Vocab v77

Marcus Licinius Crassus

Marcus Licinius Crassus (/ˈkræsəs/; c. 115 - 53 BC) was a Roman general and politician who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome."[2][4] The first ever Roman fire brigade was created by Crassus. Fires were almost a daily occurrence in Rome, and Crassus took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a miserable price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire; if the owner refused, then they would simply let the structure burn to the ground. After buying many properties this way, he rebuilt them, and often leased the properties to their original owners or new tenants.

Margaret Howe Lovatt

Margaret Howe Lovatt (born Margaret C. Howe, in 1942) is a volunteer naturalist from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. In the 1960s, she took part in a NASA-funded research project in which she attempted to teach a dolphin named Peter to understand and mimic human speech. As a child, she was inspired by a book called Miss Kelly, a story about a cat who communicated with humans. This inspired her to research teaching animals to speak human language. When she was in her early 20s, she lived on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, where she had a laboratory to research dolphins. The director of the lab, Gregory Bateson, allowed her to observe dolphin behavior despite her lack of scientific training. At the same lab, she met John C. Lilly, a neuroscientist with the California Institute of Technology.[1] He was building a research laboratory with funding from NASA and the United States Navy with the goal of speaking to extraterrestrial life forms. In order to simulate this situation he built a "Dolphinarium", a dolphin-house flooded with water, on Saint Thomas. There Lilly accommodated three dolphins, two females named Sissy and Pamela and one younger male bottlenose dolphin named Peter. All of them were taken from Marine Studios and had been co-starring in the television show Flipper. In 1964 the "Dolphinarium" was fully functional and as Lilly was often traveling he assigned Howe Lovatt to train the dolphins. The goal of the "Dolphinarium" experiment was to teach dolphins human language. Over a period of two years, Lilly and Howe Lovatt, both with very different approaches, tried to prove that human language could be mimicked by dolphins. Howe Lovatt reasoned that if she lived with the dolphins and made human-like sounds, similar to how a mother teaches her child to speak, they would have more success.[1] She tried speaking slowly and changing the pitch of her tone to help Peter pronounce the words that she wanted him to learn.[2] Howe Lovatt and the pubescent male dolphin Peter spent all their time together in the isolated "Dolphinarium" where Howe Lovatt documented Peter's progress with her twice-daily lessons and encouragement to say the words "Hello Margaret". According to Howe Lovatt, the "m" sound was extremely difficult for Peter to pronounce without making bubbles in the water. In week five Peter started to exhibit signs of sexual attraction toward Howe Lovatt. Howe Lovatt stated that it was not sexual on her part, but it allowed her to get to know Peter.[1] In an article in the Atlantic, part in Lovatt's own words: In order to satisfy Peter's increasing sexual urges, he would be transported to another pool with two female dolphins. This was a logistical nightmare and it disrupted his communication lessons constantly. Eventually, Lovatt took it upon herself to relieve Peter of his urges, rather than going through the long and inconvenient process of transporting him, "It would just become part of what was going on, like an itch, just get rid of that scratch and we would be done and move on. An article titled "Interspecies Sex: Humans and Dolphins" appeared in the magazine Hustler that overdramatized the situation and reflected badly on their research.[1] Other problems arose surrounding the project. In addition to her animal communication research, Lilly had been funded to research the effects of the drug LSD. He had been testing the effects of the drug on his subject dolphins, with no results. Since neither his communication experiments nor his LSD research was proving fruitful, Lilly's Dolphinarium eventually lost all funding. Due to the lack of funding, they moved to an abandoned bank building in Miami. Since the building lacked sunlight and space, Peter quickly deteriorated and eventually committed suicide by drowning. Dolphin activist Ric O'Barry explains, "Dolphins are not automatic air-breathers like we [humans] are... Every breath is a conscious effort. If life becomes too unbearable, the dolphins just take a breath and they sink to the bottom. They don't take the next breath."

She had blue skin, And so did he. He kept it hid And so did she. They searched for blue Their whole life through, Then passed right by— And never knew.

Masks by Shel Silverstein

Do squirrels bite each others balls off?

Maybe. Quite the rabbit hole to read.

Myzocytosis

Myzocytosis (from Greek: myzein, meaning "to suck" and kytos meaning "container", hence referring to "cell") is a method of feeding found in some heterotrophic organisms. It is also called "cellular vampirism" as the predatory cell pierces the cell wall and/or cell membrane of the prey cell with a feeding tube, the conoid, sucks out the cellular content and digests it. Myzocytosis is found in Myzozoa[1] and also in some species of Ciliophora (both comprise the alveolates). A classic example of myzocytosis is the feeding method of the infamous predatory ciliate, Didinium, where it is often depicted devouring a hapless Paramecium.[2]

What causes a redwood tree that has lived for a thousand years to "die"?

Essentially, trees grow. And they don't know when to quit. We often measure how old a tree is by counting its rings. More rings means older bigger trees. Most trees - like Redwoods - rely on their leaves for energy via photosynthesis. As the trees get bigger they require more energy, so they need more leaves. However, there is a limited area where leaves can grow. A large Redwood (~200+ft tall) can't have leaves close to the ground, because the sunlight will be blocked by the individual tree and the trees around it. The tree must grow upwards above the other trees to ensure that it maintains enough space for new leaves. Yet there is a physical limitation to how tall any tree can grow - the height to which it can pump up water and other nutrients. For Redwoods, the absolute maximum of this height was found to be just over 400ft. You'll notice that the tallest trees on earth struggle to crack 300ft because of a medley of other limitations, such as environmental factors and disease. But barring these factors, at some point the core would starve to death and rot, and the tree will eventually fall over from a fierce wind or collapse under it's own weight. From a recent National Geographic article about redwoods, the unique environment of the area of the Pacific Northwest that redwoods grow in helps them grow tall in spite of the vertical limitations. The heavy fog coming off the ocean year-round actually waters the upper parts of the tree, helping to provide water higher than the tree could naturally pump it.

Eutrophication

Eutrophication (from Greek eutrophos, "well-nourished"),[1] is a limnological term for the process by which a body of water becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients. Water bodies with very low nutrient levels are termed oligotrophic and those with moderate nutrient levels are termed mesotrophic. Eutrophication may also be referred to as dystrophication or hypertrophication.

confection

(n.) a sweet, fancy food (We went to the mall food court and purchased a delicious confection.) dessert?

Ouroboros

* The ancient symbol of the snake biting its own tail, signifying the eternal cycle of life * the unity of opposing forces The ouroboros or uroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. Originating in ancient Egyptian iconography, the ouroboros entered western tradition via Greek magical tradition and was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and most notably in alchemy.

"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

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"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field."― Niels Bohr

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"If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting."

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"If a supercomputer is smart enough to pass the Turing Test, then it's smart enough to fail it in order to keep us none the wiser."

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"If you really want something, you will find ways. If you don't really want something, you will find excuses."

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"Is this significant enough to impact my peace?"

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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."― Carl Sagan

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"The cheapest option is the most expensive." Meaning if you buy shit quality of something, that's money and time thrown out the window as you'll have to replace it very soon.

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"The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be." ― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

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"The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-dam_ed nation of as_holes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidates who reminded them most of themselves. I had no interests. I had no interest in anything. I had no idea how I was going to escape. At least the others had some taste for life. They seemed to understand something that I didn't understand. Maybe I was lacking. It was possible. I often felt inferior. I just wanted to get away from them. But there was no place to go."― Charles Bukowski

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"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."

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"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it." "If you want to destroy a man, give him everything he could ever want." "Sometimes not getting what you want is a remarkable stroke of good luck." - The Dalai Lama

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"There is a new _________ that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished."

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"Things to do, things to accomplish. You set ego aside for the greater good. Past is a past - you can't change it. All you can do is build a better future! If we can't grow up and evolve, how can they? How can we say the world is going to be a better place?"

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"Waiting until you're happy to start making changes is like telling your doctor you want to wait until you're not sick before you take your medicine."

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"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special."― Stephen Hawking

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"What does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul?"

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"Why are so few people in pursuit of a better life?" They are trapped in a job they hate, because they have a huge mortgage, two cars, a wife and four kids with expensive interests to provide for. They spend 15 hours a week commuting, and have no hobbies or interests of their own because they can't afford it and because they never spent time in isolation to find themselves. There is no way out for them without their family making sacrifices that they aren't willing to make. People don't know you can opt-out from the narrative. We are trained from a young age to earn as much money as we can so we can buy lots of stuff we don't need. We are motivated by ego and greed, so we keep going for that new role to climb the ladder..some of us a lucky enough to have moments of clarity where we say "Wow, that girl who makes my coffee has an amazing life. She is so happy. I need to think about what makes me happy and make some changes". Most people don't have that, or only get to that point when they find themselves deep in situation number one that I described above.

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A home for poorly researched ideas that I find myself repeating a lot anyway.

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A skilled speaker not only projects power, but offers you power. "Think as I do, and you can wield some of my power." All persuasion is seduction. If the truth smells of weakness, most of us follow our nose. If the news is no longer convincing, that suggests a loss of power.

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Additionally, I don't hate my job because I see the value in it but I'm also not fooled into thinking there isn't a better life out there.

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As rainfall travels over roofs and the ground, it may pick up various contaminants including soil particles and other sediment, heavy metals, organic compounds, animal waste, and oil and grease. Some jurisdictions require stormwater to receive some level of treatment before being discharged directly into waterways. Examples of treatment processes used for stormwater include retention basins, wetlands, buried vaults with various kinds of media filters, and vortex separators (to remove coarse solids).[5]

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Beavers build dams to flood an area, which allows them to move from their lodge to their feeding areas by swimming through water instead of walking on land where they are more vulnerable to predators. Beavers predominately eat willow, cottonwood and aspen trees, specifically the tasty and nutritious cambium layer under the bark. These trees grow in the riparian zone (along rivers, lakes and streams) where beavers mostly hang out. A study was conducted that determined that the instinct to build dams is triggered by the sound of running water. Beavers were left in an empty room with a pile of sticks, and the sound of water was played from different directions, and the beavers would move the pile of sticks to where they heard the water. Beaver created ponds provide habitat for a lot of other animals, from birds to big game, and provide crucial ecosystem services that greatly benefit people too. Their ponds store water (like reservoirs) and make it available later in the year when it's needed most. They also filter the water, and some of it seeps into the ground and recharges aquifers. The ponds Eventually fill with sediment and become beautiful meadows.

