The 1% rule states that the vast majority of social media users don't post comments and instead lurk or just vote
More broadly, it's commonly understood when you make an internet service that a small proportion of your users will use a massively disproportionate amount of your resources
Are there any services you use where you're the 1%?
@jenbanim I got to tour one of the Littoral Combat Ships a few years ago and those command terminals were running something that looked suspiciously like XP.
With the buzz that the government might relocate Abravanel Hall so there can be more stadium-oriented businesses on that block, I was curious who owned the massive parking lot next to Courthouse station. I'm surprised but not surprised.
(for those who don't know City Creek Reserve, Inc. is a for-profit arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). #SaltLakeCity
Less than half [of Americans] think electric cars are better for the climate. Pretty damning, considering there is strong consensus that EVs have a lower carbon footprint (even when the electricity mix is pretty heavy in coal).3 Electric cars are certainly better for the climate in the United States.
This seems like a common thread for a lot of alternative energy stuff. We just magically forget all the bad stuff about conventional energy systems and focus on the downsides of the new ones, because they're new and unfamiliar and thus scary. I don't really know how you fight this, until there's been generations of people who found nothing scary about solar panels, batteries, wind turbines etc, the bias people have here will make the concern trolling effective.
While we're at it, don't forget the way "ices" and "metals" are defined in astronomy.
I think in general this will be a feature of observational sciences where things get named by the people who first document them, who may not have any good idea of what those things actually are. So Zooology and Botany might be good things to look to to see things being named terribly.
#Urbanism tooters, what's your take on electric mopeds?
In the same way that e-bikes are better suited for higher speeds and longer distances than electric scooters, electric mopeds seem like they could fill a currently empty niche, but I've never actually seen one here in Seattle
Of course they require a license and insurance to drive, so that ups the cost, but are they something that we should push for?
@jenbanim So honestly, if I had my choice here for a "city car" for Seattle, I'd probably not opt for a bike of any kind. I'd want at least a 3-wheeler, so that I can have a covered cabin and a windscreen. There are a few companies that make those, but they're very pricey due to small volume. But perhaps they (or at least speed-governed ones?) should have less licensing requirements due to their lower weight (and thus danger). Be a way to get your kid mobile earlier, like a bike.
Due to a fascinating piece of obscure historical technology, it turns the intersection between electric kettles and electric vehicles is not empty, witness the electric steam locomotive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric-steam_locomotive
Got steam locomotives, lots of hydropower but no coal? No problem, put in a heating coil in the boiler and hook up overhead lines.
@jenbanim get some of those reusable silicone sheets from Costco. Basically the part of parchment paper you care about, except sturdier and goes to the dishwasher instead of the trash can
@jenbanim this kinda shit is why people are totally freaked. It’s all maybes and possibly this and that early stage something and then DIRE CONSEQUENCES (that will 100% happen!)
@jenbanim@timesandseasons@Slyence Sabine reckons it is not likely any time soon. I think her channel is a decent middle ground. Willing to put in a lot of muscle against denialism but also willing to say that the evidence says this is a problem generations from now, not an immediate one
@jenbanim@timesandseasons@Slyence To be fair, I think she approaches her YouTube stuff as a journalist, trying to do slightly better than the generally awful state of science communication. She will talk about her own ideas and thoughts, but she specifically points that out.
I think her big value is in being able to deflate other sensationalist journalism by pointing out that research is preliminary, uncertain, etc, and her deflating marketing hype..
@timesandseasons I think I've heard of this. Buddhists who believe that garlic and onions are too stimulating of the senses and thus lead to bad karma?
While the surface of Venus is a hostile pressure cooker, the upper atmosphere is relatively hospitable, with reasonable temperatures and pressures. However, there is one significant problem: its clouds are made of sulfuric acid. Researchers tested 20 biogenic amino acids in the same concentration of sulfuric acid found on Venus. They discovered that 19 of these acids remained unreactive in that hostile environment and might even use sulfuric acid as a solvent.
@fraser So what are the implications of this exactly? I imagine the solvent part is a good thing for the prospects of life there but the unreactive part isn't the best thing?
@jenbanim having a beard means you will not have the tight fit you need to make an N95 respirator effective. You need to be clean shaven. This is, incidentally, why I am clean shaven
@archliberal Their goal was to avoid another iPhone situation where another company with a different business model would market privacy as a feature and interfere with their business model. In that regard, Oculus is a success so far. It doesn't look likely that a non-Meta company is going to get prime control over VR as a platform.
Would be funny if Apple enters the market and takes over anyway and Meta has to release software in their walled garden though.
Modern AI tools are programmed by humans and trained on human data which has been curated by humans. They are prompted by humans and their output is then edited by humans
People who say AI art isn't human expression have fallen for the people hyping this tool up as a form of computer sentience
@jenbanim I think one of the big boons of AI is that we get intelligence without sentience. Arguably that goes back to stuff like Deep Blue, but in the sense of generally applicable intelligences like LLMs or even things like stable diffusion, this is such a weird and new thing that I don't think people have wrapped their head around it yet. It will take some time to set in that you can have intelligent tools that nonetheless have no self-awareness or will.
I've been thinking more about that thread I reblogged earlier from that North Carolingian politician about promoting exporting peanut hay. She framed it as having peanut hay replacing alfalfa, and she spends the thread talking about how important boosting the product's mindshare will be. And it's true that that is very important if she wants to grow that industry. But she never talked about whether or not its possible for southern peanuts to be cheaper than western alfalfa. Cost is a big deal.
@timesandseasons Given the market distortions around water in the southwest, it might well turn out that the peanut hay would be cheaper in a free market, just, that's not what we have, so the alfalfa is cheaper.