I was an EMT in the Los Angeles area for four years, and then in the Seattle area for four years. I developed the mindset that even if the patient died, we (the firefighters/EMTs/paramedics) had at least given them a chance to live that they would not have had without us. That helped soften the blow of the deaths.
That strategy was less effective for calls where the patient was declared dead on scene, and so no treatment was possible. I still remember each of those calls. Fortunately, I was never traumatized by them, in a PTSD sense. Rather, I learned the lesson of realizing how easily I, or one of my loved ones, can simply disappear one day; so I learned to make sure they all know that I love them, and to not take their presence in my life for granted.
I read the paper; much of the electronics details got past me on the first read, but I think that the part most relevant to your question is their statement that it needs to be determined if the LED is a deterministic or a probabilistic single-photon light source.
The reversed-biased method is actually the basis of single-photon detectors used in quantum optics experiments, especially experiments with entangled photons. Here's a paper that uses exactly this--reversed-biased red LEDs-- to introduce physics undergrads to the essential concepts:
"All right; but apart from the sanitation, education, medicine, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Different poster here. My wife and I retired to Portugal (near Lisbon) about two years ago. I guess we're two of the "affluent gentrifiers". :-) In contrast, we met a 20-something U.S. couple in our language class, who moved here and are working. We all came here on the D7 visa program, not the Golden Visa.
I'd be happy to give you some insights, but I'm not sure what you mean by "conducive to moving"; what sort of issues or difficulties are you having?
Another good WYSIWYG front end is LyX: www.lyx.org . I've written a few hundred physics lecture notes with it, as well as a number of Beamer presentations. I find it much easier to use than TeXmacs (mainly because of keyboard shortcuts), and the output is excellent. And yes, it produces true TeX/LaTeX.
If you have some diy desire and skill, you can get a lot of bang-for-your buck from the speaker kits from Parts Express (https://www.parts-express.com/speaker-components/speaker-sub...). The sound quality of their kits is surprisingly high! In addition, there can be a lot of satisfaction when you're listening to them, knowing that you built them yourself.
Same. The only thing I miss about owning my own home is that I can't set up a home theater. The last house I owned had a bare-to-the-studs basement when we bought it. I built a home theater to die for there: ran every wire you could think of, built the walls and ceiling where and how I wanted for optimum sound, acoustically treated everything, researched all the audio and video equipment, installed a projector, built my own screen, even built all of my speakers myself, in my shop. The whole process took a year, and I had an enormous amount of fun doing it. And it worked: Watching movies was great, but sitting there with the lights dimmed low, listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, or (different mood) Dire Straits "Love Over Gold"...There's no experience that compares.
Well, for my wife and me, like the featured couple, we moved here to Cascais, where we have leased a 3 bedroom apartment. (We moved from Seattle, not L.A., but most of the dynamics are the same.) The concerns that you raise have not happened to us.We have plenty and frequent meetups with our friends back in the U.S. via Facetime/Zoom/Signal. No, it's not the same as being together in person, but it is "good enough"; we all enjoy ourselves. And, our niece and her husband live in the U.K.; they popped over last weekend, where we got together for dinner in Lisbon, and had a great time, in our native language...
A large percentage of the Portuguese people speak and understand some English, and nearly all people under 30 speak English fluently. And no one, ever, has been anything but delighted when we (try to) speak in Portuguese. They are very patient, really want to help us learn their language, and are fine with translation apps.
I suppose you could see all of the tourist attractions in Lisbon in a (long) weekend, but living here lets you see so much more; it is a culturally rich and interesting country. As for cultural attachments, I guess I'm not sure what that means; but if it means "people and places being the way I am used to", then I respond that for us, it is fascinating and fun to see how other people and places are; seeing what other ways of doing and thinking are possible. It is an adjustment, definitely, and it may not be for you.
It is true that rent prices in Cascais are higher than we had hoped they would be, but they are still significantly lower than what they are in Seattle. Our apartment here is at least half as expensive as it would be in Seattle. And groceries, utilities (including 1Gbs internet), restaurants, consumer goods (e.g. clothes) are dramatically less expensive, as well.
And finally: Yes, it is SO MUCH safer here than in Seattle. The constant tension of looking over your shoulder is gone; you have no idea how heavy a mental weight that is until one day it is lifted.
If you have the math background (advanced calculus and vector algebra), then there is no better writer than David J. Griffiths. He is the only textbook author I have every encountered who remembers that a textbook is, first and foremost, a book; and that a book is meant to be an enjoyable read!
(I'm linking to Wikipedia rather than to the publisher's website, so that you can read about the books. All of them are available on the used market, and in electronic format.)
