vektor's recent activity
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Comment on Florida is the first state to ban lab grown meat - Ron DeSantis in ~food
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
vektor Link ParentI don't want to get too deep into the weeds here, but I just want to add that self-interest can come in many competing ways, some of which very much aligned-by-design with principles. It is in the...I don't want to get too deep into the weeds here, but I just want to add that self-interest can come in many competing ways, some of which very much aligned-by-design with principles.
It is in the EU's short term interest to play nice while Russia conquers Ukraine. No added defense expenditure. No problems with gas prices. It is also in our long and medium term interest to quickly aid Ukraine in defending itself, because in a longer term, the Russian bear will be hungry again. So you could either argue that the EU assisting Ukraine is in violation of its interests, or not, depending on which interests you identify. "A stable democracy" "sovereignty from China" "no WW3" are all interests of the US, and are all nicely aligned with stated idealist goals.
The interests that drive decisions like these are too complex to simply point at the first thing that seems plausible and run with it. And yes, if you drill down deep enough, every idealist motivation is always just dressed up self-interest. But that's neither a bad thing nor a surprise: If a hypothetical very-idealist country wanted peace, love and trade for all of mankind, they get a benefit out of that: Their people get to export their goods to a large market, buy from a variety of international goods and travel all over without fear. Plus they don't die in wars. Very selfish indeed. Perhaps it behooves us to consider whether those selfish interests affect others positively or negatively.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
vektor Link ParentMight also lead the EU to take digital sovereignty in social media more seriously. Maybe we'll see more support for homegrown networks that are based less on US hypercapitalist views of social...Might also lead the EU to take digital sovereignty in social media more seriously. Maybe we'll see more support for homegrown networks that are based less on US hypercapitalist views of social media and actually offer something useful to its users or something. Which could be beneficial to the US too, if it catches on there. Particularly since Americans seem to feel (looking at this thread here) that their media landscape is under too tight control by the government. Having EU alternatives might offer a perceived counterweight there too. (I say perceived not because it's a fake solution to a real problem, but because I think it might not even be a real problem. Not sure.)
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
vektor Link ParentThere's plenty of ways of building your own authentic echo-chamber free from government control. There's no reason to turn to a provider that signal boosts the most divisive parts of that and is...There's plenty of ways of building your own authentic echo-chamber free from government control. There's no reason to turn to a provider that signal boosts the most divisive parts of that and is opposed to your own self-interests. Start a Email list, telegram group, message board or something. That way at least domestic anti-government self-interest will dictate the terms of the discussion (such as moderation, recommendation systems, etc), and not foreign hostile interests.
I don't think sorting yourself into a foreign-controlled echo chamber does anyone but Xi any good.
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Comment on New evidence found for Planet 9 in ~space
vektor Link ParentRight, but I'd expect there to be combinatorial-ish compounding effects. Not only P9 is so slow, its competitors are too, so if the points where the orbital ellipses are sufficiently close are...Right, but I'd expect there to be combinatorial-ish compounding effects. Not only P9 is so slow, its competitors are too, so if the points where the orbital ellipses are sufficiently close are short (inclination), then the odds of meeting that competitor there decrease.... quadratically??? Meanwhile, the added mass increases the "danger zone" by a small margin, nowhere near enough to compensate for the addition of so much more space.
Again, I'm probably neglecting second-order effects here. Sadly the data is just not there right now to actually satisfy my curiosity.
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Comment on New evidence found for Planet 9 in ~space
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Comment on New evidence found for Planet 9 in ~space
vektor Link ParentHmm. I do wonder if these somewhat empirical formulae generalize out to 500AU. My hunch is that out there orbits are so slow that interactions are so rare that clearing the orbit just doesn't...Hmm. I do wonder if these somewhat empirical formulae generalize out to 500AU. My hunch is that out there orbits are so slow that interactions are so rare that clearing the orbit just doesn't happen nearly as much. The exponent of a (9/8) is a bit too low to convince me that this is accurately reflected. Orbits just get mindnumbingly slow out there, much slower than a^(9/8). But I'm going to refrain from backseat sciencing when I'm not qualified to know whether there's other factors they have considered that would imply a large a also helps with clearing the orbit or something...
