skybrian's recent activity

  1. Comment on My journey to the microwave alternate timeline in ~food

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

    From the article:

    Marie T. Smith’s Microwave Cooking for One is an old forgotten book of microwave recipes from the 1980s. In the mid-2010s, it garnered the momentary attention of the Internet as “the world’s saddest cookbook”:

    To the modern eye, it seems obvious that microwave cooking can only be about reheating ready-made frozen food. It’s about staring blankly at the buzzing white box, waiting for the four dreadful beeps that give you permission to eat. It’s about consuming lukewarm processed slop on a rickety formica table, with only the crackling of a flickering neon light piercing through the silence.

    But this is completely misinterpreting Microwave Cooking for One’s vision. Two important pieces of context are missing. First – the book was published in 1985. Compare to the adoption S-curve of the microwave oven:

    [...]

    Second – Marie T. Smith is a microwave maximalist. She spent ten years putting every comestible object in the microwave to see what happens. Look at the items on the book cover – some are obviously impossible to prepare with a microwave, right? Well, that’s where you’re wrong. Marie T. Smith figured out a way to prepare absolutely everything. If you are a disciple of her philosophy, you shouldn’t even own a stove. Smith herself hasn’t owned one since the early 1970s. As she explains in the cookbook’s introduction, Smith believed the microwave would ultimately replace stove-top cooking, the same way stove-top cooking had replaced campfire-top cooking.

    So, my goal is twofold: first, I want to know if there’s any merit to all of these forgotten microwaving techniques. Something that can make plasma out of grapes, set your house on fire and bring frozen hamsters back to life cannot be fundamentally bad. But also, I want to get a glimpse of what the world looks like in the uchronia where Marie T. Smith won and Big Teflon lost. Why did we drift apart from this timeline?

    [...]

    A lot of recipes in the book involve stacking various objects under, above, and around the food. For vegetables, Smith generally recommends slicing them thinly, putting them between a cardboard plate and towel paper, then microwaving the ensemble. This works great. I tried it with onion and carrots, and it does make nice crispy vegetables, similar to what you get when you steam the vegetables in a rice cooker (also a great technique). I’d still say the rice cooker gives better results, but for situations where you absolutely need your carrots done in under two minutes, the microwave method is hard to beat.

    But cardboard contraptions, on their own, can only take us this far. They do little to overcome the true frontier for microwave-only cooking: the Maillard Reaction.Around 150°C, amino acids and sugars combine to form dark-colored tasty compounds, also known as browning. For a good browning, you must rapidly reach temperatures well above the boiling point of water. This is particularly difficult to do in a microwave – which is why people tend to use the microwave specifically for things that don’t require the Maillard reaction.

    [...]

    In parallel, in 1953, chemists from Corning were trying to create photosensitive glass that could be etched using UV light, when they accidentally synthesized a new compound they called pyroceram. Pyroceram is almost unbreakable, extremely resistant to heat shocks, and remarkably non-sticky. Most importantly, the bottom can be coated with tin oxide, which enables it to absorb microwave radiation and become arbitrarily hot. This led to the development of the microwave browning skillet.

    [...]

    The key trick is to put the empty skillet alone in the microwave and let it accumulate as much heat as you desire before adding the food. Then, supposedly, you can get any degree of searing you like by following the right sequence of bleeps and bloops.

    [...]

    All in all, I think I believe most of the claims Smith makes about the microwave. Would it be possible to survive in a bunker with just a laptop, a microwave and a Cook’n’Pour SaucePan®? I think so. It probably saves energy, it definitely saves time washing the dishes, and getting a perfect browning is entirely within reach. There were failures, and many recipes would require a few rounds of practice before getting everything right, but the same is true for stove-top cooking.

    On the other hand, there’s a reason the book is called Microwave Cooking for One and not Microwave Cooking for a Large, Loving Family. It’s not just because it is targeted at lonely losers. It’s because microwave cooking becomes exponentially more complicated as you increase the number of guests. [...]

  3. Comment on What’s the best 3D-printed thing you have? in ~talk

    skybrian
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    The most impressive one is an accordion-like MIDI controller that I built 3 years ago, with a lot of 3D-printed parts. It's too awkward to be an everyday musical instrument though, so it sits in a...

    The most impressive one is an accordion-like MIDI controller that I built 3 years ago, with a lot of 3D-printed parts.

    It's too awkward to be an everyday musical instrument though, so it sits in a display case.

