Spam callers have basically ruined telephone as a medium. For many, a phone call is more likely to be fake and spam than it is to be legitimate. And even if the call claims to come from a source you might trust, good odds it’s spoofed and thus cannot in fact be trusted.
A shame on telecoms for not being willing to tackle the problem.
Justice Elena Kagan declined Thursday to outright answer the question of whether Congress could impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court, but she did allow that it could do “various things” to regulate the high court....
Sure, there’s no direct equivalent for the House of Lords in the American system.
At the same time, unlike the Supreme Court in both the US and the UK, the House of Lords is not a judicial body. That’s why I thought it was odd that you chose a legislative body like the House of Lords to make your point.
<span style="color:#323232;">The writer is a science commentator
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If you haven’t yet heard of LK-99, where have you been? Over the past week and more, this pebble-sized dark rock — made of lead, phosphorus, copper and oxygen — has pushed social media into meltdown, sent stock markets surging and put Silicon Valley investors into a spin.
Scientists all over the world struggled to make sense of the hallowed lump. One enthusiast livestreamed his effort to bake a replica, with 16,000 Twitch viewers tuning in to stare at a kiln.
According to scientists in South Korea, LK-99 is a room-temperature superconductor that can work at normal pressure. If true, it represents colossal progress. Superconductors are materials that can conduct an electrical current with zero resistance, which means zero energy loss. They generally operate only at impractically low temperatures or fantastically high pressures. MRI machines, for example, use a niobium-titanium alloy cooled by liquid helium to below minus 263C.
But a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor made from cheap materials would pave the way for perfectly efficient high-capacity power grids, desktop quantum computing, fusion reactors and even levitating trains. Hence the race in Europe, the US, Russia and Japan to find so-called high-temperature superconductors. Any breakthrough would be a Nobel Prize shoo-in.
But there’s a catch: proof remains elusive. Superconductivity, first discovered in 1911, is notoriously difficult to confirm in the lab. Mistaken sightings are so common they are nicknamed USOs, or Unidentified Superconducting Objects.
An electrical current, essentially a flow of electrons, is a messy affair — a bit like a dance floor of rowdy partygoers attempting a conga. But below a critical temperature, many materials become superconducting: the electrons abruptly pair up and begin to move smoothly. It is as if the partygoers disappear amid clouds of dry ice — and instantly reappear as pairs of ballroom dancers gliding effortlessly in unison.
There are two giveaway signs of that transition: first, measured resistance drops to zero; and, thanks to a curious phenomenon called the Meissner effect, a superconductor will levitate above a magnet.
On July 22, a preprint — a draft scientific paper that has not undergone peer review — surfaced, claiming that LK-99 had met both tests. Scepticism was immediate. The researchers, from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and the country’s Quantum Energy Research Centre, were respectable but not superstars. The method for making this miracle material — bearing the initials of two authors, Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim — seemed incredibly simple, including use of a pestle and mortar, but lacked detail. A linked video appeared to show partial, rather than full, levitation.
Strangely, another paper by Lee and Kim quickly followed, this time with four other authors. As Scientific American notes, critics pointed to graphs featuring an oddly scaled axis, though a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California said the Korean claim was theoretically plausible. One team in China reported limited success at replication; another in India reported failure.
The matter is not yet closed but the odds seem unfavourable. A hastily convened verification committee set up in South Korea issued a cautionary note on August 2, suggesting a lack of concrete evidence.
Given superconductivity’s history of false dawns, our trusty pebble, now with its own Wikipedia page, is most likely to be an unremarkable rock with accidentally interesting properties. But what a gripping spectacle — one that tells us less about physics and more about the collective human need, even among scientists and investors, to dream.
I think now is a great time to remind everyone, like sync’s developer, Lemmy’s developers need to be paid too! The amount of time all the devs put into making lemmy exist, in my opinion, should be worth some of your money. If you can afford it, donating to the people who develop lemmy and/or the people keeping your home...
Couldn’t say, but I think when Lemmy rolls out account migration features (like Mastodon/Firefish/Misskey etc) we’ll probably see a fairly large amount of people move elsewhere.
Lemmy’s at an odd stage of development right now, kinda federates, kinda doesn’t. As it matures, so will its userbase and I think any potential centralisation issues will take care of themselves. At the moment, users have to physically move (as I have twice already to help decentralisation only to see the place I moved to become very popular lol).
I’d imagine it may work somewhat like it always has, but with some of the more technical jobs (say some web dev stuff) or the like, I’m not entirely clear on it....
What’s the freelancing platform, if you don’t mind my asking? I do freelance digital marketing, content creation type stuff and that sounds ideal for when I have the odd quiet spell (like right now, as it happens!)
I’m feeling especially happy to be childfree and wanted to share. I have off from work and am spending the week home with my husband and dogs. The house is so peaceful. I’m getting in hours and hours of digital painting practice. I can’t fathom why anyone would voluntarily choose to care for a kid for 18yrs, rather than...
