sclarisse

Relativity is insane. Einstein literally rewrote the formula for “add two velocities together”. You know, like 20 km/s + 20 km/s, WHICH YOU WOULD THINK just turns into 40km/s, but it’s actually ever so slightly less.

It goes really deep in terms of what it affects in physics.

Lewis Carroll wrote a gag about people using words like this.

On the contrary. The URL you post here has been submitted to HN several times (plus my attempt to make the title a little catchier as I linked to the GitHub issue #28, which I titled “Don’t add website DRM to Chrome” in a defensible attempt to expand the title the best I credibly could under HN rules - the issue title is just “Don’t.”)

These all died in obscurity. This blog post by contrast had a catchy title that HN actually engaged with, and as such is measurably superior.

Blame dang & co, for making forum software in which blogspam is the only way to add comment or meaningfully add context and editorialize. (Since blogspam is officially discouraged I’d say the software is not fit for purpose.)

> Why do some stores need a pin on my debit card, and some do not?

Oh that’s easy enough. If they need a PIN it’s actually being run as a debit card over the debit card network. Otherwise it’s being run as a “check card” over the credit card network (with higher fees and better consumer protections). It’s just backed with money instead of a line of credit.

> Why do online stores need my name and address, but IRL ones do not?

IRL stores have access to the actual card (with your name) and having this artifact present makes it much less likely that you are a fraudulent fraudster committing fraud, so the processors are willing to take it.

> How can restaurants swipe my card now and charge me later?

the good news is if the store ever defrauds you, everyone knows where to find the store! Unlike fraudsters making purchases.

Signature.

You send the money to a literal mailbox instead. That’s how.

(Using a check, the very infrastructure we’ve been talking about!!)

> having 10 million single window units blasting walls of heat into a crowded city very quickly becomes an arms race where nobody wins (except perhaps the AC manufacturers).

Is this more or less energy than would be used for heating, in an equivalent city that seldom wants A/C? Remember, with the exception of heat pumps (hardly universal and less efficient at low temperatures) A/C is usually much more efficient at changing indoor temperatures, and also that 100F -> 72F is a smaller temperature difference than 32F -> 72F.

Christianity is heavy on the guilt. If you’re self-flagellating, that’s a sign it’s guilt, not shame.

East Asian cultures are more about the shame. And try not to go anywhere where the social order is based on Fear.

Idk, it seems reasonably obvious that there is activism and litigation and nonprofits and bureaucracies all studying environmental issues, and these are all operated by people, many of whom get more money and attention was a result of the concerns they raise. There is some opportunity for a conflict of interest.

One question, though, is whether they take that opportunity. Another more salient question is whether the Wall Street Journal, of all the possible papers, has fallen under the influence of such groups.

And it certainly seems as if they’ve found some people with elevated lead levels in blood, and ground and water samples that exceed EPA limits.

Yeah :(

Note that the half-mile statistic is connected to underwater cables, not buried cables. It is certainly an overcount, but it is probably not trivial to assess the local hydrology and the extent to which children’s play areas might be exposed to such water.