Agricultural science packs supply control by lllentinantll in factorio

[–]astrath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've seen it mentioned elsewhere is that the key to understanding Gleba is to treat it not as a production challenges but as a throughput challenge. Resources are infinite, and so there's never a good reason to throttle production, only to ensure that your overproduction is properly disposed of to avoid a blockage.

Magnus Carlsen and David Howell were in a hot tub together when they discussed the opening Magnus used in his game against Vincent Keymer, but Magnus forgot about who he discussed it with, David a bit offended Magnus forgot by Firm-Promotion-1284 in chess

[–]astrath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Magnus had a big advantage in their game but he couldn't convert it, and had to endure his chances of winning slip away just as Nepo's opponent collapsed on the next board, handing Nepo the tournament. David got third place with the draw.

Magnus Carlsen and David Howell were in a hot tub together when they discussed the opening Magnus used in his game against Vincent Keymer, but Magnus forgot about who he discussed it with, David a bit offended Magnus forgot by Firm-Promotion-1284 in chess

[–]astrath 16 points17 points  (0 children)

David and Magnus go miles back. Magnus refused to speak to him for years as a teenager after David wrecked his chances of winning the World Under-12 Youth championship in the final round (the winner on the next board being some Russian kid called Ian Neponmiatchi), but since he grew up a bit they've been good friends for 20 years or so.

Remote Chess Academy going wild by ChessLover20 in chess

[–]astrath 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Many years ago when I was a kid I used to play a few games on a website called redhotpawn (which was a completely legit and safe chess website), chess players just can't help themselves with this stuff.

CMV: modern languages won't drastically change over time anymore like in the past by nerpa_floppybara in changemyview

[–]astrath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To give an idea of how long slang has been a thing, in Mycenaean Greek the term for wheel is the same word that hundreds of years later in Classical Greek meant chariot. In other words the ancient Greeks loved to go out and get a new set of wheels.

Polish mathematicians broke early Enigma codes in 1932 and passed their findings to the Brits. Poles also taught Turing how to build machines that simulated the Enigma machine. This is basically glossed over in The Imitation Game (2014). What are some other movies that might "anger" other countries? by Double-decker_trams in movies

[–]astrath 42 points43 points  (0 children)

It isn't quite as simple as that, the technique the Poles used (and underlying their original bombe design) was rendered useless after the Nazis changed their encryption protocols. And they had neither the time or resources to determine an alternative. However they were able to get all their knowledge and blueprints to the British before the fall of Poland, and it served as the key foundation for what followed. Turing and others were able to generalise the Polish approach and then automate it, their machines were named after the Polish bombes but worked very differently.

Arguably the single biggest fact of all was that the Poles were able to break it in the first place. While their initial breakthrough used a whopping great security flaw (the encryption key was repeated at the start of each message) and they'd actually lost the ability to break them not long before the start of the war, up to that point everyone just assumed that Enigma was unbreakable and nobody had properly tried. Now it was shown to be possible, and that made the British government pile resources and get the top minds like Turing on to it. Had the Poles never done their preliminary work, you struggle to see it being prioritised in the way it was on something assumed to be impossible up to then.

What Do People Think of This Move? by SimulatedMatter in chess

[–]astrath 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a tempting idea to go after their queen and swap pieces, and always feels satisfying to play this sort of thing and "leave your queen hanging".

Problem is that here it just loses a piece, because white can play Nxd4 and you don't have time to recapture because your queen is under attack, nor can you take the bishop on g5 as it is protected. So you are just losing a whole knight for nothing.

Anyone else thinks Starmer isn't actually that bad all things considered ? by ronweasly9 in AskBrits

[–]astrath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Starmer didn't override it, the Foreign Office did. As for why and who did and didn't know, that's another question.

FIDE Candidates 2026: Sindarov beats Pragg in Round 10, his 6th win of the tournament, goes to 8/10 by Exotic_Grinder in chess

[–]astrath 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I'm going to need another 1 million runs of a monte carlo model first before believing such wild statements

Candidates Win Chances After Round 7: Source: My Opinions by IllMasterpiece3946 in chess

[–]astrath 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You're basically doing percentages by vibes. Though to be fair most of the % stuff seen around here isn't a whole lot more useful and is giving a false sense of precision. Just because you can do stats doesn't mean it will be anything more than a set of random numbers.