Must admit, I didn’t see it from this angle. Perhaps because of my personal experience in life and the few people in my social circle have never been pressured into having kids, it’s just not really been a thing in my 40 odd years on the planet. Perhaps cultural differences etc, either way adjusting my view point to be that of people constantly being pressured to have kids when they don’t want kids/can’t have kids allows me to understand the community’s existence.
I actually like minimalist wallpapers. Drawings and photos will bother me over time as I start noticing odd details. So in this case, I would not feel the need to change it right away. But I do like variety, so I’d have to build a library of fifty minimalist wallpapers or so.
Let’s name the goats Alice and Bob. You pick at random between Alice, Bob, and the Car, each with 1/3 chance. Let’s examine each case.
Case 1: You picked Alice. Monty eliminates Bob. Switching wins. (1/3)
Case 2: You picked Bob. Monty eliminates Alice. Switching wins. (1/3)
Case 3: You picked the Car. Monty eliminates either Alice or Bob. You don’t know which, but it doesn’t matter-- switching loses. (1/3)
It comes down to the fact that Monty always eliminates a goat, which is why there is only one possibility in each of these (equally probable) cases.
From another point of view: Monty revealing a goat does not provide us any new information, because we know in advance that he must always do so. Hence our original odds of picking correctly (p=1/3) cannot change.
In the variant “Monty Fall” problem, where Monty opens a random door, we perform the same analysis:
Case 1: You picked Alice. (1/3)
Case 1a: Monty eliminates Bob. Switching wins. (1/2 of case 1, 1/6 overall)
Case 1b: Monty eliminates the Car. Game over. (1/2 of case 1, 1/6 overall)
Case 2: You picked Bob. (1/3)
Case 2a: Monty eliminates Alice. Switching wins. (1/2 of case 2, 1/6 overall)
Case 2b: Monty eliminates the Car. Game over. (1/2 of case 2, 1/6 overall)
Case 3: You picked the Car. (1/3)
Case 3a: Monty eliminates Alice. Switching loses. (1/2 of case 3, 1/6 overall)
Case 3b: Monty eliminates Bob. Switching loses. (1/2 of case 3, 1/6 overall)
As you can see, there is now a chance that Monty reveals the car resulting in an instant game over-- a 1/3 chance, to be exact. If Monty just so happens to reveal a goat, we instantly know that cases 1b and 2b are impossible. (In this variant, Monty revealing a goat reveals new information!) Of the remaining (still equally probable!) cases, switching wins half the time.
Your original odds were 1/3, and this never changes since you don’t get any new information.
The key is that Monty always reveals a goat. No matter what you choose, even before you make your choice, you know Monty will reveal a goat. Therefore, when he does so, you learn nothing you didn’t already know.
Nonsense! I can blow both your minds without a single proof or mathematical symbol, observe!
There are different sizes of infinity.
Think of integers, or whole numbers; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on. How many are there? Infinite, you can always add one to your previous number.
Now take odd numbers; 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on. How many are there? Again, infinite because you just add 2 to the previous odd number and get a new odd number.
Both of these are infinite, but the set of numbers containing odd numbers is by definition smaller than the set of numbers containing all integers, because it doesn’t have the even numbers.
But considering the amount of games that exist that is never going to be the primary ways to play older games. It’s great for those that end up getting that prices done for them but it’s only going to be the odd few that end up becoming a passion project for some super fans with the ability to do so.
He helped Lula overturn a graft conviction stemming from Brazil’s sprawling “Car Wash” corruption investigation, getting him freed after 580 days of incarceration. The Supreme Court annulled all convictions of Lula, and ruled in 2021 that the judge overseeing the case had been biased. That allowed Lula to run successfuly...
By merit I didn’t mean it would be a simple selection process. It would involve many aspects which wouldn’t fit in a comment. Say, merit, competence, academic achievements, career results, the list goes on. You will always have the argument of “and who polices the police” and so on and to that I’d say the selection process would have to be such that it would account for that to mitigate it somehow.
It is an odd relationship. One where only personal interest plays a role. Their job isn’t to “bend” the interpretation of the law to please their executive friend/ally. It’s like expecting the police to arrest only right wing protesters because left wingers are supporters of the current government and therefore get a free pass. That’s not how the judicial system is meant to work. That to me sounds more like another legislative branch with judicial powers and that’s no bueno my friend, no matter how you spin it.
That’s risky depending on how adamant they are about cutting. If they’re cutting a random spot each time, at 10 cuts there’s an ~18% chance they’ve split the two cards up. Your odds are 50/50 at 35 cuts.
@luigirenna@Tim_Eagon@germany@folklore There are quite a few hints in some of the tales that these "Venetians" might not be entirely human, such as their oddly short stature.
Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.::America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly.