    I have ideas for a better one and occasionally I work on on it.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Single, solo, poor, woman gets $500k pre-tax, how to make the most of it? in ~finance

    skybrian
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    A bond-only portfolio has other risks. Other than I-bonds, it's not going to keep up with inflation. Also, you do pay federal income tax on treasury bonds, though it may be deferred. They're only...

    A bond-only portfolio has other risks. Other than I-bonds, it's not going to keep up with inflation.

    Also, you do pay federal income tax on treasury bonds, though it may be deferred. They're only exempt from state and local taxes. (That doesn't apply to investments in an IRA, though.)

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Single, solo, poor, woman gets $500k pre-tax, how to make the most of it? in ~finance

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    Largely agreed. Except: It seems like there would be a lot more taxes if it she withdrew it all at once? I think that's reason to stick with a ten-year schedule for withdrawals, to make the taxed...

    Largely agreed. Except:

    There's very little chance they ever end up paying taxes either way, so it probably doesn't matter too much.

    It seems like there would be a lot more taxes if it she withdrew it all at once? I think that's reason to stick with a ten-year schedule for withdrawals, to make the taxed amount about the same every year. Then the taxes wouldn't be very much.

    So, investing what's in the IRA and building up savings outside the IRA (which might even be in a new IRA) can be considered separately.

    (Caveat: just going by my very cursory understanding of the rules.)

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Single, solo, poor, woman gets $500k pre-tax, how to make the most of it? in ~finance

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    This seems fairly reasonable as generic advice, but I’m wondering about the specifics: Whether any stock investments are appropriate at all depends on how you feel about risk. Someone who has a...

    This seems fairly reasonable as generic advice, but I’m wondering about the specifics:

    • Whether any stock investments are appropriate at all depends on how you feel about risk. Someone who has a fairly strong faith that stocks will eventually go up (the way Bogleheads do) can wait a few years if they go down for them to come back again. Other people worry more and would have a hard time dealing with that. It’s pretty easy to argue that stocks do eventually go up on average, but they can be down for years, and people have to decide for themselves whether they are sufficiently convinced to not worry too much in that situation.

    • Any money made inside the IRA is tax free (until withdrawal) and at least some of that money likely wouldn’t need to be withdrawn for years, so any stock investments that might grow a lot should probably be in the IRA?

    Certainly not all of it, though. At least the next few years of withdrawals should be invested conservatively so they can be withdrawn on schedule.

    Assuming the withdrawals have to be done in ten years, sticking to a fixed withdrawal schedule and then trying to build up some savings outside the IRA (not spending all the withdrawals) makes sense, and any money from a job will help to avoid having to spend it.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Single, solo, poor, woman gets $500k pre-tax, how to make the most of it? in ~finance

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    It sounds like you're already on top of things as far as being frugal and the thing to work on is getting some kind of income. You now have money you could tap into, and this might include moving...

    It sounds like you're already on top of things as far as being frugal and the thing to work on is getting some kind of income. You now have money you could tap into, and this might include moving expenses if there's better opportunity somewhere else, but it needs to be a move that will very likely pay off.

    Also, not sure if you're being metaphorical about leaving the house once a month, but there are reasons to get out regularly that don't involve buying things, like exercise.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Single, solo, poor, woman gets $500k pre-tax, how to make the most of it? in ~finance

    skybrian
    Link
    I don't know much about them, but from some quick web searches, for an inherited IRA, apparently people are usually required to withdraw the money in 10 years, but there are exceptions and you'll...

    I don't know much about them, but from some quick web searches, for an inherited IRA, apparently people are usually required to withdraw the money in 10 years, but there are exceptions and you'll want to figure out if you qualify for them. Also, you'll need to figure out the rules for taxation of withdrawals. That's going to require someone to look at the specifics of your situation to figure out.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on How US doctors cashed in on the No Surprises Act in ~health

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    I consider that to be doctors taking money from the "little guy" and the system not being sufficiently well-designed to prevent them from doing it.

    I consider that to be doctors taking money from the "little guy" and the system not being sufficiently well-designed to prevent them from doing it.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on How US doctors cashed in on the No Surprises Act in ~health

    skybrian
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Not sure what you mean. Are these doctors who take advantage of the system the "little guy?"

    Not sure what you mean. Are these doctors who take advantage of the system the "little guy?"

  11. Comment on How US doctors cashed in on the No Surprises Act in ~health

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    There ought to be better procedures for more quickly adjusting new laws after they see how people game them. Maybe this tactic should have been anticipated, but not every new tactic will be.

