merc
@merc@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Anon is a math prodigy 6 days ago:
As one step of building a bigger project that demonstrates something web-ish.
- Comment on Anon is a math prodigy 6 days ago:
If the web server is implemented in any of the languages that require semicolons.
- Comment on Anon is a math prodigy 6 days ago:
Any programming language that runs on the web server and doesn’t gracefully handle its errors. There are many web servers implemented in Javascript, but it could also be Java, it could be Perl, it could even be C/C++ if someone is being masochistic.
- Comment on YEET 2 weeks ago:
Hit the gym, delete the lawyer, face the book.
- Comment on YEET 2 weeks ago:
For one thing, the Apollo shield started in the very thin upper atmosphere, and they came in at an angle that meant they bled off as much speed/energy as possible in that thin upper atmosphere before going into the thicker atmosphere.
I don’t know that that makes a huge difference to the physics involved, though it certainly may have.
Of course it will make a difference. The whole challenge is about managing the heat build-up, which is the energy per second (i.e. power). If you hit the thin upper atmosphere you’re encountering less material, so less friction / pressure, so less heating. It means you can keep the heat on the heat shield in a manageable range, rather than putting it at a temperature where it would melt or explode.
the air cushion begins heating itself up instead of the object, reducing the amount of heat the object receives.
No, both heat up. The air cushion transfers its heat to the object next to it. At the kinds of pressures we’re talking about, you might even be getting nitrogen plasma rather than just nitrogen gas.
But it would also tail off as the bore cap heated, reducing stresses on it as it went higher.
If it went high enough for that to matter. If it disintegrated in the lower atmosphere it wouldn’t matter that the air got thinner in the upper atmosphere.
chunks of meteorites bigger than a meter have made it through the atmosphere, for instance
Is a metre the original size, or the final size? Also, reverse meteors (something starting with its maximum speed in the lower atmosphere) are doing things the hard way. Rather than getting slowed down initially by the thin upper atmosphere and then only hitting the thick atmosphere once they’re slower, they start out in the thickest atmosphere. OTOH, a meteor is a random collection of rock and metal formed by gravity in space. A pure metal plug cast on Earth is probably going to be a lot less prone to breaking apart.
the bore cap starting at the bottom of the atmosphere means that it’s likely it experienced less fracture stress, since the air would’ve accelerated with it rather than being static.
That doesn’t make sense to me. Something in a thicker medium is going to experience more stress. Try pushing a cracker through the air vs. through water vs. through gelatin. Which medium will cause the cracker to crack first? Obviously it’s the thicker medium.
- Comment on YEET 2 weeks ago:
Exactly. It’s the minimum speed required to get into orbit assuming you get the direction correct. If you launch vertically, you’ll almost certainly come back down, no matter how far out into space you go. The only consideration is that if you go far enough out you might be influenced by the gravity of something else like the moon which could change your trajectory.
- Comment on YEET 2 weeks ago:
I don’t think you can compare the Apollo heat shields to a bore cap being launched into space. For one thing, the Apollo shield started in the very thin upper atmosphere, and they came in at an angle that meant they bled off as much speed/energy as possible in that thin upper atmosphere before going into the thicker atmosphere. In fact, one of the engineers said that if they came in too steep they’d generate too much heat and probably not survive the re-entry.
The layer of air you’re talking about at the front of the spacecraft was what heated up the heat shield. Instead of causing heating via friction, the heat was the result of compressing the air. The amount of compression you’re talking about would be orders of magnitude higher for something starting at 40 km/s in the thick lower atmosphere.
Also, the Apollo heat shield did heat up to 5000F or 2800C but was designed to be ablative, so that the hot layers burned off and flew off to the sides leaving new material to be heated up and burned off. This concrete and metal plug wouldn’t have been designed the same way. Concrete apparently melts at 1200C, and steel is approximately the same, so it’s very likely some of it melted or vaporized, the question is how much.
I don’t know where you’re getting the maximum of 22MJ of energy. The whole point of Apollo not going directly into the atmosphere was to take as long as possible to slow down, going through the thinnest part of the atmosphere for as long as possible. The whole point would be to reduce their energy-per-second as low as possible by taking as many seconds as possible. One reasonable first approximation of the energy would be to integrate the entire energy per second / power for Apollo’s re-entry over the entire 7 minutes (or however long it took until parachutes deployed) and then divide that energy by 2 for the 2 seconds the plug was in the atmosphere.
My guess is that that would have been temperatures well in excess of 1200C which would have made the outer surface start to melt, and most likely a temperature where it just turns to plasma. Would it all have melted / vaporized / plasmafied away? I don’t know, it’s a huge plug. Since it was launched vertically, anything remaining would probably have come right back down. But, that’s assuming it stayed in one piece. I’m guessing it broke apart due to the stresses on it, and breaking apart would have meant more surface area, which would have meant more areas exposed to massive heating, which would have meant more breaking apart.
