GatorD42

The Cada cars definitely look good, the Amg one and Alfa Romeo f1 car are licensed too. Has anyone here actually built them? The interiors seem to be all black parts which could be a headache to get the right piece. Technic sets have good instructions and helpfully colored pieces which makes for a great build experience. Just wondering what it is like to actually bulls a Cada set.

Is it just teens? It seems like everyone is less happy and more anxious these days. I wonder what the stats look like for adults.

Athletes are not training less at higher intensities overall. The dominant paradigm is polarized training - huge amounts of low intensity with small amounts of high intensity mixed in.

https://www.outsideonline.com/health/training-performance/po...

The article states no long term negative effects have been found, compared to positive short term findings. There’s been a wide range of child-rearing practices across cultures and history, including infanticide. Probably no culture has gotten it exactly right, but this practice is not that far outside the norm as other practices from other cultures.

That collection doesn’t include the largest denomination, the 100 quintillion pengö note that Hungary issued. That was during worst hyperinflation ever recorded and my family lived through it, so I collected some of notes, including a 5 pengö note from before and the 100 quintillion note from the end. See Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_peng%C5%91#Hyperinfl...

I’m really curious how close this translation is to the original. I’ve read Lem in multiple languages (not Polish) and found huge differences seemingly based on making his wordplay “work” in the translated language.

I think circadian lighting will take off soon - something like Phillips Hue but cheaper, simpler, and much brighter bulbs (for simulating daylight). Set and forget for bright morning / day and dim amber at night with simple physical controls for overrides (if you’re having a late night party or something).

This is confusing, generally a blinking yellow when going straight means slow down but you have right of way. A blinking left yellow would be different from a normal blinking yellow.

The color guides seem similar to the IQAir AirVisual Pro and Apple’s weather app. Like the article mentions this is likely to be inside and most useful for alerting when cooking has caused significant particle emissions, that’s what I use my AirVisual for.

Excel is 100x better than any alternative I’ve used (it’s been a while since I used an open source version though). Any savings would be offset by loss of productivity if it’s a spreadsheet heavy workflow. MS software is good, I don’t know how much it costs for enterprise but it’s probably dwarfed by employment costs.

Gwern had the ultimate take down of the sunk cost fallacy. https://www.gwern.net/Sunk-cost Outside of specific (usually government) projects, I tend to think of it as the sunk cost fallacy fallacy.

The first scenario seems much more plausible and genuinely worrying.

Wouldn’t the most likely attack be an angry (ex) spouse with physical access to a target’s phone placing images on it (and uploading to iCloud)? I haven’t seen this seemingly likely scenario discussed much.

Koenigsegg claims that because of modern catalytic converters and improved cold starting process for their engine, there are virtually no particulate emissions: https://www.koenigsegg.com/gemera/tiny-friendly-giant-engine...

I wonder how well these claims will hold up. Seems like a very big deal if true.

I've wondered the same thing. I assume it means time in bed, otherwise the recommendation would need a disclaimer about sleep efficiency and time in bed vs actual sleep. Some people are able to get by with around 6 hours of sleep, I've assumed these people have higher sleep efficiency while the 8 hour recommendation is for people with around 85% efficiency.

People make cost-safety trade offs all the time, the probabilities are so low that they may not explicitly think of them as such.

Have you ever driven a long distance instead of flying? If so you sacrificed safety for price / convenience - over the same distance flying is much safer. Are you driven by a professional chauffeur in an armored S-Class? If not you are sacrificing safety for cost.

You could imagine pushing pro-regulation arguments to absurd circumstances, like making it illegal to drive more than 125 miles (requiring people fly instead) or banning all cars aside from the armored S-Class etc. The side effects of such rules would obviously be very bad, but smaller regulations could have smaller, still deleterious consequences. See the case of unsafe cars in India: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/05/sa...