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Comment on New evidence found for Planet 9 in ~space
vektor Link ParentVia Wikipedia:Aperture Synthesis: "Aperture synthesis or synthesis imaging is a type of interferometry" Jokes aside, it's basically the same. A synthetic aperture radar is...Via Wikipedia:Aperture Synthesis: "Aperture synthesis or synthesis imaging is a type of interferometry"
They're the same picture.
Jokes aside, it's basically the same. A synthetic aperture radar is interferometry-through-time using a single sensor.
but I would suspect Planet 9 wouldn't have much of a radio signal,
Right. We're starting to see work on optical aperture synthesis, but because of the tiny wavelength that's a bitch to get right. Meanwhile in radio astronomy you can easily beamform offline because you can record individual oscillations of the signal. Maybe we'll see offline beamforming for optical sensors at some point. That would mean you can do SAR stuff in the optical range, where P9 really ought to have a signal. For radio, I think that's unlikely to be the case.
Or to be really silly, active radio astronomy? But that's probably only viable if you already know where to look. And the target isn't 70 light hours away. Then again, who knows what kind of resolution you can get out of weak signals if you've got 2000 AESA transceivers spread across earth's orbit around the sun.
Regardless, I don't think we'll be confirming that this sucker cleared its orbit until we've got better sensors.
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Comment on New evidence found for Planet 9 in ~space
vektor Link ParentBest shot at using telescopes here is probably synthetic apertures. Build a large amount of mediocre telescopes, spread them as far apart as you can and use beamforming math to correlate their...Best shot at using telescopes here is probably synthetic apertures. Build a large amount of mediocre telescopes, spread them as far apart as you can and use beamforming math to correlate their measurements. The number-crunching is probably a pain, but it's easier than building an asteroid-sized telescope.
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Comment on New evidence found for Planet 9 in ~space
vektor Link ParentI'm not saying this Planet 9 is just 5 earth masses of asteroids in a trench coat. If the paper is accurate, it's likely one big "dwarf planet". Question is, considering we know so little about...I'm not saying this Planet 9 is just 5 earth masses of asteroids in a trench coat. If the paper is accurate, it's likely one big "dwarf planet". Question is, considering we know so little about this region: Is there likely to be little enough other crap (beyond the 5 earth masses that the research identified) in its general vicinity to suggest it's actually a planet, and not just a "improper" planet like pluto? Like, orbital periods out there are so freakishly long, the law of "if something intersected the orbit of this planet, it was probably yeeted or collided with at some point in the past" doesn't really apply. So there could be a lot of other stuff out there intersecting its orbit, meaning it's not a planet.
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Comment on New evidence found for Planet 9 in ~space
vektor Link ParentBut is there any evidence that this is actually a honest-to-god planet? If it's that far out, my guess is that there's so much crap floating about out there that calling this one a planet is about...But is there any evidence that this is actually a honest-to-god planet? If it's that far out, my guess is that there's so much crap floating about out there that calling this one a planet is about as loose of a decision as calling pluto one. Or is it that Planet 9 is hypothesized to exist in a part of space that is otherwise mostly empty? Some cursory reading suggests there's a noisy band (Kuiper belt) 30-50 AU out (which is pretty much Plutos orbital parameters) and the oort cloud (also only hypothesized) is supposed to be 2000 AU out. That'd suggest that the 50-2000 band is... almost empty? Though I guess once we start looking with adequate tools, we'll probably find a lot of stuff there? I'd certainly call it a stretch to call P9 a planet, when we don't know yet whether its orbital track is at all cleared out.
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Comment on Russia's meat grinder soldiers - 50,000 confirmed dead in ~news
vektor Link ParentAs an upper bound of just how far the casualty estimates go: Ukraine's official MoD estimate for the number of Russian casualties, so including wounded and missing, is currently sitting at 460000....As an upper bound of just how far the casualty estimates go: Ukraine's official MoD estimate for the number of Russian casualties, so including wounded and missing, is currently sitting at 460000. The usual heuristic is 2 wounded per dead, but there's credible estimates that Russia has at least at times fared worse than that due to nonexistant medevac. We'll go with 2:1 anyway, giving about 150000 dead. Again, that's something of an upper bound because Ukraine is likely to overcount by some unknown amount. Though Ukrainian MoD figures aren't the hopeless propaganda numbers as those by the Russian MoD are.
