avz

9 ms·

1.
by avz 2y ago
Phones can easily be oriented either way, unlike most laptop and workstation screens. Majority of views certainly come from people whose eyes are horizontally next to each other and therefore whose field of view has a greater extent in the
2.
by avz 2y ago
The US has extended the protection of the law to the law-abiding Irish, Italians, Germans, Russians, Jews, East Asians, Indians, and Latinos freeing them up to flourish and build human capital. By contrast, the same state has not only faile
3.
by avz 2y ago
Well, the may have understood the concept of "running out of stuff" and yet not realize it naturally belongs with numbers (of which they would have known other examples like one and two). I can imagine ancient folks putting the
4.
by avz 2y ago
The perspective of modern computer science (with its zero-based indexing etc) or modern algebra (with its need for neutral element for addition) certainly makes it clear that zero is just another integer. However, without those perspectives
5.
by avz 2y ago
The OP said "There's more time between the last Stegosaurus and the first T-Rex" which computes to 145-72 = 73 and "then (sic) there is between the last T-Rex and us right now." which computes to 66-0=66. Note that
6.
by avz 2y ago
Agreed. Perhaps the most prominent example of this shameful behavior is this one: curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh Source: https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install
7.
by avz 4y ago
Technical detail: Having crossed all meridians is generally not considered the proper criterion for circumnavigation since this is trivially done near the poles. The definition I have come across include a loop that partitions Earth's
8.
by avz 4y ago
Looks good to me as a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation to get the orders of magnitude right (the speed will go down as the object is climbing out of Sun's gravity well). However, you're still missing a guesstimate for alien
9.
by avz 4y ago
It seems to me that "the universe" is not an appropriate term for our close planetary neighborhood. There is a difference between an interstellar object passing within 85 times the distance to the Moon (so closer than Mars at clos
10.
by avz 4y ago
> Whoever has more weapons get the land. Aliens might not actually be land-based creatures like us. Those who evolved on planets entirely covered by liquid (water or otherwise) might even find the idea of "land" fairly strange.
11.
by avz 4y ago
What does "habitable" mean in the context that includes multiple alien species that evolved independently on different planets? After all, alien fishalikes that might have evolved in the methane lakes on Titan are unlikely to shar
12.
by avz 4y ago
Single planetary system isn't much more of a protection than a single planet against some of the possible extinction events, e.g. ones associated with the activity of the Sun or intelligent aliens. > Humanity has survived for 100s o
13.
by avz 4y ago
I think the situation with interstellar travel is well summed up in this conversation between TARS and Cooper as they attempt to dock at Endurance (intentional pun hiding in movie title): TARS: It's not possible. Cooper: No, it's
14.
by avz 4y ago
I agree with your conclusion, but I always find that these discussions miss the role of medical science. The key parameters governing feasibility of human interstellar travel are the average human lifespan in years and typical interstellar
15.
by avz 4y ago
Side note: Sorry to spoil the apparently impeccable record, but for completeness: A half-century ago, civilians could experience supersonic flight. Well, it has since become impossible. A half-century ago, people walked on the Moon. And not
16.
by avz 4y ago
This made me think of Elephant in Cairo [1] and Pachydermic Personnel Prediction [2]. Specifically, it reminded me of what the classification says about the job of a politician: > Politicians don't hunt elephants, but they will shar
17.
by avz 4y ago
> Why has no human stepped foot on the moon for 50+ years? Technically, this is not true. Unfortunately, it will be true in a few weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17
18.
by avz 4y ago
This is not unscientific. Since we don't have a single unified and consistent theory of everything, it is very reasonable to suspect that not all laws of physics are known to us now. The quest to uncover the unknown laws is one of the
19.
by avz 5y ago
> give much more flavor and diversity to the world than what rational thought will ever produce. I don't know. The religious and mythological concepts such as punishment, judgment, sacrifice, angels, daemons and elves look like a de
20.
by avz 5y ago
No, it still isn't infinite. Under reasonable assumptions the series is actually bounded from above by a geometric series [1] which is famous for having a finite sum when ratio is <1 [2]. In this case, the ratio r=1/(1+i) is in
21.
by avz 5y ago
> The Fed has held interest rates at 0 (negative, real terms) which makes all cash flows effectively infinite net present value. No, it doesn't. Net present value (NPV) of future cashflows is defined [1] as the sum over time periods
22.
by avz 5y ago
The only one I can think of right now that releases energy when burnt in oxidizing atmosphere is H2, though there almost certainly are others.
23.
by avz 5y ago
Interestingly, if we go in the opposite direction we also loose something: Real numbers (1-dimensional): No more algebraic closure [1] though as you suggest we do gain a nice ordering where "nice" means "compatible with opera
24.
by avz 5y ago
QKD has a number of fairly well-known limitations: * It suffers from a built-in vulnerability to denial-of-service attacks because eavesdropping destroys quantum information. * It lacks an authentication mechanism and is vulnerable to MITM.
25.
by avz 5y ago
The paper describes a design for a linear accelerator that would reach 250GeV in center of mass frame and that may be extended to 550GeV (see section 2) and even multi-TeV (see section 5). I was curious how this compares against LHC which W
26.
by avz 5y ago
Prices increase when you have a shortage. Prices decrease when you have a surplus. We can maintain prices by growing housing stock in line with population. (The same applies to everything else from semiconductors to cars to human labor.) In
27.
by avz 5y ago
In a hypothetical world where humans eat something durable like wood, making wood an investment would create a group of people who cannot afford food. In the real world where shelter is durable, making it an investment creates a group of pe
28.
by avz 5y ago
> the creator should be defined as the entity that paid... No. The existing definition of "creator" as the person who did the creating is perfectly fine. Various supporters, such as those who provided the creator with lodging,
29.
by avz 5y ago
In some cases, people will pay you for making things that help them hurt or exploit other people. It could be argued that this constitutes making the world a worse place. For example, you could get paid by criminals to make ransomware or by
30.
by avz 5y ago
If suffering is a problem to solve, then so is death. This is evident to all who grieved.

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