Comment Nutritionsts always trying to restrict good things (Score 2) 70
Protein intake increases thermogenesis. This FGF21 is probably being released when protein is low because more body heat is needed when digestion and absorption aren't producing it, but we know protein-rich diets result in more total thermogenesis.
Comment Re:Can I pay him not to post? (Score 2) 215
Well, yes. For many years, presidential candidates, both Democratic and Republican, referred to the United States as "the indispensible nation". And my reaction was always, "Doesn't that mean the US is a single point of failure for civilization?"
We are currently performing an experiment which addresses this question: can the US enjoy the benefits of soft power without the cost? That's the whole point of obeying *norms*. No individual force is going to punish you if you are treacherous, mercurial, foul-mouthed, disrespectful and generally unpredictable. Everyone will punish you.
I think an inevitable cost of this experiment will be that the world will decide that the US can't be a single point of failure for global democracy any longer. In many ways, that's something that will be good for us. But it's also going to cost us in painful ways. When the world decides to move away from the dollar as the international reserve currency, you will see both inflation and higher interest rates on everything from credit cards to mortgages, to business loans that will offset the export advantages. We will need *more* business investment to shift the economy to producing low value goods again, so the transition will be rocky.
Comment Re:Solar fricken roadways all over again (Score 1) 120
It's a trade off: you get abundant free energy to run the server, with extreme constraints on cooling because your server is running in the most perfect Thermos bottle ever.
Others are taking the opposite tack: undersea data centers for abundant free cooling at the expense of having to get the power down to your servers.
If had to bet on which one is more practial, I'd go with undersea servers. Build them off the coast of Chile, run cables out from batery-backed solar plants in the Atacama desert.
Comment Kessler syndrome anyone? (Score 2) 47
Comment Re:Amazon is corrupt! (Score 4, Insightful) 22
I think it may be evidence that Amazon has a shitty corporate culture that squeezes every penny it can out its employees.
Corruption can happen anywhere, but it's more likely to happen in totalitarian cultures where people feel like the system is rigged anyway. That's why countries like Russia and China have corruption problems. But I suspect the same feelings of me vs. the system occur in a capitalist enterprise like Amazon where employees are governed by dystopian, rigid, computerized metrics.
Comment Re:Just make up the numbers (Score 1) 330
Make that
Comment Just make up the numbers (Score 1) 330
In 2016, there were 6080 pedestrian deaths in the US. In 2017, there were 7080. Ascribing all 1000 of those additional deaths, plus another 2000 that presumably wouldn't have been happened, isn't credible.
I suppose what they did is make themselves a toy model which related hood height to deaths, then applied said model to actual hood heights to come up with a number. Basically assuming what they wanted to prove.
Comment Re:Harbinger of a future SCOTUS case (Score 1) 295
It's a state matter; SCOTUS isn't going to take it.
Comment Re:Texas, here they come! (Score 1) 295
False. While the ballot measure does not impose an annual wealth tax, it authorizes the legislature to implement one without further voter approval. It also lets the legislature set the rate and the floor.
Comment Re:The Rubber Hits The Road NOW. (Score 1) 295
The wealth tax on Brin would amount to 67%, because it goes by percentage of voting shares or percentage of ownership, whichever is greater. I assume something similar would apply to Page, who also holds Alphabet class B shares. Of course they're going to avoid that.
Comment Re:Dictators (Score 3, Informative) 55
The restrictions are a mix of reasonable nuisance management and paranoia about who is flying drones, what they can do, and chain of custody.
Beijing proper is a city with a population density of over 21,000 / km^2 -- so you can imagine the chaos if any tech enthusiast resident could fly a drone without a permit. Except for a couple of free zones in the outer boroughs, New York City restricts drone launcing and landings within the city to flights with a permit and flight plan, because otherwise the sky would be black with drones. Many cities -- both red and blue -- have zone restrictions for drone flights, and those currently hosting World Cup matches have tightened them for the duration of the tournament.
Comment Indeed, how? (Score 1) 95
"Who would have thought that school buses would be turned into the mass surveillance state?,"
As soon as they heard about the cameras? EVERYBODY.
Comment Re:Fuck you (Score 0) 87
This is one of those rare comments that needs to end up with (-1, Funny)
Comment Re:Don't be a Luddite (Score 1) 69
* The kids were told if they could avoid eating the one marshmallow they could have two marshmallows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It's also adorable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...