balsam

30 ms·

301.
by balsam 13y ago
Most biographies of Feynman are really hagiographies of Feynman, who was no doubt a great showman. Here's a collection of his letters, which, despite revealing some personal flaws, show that he is wiser and more vulnerable than we imagine.
302.
by balsam 13y ago
Try submitting your question again later. To add some conspiracy sauce (and draw PG's attention), maybe Gild was a YC reject. Or even in a long term sense, YC's competitor. For what is to stop them from directing their algorithms at entrepr
303.
by balsam 14y ago
Charles Bukowski begs to differ... [1] (but Charles Bukowski is no ordinary creative) [1] http://zenpencils.com/comic/97-charles-bukowski-air-and-ligh...
304.
Quora: Reviews of Y Combinator(quora.com)
1 points by balsam 14y ago|0 comments
305.
by balsam 14y ago
Speaking as a member of APS... what do you expect from an APS magazine :)? What on earth is a "mathematician"? We have to call Edward Thorp an "American" because we don't know about his "theories" (c.f. the article)! (And how are "theories"
306.
by balsam 14y ago
Don't worry about it. Isaac Newton was a total bastard too.
307.
A successful Bitcoin double spend – USD 10000(bitcointalk.org)
198 points by balsam 14y ago|103 comments
308.
by balsam 14y ago
here is a very personal essay the oscar winning director Ang Lee wrote about those 6 years in the desert (translated): http://whatshihsaid.com/2013/02/26/ang-lee-a-never-ending-dr...
309.
by balsam 14y ago
In WWI the Allies DID eventually use mobile warfare (why didn't anybody think of tanks tanks tanks) to decisively finish off the Germans [1][2]. Too besides, as pointed out below, EG is a recommended text in US military academies. Sometime
310.
by balsam 14y ago
Yes. I wished I had many upvotes to give for such an expansion! For example, is there someone out there who experience "passing as white" in certain areas of the U.S. but not in others? It's like a Reddit AMA, but better!! If not, maybe OP
311.
by balsam 14y ago
Jeff Garzik has plugged it in and confirmed ~68GHash/s http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-as...
312.
[JSTOR] Social Networks and Norm Misperception(jstor.org)
2 points by balsam 14y ago|0 comments
313.
by balsam 14y ago
Isn't there a name for this kind of fallacy? It's on the tip of my tongue. There was an anecdote (an example, rather) where each member of a family wants to go outdoors while assuming that everybody else will choose to remain indoors, and,
314.
by balsam 14y ago
It was something Steve Jobs was vehemently against. Although Jobs asked his heirs never to ask the question, "What would Steve do?", his heirs seems to have bought the no-porn policy sufficiently to be able to enforce it on their own.
315.
by balsam 14y ago
a digression but the writer seems russian by virtue of his/her sentence construction. I can't really pin down the reason, perhaps a linguist can help me out? (Disclaimer: I'm not russian. Edit: By the comments on his page it looks it's actu
316.
by balsam 14y ago
Not to be snarky, but what are the child mortality rates for a monkey or a hamster?
317.
by balsam 14y ago
It looks like the membership fee thing isn't a pay-wall. From lower down the page: "Exclusive benefits for participating organizations include: Participation in arXiv's ongoing governance through the Member Advisory Board, which provides in
318.
by balsam 14y ago
Do you know if this punching of the galactic plane coincides with extinction events?
319.
by balsam 14y ago
Actually I believe that the amount of heavy elements in that star was lower than expected. They used the ratio of heavy elements (uranium and thorium) to date the star, not the quantity. This star, I believe, is what is called a Population
320.
by balsam 14y ago
One comment from that essay which seems to throw some light on pg's current MO: "A startup should give its competitors as little information as possible." Is YC a startup? Arc is probably not a startup.
321.
by balsam 14y ago
We should start a fund for any biologists who can make giant squid taste at least as good as trivial squid. There have been many jokes about how tasty these are. I once tried raw squid at a Japanese restaurant, against the owner's advice. T
322.
by balsam 14y ago
i actually meant an archive of papers where mathematicians from the future could try to improve or dig gems out of (using computerized theorem provers or just pen and paper). Papers like ramanujan's notebooks or this guy's proof of Goldbach
323.
by balsam 14y ago
true that. Say, if you wanted to modify a page on Wikiproof titled "Goldback conjecture" you have to first summarize your approach, with a tree diagram of subtheorems, and at least provide a few proofs of those subtheorems that are original
324.
by balsam 14y ago
you know what this means? arxiv.org needs a cryogenics section, for potential resuscitation of mathematical campaigns using future technology. it'll be challenging to keep out the crackpots, though --
325.
by balsam 14y ago
On the other hand, I find engineering very undisappointing. That's why I'm a scientist, since science has a higher standard for being interesting. Call it hipsterism or whatever you will, I upvote thee. (This is an engineering result, not a
326.
by balsam 14y ago
Just checked wikipedia: "By contrast, a system with a truly negative temperature in absolute terms on the kelvin scale is hotter than any system with a positive temperature. If a negative-temperature system and a positive-temperature system
327.
by balsam 14y ago
Assuming the second law is not violated, the system of lower (negative) temperature becomes a source of energy (as opposed to sink). If this is right, that is mighty interesting.
328.
by balsam 14y ago
Are any laws of thermodynamics violated here[1]? If not, why is this experiment interesting? As a physics student, let me check: 0. Probably not. 1. Not directly applicable 2. Nope. 3. Nope. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermod
329.
by balsam 14y ago
Are any laws of thermodynamics violated here[1]? If not, why is this experiment interesting? As a physics student, let me check: 0. Probably not. 1. Not directly applicable 2. Nope. 3. Nope. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermod
330.
by balsam 14y ago
let's hope that these will one day be the leading causes of death.

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