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Fermion

@ Fermion @feddit.nl

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Comments
306
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Daily dose of tech nostalgia

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  • Most of those are pretty cool, but the watch really let the gimmick compromise the function. Clock faces need to have high contrast for minimizing the time it takes to read the time.

  • New technology could save declining honeybee populations

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  • Honeybees are not the bee population that needs to be saved.

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    Video: Cybertrucks Show Up to Mardi Gras Parade… And Are Pelted with Trash and Booed

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  • Reddit doesn't always require login for video. The one you linked gives a message about it being mature content and directs people to the app. I find that message odd because it's not marked as nsfw and visiting on old.reddit doesn't give an age prompt and plays just fine.

  • Helion eyes Washington site for 2028 fusion reactor build

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  • Helion is a completely different technology vs tokamaks which is what you're thinking of. They pulse the plasma to create brief bursts of pressure/heating/fusion. They do already have their seventh prototype machine operational so while we can't independently verify their claims, it's probably not all bluster.

    I have mixed feelings about their approach. They plan to use a deuterium and helium-3 fuel blend. That has a couple major advantages. Most of the reactions will be aneutronic and the energy is released in the form of highly energetic alpha particles and protons. The lack of a high energy neutron is a huge advantage for safety and longevity of a reactor. High energy neutrons are hard to shield from and they cause most materials to get brittle and weaken. Netrons are not good for personnel to be around and they can leave some materials radiactive making reactor maintenance/disposal costly. The other advantage is that since all the energy is released as kinetic energy in charged particles, they don't have to try to absorb high energy photons or neutrons into a water blanket to drive a steam turbine. Instead, the kinetic energy results in an electromagnetic pulse that can be harvested by the same magnets that constrict the plasma to begin with.

    Sounds amazaing, right? So why doesn't everyone use this approach? Helium is rare, but Helium-3 is especially rare, making up only about 20 parts per million of helium found in geologic deposits. So simply put, it is currently infeasible to use Helium-3 at scale. Helium-3 can be collected as a byproduct of breeding tritium for use in nuclear warheads. Enough helium-3 is produced for some demonstration reactors, but any real amount of demand will quickly outpace what the DOE produces.

    Helion plans on breeding their own Helium-3 in Deuterium-Deuterium reactors they will operate. However D-D reactions are not aneutronic. So all the materials lifespan/shielding/ maintenance nightmares that come with operating a nuclear reactor will still apply. That means operators will have to buy very expensive fuel from Helion indefinitely. Helion doesn't exactly deny this drawback, but I really dislike how much they gloss over it in their public communications.

    Here's a video tour of their test facilities that explains the basics of their approach. https://youtu.be/_bDXXWQxK38

    I'm inclined to think they've demonstrated enough results that they are likely to be able to build a working unit quickly, however, that would still be a long way off from creating any sort of sustainable supply chain that would be a viable option for anyone beside datacenters.

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    Permanently Deleted

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  • Taking an oral steroid like prednisone can help prevent asthma attacks for milder allergies, but that might not be sufficient for a severe peanut allergy.

    Epinephren is not a gentle drug. You do not want to have to use an epi pen if you can avoid it. It causes the heart to race and result in lots of side effects that would make a flight extremely uncomfortable. I think it's also metabolized quickly enough that a single dose is not going to last a whole flight.

    I'm not an expert though, I just have multiple family members with moderate to severe allergies.

  • Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn five-star safety rating in Europe

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  • That's theoretically correct, however, when picking safety standards you should go by how most people would be expected to act, not by ideal scenarios. Is someone commuting to work going to pull over to change the media source or radio station? Probably not. So the controls should minimize how long the driver will look at the console and have their hand off the steering wheel. Media buttons on the steering wheel can seem superfluous, but it helps keep people less distracted.

  • Above criticism

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  • Ironically, Parks and Recreation is my biggest, "I watched all of this and enjoyed very little of it" show.

  • US could cut Ukraine's access to Starlink internet services over minerals, say sources.

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  • I see it as an extension of the myth of American purity and external corruption. "This person is evil, some outside power must have compromising info on them." "Immigrants are violent criminals preying on innocent americans."

    These attitudes ignore the reality that bad people can come from anywhere. There are plenty of villians with very mundane origin stories. What matters is if everyone else has the will and ability to keep bad people in check and hold them accountable.

    The grifters in charge need no other motivation than a sense of superiority and an opportunity to make a buck.

  • Faces of Homelessness

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  • Not to brag, but I can get angry without even reading comments these days.

  • Ukrainian scientists are studying downed Russian missiles

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  • GameStop announces plans to sell off French and Canadian outlets, while its CEO yells about 'Wokeness and DEI' in bizarre, self-defeating promotion

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  • Are redditors still diamond hands on gme?

  • Business school professors trained an AI to judge workers' personalities based on their faces.

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  • They've been doing this with "natural intelligence" for ages.

  • Intel Becomes Potential Takeover Target Of Broadcom, TSMC: Reports

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  • The scavenger predator formerly known as Avago Technologies Limited currently wears Broadcom as a skinsuit to disguise hostile takeovers as normal tech mergers.

  • China’s “Artificial Sun” Shatters Fusion Record With Over 17 Minutes of Plasma

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  • Producing energy is not the goal of this facility which is why they don't report on it. The useful output is in refining control and heating methods so that when power producing facilities are built, they can operate continuously. On that front, 17 minutes is very impressive. At the speeds at which the particles in a fusion plasma move, that time frame is essentially an eternity.

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    When your president encourages his own party to take bribes for legislative votes and no one blinks an eye.

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  • I make no claims that there isn't corruption, just clarifying that the video in question does not technically advocate taking bribes.

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    When your president encourages his own party to take bribes for legislative votes and no one blinks an eye.

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  • He's talking about campaign funds not personal finances. For law abiding candidates, those are entirely separate things.

  • TIL In the USA, PMI Can Be Canceled With a Good Payment History

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  • PMI specifically only applies when you don't have a 20% down payment. If your income is consistent and high enough to qualify you don't really need to wait until you save up a big down payment.

  • USAID inspector fired after revealing nearly $500m in food aid was about to spoil

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  • The United Nations collectively runs a lot of aid programs. The EU and China also independently run aid programs. The US is far from being the sole provider of aid.

    Multiple countries provide aid, but all these programs always operate on tighter budgets than they would like. So a big contributor suddenly pulling out is going to leave gaps that are hard for other groups to fill on short notice. Even if the US needs to reduce aid spending to balance the budget, it should be done gradually with coordination of other groups to best preserve coverage. Acting impulsively leads to suffering that could potentially be avoided with a more level-headed change.

  • PayPal owns brands like Venmo, Honey and is heavily integrated into eBay - if you're looking to stop giving your money to bad companies, take a second to search their subsidiary brands as well.

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  • From wikipedia

    Zelle (/zɛl/) is a United States–based digital payments network run by a private financial services company owned by the banks Bank of America, Truist, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo.

    So PayPal does not seem to own an interest in Zelle, but the group of owners isn't necessarily better than PayPal.