Surprisingly, there is a whole slew of exempt special-purpose bulbs that will continue to be manufactured, according to the Energy Department. Here’s what manufacturers can still build and stores can continue selling:
Appliance lamps, including fridge and oven lights
Black lights
Bug lamps
Colored lamps
Infrared lamps
Left-handed thread lamps
Plant lights
Floodlights
Reflector lamps
Showcase lamps
Traffic signals
Some other specialty lights, including marine lamps and some odd-sized bulbs
I mean, good for the effort, but that’s still a lot of exceptions.
Several of these exceptions are unexpected. Oven light, sure: LEDs can’t survive the heat. That makes sense. Plant lights because you probably need full spectrum. And traffic signals because they’re odd shape and fixtures probably last decades, but the rest?
Bug lights? A regular LED attracts fewer bugs than an incandescent bug light …. Unless they mean an attractant like fora bug zapper
Flood lights? Reflector lights? Fridge lights? Colored lights? Why aren’t these all LED?
LoglineAn accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the USS Enterprise to break uncontrollably into song, but the real danger is that the field is expanding and beginning to impact other ships—allies and enemies alike....
Honestly this episode feels written by Sondheim fans more than anything, which is why all the G&S references were so odd to me lol. Definitely less focus on “fun” but I think all the lyrics were really clever and expressive and the way that all of the songs felt like they reinforced character work successfully was a feat even if none of them are particular “catchy” in that ear-worm way. Company is probably my favorite musical of all time but its pretty hard for me to hum you anything from that show
I’m not sure - all I can say is that it wasn’t a problem on any other device I tried out. There seems to be an odd bug with the Deck on dual band routers but I have no idea what the root cause is.
I had no idea about blahaj the stuffed shark, and now I really want to buy one! So at the least, IKEA should be throwing them some loot. Or they should sell Blahaj on commission. 3 1/2 foot stuffed shark from Sweden or wetf? Hell yes! Count me in
I was "blahaj, that's an odd word, what does it mean?" and then "oh, a uh.... trans shark from Denmark or something. Okay..." and also, hell yeah
FCC slaps $300M fine on “largest illegal robocall operation” it’s ever seen (arstechnica.com)
'We are not imperial': Justice Kagan says Supreme Court still subject to checks and balances (www.cnn.com)
Justice Elena Kagan declined Thursday to outright answer the question of whether Congress could impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court, but she did allow that it could do “various things” to regulate the high court....
Superconductor Stock Frenzy Fizzles in Korea Amid Growing Doubts (www.bloomberg.com)
What are some notable blunders in history that resulted in huge loss?
Loss in terms of money or efforts. Could be recent or ancient.
With all this talk about sync's pricing...
I think now is a great time to remind everyone, like sync’s developer, Lemmy’s developers need to be paid too! The amount of time all the devs put into making lemmy exist, in my opinion, should be worth some of your money. If you can afford it, donating to the people who develop lemmy and/or the people keeping your home...
Sync users every time someone links a setting in a comment (i.imgur.com)
Show off your Android: the Home Sweet Home(screen) Edition!
Hey Android enthusiasts!...
How does freelancing work these days?
I’d imagine it may work somewhat like it always has, but with some of the more technical jobs (say some web dev stuff) or the like, I’m not entirely clear on it....
new skill (pawb.social)
Extra grateful to be childfree
I’m feeling especially happy to be childfree and wanted to share. I have off from work and am spending the week home with my husband and dogs. The house is so peaceful. I’m getting in hours and hours of digital painting practice. I can’t fathom why anyone would voluntarily choose to care for a kid for 18yrs, rather than...
Your First Look at GNOME 45's Default Wallpaper - OMG! Linux (lemmy.ml)
What are the most mindblowing things in mathematics?
What concepts or facts do you know from math that is mind blowing, awesome, or simply fascinating?...
How Should I Retro? (OC, Long Post) (7hemitch.wordpress.com)
Hey all! The link leads to the full article with pictures and formatting. Text is included here for an ad-free experience. Thanks for reading :)...
Brazilian president's former lawyer takes seat as Supreme Court justice (apnews.com)
He helped Lula overturn a graft conviction stemming from Brazil’s sprawling “Car Wash” corruption investigation, getting him freed after 580 days of incarceration. The Supreme Court annulled all convictions of Lula, and ruled in 2021 that the judge overseeing the case had been biased. That allowed Lula to run successfuly...
What's a low effort, but impressive, party trick to learn?
Every Streamer That Raised Prices in 2023 (So Far) (www.indiewire.com)
You know who the price hikes haven’t affected?...
Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S. (www.digitaljournal.com)
Incandescent light bulbs are officially banned in the U.S.::America’s ban on incandescent light bulbs, 16 years in the making, is finally a reality. Well, mostly.
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | 2x09 "Subspace Rhapsody"
LoglineAn accident with an experimental quantum probability field causes everyone on the USS Enterprise to break uncontrollably into song, but the real danger is that the field is expanding and beginning to impact other ships—allies and enemies alike....
5Ghz WiFi Connectivity - Possible Fix
In case anyone’s having connectivity issues like I was, I thought I’d share what fixed it for me....
big toilet doesnt want you to know (media.discordapp.net)