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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: October 6th, 2023

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  • Our moon is definitely the most important body in the solar system after the sun and earth. There’s a good chance life is only possible on earth because of the moon.

    The thing is, here on earth, we have this wealth of life and diversity, but we only have this diversity because we have a diversity of elements to work with. On most planets, we don’t see this diversity of elements, the same proportion of heavy elements have to be there somewhere, but we don’t see them on the surface. We’re pretty sure that this is because on other planets we don’t see plate tectonics. The process of plate tectonics churns and mixes the earth, it brings heavier elements that would normally be trapped underground back up to the surface.

    The crazy part, is that we’re not 100% sure why we have plate tectonics, and why all the other planets in our solar system don’t. But a leading theory is that plate tectonics are sustained by the tidal forces of a very large moon.

    If this interpretation is accurate, we really owe so much to the moon. Its continued gravitational force on the earth is what has made everything (life, intelligence, society, technology) possible.

    *Also, in a Drake equation/Fermi Paradox context, the perfect moon may very well be the extremely rare event that makes the earth truly special. *



  • Yeah, this is the right interpretation. Don’t think too deeply about the political motivation behind these scams, there isn’t one. The motivation is that these tankers and container ships are really really big, and they have proportionally sized wallets, and the scammers don’t want to miss the opportunity. The motivation is money and the opportunity is the legitimately confusing environment.

    As humans, we look for patterns in everything, we naturally look for greater meaning in events. And sometimes things are simple and have no greater meaning.








  • tbh, the concept of tiktok-style videos is really good for science and small useful info bits.

    What? That’s… absurd.

    I mean in the context of science, how is a tiktok style short video in any way superior to a longer form video? I mean there’s some really great science content on YouTube, vertasium, smarter every day, 3 blue 1 brown, minute physics, etc. But if you only watch a short snippet of video, what you’re cutting out is the entire scientific method, the part where they ask the questions, investigate, form a hypothesis, explain some experiments. Invariably, the short skips right to a conclusion, without any of the context. It’s like providing the right answer on math homework without showing your work, it’s functionally useless. It’s like science candy, it tastes great, but has zero nutritional value.

    I can’t see any way to avoid concluding that YouTube shorts are terrible for science.






  • You should consider taking it apart and seeing how the buttons work, things like how large the spring is, what the actual electrical contact mechanism looks like, if there are guide tracks on the side of the button that allow it to press down evenly instead of tilting to one side or jamming.

    If you know how it works, then even if you don’t find the exact same part from the exact same manufacturer, you’ll still be able to find something that works the same way and feels just the same, you may even find it cheaper or locally.

    I’m a strong proponent of taking things apart.