Some libertarians (such as myself) generally believe corporations already have strong incentives to make non-defective products. Some products that compromise safety for cost provide consumers low cost options they would otherwise not have. Efforts to regulate such products to make them safer can cause more harm than good (by making such products more expensive and therefore unavailable so consumers will use something older or less safe).

Currently it costs zero dollars to "hire" a lawyer in a class action against a company for a defective product. If a company has made a defective product there will probably be a class action and you will receive a small settlement. If you have been seriously injured eg by asbestos it also costs zero dollars to hire a lawyer, they work on contingency. I am totally in favor of reforming licensing laws, but if you have been seriously injured and you have a strong legal case, money is not a barrier to getting a lawyer.

Generally I think there is too much regulation and too much litigation, I don't think private litigation is a solution for regulation, I think market incentives are the solution. When there are obviously unsafe products on the market is worth looking deeper to see if consumers are willingly sacrificing safety for cost.

Available on Amazon and I would assume supplements aisle of drug stores. Dose for OCD seems to be up to 2400 mg.

N-Acetyl Cysteine, available OTC, supposedly helps with intrusive thoughts, I take it and haven't noticed a large difference but I'm not aware of any adverse effects.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4423164/

Pointing out people in blue zones are consistently active even if they don't run marathons or go to the gym is a very weak argument against marathons and exercise. Instead of the tortured analogy the author could have tried looking at data directly related to the topic:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2358586/dont-worry-about-exerc...

I think your analogy does you no favors. Nicotine as a stimulant does provide some benefits, and studies have shown increased smoking rates among those with ADHD and schizophrenia, psbly bc of some therapeutic effect from nicotine. The nicotine path can alleviate depression, and regular people do enjoy smoking. Second hand smoke is bad, but probably nowhere near as bad as the harm drunk drivers cause.

Reasoning backwards, if menthol cigarettes were illegal, would anyone support making them legal? I’m libertarian-ish esp with respect to drugs but I think this makes sense. At some point this harm reduction strategies will go too far but it hasn’t reached that point for me yet.

Fresh Red Delicious from a local farm can be good. The ones in cafeterias or cheap supermarkets are beyond terrible. My point is that good versions of traditional varieties can be very good, even though they are less sweet.

The Honeycrisp is fine, but I don't love the trend of Apple varieties that taste like jolly ranchers (super sweet and crisp - see also Pink Lady or Jazz). Old fashioned apple varieties like Macintosh and even Red Delicious can be great in season from local farms - I had a Red Delicious today I would take over any Honeycrisp.

I have friends who only eat Honeycrisp, I feel old when I complain that it's not a real apple and they should try something else.

I switched to Dvorak about ten years ago then switched back about five years ago. I switched back because I use swipe text input on phones which works much better (only?) with QWERTY, and swipe text became and still is very important for me.

Although I could type faster and much more comfortable on Dvorak I regret ever making the change, I feel I am still not as fast on QWERTY as I was before I switched to Dvorak. I make a lot of mistakes typing now and can't seem get much faster or more accurate with practice.

It was very difficult for me to do both or switch between the two - I was much better at Dvorak until I gave it up. My QWERTY was prbly 30 wpm max while using Dvorak. It helps to switch context or use different keyboards for switching. I think I got to 90 wpm Dvorak, QWERTY is now around 65-70.

I have problems typing comfortably and motor learning / coordination issues that might make me unusual, but I have read that fluency with both is rare and very difficult.

Oh shortcuts were more annoying in Dvorak, only other issue aside from swipe text.

So if a faster shoe came along (Vapor Fly 5%) that didn’t use a plate, that would be okay? But if people preferred the Vapor Fly 4% over the faster shoe, they couldn’t use it because of the plate? . . .

The patent application Ross Tucker cites has close to zero applicability. Nike has been working on a different energy return “spring” shoe that probably would be illegal - the patent could be for those shoes. And people claim lots of things in patents, that doesn’t make the claims true. All shoes have some combination of firmness and cushioning, and shoes have used an embedded firm plate design before, and nobody complained.

