-4 hrs in a room with a world class expert talking about a subject that both people love (lucky them, I even dress up for it). They might be nervous, but they’ve spent their life for the past 4 years working on this. They know what they’re doing, so they’re soon having fun, as well as being rigorous and professional. (If they don’t know what they’re doing, and got this far, their supervisor cocked up).

So - please don’t buy the line from our medical mastermind that an understanding gained from my post would be wrong, or could come from a misapprehension or misunderstanding of what I wrote, or about what a PhD is. They are presenting a very warped and misanthropic view of the process and outcome, in my opinion.

(PS my subject is a hard science, and I’m working in world top 20 university in the UK, and I’m at the top of my research field. If what I understand professionally wasn’t understood, biochemistry wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t be able to make the drug candidates the other poster studies (sorry, who the people that work for them study… [tugs forelock]). I don’t think it’s possible for this poster to claim what I do is not a ‘proper discipline’).

Edited by GiantCardboardPlato on Saturday 1st April 11:36

ben5575

6,215 posts

220 months

Saturday 1st April 2023
quotequote all
Don’t worry the cringe spoke far louder than any academic qualification.

Back on topic; Sting sang on money for nothing.