comicjk

33 ms·

301.
by comicjk 8y ago
Besides the fact that most people don't have any savings cushion, making this terrible advice for them, you're neglecting the social pressure aspect. Many people feel compelled to overspend on weddings by the expectations of their
302.
by comicjk 8y ago
If your particular matrix problem has special properties that aren't covered by blas, you can wring out an apparently impossible improvement. I once found a matrix problem (periodic cubic splines) which turned out to have a solution in
303.
by comicjk 8y ago
You want a symplectic integrator ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symplectic_integrator ) such as Verlet Integration ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlet_integration ). Such integrators naturally
304.
by comicjk 8y ago
https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-t...
305.
by comicjk 8y ago
That's true, but the sulfur emissions from ships do not have this effect. They actually have a slight negative greenhouse effect, because they reflect light in the upper atmosphere.
306.
by comicjk 8y ago
You bring up "public transport" as one of the emissions sources beyond people's control, without bringing up the biggest source which is under our control: cars. US per capita CO2 emissions are 20 tons/year, of which a t
307.
by comicjk 8y ago
No, this misleading stat refers to sulfur and soot emissions, not CO2. It's true that ships at sea burn a cheap sulfurous fuel, "bunker fuel", because there's nobody to inhale it out there. But it's misleading becau
308.
by comicjk 8y ago
If my bike can't use the road, I dismount and walk it. Riding on the sidewalk is illegal. I don't begrudge anyone who does it perforce - say, if there are no alternative roads and they need to get to work - but I do begrudge cycli
309.
by comicjk 9y ago
Whether or not the universe is deterministic, quantum computers will work as long as nature works by wavefunctions and unitary matrices. There are many good reasons for believing this to be true, including experiments. Real randomness is no
310.
by comicjk 9y ago
What experience in literature are you referring to? Do many people ask Barnes and Noble employees for book recommendations?
311.
by comicjk 9y ago
If you want to convince me, show me the relevant statistics. Medical errors are not unknown from other health providers.
312.
by comicjk 9y ago
This is ridiculous. The economy is already incentivized to find cheaper electricity by forces far more powerful than Bitcoin. By this logic, you would defend a craze for trying to boil the sea.
313.
by comicjk 9y ago
Not to mention, polio spreads! If you can eradicate polio in a country for a paltry $100 million, it's in other countries' interest to do so, even if some of the money gets stolen. This is the difference between traditional charit
314.
by comicjk 9y ago
Even for a megaton hydrogen bomb, there is some radius in which you would be safer in your basement. It's just a big radius.
315.
by comicjk 9y ago
You're wrong about solar panels - they have an EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Invested) of between 4 and 15 times, depending on how you calculate it.
316.
by comicjk 9y ago
In order to be efficient and powerful, a steam engine needs high-pressure steam, which can only be safely contained by thick, heavy boilers and pipes. This makes miniaturization of steam engines for cars difficult. Gasification of wood allo
317.
by comicjk 9y ago
I think they're talking about marginal cost of electricity only, assuming the hardware, location, and tech support costs are negligible. I'm not sure how valid that is as an analysis of total profitability. It depends how dominant
318.
by comicjk 9y ago
Often these statements are carefully phrased to be correct. For instance, most Americans want to "protect gun rights", and also have "common sense gun laws". These two slogans don't conflict, but the politicians who
319.
by comicjk 9y ago
Until he was asked about it, Damore's LinkedIn "Education" section said "Harvard University / PhD, Systems Biology / 2011-2013". After, he changed it to "Harvard University / Master of Science -
320.
by comicjk 9y ago
In my academic experience, saying "Harvard University, PhD, Systems Biology, 2011-2013" without having finished would be seen as dishonest. I have a PhD, but before I finished I always said "anticipated" or "expecte
321.
by comicjk 9y ago
He also lied about having a PhD (he was in a program, but did not finish). This makes it difficult for me to take him seriously as someone motivated by an insistent search for truth.
322.
by comicjk 9y ago
I agree that this is possible, but as I said, I don't expect such a revolution within the next few decades. I would be happy to be proved wrong!
323.
by comicjk 9y ago
I'm not a fan of the teaching method where you do something the hard way first so you'll appreciate it, but I was a pretty lazy student so that's understandable. Maybe it works for most students.
324.
by comicjk 9y ago
That's a subset of the linear algebra used in quantum mechanics, no? Any transformation between QM states can be expressed as a unitary matrix - this is not a particular characteristic of scattering phenomena with S-matrices. The quant
325.
by comicjk 9y ago
Physicists would have preferred to do it with calculus -indeed, intro QM is usually taught with calculus, not with linear algebra. But you can't go very far without talking about operators and eigenstates. Linear algebra fits the under
326.
by comicjk 9y ago
Any analysis of the promise "unemployment in the district will go down by Y%" will be worse than useless, because politicians have little control over the unemployment rate. You would be judging them based on a coin flip. You have
327.
by comicjk 9y ago
At least one part of the universe really does seem to prefer linear algebra: quantum mechanics. Every quantum state is a linear combination of eigenvectors, and that's unlikely to change within a few decades (it would be a revolution a
328.
by comicjk 9y ago
From the advertiser's perspective, it wouldn't be a Turing-complete language, since they would only have access to standardized templates. Such a system would probably have to be implemented in Javascript at the browser level thou
329.
by comicjk 9y ago
Or, as a compromise, no third-party javascript. Google can easily code up the 100 most common javascript ad formats and let advertisers pick from a menu.
330.
by comicjk 9y ago
Metal as a material is different from metal elements. Metal element atoms are common - most kinds of rock contain them. Metal as a material, by contrast, has metallic bonding, where electrons are delocalized across many atoms. This is what

More ›