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I found this piece somewhat refreshing.

It presents a thought I have not thought about before. Whether, as some other commenters suggest, the hypothesis that you are dating an ecosystem, has always been true is a different question.

flohrianon Researchers learn about what they ate in medieval Sicily from cooking pots

The results indicate a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, beeswax and animal food products, complementing other archaeological evidence. The authors highlight some notable differences between rural and urban cuisines, including the greater frequency of grapes and dairy products in the rural site.

flohrianon Freiburg: Germany's futuristic city set in a forest

Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freiburg_B%C3%A4chle

flohrianon All-optical machine learning using diffractive deep neural networks

from the paper:

"[...] learnable network parameter that is iteratively adjusted during the training process of the diffractive network, using an error back-propagation method. After this numerical training phase implemented in a computer, the D^2NN design is fixed and the transmission/reflection coefficients of the neurons of all the layers are determined. This D^2NN design, once physically fabricated using e.g., 3D-printing, 3lithography, etc., can then perform, at the speed of light propagation, the specific task that it is trained for, using only optical diffraction and passive optical components/layers, creating an efficient and fast way of implementing machine learning tasks."

flohrianon Using Self-Organizing Maps to Solve the Traveling Salesman Problem

I recently read a math paper: abelian groups, hilbert spaces, lebesgue measures. It felt like we're back in the 1900s.

flohrianon Can anyone make money on the moon?

we don't have the technology to 'beam all that power to earth' - whatever that might even mean. Furthermore, 384.000km is quite the distance.

flohrianon The real prerequisite for machine learning isn’t math, it’s data analysis (2016)

statistics ⊂ math

flohrianon How do I know if I'm good at programming?

Hm. documentation, readability, maintainability?

in general you cannot even prove, whether a program does the right thing...

flohrianon Firefox 54 goes multi-process, eight years after work began

this is called design, I suppose.

flohrianon Python vs. R: The battle for data scientist mind share

Future data scientists probably also should consider Julia.

flohrianon What’s so bad about Scientism?

By “scientism,” Pigliucci (2010, p. 235) means, “the intellectual arrogance of some scientists who think that, given enough time and especially financial resources, science will be able to answer whatever meaningful questions we may wish to pose—from a cure for cancer to the elusive equation that will tell us how the laws of nature themselves came about”

Hm. Is it possible to construct a (sensible) physical correspondence to the incompleteness theorem or to an undecidable problem?

flohrianon A Constructive Look at TempleOS (2015)

>> [...] neat but not extra-ordinary hobby project.

IMO TempleOS is quite extra-ordinary! From the article's conclusion:

"Watching TempleOS execute its built-in test suite is a jaw-dropping experience. I can't help but be impressed as a vast number of demos, games, graphing calculators, debuggers, and compilers all fly before your eyes. To see the sheer amount of content that's been written here over the years, to see such effort expended on a labor of love, is wonderfully heart-warming."

flohrianon German Space Center has constructed the world’s largest artificial Sun

Since (from your profile) you have also worked in a lab in the US: How does it compare to that? Do you like Germany so far?

flohrianon In Berlin, a Grass-Roots Fight Against Gentrification as Rents Soar

Also came to my mind. But Leipzig also attracts many young people because of its affordability. Many things that are true for Berlin now are also true for Leipzig; it is very hip, rents are rising and there's a lack of living space [1][2].

[1]: http://www.taz.de/!5368403/ (german)

[2]: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/535299/umfrag...

flohrianon Ask HN: What is your commute like?

Karlsruhe, Germany. ~5 min walk.

flohrianon When a Chinese PhD Student Meets a German Supervisor [pdf]

>> Also, do Germans seriously need to separate out green glass, clear glass, and brown glass bottles?

yes, it looks like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Altglasc...

>> Do Germans need to keep 7+ bins in their homes as well, or do they just separate it out later?

Not really 7+ bins, but 4. - paper/carton - plastic/cans - residual waste (handkerchiefs/diapers/cigarette butts/sweepings) - biodegradable waste

flohrianon Deconstructing Finnish

have you heard of memrise? everybody there can attend every course. they are created by the community and are free.

http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/finnish/