Posts by varx@cybre.space
(DIR) Post #A0lo5pxV3GhwyIFOhE by varx@cybre.space
2020-11-01T18:35:33Z
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@rysiek You could probably make sci-fi horror story out of the hornet's experience of this.Humans land on a new planet where water and minerals are plentiful, establish a colony, and start building out towns. And then towns start disappearing, wiped off the map, the very land excavated. It transpires that enormous and powerful aliens are in competition with them for the same resources. The aliens are capturing miners and implanting radio trackers, and when they track them back to their underground town, they eradicate it thoroughly and efficiently.Maybe *we're* the murder hornets.
(DIR) Post #A0zpuwVMh2LMOZuN96 by varx@cybre.space
2020-11-08T15:53:34Z
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@cjd Not quite, there's also the National Popular Vote compact, which could be an end-run around getting having to get an amendment: https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/BUT, yes, I also want to get rid of FPTP. Both are important.
(DIR) Post #A0zpuxWSuQolYHQlV2 by varx@cybre.space
2020-11-08T17:58:19Z
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@cjd On #1, the MA ballot effort for IRV specifically excluded presidential races, and I believe it was because they determined this would be unconstitutional. They restricted it to state races. (The ballot measure failed, unfortunately.)On #2, that's an interesting meta-point. I'm not sure I find it convincing, though. Currently if LA put a 20% thumb on the scales, it could flip 100% of their electors; under the national compact, the impact would stay at 20% for their proportion of the population. And I think any very dramatic bias that would reverse this relationship would be too obvious, up to and including requiring a re-vote.But the blast-radius aspect of the electoral college is worth keeping in mind, I agree.
(DIR) Post #A0zpuyTfMKAmVt82m8 by varx@cybre.space
2020-11-08T18:17:24Z
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@cjd Yeah, IRV has problems. http://zesty.ca/voting/sim/ gives a nice visualization of one of its issues, non-monotonicity, which is what you're describing.All voting systems have problems, but IRV has some particularly upsetting ones. (Still better than FPTP, haha.)
(DIR) Post #A2LK4liH5RM3Bnj5zU by varx@cybre.space
2020-12-19T01:00:00Z
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@leip4Ier You'd run into issues with distributed event ordering. If I make a post, you share it, and then I delete it... other people might see it as "you shared a deleted post".Plausibly the same could happen if I change the visibility on a post (if that's even supported).Could be weaponized against other users.
(DIR) Post #A50zu4h79tNnqByIF6 by varx@cybre.space
2021-03-08T22:23:43Z
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@vidak Sure humans are a resource.In any non-trivial goal-driven enterprise, whether that's a corporation or an activist group or whatever, you're going to need to think about who has what skills, how to divide up work, how people's schedules interact, all those things. That's resource management, and it's absolutely a useful and legitimate way to think about a group of people.(As long as you don't forget they're *more* than resources. That's the important part, yeah?)
(DIR) Post #A8gd6sk7oKB3HqaFV2 by varx@cybre.space
2021-06-26T16:10:44Z
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@JonathanMBR 70 km/h I've done, and it felt Not Exactly Safe. My bike started vibrating. 😅 (This was on a highway, slightly downhill.)Add 200 kg? ...that might solve the vibration problem, and cause lots of other problems. Imagine ever needing the brakes!
(DIR) Post #AADtQzfzRqBhwK80Su by varx@cybre.space
2019-11-08T02:33:28Z
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@SuricrasiaOnline When I ask Wolfram Alpha questions, I *usually* end up sorry I asked. It's extremely rare that it actually ends up interpreting my question correctly, let alone giving me a useful answer.
(DIR) Post #AADtR0W6K5s6XwVcgq by varx@cybre.space
2019-11-08T02:38:01Z
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@SuricrasiaOnline I think the only query I've gotten a good answer from WA for is "mass of moon in cheese". It gave me the nutrition facts for a ball of cheese the mass of the moon. Which is what I wanted!
(DIR) Post #AADtR7Kez1sZgUD5KS by varx@cybre.space
2019-11-08T03:11:57Z
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@SuricrasiaOnline "dogs per cat" -> "Assuming Tigra (Marvel Comics) | Use [Cat (Red Dwarf)] or [Walter Hardy] instead""emoji" -> "Interpreting as: OTZ ... Input interpretation: Ralph Wien Memorial Airport"
(DIR) Post #AAxkSzttU091erHU48 by varx@cybre.space
2021-09-02T20:52:21Z
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@wauz @JonathanMBR AZ's side effects are still better than COVID-19. I would take it myself. Pfizer and Moderna are more *effective*, but AZ is fine from a safety standpoint.Remember, you have to compare the 1 in 100,000 risk of severe side effects against the much, much higher risk from COVID-19.All vaccines are medicine, and all medicine carries risk. You always have to make risk tradeoffs, even for aspirin.
(DIR) Post #AAxnAOp8tUMdJhsk7s by varx@cybre.space
2021-09-02T21:22:37Z
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@wauz @JonathanMBR I think those numbers are a little out of date, but what's your point? Compare to the AZ "survival rates" (99.9999%+), combined with the AZ effectiveness (around 80% for Alpha, 60% for Delta.)Don't forget to look up separate stats for temporary and permanent disability from the virus.The vaccine is *obviously* a safer choice than just... not getting vaccinated. You really can't argue with this.
(DIR) Post #AAxrVOIASxlNZ6iuDQ by varx@cybre.space
2021-09-02T22:11:15Z
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@wauz I mean, if you're just a vaccine denier, why do you even care what Kenya gets?
(DIR) Post #ABtowKhDNp4uWJ8R2e by varx@cybre.space
2021-09-30T21:15:43Z
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@JonathanMBR Wow, and it's just made from the leaves. Can't be very high potency.
(DIR) Post #ADElYrFzo4zaR1MJg8 by varx@cybre.space
2021-11-07T23:06:38Z
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@iarebatman This is my email account for sending videos, this other one is my email for sending text, and this one over here is for photos.
(DIR) Post #ADuYHsiWlB35fAWIQi by varx@cybre.space
2021-11-30T01:27:54Z
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@msh @djsundog Oddly enough, pineapples have been a sign of hospitality in Britain for a couple hundred years.
(DIR) Post #AEXgCuFa41F4DqQ3NI by varx@cybre.space
2021-12-17T17:49:37Z
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@tedu That would be unfortunate. (I chose J&J as my booster, having had Moderna as my primary series.) But also seems unlikely to me—isn't there a long history of using an adenovirus vector?
(DIR) Post #AEoOhJw4sivV2s0ruy by varx@cybre.space
2021-12-26T22:58:15Z
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@binder @amolith Heh, good point. Or even:what the code does ❌what the code did ❌what the author thought the code did ❌what someone thought the code did ✅😬
(DIR) Post #AFUtp8yvno9O3Hva08 by varx@cybre.space
2022-01-15T16:10:06Z
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a Von Neumann replicator straight out of sci fi but made of meatself-constructing, -monitoring, and -repairing better than anything we can designinnately capable of surviving a range of chemical, thermal, biological, and mechanical assaults for decades, even a centurybuilding itself out of widely available local materialsthat can collaborate to make more of itself in endless new combinationsa horrendously complicated assemblage of organic molecules that can, however poorly, hold a reflection of the universe inside a kilo of fat and ions.
(DIR) Post #AHBnKBYOuENqeZB4yG by varx@cybre.space
2022-03-08T02:42:58Z
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@freedomchick I feel like this has actually been pretty well represented in the media -- that the war in Ukraine is really unpopular in Russia, partly because there are so many cultural and family ties between the countries.