@CryptoWitch's banner p

CryptoWitch

Live From New Vegas

0 followers   follows 0 users  
joined 2022 September 05 00:27:19 UTC 

				
User ID: 301


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
CryptoWitch


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Live From New Vegas

				
				
				

				

					0 followers  

					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 September 05 00:27:19 UTC
				


				
					

					
No bio...

				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 301


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
‎

			

				
				

					Hour
					Day
					Week
					Month
					Year
					
				

			


			
‎

			

	
	

	 Hot Bump Top New Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thank you, that’s helpful!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Of course; anything that works (beyond VSIMR or solar sails, as another commenter helpfully pointed out) requires some law-of-physics updates. But I will point out that this is exactly what is claimed.




A veteran of such storied programs as NASA’s Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), The Hubble Telescope, and the current NASA Dust Program, Buhler and his colleagues believe their discovery of a fundamental new force represents a historic breakthrough that will impact space travel for the next millennium.






“This discovery of a New Force is fundamental in that electric fields alone can generate a sustainable force onto an object and allow center-of-mass translation of said object without expelling mass.”






“There are rules that include conservation of energy, but if done correctly, one can generate forces unlike anything humankind has done before,…”






“Essentially, what we’ve discovered is that systems that contain an asymmetry in either electrostatic pressure or some kind of electrostatic divergent field can give a system of a center of mass a non-zero force component,” Buhler explained. “So, what that basically means is that there’s some underlying physics that can essentially place force on an object should those two constraints be met.”




I’m not strongly arguing for this being The Real Deal; as another commenter pointed out, put it on a satellite and prove it. Rather, my interest in this is as a thought exercise: consistent force production from electricity allows us to do all kinds of wacky stuff, up to and including interstellar travel on reasonable timeframes, pursuant to your definition of reasonable. 1G acceleration, as is claimed in this particular instance, would get us to Alpha Centauri in a little over six years; 12 years if we are slowing down at the halfway point. This is well shy of “generation ship” type speculation, and would turn intersolar travel into something feasible in a lifetime.


Now, hefty grain of salt and all that. I’m skeptical myself, and recognize this is extremely speculative. Not only are there large engineering challenges in building such a spacecraft (or proving that one of these propellantless engines can produce thrust), there are also a whole slew of known unknowns (interstellar hydrogen or small molecule impacts at an appreciable percentage of C?) and unknown unknowns.


At the same time, it also solves some problems. Consistent acceleration, likely even under 1g, removes a lot of the problems of extended stays in microgravity, and if we’re hypothesizing advanced extrasolar civilizations anyways… Then it stands to reason that we would not be the only ones who would discover such things. It would “raise the ceiling” on intrastellar travel, so to speak.


I’m happy to be able to discuss it. While my own priors are low for any individual ‘game changing technology’ coming to fruition, we do know there are yet-unexplained physics; we live in exciting days, in both the positive and negative sense, to be able to more seriously start investigating these fringes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 25, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Huh. Interesting. I’m happy to believe you, but yeah, that makes you a weird outlier.


So does achieving that kind of deadlift in only two years, especially with a former endurance background. That makes it gaining strength harder, not easier, as you’ll have turned more muscle fibers into Type I fibers. All the same, good for you! I wasn’t built to deadlift; my proportions are wrong for it. Bench press and squat were better for me. That said, I got my strength total as high as I wanted it. After a point, powerlifting felt not worth it any more for me. My body hurt, and I didn’t want to keep bulking to become competitive at my height.


Do you still deadlift or lift competitively?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 25, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A BMI of 20.3 is 5th percentile for all Americans (for easy statistics). Women are much more likely to be very low BMI than men; what do you suppose that makes him? 3rd percentile? I’m pretty comfortable with calling that far on the left tail of body weight distribution.


I’ll agree with you about the PEDs; he claims to not have been though. It’s believable enough, though makes him a bit of a freak. Still, they do exist, so who knows?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Commenting to add a +1 to the desire for it; while effortposts are always preferable, bare links are better than nothing. Might as well enjoy our newfound freedoms!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 24, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Tagging on to your top level post to ask a question of the other users. Several have mentioned that AMPH is a ‘better’ class of stimulant than MPH. Why do people feel this way? Subjectively, it seems like amph is ‘speedier’, which means more enjoyable but also more prone to distraction, and with a bigger lag/crash after it wears off. Mph, in contrast, feels like less of a boost and more of a removal of fatigue, with less of a crash (but potentially a headache later).


Obviously responses are individual. What is the rest of the Motte’s experience?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In contrast to some of the other commenters, I first stumbled upon porn at age 10 (decades ago). While I didn’t know what it was at first, I still got an erection and proceeded to take care of business (albeit with some false starts and a significant amount of uncertainty about exactly what was happening).


My age group was aware of sex at that time, but in a more theoretical way. It was something obviously cool to do, even if we were fuzzy on the details, and if you didn’t want it then you were obviously gay, or so we thought, and that was bad.


