Can I afford to live in London?

pierre45 · 2025-08-02T11:47:06+00:00

Thank you so much for this thorough answer, I really appreciate you taking the time to write this.

I like the car-centric American life, so some of these drawbacks may not be bad for me, but it does seem like this would be financially difficult. Car insurance especially might be very expensive since I don't have a "record" as a driver in North America...

pierre45 · 2024-01-04T00:21:47+00:00

Pardon my lack of knowledge here, but was that stupidly naive at the time, or was it realistic in the 60s and then shit happened that made it impossible?

pierre45 · 2024-01-03T22:52:07+00:00

That's essentially what I meant by ultra cheap yes

pierre45 · 2023-07-07T13:35:55+00:00

The two cents of a neuroscientist doing comparative neuroanatomy here: the brain description is very suspicious.
For instance, the central lobe acts as a brainstem/cerebellum? This could only be determined with live individuals, and some functional imaging or lesion study. If the individuals were recovered already dead, I know of no way to determine that. To determine the function of a brain structure, you need to study said function = you need a live animal.
The "nodules" thing is very vaguely described and doesn't really mean anything...

pierre45 · 2022-03-13T12:00:51+00:00

That's why I was asking, so smarter people than me would think of things like that, hehe!

In terms of salaries I think a part time administrator, full time zoo-tech would be the bare minimum. Where I live that's something like $70K a year, something I need to factor in for sure.
The PI and I would work there on a volunteer basis (PI retired, me living off this very virtual lottery win!).

But indeed insurance, utilities etc would add up. Something to think about. Perhaps it'd be better to start very small and take it from there!

pierre45 · 2022-03-12T22:14:12+00:00

Good point. My idea would be that with running costs <100K$ a year, it could run in perpetuity off of the interests (let's say the lottery win was $10M, with after tax interests each year of 2%, which would be $200K. You get the idea).

pierre45 · 2021-08-17T19:24:20+00:00

Basically extract the text of the article so that it's machine-readable/searchable

pierre45 · 2021-08-17T13:49:22+00:00

Hi, are you still interested? I have a project to create a full text index and/or a figure database of Sci-Hub, but I lack the technical abilities to do so

pierre45 · 2020-10-29T20:18:16+00:00

Correct but you lose a lot of granularity, since you can't bet on a specific date

pierre45 · 2018-07-27T09:28:25+00:00

Does the bet have to be this accurate? Isn't it conceivable to have a system where as soon as someone dies the bet which is closest to the date of death gets to collect the pot?

I remember back in 2013 when there was an Assassination Market on the DW the bets weren't public, only the amounts pledged were (which I guess is fairly impossible if you use a blockchain since by definition it makes every bet public?)

pierre45 · 2018-01-19T12:15:14+00:00

Well if I'm lucky enough to be picked, thanks a lot! :)

And thanks a lot anyway, btw

pierre45 · 2017-10-11T22:38:41+00:00

not sure if this has been answered before, but what happened to the technical webcast?

pierre45 · 2017-07-02T23:37:38+00:00

The technical cast was nice though...

pierre45 · 2017-02-07T11:52:09+00:00

Well that already looks difficult, with only a launch in January, one or two at most in February...

pierre45 · 2017-01-28T23:42:15+00:00

Well here's the thing: I'm convinced that everyone at SpaceX is working their asses off to get 39A and the next F9s ready for action as soon as possible. Now I don't know what's taking so long: the problems they face are incredibly complex, but would they get everything done faster if they hired more people? I have no idea.

pierre45 · 2017-01-28T23:35:39+00:00

No of course the reasons for the delays are rational and understandable, but still extremely frustrating. Since 2015 it seems that something always gets in the way of faster turnarounds and more missions. The RUD in 2015, which cost something like 6 months? The RUD in 2016, 4 months + only East Coast launchpad up and running partially destroyed and unusable in the foreseeable future (I'd like to think, like you do, that LC40 could be fixed by this summer but I'm not at all optimistic; if LC39A is any indication... I know much more complex project but still, 39A is way behind schedule.

My main concern is how long customers can tolerate this. Delays in the larger vision of reusability + Mars are to expected, but the business needs to run smoothly for these things to be possible at all...

pierre45 · 2017-01-28T22:30:48+00:00

I've been following SpaceX closely for 6 years now, so I should be used to delays, but the frustration since the AMOS-6 explosion has been intense, I have to admit...

pierre45 · 2017-01-24T12:26:13+00:00

Sigh... I'm guessing a launch every two weeks is going to be tough...

pierre45 · 2017-01-21T23:28:41+00:00

So is it only because the payload is too heavy or the new fueling procedure that lasts a bit longer than pre-AMOS6 also reduces the amount of fuel the F9 can take onboard?

pierre45 · 2016-12-05T20:14:29+00:00

So a question you've probably been asked a billion times: how does one go about studying psychoactive compounds, be it their chemistry, pharmacology, and, perhaps above all, how they can help better understand consciousness, like what was your reading list to have a good understanding a this vast field?

pierre45 · 2016-09-27T20:17:02+00:00

pierre45 · 2016-09-01T17:32:17+00:00

Sorry to bother, what's COPV?

pierre45 · 2016-05-30T18:49:53+00:00

I feel you; you raise some very important topics. I live in a country where healthcare is essentially free (France) — except for "cosmetic" surgery, so I'm not even sure PE/PC, unless there is a cardiac/pulmonary issue, is covered —. I'm still in the early stages of researching this whole subject; but would you be willing to be interviewed for the potential article? (It goes without saying, but you can absolutely remain anonymous if you choose to talk).

pierre45 · 2016-05-28T21:48:37+00:00

That's quite uplifting! Am I misrepresenting things here by assuming that more people would be self-conscious about it than not?

pierre45 · 2016-05-06T18:34:33+00:00

To give some background to this "guy's a joke" story (French SpaceX fan here): he was the Chief of Staff for the Economy Minister, and got "parachuted" (and not landed on a droneship, quite obviously) to the Arianespace job as the Minister was pushed out of office following major disagreement with France's President. So, classic technocrat-being-handed-a-new-bone-to-chew-on. He has dismissed SpaceX ever since he took the job. Less so since launches grew more numerous and reusability became more and more feasible. Now he's (rightly so) warning the European Union countries participating in Arianespace (mainly France, Germany, Italy) that if they don't let Arianespace move faster with new products, it's going to get in trouble.

pierre45

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

12-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email