gilleain

5 ms·

1.
by gilleain 3d ago
Ok, I suppose I understand but I really do not agree. Modern criticism of the US president is so far removed from medieval criticism of a female monarch as to be nearly irrelevant. To address your question, though, yes I absolutely read &qu
2.
by gilleain 3d ago
No idea, but from this handy page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_monarchs it seems like the rest of the world (India, China, Thailand, Egypt, ...) had female monarchs of various sorts ('queen regnan
3.
by gilleain 3d ago
Evidence such as this quote? > an extremely arrogant demeanour instead of the modest gait and bearing proper to the gentle sex That is, the 'Gesta Stephani' is claiming that she should not be arrogant because it is not proper,
4.
by gilleain 3d ago
Further, there were specific reasons why Elizabeth I was treated differently to her father. For example, Henry VIII used to meet with counsellors when he woke up in the morning, still in bed. For obvious reasons, this was not done when his
5.
by gilleain 6d ago
It's a fair question - my concern is 'shallow' analogies. I can best describe this with an anecdote paraphrased from memory from one of Hofstadter's books. He described a piece of AI research (in the 60s?) where they set
6.
by gilleain 6d ago
> Protein folding and narrative/storytelling have strange homology Hmmmmmm. While I get what you mean, and I don't disagree, please be cautious when making analogies between biological systems and more distant fields. Yes, fold
7.
by gilleain 6d ago
Not sure what you mean by "an artistically symmetrical piece observes no mathematical symmetry" - as in, the underlying structure has a (set of) symmetries but the 'decoration' on top is asymmetric?
8.
by gilleain 8d ago
About a minute and a half.
9.
by gilleain 12d ago
Thankyou for the correction, and for continuing the analogy. Unfortunately when the peasants get their pitchforks and torches, they may not distinguish the Dr Waldmans from the Dr Frankenteins either. Hopefully they will. Anyway, that was n
10.
by gilleain 12d ago
But it is the very people who warned us about rogue AIs going out of control that set up a system that enabled and failed to conrol it. It is as if Dr Frankenstein continually warned the villagers about monsters then said "Look! See wh
11.
by gilleain 13d ago
Syndicate!! Actually, this one feels especially appropriate to use an LLM for.
12.
by gilleain 13d ago
>>> len("[(x%3<1) 'Fizz'+(x%5<1) 'Buzz'or x for x in range(1,101)]") 57
13.
by gilleain 13d ago
This can be great - Tom from the Yogscast has run a few of these, and they can get pretty wild. It's a simple premise but works well.
14.
by gilleain 14d ago
A vanadium one, which (as mentioned in the piece) is symmetric. The 'Just Have a Think' channel did a video on the Swiss battery here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPAFeTvjVzY
15.
by gilleain 18d ago
There is the saying "the empty vessel makes the loudest noise". This was part of the reason I eventually left Reddit, as I was getting sucked in to the habit of making empty meme-like responses to posts. Some of the worst places f
16.
by gilleain 19d ago
Yes, dimethyl mercury is terrifying stuff - it killed Karen Wetterhahn from a few drops that went _through_ the gloves she had on: > The case proved that the standard precautions at the time, all of which Wetterhahn had carefully followe
17.
by gilleain 20d ago
Both are fine, but I also prefer 'furnish', as in put in the main parts of your CV. In a way, 'burnish' is more like 'polish', suggesting an extra layer on top, rather than the fundamental parts.
18.
by gilleain 21d ago
> Your comment has three hands Also sometimes known as 'The Gripping Hand' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gripping_Hand
19.
by gilleain 26d ago
Huh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_skelter_(ride) First known appearance on Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1906.
20.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Great soundtrack. My favourite scene that uses music in the film is when 'Search and Destroy' plays when shooting pirates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQbhuxiyv5c Great article actually. Mirrors the mournful t
21.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Some of the confusion here is from our history. This is my (likely confused) understanding: James VI/I ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_VI_and_I ) was king of _both_ England and Scotland and only later did the
22.
by gilleain 1mo ago
What about "Really Actually Unsinkable 9"?
23.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Fair point - but I wonder how many people that have visited Wikipedia know about simple wiki. I was probably aware of it, but not enough to remember to suggest it as an alternative! I mean - it is certainly better ... but it is still a lot
24.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Wikipedia is a great _reference_ but not necessarily the best way to learn about a topic. Of course, this depends on the topic, on who has been writing the page, etc A particularly bad example is higher maths - a wiki pages on a complex mat
25.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Hah instantly knew it was a Patrick Boyle video. He's a well-known expert in rap music that also does finance on the side.
26.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Nice. This part was especially interesting: > “When we react phosphite, a form of phosphorus that naturally occurs in hydrothermal vents, with organic compounds, we get metabolic phosphorylation reactions overnight in water. Phosphite a
27.
by gilleain 1mo ago
Interesting, however that was 1966: > the explosive was detonated at a depth of 1,500 m (1,640 yd) on 30 September 1966. The hole that the explosive was lowered into had also been sealed with cement so as to prevent atmospheric radioacti
28.
by gilleain 2mo ago
Interestingly (well to me) this is also how some ion channels in cells work - the solvation shell (water cage) allows protein pores to distinguish between sodium and potassium. Not sure this is the best paper, just a random pick : https:&#
29.
by gilleain 2mo ago
Perhaps also vary the bird? Wikipedia tells me pelicans are in the order _Pelecaniformes_ so shoebills or herons might do.
30.
by gilleain 2mo ago
Reminds me of an interview I saw at the height of the NFT/crypto craze, when the interviewee was challenged to come up with a use-case, and they threw out "buying a house". So there is (AFAIK) just one part of the process to

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