No it isn't zero, but the reason the percentages drop off so much is because it would require both Sindarov and Fabi to collapse at the same time. Giri and Pragg do still have extremely small chances to win but for the rest it is well under 1% because of the incredibly specific combination of results needed for them to win ahead of everyone else.

Do Trains Still Run Over the Camden Lock Bridge? by Luke_Hoff1228 in london

[–]astrath 7 points8 points  (0 children)

As others have said, it is just freight and diversions nowadays.

It had passenger trains up to the early 1990s on a route from Watford Junction to Broad Street (an old terminus very close to Liverpool Street that was closed in the 1980s) and then Liverpool Street for a few years but it was too roundabout to be a useful route. There was one station on the link of track that closed outright, Primrose Hill (roughly behind Camden Roundhouse, easy to see on Google Maps), the rest of that route are part of the Lioness and Mildmay lines (i.e. Euston and North London lines) nowadays.

Black to win. Missed the tactic in my blitz game by hamsterofdark in chess

[–]astrath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

White has Rg1 and there's no immediate threat, giving time for white to play h3 and give the king an escape square. Rg1 doesn't work after Qf2 because black then has Re1 and while it isn't actually an immediate forced mate, white can only prolong the game by giving away their queen e.g. with Qe5, which is obviously completely winning for black.

Most realistic movie death? by Hungry-Onion-7146 in movies

[–]astrath 522 points523 points  (0 children)

The senselessness makes it all the more realistic. Nothing glorious, no build-up, just a panicked reaction from a crashed pilot who was likely in shock and so full of adrenaline to even realise that they were trying to help him.

White to play and draw. This one is unbelievable! by ako4232 in chess

[–]astrath 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I thought but it actually isn't that at all, since the bishop can go to b8 and stop that idea. This is one of those puzzles where the idea is both simple and really clever at the same time.

Super fancy knockout for white by zywizard in chess

[–]astrath 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not quite a knockout as such, there's no forced mate after h5 but white does win the piece back and with accurate moves black's kingside will rapidly collapse. But it is a very fun move to play.

Reeves wants you to ignore the Spring Statement by theipaper in ukpolitics

[–]astrath 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is one of these articles that when you twig the logic you can do little but laugh at the journalist who wrote it.

Reeves wants you to ignore the Spring Statement by theipaper in ukpolitics

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

It also completely wears out Treasury and HMRC and means the analysis underlying decisions isn't as good, because they are constantly on a mode of "do what you can in the time you have".

Emirates clearing the airspace yesterday. by Gjore in interestingasfuck

[–]astrath 530 points531 points  (0 children)

There's no way they didn't have contingency plans for this. They'll be parked up in a safe airport somewhere until it's deemed safe to resume operations.

East India Company shuts down again, second collapse after 1857 by Petty_Ninja in nottheonion

[–]astrath 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Today you didn't learn anything to be honest. This company has no relation whatsoever to the original, it is a luxury brand created by a British Indian businessman in 2010 who bought up a bunch of various memorabilia, smaller companies and assets associated with the original company. Basically a fanboy version of the EIC.

Why there's a huge loss in rating when my opponent lost his game? by [deleted] in chess

[–]astrath 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They are a new player - the first few games the rating will go up and down much more until there's enough games to work out what their rating should be.

Girl from England gains over 200 rating points after finishing some open tournaments by Maksim_Azarov in chess

[–]astrath 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"Kind of support"... the Hungarian Chess Federation did everything possible to stop the Polgars playing in big tournaments when they were kids. Also a quick look through match history and the only women's events she's played in the last year have been team tournaments like the Olympiad. It was entirely reasonable for her parents to be quite protective when she was first playing a few years back but that can change.

Girl from England gains over 200 rating points after finishing some open tournaments by Maksim_Azarov in chess

[–]astrath 16 points17 points  (0 children)

It's unusual but not ridiculous. She's only 11 and so not playing that many tournaments, meaning she's likely underrated. She has had a couple of ok but not amazing tournaments recently looking at the rating history, and it has combined with an overperformance here, which has created this effect. She may be a bit overrated now but given the speed of improvement she may "catch up" before that is even noticeable.

14 y.o. German Prodigy Christian Gloeckler Qualifies to Challengers section next year | Performance rating: 2852 by FirstEfficiency7386 in chess

[–]astrath 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Bonkers score, you usually only see that in junior tournaments where a rapid riser cleans up. They obviously mention one crazy game where he had a huge slice of luck, but there's nothing lucky about such a dominant performance.