Notably, despite years of porn and masturbation, I didn’t actually become genuinely romantically attracted to women for a number of years after that (14-16, maybe?).


So my experience suggests the physicality can be there early, and some will be curious and have the opportunity.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 25, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You’re right on the BMI scale, but the above poster wouldn’t qualify for most reasonable measures of obesity. BMI is good for population obesity measures, but quickly falls apart when you start seriously weight training. And a 3x body weight deadlift (at 235 pounds!) is extremely far to the right tail of the population strength curve; Strength Standards calls that an ‘elite’ lift (1), and it’s comparing to a population of people who actively train for strength. I would feel confident suggesting this is something that less than 0.1% of the population can do.


Now, I also think it’s likely that the above poster was using PEDs to support supraphysiologic muscle mass, as well. Not to cast aspersions, but merely to point out that with chemical assistance it’s certainly possible.


You’re right about 150 lbs / 6’ not being close to Auschwitz level, but it’s also a little insincere to suggest that it’s a ‘normal’ body weight. At 20.3 BMI, it’s less than 2 points from being underweight (18.5). At least in our society, I think it would commonly be agreed (as you say) that that’s pretty darn skinny.


For a personal anecdote, I’ve been both 130 and 240 pounds (at 6’3) and while the former was extremely skinny, the latter looked very good (as a bodybuilder, 10% or so body fat and yes, PEDs) despite being the cutoff for obesity according to BMI.


1)https://strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/deadlift/lb


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				[META] A Whole Host of Minor Changes
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I see the potential attack vector, and both of those solutions seem like good ways around them. Medals and cosmetic hats both are great ways to encourage helping mod! Although if you do do hats, perhaps gate them to the number of comments successfully approved, rather than the total amount of modding done? I think that little bit of mystery would help to interest people all the more in modding properly.


Anyways, thank you for making this community possible! I’ve left Reddit entirely with the new third-party-app debacle, and this is now my only source of online debate.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Generally very effective. Tasers can be ineffective in some situations, such as the target wearing thick clothing and an unlucky shot, but high voltage will work well on a large man.


Note that I have not shot someone with a taser; this is what I have heard secondhand. I am a large man who has completed a high-voltage circuit with my body, though, and I assure you the only thing on my mind was making it stop.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursdays 7
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Just wanted to echo some of the other commenters and state that I appreciate your posting these Transnational Thursdays. I don’t have enough background on some of these countries to comment to the level of erudition that this forum demands, but I hope you will continue to post. If I see and know something in the future I’ll happily share it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursdays 7
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Kosovo






In April Kosovar Serbians boycotted municipal elections, which were then won by Albanian candidates who tried to install their candidates by force, leading to ethnic violence and dozens of injuries. By now 4000 NATO Peace Keepers have entered Kosovo to stave off the rising ethnic tensions. Serbia’s troops are currently mobilized on the border and they have now threatened to militarily intervene if ethnic Serbs aren’t protected from Albanian violence.




I find this particularly interesting given Serbia’s at times uneasy alignment with the West. If Serbian troops were to enter Kosovo, ostensibly to protect ethnic Serbs… Might we run into a situation where Serbian troops end up firing on NATO peacekeepers (perhaps intervening in a pogrom of Albanians)? If so, does that push Serbia further into the arms of Russia, and could it change any power dynamics as regards the Ukraine war? I note that Hungary is already oriented towards Russia; while there seems to be no way for Russia to easily support Serbia in attempted ethnic cleansing, further strife in the area seems capable of causing the EU further headaches on their eastern front.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				[META] A Whole Host of Minor Changes
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thank you for calling out the people doing the volunteer moderating! I mostly browse the Motte before bed, and am rarely in the mood to make an effort post (or generally argue on the internet) and don’t want to post a ‘+1’ to avoid consensus building. It’s nice to know there’s something I can do as a lurker.


I know there are a million ‘to-do’ things- but might it be possible to show how much a volunteer’s thoughts reflect the mod’s, perhaps with some sort of (private?) “percent agreement”? I wonder if that might be a useful way to help people get better at it, and thereby take effort off the mods over time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Greetings Mottizens!
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Hello Mottizens!


Long time lurker posting to show my support of us moving to the new site.


The Motte is dead! Long love the Motte!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursdays 28
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I sadly don’t have much to add, but want to commend you for taking the time to do these informative and helpful write ups. It’s really nice to get insight into things happening across the world and I’m grateful to you for it.


To whatever mods may see my post and think it’s low effort—I plead (somewhat) guilty. I’m not posting a top-level comment for a reason. However, I want to encourage the excellent @Soriek to continue his work, and I think an occasional comment speaks more loudly than an upvote.


In actual transnational news, I recently became aware of a Russian program to try and improve their fertility rate by offering a large sum of money (enough to buy an apartment) to young couples who have multiple kids. I do not speak Russian, but if there’s interest I could try to understand what’s happening and post about it?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In the spirit of bringing life into the thread, I thought I’d share something a little different.


https://archive.ph/96KCm




Dozens of stars show signs of hosting advanced alien civilizations






Two surveys of millions of stars in our galaxy have revealed mysterious spikes in infrared heat coming from dozens of them.




