This should get you started. Hopefully you enjoy some of this stuff.

cute stuff

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weird stuff

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interesting stuff

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If you also like linux stuff, open source stuff, or political stuff, there’s no shortage of those communities.

I want to build a Dyson sphere and use the energy to move the entire solar system to a place where our dying star can be replaced.

How’s that for achievable goals?

Read posts and comments. Upvote the good stuff, downvote the bad stuff. Post comments, ask questions, join communities etc.

If you write stuff people like, you’ll get upvotes. If you’re mean, you get downvoted to oblivion.

TL;DR they’re using solar power to run a CCU plant.

Speaking of Excel, here’s a fun little experiment into the nature of binary numbers and rounding errors.

Start with some number and add a fraction like =A1+(1/3) to it. In the cell below, add that same fraction to the previous one. Copy this formula downwards and watch the numbers grow. After about 50 rows, you’ll have a number that looks like something specific, such as 71, but it isn’t exactly. There’s a sneaky rounding error hidden in there. The actual number is very close to the one displayed, but not exactly what you think it is.

If you’re using IF statements or XLOOKUP with numbers like this, you’ll run into some perplexing errors. If I recall correctly, you can even test the number with =A50=71, which will return TRUE but the xlookup still fails. It’s been a while since I tested this one, but I remember it being really weird in all sorts of unexpected ways. It’s weekend, so I’m not touching my work computer today.

You just need to know that a long series of fractions causes weird binary rounding errors to happen behind the scenes. Adding a series of whole numbers and neat decimal numbers was perfectly ok though.

Also, trying to explain this to some coworkers won’t be worth the effort.

I don’t work in a microbiology lab any more, but OMG the amount of plastic waste was unbelievable. Keeping everything sterile (as in germ free and DNA free) does not come cheap! If it’s small and cheap enough, it’s going in the trash. If it’s small but expensive, you’ll autoclave it. If it’s big, you’ll squirt lots of ethanol on it and hope it doesn’t ruin your day.

Technically yes, but not really. It’s a bit complicated.

1. It’s a small apartment, so my bedroom is the living room.
2. There’s a TV, but it’s only connected to a computer, so I can’t even watch normal TV programs. Why would I? Those programs suck and are full of ads.
3. However, I do watch online videos.

Why here though? Where else would I put the TV? It won’t fit in the bathroom. The kitchen has one long wall where it could technically fit, but the watch distance would be like 30 cm at most, and there’s nowhere to sit. Not exactly a premium popcorn experience.

Why even have a TV? I got this one for free. A large display would have been fine as well.

Why even have display of any kind? I kinda like watching YT and other videos on a large display. It’s also ad-free, so why not. Sort of like a smart TV, but without the downsides.

I tried to stay away from dispalys and lights for a while, but I didn’t notice any difference in my sleep quality. I guess the difference is very subtle, so why bother. I don’t think it’s worth the hassle.

Cannelloni-Vermicelli Exploration program? You know, to find out what happens if you mix both on the same plate? Will the Italians assassinate you before you can take the first bite? Will the pasta annihilate as soon as they touch? Will it be delicious? Who knows, and now we will never know.

I would argue that being polite also does good to the person writing that line.

Kit cars have been around for ages, and Framework offers DIY laptops. I think we should have kit displays as well. Surely, someone has already made something like that with a raspberry or something.

As long as my 1080p plasma tv works, there’s no need to upgrade. Going 4K would also mean I would have to upgrade my HTPC hardware, because that old APU probably can’t handle resolutions like that.

In the meantime though, I’ll just keep on watching online videos in my living room without ads or interruptions. It’s been great even though all of this hardware is cheap and ancient.

Well what if you need to keep on producing more common metals in the meantime, and REEs are a byproduct. You would need to keep the REE factories running too.

If you end up with 100 tons of terbium and yttrium oxide sitting in bags out in the rain, it’s going to lead to some serious quality issues further down the line. Well, just shove them in a warehouse then?

You’ll need a big warehouse, and you need to keep building more of them every year as the stockpiles grow. Needless to say, there are some serious logistical problems with a total export ban. A partial restriction is more viable, because it gives China some time to figure out how to adapt.

In any case, the rest of the world needs these metals, and they are willing to bend to knee long before China runs out of mitigation strategies. It’s going to be a problem in China as well, but at least they’re not totally screwed.

As opposed to what the headline could make you think, it’s not a complete ban on all REE exports. A total ban wouldn’t make much sense.

The REE business is big, and China can’t keep stockpiling these metals for long. Also, REE production is integrated to the rest of the industry, so you can’t just switch those factories off and expect everything else to keep on chugging along as usual.

Previously it was thought that non-coding sequences were junk, and enormous numbers like 99% were thrown around at the time. Later, we found out that more and more of the non-coding regions actually do various other things, and the scope of junk DNA got narrower as years went by. Nowadays, you don’t really hear that term much, because future scientists have a tendency of discovering new functions for sequences that were previously thought of as non-functional. There’s also debate as to where do we draw the line.

As usual, biochemistry is a fast moving target, and people have gotten cautious about these things. As more and more is discovered, older notions are updated or even thrown away.

Junk DNA.

The value of USD is already falling. If China dumps a bunch of cheap dollars into the market, it could deliver the final death blow. I think China might want to wait for the right time to do that. It’s going to be expensive, and you want that sort economic attack to have the best chance of permanently ruining USA.

My evil twin from the mirror dimension. We meet at last! Or maybe I’m the evil one?

Well, not really superpowers since they are common in humans. However, they are pretty interesting abilities nonetheless.

• Advanced speech recognition. I can filter out speech of one person while ignoring other background noise and even other speech.

• Advanced face recognition. I can see faces in clouds, floors, and other inanimate objects. Also helps when looking at real faces of people in a crowd. See also: pareidolia

• Auditory hallucinations during hypnagogia. Look it up. It’s weird and trippy.

• Desensitization and habituation to capsaicin. I can eat spicy foods.

Try that with cheap mobile phone charges. They have an annoying coil whine.

Thanks. I’ll look into those options.