    There ought to be better procedures for more quickly adjusting new laws after they see how people game them. Maybe this tactic should have been anticipated, but not every new tactic will be.

  12. Comment on Why America is so much better than Europe at immigration in ~society

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]

    From the article:

    By virtually every metric that matters — employment, crime, fiscal contribution, second-generation mobility — immigration is working dramatically better here than across the Atlantic. Understanding the differences between U.S. immigration and European immigration is indeed a very good idea if you want to design better, smarter U.S. immigration policy — but that’s going to look like “not making Europe’s mistakes” much more than adopting Europe’s solutions.

    [...]

    The most important reason why immigration is more successful in the United States is the simplest: Europe makes it structurally much harder for immigrants to work.

    Rigid employment protection, sector-wide collective bargaining, and high effective minimum wages create insider-outsider dynamics that hit newcomers hardest.

    [...]

    Most European countries ban asylum seekers from working for six to nine months after filing their claims, often longer in practice. The intent is often explained as discouraging people who are entering for economic reasons from making spurious asylum claims. But about 1 million applications for asylum are filed each year despite this discouragement, and most of those people then become dependents of the state — or participate in the illegal economy — at least for the first while.

    What employment bans actually produce is lasting economic scarring: People lose skills, lose contact with employers, and get pushed into informal work or dependency. The negative employment effects persist up to a decade after arrival. And by design, the bans feed the very dynamic of immigrants as a fiscal burden that fuels public backlash.

    The United States, for all its dysfunction, lets most immigrants start working almost immediately. And the results are dramatic. The U.S. is a global outlier: refugee employment rates are comparable to those of economic immigrants from arrival. In Europe, it takes refugees a decade or two to narrow that gap.

    [...]

    In the U.K., asylum seekers banned from working increased property crime; EU workers with labor market access did not. Using Italian legalization as a regression discontinuity, Paolo Pinotti estimated that granting legal work status reduced immigrant crime by roughly 50%.

    The United States also bars asylum seekers from working for 180 days. So why does it still outperform? Because until recently, most humanitarian immigrants to the U.S. were resettled refugees who received work authorization on arrival, not asylum seekers subject to the waiting period.

    When the recent southern border surge changed that, the results looked more European.

    In reaction, New York City spent billions housing people barred from earning a living. This is the closest the U.S. has come to running the European experiment on its own soil, and it produced exactly the outcomes Leonhardt attributed to immigration itself rather than to the policy regime surrounding it.

    [...]

    Sweden is the instructive failure case.

    No country in Europe has invested more in integration services, language classes, and social support. Yet Swedish integration outcomes have been among the worst in the OECD. The lesson is that integration effort does not equal integration design.

    You cannot integrate people into a labor market that will not hire them, and spending generously on language courses while maintaining employment bans and rigid hiring practices is the policy equivalent of teaching someone to swim and then barring them from the pool.

    5 votes

  14. Comment on Synthesizing multi-agent harnesses for vulnerability discovery in ~comp

    skybrian
    Link
    From the abstract: Apparently, if you have the right harness, you can find security bugs with a Chinese LLM. Source code here. The prompt that their system automatically generated is here.

    From the abstract:

    [...] We evaluate AgentFlow on TerminalBench-2 with Claude Opus 4.6 and on Google Chrome with Kimi K2.5. AgentFlow reaches 84.3% on TerminalBench-2, the highest score in the public leaderboard snapshot we evaluate against, and discovers ten previously unknown zero-day vulnerabilities in Google Chrome, including two Critical sandbox-escape vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-5280 and CVE-2026-6297).

    Apparently, if you have the right harness, you can find security bugs with a Chinese LLM. Source code here.

    The prompt that their system automatically generated is here.

    4 votes

  16. Comment on China calls for ‘concerted’ efforts to tackle excess solar production in ~enviro

    skybrian
    Link Parent
    Perhaps the Chinese government is worried about what happens when the bubble bursts and a lot of investments and loans go bad?

    Perhaps the Chinese government is worried about what happens when the bubble bursts and a lot of investments and loans go bad?

    2 votes

  17. Comment on How US doctors cashed in on the No Surprises Act in ~health

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]

    From the article:

    Dr. Rowe has taken full advantage of a new arbitration system, part of a major consumer protection law Congress passed in 2020 with bipartisan majorities. The No Surprises Act was designed to eliminate surprise medical bills, for patients who showed up in the emergency room and were treated by a doctor who didn’t take their insurance.