TL;DR: I doubt it made it out of the atmosphere.
- Comment on YEET 2 weeks ago:
It isn’t speed.
- Comment on YEET 2 weeks ago:
Throw it into water or gelatin. At thousands of metres per second the air is going to seem much more dense.
- Comment on YEET 2 weeks ago:
That’s 11.2 km/s and 42.1 km/s.
Also, even if the manhole cover was going at above 12 km/s the trajectory has to be right for that to result in orbit. Most paths it would take would result in it going up and then coming back down again. Similarly, if somehow it did manage more than 50 km/s and wasn’t destroyed in the atmosphere, it might have the velocity to escape the sun’s gravity, but probably wouldn’t be on the right path to do it. Most likely it would fall into the sun.
So, assuming the 125,000 mph (55 km/s) velocity is correct, the most likely outcome is that it was a reverse-meteor, something that burned up going up through the atmosphere, not down. And even if it did have enough speed to get out of the atmosphere, and there was enough of it left, it most likely fell right back down through the atmosphere somewhere else, either burning up on re-entry or hitting the ground (or the water) somewhere else.
- Comment on Causes of Death in London (1623) 2 weeks ago:
It’s interesting how there’s a hint of science here, but so much non-science.
Like, trying to categorize things is a bit scientific. Trying to distinguish between similar but different things is a bit scientific. At the same time, so many of these causes of death are symptoms not causes. And, there are too many cases where they didn’t bother to try to find a cause, like the “Planet” cases or “Suddenly”. Also, almost all of the deaths are in children / infants, but in those cases they don’t try to figure out the cause of death, they just note the age.
- Comment on Causes of Death in London (1623) 2 weeks ago:
Olde Modern Count Abortive, and Stillborn Abortion and Stillbirth 445 Affrighted Fear? Possibly a heart issue? 1 Ague Malaria, or a disease involving fever and shivering 43 Apoplex, and Meagrom Stroke and severe headache, migraine 17 Bit with a mad dog Rabies 1 Bleeding Blood loss 3 Bloody flux, scowring and flux Dysentery and cholera 348 Bruised, Issues, sores and ulcers Bruising, open sores, either as a symptom of something else (hemorrhagic fever) or because they got infected 28 Burnt, and Scalded Same 5 Burst, and Rupture Probably an externally visible rupture 9 Cancer and Wolf Cancer and Lupus 10 Canker Mouth sores, maybe from herpes? Probably not the underlying cause of death 1 Childbed Death following complications from childbirth 171 Chrisomes, and Infants Babies less than 1 month old and Infants 2268 Cold, and Cough Same (but probably a symptom of something worse) 55 Colick, Stone, and Strangury Gallstones, kidney stones, and other intestinal and urinary blockages 56 Consumption Tuberculosis 1797 Convulsion Seizure, possibly caused by epilepsy 241 Cut of the Stone Died during surgery to remove kidney / gallstones 5 Dead in the street, and starved Exposure, hypothermia, starvation 6 Dropsie, and Swelling Edema, fluid retention, possibly caused by heart failure 267 Drowned Same 34 Executed, and prest to death Executed is obvious, “prest to death” is accidental death while being tortured (via pressing) to force a confession 18 Falling sickness Epilepsy, perhaps “petit mal” seizures vs “grand mal” which went under Convulsion 7 Fever Same, interesting that it’s distinct from Ague 1108 Fistula Same, horrific, distinct from childbed – I guess the women lived a bit longer? 13 Flocks, and small Pox Smallpox and other diseases causing pustules 531 French pox Syphilis 12 Gangrene Same 5 Gout Gout, or inflammatory arthritis, not the underlying cause of death, but a clear symptom 4 Grief Modern medicine would be more specific but… 11 Jaundies Jaundice, liver disease 43 Jawfaln Fallen jaw, lockjaw, tetanus 8 Impostume Abcess, a symptom of an infection 74 Kil’d by several accidents Trauma, I assume 46 King’s Evil Scrofula or Mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis 38 Lethargie Chronic fatigue, a symptom of something else 2 Livergrown Swollen liver, possibly cirrhosis from drinking 87 Lunatique Lunatic, mental illness – curious about the actual cause of death though 5 Made away themselves Suicide 15 Measles Same 80 Murthered Murdered 7 Over-laid and starved at nurse A smothered baby, either accidentally or on purpose, starved from lack of milk 7 Palsie Paralysis, Parkinson’s, similar things 25 Piles Hemorrhoids, not a cause of death, but a source of infections and an obvious symptom 1 Plague same 8 Planet Sudden death thought to be related to something astrological (planet alignment) 13 Pleurisie, and Spleen Pleurisy (chest infection), apparently it can sometimes be caused by damage to the spleen? 36 Purples and spotted Feaver Bruising and spotted fever (tick borne disease), distinct from bruising, listed earlier 38 Quinsie Quinsy, Peritonsillar abscess, can cause many other things 7 Rising of the Lights Fluid in the lungs, possibly caused by croup 98 Sciatica Same, possibly caused by spinal disc herniation 1 Scurvey, and Itch Ye Scurvy dogs! Ye been sailing with yer limes! 