Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | leptoniscool's comments login

> why no radio frequency evidence of other stars

unless the radio beam is aimed directly at us, we may not be able to detect the radio communication of other civilizations.


this is such a large red-flag.. with layers of conflicts of interest


I tried it on gpt-4-turbo and it seems to give the right answer:

>Let's calculate:494,547,645,908,151+7,640,745,309,351,279,642=7,641,239,856,997,187,793 >494,547,645,908,151+7,640,745,309,351,279,642=7,641,239,856,997,187,793 >Answer: 7,641,239,856,997,187,793


it's true.. the S&P 500 declined ~57% from Oct 2007 to Mar 2009


A crown on a fool's head does not make him a king.


it looks like we can now actually use brains as computers: https://corticallabs.com/


I'm really fascinated by the idea of biological computers. Doesn't get enough recognition.


i'm simultainously unsurprised and blown away. i should rewatch the anime Psycho Pass sometime.


How is the anime related?


The show is oriented around a fictitious law enforcement technology called the Sibyl System. This system is capable of determining the intent of people, and based on that, it can predict crimes and criminal intent, allowing law enforcement to preventively take action. The kicker is, as the MC learns, that there are people who the system doesn't seem to work on.

Minor(?) plot point spoiler ahead for season one:

Later on the story the main character further learns that the system is actually a mainframe made up of living human brains connected together. Hence the relation.


you may be thinking of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Inertial_Fusion_Energy

Here the machine is using tin, which isn't suitable for fusion (no energy is released beyond iron).


replace tin droplets with DT pellets :)


I wonder if future historians will see a similar drop after widespread use of plastic


Maybe, but given that "plastics" are a broad category I'd expect that IQ would me a poor proxy for some of their effects.

BPA for instance, is a xenoestrogen. I'm not sure what metric to watch for it, but it's probably not IQ.


Anogenital distance is likely the preferred measure.

> Males with a short AGD (lower than the median around 52 mm (2 in)) have seven times the chance of being sub-fertile as those with a longer AGD.

> Swan et al. report that the levels of phthalates associated with significant AGD reductions are found in approximately one-quarter of Americans tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for phthalate body burdens.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anogenital_distance (warning on the header photos).


I was imagining something a bit more impactful (and easy to find in the data), because as far as that one goes, it's not clear why anyone should know or care.

Maybe high school graduation rate (an inverse proxy to indicate bullying)?


Obviously not as easy to screen for, but this is a very clear indicator of how strong the known adverse effects of plasticizers are.


Perhaps not with respect to IQ but there’s a chance that future historians might correlate the use of plastics with increased rates of infertility.


Perhaps there is a link between plastics and ADHD [1].

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8910189/


I find it interesting that the article you linked didn't mention the heritability of ADHD. In around 3/4ths[0] of cases ADHD is caused by genetics, which leaves plenty of space for other causes.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-018-0070-0


Next do fluoride.

That’s been “debunked” though right?




Oh gosh... "insidious castration of all men" and "blurred gender roles". Really? They have been blurry for all of homo sapiens existence, just think of the matriarchal societies that still exist today[0]. Gender dysphoria has been documented from individuals[1] for a long time, societies accepted a third gender since ancient time and even in the USA, the Cercle Hermaphroditos[2] was quite early to the party, being founded in 1895 (yes 130 years ago).

I'm confident that plastic will go the way trees did: Unbothered for a long time until bacteria figured dead wood is just another food and put a stop to trees being fossilized as coal.

Stop plastics, it's a good idea to do so for many reasons, but there's no need to drag gender roles and those stupid good old times into it. I much prefer spending time with my kid instead of slaving away 9-5 six days a week.

[0] https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/g2856528... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalonymus_ben_Kalonymus [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercle_Hermaphroditos


It doesn't seem as if the principal researcher behind this result is a historian:

https://www.dri.edu/directory/joe-mcconnell/


Has plastic been linked to lower IQ?


If anything, the correlation might be the opposite --- look at plasticiser use in East Asian countries, for example.


Not yet, I think the OP means it might in the future.


Happy New Year from the West coast!


> Happy New Year from the West coast!

This was around 18:10 PST so the greeting may have introduced a race condition.

Happy New Year anyway, logic be darned!


I'm genuinely intrigued!

Any recommendations for tour companies? Do you have to bring your own tent? Any need for special masks/filters for volcanic gases?


Definitely do bring a mask and glasses. The volcanic acid is no joke. Everything else would be provided by the company. They usually have camels to carry your stuff as well. Check out a group called Ethio Hiking Community on Telegram. They go roughly once a month.


Masks and glasses!!?? Went there, and such gear feels like it would be not only completely useless but even plain dangerous as it would probably contribute to make your body overheat even faster.


I didn't need/have either but some people that had said it helped.


Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: