I just got a high priority request to write a couple of VBA macros to fetch data from a database then use it to make a bunch of API queries. I know VBA about as well as I know Chinese or Icelandic. I figured out the query and told Chat GPT to use it in a macro. It wrote all the VBA code. I went through a few rounds of “fix this bug, add this feature” and now my client is happy and I didn’t have to think much about VBA. I knew what and how to ask it for what I wanted and it saved me days of searching google and reading about VBA. That’s high value to me because I don’t care about VBA and don’t really want to know how to use it.

I read this as a call to action for the people Musk/Trump are ordering around. If everyone just said “no, I won’t to do what you tell me” then we might avoid the collapse of the government/economy/country.

For most games I’d agree with you. But when it comes to Kojima, I don’t think it really matters. I finished the first game and, aside from delivering packages, I’d have trouble explaining what it is about. After watching the trailer for DS2 I’m thinking “okay, that’s even weirder, I recognize those faces, babies again I guess, and he’s still delivering packages it seems.”

There are two kinds of true, and thus two kinds of ‘real’. There’s the kind where what you believe matters and the kind where it doesn’t. Gravity is the second kind. Step off the top of a building and it doesn’t matter if you believe in gravity, you’re going to fall. Politics is the first kind. If everyone believes I’m the king of North America, well, then that’s the truth. It’s reality. Likewise if everyone in the government believes that Elon Musk can fire whoever he wants, then he can, because everyone will just go along with it.

So what is it? Phospate Removal Material doesn’t tell me much. Is it activated charcoal? Ground peanut shells? I need to know.

A paper on the topic reports that

Several adsorbents have been used for phosphate removal from water. They include; aluminium-modified biochar (Yin et al. 2018), aluminium-doped magnetic nanoparticles (Xu et al. 2017), laterite soils, and black cotton soil (Reddy et al. 2020).

You seem to be arguing that FDR was a leftist because of the policies he implemented. But I think what you are missing is why he implemented those policies. I think the truth is he didn’t really have the public interest at heart. His agenda was to contain a growing threat to capitalism in the form of the Communist Party of the 1930s. His strategy to contain the CP was to neuter the party by bringing it into the Democratic party fold, alienating their most militant members, and slowly squashing their agenda. Of course he had to appeal to their interests to do so. But it was a temporary strategy, not a real shift in US policy. There are a few articles on the topic if you are genuinely interested. Here’s one. And here’s a quote from another.

The New Deal reforms Sanders evokes were not the product of a farsighted, enlightened reformer, but responses to tumultuous class struggles in the early and mid-1930s. These reforms sought to contain explosive social struggles and were never truly universal, excluding women and African-Americans, for example. After mass struggle ebbed, Roosevelt shifted back to his original goal of stabilizing US capitalism while moving toward establishing US global domination during World War II. Progressive reforms came to an abrupt halt in the late 1930s, allowing the rollback of many popular gains during the 1940s.

Sounds like it’s time for a municipal broadband solution. If AT&T doesn’t want the business, fine. Let’s not force them to take our money.

It isn’t right you need an extension for it, but here we are. Don’t F*** With Paste

Sorry to reference an old reddit post, but this reminds me of Today you, tomorrow me.

Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water.

source

Okay, but “that is entirely your fault, grandma” generates a lot more discussion than “yeah, but you were a participant in a system along with billions of others which hid its externalities until it was too late to do anything about them”

So, Terry Bernadino?

Whether humanity will survive really is an open question. Despite all the rhetoric and protests and promises the annual CO2 emissions have continued to increase steadily. It’s wishful thinking to imagine that we are going to do anything about this before the consequences of our choices force our collective hand. Any report or scientific paper that includes a phrase like ‘there is still time’ is just not accepting the reality of the situation. A year ago James Hansen published Global Warming in the Pipeline where he wrote “Equilibrium global warming for today’s GHG amount is 10°C”. A 4–7 degree rise over 5000 years ended the last ice age, Ocean levels rose 400 feet. A 10 degree rise in a century or so would be way too fast for most species to adapt. It would inundate the majority of our most populated cities. I could go on, but I get depressed writing about this.

Nothing is ever 100% safe. Risk assessment is a big part of federal regulations. (See refs at JSTOR and NCBI) One of the key questions is what is the cost/benefit balance for a product. Kitchen knives are hazardous, but it’s very hard to cook without them, so they balance heavier on the benefit side despite the risks. Radithor is all risk and no benefit, so it was an easy decision to ban it.

The point ContrarianTrail was making is that there is some risk in nearly everything. People have died as a result of garden tools, cars, house pets, shaving, buckets, toothpicks, baseball, etc. Here’s a list. The part he left out is the cost/benefit analysis. I prefer pull cords on my blinds, and I find the new regulations annoying. But I guess some federal agency decided they aren’t so useful that it’s worth the risk to children. And it would be selfish to be all upset about it if it saves some child’s life.

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Adam Smith stands to speak as the ship rocks with the waves.

“The creation of wealth is what matters. If an industrious businessman wants to use available resources to create goods which he can then sell in the market he should be applauded for producing something of value. No one should be allowed to stifle industry.”

“But how can you not see what harm you are causing? By promoting this naked greed you endanger us all. Every day the planks of our ship grow thinner. And for what? So that some baron can collect more of our coin?”

“Tecumseh, you are a simple minded savage. The items for sale in the market today: toothpicks, wooden spoons, hair combs, if they didn’t have more value in that form then nobody would pay for them. The planks, the mast, and the deck boards of the ship must all have less value than the products made from them. The market has decided it is so.”

“This market is destroying the very foundation of our life. Even now the water is knee high in the bilge and rising faster than we can bail it out. We lived in harmony with the ship for years. But ever since you established the market your ‘businessmen’ have been tearing the ship apart. How can we continue to live if the ship is sinking?”

A loud crack as one of the spars snaps sending splinters raining down on the deck. Several well dressed passengers scramble to collect the pieces.

“You see, Tecumseh, even on a collapsing ship there is opportunity for profit. You can’t deny the genius of the market. And if the ship starts to sink the market will substitute another, better ship, as soon as it is profitable.”

“Sigh. Only when the last mast has snapped, the last plank has broken, and our ship is underwater will you realize that coin will not keep you afloat.”

It’s well established in the Star Wars universe that all you need to create gravity is a floor. Take, for example, any scene from within any of the space ships. Gravity is never a problem.

Of course, a deep chasm also seems to create gravity, as seen in the first movie when Luke and Leia swing from one ramp to another to escape the stormtroopers chasing them.

Regardless, it’s easy to see from the blueprints that the layout is stacked like your first image.

Edit: upon closer examination it turns out it’s both. The plans show three ‘concentric surface decks’ that apparently work like your second image. So I guess the answer is ‘it depends on where you are in the death star’, and, I guess, which way ‘down’ is where you are.

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don’t Create The Torment Nexus

Alex Blechman

like this example for Imma be there.

The USB drive has wallet keys to every lost or forgotten bitcoin wallet since bitcoin was new.

“According to Fortune, around 2.9 million Bitcoins have been lost”