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clorton First, make me care

they probably do, I've seen that kind of thing (a logo) placed throughout the text before now, but more of a fancy print rather than cheap paperbacks. In the old days it would have cost more, but since DTP took over then I don't see why that would be a problem. perhaps just "paragraph divider", eg https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/12217904-collection-set-...

clorton Spanish track was fractured before high-speed train disaster, report finds

Ok so, devils advocate view here. Russians could do this exactly because Spain is on the fence and they would rather they were more antagonistic. They actually want war with Europe, so they can do whatever they like and claim it is Europe's fault for being aggressive. Don't forget, they don't really believe that they are losing the war in Ukraine. They could also be hoping to get Europe embroiled in its own conflicts.

It sounds unreasonable sure, but tbh I am not convinced that the Russian government is reasonable.

clorton First, make me care

Well they are sun symbols. I guess if you are asking how are they produced, they are embedded SVG in the CSS at https://gwern.net/static/css/style.css

see for instance --GW-image-sun-verginasun-black-svg

clorton Google confirms 'high-friction' sideloading flow is coming to Android

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banks_in_the_Republic_...

so Eire has 5 significant banks, and 15 'less significant'. There are also 276 Credit Unions, I don't know if they are useful. (I had a Credit Union account in the past, could send/receive online but no payment card)

(I don't know their suitability, but there are more than 5 options in your country)

clorton I doubt that anything resembling genuine AGI is within reach of current AI tools

Just out of interest though, can you suggest some of these other contexts where you might want a valid replacement for a duck that looked like one, walked like one and quacked like one but was not one?

clorton CRISPR fungus: Protein-packed, sustainable, and tastes like meat

what is the context for this photo please? (that is not a calf btw?)

It certainly does not look very nice, are you relating this to the "Ethically Raised in the Swiss Alps Cows" in the comment you replied to?

In truth, they just take the calves away from the mothers after a short while, ship them out to the abbatoir. There is no benefit to them being in the same enclosure with a spiky nose ring, it seems that this must have a different purpose than the one you mentioned.

clorton Frequently Asked Unicycling Questions

Normally your top speed is not really very fast as the pedals are fixed to the wheel, so you get one rotation per pedal (extremely low gear) and slowing down is not often necessary.

You can overtake bicycles easily going uphill, but downhill is hard on your knees!

clorton Original Superman comic becomes the highest-priced comic book ever sold

I'm not sure the reader would be breaking the law. Copyright law is about distribution, so the site would be violating the copyright by making it available. However, reading it is not distribution so simply reading it would not be an issue.

clorton Basalt Woven Textile

So technically, a yacht is any leisure vessel. ie not a working boat. In the UK, a yacht is usually a sailing boat though we also increasingly have motor yachts. In the USA though, a yacht is a large motor powered vessel. So, when an American says 'nobody needs a yacht' they generally mean one of those, rather than a sailboat. Not sure what context CrimsonCape was using.

clorton Nevada Governor's office covered up Boring Co safety violations

archive.is could be used to mirror unsuitable content (ie porn) which would otherwise be blocked

clorton The Nature of the Beast: Charles Le Brun's Human-Animal Hybrids (1806)

Also, see "Moreau's Other Island" by Brian Aldiss, an updated version of the classic. I found H.G.Wells writing to be very dated, not that Aldiss is current (published 1980) but I think it is biologically more plausible..

clorton Our investigation into the suspicious pressure on Archive.today

Can you provide link at least? I am not sure what railroading a person involves..

clorton One Handed Keyboard

first consumer device I ever saw was the Microwriter, back in the 1980's .. but court stenographers have been using chorded keyboards for a century or more

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype

clorton Bluetooth 6.2 – more responsive, improves security, USB comms, and testing

My information may be a little out of date, but in Bluetooth there was two types of audio. There is isochronous streaming (Headset profile) and audio streaming (Audio Profile). The Headset profile is bidirectional and time-sensitive (packets will be dropped if they take too long), it was designed for headsets as per its name ("communication device") rather than the Audio profile which, although it can be a source or a sink is basically for streaming, where the audio is not time-sensitive as such.

So yeah, the isochronous streaming mode is much lower bit rate but thats probably why Windows sets it as a communications device, because it needs that mode.

Its difficult to know exactly, but I use a Logitech Zone Vibe 125 headphones with microphone and find it works fine for phone calls and listening to audio. However, I am not an audio nerd and neither are the people I speak to using it. I never had any luck with in-ear devices.

clorton Transparent computer monitor designed to protect your vision

Not sure how it protects your vision. So, they say take an eye break to relieve the strain, presumably with focussing on a fixed point. These guys are saying that hey you can instantly focus on something far away and carry on working without even looking away from the screen! That doesn't sound like an eye break to me, and it doesn't sound like it protects your vision at all.

