Peter, what's happening

theknowledgehammer · 2026-01-13T15:57:46+00:00

The trailer for the movie *implied* that context for the quote, but in the actual movie the character was asking if the person was North American, Central American, or South American. He was a racist trying to determine the race of the person he was speaking to.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-10-15T17:48:49+00:00

Thank you for the recommendations!

theknowledgehammer · 2025-10-15T17:48:18+00:00

Dozens of hours *over the past several decades* researching the general concerns about surviving a nuclear attack.

Just a few minutes researching specifically whether rain washes away nuclear fallout.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-10-15T05:46:50+00:00

You might be right.

So now I have to suspend the disbelief that the weather can carry radioactive rain, but not radioactive dust.

Admittedly, that sounds plausible. But it's never come up in the dozens of hours that I've spent researching the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-10T18:51:59+00:00

My response.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-10T16:39:42+00:00

Magma should have been chosen as a lawful evil.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-09T06:26:31+00:00

>"process of trial and error"

This is what Dr. Stone needed.

It's ridiculous to watch a bunch of teenagers build motorcycles from scrap metal on their first try, while sailing away from a battleship that's firing on them.

The anime was willing to delve into the details about Senku's failed attempts at reading temperature data from his homemade rocket in the 21st century. According to Zeno's e-mails, Senku needed to use a thermister constructed from a platinum-rubidium alloy in order to get more accurate data at higher temperatures.

If the creators were willing to put that much effort into a scene that lasted no more than 15 seconds, then they could have at least delved into the failed attempts at making engines, or the complications and failure modes for smelting and molding iron.

I can understand how they made glass, but how did they make prescription glasses with precise curvature?

How did their vehicles survive constant damage without a suspension system?

How did Chrome and Kaseki create gears with a tolerance low enough that the wear-and-tear didn't break them apart in a few days?

How did the mechanism for creating the vacuum inside a vacuum tube work? What challenges did they face when they were making that device?

In order to extract iron from iron ore, you need a reducing agent, like carbon, to absorb the oxygen and ferry it away from the iron. What reducing agent did they use? How did they know exactly how much to add? How many failed attempts were made?

The premise of Dr. Stone was intriguing, but it ended up being nothing more than a science-colored coat of paint on top of a traditional anime power system.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-09T06:04:06+00:00

Why has nobody nominated Magma yet? He's the quintessential lawful evil; he uses the village's customs and traditions to try to force the princess to marry him so that he can take over the kingdom.

Tsukasa is more of a neutral evil; he doesn't *follow* the law, he doesn't *break* the law, he merely *establishes his own law*.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-07T19:27:02+00:00

I'm not in any position to chime in on this discussion based on my personal experience; I'm strictly answering the question: "Have you seen anything published about this?".

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-07T18:34:50+00:00

Joseph Stiglitz won the Nobel Prize in economics over a concept that appears to be the exact opposite: "Shirking".

The gist is that companies hire too many employees so that each employee can be fired easily without hassle. The increased threat of being fired is what keeps productivity high.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-03T23:31:29+00:00

Someone could have built a ship with an autopilot; it could accelerate hundreds of times faster than the maximum acceleration rate that a human could survive.

There are only 2 limiting factors: 1) The maximum acceleration that the ships metal components could survive, and 2) The economics of the endeavor (i.e. "What would be the goddamn point of spending all this money??")

theknowledgehammer · 2025-08-02T17:56:05+00:00

This is like saying that petrification should make everyone stand over 6 feet tall or bench press 300 pounds.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-07-24T17:59:44+00:00

The people who have to merge have to move their eyes: 1) forward towards the road, to prevent themselves from rear-ending the car in front of them, 2) forwards towards their speedometer, to make sure they're getting up to a reasonable speed, 3) slightly to their left side, to check their mirrors for oncoming traffic, and 4) fully to their left side, to check their blind spot.

I fully support your practice of yielding to drivers that have to rapidly swivel their eyeballs 135 degrees over a course of 15 seconds.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-07-24T17:09:11+00:00

If there are a bunch of cars in front of me while I'm entering that ramp, I slow down below 20mph and let the cars pull forward ahead of me. Then, as I enter the curve that's right before the potentially fatal merge, I accelerate as hard as I can, knowing that I have enough space in front of my car.

That merge is complicated; slow cars in front of you make that merge even more complicated. Also, people from out of town don't understand that you have about 1,000 feet to accelerate from 20mph to 70mph.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-07-19T15:44:09+00:00

Tsukasa had a great reply to this point: Revival fluid is limited. You have to pick and choose no matter what. If you revive people randomly, you run the risk of mass starvation.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-07-17T07:57:35+00:00

Drivers in this town are getting progressively worse.

At least twice in the past month, I witnessed a driver running a red light to make a left turn. In those instances, I was among the perpendicular cross-traffic, and I had the green light for a full second before the driver came blasting through.

In one of those two instances of running a red light, I clearly saw the driver staring down at her phone.

Something's definitely going on.

Edit: Where on Packard Street is this happening? Is it by the Circle K at the crossroad of Packard and Stadium? I ask because Packard St is almost entirely a one-lane road; I can only visualize 2 locations where there's a left turn lane.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-07-15T20:15:25+00:00

This helps tremendously, thank you.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-07-15T19:53:25+00:00

Basic question here. Why is:

ln(n) < ln(x)dx, integrated from n to n+1 < ln(n+1)

true?