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Beavers should just build their homes in calm waters and not rivers. Realistically though, why wouldn't they? Calm water suitable for a beaver lodge aren't very common and so they make an area from a stream. The beaver pond has to be shallow enough to be a lodge but deep enough to protect them from predators. It's a delicate balance. Any suitable pond would be quickly claimed by another pair of beavers and so new ponds have to be created

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Before RHIC started operation, critics postulated that the extremely high energy could produce catastrophic scenarios,[40] such as creating a black hole, a transition into a different quantum mechanical vacuum (see false vacuum), or the creation of strange matter that is more stable than ordinary matter. These hypotheses are complex, but many predict that the Earth would be destroyed in a time frame from seconds to millennia, depending on the theory considered. However, the fact that objects of the Solar System (e.g., the Moon) have been bombarded with cosmic particles of significantly higher energies than that of RHIC and other man-made colliders for billions of years, without any harm to the Solar System, were among the most striking arguments that these hypotheses were unfounded.

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Being lost is part of the journey.

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Bitcoin is P2P electronic cash that is valuable over legacy systems because of the monetary autonomy it brings to its users. Bitcoin seeks to address the root problem with conventional currency: all the trust that's required to make it work -- Not that justified trust is a bad thing, but trust makes systems brittle, opaque, and costly to operate. Trust failures result in systemic collapses, trust curation creates inequality and monopoly lock-in, and naturally arising trust choke-points can be abused to deny access to due process. Through the use of cryptographic proof, decentralized networks and open source software Bitcoin minimizes and replaces these trust costs.

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By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

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Can't say I ever tried hard enough to claim I gave something my all and failed. I like to hold on to the fantasy of my unused potential. Actually trying would ruin that comfort.

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Cheap is better than free.

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Consider a mining town. Once upon a time there was a mine, and the mine was the largest employer in the town. They mined copper ore and sold it on the global market. This brought money into the town, which sprouted a restaurant, real estate broker, doctor's office, and church. Although those people weren't employed by the mine, they got enough customers from the miners, who fundamentally got money from outside the town. But eventually the mine dried up. The miners lost their jobs, since the town was no longer bringing in enough money to pay them. The doctor, realtor, and waiter were still employed, as their "mines" didn't dry up. But they did, as they were really just mining the miners. The town persisted for a bit, passing the same money around in a circle. But with each pass, there was a transaction fee. And there were still things like food, which needed to be imported into the town. The town went broke, died, and became a ghost town. ___________ But this makes my point, that group 1 jobs have been growing at the expense of group 2. They are now 73% of US jobs! Group 1 jobs do not contribute to the money creation as a whole, and it's concerning to consider what will happen if this trend continues. We cannot have a worldwide economy of group 1 jobs, as just like the town, the whole world would end up going broke.

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Consider that the nervous system in animals is a form of hybrid computer. Signals pass across the synapses from one nerve cell to the next as discrete (digital) packets of chemicals, which are then summed within the nerve cell in an analog fashion by building an electro-chemical potential until its threshold is reached, whereupon it discharges and sends out a series of digital packets to the next nerve cell. The advantages are at least threefold: noise within the system is minimized (and tends not to be additive), no common grounding system is required, and there is minimal degradation of the signal even if there are substantial differences in activity of the cells along a path (only the signal delays tend to vary). The individual nerve cells are analogous to analog computers; the synapses are analogous to digital computers.

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DeFi, the only place where unicorns and cartoon sushi face off in a battle for liquidity. Uniswap has been one of the most successful DeFi protocols for swapping tokens on Ethereum. It was created by a small team of passionate builders who have made the code open-source and available for anyone to fork. And that's exactly what SushiSwap did! SushiSwap is a fork of Uniswap that adds the appetizing SUSHI token. It grants control over the protocol to holders and pays a portion of fees to them. Let's see how you can get it on your plate!

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Don't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from.

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During his early life, describing himself as "inured to religion. I didn't have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics."

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Each block contains, among other things, the current time, a record of some or all recent transactions, and a reference to the block that came immediately before it. It also contains an answer to a difficult-to-solve mathematical puzzle - the answer to which is unique to each block. New blocks cannot be submitted to the network without the correct answer - the process of "mining" is essentially the process of competing to be the next to find the answer that "solves" the current block. The mathematical problem in each block is extremely difficult to solve, but once a valid solution is found, it is very easy for the rest of the network to confirm that the solution is correct. There are multiple valid solutions for any given block - only one of the solutions needs to be found for the block to be solved. Because there is a reward of brand new bitcoins for solving each block, every block also contains a record of which Bitcoin addresses or scripts are entitled to receive the reward. This record is known as a generation transaction, or a coinbase transaction, and is always the first transaction appearing in every block. The number of Bitcoins generated per block starts at 50 and is halved every 210,000 blocks (about four years). Bitcoin transactions are broadcast to the network by the sender, and all peers trying to solve blocks collect the transaction records and add them to the block they are working to solve. Miners get incentive to include transactions in their blocks because of attached transaction fees. The difficulty of the mathematical problem is automatically adjusted by the network, such that it targets a goal of solving an average of 6 blocks per hour. Every 2016 blocks (solved in about two weeks), all Bitcoin clients compare the actual number created with this goal and modify the target by the percentage that it varied. The network comes to a consensus and automatically increases (or decreases) the difficulty of generating blocks.

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Every time I meet a prostitute she wants to talk about god, and every time I meet a priest he wants to talk about sex.

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How did you know it was love? 17 years ago, when I first felt like I "loved" her, it wasn't love as I understand it today. I was 17 years old, and today I understand that the feelings I had at that time we based mostly on lust, and the fact the she reciprocated my affections. I was nice to her, she was nice back, I wanted sex with her, she wanted sex back, and so on. I decided that I "loved her", and she decided the same thing. I never actually "knew" I was in love with her, it wasn't like a light switch going off. If you've driven the same route to a destination for years, one day you'll hop in the car, turn on the radio and start moving. Before you even realize what's happening, you're there. You can barely remember the drive, the cars you passed along the way, or the songs on the radio, but there you are. That's the only way I can think to explain it. I'm sure that some people have a romantic epiphany, but that's not how it was for me. It won't sell a lot of books, and probably wouldn't make a very good romantic comedy, but it is real, and it is strong. I love my wife, I don't remember when I started loving her, but I can tell you when I'll stop loving her. Never.

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I am increasingly convinced that the difference between effective and ineffective people is their level of determination. It's an underappreciated fact that determination is a relational property. It is your willingness to make sacrifices in service of some specific goal. You cannot simply be determined. Determination always flows from a purpose, from having something to protect. Some people naturally strive for achievements and have high self-discipline. That might make some difference, but determination is not the same as achievement-striving. The latter is unfocused. It's being ambitious without having an ambition. Such people might still get far in life by commonly held standards, but they do not bend the world to their will. In my experience, there are very few people who have such determination. If you have it, you are at an incredible advantage. You will always and reliably do what needs to be done. You will play to win. Talent, intelligence, and luck will still make a difference. Determination is not enough, but it is perhaps the one thing under your control. Nobody — not even you yourself — can blame you for not doing more than is in your powers. To be clear: determination will be painful. Overcoming obstacles is hard. Growing to meet these challenges will hurt.

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I choose to not give a f*ck about my emotions. Irrespective of how I feel I'm just going to do XYZ. Because I keep on working, I don't allow those negative, Dark thoughts to manifest. I reject them. I MOCK THOSE THOUGHTS! They're not part of me. They're not allowed as part of me. They're mental pollution. A psychological virus that must be dealt with, and I am the epidemiologist. My vaccine is: I DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM! This actually works and helps a lot to defeat any feelings of low self-esteem, depression, etc.

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I had a boss years ago who talked about debt of any kind as "mortgaging your future.". Truth. Your level of debt makes your decisions for you. It dictates how much money you must make, which dictates where you live in most cases, which dictates how much you must work and on and on. No debt provides choices.

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I realized that no one knew me, so I could be whoever I wanted. I decided to be someone I liked. People still hate me, but I like myself now.

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I thought I'd never have a life I would want so I didn't see the point in struggling for it.

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I walked a mile with Pleasure; She chatted all the way; But left me none the wiser For all she had to say. I walked a mile with Sorrow; And ne'er a word said she; But, oh! The things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me.

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If all our world died tomorrow, from COVID-22 or something, we would leave behind godshatter. Relics with untold power. Imagine finding all that's left is a smartphone. Useless without a solar charger, but add one and it's a most valuable relic. And if they downloaded wikipedia offline, the discovery of that phone will allow you to rebuild it. Can we bootstrap faster? That's godshatter of the information age. A handheld device that allowed you to breathe underwater. A phaser. A portable device that could construct houses. The doctor's mobile emitter. A machine that pulls the water from the air. A handheld flying machine. An arc reactor. All ruined if you have to connect to WiFi.

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If it centralizes power, it's bad. If it decentralizes power, it's good. Build technology that is inextricable from its narrative. Build technology that will give us freedom, not enslavement. One axis to consider. Does this centralize or decentralize power? The power itself is unstoppable. How we divide it is a choice. I wish I had a more concrete plan. But for the love of God, if you build technology, consider this axis. Build the wrong technology, and we will live in an eternal prison.

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If it costs you your peace, it's too expensive.

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If the game doesn't interest you, stop playing it.

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If you remove yourself from everything familiar, then you find out who you really are.

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Indeed, the familiar mushroom is a reproductive structure used by many types of fungi. However, there are also many fungi species that don't produce mushrooms at all. Being eukaryotes, a typical fungal cell contains a true nucleus and many membrane-bound organelles. Fungi are usually classified in four divisions: the Chytridiomycota (chytrids), Zygomycota (bread molds), Ascomycota (yeasts and sac fungi), and the Basidiomycota (club fungi).

