Neither embarassed or ashamed.

[Funt Solo]

Oh, I think I get it: if you said to someone "would you like to discuss sociology", they might never call you again, but if you said "what about Big Brother lastnight, eh?", you could natter long into the night, discussing aspects of sociology.  I've probably missed the point again (certainly of this thread).

I kind of wonder about the barbaric cruelty of some of the shows - well, emotionally barbaric.  Like, the one where they got this cute lassie that wasn't a lassie because she had a willie: and they made all these blokes fall in love/lust with her as a competition.  Now, never mind that competing for the affections of a complete stranger is rather odd: the bloke who won, by the time he won, had a real soft spot for this supposed lassie.

Then they said, in front of everyone and the cameras, pretty much "ha ha - you're a giant gullible tit because s/he's got a cock and you fancied her", and then laughed and pointed at his visibly crushed ego and scarred psyche, both before and after the ad break.

At least there's a bright side: the producers of that show will, at some point, die.

[House of Usher]

Just for the record I would never ever watch Temptation Island. I'm not keen on watching televised competitions or dating shows.

But if I'm looking for something unchallenging to put on as background noise while I'm performing a routine activity (like working the night shift back when, or preparing some lesson notes on courtroom psychology) I tend to stick on BBC3 and goggle at how someone who's £40,000 in debt can have 600 pairs of shoes, or how someone earning £18,000 can have spend £25,000 on Japanese robots and Gundam Warriors.

I think the Big Brother conversation was focused on Nikki Grahame. There were various points of discussion: how celebrity is seen as a career path in itself nowadays for young people who have no formal qualifications, how no-one is allowed to have an ordinary life any more (all school leavers these days have to go to university or enter showbusiness or both), and how in this post-feminist age the idea is still being promoted to women who approximate a conventional view of attractiveness that they don't have to earn a living, they can marry one instead.

But to get back to the point of this thread, it's things you like or do that other people judge you for, that make you neither embarrassed nor ashamed for me, that would include

* being entertained by TV programmes where other people's lifestyles are picked over in minute detail by 'experts' who are obviously biting their lips to prevent themselves saying "you got into this mess in the first place because you're so incredibly shallow."

[Bongo Jack]

I'll offer what I have always assumed to be the reasoning behind Schrodinger's Cat theorem: the cat is locked in a box with something that will kill it, no questions asked.  However, unless you open the box and look, you can't say the cat's dead.  It's dead, of course, but for the purposes of science, you can't state as fact something that hasn't been verified.  Or 'an object's state is indeterminate until measured', and the cat is potentially alive or dead in terms of quantum somethings or other.
Possably.

[Mardroid]

I've never been into sport, watching or taking part.

I find it irritating when someone tells me I'm boring because I love reading and TV, but not sport. After all, sport is a lot of repetitive actions. Stories (be it film, DVD, novels or comics) take you to a whole other place, allow you to participate in adventures etc, without leaving the sofa and that nice cup of tea.

I'm also uninterested in fashion, and still have some of the clothes I had as a teenager. They're mostly T-shirts that never go out of fashion anyway. I'd rather spend my money on books, DVDs etc rather than clothes which are functional items of which I have plenty.

I'm not ashamed of those things above (although I am a bit ashamed I'm not more physically active, simple because it's unhealthy.)

Thing I am a bit ashamed of:

I rather like Big Brother. (Not more than Sc-fi etc, mind!)
Quite like I'm a celebrity too, although that's partly because it's amusing watching celebrities forced to eat bugs and stuff.
I rather like certain toys (not that I play with them.)

I rather like hats. Not something to be ashamed of in itself, but I actually wouldn't mind wearing one more often. (I wear a baseball cap and beany quite often - not at the same time- but that's  not the kind of hat I mean.) I actually think trilbys, fedoras etc, look pretty cool.  I can't quite bring myself to wear one though as I noticed very few people wear them, and I'm worries I'll look a bit of a nob.

Not sure why, they're much more stylish (even though I'm not into fashion) than a baseball cap.

Makes practical sense too as my hairline is receding. I'd rather wear a hat than a toupee. Come to think of it I'd rather go around completely bald than where a toupee.

[Funt Solo]

::"something that will kill it, no questions asked ... It's dead, of course"

Not quite.  There's a random aspect to it, as well.  Whatever's in the box may kill it or may not (at an equal or equal enough probability), and that's the point: the cat may be alive or the cat may be dead, but until you open the box, you don't know which it is.

[Mardroid]

I also get a bit irritated with spelling mistakes. Like above where I said 'where a toupee' where I mean't 'wear a toupee'.

Grrrrr!

Oh another thing I like... (not sure whether to be embarrassed or not by this...actually I'll go for NOT EMBARRASSED....)
The Star wars prequels.
*Ducks*

Funny thing is I agree with many of the comments about them. And I know they could have been so much better (and I wish they were), but I really don't think they're that bad. In fact the main underlying storyline (the Sith machinations etc) is actually rather good.  And the whole universe they live in a wonderful.