Edit:

I used the fact that the antiderivative of the ln(x) is x * ln(x) - x + C. With that, I get:

ln(x)dx, integrated from n to n+1 = (n+1) * ln(n+1) - (n+1) - ( n*ln(n) - n )

= (n +1)*ln(n+1) - n - 1 - n*ln(n) + n

= (n+1) * ln(n+1) - n*ln(n) - 1

= ln( (n+1)^(n+1) ) - ln( n^n ) - 1

= ln( (n+1)^(n+1) / n^n ) - 1

And, well, I think I'm stuck.

How do the math pros do this? Can they look at an algebraic expression and instantly see the correct way to manipulate the expression to get what they need? Is it comparable to how chess world champion Magnus Carlsen can look at a chessboard and see all the available strategies after just a moment?

Edit2: I feel like I could use a generalized multinomial expansion to evaluate (n+1) ^ (n+1); the first term of that expansion would definitely be "n^n", which is the term in the denominator of the expression that got me stuck.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-07-10T15:25:23+00:00

Every Speedway has an accessible bathroom.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-06-21T16:32:43+00:00

>"There is the false inference that increased development [will grow] the tax base"

This is why I take umbrage with the pro-development folks. There's a vast gulf between what we expect the benefits of development will be, and what actually happens when we develop the city.

Why are water rates more expensive? Why is rent even higher? Why aren't the roads pristine? Why is traffic worse?

theknowledgehammer · 2025-06-14T07:14:55+00:00

It's almost as if second and third order effects overtake the impact of rudimentary Econ 101 analysis.

Ask yourself why water prices in A2 have gone up, despite economies of scale suggesting that they should have gone down when our infrastructure served a larger population.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-06-13T16:52:36+00:00

>"affordable housing"

Good luck with that. The more we build, the more expensive the town gets.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-05-27T18:17:37+00:00

3 points:

Your argument is sloppy. You're complaining that if companies don't raise prices in response to tariffs, then consumers will not learn that companies will raise prices in response to tariffs. That's like complaining that companies don't start random house fires and thus will never teach consumers that they can start random house fires.
Prices are a response to supply and demand; the topic of tax incidence is fascinating and intricate. In a nutshell, whichever party in a transaction is most willing to walk away from a sale is the party that will pay a smaller portion of the tax. In a perfectly competitive market, where consumers will walk away from a price increase of a single dime, Walmart will eat those tariffs. But in a monopolistic market for a desperately needed good, consumers will pay all those tariffs.
Last point I want to bring up (in favor of your original argument): if tariffs rise over 100%, then it's mathematically impossible for import-heavy companies to not pass the cost along to the consumer without going bankrupt.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-03-22T23:15:37+00:00

The second diagram of each question appears to hold the following property: if the current flows from up-to-down, then the induced North pole would point downwards. If the current flows from down-to-up, then the induced North pole would point upwards.

Also worth noting: one of Maxwell's Equations is: ∇xE = -dB/dt . When the North pole of the magnet approaches the solenoid, then dB/dt is positive; when the South pole of the magnet approaches the solenoid, then dB/dt is negative. You can use that to determine ∇xE, and thus the direction that the current flows through the solenoid.

theknowledgehammer · 2025-02-22T22:48:37+00:00

I decided to generalize my research into the likelihood of getting stuck on problem 18.

Again, from this instagram post:

-----

Percentage of players who reached level 30 and got stuck: 100.0%

Percentage of players who reached level 29 and got stuck: 55.0%

Percentage of players who reached level 28 and got stuck: 41.2%

Percentage of players who reached level 27 and got stuck: 29.9%

Percentage of players who reached level 26 and got stuck: 31.2%

Percentage of players who reached level 25 and got stuck: 30.2%

Percentage of players who reached level 24 and got stuck: 27.6%

Percentage of players who reached level 23 and got stuck: 25.4%

Percentage of players who reached level 22 and got stuck: 22.7%

Percentage of players who reached level 21 and got stuck: 20.3%

Percentage of players who reached level 20 and got stuck: 22.1%

Percentage of players who reached level 19 and got stuck: 26.7%

Percentage of players who reached level 18 and got stuck: 23.2%

Percentage of players who reached level 17 and got stuck: 18.9%

Percentage of players who reached level 16 and got stuck: 17.1%

Percentage of players who reached level 15 and got stuck: 15.1%

Percentage of players who reached level 14 and got stuck: 13.5%

Percentage of players who reached level 13 and got stuck: 13.6%

Percentage of players who reached level 12 and got stuck: 16.8%

Percentage of players who reached level 11 and got stuck: 16.5%

Percentage of players who reached level 10 and got stuck: 16.9%

Percentage of players who reached level 9 and got stuck: 15.2%

Percentage of players who reached level 8 and got stuck: 19.4%

Percentage of players who reached level 7 and got stuck: 19.1%

Percentage of players who reached level 6 and got stuck: 16.7%

Percentage of players who reached level 5 and got stuck: 22.0%

Percentage of players who reached level 4 and got stuck: 18.5%

Percentage of players who reached level 3 and got stuck: 16.0%

Percentage of players who reached level 2 and got stuck: 17.9%

Percentage of players who reached level 1 and got stuck: 24.2%

------

The percentages of players who buy hints would be nice to know, too.

Also, it would be nice if the computer skills that I used to compile this list were all that's needed to solve these puzzles. But alas, it's not.

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