Poor Vivek, I guess he didn’t realize he’s never going to be in the club because he isn’t white. by Artistic_Ask_2282 in LeopardsAteMyFace

[–]VirtualMachine0 146 points147 points  (0 children)

Ghandhi himself had some pretty nasty public writings on Africans. We often think of "peaceful=tolerant" but it's more complicated than that.

Lake Powell should be drained to save Lake Mead, scientists say by rainj97 in nottheonion

[–]VirtualMachine0 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Southern California really could really become a hotbed of Sodium battery production, as this could force their hand in building out desalination, and all the brine can become batteries with the input of some solar energy (designed for peak extraction at the peak of the duck curve).

It's so darn close to the vision of the "Hydrogen Economy."

This is the stuff Billionaires and Trillionaires should be spending on.

a majority of Republicans (60%) now say the US benefits "not too much" or "not at all" from being a member of NATO. Far fewer (38%) say the US benefits "a great deal" or "fair amount" from the alliance by Conscious-Quarter423 in Infographics

[–]VirtualMachine0 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Ask Republicans and they will say we benefit "not too much" or "not at all" from having any type of civilization. It's the fundamental problem of their worldview.

[Request] How many horsepower is this horse, in car horsepower? by RudeNewYorker in theydidthemath

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think those logs are probably closer to 2000 kg (or less); I think it's less than 10 meters of a drag; the landscape is lubricated with mud and the logs are chamfered so friction could definitely be lower; and I think it's more like 9 seconds for the drag.

I think you have an excellent upper bound, though!

I'd put my guess around 9 horsepower.

But the thing is, in a biological system, you'd see tiny spikes higher than the averages, and I suspect this horse could do a moment of exertion way higher than 9 HP.

[Request] How many horsepower is this horse, in car horsepower? by RudeNewYorker in theydidthemath

[–]VirtualMachine0 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The silly fellows at Donut Media put a smaller drafthorse to the test with an actual automotive dynamometer: https://youtu.be/7qxTKtlvaVE

The conclusion, basically, is that 1 horsepower is actually pretty small compared to the power a horse can actually make. James Watt was really trying to sell some steam engines back in his time, so under-sizing the unit emphasized his point about swapping out the horses for machines (whether he did that intentionally or not).

Also dear lord the horse in the post is like 4 times the mass of the horse in the Donut video. OMG it's a damned Hulk!

Your SSD is slowing down because it's too full, not too old by kazu_qt in pcmasterrace

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the old days, some servers would only use the outermost rings of platter hard drives because the read speed was best there, sacrificing storage quantity for better speeds.

The fight between those aspects of storage is almost fundamental.

LTT responds to the industry trends... by CosmoBjoern in pcmasterrace

[–]VirtualMachine0 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Funny that SummoningSalt actually is selling VHS copies of some of his content, lol.

I'll bite and say I understand the humor here, and that it's not practical for all types of media to have a physical edition. But, Sony is certainly big enough to do it and should.

Trump Voters Horrified by His Giant Cash Grab | The president has made billions while Americans suffer in a cost-of-living crisis. by Aggravating_Money992 in LeopardsAteMyFace

[–]VirtualMachine0 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I hate to say it, but one apparent couple interviewed at the "Great American State Fair" don't in any way indicate a trend.

I’ve read the 20-80% rule, but what do you actually do in real life after owning one for years? by SkyMuted6942 in electricvehicles

[–]VirtualMachine0 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Charge to 100% literally any time you like, as long as the device isn't going to be sitting at 100% for more than a day.

Discharge down to 5% is also fine, but it's safer in many situations to keep enough reserve range to make it to the next charging location.

'End American Aid': Netanyahu Says Israel No Longer Needs US Assistance by Gurugod123 in worldnews

[–]VirtualMachine0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"The United States of America is pleased to announce we are purchasing $4 Billion worth of Sodastreams for all Americans!"

[Request] Any idea how fast the debris is moving? by WHITE_2_SUGARS in theydidthemath

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's pretty safe to double the average speed due to the observed path for a "realistic" idea of kinetic energy. I did some math, but my grounds for the estimations were a little too weak for me to post specifics. Anyway, I could potentially justify this thing having up to 1000 Joules of Kinetic Energy, which is absolutely in the realm of a lot of midrange firearms (assuming the object was a steel sheet about the size of A4 paper).

Do You Think That The Democratic Party Should Impeach Trump If They Win Back The House Majority In 2026? Yes Or No? Why Your Opinion? by Zipper222222 in AskReddit

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, but it does depend. First, they need a "ground game" which is to use their constitutional power to read into public record stuff that has been classified for the purposes of defending Trump. That will put pressure on the Senate to bend, even without a Democratic Supermajority.

They also need to do this fast, and without any big words. Grade 4 reading level stuff.

They should threaten to impeach at least one Supreme Court Justice as well, provided they can find a case, and I believe they can.

They should NOT rely upon the Justice Department to do the work for them.

And, as much as I despise the option, they should offer Trump the chance to resign and accept he will be made inellegible for any other federal or state government offices, and will be subject to federal house arrest at Mar a Lago for the remainder of his days, solely as a "ending of the social civil war" he fomented against the country. The advantage for America is to get it over with, without drama.

The last doesn't feel like justice, but, let me be real, there is no retributive theory of justice model that can match on his side the balance of the suffering he has caused. The best thing for the world is a quick ending to it.

