avz

12 ms·

61.
by avz 6y ago
I think the history of physics does not support this view. New theories that explain a wider range of phenomena tend to be harder to understand than their predecessors that explain a narrower range of observations. For example, Newtonian me
62.
by avz 6y ago
Indeed. For comparison: atoms are about four orders of magnitude larger than atomic nuclei. The size of the former is generally a few tens to low hundreds of picometers (1 pm = 1e-12 m) while the size of the latter is just a few femtometers
63.
by avz 6y ago
There is a palpable difference between the universe described by many religions and the universe described by science. The former is all built from concepts rooted in human society such as father, son, judgment, commandment, obedience, sacr
64.
by avz 6y ago
> The author TOTALLY misses the point [...] OTOH, you're failing to comprehend what the key word - nothing - means :-) Look here: > how if there was at one point nothing, how is there now something? See, you're imagining two
65.
by avz 6y ago
> Was the response perfect? Certainly not. No, it was not perfect. According to [1] the US has 27% of all cases of COVID-19, 24% of all COVID-19 deaths and 29% of new cases yesterday. For comparison US has 4.3% of world's population
66.
by avz 6y ago
Reaction wheels saturate and are therefore more suited for precise attitude control than as a source of sustained torque. Once they saturate you need to unload the accumulated momentum via some other mechanism. Thus, you do need a second pr
67.
by avz 6y ago
As with the compass, the orientation of your magnetic dipole against the field is unstable, so now you need a second propulsion system for maintaining the unstable orientation of the dipole.
68.
by avz 7y ago
To highlight the persistence of the confusion compare the confusion matrix in two wikipedia articles: [1] and [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confusion_matrix [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki&#x
69.
by avz 7y ago
The reason the practice of collecting consumer data is so prevalent is that it is very easy to do and opens potential opportunities for the business in future. Never mind that it exposes consumers to risks. The practice won't stop unti
70.
by avz 7y ago
> The problem is that the west has nobody in power with living memory of a pandemic. [...] there hasn't been a pandemic in the west in over 100 years... Recent counter-example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009
71.
by avz 7y ago
Another counter-point to the inhumane position you're rebuking - one which speaks to people's self-interest - is that as the healthcare systems become overwhelmed they will eventually stop treating conditions and accidents which a
72.
by avz 7y ago
I recently attended a virology lecture where this question was asked. The answer was that this is very unlikely. In fact, the evolutionary direction of all known viruses is the opposite: from high towards low virulence. High virulence is ob
73.
by avz 7y ago
That's OK. Assuming the universe is finite or countable, the number of all possible circumstances in which a real number needs to be described (e.g. a practical problem needing solution or somebody's curiosity needing satisfaction
74.
by avz 7y ago
This is not a correct summary of the article! The article never suggests or discusses the potential of the bureaucratic problems at the HHS and the resulting delays to stoke or support conspiracy arguments. On the contrary, that part appear
75.
by avz 7y ago
When I was a nerdy teenager I imagined that by a date like 2020 humankind would have cured cancer, built a base on the Moon or Mars, eradicated infectious diseases and taken control over climate and weather. It turns out that in the real wo
76.
by avz 7y ago
Several countries in the EU (e.g. Nordic countries) offer single-payer healthcare services and the EU does have freedom of movement, so such a step wouldn't really be "unprecedented".
77.
by avz 7y ago
Probably because diffusion, air currents, stratospheric jets, winds and other climate phenomena are not contained by national borders.
78.
by avz 7y ago
> A simulation, at least as we'd understand it, would mean some kind of set variables and set rules. It would be entirely deterministic Why would the simulation be entirely deterministic? The simulations humans run often are not, se
79.
by avz 8y ago
> They tell the self-learner that solutions aren't provided because everyone has the ability to know if their solutions are correct without having their work checked. Would you write a complicated program and write no test cases, or
80.
by avz 8y ago
> 5. In order for the market rate price of housing to become affordable to cooks and servers, it would first become dirt cheap for tech workers making 2-4x their compensation. Therefore all of that worldwide demand for SF tech worker hou
81.
Loon and Wing graduate from X(blog.x.company)
5 points by avz 8y ago|0 comments
82.
by avz 8y ago
I think the core issue here is that people want two things. On one hand we want our models to accurately describe reality, not an idea of what reality should be. On the other hand, we don't want ML to freeze society and culture in thei
83.
by avz 9y ago
> Unless the cable had absolutely no temperature expansion... One might be able to get a composite with very close to zero thermal expansion coefficient by linking stages made of materials with positive and negative [1] coefficients. [1]
84.
by avz 9y ago
> I haven't seen anyone attempt to address the issue of how you "land" in the atmosphere without touching down on the surface? Spacecraft in the Venera program successfully deployed balloons following atmospheric entry, se
85.
by avz 9y ago
Parents' primary responsibility is to ensure that the environment in which their kids grow up, the food they eat etc promote healthy development. For many practical purposes, the kids' protein-building machinery including the nucl
86.
by avz 9y ago
I don't think that's necessary. The loss of atmosphere by Mars may have been significant on the timescale of its five-billion-years history, but not on the timescale of a human settlement project. The mass of the Martian atmospher
87.
by avz 9y ago
> [...] sticky total # of jobs. As women further enter the workforce, the mean household income will trend towards double income, and the labor pool will be contested with more applicants, in both cases rendering a male applicant at a su
88.
by avz 9y ago
Hopefully automation will reduce the need for humans to do the boring, repetitive jobs and increase the number of people working in jobs they find rewarding and interesting. I doubt we could eliminate the former completely and have everyone
89.
by avz 9y ago
> As the author points out, we've forgotten how to be bored. We need to learn to engage that part of our brain again. This sounds like a contradiction. Isn't boredom precisely the state that results when one fails to engage the
90.
by avz 9y ago
It does mean that indeed! Note for example that in a gravity field like the one near the Earth surface the "down" direction has very different properties than the two horizontal directions (1). In particular, an object stationary

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