9 Suddenly um… 62 Surfet Surfeit, overeating, overdrinking, not fatal on its own, but perhaps blamed when it was the underlying reason 86 Swine Pox Possibly a euphemism for “French Pox”? 6 Teeth Probably children dying at an age when their permanent teeth were coming in. Similar to “Chrisomes” named for the cloth used when christening a child. Either that or serious tooth infections that led to complications. 470 Thrush, and Sore mouth Thrush (Candidiasis) could make it hard to eat or drink, or lead to other infections 40 Tympany Excess gas in the gastrointestinal tract making the belly like a drum, many potential underlying causes 13 Tissick A wasting disease, often associated with a cough 34 Vomiting Long term vomiting can cause dehydration, might also have been used for someone choking on vomit and dying from asphyxiation 1 Worms Ugh. 27 - Comment on This world is cruel… 3 weeks ago:
Cool stuff, I live in a city. Not a huge city, but big enough that I only see the major stars at night. It would probably take me at least 45 minutes of driving to get somewhere dark enough to take a picture like yours (assuming I had all the equipment and skill to take that kind of picture at all).
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
I’m sure you know other people spending thousands on their gear. Anyhow, many of these hobbies can be done relatively cheaply, but I imagine the woman picturing the man doing it as someone who wasn’t going the ultra-cheap route.
Nice picture btw. How far do you have to travel to get somewhere where there’s a low enough level of light pollution that you can take a picture like that?
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
A leather shop as in fetish gear, or a leather shop as in a place for leatherworking hobbyists?
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
Does listening to something count as reading? Hmm… I’m going to have to go with a no here.
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
A lot of these hobbies are wealth-adjacent.
Playing an instrument: a good instrument isn’t cheap, and music lessons can be pretty expensive.
Woodworking requires a lot of fairly expensive tools, and a space to do it. You can’t really have woodworking as a hobby if you live in a small studio apartment. You basically need a house, either one with a basement, a shed or a garage.
Gardening: requires a garden, something you’re unlikely to have unless you have your own house.
Photography: I don’t know anybody who is into photography who hasn’t sunk a lot of money into the hobby. There’s the cameras, the lenses, and even the software these days.
Astronomy: see above.
Hiking: not expensive on its own, but in North America it means being able to drive to a wilderness spot outside the city, so you pretty much require your own car.
Archery and blacksmithing: again, requires a specialized space
Now, I know that there are cheap options for a lot of these. A musician could be someone drumming on an upside-down pail. Someone who only has access to a hotplate could still experiment with food. Woodworking could be just whittling sticks found in the park. Gardening could just be tending to a small houseplant. But, are these the version of the hobbies the women are picturing when they’re imagining a potential mate doing the activity? Probably not.
Meanwhile, a lot of the stuff at the bottom of the list are very cheap hobbies. Like being influenced by the “Manosphere” just requires access to social media, same with porn and “arguing online”.
Honestly, it looks to me like if you sorted the list by “dollars per hour someone invested in that hobby is likely to spend” you’d get many of the same things at the top and many of the same ones at the bottom. Some of the few exceptions are writing and reading, which can be pretty cheap hobbies, but are still apparently very attractive.
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
Andrew Tate, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson. Basically online misogyny. People who blame women for everything, or think that there’s such a thing as an “alpha” man, or who use the word “cuck”. Basically incels, supposed “men’s rights activists”, date rapists and date rapists in training, etc.
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
There are plenty of people who go out for a drink after work. I don’t think they’d describe it as a hobby though, and if they did they probably wouldn’t just call it “Drinking”.
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
I like that Debating is rated at 30.?% but there’s a separate category for “Arguing Online”.
I guess that being a Master Debater who comments on people’s posts “Debate Me Bro!” doesn’t count for the slightly more preferred category?
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
It’s probably too rare. Like, woodworking is somewhat rare, but to do that you just need a basement or a shed or a garage or something. Blacksmithing actually requires a forge, so I’m assuming that far fewer people actually do it.
