topher515

5 ms·

1.
Battery is about to change the world in 3 months, or make this guy a fool(electrek.co)
11 points by topher515 8mo ago|6 comments
2.
by topher515 1y ago
I recently read “The Family That Couldn’t Sleep” which is the story of the history and discovery of prion diseases. It’s from the mid-00’s so it’s missing the latest research but it’s still an extremely interesting (and terrifying) read.
3.
by topher515 2y ago
From the link in other threads: https://www.tsunami.gov/events/PAAQ/2024/12/05/so1aq0/1/WEAK... * Boat operators, * Where time and conditions permit, move your boat out to se
4.
by topher515 2y ago
This is sort of what the Strava "heatmap" map is when you switch it to cycling mode: https://www.strava.com/maps/global-heatmap?sport=Ride&style=... .
5.
by topher515 2y ago
Are you familiar with the concept of "pricing ladders"? The point of the entry level product is not to simply be "the economy model", it's to be feature deficient in just the right way to make you take a "step
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by topher515 2y ago
There are many well intentioned regulations that end up restricting the housing supply by making it more expensive to build. Some of them definitely sound good (and are good?), but collectively have done a lot of bad. Note the important poi
7.
by topher515 2y ago
What is most interesting to me about automation in the restaurant industry, is its almost complete absence in the United States. If—as I understand it—labor costs dominate the cost structure of all restaurants, then why isn’t the average re
8.
by topher515 4y ago
Can you explain a bit more about the difference between the anisotropic and isotopic nature of these different zones? Are both of these zones “solid” states of matter? Or does our intuition about states of matter not really work for materia
9.
by topher515 4y ago
I had a buddy who built a solar e-bike for Burning Man; it had a sort-of roof on top, so it had room for something like four of those flexible 100 watt solar panels[1]. He told me his biggest build-regret was the solar panels. Mounting the
10.
by topher515 4y ago
Not a flight buff, but... - Jet fuel from NYC to LAX seems to cost ~$10k.[1] - You pay a pilot $50 / hour salary. (+100% more with benefits?)[2] - Double all of that for a bunch of random things I can't think of (airport fees?) My
11.
by topher515 4y ago
But the goal here in setting these prices (from Society’s perspective) is not to maximize Safeway’s profits, but rather to incentive more people taking up carrot farming! Since we’re fairly confident we need lots of carrots to save the worl
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by topher515 4y ago
Agreed! It seems like exactly searching for special characters could be the "killer app" that programmers need which would get them to leave Google.
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by topher515 4y ago
This is actually one of the classic "disasters" in Sim City 2000[1]. The "Microwave Powerplant" works by bouncing a concentrated beam of sunlight to earth. It provides plentiful, pollution free power... The only downside
14.
by topher515 4y ago
I just want to take some issue with your characterization of "with mathematical certainty". You're completely right that given fertility rates are under replacement rate—from memory: 2.1 children per woman—populations will de
15.
by topher515 4y ago
I'm not familiar with how pricing precious metals works, but it looks like, as of this moment, gold is priced about 2x more than platinum[1]! Presumably these prices have quite a bit of variability, and gold and platinum switch places
16.
by topher515 4y ago
If you haven't read "The Vital Question" by Nick Lane yet, then you really should. One of the book's suggestions is that an energy-first analysis of life and the origins of life, can be incredibly explanatory—particularl
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by topher515 4y ago
So if we take for granted that humans really, actually do seem to like free stuff more than we “should”, then perhaps instead of reacting with “lol, humans irrational”, we should more thoughtfully consider why evolutionary pressures would s
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by topher515 4y ago
It seems like you're conflating two issues here: 1. Old people like to fly small planes and crash them more than others [citation needed?] 2. Small planes emit toxic chemicals that are slowly poisoning everyone Personally I'm horr
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by topher515 4y ago
Edward Snowden is the last person we should ask to speak out against Russia. Almost every other Russia-resident who might speak out against the invasion could, the next day, show up in Madrid, Berlin, Mexico City—wherever in The West—and ex
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by topher515 4y ago
This is quite surprising and interesting to me. Can you provide links where I can read about this and/or try getting it set up for myself?
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by topher515 5y ago
I don't understand this position. Are you honestly proposing that we permanently require masks in all public, indoor environments? For the rest of our lives? I don't see how you can flippantly propose this as an option. How can yo
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by topher515 5y ago
The way a captive portal works is that the router at the coffee shop sees your browser's DNS request for `google.com` and instead of responding with the real IP address for Google it lies to your browser and returns an IP address which
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by topher515 5y ago
You’re suggesting that a cubic meter of stone weighs just 3 kg (6.6 lbs)? That doesn’t sound right.
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by topher515 6y ago
The bombs were found[1] in the Capitol Hill area—not in the Capitol building. [1] https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-joe-biden-inaugurati...
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by topher515 6y ago
The point being made above about property rights is much bigger than “does my local police do a good job finding burglars?”. The point is that the government maintains an entire system for tracking, resolving disputes, and enforcing ownersh
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by topher515 6y ago
Instead of evenly distributing the lights on the inner surface we could distribute them at random. That way at "night" we could turn the LEDs to very low and still have "stars". Then during the day we would turn them up
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by topher515 6y ago
My understanding is that reforestation, while being wonderful and helpful, simply doesn’t address the scale of the problem. All forests today contain ~200 gigatons of carbon. Humans release ~25 gigatons of carbon per year. So DOUBLING the s
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by topher515 6y ago
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! The number 1, 2, 3 and 4 problems the Bay Area specifically (and CA generally) faces are an undersupply of housing. Fixing this problem will be huge steps towards addressing homelessness, gentrification, dese
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by topher515 6y ago
Your cited link does not seem to support your assertion that you must "melt coal with quartz". I do not believe that's correct. The general idea you are referring to is the "life cycle greenhouse gas emissions" for
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by topher515 6y ago
dgdgdf

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