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KennethPT

61 karma · joined October 12, 2020

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KennethPT··on Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever
Alternate view: Almost everything in life is ridiculous when you view it with cold logic. It's utterly ridiculous to put golden balls on a fake tree in your house every year, but due to societal constraints most people in Western societies do it.

Your SO probably doesn't want a logical gift, she wants something sentimental that makes her feel that you care about her. For some people, that's an expensive rock with no utility, for others it might be something different. But applying logic to what's ultimately an emotional, illogical affair isn't always productive.

KennethPT··on Django 3.2
Django is the gold standard for consistently pushing out reliable, well documented open source software without any marketing fluff or other bs. The amount of value the team is adding to the world can't be overstated.
KennethPT··on Draw an iceberg and see how it would float in water
It's amazing that this kind of simulation can be done so accurately with javascript in a web browser. I have no idea how it was implemented but the computational load must be nontrivial.
KennethPT··on Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
It seems like she had fun writing it too - so also an example of how a boring assignment can be made interesting!
KennethPT··on Flame retardant may cause hyperthyroidism in cats
How about that red powder that is dropped over everything when there's wildfires? I've always suspected it can't be healthy.
KennethPT··on Johns Hopkins Poker Course
Neither! It's actually a reference to one of my favorite artists [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panayiotis_Vassilakis

KennethPT··on Johns Hopkins Poker Course
Strangely I think it also helped me become a better doctor. I think it helps you develop a natural insight into probabilities and people's reactions to them, which in a roundabout way helps in diagnosis.
KennethPT··on Covid virus ‘survives for 28 days’ in lab conditions
This is correct. I think these kind of studies are not particularly helpful - what is relevant is transmission probability under realistic conditions.