chris_va

25 ms·

271.
by chris_va 6y ago
Grains are staples because they provide a lot of calories. More calories means more photosynthesis, so more incident light. The marginal energy cost would thus be a lot higher. The cost for lettuce, however, is probably dominated by refrige
272.
by chris_va 6y ago
(disclaimer, I am part of a Climate&Energy R&D lab) The goal is not really to produce a set of big trees, but to maximize the amount of carbon you can suck out of the atmosphere per year, heavily weighted to the near future. As a re
273.
by chris_va 6y ago
No, you are correct, it's just complicated and broad applications of afforestation will require very accurate modeling. The perceived benefit will depend on what timescale you care about. Changing the albedo and local transpiration has
274.
by chris_va 6y ago
(disclaimer, I work in a Climate R&D group) Please don't do this. Deserts are great at shedding heat into space (high albedo in the visible, high emissivity in the infrared, low humidity). Climate feedback loops are complicated.
275.
by chris_va 6y ago
There are different ladders with different hiring expectations (e.g. SWE and Eng manager). Regardless, a lot of leeway is given for code rustiness at these levels, but design skills are still important. Algorithmic skills are often still re
276.
by chris_va 6y ago
I think this viewpoint is common from senior engineers but not entirely merited. (FWIW, I am also a senior engineer, and I have seen this play out from both sides of the table.) Sometimes folks overestimate their value as senior engineer fo
277.
by chris_va 6y ago
I think most Americans (at least on HN) would agree with you. Of course, there are complications. In Europe, the effective tax rate is generally much higher, and the fraction of population that is university aged is generally lower. My unde
278.
by chris_va 6y ago
It's a library for web developers... Is it so terrible to return a float instead of a bool?
279.
by chris_va 6y ago
A cell tower today is basically a selective directional broadcast of ~2.5GHz backed by a microwave backhaul, conforming to local topography and about ~3 miles away. An internet satellite is a phased array broadcast of ~20Ghz with a microwav
280.
by chris_va 6y ago
This reads to me like it was written by Facebook PR (indirectly) via a press packet. A lot of "news" articles are just PR departments lobbying journalists. The journalist tweaks stuff slightly, then dumps it over the wall. This so
281.
by chris_va 6y ago
Perhaps there is a better voting model for content/comments than the purely democratic method (one account, one vote). It would be interesting to see an expert weighted HN homepage/comment stream. (punting on how "expertise&q
282.
Prince Rupert's Drop(en.wikipedia.org)
5 points by chris_va 6y ago|0 comments
283.
by chris_va 6y ago
Technically, you are really just waiting for the thermal inertia of the testing device. The reaction kinetics are really quite fast. During the last SARS outbreak, this sort of thing was proposed: https://pubs.rsc.org/en&#x2
284.
by chris_va 6y ago
Ignoring hard failures (like a battery case overheat+rupture)... Running out of fuel is, unfortunately, not as uncommon as it should be. Most aircraft glide quite well (10:1 glide ratio). I really cannot tell with this plane, but the lack o
285.
by chris_va 6y ago
Most people do not have the years to devote to becoming a good pilot, much less get a new category cert, so I find that these sorts of prototypes have a very limited audience. "Or maybe you want to escape to Lake Tahoe for a long weeke
286.
by chris_va 6y ago
Where do you find good replicas? (There are a few paintings I would love to have nice replicas of on canvas, but I haven't yet tried any of the online replica factories for fear of poor quality)
287.
by chris_va 6y ago
> First, the skateboard and the upper body could be built separately. Maybe not at the same place (a handful of skateboards will fit perfectly in a shipping container for completion thousands of miles away). I hate to be critical, but th
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by chris_va 6y ago
If this were 1800, sure. You could also just skip the phase 3 trials on the Sinovac vaccine instead, but it is not a well supported argument.
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by chris_va 6y ago
I imagine you'll get comments here like "have good code hygiene" and "aim for good test coverage", which are not wrong. However, for me, what really stuck was learning directly from senior developers. Anecdotally, h
290.
by chris_va 6y ago
GHG emissions from rocketry are so trivially small that it's really not worth optimizing at this point. Maybe if SpaceX flew 500 rockets per day. (disclaimer: I work in a climate research group)
291.
by chris_va 6y ago
Citation? Anyone can file a lawsuit, doesn't mean it stuck ... Of course, why we'd want to pay $100B for a slower, more dangerous [1] way to travel around CA is beyond me (and I say that as someone who loves to travel by train). [
292.
by chris_va 6y ago
To play devil's advocate... It's a free country, and these people are accredited investors who can make their own choices. This individual already paid the penalty demanded by our society for their actions. It sounds like you are
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by chris_va 6y ago
Genuine question... What would it take to align police incentives (compensation, etc) with the outcomes we want? Reforming the unions? Better local politicians? De-militarizing the police seems like a great step, but it seems like trying to
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by chris_va 6y ago
Catching all this on camera seems to have spurred a movement, but most real change takes time to play out. 20 years ago most of this wouldn't have been caught on camera, so it seems like a net win.
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by chris_va 6y ago
To be fair, that reaction is pretty common for anyone that has to travel through La Guardia.
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by chris_va 6y ago
TLDR: The virus tends to get spread in confines spaces (presumably, though not confirmed, airborne with a low infectivity per virion). The more people in a confined space (meatpacking plant, prison, care facility, etc), the larger the outbr
297.
by chris_va 6y ago
That argument doesn't really hold water. Having an income (via UBI or some other mechanism) would help the poor, that is true (minus the caveat above about economic upheaval). Assuming that said income will reduce economic waste is not
298.
by chris_va 6y ago
Well, in this case "ad absurdum" is pretty close to a reasonable UBI. A reasonable UBI (say $1000/mo) is going to be ~15% of the entire US economy "printed" every year. The NPV of that dilution would be enormous, un
299.
by chris_va 6y ago
A higher velocity of capital ~= larger economy, which is good. However, a higher velocity of capital without commensurate economic value being created ~= massive inflation. This is a potential risk for UBI, and one that small-scale studies
300.
by chris_va 6y ago
It must be frustrating as a cat. Imagine going through the effort to domesticate and entire species to provide fire, food, shelter, etc. and then have them wander off somewhere without asking. At least they still upload those funny worship

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