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    1. Can you access university libraries in your country w/o an affiliation to the university?

      In Turkey, where I live, almost all universities restrict access to staff and students (only their own students if not a graduate student); the only exception I can find is the Koç University...

      In Turkey, where I live, almost all universities restrict access to staff and students (only their own students if not a graduate student); the only exception I can find is the Koç University where paid membership is open to public. I've researched in the past and found that major universities around the world---i.e. Italy, France, UK, US; selection factor being the languages I can read---seem to allow the public to access in one way or another (article, in Turkish, with results). But I wonder how accurate my reading is with the reality, and thus I'm asking this question.

      So, as a plain citizen w/o any current affiliation to any educational institutions, can you access university libraries where you live? Does it matter if you have certain diplomas or affiliations? How easy it is?

      10 votes
    2. Soul Goth

      Howdy folks. Some of you will be pleased to find that this is a ~music post of mine not about emo rap, hahaha. Across the past six months I've found myself infatuated with a new sound I can't...

      Howdy folks.

      Some of you will be pleased to find that this is a ~music post of mine not about emo rap, hahaha.

      Across the past six months I've found myself infatuated with a new sound I can't quite put the finger on. These songs have something in common, in spirit. And that's what I'm after.

      Here's a little playlist I've assembled under the title of Soul Goth. If you have any other recommendations, give me everything you got.

      Or if I'm describing something what already exists; let me know.

      Yalla.


      "God's Gonna Cut You Down" x Johnny Cash

      "Pray I Won't Wake Up" x Honky Tonk Hustlas

      "No Sugar In My Coffee" x Caught A Ghost

      "In A Week" x Hozier

      "In Hell I'll Be In Good Company" x The Dead South

      "Loud And Heavy" x Cody Jinks

      "The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie" x Colter Wall

      "When Jesus Comes" x Uncle Sinner

      "The Devil Had a Hold of Me" x Gillian Welch

      "Fingers To The Bone" x Brown Bird

      "The Piano Has Been Drinking" x Tom Waits

      "Graves" x Whiskey Shivers

      "Burn The Witch" x Shawn James

      3 votes
    3. Tildistas, do you read or have you read any webcomics?

      as an offshoot of this topic, i'm interested to see if any of you folks read/were previously big into webcomics. the last time we apparently had this question was about ten months ago and...

      as an offshoot of this topic, i'm interested to see if any of you folks read/were previously big into webcomics. the last time we apparently had this question was about ten months ago and obviously the site's grown quite a bit since then, so i'm sure there will be plenty of new answers.

      20 votes
    4. Option to temporarily hide read posts

      It would be nice to have an optional feature that filters out posts that a) you have read and b) don't have any new unread comments. When a post gets new comments it should reappear. That way we...

      It would be nice to have an optional feature that filters out posts that a) you have read and b) don't have any new unread comments. When a post gets new comments it should reappear. That way we could see more unread content on the page, but still keep long running topics going. Have it not affect search, so people can still find posts for reference.

      11 votes
    5. At what point will technology be sufficient for exact local time everywhere?

      It’s a thought I’ve had mulling around for a while now. I’m wondering will a point ever come when we return to completely accurate local time; each village, town and city operating on a local time...

      It’s a thought I’ve had mulling around for a while now. I’m wondering will a point ever come when we return to completely accurate local time; each village, town and city operating on a local time synced with the sunrise/sunset—noon truly means the solar noon—with technology as the interface.

      Is it possible? would we even want it, would it matter? Do we have to wait for brain chips to make a time conversion seamless?

      11 votes
    6. I have a basic and possibly uninformed question about the event horizon of a black hole

      It is my understanding that if you are looking at an object falling into a black hole from a remote viewpoint, then the object will appear to take “forever” to complete the fall into the black...

      It is my understanding that if you are looking at an object falling into a black hole from a remote viewpoint, then the object will appear to take “forever” to complete the fall into the black hole. The object is effectively frozen in time at the black hole’s event horizon, from the remote viewer’s POV.

      Is this the correct interpretation so far? If so, let’s remember that.

      It is also my understanding that a black hole can increase in mass as it captures new objects. The mass does increase from an external viewpoint. Is this accurate?

      If I understand known science on the above points, then the paradox I see here is that while the visual information is frozen in time from the external POV, the mass of the black hole does increase from the external POV. So is this where the Holographic Principle comes in? Or is there another explanation here, or am I off-base entirely?

      Or is it just that the accretion disk gains mass and black holes never increase in mass from an external POV, after they are initially formed?

      Is this known?

      Please either attempt to answer my tortured question, or point me to material that might lead me ask a better question.

      Thanks!

      13 votes
    7. What is your top 1 song?

      For me it is Holy Wars by Megadeth. The entire album really, but this song just blows everything away. It will never be surpassed. Tornado of Souls is right up there, but i have to choose just one...

      For me it is Holy Wars by Megadeth.

      The entire album really, but this song just blows everything away. It will never be surpassed.

      Tornado of Souls is right up there, but i have to choose just one so...

      24 votes
    8. A method for economic balance in Euro Truck Simulator 2

      In Euro Truck Simulator 2 you start off as a driver with no truck or money, take jobs, save up, get your own truck, buy/upgrade garages, buy more trucks and hire a fleet of drivers to work for...

      In Euro Truck Simulator 2 you start off as a driver with no truck or money, take jobs, save up, get your own truck, buy/upgrade garages, buy more trucks and hire a fleet of drivers to work for you. There is little to spend the money on, other than more garages and more trucks, which means means more employees and more money coming in. Once you get a certain amount of employees it becomes so unbalanced that money becomes pointless.

      There is a config setting `g_income_factor' that affects how much jobs pay. Set it to 0.5 and all jobs pay half as much as they normally do. There are mods that set it to various values to make it more challenging. The problem with setting it to a low value is that it makes the early game too hard. It can take way too long to buy the first couple trucks and start hiring people.

      So my strategy is to change `g_income_factor' as I play. I start out with it as 1 (full income) and every time I buy a new truck I change it. I set it to 0.85^(the number of trucks in my fleet) . That way the more employees I have the less each makes and the less I make from my own driving. It also introduces a trade off to hiring new drivers. Is the new driver going to be worth the reduced income from the rest of my fleet? It reverses the dynamic where in normal play the more employees you have the easier it is to get more to a dynamic where the more you have the harder it becomes to grow.

      5 votes