If you don't have a strong math background, then his "Revolutions in 20th Century Physics" is a slim, but packed book, also excellent. It covers (conceptually) both special relativity and quantum mechanics, along with a healthy dose of particle physics. The target audience for this book are non-science majors. https://books.google.com/books?id=Tv8cz-kN2z0C&redir_esc=y
lbrito, do you currently live in Portugal? And, how did you learn Portuguese? My wife and I are working on it (she is much farther along than I am), and man is it tough! So many times I thought I was speaking really clearly and correctly, but the person at the pastelaria just gives me a really confused look. (At which point I dig out my translation app. :-/)
To start with: We decided to apply for what's called a "D7" visa. Skipping over the details, it allows us to reside in Portugal long-term; it is somewhat analogous to the U.S. "green card". And, after 5 years, we can apply for Portuguese citizenship (which, of course, gives us access to the entire EU).
The application process was straightforward, if tedious; mainly obtaining a bunch of documents that proved that we were not wanted criminals in the U.S., that we have our own health insurance, and that we had sufficient financial resources that we would not become dependent on the Portuguese social system. It took us about four months to get everything together, and cost in total ~ $200USD (fees for various agencies, both U.S. and Portuguese). You have to submit your documents to the Portuguese consulate that is "attached" to your part of the U.S.; in my case, that was in San Francisco. It was a hassle (made worse because of COVID), but just bureaucracy, nothing worse that that.
We spent about three months in Airbnbs around Portugal to decide where to live, so that cost some. We just signed a two-year lease on a nice 3 bedroom apartment. We were able to do that prior to opening a Portuguese bank account (we used Wise to transfer the money from our U.S. account), but we are working on getting a local account; it'll make paying rent, utility bills and random purchases much easier. (Example: I managed to find a local store that has a Raspberry Pi 4 2GB, but I couldn't buy it online, because their website could not accept a U.S. billing address for my credit card. Grr.)
And yes, we still have financial ties with the U.S., primarily our retirement accounts, and we still pay U.S. taxes. Fortunately, Portugal and the U.S. have a "no double taxation" agreement, so we do not also pay Portuguese taxes on our retirement funds.
The cost of living is significantly lower here than it was in the Seattle area. Our money goes much further. The people are wonderful, the country is beautiful (by and large), and it is much safer than the U.S.--and feels that way! And, all of Europe is a short plane or train ride away.
If you are truly interested in trying this, I strongly recommend the "Portugalist" website: https://www.portugalist.com . James, the man who maintains the site, has a wealth of information on visiting and moving to Portugal. So far, all his advice and suggestions that we've used have been excellent.
Wow. I had no idea how intricate and CLEVER the mechanism of a mechanical watch is. Being no engineer, I cannot imagine how someone could think of all these clever designs. (Yes, of course the mechanism evolved over time. Even so.)
I have been wanting to buy an old mechanical watch. When I do, I will never again complain about how much a watch repair shop charges.
Also, the explanation, presentation, and animations are top-notch. Amazing work by the author!!
My wife and I did this immediately upon retiring: Pacific Northwestern U.S. to Lisbon, Portugal. Early days yet (less than one year), but so far has been fantastic. Much lower cost of living, the culture is similar enough to be comfortable, and different enough to be fascinating and fun. Plus, meeting people from all over the world. Met a couple from Croatia today in the pet store.
I strongly recommend moving to a different country, if you can. It's a big, interesting world out there.
A lot less than that nowadays. I set up a very similar experiment about 3 years ago at my school, based on a series of papers by Mark Beck, now at Reed College in Oregon, US. Here is one of the earlier ones, and it is this experiment I [mostly] duplicated: http://people.reed.edu/~beckm/QM/Hardy/Carlson_ajp.pdf
I 3D-printed a lot of the optical hardware, re-purposed older electronics that we had in storage, and the photon detectors have significantly dropped in price. I think all told I got it together for about 8000 USD.
The linked paper by Dehlinger and Mitchell is one of the most important papers in conceptually bringing quantum entanglement experiments to nearly any undergraduate physics lab. Mark Beck applied their ideas and nearly single-handedly taught all of us how to actually perform the experiments. (I had the privilege of taking one of his workshops.)
The webmaster at lowtechmagazine.com says: "...Compressed through this dithering plugin, images featured in the articles add much less load to the content: compared to the old website, the images are roughly ten times less resource-intensive..."
Beat me to it! I have no memory of where I first heard it, but it was in my far-away long-lost youth. Despite that, I have never forgotten it, nor lost the ability to call it up instantly from my memory (unlike, for example, my wife's birthday.)
it was apparently written by someone named Leigh Mercer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Mercer).
I learned to play the guitar. Not well, but well enough...And, I learned the sort of songs you can play at parties, that people can sing along to. Once I started engaging with people that way, I discovered that most people are friendly and nice, and also that most people are just as shy as I am (was). I woke up one day to discover that I was no long shy, and I was no longer afraid of women!
That strategy was less effective for calls where the patient was declared dead on scene, and so no treatment was possible. I still remember each of those calls. Fortunately, I was never traumatized by them, in a PTSD sense. Rather, I learned the lesson of realizing how easily I, or one of my loved ones, can simply disappear one day; so I learned to make sure they all know that I love them, and to not take their presence in my life for granted.