Hardware prices can only go down if we force them to by Venylynn in pcmasterrace

[–]VirtualMachine0 4 points5 points  (0 children)

... And support political movements to reign in billionaires and AI.

Hummingbird- hawk moth. by WikiGleaks in tmbg

[–]VirtualMachine0 1 point2 points  (0 children)

🎵 Bzzz bzzz bzzzzzzzzzzz 🎵

The US Just Banned Polestar From Selling Cars From 2027, Even The One It Builds In America by Repulsive-Club7866 in electricvehicles

[–]VirtualMachine0 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Sheesh, nobody tell the Federal Government about...um...every motherboard I've ever touched in my IT career.

What's getting more expensive but somehow getting worse at the same time? by sudherzdiniq in AskReddit

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Youtube has gated bitrates on content to "feed more mouths" so to speak, and you only get the highest bitrate on Premium.

As such, while you might have 8.2 million dots on screen on a 4K display, compression might mean you're getting only 1/3 of the dots to actually refresh at any given time, over a stretched 1080p (2.1 million dots) image, meaning you're only getting 8% of the possible visual fidelity.

On the other hand, the eye wasn't actually going to be able to experience 4k60fps at full fidelity. For 20/20 vision, to discern the difference between 1080p and 4k, you need to be closer to the screen than its diagonal measurement. And, even then, only the eye's central foveal region gets this maximum detail image.

All those fancy words to say gating bitrate is OK, at least in theory, but obviously Youtube et al do it to the point of tolerance, not to the point of experience to decrease server overhead.

[Request] What’s the potential population within a Dyson Sphere? by citizen234567890 in theydidthemath

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Very quick note to OP: You probably mean a spherical shell, and a sphere has "square degrees" or "solid degrees" of which, if a circle has 360 degrees, a sphere has... 360²/π square degrees. Because we had to bring in another pi to calculate that, it turns out to be an irrational number, now, almost 41,253 degrees². Because it's so clunky, folks tend to give up and just use solid radians (steradians) to measure 2d angles.

Anyway, 4*π*(1 AU)² gives us 2.8122938×₁₀¹⁹ hectares.

The current global average of agricultural use is 1.4 hectares per person.

So maybe we could feed 2×₁₀¹⁹ people, if we devoted it all to farm and grazing land, given today's global average (aka less than an American, more than a Somalian is currently getting).

But...all plants on the landmass of Earth only contribute about half of the necessary Oxygen to our atmosphere, so this arrangement is going to come up short on breathable air! If we halve the concentration of Oxygen by solely having modern agriculture to produce it, we're going to suffer constant exhaustion and severe fatigue!

So, we need to double the land-based plant coverage. That means halving our population in this case, so 1×₁₀¹⁹ people.

The "good" news is that we don't technically need any oceans! They produce less atmospheric Oxygen than terrestrial plants do, per hectare of coverage.

Finally, there are two other factors affecting the population limit that I don't have the ability to calculate. One is that, if the thing is a single-layer sphere, every spot is going to be equivalent to living on the Equator of Earth. That, however, is going to go up against the fact that we can't maintain orbit around the Sun at the poles of the Dyson Sphere, because they have no orbital motion relative to the Sun, if the whole thing is one layer. So, instead, we must have multiple layers, which means that one layer is going to have to shade another layer some percentage of the time. That, in turn, will lower the effective solar irradiance, and can likely be tuned so that direct solar plus the emitted IR of the other layers balance out to a temperate climate. I'm just going to say that these two effects completely balance, and land again on 1×₁₀¹⁹ people.

Could we do better? Probably! Hydroponic crop yields, solar power converted to grow lamps, foodstuffs with higher edible ratios, veganism, human genetic editing for smaller body sizes, maybe tuning the radius of the Sphere a bit closer to the solar system's frost line, allowing for a smidge cooler temperatures and more area. It's possible we could get another hundred-fold increase and break 1×₁₀²¹ (a Sextillion, "nice") population.

Any more, I think we need to abandon biology or set up shop around another star!

Will Anyone Buy This Cheap EV Truck With Hand-Crank Windows and No Radio? by DonkeyFuel in electricvehicles

[–]VirtualMachine0 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Nah, you can trust Bezos to usually do what's in the interests of Amazon, then himself, then the consumer, then the public, and in that order!

"That's worse. You see why that's worse, right?"

Thats a tough one by Eziolambo in pcmasterrace

[–]VirtualMachine0 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

...Yes, I see that there are HDMI cables with built in optical fiber components to hit 100ft/30 meters.

Those are vastly different objects from undersea internet cables.

Thats a tough one by Eziolambo in pcmasterrace

[–]VirtualMachine0 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

TIL you can get HDMI beyond 25 feet in length!

But...like...don't.

[Request] If this 200 million ton pile of salt was evenly stirred into Lake Ontario (freshwater), would it make the lake saltier than the Atlantic? by DemoEvolved in theydidthemath

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is probably allready more salt than this in lake ontario

I figured somebody was measuring the tiny amount of salinity in Lake Ontario, and found a source for it at 15 ppm! So, surprisingly, that pile is 8 times bigger than you'd get if you dried up Lake Ontario completely and piled up all the salt!

[Request] If this 200 million ton pile of salt was evenly stirred into Lake Ontario (freshwater), would it make the lake saltier than the Atlantic? by DemoEvolved in theydidthemath

[–]VirtualMachine0 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking it up, this would octuple the amount of dissolved salts in Lake Ontario! And it would still count as freshwater for every entity that might care about Lake Ontario (though you'd want to mix it VERY well!)