xefer

16 ms·

91.
by xefer 11y ago
The idea that the Gulf Stream per se is responsible for climate changes in northern Europe has been called into question. It turns out that simply having prevailing winds crossing the ocean is by far the biggest factor. The same phenomenon
92.
by xefer 11y ago
There is a theory that the common motif of a bear associated with the constellation Ursa Major may have been brought to the New World from Siberia during the Ice Age over 13,000 years ago. http://www.folklore.ee/folklore&#x2
93.
by xefer 11y ago
As I was reading this I had a bleak vision of being in a meeting with a bunch of alpha types all trying to out "power pose" each other
94.
by xefer 11y ago
Many years ago I put together a Wikipedia "book" as a sort of companion to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Xefer/Books/RemoteIsland
95.
by xefer 11y ago
I can understand the benefits of reusable rockets, etc., but what exactly is the benefit of a controlled landing like this? Couldn't the same reusability benefits be obtained more simply and at less cost (and fuel) with say a big para
96.
by xefer 11y ago
"Nowadays, almost all dictatorships and authoritarian regimes at least go through the electoral motions—such is the homage vice pays to virtue." I've always found it curious how many authoritarian regimes go through the motio
97.
by xefer 11y ago
I think you've wildly misinterpreted my point. Perhaps it's my fault for how I phrased things. I think these technologies, while undoubtably beneficial, have for many decades only pushed back the Malthusian limits imposed by natu
98.
by xefer 11y ago
Mechanisms for sustainability and productivity - the Haber-Bosch process, genetic engineering, the "green revolution", etc. - are a bit of a two-edge sword in that they have allowed for massive population growth. New highways ulti
99.
by xefer 11y ago
Knausgaard had similar observations of Houellebecq and Huysmans: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/08/books/review/michel-houell...
100.
by xefer 11y ago
Sure but I'm just trying to making a general observation and making note of the curious symmetry. It's interesting that an electron dropping to a lower energy state could be, in some sense, effectively connected to another electro
101.
by xefer 11y ago
Italics mine: "If I measure one electron in my lab, the second electron is affected by the measurement of the first electron with no time delay—instantaneously— even though a signal travelling at the speed of light would take millenia
102.
by xefer 11y ago
Thanks. This is all client-side code, which was my entire goal. The visualization itself is built with the InfoVis toolkit (which I'm not sure is being maintained any longer.) If I were to do this today I'd look at D3 probably. Th
103.
by xefer 11y ago
Thanks. I will put that together. Really I should have done that from the start.
104.
by xefer 11y ago
I wrote this several years ago if anyone is interested: http://xefer.com/wikipedia It's not perfect but I enjoyed working on it
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Person from Porlock(en.wikipedia.org)
2 points by xefer 11y ago|0 comments
106.
by xefer 11y ago
I've had over 100% luck emailing papers' authors directly asking for a copy of a particular paper I've been interested in reading. I typically get a PDF emailed back to me. I say "over 100%" because several times I
107.
by xefer 11y ago
UML emerged out of the whole CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering) movement. (Now there's a term you don't hear much any more!) Things were never well standardized and UML was an attempt to bring some sanity to the whole und
108.
by xefer 11y ago
So far "Moments" has only served to remind me how much I miss the "Discover" section. That at least tended to serve up some interesting stuff. "Monents" is filled with nothing but the sort of generic stories I
109.
by xefer 11y ago
I hate the term also. It just seems like a product of superlative-driven headline click bait that has infected everything.
110.
by xefer 11y ago
Nice. You may be interested in Kosa's work in this area if you're not already familiar with it: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~rad/courses/cs266/papers/koza-s...
111.
by xefer 11y ago
Ad Blocking is technologically straightforward because of the ease with which 3rd-party ads are incorporated into webpages: typically it involves a relatively simple change to the page template to include some scripts and a new page element
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The earliest use of the F-word discovered (2015)(medievalists.net)
3 points by xefer 11y ago|1 comments
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by xefer 11y ago
This reminds me of Paul Prescod's article from 2003 which specifically used Google's landing page as an example of performance improvements that could be obtained by a judicious use of SVG: http://www.xml.com/pub&#
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by xefer 11y ago
I agree most especially in the city as a cyclist and a pedestrian. The more I've thought about it ", the more absurd cars, at least as currently configured, are as a means for transportation in high density zones. As a stepping st
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by xefer 11y ago
It may be just the opposite; i.e, the Earth is actuallly in a cooling cycle so the current warming is even worse than indicated. There was an article in Scientific American back 2005 where the author claims that human activity since the daw
116.
by xefer 11y ago
I remember reading about a concerted effort several years ago to try to recover the lost tape: http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/10.07/nixon_pr.html But the last I heard, they were not able to get anythi
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by xefer 11y ago
What is the motivation behind his affectation of spelling "google" with a lower case "G"?
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by xefer 11y ago
Jean Shepherd was a genius. Hundreds of his shows from the 50s through to the 70s are archived at archive.org—so many in fact that I was able to locate the very first show I ever listened to as a kid decades ago. I hadn't heard the epi
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by xefer 11y ago
There's got to be some way to transition to fully autonomous cars that could be implemented. I'd really like to see something that would put a hard limit of ~15mph/25kmh on city streets for all motor vehicles. Upon entering
120.
by xefer 11y ago
"A 150-person study is now under way, and includes a control group." I'm curious, the latest study which is presumably what triggered this story, involved no control group, yet they mention a smaller study from 2011 which did

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