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Instead I would argue the real underlying motivation here is the great dragon. People have a profound, desperate need to find "meaning" and "value" in their life tasks because that's one of the only ways we've found to stave off existential dread. You can trick yourself into thinking a quiet life of turnup farming has some kind of spiritual profundity, in a way you cannot trick yourself into thinking a life of video games has. But that doesn't make turnup farming any more or less valid than video games, the difference isn't any real meaning, it's just a question of how self-deluded each task allows us to be.

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Is it unforgivably selfish to stay in a career that I love if it requires less time and money for my kids? Where I am guaranteed to let them down sometimes and break promises to them? Do I have a moral obligation to them, to my husband, to myself to seek out a career that frees up more of me to give to them? No. Happy mom, happy kids. It is better for kids to have a happy mom who may not be able to make it to every single dance recital and can't buy them everything they want, than a mom who can buy them anything they want but resents them for taking something she truly loved (in this case, their career) from her.

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Is marijuana actually addictive? If you are using it to fill a void in your life, anything can be addictive.

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LHC Power: First collisions were achieved in 2010 at an energy of 3.5 teraelectronvolts (TeV) per beam, about four times the previous world record.[4][5] After upgrades it reached 6.5 TeV per beam (13 TeV total collision energy, the present world record).[6][7][8][9] At the end of 2018, it entered a two-year shutdown period for further upgrades.

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Minecraft facts: Sponge use to be able to prevent griefings with water, but since the 1.1, this has been removed. Beacons can shine through lava, but not water. You also can't have a beacon work underwater. The Ender Chest, Flower Pot, and Item Frame were all suggested by Reddit, and implemented. Cauldrons can un-dye leather armor, collect rain, be used with potion making, and, if you're on fire, extinguish you. The last method is also the only way water can be "available" in the Nether. In the Nether, you can use dark oak saplings to break bedrock. Naming any mob Dinnerbone or Grumm will flip them upside down, while naming a sheep jeb_ will cause it to constantly change color. Ender Dragon is a girl, and her name is, as stated by Notch, Jean.

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Bristlecone pines

Found in utah, california, and nevada. We all know trees can live really long lives. It's no surprise that they typically live longer than humans and everything else on the planet. Trees can live anywhere from less than 100 years to more than a few thousand years depending on the species. However, one species in particular outlives them all. The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Longaeva) has been deemed the oldest tree in existence, reaching an age of over 5,000 years old. The Bristlecone pines' success in living a long life can be contributed to the harsh conditions it lives in. Very cold temperatures associated with high winds, in addition to a slow growth rate, create dense wood, meaning some years they grow so slowly, they don't add a ring of growth. Due to the slow growth and dense wood, the Bristlecone pine is resistant to insects, fungi, rot, and erosion. The lack of vegetation where they grow make Bristlecone pines rarely affected by wildfires. These slow-growing trees can reach a height of 50 feet and a trunk diameter of 154 inches. Even the needles on these fascinating trees live up to 30 years long. This allows the trees to conserve more energy by not having to reproduce new ones. It takes about two years for the Bristlecone pine cone to reach maturity, which is unique amongst trees in the conifer family. The Bristlecone pine gets its name from the cones whose scales appear to have a claw-like bristle. __________________ The bristle-cone pines (Pinus longaeva) are a good example of this. When people talk about the oldest bristle comes, most people are talking about a specific relictual population in California. Most bristle cones only live a few hundred years - the reason the Ancient Bristlecones live so long is because they grow in a very particular set of ravines, with a very particular set of environmental conditions. Not only are these ravines wetter and less windy than many other locations the tree can grow, which reduces dessication and wind throw mortality, but the long dormant season at 10k+ feet makes it so the trees grow very, very slowly. Slow growth means they accumulate biomass very slow, which reduces their risk of growing into wind throw or lightning strike range or accumulating too much fire fuel.

PancakeSwap is one of the latest additions to automated market maker (AMM) platforms in the burgeoning DeFi market. The decentralized trading protocol enables users to deposit digital assets into trading pools to earn fees and newly minted tokens as a reward for providing liquidity — a process referred to as yield farming or liquidity mining. Unlike most DeFi applications, however, PancakeSwap runs on the recently launched Binance Smart Chain (BSC) — a new, smart contract-enabled parallel blockchain to Binance Chain. Binance Smart Chain is EVM-compatible, allowing for interoperability with the Ethereum blockchain and ERC assets. Moreover, BSC has much faster transaction times and lower transaction fees than Ethereum, making it an ideal network for high-volume DeFi applications. Encouraged by BSC's low fees and high-speed transactions, yield farmers who previously populated the Ethereum blockchain have switched to BSC and PancakeSwap on the hunt for higher yields and a better user experience. User experience is another area where PancakeSwap scores points. The creators are focusing on the gamification of DeFi by avoiding technical financial terms and sticking to its desert-based food theme. Liquidity pools are called "Kitchens." If you are staking FLIP tokens, you earn CAKE. If you stake CAKE, you earn TWT. You get the idea. You'll notice if you visit https://pancakeswap.finance that many features are inaccessible until you click on Unlock Wallet. Click on it, and you'll be met with a few options: MetaMask, Trust Wallet, WalletConnect, Binance Chain Wallet, and other options. But wait, we hear you say, isn't MetaMask an Ethereum wallet? Yes, it is, but the architecture of Binance Smart Chain is such that you can use MetaMask to interact with BSC-based DApps. If you choose to use MetaMask, we suggest you check out our Connecting MetaMask with Binance Smart Chain guide.

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Part of being an adult is making difficult & uncomfortable decisions that will mess up the daily routine we're so used to having. So if that means moving out so you don't feel trapped anymore, then that's the decision you'll have to make.

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Pigs can dispose of a body with relative ease Actually, pigs will eat everything except the teeth, lobsters on the other hand will dispose of the whole body.

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RTG composition on perseverance on mars

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RuBisCO is an enzyme involved in the first major step of carbon fixation, a process by which the atmospheric carbon dioxide is converted by plants and other photosynthetic organisms to energy-rich molecules such as glucose. In chemical terms, it catalyzes the carboxylation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (also known as RuBP). It is probably the most abundant enzyme on Earth. In spite of its central role, rubisco is remarkably inefficient. As enzymes go, it is painfully slow. Typical enzymes can process a thousand molecules per second, but rubisco fixes only about three carbon dioxide molecules per second. Plant cells compensate for this slow rate by building lots of the enzyme. Chloroplasts are filled with rubisco, which comprises half of the protein. This makes rubisco the most plentiful single enzyme on the Earth.

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Some mutations of just one letter in the DNA code can kill the fetus almost instantly, but some people live and have a seemingly healthy life while missing a whole chromosome. If you understand anything about biology, that's completely wild.

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That so many vegetables came from the same plant. Broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, etc. They are, botanically speaking, the same species. Humans have just bred them to emphasize different traits (buds, leaves, tubers...) Imagine if humans were as genetically flexible. Imagine a person walking around with GIANT toes, but otherwise normal. Actually, plant genetics in general is a weird, weird world.

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The NASA definition of life: "Life is a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution."

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The end result is that by the time Kaczynski is born, he doesn't even know the great struggle of technological innovation and suffering that preceded him. He only knows that chimneys "just work" and are "basic elements of life". And because of this he did not realize that to truly understand technology, you must think in terms of centuries rather than decades. Sure, right now cars are awful, dangerous, smelly things. But with 100 more years of tinkering? Fully automated, electric vehicles that allow you to go where-ever you want in comfort and style without danger or pollution. And that you likely won't even have to "own", you just call one up and it takes you were you want to go. The hassle of car ownership falls away from us. Instead we're just left with personal transportation being one of numerous "solved problems" in the backdrop of society, which we don't even think about anymore. I could illustrate this exact idea with a dozen other technologies beyond cars and chimneys, from electric lights to central heating to sewers. Almost all huge society changing technologies go through three phases: Novel, ubiquitous but sucky, and finally invisible. Correct electrical wiring, or chimneys, are at the 'invisible' stage. Cars are at the ubiquitous but sucky stage and will hopefully be entering the invisible stage over the new century. The internet is leaving the novel stage and entering the ubiquitous but sucky stage. That's how technology tends to run. And the real reason Kaczynski thinks the way he does isn't because he found some deep truths about the fabric of human society, but because he happened to be living during a period of history when a lot of technologies were smack dab in the middle of their "ubiquitous but sucky" phase. His fears of AI and genetic manipulation also strike me as being similar. He's sitting in the novel phase of these technologies, and writing with doom and gloom about a time when both will enter the sucky phase. Yet he is only so pessimistic because he does not know the 'invisible' stage even exists, and can't imagine a day when bad presidents like Nixon or harrupf will have their actions checked by benevolent AI, when children are able to be whatever they want to be just by injecting a syringe full of gene goo (or however this works, I don't know biology). When these technologies simply enter the background of our society as invisible and uniformly positive things we forget what life was even like before they existed. I think immortality would solve so many problems in society basically over night. And this is yet another one - if people were able to think in terms of centuries, without facing down the great dragon of death and tainting every thought with terror, I suspect we'd look to the future with a fairly profound sense of optimism. "Sure we'll have to do through a few centuries of AI suckiness, but eh. Eventually we'll get to AI paradise and that'll be pretty sweet. Just keep my head down in the 2100s and 2200s and then it's smooth sailing until at least the 4th millennia"

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The kids change, the clothes change, the attitudes change. The science changes. I lived through times when women couldn't learn science like men and when people refused to teach people because of the color of their skin. The one thing that doesn't change is the hunger for knowledge. I get new children every year who I truly enjoy teaching. Some kids don't want to learn but there are always the special few that find wonder in science. I continue teaching for those kids. The ones who find the wonder and joy behind science. There are more and more of you each year and it truly fills me with joy.

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The known is finite the unknown infinite.

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The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land.

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The past and future are abstract concepts. Five minutes ago no longer exists, five minutes from now does not yet exists. The only thing that exists is right now. We don't live in the 'grand road of history', we live now, and, abstractly, we live in a brief span of time, and what's happening in that span of time is what matters to us.