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Comment on Ukrainians contemplate the once unthinkable: Losing the war with Russia in ~misc
vektor (edited )Link ParentNow I don't mean to be too high on hopium here, but both revolutions and collapses of war economies seem impossible until they happen, then they appear inevitable. I don't think hope of a regime...The effect of sanctions was weaker than hoped, but it's still important. Russians rising up against Putin was naive nonsense from the beginning (plus the alternatives to Putin are hardly better)
Now I don't mean to be too high on hopium here, but both revolutions and collapses of war economies seem impossible until they happen, then they appear inevitable. I don't think hope of a regime change in Russia in 2022 was unfounded, it just didn't happen. And the fact that it seems like it wasn't even close doesn't (IMO) mean anything: History is full of "successful"* revolutions, it's full of "nahh, that's never going to amount to a revolution", but there's precious few situations where it looked genuinely close. Which IMO means that there must've been close calls that we can't readily identify as such. Mostly because a revolution's fate is kinda mostly decided before it's even really visible. A coup that doesn't capture the presidential palace isn't much of a coup, a popular revolution that doesn't mobilize millions in protests isn't much of a popular revolution.
As for the war economy, I'm not saying Russia's is close to collapse, though certainly closer than it was in 2022-01-01. But that it trucks along as if nothing happened is to do with massive government intervention to force it to do so. If that government loses its leverage, my guess is the Russian economy will be gone in no time flat.
* successful refering to achieving regime change, not necessarily improving the overall situation
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Comment on In Berlin, I experience icks I never thought possible in ~travel
vektor Link ParentOh no doubt. A little bit more significant than DC relatively speaking. I was more comparing DC and how it came to be to Canberra. In both cases, putting the capital there was basically a decision...Oh no doubt. A little bit more significant than DC relatively speaking. I was more comparing DC and how it came to be to Canberra. In both cases, putting the capital there was basically a decision of "let's put it in the boonies, so the second largest city can't get mad if we make the largest city capital". I think that's a mostly accurate description of both capitals, and probably a few more around the world. Berlin on the other hand is kind of the obvious choice, being the biggest city, and otherwise being somewhat significant. It's just that it's quite unremarkable by many metrics. I'm sure if you asked around what Germany's culturally most important city is, the answers will be split many different ways. Or similarly, if you checked which cities get what level of traffic from international tours, I wouldn't expect Berlin to lead that chart.
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Comment on In Berlin, I experience icks I never thought possible in ~travel
vektor Link ParentI've heard that before and I'm not quite buying it. Lobbyists probably aren't scared off by having to travel 2-3h from their company's HQ to the capital. And if it's that politicians will treat......in fact, that's often promulgated as a virtuous arrangement to avoid conflicts of interest in governance...
I've heard that before and I'm not quite buying it. Lobbyists probably aren't scared off by having to travel 2-3h from their company's HQ to the capital. And if it's that politicians will treat favorably wherever their workplace happens to be, that bias probably still exists, it just benefits a different interest group. If Sacramento, CA gets preferential treatment over SF and LA, that makes about as much sense to me as Wyoming having equal power in the senate as CA. It's about shifting political capital (heh) around, but I don't see a good argument for where it ought to be except "everyone gets equal say".
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Comment on In Berlin, I experience icks I never thought possible in ~travel
vektor Link ParentI recall reading about "digga" being basically a sterilized appropriation of the n-word, originating in German hip hop. Not sure if it was academically sound to a linguist's standards though.I recall reading about "digga" being basically a sterilized appropriation of the n-word, originating in German hip hop. Not sure if it was academically sound to a linguist's standards though.
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Comment on In Berlin, I experience icks I never thought possible in ~travel
vektor Link ParentI think it deserves mentioning that all that baggage doesn't really make it out of the US, beyond social media outrage if someone did say it. Like, if I wasn't so online and only slightly more...but on the flip side they go around saying the N-word with no consideration to the weight it carries for people from the US despite how glaringly obvious from American media (outside of hip-hop/rap culture) how negative that word is.
I think it deserves mentioning that all that baggage doesn't really make it out of the US, beyond social media outrage if someone did say it. Like, if I wasn't so online and only slightly more naive, all I would know is that it's used in a positive way in rap culture. And sure, there's more-or-less equivalent words in German - we have "Neger" which is so old fashioned it's more a curiosity if someone actually still uses it. "Negro" even more so, makes you sound like you're born in 1880, with monocle, pipe and top hat. The btter point of comparison though are slurs that carry similar amount of punch that upstanding Germans avoid like the plague, mostly for groups which have suffered discrimination more consistently and at greater scale - Turks, Roma, Jews.