I mean, it looks pretty cool but I think their marketing department is not aiming it at my cynical self

clorton I may have found a way to spot U.S. at-sea strikes before they're announced

I've never seen a fishing boat fly a flag, and I've been sailing in many countries for >20 years. Generally, fishermen don't care for such things.

So, since I am British and have a UK registered boat and know a bit about this. The law that applies (The Merchant Shipping Act 1995 section 5) requires that we should fly the flag when entering or leaving a foreign port or upon a signal by one of Her Majestys ships [1]. Flying a flag routinely in international waters is very much not required, and very few vessels fly a flag out there, because there is not much there to look at it and it just flaps itself to bits.

[1] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1995/21/section/5

clorton 'No idea who he is', says Trump after pardoning crypto tycoon

So, the guy is convicted of fraud - but fraud is business as usual for Trump, so it counts as a witch hunt.

clorton Stop 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header (2024)

So, its a long game - make it generally irritating for people to use other services. Every time they introduce a feature, make it opaque and difficult to implement. Other services, other MUA's have a hard time keeping up. The users get frustrated that things dont work: "I don't get these stupid emails in Outlook" "LibreOffice doesn't display my document the same" "Firefox doesn't show the page properly" => "Can we just use Outlook/Word/Edge"

clorton Stop 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header (2024)

other email services

clorton Stop 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header (2024)

No, that does not solve the issue. You still receive 'reaction' emails but in addition, the user you emailed in the first place gets an irritating email and they suppose that you are a dick. They are in some way correct, since they likely did not know they had sent an irritating email but you do.

The truth is, this is just another embrace-extend-extinguish strategy by Microsoft. Their business ethos is, and has been for decades, to make it irritating to use software not written, and controlled, by themselves.

clorton Sustainable memristors from shiitake mycelium for high-frequency bioelectronics

Not advanced technology, but I recall Piers Anthony wrote about intelligent aliens.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Man_and_Manta (1968-1972)

clorton ICE and the Smartphone Panopticon

or they can convince the payment processors to refuse to do business with you

clorton The International Criminal Court wants to become independent of USA technology

Point taken, but reading that official sanction just shows a load of whining.

However, I was able to read it, which would not be the case if he had just phoned Nadella. Who knows, perhaps he did and Nadella refused to play? I see that he did not attend the inauguration..

clorton The International Criminal Court wants to become independent of USA technology

Sanctions are official, but Trump phoning up the CEO and whining about nonsense is something else. I'd be concerned that a US company would be vastly more likely to fold from the latter than a German one would. Sanctions enacted against a German or EU company on a whim would perhaps cause some international response.

clorton Why do some radio towers blink?

Lighthouses are usually white. They used to rotate (sweeping the beam) but tend to flash now I think. Nautical charts show the elevation of the light, the visibility ranges and the pattern of on/off (eg Fl (2) 10s 41m 17NM). Some lights are sector lights, so red/white/green depending on your position, they indicate if you are in the correct approach channel.

It can be really confusing approaching a port at night. Never mind the city lights behind, and the cars driving about. 20+ lights flashing at different rates in the dark, some of them disappearing for seconds at a time. Oh, and if you turn your light on to refer to the chart, there goes your night vision!

Boat masts above 25m also have blinking red lights for the low flying aircraft (I guess its a bragging point)

clorton Washington Post editorials omit a key disclosure: Bezos' financial ties

Bezos has so much money that he could simply drop a billion or five into the trust and never need to see any return from it.

clorton Rock Tumbler Instructions

the lawnmower is the link

clorton CRISPR-like tools that finally can edit mitochondria DNA

I seem to think that human children can regrow the tips of their finger if it is cut off (I think the nail is ok, not the joint) though I don't know where I learned that, perhaps a first aid course. I've never tried it though.

clorton Social Cooling (2017)

Perhaps you can explain something then, since you appear to be knowledgeable on this matter. On this[1] eBay item from a seller based in China, under their "Seller business information", they list

  UNIFIED_SOCIAL_CREDIT_CODE: 91440300MA5ED70C7X

.. what is that exactly, if social credit score does not exist?

[1] https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305629164114

clorton Ask HN: Went to prison for 18 months, lost access to my GitHub. What can I do?

Except, read the comment again - Josh changed the account so that it referenced the other persons phone number. They did not steal his phone, and it could be framed that he gave them the account.

Accusing somebody of theft? Perhaps the police would side with the non-felon..