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The simple act of pressing the shutter button in a camera app on a smartphone or on the body of a high-end DSLR is effortless, but it's at this moment when, through carefully guided rays hitting an array of photodetectors, we immortalize reality by painting with light.

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The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.[11]

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The sperm whale is the loudest creature on earth at 230dB. Like no. Like louder than all the other shit humans get up to. The Tzar Bomba the loudest explosion ever detonated by humanity was 6dB quieter at 224. Sperm whales can produce sound waves so powerful it can kill you. Tho apparently...they have been known to use their inside voices around human divers. They whisper around us so they don't hurt us. __________________ Well, you're wrong. But you're wrong in a curiously ignorant way. See, the Decibel scale is a logarithmic scale measured in reference to another sound level. In the air, this is 20µpa. Underwater, the reference is 1µpa. Due to some mechanical differences between the mediums its not entirely trivial to convert between the two. But, approximately, its a difference of 62db. That sperm whale call of 230db@re1µpa is still very loud but much more modest 168db@re20µpa atmospheric equivalent. So no, the bellow of a sperm whale is not louder than the largest nuclear detonation ever triggered by mankind and as one might expect contains several orders of magnitude less energy.

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The three-quark model assuming that a proton or a neutron is made of three free non-interacting quarks in a bag is too simple. It cannot match a scattering process like the inelastic scattering of electrons off protons. Those valence quarks are imbedded in a sea of virtual quark-antiquark pairs generated by the gluons which hold the quarks together in the proton. All of these particles - valence quarks, sea quarks and gluons- are partons.

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There are more Panda Express locations in the world than actual panda bears 2,200 Panda Express 1,864 pandas

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There are three basic elements in any fertilizer; Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium (NPK.) Nitrogen increases the growth of the leaves and stems or the growth above ground. Phosphorus contributes to healthy root growth and the growth of fruits and flowers. Potassium enhances overall plant health. Growers often use different ratios of NPK for different trees and at different times of the year. However, experts are increasingly recommending using the same NPK ratio throughout the Bonsai growth cycle. Apart from the three macronutrients (NPK), fertilizers can also include a range of micronutrients like Iron, Manganese, Boron, Molybdenum, Zinc, and Copper.

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There's no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession.

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This sub is biased towards more ambitious people because if you're not looking to change something, you don't need a lot of advice. There are a lot of slow and steady jobs out there, people just don't talk about them much here.

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Though I'm sure some people find purpose and meaning in their 9-5, most do not, and are instead confined to an endless loop of doing something they hate, in order to pay their bills and do it all over again. Realizing this is a great step as if one were a toy that has awoken and gained consciousness while the rest of the toy box remains inanimate. I've made great strides to find my purpose and enjoy life more and worry about money less.

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

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VR. Just dropped nearly $700 on a set up and I realized that the equipment is good, but theres no meaningful experiences to be had. Every game feels like a shallow arcade game.

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We believe the way many trading protocols use the underlying blockchain is fundamentally flawed. Loopring takes a different approach known as zkRollup proposed by Vitalik Buterin. zkRollup migrates most computations off the blockchain and only broadcasts exchanges' new state roots and their corresponding proofs onto the blockchain. In other words, the Loopring protocol uses the underlying Ethereum blockchain mainly as a data layer and a Zero-Knowledge Proof verification thin-logic layer. As a result, Loopring's throughput is as high as 2,025 trades per second with OCDA, and 16,400 trades per second without. The corollary is that the cost per trade settlement is as small as $0.00015 USD, which can be further optimized (halved in near-term) by using techniques such as GPU-based proof generation and recursive SNARKs. We also believe that Loopring's performance is sufficient for professional traders and market makers to deploy algorithmic strategies and other automated trading bots. This was not previously possible on any DEX as it was prohibitively slow and expensive. By building on top of Loopring 3.0, orderbook-based DEXs can be commercially viable for the first time. With Loopring, we expect non-custodial exchanges to begin outcompeting and displacing many centralized counterparts.

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We grow up in isolation. Only slowly do we teach ourselves the cosmos.

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We need to start looking for solutions instead of arguing about problems.

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What I found was the more you expect the less you get. Almost every video game, most movies, the list can keep going, but if you just let life come at you and surprise you, you'll find that you will be pleasantly surprised with a lot and become less materialistic.

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When people think of hyperinflation, they usually envision a Zimbabwean printing press running around the clock in the dark corner of a mud hut, putting ever more zeroes on cheap paper. Has it ever occurred to you that hyperinflation can happen while the printing presses are off? The value of the money in your pocket is not ultimately guaranteed by your government, but by simple supply and demand. The government controls the supply, and we control the demand. If demand falls precipitously, we have hyperinflation without ever needing to print another dollar or euro. If people start fleeing government currencies en masse, hyperinflation is the inevitable result.

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When you die from drowning, you don't die from lack of oxygen, you die from too much water getting into your body through your lungs. You are alive and conscious for several minutes past the 'My chest is exploding" stage. It takes up to ten minutes to drown in salt water.

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Who will you choose to be today?

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Why does anyone want Waymo? We need to decentralize the world, not build brittle systems that leak power. A Waymo network can be used for evil if evil people are at the controls. The Bitcoin blockchain has no controls. Every gun fires when its owner pulls the trigger, owned by millions. We'd live in a better world if nuclear weapons weren't possible, owned by tens. Can we build technology without industry? I fantasize about living in a forest with my AI girlfriend while we probe the universe. Ask yourself this. Am I building technology to further centralize or decentralize power? Power is beautiful. Using energy to create order is the highest calling of God. Energy use isn't bad! Uniform rectangular buildings are bad. Industrial chemical factories are bad. Humans are good. I've been learning biology. It's unreal how amazing the technology to build humans is. Only now are we close with our stack. Human DNA is 6 GB. That's a DVD. In 1970, you couldn't store 6GB. Today, I can copy it in seconds on my M1 SSD. That's actually faster than nature. Biology is non-toxic. Biology is efficient. Biology is beautiful. Biology is technology. Biology is not centralized. Biology is not alien. Biology is not rectangular. Biology is not industrial.

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Why is parental sacrifice praised in society? My parents made decisions so our family could operate but I don't view them as a "sacrifice". You had 3 kids and there are obligations you must commit to, why do so many people want a trophy for it? I think people use being a parent as a way to mask their poor decision making and life planning.

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You are not your thoughts. You are your actions.

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You don't need anyone to get to where you want to be. You need a positive mindset, grit, and love. To make it simple I tell myself triple P be persistent, patient and when it comes to your craft make every move precise.

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Your system is only as secure as your least competent employee.

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contrary to popular belief, there are stupid questions, and you might be banned for asking them. if you are asking why, you are missing the point

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fascinated by george hotz.

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of things unknown but longed for still

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one light year = 6 trillion miles

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peregrine falcon top speed

240 mph

Teachers of reddit, What generation did you like teaching most? (80s, 90s, 00s) Why?

97 - sarcastic, grungy, smoking more cigarettes, more clique-y and edgy 07 - petty, attention starved, overwhelmed, but much nicer 17 - under so many layers of irony and memes they dont even know who they are anymore or care. there's no point in being creative or devolving a personality, anything you could think of has already been done.

Bayer filter

A Bayer filter mosaic is a color filter array (CFA) for arranging RGB color filters on a square grid of photosensors. Its particular arrangement of color filters is used in most single-chip digital image sensors used in digital cameras, camcorders, and scanners to create a color image. The filter pattern is 50% green, 25% red and 25% blue, hence is also called BGGR, RGBG,[1][2] GRBG,[3] or RGGB.[4] Bryce Bayer's patent (U.S. Patent No. 3,971,065[6]) in 1976 called the green photosensors luminance-sensitive elements and the red and blue ones chrominance-sensitive elements. He used twice as many green elements as red or blue to mimic the physiology of the human eye. The luminance perception of the human retina uses M and L cone cells combined, during daylight vision, which are most sensitive to green light. These elements are referred to as sensor elements, sensels, pixel sensors, or simply pixels; sample values sensed by them, after interpolation, become image pixels. At the time Bayer registered his patent, he also proposed to use a cyan-magenta-yellow combination, that is another set of opposite colors. This arrangement was impractical at the time because the necessary dyes did not exist, but is used in some new digital cameras. The big advantage of the new CMY dyes is that they have an improved light absorption characteristic; that is, their quantum efficiency is higher. The raw output of Bayer-filter cameras is referred to as a Bayer pattern image. Since each pixel is filtered to record only one of three colors, the data from each pixel cannot fully specify each of the red, green, and blue values on its own. To obtain a full-color image, various demosaicing algorithms can be used to interpolate a set of complete red, green, and blue values for each pixel. These algorithms make use of the surrounding pixels of the corresponding colors to estimate the values for a particular pixel.

Blue hole

A blue hole is a large marine cavern or sinkhole, which is open to the surface and has developed in a bank or island composed of a carbonate bedrock (limestone or coral reef). Their existence was first discovered in the late 20th century by fishermen and recreational divers.[1] Blue holes typically contain tidally influenced water of fresh, marine, or mixed chemistry. They extend below sea level for most of their depth and may provide access to submerged cave passages.[2] Well-known examples are the Dragon Hole (in the South China Sea) and, in the Caribbean, the Great Blue Hole and Dean's Blue Hole. Blue holes are distinguished from cenotes in that the latter are inland voids usually containing fresh groundwater rather than seawater.

