pfdietz

28 ms·

901.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
It contains nucleobases. But does it contain ribose, or ribose linked to the nucleobases, or to phosphates? And more generally, does it also contain a grab bag of related chemicals that are not building blocks? The existence of such bloc
902.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
I think the problem is the system is designed to inflate what is being done to the point it's barely affordable. This new treatment requires more equipment and time? No problem, it's x% more effective, so it gets rolled out. An
903.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Ah, the No True Scotch Pine argument.
904.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Rough is doing heavy lifting there, so much so that I suggest it doesn't have any meaning except to say the population was growing. The growth from 1980 to 1960 certainly was not exponential: the percentage growth per year was all ove
905.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Is "roughly exponential growth" being used as a synonym for "growth"? Exponential is used as a scare word. It's not just growth, it's exponential growth! Run and scream in fright! Because if you don't
906.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
I'm talking about the entire world. Almost everywhere, the total fertility rate is well below replacement (which is around 2.1). UN estimates that say global population will peak around 2084; they assume global TFR increases back to 1
907.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Trantor was described as having, what, 40 billion people? This would allow most of the planet to still be wild, if people lived at population densities of current cities. Asimov was a city boy who famously didn't like to travel. He di
908.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Demographic momentum means population continues to increase for a while after the total fertility rate drops well below replacement. Once the decline starts the momentum works in the opposite direction: decline continues for a while even i
909.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
> You mean the nuclear waste that we banned companies from using as nuclear fuel for modern reactors? There is no need to ban this because it (and reprocessing in general) is economically idiotic. It would be like saying government ban
910.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Europe's tree cover is increasing. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-upda...
911.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Back when LtG came out, there was a study of the limits imposed by resource availability. The conclusion was that, to first approximation, the only resource that we had to worry about was energy. Fossil fuels would have to go, but everyth
912.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
This sort of analogy should have died with Paul Ehrlich.
913.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Countries that fail to compete trying to hold back the winners.
914.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
I wonder if robots could be made to work better at cryogenic temperature, so superconductors could be used. The figure of merit would be much higher if resistance was zero. Or maybe this is another reason to want room temperature supercon
915.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/30/773457637/fr...
916.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
I think it may be CO2. CO2 in the gas would cause all sorts of unpleasant effects that would discourage continuing to breath it, and CO2 is probably cheaper to store and transport than oxygen.
917.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Perhaps "balloon grade" here is not " party balloon grade". Weather balloons? Research balloons?
918.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Economically I expect it wouldn't be that pure, since it doesn't have to be that pure to provide lift, and party balloons are not trying to maximize lift.
919.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
The whole program is a joke.
920.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
If "just don't do the bad things" is a valid argument, why do we need type checking at all? Exceptions from type checking are useful because they tell you exactly where something has screwed up, making fixing the bug easier.
921.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Let me introduce you to the concept of "unintended consequences".
922.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
In the US such a requirement would violate the 1st amendment. It's also probably counterproductive.
923.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Even so, businesses largely compete based on whether their products are worth buying. That means bad research is bad for business.
924.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Hacker News now runs on top of Common Lisp https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44099006 (435 comments) (this was mentioned below but repeated here)
925.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
> Uh, isn't that exactly what happens with runtime type checking? No, it raises an exception, which you can handle. In some cases one can even resume via restarts. This is versus C, where a miscast pointer can cause memory corrupt
926.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
SBCL has fine type checking. Some is done at compile time -- you get warnings if something clearly can't be type correct -- but otherwise when compiled with safety 3 (which people tend to make the default) types are checked dynamicall
927.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
That was his confusion.
928.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
One approach is more integration of researchers with businesses. Fraud (or simple incompetence) by researchers negatively affects businesses, as they expend effort on things that aren't real. I understand this is a constant problem i
929.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
And funding dedicated to replication studies.
930.
by pfdietz 8mo ago
Thanks.

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