sapote

6 ms·

1.
by sapote 8y ago
This is a topic that has a lot of noise but there are two relatively easy to explain things to tell people (I am discounting the usual 27% of the population who will never be interested): 1. There is a policy that is simple to explain and h
2.
by sapote 9y ago
There are studies that have found that the net carbon impact of such desert solar arrays can actually be detrimental -- that is, installing the solar arrays in the desert causes an imbalance in desert soil ecology causing a release of soil
3.
by sapote 9y ago
That's correct.
4.
by sapote 9y ago
Credit where I think it's due -- Bruce Schneier was one of the first to introduce the metaphor of feudalism in this context: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.ht...
5.
by sapote 9y ago
Two things: * Sure, seeds germinate with water and warmth. But that's true today. In the words of an Australian farmer quoted in a research paper a few years ago: "Mate, we don't need a chip to tell us the soil's dry.&
6.
by sapote 9y ago
And largely these sensors are unnecessary. Such "precision agriculture" efforts are just doubling down on a broken agricultural paradigm.
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by sapote 9y ago
Hmm. I think I'd agree only to the second half of that. Just considering Kennedy's examples alone there are many things that cannot be bought at any price: consider the joy of a child's play or the integrity of public offic
8.
by sapote 9y ago
I was responding to this statement: > Everything that is desired takes resources to get Kennedy made the good point (as others have, less eloquently) that there are many things that are desired that neither take resources to get nor are
9.
by sapote 9y ago
In my view that's a misconception, one that's quite common in the tech world (and also to a certain extent in the broader culture). Robert Kennedy commented on this (in a different context) in a speech in 1968: > And this is o
10.
by sapote 9y ago
> It's a moving metaphor but of course cells within us have the same genome whereas different humans have different genomes. So it's hard to consider them part of one living system, unless one accepts the Gaia Hypothesis. Excep
11.
by sapote 9y ago
>And my favorite group, the ones confusing technology with science This. It's far too common here at HN.
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by sapote 9y ago
That's actually a feature, not a bug -- 11th hour news stories are rarely accurate, seldom have sufficient context, etc.
13.
by sapote 9y ago
Given that, I wonder how has Oregon has managed to have such smooth elections.
14.
by sapote 9y ago
I remember someone saying here that a key shift in framing in Germany was to call them voting computers rather than voting machines (since the broader public understands that computers can be hacked). I think we might adopt that as well.
15.
by sapote 9y ago
I was expecting that response. The only solution, then, is to ban all mail in ballots. Right now California, for example, has optional mail-in voting. Wouldn't you expect that anyone who can be coerced to vote some way could be coer
16.
by sapote 9y ago
Agreed. And to add to it, we should switch to a system in which we have: * 100% mail-in paper ballots, like Oregon -- no long lines, no games about which districts get which machines, no polling place intimidation * Mandatory random-sample
17.
by sapote 9y ago
"The anti-use would be in any sort of cryptographic implementation, since any "entropy" you'd be gaining by using this data as a source of randomness is completely counteracted by the fact that the source is known. Rando
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by sapote 9y ago
Organic food raised like industrial food will often take more land. But organic food raised in polyculture can sometimes take dramatically less space. Look up Land Equivalent Ratio and intercropping.
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by sapote 9y ago
Agreed. I'm surprised at the support for this article... I somehow got downvoted for saying that growing one's own food is a great alternative to the narrow perspective the article is pushing.
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by sapote 9y ago
It is free. The time you spend in the garden is time you would have otherwise spent exercising in some other form and (to a lesser extent) shopping.
21.
by sapote 9y ago
This article smacks of narrow-minded contrarianism for its own sake. The cheapest thing one can do -- and healthier than the option of eating Lucky Charms daily -- is to grow one's own food. The space requirements are actually tiny --
22.
by sapote 9y ago
Yeah, like I said in another comment, I'm focused on CS research -- this other stuff, while it might be called research for the sake of the story, isn't the same thing. And the story neatly omits any mention of how much money Goo
23.
by sapote 9y ago
I'm talking about CS research. I don't really consider law research and public policy research as real research -- that's lobbying and conflating the two is just for a headline. Edited to add: the WSJ went on a fishing exped
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by sapote 9y ago
That's absolutely not the case. Government-funded research review processes are actually more prescriptive and restrictive and political than Google is. I know this first hand. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. Oddly, what
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by sapote 9y ago
This reflects a lack of understanding about academic research. All researchers look for future funding from the same sources, and the same effect occurs. Oddly, given the small size of Google grants (compared to other sources) and the fac
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by sapote 9y ago
I know that the story is nonsense -- I am part of a research group that's gotten such grants before. This is basically a story aiming to confuse those who don't understand how research works. Google is funding work that aligns w
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by sapote 9y ago
Might work on the East Coast or in water-intensive gardens elsewhere, but in California almost any reasonable garden will have a layer of rough mulch to reduce evaporation (and suppress weeds). Maybe this robot could navigate my mulch but
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by sapote 9y ago
Random-sample verified paper balloting is probably the hardest to hack system there is, and is super simple which matters in an election -- not only must the election be secure but everyone needs to trust that it is.
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by sapote 9y ago
It's not an either-or situation. The apartment building can have many large, fast-growing deciduous (ideally fruit-bearing) trees planted on their sunny side. And trees can make a big difference -- just think about the temperature dro
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by sapote 9y ago
Simple but incomplete solution: plant a deciduous tree on the sunny side(s) of your house.

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