alecst

44 ms·

421.
by alecst 10y ago
That reply doesn't address my original comment, but the IPCC do say just that -- although not in that paragraph. You will find statements all over the IPCC about how climate change is nearly certain to be caused by people, and in parti
422.
by alecst 10y ago
Can you elaborate on this part? * Science isn't clear regarding what part of global temperature rise is due to human activity. I just want to contrast the above with this statement by the IPCC [1]: "Human influence has be
423.
by alecst 14y ago
My mistake, didn't notice the minus sign...
424.
by alecst 14y ago
> I recall that learning that lim(1 - 1/n)^n with n->inf is 1/e To clarify this should not be 1/e, but e.
425.
by alecst 14y ago
I like this post -- and you're right, I immediately thought 'Pascal's Wager.' I'd just add that the other problem with Pascal's wager is that there is (typically) a non-negligible cost to believing in a god, which doesn't apply here.
426.
by alecst 14y ago
Black holes fudge with time and other holes don't.
427.
by alecst 14y ago
My friend told me: "Looking out from [falling into] a black hole you see the life of the universe pass before you. That means if you've managed to fall into a black hole, no one in the history of the universe cared enough to rescue you."
428.
by alecst 14y ago
What do you mean?
429.
by alecst 14y ago
He's not arguing that you should steal. And anyway, I think what you're saying is baloney. Theft is not always bad. Do I really have to give examples to illustrate the shades of gray?
430.
by alecst 14y ago
Anecdote time! Last week I got a missed call. Called back, they guy asks me who I am, and then he remembers -- "Oh! I remember why I called -- I work for AT&T and I accidentally disabled a phone on your account. I'm really sorry." It wa
431.
by alecst 14y ago
No. Gravity is a perfect example of a thing which is understood at large scales (via general relativity and Newtonian mechanics) but not at small scales. Which is exactly the parent comment's point about the brain.
432.
by alecst 14y ago
The only way I can put my mind at ease is to realize that when I die I'll be no more human than dolphin, dust mite, seashell, moon rock, or electron. In an abstract sense my contributions to humanity mean nothing. So it makes little sense t
433.
by alecst 14y ago
Obviously not every policy based on race is racist, but affirmative action does advance a particular set of races. Call it whatever you want, but I think what the above poster has said is that to advance one race is to handicap another.
434.
by alecst 14y ago
This comment is speculation and is wrong. You cannot take energy out of a ground-state configuration but it has nothing to do, at least directly, with measurement.
435.
by alecst 14y ago
By free energy one usually means the excess energy going out of a system after putting energy in. Since this type of transformation is not possible we never see truly free energy. There are lots of systems which have things in motion, and c
436.
by alecst 14y ago
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/11/grade_infl... "Finally, the "draft fear" explanation cannot explain why a very similar pattern of grade inflation has occurred over the decades in Canadian universities which were spared t
437.
by alecst 14y ago
The number one search for "picasa" should be Picasa.
438.
by alecst 15y ago
Here are some more detailed sources. http://www.nature.com/nnano//journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nnano... http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano...
439.
by alecst 15y ago
Reminded me a little of this quote from The Picture of Dorian Gray: Lord Henry stroked his pointed brown beard and tapped the toe of his patent-leather boot with a tasselled ebony cane. "How English you are Basil! That is the second time yo
440.
by alecst 16y ago
Photons have momentum. But is it not misleading to say that they have mass? You also say that E and m are just different words for the same property. This, I believe, is not fair. E (J) differs from m (kg) by a conversion factor of c (m/s)
441.
by alecst 17y ago
This is a quote from the article which was rebuffed. Restating it here for no particular reason / without additional commentary is unnecessary clutter. Edit: Sigh, I'm pretty sure this is a bot account.
442.
by alecst 17y ago
That's what he was asking. I think he meant "is this the only reason why we use high fructose corn syrup everywhere" to which I think the answer is "no." There's no shortage of corn subsidies, and farmers have been looking for new ways of
443.
The Great Sugar Shaft(fff.org)
50 points by alecst 17y ago|37 comments
444.
by alecst 17y ago
I should note that lately I've discovered that my experience in AP Lit was highly unconventional.
445.
by alecst 17y ago
Having my news.yc and reddit lives linked to email would be chaos. The additional messaging system to check would be more convenient -- not inconvenient.
446.
How the leopard got its spots(plus.maths.org)
5 points by alecst 17y ago|0 comments
447.
by alecst 17y ago
That's odd, because my AP experience was exactly the opposite. While I did have more homework in AP Literature, the homework was meaningful, personal, and founded on the cumulative knowledge attained over the course. On the other hand, in m
448.
by alecst 17y ago
The name and his description. I knew it was unlikely. Edit: I was also searching using the string "Nick Barnes" however there's some dispute about whether this is his name.
449.
by alecst 17y ago
Could this be him? http://twitter.com/n_a_b
450.
by alecst 17y ago
I have a qualm with the following: They even provided a ridiculous genetic explanation for how a species with a small percentage gay people might evolve Correct me if I'm wrong, but scientific evidence suggests that a gene (or set of gene

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