With it being so rare, I bet that the women who don’t have any experience with a man who’s into blacksmithing don’t think to mention it, or haven’t really thought of it. And the ones who do have experience have had a mixed experience. Blacksmithing is loud and dirty so I bet the charm wears off quickly.
- Comment on This world is cruel… 4 weeks ago:
* you’re
- Comment on Anon doubts WW2 Germany 4 weeks ago:
The Nazis based a lot of their racial laws on what was being done in the US, especially the south. Sure, the Allies included a diverse set of nations, but those nations were often incredibly racist too.
- Comment on Anon doubts WW2 Germany 4 weeks ago:
If Germany hadn’t turned on the Russians it would have won the war. If they’d managed to get access to the French Navy after invading France, they probably would have won the war.
- Comment on Anon doubts WW2 Germany 4 weeks ago:
IMO the biggest deal here was the Royal Navy. The UK started the war still clinging on to an empire that included almost half the world. They protected that empire with the biggest navy in the world. That meant that once Germany went to war with Britain by invading Poland, Germany couldn’t ship in anything via the Atlantic or via the Mediterranean. When they were allies with the Russians, that at least meant that they had access to everything Russia had in abundance, but when they did the ol’ red beard thing, they were boxed in on 4 sides. Meanwhile, their enemies late in the war had become manufacturing powerhouses with access to vast amounts of natural resources.
The whole story of U-Boats in WWII is really a story of how outmatched the German navy was. Rather than going toe-to-toe with the Royal Navy, the Germans had to snipe some of the constant shipments of goods flowing into the UK from around the globe. Even at the peak of their military power, they had ceded control of the seas to the British. Their only real naval force were stealth craft that could ambush and then run away. Since the British and then the Allies controlled the seas, it allowed them to invade by sea, first Sicily and then D-Day in France.
So, without the Royal Navy, Germany would have had access to goods from around the world, and wouldn’t have been vulnerable to an invasion by sea in the later stages of the war.
As for Russia, the bigger deal about getting within a few km of Moscow was that at the same time they were also getting very close to Baku. If they’d managed to control the Azerbaijani oil fields, it would have cut off oil supply to the USSR while gaining a huge oil supply for themselves.
What the Germans did in WWII was very impressive, especially considering that 15 years before the start of WWII the German economy was in such a state of collapse that inflation was running at 3 million percent per month. Prices for regular goods doubled every 2 days. Kids were playing with stacks of bills because those stacks were effectively worthless. Germany went from being the losers of WWI paying massive reparations that destroyed their economy, to being a force able to conquer virtually an entire continent. Unfortunately, that continent lacked critical natural resources and so eventually they lost because they couldn’t keep up with the manufacturing powers of their enemies.
- Comment on Anon tries to understand his coworker 4 weeks ago:
I’d say they’re tight, not loose.
- Comment on [Thread] Mental Math 4 weeks ago:
Ronaldo’s ego is incredible, and he’s almost always looking out for himself in everything he does. But, you can’t deny that he’s one of the best ever players. And his charisma means he’s a great choice for something like this where he has to perform and interact with all the “scientists”. Someone like Messi could do the same kinds of moves, but he wouldn’t be able to chat with the presenters and “scientists” between events in a natural way. (P.S. I love that they got someone named Ronald to be the ordinary guy who couldn’t do anything useful, that was just funny.)
I also think Ronaldo genuinely cares about all the biomechanics and all that, as long as it’s something that applies to him, and that he could use to make himself better. A lot of other players just play on instinct and don’t want to have to think about it.
- Comment on [Thread] Mental Math 4 weeks ago:
Hearing is definitely part of it, but I imagine it’s only hearing the sound of the ball being kicked. After that it’s going to be far too quiet to hear until it gets close, and he’s obviously reacting long before that. Maybe hearing helps him adjust in the last tenth of a second, but he’s not hearing the ball’s entire flight.
As for the body mechanics of a pitch or a kick, it is amazing. Like, a proper powerful punch involves leg muscles, hip muscles, waist muscles, chest muscles, and only then do you start to get to the arms. For most of us, the best way to realize how coordinated everything has to be is to try to do something with your wrong arm/leg. Everything that flows naturally on your strong side is just completely wrong on your weak side.
- Comment on [Thread] Mental Math 5 weeks ago:
What’s amazing is our ability to calculate the path of something in the air.
There’s a test they did with Cristiano Ronaldo where someone kicked a ball to him so he could head it. They shut off the lights before the ball was in the air and somehow from the body shape of the person kicking it, he was able to know how to make contact with it without being able to see it.
- Comment on Anon takes the horsepill 5 weeks ago:
tract