KnightOfWords

9 ms·

61.
by KnightOfWords 8y ago
> In my opinion science is getting less bang for bucks because the low hanging fruit has been picked by now. This is certainly part of of the reason in physics, experimental verification takes more and more resources. It took the LHC to
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
In recent time there has been more acknowledgement of the role the commonwealth nations played in the conflict. However, that's not part of the popular narrative of WW1, and is given cursory treatment in most histories. The article is
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
> It would only take mainstream media to change the way it portrays nuclear energy and a couple of years. The media and government have limited ability to shift public opinion.
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-06-01-new-estimates-environmen... "High-impact beef producers create 105kg of CO2 equivalents and use 370m2 of land per 100 grams of protein, a huge 12 and 50 times greater than low-i
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
This graphic give a pretty good summary of the relative impact: https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/gfx/news/hire...
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
A few things to bear in mind here. The payload of a rocket is far less of that of a 747, so you aren't remotely comparing like-with-like. Unlike planes rockets aren't typically reused, the energy cost of manufacturing is considera
67.
by KnightOfWords 8y ago
As I understand it, Oumuamua spectra is very similar to that of a D-type asteroid. It appears to be covered by a dull red organic gunk (tholins), which would make a very inefficient solar sail.
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
If this is confirmed it would mean that climate sensitivity is at the high end of estimates. Some of the implications are discussed in this BBC news article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46046067
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Study: Oceans Have Absorbed 60 Percent More Heat Than Previously Thought(scripps.ucsd.edu)
2 points by KnightOfWords 8y ago|1 comments
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Please bear in mind, the spectra of Oumuamua is very similar to that of a D-type asteroid (organics and carbon), which isn't consistent with it being highly reflective.
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Interesting thanks, I didn't realise they ever got that bright. I've also captured geosynchronous satellites when imaging the Orion Nebula, they show up as parallel tracks. There is a big difference between producing a visible fla
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Colour me moonglow sceptical blue. At an altitude of 500km these 'moons' would cross the sky in a few minutes. Geosynchronous orbit is about 35,000km, but at that distance any artificial satellite would need to be vast to cast any
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Any mitigation action we take is worthwhile as it will reduce risks and future costs. I'm not optimistic we'll do enough to prevent serious change. But we can't give up on mitigation strategies as they could still make the di
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
The article is interesting but I don't think we can draw too many conclusions yet due to Kepler's observational biases. For example, the similar size pattern seen may only apply to closely packed systems rather than more widely sp
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
> It's regularly detecting exoplanets down to slightly less than Earth-sized now... But at what distance from the host star can it detect planets of this size?
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
The author may well have found a real pattern, but it may only apply to a subset of planetary systems. Kepler is biased towards detecting large planets with short orbital periods. Perhaps tightly packed systems have similar sized planets be
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Kurzweil really is the hand-waver of all hand-wavers. Exponential progress is the exception rather than the rule, due to hard physical limits.
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Good article. I'll also add, progress on AI may also be severely restricted by energy usage. We can build supercomputers which by some measures match the complexity of biological systems, but they consume huge amounts of power compared
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Colonising Venus is a greater leap of imagination, to the best of our knowledge the ancient Greeks had no telescopes so would have only ever seen it as a point of light. > Of course, he seemed to also think that you could walk on the sun
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
> That shape? Asteroids don't come in that shape. They just don't. We've got literally thousands of data points which say that doesn't happen. We don't actually know its shape, we just have a light curve. Dependi
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
It's not a question of whether humans could exist in a much hotter climate, clearly that's possible (although perhaps not in the same numbers as in the current era). The risk is how much damage we'll do to ecosystems in a wor
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Thanks, I hadn't seen that one.
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
> Usually because 'doing something about it' on a personal level means sacrificing luxuries. There are a lot of easy win-wins when it comes to lowering our carbon footprints. Eating more vegetables has health benefits. More hom
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
A truly disturbing yet essential read. Sounds like the reports of shark attacks on the living were greatly exaggerated, but its no wonder if men were hallucinating from dehydration and fever.
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
I had some cricket-coated chicken at a bug farm in Pembrokeshire the other day, it was tasty. As the crickets were ground into a powder it was very inoffensive. I don't generally like food that can stare back, such as whole fish, so cr
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Never underestimate a company's ability to work against its own interests.
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
I'm a little more optimistic than you. Former sceptics/deniers are waking up and significant mitigation action is taking place, both on a personal and global level. More people are realising they can reduce their carbon footprint
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
Would you make the same argument against universal education? Spending on healthcare is not zero-sum, the linked article argues that there is good evidence that universal healthcare increases GDP, benefitting the entire economy. "Econo
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by KnightOfWords 8y ago
I see it as a systematic problem: When everyone's a moderator there is a trend towards the strictest interpretation of the rules. If five moderators take a look at a post the first four may see nothing wrong with it, but the fifth may
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by KnightOfWords 9y ago
> I'm also pretty disappointed in Reddit. They made a new admin account yesterday to anonymously post the new rules. I believe this is the first time that's been done for an announcement, usually they're posted by a CEO or

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