D_Alex

52 ms·

541.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Luckily, the fact that individual scientists are subject to the confirmation bias does not greatly affect the workings of science as a whole... for as soon as an interesting theory is developed by some scientist, hordes of other scientists
542.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Aging oil and gas industry engineer/project manager and environmentalist here. I really like this campaign! It provides an effective counter to the millions (billions?) of dollars the oil and gas industry expends in advertising and lobbying
543.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Could we put a glass roof over that and fill the interior with a breathable atmosphere?
544.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Is jewellery obsolete?
545.
by D_Alex 14y ago
I propose that the title be amended to "...comes up with yet another way to size up nations' wealth" and am willing to bet that this report will be all but forgotten in ten years time.
546.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Well... the article attempts to "explain" rather than to "prove".
547.
by D_Alex 14y ago
No... the reason it is stable is because a) the waterplane area is small compared to the overall mass of the vessel; and b) the natural frequency of the vessel is far removed from the forcing frequency (wave frequency). Think of it this way
548.
by D_Alex 14y ago
A bunch of redditors did in fact pick up on this, but their comments are buried deep down in the pile.
549.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Unfortunately, while the reddit post seems authoritative, it contains a multitude of errors and ends up somewhat misleading. The most significant error is: "What the front half of a jet engine (the intake/diffuser, and the compressor blades
550.
by D_Alex 14y ago
"The banning of liquids and pastes are logical. There are some extremely volatile liquid and plastic explosives..." What utter garbage. Solids, SOLIDS should be banned! Azides, fulminates, picrates and the like are all SOLIDS and extremely
551.
by D_Alex 14y ago
And so is a profession of "machine rights lawyer". Not to mention "Corpsicle lawyer" for representing cryogenically suspended persons. Seriously.
552.
by D_Alex 14y ago
I totally get where the author is coming from, but I am not reeeally sure if that is good advice. Anecdotal evidence has its place, eg: proof by counterexample, challenging false, but widely held beliefs, or alerting people to new circums
553.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Oh wow! A downvote! So, the message I'm getting is that a) it is appropriate to be horrified at the prospect of living; and furthermore b) asking why is inappropriate...? This is seriously weirding me out.
554.
by D_Alex 14y ago
"... more full of crap than average..." Than average what ? I often lurk on LessWrong, and post there very occasionally. I find it to be a very rich source of original ideas, some of which are truly profound. YMMV, of course.
555.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Why would you be horrified at the prospect of living? I suspect it is you that needs to put a bit more thought into this matter.
556.
Why you should care about surveillance even if you have nothing to hide(aclu.org)
1 points by D_Alex 14y ago|0 comments
557.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Well if you want to be pedantic, they both revolve around their centre of mass, sort of (complicated by the fact that there are many other bodies influencing the motion). But the intuitive view referred to in the article is that the sun r
558.
by D_Alex 14y ago
There are new giants! Greg Egan, William Gibson, Charles Stross, Vernon Vinge - to name a few. Also, don't forget Larry Niven and Joe Haldeman, they are still around!
559.
by D_Alex 14y ago
"extremes are bad" I disagree, a little. Extremes are good, because a bunch of worthwhile things get accomplished by people going to extremes. As far as personal costs of going to such extremes go - they are difficult to judge objectively,
560.
by D_Alex 14y ago
YouTube has an unrivalled collection of videos. I used to listen to most of my music on YouTube, and built many hours of playlists. But I don't use YouTube any more. The level of advertising got to beyond tolerable. And that is the problem
561.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Greg Egan has quite a few amazing stories dealing with the transition process. "Transition Dreams" is the one I remember, it is a bit dark. I cant find a free link, but here is a paid e-book, $0.59: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b876/T
562.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Your thinking - IMO - is affected by your experience with your grandfather, and I can understand that. But consider that for many people, myself included, the thought of dying in the future is a burden (not THAT big, in my case, but it's th
563.
by D_Alex 14y ago
"An additional $1 invested into Ford won't bring as much returns as an additional $1 invested in Facebook." I don't know what investment opportunities Ford has, but regarding Facebook, I really don't think they can invest additional capit
564.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Well, she'd have a lot less ironing to do... Look, I think this analogy has gone too far already!!!
565.
by D_Alex 14y ago
You sound like my wife... she says I lack the good looks of Hugh Jackman and athletic abilities of Michael Phelps, and I can't even compare to Bill Gates in the amount of money I bring in. Not defending the F-35 though. My main issue with i
566.
A pessimistic, yet insightful, look at the future of Facebook(huffingtonpost.com)
2 points by D_Alex 14y ago|0 comments
567.
by D_Alex 14y ago
The Germans on the committee wanted the new car to be called the "Global Krupp", to emphasize integrity of engineering and tradition, the French preferred the hip and modern "Rapper", and the Italians "Caprice". They settled on the "Crappee
568.
by D_Alex 14y ago
Soooo... How much income did you have from all that?
569.
by D_Alex 14y ago
They claim that "The projected performance of this new experimental quantum simulator eclipses the current maximum capacity of any known computer by an astonishing 10 to the power of 80. That is 1 followed by 80 zeros, in other words 80 ord
570.
New quantum computer approach from University of Sydney (sydney.edu.au)
19 points by D_Alex 14y ago|7 comments

More ›