Freenet

Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication. It uses a decentralized distributed data store to keep and deliver information, and has a suite of free software for publishing and communicating on the Web without fear of censorship.[5][6]:151 Both Freenet and some of its associated tools were originally designed by Ian Clarke, who defined Freenet's goal as providing freedom of speech on the Internet with strong anonymity protection.[7][8]

Composting toilet

A composting toilet is a type of dry toilet that treats human waste by a biological process called composting. This process leads to the decomposition of organic matter and turns human waste into compost-like material, but does not destroy all pathogens. Composting is carried out by microorganisms (mainly bacteria and fungi) under controlled aerobic conditions.[2] Most composting toilets use no water for flushing and are therefore called "dry toilets". In many composting toilet designs, a carbon additive such as sawdust, coconut coir, or peat moss is added after each use. This practice creates air pockets in the human waste to promote aerobic decomposition. This also improves the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and reduces potential odor. Most composting toilet systems rely on mesophilic composting. Longer retention time in the composting chamber also facilitates pathogen die-off. The end product can also be moved to a secondary system - usually another composting step - to allow more time for mesophilic composting to further reduce pathogens. Composting toilets, together with the secondary composting step, produce a humus-like endproduct that can be used to enrich soil if local regulations allow this. Some composting toilets have urine diversion systems in the toilet bowl to collect the urine separately and control excess moisture. A vermifilter toilet is a composting toilet with flushing water where earthworms are used to promote decomposition to compost. Composting toilets do not require a connection to septic tanks or sewer systems unlike flush toilets.[2] Common applications include national parks, remote holiday cottages, ecotourism resorts, off-grid homes and rural areas in developing countries. The most efficient composting occurs with an optimal carbon:nitrogen ratio of about 25:1.[5] Hot container composting focuses on retaining heat in order to increase the decomposition rate thus producing compost more quickly. Rapid composting is favored by having a C/N ratio of ~30 or less. Above 30 the substrate is nitrogen starved. Below 15 it is likely to outgas a portion of nitrogen as ammonia.[6]

Darknet

A dark net or darknet is an overlay network within the Internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations, or authorization,[1] and often uses a unique customized communication protocol. Two typical darknet types are social networks[2] (usually used for file hosting with a peer-to-peer connection),[3] and anonymity proxy networks such as Tor via an anonymized series of connections. The term 'darknet', although unofficial, was popularised by major news outlets to associate with Tor Onion services, when the infamous drug bazaar Silk Road used it.[4] Technology such as Tor, I2P, and Freenet was intended to defend digital rights by providing security, anonymity, or censorship resistance and is used for both illegal and legitimate reasons. Anonymous communication between whistle-blowers, activists, journalists and news organisations is also facilitated by darknets through use of applications such as SecureDrop.[5]

Mellified man

A mellified man, or a human mummy confection, was a legendary medicinal substance created by steeping a human cadaver in honey. The concoction is detailed in Chinese medical sources, including the Bencao Gangmu of the 16th century. Relying on a second-hand account, the text reports a story that some elderly men in Arabia, nearing the end of their lives, would submit themselves to a process of mummification in honey to create a healing confection.[1]

Mixotroph

A mixotroph is an organism that can use a mix of different sources of energy and carbon, instead of having a single trophic mode on the continuum from complete autotrophy at one end to heterotrophy at the other. It is estimated that mixotrophs comprise more than half of all microscopic plankton.[1] There are two types of eukaryotic mixotrophs: those with their own chloroplasts, and those with endosymbionts—and those that acquire them through kleptoplasty or by enslaving the entire phototrophic cell. Possible combinations are photo- and chemotrophy, litho- and organotrophy (osmotrophy, phagotrophy and myzocytosis), auto- and heterotrophy or other combinations of these. Mixotrophs can be either eukaryotic or prokaryotic.[3] They can take advantage of different environmental conditions.[4]

how many programming languages are there?

According to Wikipedia, there are about 700 programming languages, including esoteric coding languages. Other sources that only list notable languages still count up to an impressive 245 languages.

How Does AirDrop Work? iPhone

AirDrop uses Bluetooth to create a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi network between the devices. That means you don't need to be connected to your router or even the internet in order to have an AirDrop connection. You do have to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on, however. Each device creates a firewall around the connection and files are sent encrypted, which actually makes it safer than transferring via email. AirDrop will automatically detect nearby supported devices, and the devices only need to be close enough to establish a good Wi-Fi connection, making it possible to share files across several rooms. One advantage to AirDrop is the use of Wi-Fi to make the connection. Some apps provide a similar file sharing capability using Bluetooth. And some Android devices use a combination of Near Field Communications (NFC) and Bluetooth to share files. But both Bluetooth and NFC are relatively slow compared to Wi-Fi, which makes sharing larger files using AirDrop much faster and more convenient.

Airdrop (cryptocurrency)

An airdrop is a distribution of a cryptocurrency token or coin, usually for free, to numerous wallet addresses. Airdrops are primarily implemented as a way of gaining attention and new followers, resulting in a larger user-base and a wider disbursement of coins. Airdrops aim to take advantage of network effect by engaging existing holders of a particular blockchain-based currency, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum in their currency or project.[1][2] There are two ways creators distribute their tokens: by selecting recipients at random, or by publishing the event in airdrop-related bulletin boards or newsletters. Often, random Ethereum accounts with a value above a certain threshold will receive various unsolicited airdropped tokens. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts can gain free cryptocurrency by supporting projects who release coins through an Airdrop. Often, Airdrops will have requirements such as joining a Telegram channel, retweeting a tweet, or inviting new users to the project. Should the participant have to contribute capital towards the project, then this is not considered an airdrop, but an ICO.

atomic swap

An atomic swap is a smart contract technology that enables the exchange of one cryptocurrency for another without using centralized intermediaries, such as exchanges. Atomic swaps can take place directly between blockchains of different cryptocurrencies, or they can be conducted off-chain, away from the main blockchain. They first came into prominence in September 2017, when an atomic swap between Decred and Litecoin was conducted. ___________ The problem of an atomic swap is one where (at least) two parties, Alice and Bob, own coins, and want to exchange them without having to trust a third party (centralized exchange). A non-atomic trivial solution would have Alice send her coins to Bob, and then have Bob send other coins to Alice - but Bob has the option of going back on his end of the bargain and simply not following through with the protocol, ending up with both sets of coins. Atomic swaps can be used for trading between bitcoin and another cryptocurrency, or for trading bitcoin and different bitcoin for privacy purposes.

emporium

An emporium is a large store that sells a variety of merchandise. You can call a department store, with its many different departments, an emporium.

turndown ratio boiler

Boiler turndown is the ratio between a boiler's maximum and minimum output. Depending on the burner's design, it may have a turndown ratio between 4:1 and 10:1 or even higher. A 4:1 turndown means the boiler's minimum operating load is 25% of the boiler's full capacity (100% capacity divided by 4).

Censorship-resistance

Censorship-resistance may refer to a specific property of a cryptocurrency network. This property implies that any party wishing to transact on the network can do so as long as they follow the rules of the network protocol. It might also refer to the property of a network that prevents any party from altering transactions on it. When a transaction is added to the blockchain, it's propagated across thousands of nodes and added to the distributed ledger. Once the transaction has been added, it's virtually impossible to remove or alter it, making it (and the network) immutable.

Clearnet (networking)

Clearnet is a term that typically refers to the publicly accessible Internet. Sometimes "clearnet" is used as a synonym for "surface web"—excluding both the darknet and the deep web. The World Wide Web is one of the most popular distributed services on the Internet, and the surface web is composed of the web pages and databases that are indexed by traditional search engines.

Cody Wilson

Cody Rutledge Wilson (born January 31, 1988) is an American crypto-anarchist,[1][2] free-market anarchist, and gun-rights activist.[3] He is best known as a founder and director of Defense Distributed, a non-profit organization that develops and publishes open source gun designs, so-called "wiki weapons", suitable for 3D printing and digital manufacture.[4][5] He is a co-founder of the Dark Wallet bitcoin storage technology,[6] and currently serving a felony probation sentence. Defense Distributed gained international notoriety in 2013 when it published plans online for the Liberator, a functioning pistol that could be reproduced with a 3D printer.[7]

Color-glass condensate

Color-glass condensate is a type of matter theorized to exist in atomic nuclei traveling near the speed of light. According to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, a high-energy nucleus appears length contracted, or compressed, along its direction of motion. As a result, the gluons inside the nucleus appear to a stationary observer as a "gluonic wall" traveling near the speed of light. At very high energies, the density of the gluons in this wall is seen to increase greatly. Unlike the quark-gluon plasma produced in the collision of such walls, the color-glass condensate describes the walls themselves, and is an intrinsic property of the particles that can only be observed under high-energy conditions such as those at RHIC and possibly at the Large Hadron Collider as well. "Color" in the name "color-glass condensate" refers to a type of charge that quarks and gluons carry as a result of the strong nuclear force. The word "glass" is borrowed from the term for silica and other materials that are disordered and act like solids on short time scales but liquids on long time scales. In the "gluon walls," the gluons themselves are disordered and do not change their positions rapidly because of time dilation. "Condensate" means that the gluons have a very high density. The color-glass condensate is important because it is proposed as a universal form of matter that describes the properties of all high-energy, strongly interacting particles. It has simple properties that follow from first principles in the theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics. It has the potential to explain many unsolved problems such as how particles are produced in high-energy collisions, and the distribution of matter itself inside of these particles. Researchers at CERN believe they have created color-glass condensates during collisions of protons with lead ions. In these sorts of collisions, the standard outcome is that new particles are created and fly off in different directions. However, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) team at the LHC found that in a sample of 2 million lead-proton collisions, some pairs of particles flew away from each other with their respective directions correlated.[1] This correlation of directions is the anomaly that might be caused by the existence of a color-glass condensate while the particles are colliding.

Grayware

Grayware is a term applied to unwanted applications or files that are not classified as malware, but can worsen the performance of computers and may cause security risks.[78] It describes applications that behave in an annoying or undesirable manner, and yet are less serious or troublesome than malware. Grayware encompasses spyware, adware, fraudulent dialers, joke programs, remote access tools and other unwanted programs that may harm the performance of computers or cause inconvenience. The term came into use around 2004.[79]

Dystrophic lake

Dystrophic lakes, also known as humic lakes, are lakes that contain high amounts of humic substances and organic acids. The presence of these substances causes the water to be brown in colour and have a generally low pH of around 4.0-6.0. Due to these acidic conditions, there is little biodiversity able to survive, consisting mostly of algae, phytoplankton, picoplankton, and bacteria.[1][2] Ample research has been performed on the many dystrophic lakes located in Eastern Poland, but dystrophic lakes can be found in many areas of the world.[3]

What is the biggest risk you've taken in life that proved to be the most rewarding?

Ending a comfortable but ultimately destructive relationship. This is perhaps how I will feel after moving out with my parents.