What if a biomechanics lab proved the Vapor Fly 4% is not acting as a spring but makes runners more efficient through some other mechanism (firm underfoot feeling but lots of cushioning)?

I’m not sure I agree with these examples and I’m not big on architecture criticism like this. I think it’s important not to overvalue a building based on how it looks - 99.9% of your time will be spent inside the building, .1% or less will be spent outside looking at it. Modern houses can be much nicer inside: larger open areas, larger kitchens, larger bathrooms and (usually) less lead paint and asbestos.

The same goes for office buildings, where I think the conservation movement overvalues the small amount of time people spend looking at a building vs the huge amount of time people work inside it. I’ve been in old beautiful office buildings in NYC and modern ugly office buildings and the modern buildings usually have a much better working environment and layout.

Example 1 looks fine to me, I would be happy to live in this house. It’s not beautiful but it’s not ugly.

Example 2 is ugly, the windows on the front are weird and the side has too few windows. My main issues with McMansions is they look cheaper than older houses because of the materials and sometimes facades have no windows or few windows, while old houses tend to have more windows and they are evenly balanced.

Example 3 looks fine, it’s almost pretty.

Example 4 would be better if the dark brick part on the house’s left had a window, and the white brick with random dark bricks is kind of ugly. Not terrible though.

Example 5 looks fine and I like red brick houses.

Example 6 is okay too.

I’d be happy with most of these houses if they had a nice interior and nice yard.

If you think the plate is such a qualitative difference you may have fallen for Nike's marketing. The vapor fly 4% is very lightweight with an excellent cushioning to weight ratio thanks partly to Nike's new zoomx foam (which possibly provides superior energy return too). Shoes with plates in them have been around for a while and nobody complained - Mizuno shoes have plates like this as does the Nike zoom fly (different shoe), neither shoe is very high on the list or higher than you would expect based on its weight alone.

Look at the top shoes on the list - the Nike streak is a super lightweight shoe without Nike's new foam and it is second fastest. This should tell you weight alone is probably the most important factor. Two other highly rated shoes are Adidas shoes with boost foam, a type of foam similar to Nike's zoomx with a better cushioning to weight ratio. So the newest generation of foam probably provides a small benefit apart from the she's weight alone.

Runners capable of running a three hour marathon probably know the single most important factor in a running shoe for speed is weight. If they still choose to run in Saucony Guide or Hokas there's probably a good reason. What percent of runners who switched to the Saucony Guide were injured and used the shoes to recover, and what percent of runners in heavier shoes with more cushioning and stability features made it to the Starting line vs runners in Nike streaks? It's possible the heavier shoes provide protection from injury or greater comfort - there's a reason runners don't race marathons in track spikes.

I don't think the plate provides much benefit apart from weight and cushioning, my guess is that it is there for the feel of the shoe and without it the new foam would feel too mushy.

The aggressive opinion on regulating these shoes seems over the top to me, the next best shoes, the relatively unheralded Nike Streak, provided a 3% performance improvement, and more runners achieved a personal best with those shoes. And improvements with the vapor fly 4% were smaller for faster runners. Also many runners choose shoes based on injury prevention and comfort - if a shoe gets you to the starting line uninjured with plenty of training miles that's an infinite time improvement over pulling out of the race injured.

Wired did a good analysis on this too https://www.wired.com/story/do-nike-zoom-vaporfly-make-you-r...

Conan Doyle was fascinating, I highly recommend the biography Teller of Tales, he was prescient about a lot of things (submarine warfare, other military issues during WWI) but also fooled by the rampant fraud in the spiritualist movement, like the Cottingley photographs.

This article makes it seem like he personally investigated the cases, he didn’t. What he did was help publicize them and write long book length summaries of the evidence to convince people. He also published a “pamphlet” on Belgian colonial exploitation of the Congo. He worked directly with the lawyers / investigators to get the facts and used his fame and writing ability to get public attention.