torpfactory

8 ms·

31.
by torpfactory 2y ago
Thermodynamics places limits on heat engine efficiency. For a gasoline engine it is about 35%. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s_theorem_(thermody...
32.
by torpfactory 2y ago
I have a theory that one of the core problems is that American businesses just expect to make too much money. Everyone seems to be aiming for 30% gross margin or more, and then working to get monopoly power or regulatory capture in order to
33.
by torpfactory 2y ago
I'm not so sure I would bet on it. I think China would rather "reunite" without force, but Xi has put his personal imprimateur on "reunification". Nothing gets people to forget about economic anxiety like a good old
34.
by torpfactory 2y ago
I don't think people realize just how complicated these machines are. A remote off switch just works faster than the alternative. A steady stream of parts and experts from various locations around the world is required to keep these th
35.
by torpfactory 2y ago
It's worse than that: > Me: Give me a small sample code in Ruby that takes two parameters and returns the Levenshtein distance between them. > ChatGPT: <<Submits working Ruby code that is slow>> But here is some C# co
36.
by torpfactory 2y ago
I don't buy that Microsoft's involvement does much to prevent spills. Exxon, for example, cares about spills mostly as a function of 1) regulation, 2)reputation risk and 3) employees who do care about things being done cleanly. I
37.
by torpfactory 2y ago
I mean, I think there is a reasonable argument here: Microsoft has corporate environmental goals and then as a matter of profit takes money from interests working in direct opposition to those goals. It does smack of hypocrisy, no? I'd
38.
by torpfactory 2y ago
"Which come down to not using oil and gas on one hand, and having health and goods on the other hand. And you can't get the second without using the first." I think that very much USED to be true but is now definitely NOT the
39.
by torpfactory 2y ago
Back when I was in semiconductors in the US (worked for a prominent wafer fab equipment vendor), there was a push to improve efficiency by logging all your hours, describing the projects you were doing, and giving them subjective importance
40.
by torpfactory 3y ago
I think pharmacies should have two sections: one for drugs that have been scientifically studied and are FDA approved. Another section (separate aisle) for all the bullshit supplements with a big disclaimer (sometimes called the quack miran
41.
by torpfactory 4y ago
There was a case in the 90s I think of a Canadian weather balloon that they tried to shoot down with (fighter plane) guns and had a pretty tough time of it. Guns at that altitude too could be an issue as you lose control authority in thin a
42.
by torpfactory 4y ago
The big question is why China would send a balloon. My best guess is it carried electronic warfare sensors to try and collect specific information about US radar and missile capabilities. They may have in fact wanted us to shoot it down, id
43.
by torpfactory 4y ago
You're making very aggressive assumptions about amount of use the EV battery would be subject to, to the point of this being a straw man. You're right that people wouldn't agree to have their expensive EV battery trashed by m
44.
by torpfactory 4y ago
Being able to do “ignition” reliably means you can do experiments in a regime where the energy from fusion starts to become a large part of the reaction. Dynamics in this regime are non-linear, so being able to actually test there is fairly
45.
by torpfactory 4y ago
You kind of have to choose what sort of destruction you want: either you can have marginally more mining for the minerals required for battery production or you can have ecosystem wide damage due to further global warming. There is no free
46.
by torpfactory 5y ago
The key technological innovation is a fully integrated thermal management system which cools and/or warms the battery, inverters (and any other electronics), and cabin. Ideally it should use a single heat pump (much much more efficient
47.
by torpfactory 5y ago
Eliminate subsidies and mandates for ethanol in gasoline. 14-16 million acres of land devoted to a mono crop of corn requiring copious fertilizer and pesticide. Basically this converts oil into a slightly larger quantity of ethanol with som
48.
by torpfactory 5y ago
I don’t think my problem is being able to get the words from my brain into the computer fast enough. My typical HID use case is composing meaningful written communication, a process which is unfortunately much slower than 500wpm.
49.
by torpfactory 5y ago
Serious question: Where do you get that rhetoric from? There has been next to zero actual restrictions forced by the federal on lower levels of government. Most of the restrictions are decided at the city and county level and plenty don’t h
50.
by torpfactory 5y ago
The issue is that while mines produce relatively localized environmental damage, climate change will produce globalized damage by ecosystem collapse and sea level rise. The sum total of this damage will be far greater than the marginal incr
51.
by torpfactory 5y ago
There really isn’t that much lithium in today’s “Lithium ion” batteries. A few percent by weight. Much more Nickel, Cobalt, Aluminum, Carbon, Copper, and Iron than Lithium. Lithium metal anodes would push that number up but that flavor hasn
52.
by torpfactory 5y ago
I have a pet conspiracy theory that spam calls have significantly reduced the effectiveness of political polling.
53.
by torpfactory 5y ago
Definitely sounds like an EMTALA violation. You aren’t allowed to release a patient who is in that bad of shape, regardless of ability to pay. My wife was an ER nurse until recently and they were often in a bind with abusive patients who re
54.
by torpfactory 5y ago
In Tennessee a physician may give a vaccine without parental consent. https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/Mature_Mi...
55.
by torpfactory 6y ago
The really crazy part is that they never did a full up integrated test of all those systems together and in sequence before arriving at Mars.
56.
by torpfactory 6y ago
Stainless strength is ~1600MPA at -200C, Titanium is ~900MPA. Density difference is 8.0g/cc vs. 4.5g/cc for titanium. So at low temp, strength to weight ratio is about even. Maximum working temp for stainless is ~800C vs ~600C for
57.
by torpfactory 6y ago
Stainless maintains better strength at ultra low temperatures, is an order of magnitude cheaper, and can be manufactured more easily with a vastly larger set of forming and joining options.
58.
by torpfactory 6y ago
Wolves by and large do not attack humans: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wolf_attacks_in_Nort... We might be afraid of them but that fear isn’t grounded in reality.
59.
by torpfactory 6y ago
I think the core difference is the level of tailoring and the automation of that tailoring. Newspapers, magazines, television, and radio have all had the same incentives in the past, but architecturally the approach was one to many. At firs
60.
by torpfactory 6y ago
Electric planes will replace car and bus trips before they replace gas planes. Short range, on demand, point to point, cheap travel could really be a game changer. Think what you used to do as a two hour drive- battery electric planes will

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