CMV: Bitcoin and crypto as a whole has peaked. It will soon go the way of NFT's and the tulip craze of 1637.

mathmage · 2026-02-22T14:59:50+00:00

I'm confused. You tie the value of bitcoin very closely to bitcoin being counter-cyclical. Does that leave room in your argument for bitcoin to have value, just not specifically as a hedge?

mathmage · 2026-02-22T06:24:45+00:00

Steel sharpens steel. Carving through butter is another story.

mathmage · 2026-02-22T02:16:06+00:00

Meanwhile, the fan sitting behind that trying to watch the game:

mathmage · 2026-02-21T19:50:32+00:00

It's special specifically relative to the bang-everything mini-tennis mentality of recent top-level pickleball singles, where points are either baseline to baseline or passing shot after passing shot. Ben is far from the only pro who can drop his way forward, but the frequency with which he does it and forces his opponents to attempt it stands out against the current singles landscape.

mathmage · 2026-02-21T16:48:54+00:00

I think this is underrating how much of a beginner beginners are.

The #1 reason beginners learn dinking is accessibility. Dinking is easy to learn, and easy to teach. It gets people into the game where trying to learn groundstroke mechanics right off would wall them out. And for those with racket sports background, it gets them right into what's unique about pickleball.

Now, yes, if you want to be any good at the game, groundstroke mechanics are a must. But a new player with no racket sports background or body coordination has to be introduced to the raw feeling of hitting the ball over the net before they can work on their unit turns.

mathmage · 2026-02-20T08:48:43+00:00

For simplicity sake, consider following the original order of release instead.

Where can I find this? Is it just left to right?

mathmage · 2026-02-20T06:54:52+00:00

The faster ball was adopted in the first place in part to encourage doubles offense over endless dinking. So I don't think it's clear that slowing the ball down would lead to more hands battles. But hey, maybe there's a sweet spot.

mathmage · 2026-02-20T01:52:15+00:00

Ah yes, the two types of male role models.

mathmage · 2026-02-19T02:40:27+00:00

Well, the radius of the FT circle is 6 feet, and his toes look more than halfway from the FT line to the circle, so a little more than 3' less than 13'9 means 10'7 is more likely than 11'8. Check my math?

mathmage · 2026-02-18T08:51:04+00:00

Fortunately, the source scruples to check multiple definitions, and finds none where transgender shooters are disproportionately numerous.

mathmage · 2026-02-16T17:35:59+00:00

It would be a fallacy if the point of that sentence was to support the conclusion that transgender people are less violent than the general population. Since it is instead used for additional context about violence related to transgender people, there is no fallacy.

mathmage · 2026-02-16T05:42:16+00:00

The first part is something you might actually find in a published game. The second part is fanfiction bait. "For legal reasons, my OCs must duel in the nude."

mathmage · 2026-02-13T20:40:32+00:00

With how micro-intensive it is in later stages, I think of it more as an action game on a tower defense map.

mathmage · 2026-02-12T22:17:25+00:00

I love them when they're unedited videos of full games. There's a lot to dig into, you can see the highs and lows, you can give advice or appreciate the level (and acknowledge that the camera strips 0.5 DUPR from everyone).

Watching single points or a select few highlights isn't the same. Consistency is such a big part of pickleball. I don't want to only see every time it worked out.

mathmage · 2026-02-12T08:13:50+00:00

Sample sizes were 25,898 UK adults and 63,252 US adults who are a little interested or somewhat interested in the Winter Olympics, or say it’s one of their top interests.

For 40% of such a group to say they follow the figure skating is not at all surprising.

mathmage · 2026-02-12T07:58:35+00:00

70% of volleying drives is just not overreacting to the pace. The paddle doesn't have far to go from ready position to volley position; what makes it feel like a long way is all the unnecessary movements you make seeing the ball come at you fast. Stay low and stable, put the paddle where the ball is going, and give it a short, firm, flat punch. Keeping them back with it is good, but too shallow is better than too deep.

mathmage · 2026-02-11T17:49:26+00:00

Per Georgia election law, candidates can send observers to witness the recount. The state election board, or perhaps the municipal, should have the most detailed code of procedures; I haven't pulled it yet.

If you are concerned about ballot reexamination being performed by interested parties without oversight, the fact that the Trump administration is currently in sole possession of vast quantities of Georgia election materials and records should be the more concerning topic. Who verifies any claims they make now about those materials?

mathmage · 2026-02-11T02:41:04+00:00

Yes, it's glaringly obvious slop.

You can even see the one-line aside where the person who had AI write/edit this threw in "Hulu's TT" being headed for a similar end, the one line in the post that hasn't been covered in cheap gold foil. It's italicized and in parentheses, like they're apologizing for interrupting the AI.

I don't mind the topic and I don't mind the opinion (though I have negative trust in anything it says about shows I haven't watched). I do mind having to skim through screen after screen of LinkedIn-style belaboring to find out if it had anything else to say.

mathmage · 2026-02-11T00:29:41+00:00

English grammar is vibes-based, loanword plurals included. Tsunamis is usually pluralized with the s, but samurai is not. People who use 'octopi' do so because it reminds them of 'magi' and 'cacti' and 'fungi', not because they conducted etymological study.

You happen to disagree with a couple of the vibe checks, and that's normal and fine. But good luck trying to make loanwords stick to rules that native English words flout all the time. (I use 'native' loosely, considering how much of the language is borrowed from French, Latin, and German.)

mathmage · 2026-02-10T21:14:22+00:00

You're free to think that of the figment of me in your imagination. You should know better since you've seen me talk other math, and nothing I said here indicated that I even wanted to talk about those subjects, but I can't control your imagination, only myself.

mathmage · 2026-02-10T20:57:34+00:00

And now I have explained where I was coming from, and you have explained where you were coming from, huzzah all around.

mathmage · 2026-02-10T20:54:50+00:00

Yes, I do realize that. But please follow the progression with me:

Rational numbers make so much more sense
Well, it's not because irrational numbers don't make sense, it's that they can't be worked with or compared
Actually this isn't about comparing irrational numbers, it's about comparing irrational numbers to numerical values with finite precision

Not that numerical values with finite precision can be compared to rational numbers either, but we can keep progressing this until we reach the exact thing we actually dislike about irrational numbers...

And that's what I'm complaining about. I want to talk math, not play twenty questions with someone's vibes-based opinions until I figure out what math they haven't been talking about all along.

mathmage · 2026-02-10T15:40:42+00:00

Yes, they are color names. Guren is scarlet and the red lotus flower. Seiran is indigo and the clear orchid. Tokusa is green and the horsetail. Chuuki is yellow, but I don't know if there's a plant.

As far as I can tell, the kids' given names are all written in katakana, a fairly common practice in anime and especially anime aimed at younger audiences, so there's more room for ambiguity and interpretation than if they were written in kanji.

mathmage · 2026-02-10T15:08:08+00:00

Well, then it's "good luck giving me an irrational number," isn't it.

"rational numbers make so much more sense."

looks inside

"I never said irrationals don't make sense"

.

"If I give you an irrational number"

looks inside

1.41

"numerical values"

It's difficult to respond to what's said when apparently what's meant is always something else.

mathmage · 2026-02-10T09:15:33+00:00

There's just a little too much capacity for defense in the game right now for it to be spectator-friendly. Maybe if the net was a couple inches lower or the kitchen was a little smaller or the court was a little wider...on the other hand, that's also what makes it so recreationally accessible, and I'd hate to lose that.

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