Hyperledger

Hyperledger (or the Hyperledger project) is an umbrella project of open source blockchains and related tools, started in December 2015 by the Linux Foundation,[1] and has received contributions from IBM, Intel and SAP Ariba, to support the collaborative development of blockchain-based distributed ledgers. The objective of the project is to advance cross-industry collaboration by developing blockchains and distributed ledgers, with a particular focus on improving the performance and reliability of these systems (as compared to comparable cryptocurrency designs) so that they are capable of supporting global business transactions by major technological, financial and supply chain companies.[4] The project will integrate independent open protocols and standards by means of a framework for use-specific modules, including blockchains with their own consensus and storage routines, as well as services for identity, access control and smart contracts. Early on there was some confusion that Hyperledger would develop its own bitcoin-type cryptocurrency, but Behlendorf has unreservedly stated that the Hyperledger Project itself will never build its own cryptocurrency.

People who've worked really hard towards something and failed, what did you learn/how did you move on?

I opened a restaurant after saving all my money and it failed within a year. What I've learned? It's better to have done it and failed than to never know what it'd be like. I'm back at my old job, bought a house and planning my next business venture. Life won't stop to feel sorry for you. It goes on with or without you. ____________ You can't overcome something you refuse to experience. Get out there, take the hits, and realize at the end of the day you're still breathing and still have potential.

Are any molecules only stable with a specific isotope of an element?

I'm not sure there is a definitive answer to this question. It may depend on what you mean by 'stable'. Molecules containing different isotopes CAN have different reaction rates. I don't know of any chemistry which is radically different though. One marginal exception would be heavy water (deuterium rich water) which is actually chemically poisonous to humans. I don't think this is an issue of stability though, so much as it is of reaction rates and equilibria. It is certainly possible there could be a molecule that is only stable under 'standard conditions' with specific isotopes, but I don't know of one myself.

In just 1 kiss, over 80 million bacteria are exchanged.

I've tried to use this as a pickup line before. It does. not. work.

Rainbow body

In Dzogchen, rainbow body (Tibetan: འཇའ་ལུས་, Wylie: 'ja' lus, Jalü or Jalus) is a level of realization. This may or may not be accompanied by the 'rainbow body phenomenon'. The rainbow body phenomenon is a third person perspective of someone else attaining complete knowledge (Tibetan: རིག་པ, Wylie: rigpa). Knowledge is the absence of delusion regarding the display of the basis.

golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem is an animated anthropomorphic being that is created entirely from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material in Psalms and medieval writing.

Do trees die of old age?

In addition to what has already been stated here, as trees age the amount of dead wood they have increases. The living part of the tree is the bark and the cambium and the sapwood, the outer layers. The inner heartwood only functions as support. This accumulates with age and growth, and injuries to the tree due to insects, storms, etc may expose this "dead" (there is some debate) tissue. Once exposed, this wood is relatively easy prey for fungus and insects, increasing strain on the wood to heal. The tree will attempt to isolate the injury with what is essentially scar tissue (a callus) to contain any contamination or parasites, but in places with a season of little or no growth (like the northern hemisphere during winter) injuries and parasites can reattack the tree which has limited healing capacity when there is little to no photosynthesis occurring, so it must continually add to the scar/callus.

Zero-knowledge proof

In cryptography, a zero-knowledge proof or zero-knowledge protocol is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that they know a value x, without conveying any information apart from the fact that they know the value x. The essence of zero-knowledge proofs is that it is trivial to prove that one possesses knowledge of certain information by simply revealing it; the challenge is to prove such possession without revealing the information itself or any additional information. If proving a statement requires that the prover possesses some secret information, then the verifier will not be able to prove the statement to anyone else without possessing the secret information. The statement being proved must include the assertion that the prover has such knowledge, but not the knowledge itself. Otherwise, the statement would not be proved in zero-knowledge because it provides the verifier with additional information about the statement by the end of the protocol. A zero-knowledge proof of knowledge is a special case when the statement consists only of the fact that the prover possesses the secret information. Interactive zero-knowledge proofs require interaction between the individual (or computer system) proving their knowledge and the individual validating the proof. A protocol implementing zero-knowledge proofs of knowledge must necessarily require interactive input from the verifier. This interactive input is usually in the form of one or more challenges such that the responses from the prover will convince the verifier if and only if the statement is true, i.e., if the prover does possess the claimed knowledge. If this were not the case, the verifier could record the execution of the protocol and replay it to convince someone else that they possess the secret information. The new party's acceptance is either justified since the replayer does possess the information (which implies that the protocol leaked information, and thus, is not proved in zero-knowledge), or the acceptance is spurious, i.e., was accepted from someone who does not actually possess the information. Some forms of non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs exist, but the validity of the proof relies on computational assumptions (typically the assumptions of an ideal cryptographic hash function).

Jet quenching

In high-energy physics, jet quenching is a phenomenon that can occur in the collision of ultra-high-energy particles. In general, the collision of high-energy particles can produce jets of elementary particles that emerge from these collisions. Collisions of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion particle beams create a hot and dense medium comparable to the conditions in the early universe, and then these jets interact strongly with the medium, leading to a marked reduction of their energy. This energy reduction is called "jet quenching". In the context of high-energy hadron collisions, quarks and gluons are collectively called partons. The jets emerging from the collisions originally consist of partons, which quickly combine to form hadrons, a process called hadronization. Only the resulting hadrons can be directly observed. The hot, dense medium produced in the collisions is also composed of partons; it is known as a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). In this realm, the laws of physics that apply are those of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). High-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions make it possible to study the properties of the QGP medium through the observed changes in the jet fragmentation functions as compared to the unquenched case. According to QCD, high-momentum partons produced in the initial stage of a nucleus-nucleus collision will undergo multiple interactions inside the collision region prior to hadronization. In these interactions, the energy of the partons is reduced through collisional energy loss[1] and medium-induced gluon radiation,[2] the latter being the dominant mechanism in a QGP. The effect of jet quenching in QGP is the main motivation for studying jets as well as high-momentum particle spectra and particle correlations in heavy-ion collisions. Accurate jet reconstruction will allow measurements of the jet fragmentation functions and consequently the degree of quenching and therefore provide insight on the properties of the hot dense QGP medium created in the collisions.

Loss function

In mathematical optimization and decision theory, a loss function or cost function is a function that maps an event or values of one or more variables onto a real number intuitively representing some "cost" associated with the event. An optimization problem seeks to minimize a loss function.

Digital physics

In physics and cosmology, digital physics is a collection of theoretical perspectives based on the premise that the universe is describable by information. It is a form of digital ontology about the physical reality. According to this theory, the universe can be conceived of as either the output of a deterministic or probabilistic computer program, a vast, digital computation device, or a mathematical isomorphism to such a device.[1]

Did moving away change your life any?

It taught me to move to something not from something.

Why is the internet so nihilistic and cynical?

It's a lot easier to tell someone to give up than to actively engage with them And if you tell somebody else that trying is worthless, it makes you feel like it's okay that YOU'RE not trying either And since it's the internet, they can do this without seeing your face crumple as the stamp on your dreams

Jekyll and hyde

Jekyll and Hyde refers to someone having a dual personality, one side of which is good and the other evil. The origin of the phrase comes from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886).

Jekyll

Jekyll is a simple, blog-aware, static site generator for personal, project, or organization sites. Written in Ruby by Tom Preston-Werner, GitHub's co-founder, it is distributed under the open source MIT license.

Limnology

Limnology (/lɪmˈnɒlədʒi/ lim-NOL-ə-jee; from Greek λίμνη, limne, "lake" and λόγος, logos, "knowledge"), is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems.[1] The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristics and functions of inland waters (running and standing waters, fresh and saline, natural and man-made). This includes the study of lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, springs, streams, wetlands, and groundwater. A more recent sub-discipline of limnology, termed landscape limnology, studies, manages, and seeks to conserve these ecosystems using a landscape perspective, by explicitly examining connections between an aquatic ecosystem and its drainage basin. Recently, the need to understand global inland waters as part of the Earth System created a sub-discipline called global limnology.[3] This approach considers processes in inland waters on a global scale, like the role of inland aquatic ecosystems in global biogeochemical cycles.

Osmotrophy

Osmotrophy is a feeding mechanism involving the movement of dissolved organic compounds by osmosis for nutrition. Organisms that use osmotrophy are called osmotrophs. Some mixotrophic microorganisms use osmotrophy to derive some of their energy. Osmotrophy is used by a diversity of organism.[1] Organisms that use osmotrophy include bacteria, many species of protists and most fungi. Some macroscopic animals like mollusks, sponges, corals, brachiopods and echinoderms may use osmotrophic feeding as a supplemental food source.

Overtourism

Overtourism is the perceived congestion or overcrowding from an excess of tourists, resulting in conflicts with locals or destruction of the environment at the tourist site.

Pieter Wuille

Pieter Wuille is the co-founder of Blockstream and a top Bitcoin core developer. Wuille is best known for developing committed libraries Segregated Witness, libsecp256k1 and BIP (bitcoin proposal) 66. Born in Belgium, Wuille discovered Bitcoin in 2010.

Quadratic voting

Quadratic voting is a collective decision-making procedure which involves individuals allocating votes to express the degree of their preferences, rather than just the direction of their preferences.[1] By doing so, quadratic voting helps enable users to address issues of voting paradox and majority rule. Quadratic voting works by allowing users to "pay" for additional votes on a given matter to express their support for given issues more strongly, resulting in voting outcomes that are aligned with the highest willingness to pay outcome, rather than just the outcome preferred by the majority regardless of the intensity of individual preferences. The payment for votes may be through either artificial or real currencies (e.g. with tokens distributed equally among voting members or with real money).[2][1] Quadratic voting is a variant of cumulative voting in the class of cardinal voting. It differs from cumulative voting by altering "the cost" and "the vote" relation from linear to quadratic.