A summary won’t do it justice, and I encourage anyone interested to read the linked article; it’s not long. In short, though, researchers checked out approximately 5 million stars (in our galaxy—close enough to look well at and potentially one day visit) for anomalous ratios of infrared heat to light. The idea here is that if a star is giving off a lot of light that is being captured, it will heat whatever is doing the capturing up significantly. This is suggested to be possibly due to either unusual debris fields around these stars, which would be unexpected due to their age (most planetary collisions happening early on in a solar system’s lifetime, and these stars being older)… Or due to large amounts of sun-orbiting satellites soaking up solar power, a Dyson swarm. Our exoplanet imaging is still very much in its infancy, and we have already discovered planets that seem to bear biosignatures. The latter explanation is plausible, at least.


This is pretty far from standard culture-war fare, but I suspect that there are enough rationalists and futurists here to find it interesting. There are also a few potential links:


    

  1. 

      

    1. What does the future of our society look in a universe where life is entropically favorable? That is to say, what if life is not rare, and instead happens consistently whenever the right conditions are present for long enough?
      2. 

    

    2. 



This implies that there is either a way through the theorized AI apocalypse, or perhaps that silicon-based life continues growing after taking over from carbon-based life (the “biological boot loader” thesis). While I’m rather attached to my carbon-based existence, it’s at least heartening that in this scenario something is still happening after AI takes over; the spark of life hasn’t left the universe. Unless all that power is going to making paperclips, I suppose.


    

  1. 

      

    1. What sort of societal organization is optimal for a galaxy in which we can expect to interact with numerous alien civilizations? We have (thankfully) yet to encounter grabby aliens, but the game theory seems logical; in an environment where there are limited resources and an ever-expanding population, conflict is inevitable (by historical earth standards).
      2. 

    

    2. 



Does it make sense to enforce population control on a cosmic scale, discouraging humans from expanding to other stars to avoid conflict? Could the “dark forest” hypothesis make sense, where offense is favored over defense and civilizations hide as much as possible?


    

  1. 

      

    1. If we were to travel to other stars in the distant future, would the expected travel times result in human speciation, or such a long remove that cultural exchange and even biological exchange is kept to a minimum? Or is there an “optimal human”, which genetic engineering and biotech could potentially bring us towards as a local maximum?
      2. 

    

    2. 

  2. 

      

    1. Is this all bullshit, and are we alone in the universe, forevermore?
      2. 

    

    3. 

  3. 

      

    1. Does anyone have any thoughts on the spate of propellantless propulsion efforts currently being made? Somewhat like perpetual motion machines, or room temperature superconductors, or fusion… This is a topic that has very high expected returns, and thus a high expected gain in fame or financing from lying about experimental results. But I do note that fusion seems to be moving forward; while LK-99 didn’t pan out, there are still groups working on things inspired by it, and it seems like lessons learned are leading to next generation superconductors. My point here is that if the laws of physics allow it, we seem likely to eventually create it… And we are yet to discover a Theory of Everything, so who’s to say whether something like propellantless propulsion is possible?
      2. 

    

    4. 



Mods, I apologize in advance if this is insufficiently culture-war adjacent to deserve posting here. I didn’t think it worthy of its own thread, and feel like it’s perhaps healthy for the Motte to have some fresh topics as well. I’m a devoted lurker and thought I should do my part.


Edit- My list got butchered. Trying to fix it, but it seems the method I chose of writing multiple paragraphs after a question is disfavored.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 27, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
How about some culture war?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/30/how-gang-violence-took-hold-of-sweden-in-five-charts


While I imagine the Guardian is persona non grata around here, this seems to me to be pretty stunning. Sweden, long the darling of the left, is now “… in the grip of a rise in gang violence and shootings that has taken citizens and leaders by surprise. In the words of the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, this year: “Sweden has never before seen anything like this. No other country in Europe is seeing anything like this.””


I’m leery of rephrasing the article excessively, but it does note that gun crime and narcotics have been rising since 2013, and that the gun murder rate in the capital of Stockholm is now 30 times that of London.


The fairly standard claim (this is the Guardian, after all) is that this has to do with poverty, not migration.




“Socioeconomic factors are what mostly constitute the risks of ending up in crime,” not ethnicity, says Felipe Estrada Dörner, a professor of criminology at Stockholm University whose research centres on juvenile delinquency and segregation. “This is a classic and well known pattern, in Sweden and internationally.”






Estrada Dörner says accelerating this trend and reversing other aspects of socioeconomic decline should be prioritised. “In order to slow down the supply of new recruits to gangs, inequality must be reduced. Harsher punishments, which the government invests a lot of resources in now, will not overcome those problems.”




So… Is the solution, now that mass migration has been accomplished, to make sure that they have just as much money as the original Swedes? Given the Swedish welfare state was already extremely generous, which drove all the immigration, is that feasible?