m-i-l

38 ms·

361.
by m-i-l 7y ago
I remember reading (a long time ago so can't provide a reference) that in 1000s of years most humans would have an extra finger. I'd assumed that this was because of the evolutionary advantage it would have given their forebears,
362.
by m-i-l 7y ago
The article asks "What accounts for its staying power?" but misses what I think is the main reason for its staying power - it has something of relevance for each era in which it is read. In the 1950s and 1960s, in the context of T
363.
by m-i-l 7y ago
Well given the pseudoanonymous nature of the original cryptocurrency, and its popularity for illegal activities, I would assume not. But maybe it is more about rampant capitalism and maximise-personal-profit-at-whatever-cost nowadays.
364.
by m-i-l 7y ago
Art is very different from physical property, given it tends not to have any intrinsic value, generate income etc. Fractional ownership of residential property is already possible in the UK, without cryptocurrency: - Set up a Declaration of
365.
by m-i-l 7y ago
To all the cryptocurrency devotees dreaming of a new world cryptocurrency displacing existing government-backed central banks - be careful what you wish for, it just might come true. This might be the next phase of surveillance capitalism,
366.
by m-i-l 7y ago
> Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? Since you are dependent on the issuing entity to honour the stated peg In this case there wouldn't be a single issuing entity: "the cryptocurrency would indee
367.
by m-i-l 7y ago
> ICOs are like lottery tickets Actually in most countries lotteries are pretty heavily regulated to ensure that they are indeed redistributing a share of ticket sales as winnings and are also fairly selecting winners. ICOs are like unre
368.
by m-i-l 7y ago
One of the things I hadn't fully appreciated, until reading the link, was how divided even the perpetrators were. Firstly, there are indications that not all the armies worked together, e.g. "Beijing [Military Region] commander ha
369.
by m-i-l 7y ago
Depending on where you live, there may be a lot of government sponsored guidance on how best to manage the environmental impact of micro hydro schemes - see e.g. https://www.gov.scot/publications/hydro-schemes-planning-
370.
by m-i-l 7y ago
Thanks for this. I wasn't too keen on them to be honest because they reminded me of little fleas jumping around. But it is sad to read "These shrimp are social creatures, but the Ecosphere starts with only four (often less, with o
371.
by m-i-l 7y ago
The article doesn't cover this, but how do people discover these group chats? All the Discord servers I've joined I've essentially found by word-of-mouth, which doesn't seem very high tech. In the old days you'd fin
372.
by m-i-l 7y ago
I've a vague fantasy about returning to the remote Scottish island where I was born, which is pretty windswept with almost no trees, and building a house and garden inside a large Solar Dome, growing trees and plants that otherwise wou
373.
by m-i-l 7y ago
I saw a shop selling these once: https://www.ecospheres.co.uk/ . They contain small marine shrimp, and "The only care the sphere requires is a source of indirect natural or artificial light" and they "have an
374.
by m-i-l 7y ago
My dad's workplace had several original Atari 520ST machines (not the STM with FM modulator or the STFM with floppy disk and modulator) which they used simply as VT220 terminals for accessing their DEC PDP and VAX minicomputers. Appare
375.
by m-i-l 7y ago
I got a Taf Toys "My First MP3 Player" a few years back. Parents could load a USB stick with MP3s on any PC (including Linux), then plug the stick into a secure compartment on the device (requiring a screwdriver for access, like t
376.
by m-i-l 7y ago
> Is there a word for the converse of "clickbait"? The opposite of bait is repellent, so in that sense it would be "clickrepellent". However, I don't think that gets across the point that it is the inverse of &qu
377.
by m-i-l 7y ago
During the big offshoring craze in the UK 15 years or so ago I knew of developers who retrained as trades people - you can't offshore plumbers, electricians etc., you need them on site.
378.
by m-i-l 8y ago
Yes, the Windows TCP/IP stack was from BSD. I'm not sure if the code is still in Windows, but I think it is still configured via an etc/hosts file. I believe the BSD licence was preferable to Microsoft (as it was to Apple who
379.
by m-i-l 8y ago
Just don't do anything with the leaves! My parents used to have some rhubarb in the garden when I was young, and I had it drummed into me how poisonous the leaves were (not that I was the sort to go around eating random plants). Looks
380.
by m-i-l 8y ago
I'd hope not - high doses of aluminium can cause considerable irreversible damage to the brain, see e.g. the Camelford poisoning[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelford_water_pollution_inci...
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AI: More than Human(barbican.org.uk)
55 points by m-i-l 8y ago|1 comments
382.
by m-i-l 8y ago
Nearer 10-15% in the UK. If you manage to find a good one they're definitely worth it, but the problem is, at least in my experience, the majority aren't.
383.
by m-i-l 8y ago
"Brevity takes effort": "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."
384.
by m-i-l 8y ago
Its a NatWest Reward card. Cashback is normally 0.5-1%, but they have additional cashback from selected vendors at different times, e.g. they had 10% on amazon.co.uk purchases and 3% for household bills at one point, and current offers incl
385.
by m-i-l 8y ago
I don't see what is in this for the consumer either. If you are not already a holder, why would anyone want the hassle of becoming one, just to pay high fees for each and every transaction (e.g. the 2.49% "crypto liquidation fee&q
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by m-i-l 8y ago
As the parent comment suggests, most people are right eye dominant so from a safety perspective keeping the dominant eye closer to the oncoming traffic is preferable. And even before cars, most right handed people mount horses from their ri
387.
by m-i-l 8y ago
There have been previous threads on HN with some back-of-the-envelope comparisons of Bitcoin's energy consumption vs the global banking systems, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18325430 . If these rough calcu
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by m-i-l 8y ago
See also "How I Eat for Free in NYC Using Python, Automation, AI, and Instagram"[0] for an indication as to how "easy" it is to write an algorithmic social media "influencer" with 25K followers. [0] https:&#x2
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by m-i-l 8y ago
> Most interesting is the massive outlier in the main graph - Edinburgh. Edinburgh shouldn't really be on a graph of non-capital cities, given it gets a number of economic benefits from being a capital city, e.g. being the centre of
390.
by m-i-l 8y ago
See also https://fullfact.org which sponsored an Apache Solr hackathon a couple of years back.

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