Rat-tailed maggot

Rat-tailed maggots are the larvae of certain species of hoverflies belonging to the tribes Eristalini and Sericomyiini.[1] A characteristic feature of rat-tailed maggots is a tube-like, telescoping breathing siphon located at its posterior end.[2] This acts like a snorkel, allowing the larva to breathe air while submerged. The siphon is usually about as long as the maggot's body (20 mm (0.79 in) when mature), but can be extended as long as 150 mm (5.9 in). This organ gives the larva its common name.[2] The most commonly encountered rat-tailed maggot is the larva of the drone fly, Eristalis tenax. It lives in stagnant, oxygen-deprived water, with a high organic content. It is fairly tolerant of pollution and can live in sewage lagoons and cesspools.[2] In 2017, rat-tailed maggots gained some press coverage after they were recognised in the composting toilets of the Glastonbury Festival.[3]

What are the signs that you're in love vs just being infatuated with someone?

Real love grows when two people are kind, hard working, and share the same goals in life. Remember... attraction is based on what you see, infatuation is based on what you feel, but real love is based on what you know.

Elliptic flow

Relativistic heavy-ion collisions produce very large numbers of subatomic particles in all directions. In such collisions, flow refers to how energy, momentum, and number of these particles varies with direction,[1] and elliptic flow is a measure of how the flow is not uniform in all directions when viewed along the beam-line. Elliptic flow is strong evidence for the existence of quark-gluon plasma, and has been described as one of the most important observations measured at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC).[2][3]

Riffle (anonymity network)

Riffle[1] is an anonymity network developed at MIT as a response to the problems of the Tor browser. Riffle employs a verifiable shuffle and is said to be ten times faster than onion-based networks which includes Tor. The Tor software is free and dominates anonymity network software use.

Rutilated quartz

Rutilated quartz is a variety of quartz which contains acicular (needle-like) inclusions of rutile.[1] It is used for gemstones. These inclusions mostly look golden, but they also can look silver, copper red or deep black. They can be distributed randomly or in bundles, which sometimes are arranged star-like, and they can be sparse or dense enough to make the quartz body nearly opaque. While otherwise inclusions often reduce the value of a crystal, rutilated quartz in fact is valued for the quality and beauty of these inclusions.[2][3] Rutile is a mineral composed primarily of titanium dioxide (TiO2), and is the most common natural form of TiO2. Other rarer polymorphs of TiO2 are known, including anatase, akaogiite, and brookite.

schedule 40 vs schedule 80 pipe

Schedule 80 pipe is designed with a thicker wall. This means the pipe is thicker and stronger, and as a result it can handle higher pressures.

scope creep

Scope creep in project management refers to changes, continuous or uncontrolled growth in a project's scope, at any point after the project begins. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. It is generally considered harmful.

Has anyone ever just given up on their life and started a new one?

Several years ago I cut ties with my family, left my friends behind, and moved to a city where I didn't know anyone. It was the best decision I ever made. By removing myself from my toxic family environment, I was able to become a person who wasn't just reacting all the time. Anxiety level is so much lower it's almost comical. Simple geography is a huge factor. My life in Portland, Oregon is much different than it was in Mississippi. People underestimate how vastly different the various US regions are. I always tell people if you don't like where you live, move! Too many different types of places for you to feel "stuck." (I can't speak for non-Americans, but I assume it's the same, albeit on a different scale.) All of that being said, I didn't end up being a completely new person like I wanted. My habits, flaws, and insecurities followed me. I was able to evolve, but not to the extreme degree I expected. Even with that, I am much, much happier than before.

Glasma hypothesis

Since 2008, there is a discussion about a hypothetical precursor state of the quark-gluon plasma, the so-called "Glasma", where the dressed particles are condensed into some kind of glassy (or amorphous) state, below the genuine transition between the confined state and the plasma liquid. This would be analogous to the formation of metallic glasses, or amorphous alloys of them, below the genuine onset of the liquid metallic state. Although the experimental high temperatures and densities predicted as producing a quark-gluon plasma have been realized in the laboratory, the resulting matter does not behave as a quasi-ideal state of free quarks and gluons, but, rather, as an almost perfect dense fluid. Actually, the fact that the quark-gluon plasma will not yet be "free" at temperatures realized at present accelerators was predicted in 1984 as a consequence of the remnant effects of confinement.

how many tons of space dust falls to earth each year?

So cosmic dust adds about 40,000 metric tons per year to Earth's mass. 80,000,000 lbs each year

Sokushinbutsu

Sokushinbutsu (即身仏) are a kind of Buddhist mummy. The term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive.[1] They are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, but the Japanese term "sokushinbutsu" is generally used. It is believed that many hundreds of monks tried, but only 24 such mummifications have been discovered to date. There is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned, and that were later lost in China.[2]

Nothing will work until you do the work. Stop looking for another system and just do it.

Stop looking for the next tip, trick, big idea, etc. that will change your life. It will fail just like all the other tips, tricks, big ideas you've read on the Internet and tried for like 5 seconds. Because YOU don't do anything consistently enough to see any results. YOU are the problem. Here's the TRUTH, most of those productivity ideas WORK, for someone. That's why they exist. But guess why they work? Because somebody committed to that things long enough to see results. It's not rocket science. It's not complicated. YOU are the problem. Not a lack of knowledge, or a good system. There is no big idea that will finally make you productive AF. It will not happen. There are no tricks. No gimmicks. Nothing that will change your life in a day. Get up every day and commit to whatever goal, responsibilities, plan, ideas you have for yourself and your life. Every single day. Little by little. Even when you feel like a loser. Just do it. Yup, it's that simple. It won't be easy. It's actually VERY HARD. But, it is simple. So simple. Nothing else will be here to save you. Get off Reddit and work out. Do one jumping jacks. Do that every single day and you'd be better off than reading another blog post on 'morning routines of successful people.'

Fantastically Wrong: The Scientist Who Thought That Birds Migrate to the Moon

Sure, now we know where they go, but our forebears really struggled with the problem of birds disappearing every winter. There were all kinds of theories, but none was more bizarre than that of English minister and scientist Charles Morton, who in the 17th century wrote a surprisingly well-reasoned, though obviously totally inaccurate, treatise claiming birds migrate to the moon and back every year. That's right. To the moon and back. And Morton was even aware of how epic this journey would be. He estimated the one-way trip to be 179,712 miles (he wasn't so far off—the moon varies between 226,000 miles and 252,000 miles away, on account of its elliptical orbit), and reckoned it would take the birds 60 days to reach our satellite flying a dizzying 125 mph. Still, Morton reasoned, they pulled it off. And, really, because some species seem to disappear entirely, the only logical conclusion is that they set off into space. "Now, whither should these creatures go, unless it were to the moon?" he asked. Before we get to the particulars of Morton's strange theory of migration, it's worth noting the many other theories of antiquity, beginning with Aristotle, who reckoned that some birds hibernate while others simply transform into different species when winter comes around. Redstarts, for instance, morph into robins in winter—a fantastical claim that's easier to understand when you consider that redstarts indeed migrate to Africa as robins make their way to Greece. Later, the great Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder wrote of the pygmies, a race of tiny humans in Africa that do eternal battle with cranes (the birds, not the construction equipment). He notes "that in springtime their entire band, mounted on the backs of rams and she-goats and armed with arrows, goes in a body down to the sea and eats the cranes' eggs and chickens, and that this outing occupies three months." It's an echo of Homer's mention of cranes in the Iliad, birds that do indeed migrate from Europe to Africa: "shriek of cranes down from heaven / who flee the winter and the terrible rains / and fly off to the world's end / bringing death and doom to the Pygmy-men / as they open fierce battle at dawn."

closest dwarf galaxy to milky way

The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is classified as an irregular galaxy and is now thought to be the closest neighboring galaxy to the Earth's location in the Milky Way, being located about 25,000 light-years (7.7 kiloparsecs) away from the Solar System and 42,000 ly (13 kpc) from the Galactic Center.

Champawat Tiger

The Champawat Tiger was a Bengal tigress responsible for an estimated 436 deaths in Nepal and the Kumaon area of India, during the last years of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century.[1] Her attacks have been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest number of fatalities from a tiger.[2] She was shot in 1907 by Jim Corbett.[3]

Great Attractor

The Great Attractor is a gravitational anomaly in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster. The observed anomalies suggest a localized concentration of mass millions of times more massive than the Milky Way. However, it is inconveniently obscured by our own Milky Way's galactic plane, lying behind the Zone of Avoidance (ZOA), so that, in visible light wavelengths, the Great Attractor is difficult to observe directly.[1]

Lobster mushroom

The Lobster mushroom, Hypomyces lactifluorum, contrary to its common name, is not a mushroom, but rather a parasitic ascomycete fungus that grows on certain species of mushrooms, turning them a reddish orange color that resembles the outer shell of a cooked lobster. H. lactifluorum specifically attacks members of the genera Lactarius and Lactifluus (milk-caps), and Russula (brittlegills), such as Russula brevipes and Lactifluus piperatus in North America. At maturity, H. lactifluorum thoroughly covers its host, rendering it unidentifiable. Lobster mushrooms are widely eaten and enjoyed fresh.[1] They are commercially marketed and sometimes found in grocery stores; they have been made available at markets in Oregon.[1] They have a seafood-like flavor and a firm, dense texture. While edible, field guides note the hypothetical possibility that H. lactifluorum could parasitize a toxic host and that individuals should avoid consuming lobster mushrooms with unknown hosts, although no instances of toxicity have been recorded.[1][2][3] One author notes that he has personally never experienced any trouble from consuming them [1] and another notes that there have been no reports of poisoning in hundreds of years of consumption.[3]

largest tree trunk diameter

The Widest Tree Trunk in the World: Arbol del Tule Tree : Mexico At approximately 1,400 years old (some sources say over 2,000), this tree is believed to have the widest tree trunk in the world, with a diameter of 11.62 m (38.1 ft).

how many teeth do snails have?