The acting  made me wince though. Trust Lucas to go for 50s style acting in modern films.

Not that I'm trying to turn this thread into a Star Wars discussion....;)

[worldshown]

Schrödinger's cat opens a huge can of worms. Schrödinger himself does not advocate half alive-half dead cats but is trying to point out a flaw in the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Very basically (and possibly oversimplified) the Copenhagen interpretation suggests that because things happen at a quantum level that cannot be predicted by conventional physics, there must be other possible outcomes other than what can be predicted by conventional physics.

So, Schrödinger has his hypothetical cat in sealed lead box with the vial of poison, the Geiger counter and a decaying isotope. Once the isotope decays enough so that the Geiger counter can detect it (a quantum event) the poison is released and the cat killed. All of which is unobserved. The condition of the cat is not known util the box is opened.

Schrödinger's arguement is that with the maths behind the Copenhagen interpretation, it predicts an outcome where the cat is both simultaniously alive and dead where conventional physics (and common sense) claims it cannot be.

Meanwhile, I have a conundrum called Goldsworthy's pigeon. Is the pigeon that's been stuck behind my gas fire since Saturday night still going to be alive when the gas fitter comes to dismantle the fire in an hour's time?

[Mardroid]

Meanwhile, I have a conundrum called Goldsworthy's pigeon. Is the pigeon that's been stuck behind my gas fire since Saturday night still going to be alive when the gas fitter comes to dismantle the fire in an hour's time?

Judging by the bird found behind our fireplace recently, probably not.

I heard fluttering in the chimney weeks before, but I didn't do anything cos... well... I wasn't sure what to do. Just hoped it'd find its way out again....

Sorry, went off the quantum mechanics point didn't I.

[Wils]

The Hulk trousers I wore to Dreddcon 5

My love of jazz, lounge, D.I.S.C.O and early 70's underground funk.

My Led Zeppelin tattoo - although I *do* wish it had been done better. Avoid City Tattoo in Birmingham, peeps!

Holiday on the Buses being in my all time favourite film Top Ten.

My new beard, which Malchi hates. :)

[Malchidiel]

My new beard, which Malchi hates. :)

Yep, you're right. I do. :)

[House of Usher]

Heh. Back to my favourite tangent again, I was discussing students' misunderstandings with my new arch-enemy (my mentor the psychologist), one of which was the psychology student who thought the electric shocks in Milgram's obedience experiment were real, and had never learned that the volunteers were debriefed afterwards.

The other misunderstanding I mentioned was the Schroedingers' cat conundrum and how some students had misunderstood it as involving a real cat. I explained how nutty was the students' misunderstanding, seeing as there is a known probability of the cat dying - the students thought that was the point of the experiment: to test whether the cat would die 50% of the time as predicted. But what for? The point, as I explained to her, was not only that you don't know until you open the box, but indeed, because there are only two possible outcomes of equal probability, you don't need to open the box at all.

My mentor (who is too grand to watch television, remember) said she thought the students were right to feel sorry for the cat, and that "it's a pretty rubbish experiment." Aaaaargh.

----------

Wils, your tastes are just too outré for the rest of us. But still nothing to be ashamed of.

;)

[ukdane]

The fact that I have no "friends" to play Mario Kart across the web with!!!
C'mon where are y'all?

[Roger Godpleton]

I have only ever had one friend request on Xbox Live ... and I turned it down.

[Slippery PD]

The problem with Schrödinger's Cat is that its all very well and good but as has already been stated logically it doesnt work, until Hugh Everett III brought in the prospect of alternative Universes!  Lets be honest as sci fi fans we would be nowhere without Alternative Universes!  Therefore the cat isnt both dead and alive, its actually dead in one universe and alive in another.  

You see quantum mechanics is actually a complete mess, with smears of electrons and probability being brought into account to allow interpretation to meet factual results!

And there you have it my embarrassment I can waffle about quantum mechanics and other such nonsense far too easily!

[Peter Wolf]

 I cant do any maths on paper or in my mind except addition and multiplication at a push.Otherwise its calculator as i am lost without a calculator.


 Its like number based dyslexia.


 The only thing i can do otherwise is being able to work from architects drawings that are  drawn to scale so you work from 1/50 and convert calculations based on that .I have to be able to do that or i would be useless but thats what i was taught by my dad not at school as thats his line of work as he is a maths/physics genius who designed nucleur power stations.

 I was just the special needs son much to his disappointment.

 Any comments here saying i am a member of Mensa because i am articulate are just a Joke as i wouldnt even get in the door as i generally fail at IQ tests because they are not an accurate measure of intelligence or at least not if your brain works in a different way than what IQ tests seem to be based on.Theres many different kinds of intelligence apart from that type.

 My brain seizes up after reading the Shroedingers cat posts for example.


 I still admit to having very mild attention deficit disorder to this day unless i am working when work has my full attention and nothing else .




 Link:I love 80s pop.


 Its ABC during their cartoon band phase and i was a bit partial to Eden who is the female in the band that you dont see much of in the video.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxcpDR6drHk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxcpDR6drHk