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BrendanD

84 karma · joined November 14, 2016

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BrendanD··on Ryanair says air traffic failure is not acceptable
Per extremity.
BrendanD··on Cosmological time dilation in the early Universe
Greetings fellow Monad.
BrendanD··on Arctic Sea Ice not freezing In October – first time since measurements began
The icing on the cake: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-gia...

Edit: Trying hard to not say something snippy about climate change deniers, with great difficulty. Let me simply suggest possible correlations between climate change denial, coronavirus denial and anti-vaccination.

BrendanD··on The Stages of Insomnia
My bedphone experience was not good. Spouse complained about noise leakage, and they stopped working within a month. Otherwise, they _could_ be more comfortable than ear buds depending how well they fit. Most wired earbuds survive <6 months in bed. Generally they short out from being slept on, crushed, rolled over etc.

Wearing silicon tipped in-earbuds all night is likely courting ear infection. I have settled on JBL T205 Earbud Headphones. They are in-ear but without silicon tips (i.e. ear canal is not sealed shut all night), are comfortable enough, last 6-12 months and are cheap.

Wish someone would make a pair that would last at least a couple years. Hate the waste.

BrendanD··on On Being Bipolar
One of the "doctors" who recently published research on "psychobiotics" was later selling a brand of "clinically tested" probiotics tailored for mood disorders. Gut microbiome studies, at this point in time, need to be taken with a pinch of allum.
BrendanD··on U.S. citizens no longer have access to most of the world
I think it is (although my comment about populism was not directly solely at the U.S.). As an outsider, I would attribute the poor pandemic response to lack of coherent leadership. The U.S. federal government is obviously incapable of pulling itself together across partisan lines for the greater good of the people it is supposed to serve. Even if you disagree about politics, the numbers do not lie. Just north of the border, Canada is doing literally ten times better (for the moment).
BrendanD··on U.S. citizens no longer have access to most of the world
Schadenfreude? More like nauseated disbelief at watching irrational populism and its concomitant intolerance tear the world asunder.
BrendanD··on U.S. citizens no longer have access to most of the world
And thank fuck for that. EDIT: Fuzzing or downvoting? Was it the profanity? I do thank fuck for the temporary reduction in incoming vectors during a pandemic.
BrendanD··on Show HN: Neural text to speech with dozens of celebrity voices
Need Charles Bukowski model.
BrendanD··on New material that cannot be cut
Echoing fretn's comment. This material sounds like a patently bad idea for general commerical use.
BrendanD··on US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks
True. I completely misread the comment to which I replied. Oops! However, my preference is still to live in a socialist country where the government can be openly criticized.
BrendanD··on US says it can prove Huawei has backdoor access to mobile-phone networks
In western countries you can, in general, publicly mock your leaders on the front steps of your legislature. Try dancing in a Winnie-the-Pooh costume in front of the Great Hall of the People and see what happens...
BrendanD··on Survival of the Richest (2018)
eat the rich
BrendanD··on GM Cruise to delay commercial launch of self-driving cars to beyond 2019
Not everyone lives in a temperate climate with little precipitation, nor in modern cities with wide streets laid out on a regular grid. I seriously doubt self-driving cars are ready for some of the weather conditions where I live. Freezing rain. Snow storms. Roads increasingly narrowing in winter from huge snowbanks. They might be ready for your use case, but they ain't ready for mine.
BrendanD··on Are we happier when we spend more time with others?
Mushy grey stuff.
BrendanD··on Russia’s permafrost is melting and it could have a devastating global effect
The ocean has already started to asphyxiate [1].

[1] https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/climate-change-s...

BrendanD··on Russia’s permafrost is melting and it could have a devastating global effect
IIRC CMIP5 models(used for IPCC AR5 2014) did not account for permafrost melt or changes in soil chemistry. Shortly after AR5 was released I remember reading an article or two describing how these exclusions resulted in under-predicting climate change. There were three emissions scenarios under CMIP5, and we are surpassing the worst. Put that in your pipe...
BrendanD··on Current vs. future cities – Click on a city and explore its future climate
Dunno for certain but possibly moderation by marine conditions i.e. coolish currents.
BrendanD··on Can ‘Pods’ Bring Quiet to the Noisy Open Office?
Nope. But they can further marginalize people with mobility issues.
BrendanD··on HN: The Good Parts (2017)
I have only lurked here for a few years, but from the beginning it seemed to me that the HN zeitgeist is slightly sociopathic. It does not stop me from lurking, however, perhaps because it is one of the last bastions of text only web.
BrendanD··on Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods Are the Trans Fat Purveyors of Our Generation
One of the motivations for vegetarianism is to reduce one's carbon footprint. Highly processed products packed in plastic thwart this goal.
BrendanD··on Nasa Says Earth Is Greener Today Than 20 Years Ago Thanks to China, India
And not just _this_ problem.
BrendanD··on Anxiety might be alleviated by regulating gut bacteria
There was a recent small scale study[1] that suggested taking probiotics could increase the time for the gut microbiota to return to normal. The biggest bang might have been a fecal transplant of cultures taken from your own gut before you started on antibiotics. The study is more suggestive than conclusive because of limited sample size.

[1]https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180906141640.h...

BrendanD··on Anxiety might be alleviated by regulating gut bacteria
Fecal transplant maybe?
BrendanD··on Amazon rolls out machines that pack orders and replace jobs
This story started me wondering whether hardware, in this case Amazon order packing automatons, or wetware has a smaller net lifetime carbon footprint, assuming both are as green as possible. (Ignoring, of course global over-population and/or mass over-consumption of essentially disposable goods.). These days I am having a hard time imagining that technology could ever have the negative carbon footprint required to mitigate climate change.
BrendanD··on How Dad's Stresses Get Passed Along to Offspring
Prolonged elevated cortisol levels?
BrendanD··on Interview with Eiiti Wada, Creator of the Happy Hacking Keyboard
Topre's are mechanical. There is nowhere in town I can go to test to see whether I like mechanical switches and what color switch switches to get. I also need something that is no louder that a typical non-mechanical keyboad.
BrendanD··on Interview with Eiiti Wada, Creator of the Happy Hacking Keyboard
There are lots of compact keyboards but few, if any, that have the cursor keys and the ins,del,home,end,pgup,pgdn cluster in their traditional positions. I am too old and used to this layout to change.
BrendanD··on Interview with Eiiti Wada, Creator of the Happy Hacking Keyboard
If only it didn't have the mouse nub. I tend to hit it a lot when typing. Otherwise it would be perfect.
BrendanD··on Why Are Enterprises So Slow?
Usually it is something to do with the di-lithium crystals.
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