The average garden snail has around 14,000 teeth

Stinking corpse lily (Rafflesia arnoldii)

The bloom hollow at the centre and white and red-spotted, has five petals. It takes about nine months for the flower to bloom and it can only last for a week. A Rafflesia flower can grow up to a metre in diameter, and the biggest can weigh up to 7kg. Diameter: 106.7 m (3 ft 6 in), max. largest flower in the world

Dark web

The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on darknets: overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access.[1][2] Through the dark web, private straphanger networks can communicate and conduct business anonymously without divulging identifying information, such as a user's location.[3][4] The dark web forms a small part of the deep web, the part of the Web not indexed by web search engines, although sometimes the term deep web is mistakenly used to refer specifically to the dark web.[5] The darknets which constitute the dark web include small, friend-to-friend peer-to-peer networks, as well as large, popular networks such as Tor, Freenet, I2P, and Riffle operated by public organizations and individuals.[4] Users of the dark web refer to the regular web as Clearnet due to its unencrypted nature.[6] The Tor dark web or onionland[7] uses the traffic anonymization technique of onion routing under the network's top-level domain suffix .onion.

Deep web

The deep web,[1] invisible web,[2] or hidden web[3] are parts of the World Wide Web whose contents are not indexed by standard web search-engines. The opposite term to the deep web is the "surface web", which is accessible to anyone/everyone using the Internet.[4] Computer-scientist Michael K. Bergman is credited with coining the term deep web in 2001 as a search-indexing term.[5] The content of the deep web is hidden behind HTTP forms[vague][6][7] and includes many very common uses such as web mail, online banking, private or otherwise restricted access social-media pages and profiles, some web forums that require registration for viewing content, and services that users must pay for, and which are protected by paywalls, such as video on demand and some online magazines and newspapers. The content of the deep web can be located and accessed by a direct URL or IP address, but may require a password or other security access to get past public-website pages.

low fidelity

The electronic reproduction of sound or images using technology that results in unwanted distortion or imperfections. fidelity: the degree of exactness with which something is copied or reproduced.

hedonic treadmill

The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.

Interrobang

The interrobang, also known as the interabang, is an unconventional punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark, or interrogative point; and the exclamation mark, or exclamation point, known in the jargon of printers and programmers as a "bang".

Prostate

The prostate is both an accessory gland of the male reproductive system and a muscle driven mechanical switch between urination and ejaculation. It is found only in some mammals. It differs between species anatomically, chemically, and physiologically. Anatomically, the prostate is found below the bladder, with the urethra passing through it. It is described in gross anatomy as consisting of lobes, and in microanatomy by zone. It is surrounded by an elastic, fibromuscular capsule and contains glandular tissue as well as connective tissue. The prostate glands produce and contain fluid that forms part of semen, the substance that is emitted during ejaculation as part of the male sexual response. This prostatic fluid is slightly alkaline, milky or white in appearance. The alkalinity of semen helps neutralize the acidity of the vaginal tract, prolonging the lifespan of sperm. The prostatic fluid is expelled in the first part of ejaculate, together with most of the sperm, because of the action of smooth muscle tissue within the prostate. In comparison with the few spermatozoa expelled together with mainly seminal vesicular fluid, those in prostatic fluid have better motility, longer survival, and better protection of genetic material.

Silent majority

The silent majority is an unspecified large group of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly.

why is thorium in some welding rods?

Thorium is added to the tungsten because it increases the current carrying capacity of the electrode and it reduces contamination of the weld. In addition, it is easier to start the arc and the latter is more stable.

Tor2web

Tor2web (pronounced "Tor to Web") is a software project to allow Tor hidden services to be accessed from a standard browser without being connected to the Tor network. It was created by Aaron Swartz and Virgil Griffith.[2] Rather than typical top-level domains like .com, .org, or .net, hidden service URLs end with .onion and are only accessible when connected to Tor. Tor2web acts as a specialized proxy or middleman between hidden services and users, making them visible to people who are not connected to Tor. To do so, a user takes the URL of a hidden service and replaces .onion with .tor2web.io. Like Tor, Tor2web operates using servers run voluntarily by an open community of individuals and organizations. Tor2web preserves the anonymity of content publishers but is not itself an anonymity tool and does not offer any protection to users beyond relaying data using HTTP Secure (HTTPS). Since version 2.0, a privacy and security warning is added to the header of each web page it fetches, encouraging readers to use the Tor Browser Bundle to obtain anonymity.

Basically it feels easier to be miserable than to try to be productive.

Unfortunately this has been me for the past 6 months. If I have more than 3 days off work in a row, productivity begins. But during the week and weekends I am unable to get myself to do anything of value.

Gamblers fallacy

What if I'm 1% towards calculating a block and...? There's no such thing as being 1% towards solving a block. You don't make progress towards solving it. After working on it for 24 hours, your chances of solving it are equal to what your chances were at the start or at any moment. Believing otherwise is what's known as the Gambler's fallacy [1]. It's like trying to flip 53 coins at once and have them all come up heads. Each time you try, your chances of success are the same.

how do miners get paid once all the bitcoins have been mined?

When all bitcoin has been mined, the miners will no longer receive block rewards since there are no more coins to be generated. They will only earn from the transaction fees to be collected from every confirmed transaction. Miners can continue securing the network since they will still earn from the said fees. The final bitcoin is expected to be mined in 2140.

Are there any bacteria that digest keratin (hair)? Which organisms consume all of the excess hair that is put into nature?

When an animal dies outdoors, after about one month, all that is left is a pile of hair, skin, and bones. The reason that these parts remain is the fact that Nature has very few participants able to consume these materials. Keratin in the hair, skin, nails, hooves, horn, and the enamel on teeth make it extremely difficult to digest for nearly every species in our world. Keratin is nutritionally useless to humans, since it is not hydrolyzed by digestive enzymes, but it can be used as fertilizer, being slowly broken down by bacteria[1]. Keratin is composed of polymers of amino acids making it an extremely stable and strong substance. In the case of keratin, the most common chain is the amino acid called cysteine. Cysteine contains a high amount of sulfur and the disulfide bonds in cysteine are a key factor for keratin's durability in nature and why it is difficult to digest. Just how difficult is keratin to ingest? Animals like house cats and wild cats who constantly clean, lick, and ingest their fur can't break it down. Think of hair balls that need to be coughed up or even removed for the health of the cat. Also, think about a time that you may have accidentally burned or singed your hair. The high amount of sulfur in keratin is the reason why singed hair smells strong with its characteristic odor. The Varied carpet beetle, Webbing clothes moth, Black carpet beetle and Casemaking clothes moth can digest keratin. These few select insects have evolved the ability to break down keratin for their own benefit. The digestive tracts in the larvae of clothes moths and several species of carpet beetles have adapted to be able to disassemble the disulfide bonds in the keratin and utilize the protein in hair, skin, and other natural materials. In this sense, these insects are beneficial and, quite frankly, without this particular set of insects, we would have large numbers of partially decomposed animal carcasses lying all around the place. Our only real problem occurs when we want to preserve certain furs, hides, antlers or other keratin based material in our homes and museums. The same insects that help us in nature can also be a curse [2]. ____________________ Breakdown of keratin in the environment occurs as a result of keratinases, which are enzymes that digest keratin. Keratinases are produced by bacteria belonging to the genus Bacillus (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus thuringiensis) and fungi like Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus parasiticus, Streptomyces sp.

Brumation

While endotherms and other heterotherms are described scientifically as hibernating, the way ectotherms such as lizards become dormant in cold is very different, and a separate name was invented for it in the 1920s: brumation.[4] It differs from hibernation in the metabolic processes involved.[5] Reptiles generally begin brumation in late autumn (more specific times depend on the species). They often wake up to drink water and return to "sleep". They can go for months without food. Reptiles may eat more than usual before the brumation time but eat less or refuse food as the temperature drops.[6][unreliable source?] However, they do need to drink water. The brumation period is anywhere from one to eight months depending on the air temperature and the size, age, and health of the reptile. During the first year of life, many small reptiles do not fully brumate, but rather slow down and eat less often. Brumation is triggered by a lack of heat and a decrease in the hours of daylight in winter, similar to hibernation.

What does addiction feels like?

You know what it's like to be hungry, right? You eat, feel normal/good, and everything is fine. When you don't eat, you get hungrier and hungrier, until it's all you can think about. You start to feel weak, tired, angry, irritable, unhappy. You can't think, can't work, can't really do anything after not eating for a few days, until you get some food. Now, imagine you have another hunger. Except this one is even more powerful and compelling, and must be fed even more often than your biological need for food. You need your fix. It becomes a matter of survival vs an extremely painful death. Everything you care about becomes secondary. Some people say "drug addicts are so selfish, they do terrible things to the people they're supposed to love." Buut this isn't accurate. Other things may matter to you, but these concerns are secondary to feeding yourself. Imagine if you were starving. Would you blow a dude for food? Most people would.

parathyroid

a gland next to the thyroid which secretes a hormone ( parathyroid hormone ) that regulates calcium levels in a person's body.

attrition

a gradual reduction or weakening; a rubbing away wearing down over time the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure.

posthumously

after the death of the originator. "a number of songs were posthumously published in 1924"

touting

attempt to sell (something), typically by pestering people in an aggressive or bold manner.

what is the biomass of all flying organisms on earth?

birds, airborne bacteria and viruses, insects, etc. cannot find an answer to this...

Another from my father was when I was a kid and saw in a magazine the latest fancy fishing lure with all the tricks -- it had spinners and vibrant colors and even vibrated to send out waves to attract fish etc. The full page magazine ad explained in detail how each unique aspect of this lure would help catch more fish. I thought for sure my dad would think we needed to get some of those when I excitedly showed him the magazine ad. His response was "Some baits are made to catch fish, and some baits are made to catch fishermen."

bite lights...

Mellification

honey-making Mellification is a mostly obsolete term for the production of honey, or the process of honeying something,

incorruptible

inflexibly honest; incapable of being corrupted or bribed

two best traits

intelligence and motivation

Persecution

mistreatment or punishment of a group of people because of their beliefs Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, imprisonment, internment, fear, or pain are all factors that may establish persecution, but not all suffering will necessarily establish persecution.

drivel

nonsense; foolishness; talk nonsense

scalp

resell (shares or tickets) at a large or quick profit.

market share

the portion of a market controlled by a particular company or product. "a leading internet service provider with a 15 percent market share"

whataboutism

the technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation or raising a different issue.

Even if you win the race you're still a rat.

this, is poetry.

carpe diem

used to urge someone to make the most of the present time and give little thought to the future. Literally, "seize the day"; "enjoy life while you can,"