What I find the most interesting aspect of this all though is that there seems to be a better understanding of use-mention-distinction in Germany. I feel like I could quote bad words here if I needed to. There's no "K-Wort" for referring to a slur about Turkish people. You either use the word, in which case you're probably an asshole. Or you mention the word, in which case you're not using it, and that's generally an understood distinction; perhaps you do it because it's important to convey exactly what is said. Or if you want to keep it really proper, you just report that "X called Y by a racist slur" and that might also be all the information you need. There's no dancing around it, you either mention the word, or you don't. In that way, it isn't that "we don't know any better", it's just that some things that count as dropping an n-bomb in the US are here simply considered quoting someone who did.
how Germans view Americans as boorish for our tendency to make jokes about WW2/Nazis/Hitler.
On that I'd just like to add that there's quite a whole host of jokes you can make here that are entirely acceptable. I feel like the line of what is too much is a bit different between the US and Germany. For example, mockery of a certain failed Austrian artist and his drug habits is fully accepted. I imagine there's less room for tongue-in-cheek glorification, as Germans don't do tongue-in-cheek, ever. (/s) There's also certain topics around the victims of the regime that are, after 80 years, still a bit of a case of "too soon". And while I'm sure Americans would agree that it's no good to make light of victims, who is or isn't a victim is a matter of historical debate. I'm sure jokes to the effect of "all nazi soldiers were nazis" go over real well with grandkids of drafted soldiers, and there certainly is some heightened sensitivity around who's to blame for the horrors of that time. I do wonder what jokes you think are considered on different sides of the red line in the US vs in Germany.
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Comment on In Berlin, I experience icks I never thought possible in ~travel
vektor Link ParentNever been to australia, so I can't comment. I'm seeing some parallels though, in that Canberra was a compromise capital, and basically decentralized the country more. The historical reason for...Never been to australia, so I can't comment. I'm seeing some parallels though, in that Canberra was a compromise capital, and basically decentralized the country more. The historical reason for that being much different, but the outcome is similar in that the capital just isn't that important outside politics.
Also, obligatory mention of the US too here I suppose. DC is a hamlet.
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Comment on Iran launches dozens of drones toward Israel in ~news
vektor Link ParentThat, and a nuclear capability that you've never tested isn't a very credible deterrence. Israel is pretty damn alone in that regard - they're the only nuclear power I can think of that has not...That, and a nuclear capability that you've never tested isn't a very credible deterrence.
Israel is pretty damn alone in that regard - they're the only nuclear power I can think of that has not done any testing according to public records, though there are 2 events that were possibly(probably?) Israeli nuclear tests. They're also the only country that is suspected of having nukes but doesn't actually admit to them. That for example NK has conducted tests is well known. It's a very unmistakable way of saying "would everybody please stop messing with me!", and that in itself is probably seen as a decent reason to test the thing.
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Comment on Iran launches dozens of drones toward Israel in ~news
vektor Link ParentI think right now Israel wants to, at least on the international stage, talk up the damage and their willingness to respond. This gives Iran the opportunity to declare "victory" without actually...I think right now Israel wants to, at least on the international stage, talk up the damage and their willingness to respond. This gives Iran the opportunity to declare "victory" without actually having achieved anything. So I expect Israel to act very concerned and serious. Lots of "we can't give any details because of OpSec", "we're weighing our options", "Iran's attack on military and civilian targets was oh so bad", and once Iran has declared victory, they just don't do anything.
Maybe it's confirmation bias, but I'm reading the whole "Israel will coordinate its actions with its allies" as a silent admission of "yeah, the US doesn't want an escalation and we don't either, so if this was the entire retaliatory strike, we can leave it at this." but I admit that's possibly more fortune-telling than news-reading.
Now.... I can see this line of thinking about animal welfare. You're not obliged to value animal life at all.
But some of the issues around meat consumption tie directly into climate change prevention. A good chunk of global GHG emissions are attributable to food production, and e.g. beef is roughly an order of magnitude more GHG intensive than vegetarian protein.
I'm not trying to convert you to veganism here, or rejoice at the progress of lab-grown meat. I want to point out that the ethical issue is one that does (presumably) affect you - it is a concern to you. It is entirely legitimate to acknowledge the concern, and stay inactive on it, e.g. because your GHG footprint is otherwise fairly low. Or because you just don't care.