    It bars those out-of-network doctors from billing patients directly. Instead, they can plead their case to a government-approved arbitrator. If they win, the patient’s insurer has to pay their desired amount.

    By all accounts, the law is successfully protecting patients against bills from doctors they never chose. But it has also generated an expensive unanticipated consequence: Doctors have flooded the arbitration system with millions of claims. Most are winning, often collecting fees hundreds of times higher than what they could negotiate with insurers directly or what they could have earned from patients before the law passed.

    [...]

    Some health plans said they have increased premiums this year to cover the extra costs. The United Service Workers health plan, which covers 20,000 trades workers in the New York area, said it boosted premiums by an extra 1.75 percentage points to offset arbitration awards and fees. The system has also enriched a new class of specialized businesses, which assist doctors in navigating the bureaucratic process.

    [...]

    When the law passed, government officials estimated that about 17,000 cases would go to arbitration a year. Instead, doctors brought 1.2 million such cases in the first half of last year, and won around 88 percent of them.

    [...]

    The arbitrators are doing well too. The fees they earn for deciding cases, which range from $425 to $1,150 per case, have added up. They earned $885 million from 2022 to 2024.

    [...]

    In arbitration, doctors and insurers each propose a price for the care, along with arguments for why it is appropriate. An arbitrator must pick one of the two numbers, and there is no opportunity to appeal the decision.

    Arbitrators have repeatedly approved doctors’ submissions of extremely high prices for common medical procedures, according to court filings and a New York Times analysis of a large public data set with basic information on each dispute.

    [...]

    Many claims that shouldn’t be eligible for arbitration, such as those for patients covered through the government programs Medicare and Medicaid, move through the system anyway. The claim from the New Jersey anesthesiologist involved a patient on a UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan, according to a lawsuit that UnitedHealth has filed protesting the arbitration decision.

    [...]

    Medical specialties like spinal and plastic surgery, for which surprise bills were rare before the law, now frequently have cases in arbitration, according to the public data. Some practices are using the law to obtain high payments for routine medical care, including gynecologists who have won fees 600 times higher than usual rates for placing intrauterine contraceptive devices, or I.U.D.s.

    [...]

    Health policy experts have been surprised to see such lopsided results that favor doctors. Some argue that because the arbitrators are paid per case, they may have an incentive to render decisions that keep doctors coming back.

    Arbitrators may also, like the broader public, prefer doctors to insurers, said Matthew Fiedler, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has studied the law. “Arbitrators are people, and the typical person likes physicians.”

    22 votes

  19. Comment on Astronomers find the edge of the Milky Way in ~space

    skybrian
    Link
    From the article: [...] [...]

    From the article:

    Disk galaxies like the Milky Way form stars “inside-out” — starting from the center and working outwards through the disk. So, as a general rule, the farther out astronomers look, the younger the stars are.

    Now, a team led by Karl Fiteni (then at University of Malta), carried out under the supervision of Joseph Caruana and Victor Debattista, has analyzed more than 100,000 giant stars. By coupling observations with advanced computer simulations, the astronomers show that this inside-out pattern reverses at between 35,000 and 40,000 light-years from the Milky Way’s center. Beyond this distance, the stars are older again.

    [...]

    The analysis involves data from the LAMOST and APOGEE spectroscopic surveys, as well as measurements from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite. Fiteni’s team focused on red giant branch stars, whose ages can be estimated with relatively high precision. The results are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

    The stars beyond this boundary probably weren’t formed in situ. But they didn’t come from infalling satellite galaxies either. Instead, they likely migrated outward over time. “A key point about the stars in the outer disk is that they are on close-to-circular orbits, meaning that they had to have formed in the disk,” says team member Victor Debattista (University of Lancashire, UK).

    [...]

    Similar U-shaped age profiles have been seen in simulated disk galaxies and inferred in observations of other galaxies beyond our own. So the Milky Way is not unusual but merely following a common pattern of disk evolution, with the newly identified boundary marking a transition that may be a generic feature of spiral galaxies.

    It is currently unclear what stymies star formation beyond this boundary. It is possible that the gravity of the Milky Way’s central bar corrals gas at preferred radii. Or it could be due to the bend of the galaxy, which warps towards the edge, disrupting star formation in the outer reaches.

    New and future instruments could help paint a clearer picture. They include the 4MOST spectroscopic instrument at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, which saw first light last October, and the WEAVE spectrograph, attached to the William Herschel Telescope at La Palma in the Canary Islands.

    10 votes