CitizenKane (u/CitizenKane)

CitizenKane commented on Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders medicalxpress.com/news/20... · Posted by u/walterbell

xanderlewis · a year ago

The more I come across articles like this (yes: I know it’s talking about early life) the more I start to wonder if the problems I’ve struggled with in the past and to a somewhat lesser extent now (anxiety, with quite severe physical symptoms) are caused by/can at least be alleviated by a change in gut flora. I have this weird feeling (based on some recurring experience) that anxiety and digestion are somehow deeply connected.

Has anyone here tried making a change to their ‘microbiome’ and noticed it had any obvious effect?

CitizenKane · a year ago

Yes, I'm autistic and I regularly take lactobacillus reuteri which has helped my gut quite a bit. I wouldn't say it was a massive shift, but it certainly has been really nice. There's at least some evidence that this bacteria is deficient in autistic individuals and supplementation can help with that.[1]

[1] https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1343/

CitizenKane commented on Infant microbes and metabolites point to childhood neurodevelopmental disorders medicalxpress.com/news/20... · Posted by u/walterbell

CitizenKane · a year ago

I'd like to add a little bit of water to this particular fire. I'm autistic and I've read numerous studies along this vein. In short, yes there's a strong link between gut flora and brain development however autism (and presumably ADHD) is a heterogeneous condition with a variety of interrelated causes.

Personally, I can say that this likely is a proximate cause for me as I got a bad staph infection at just a few months old and naturally I was treated by antibiotics. However, I also have quite a few genes that are associated with autism as well. So while there's an increasingly clear picture, I'd hesitate to say what exactly is and isn't a cause of being autistic.

CitizenKane commented on A Spark Extinguished chinabooksreview.com/2023... · Posted by u/conanxin

CitizenKane · a year ago

What an interesting tale and gripping read. I've lived in China and surprised that I've never heard of this before.

For those unaware, not a whole lot has changed since that time unfortunately. China has had certain periods where they had opened up somewhat, but those days are long gone to my knowledge. If anything the repression may be even greater these days in some ways, though at least there isn't any kind of mass starvation going on as far as I'm aware.

The current system also seems to be more of a riff on the old imperial system rather than something fundamentally new. In the past it was an imperial examination to join the Mandarin class[1], now it's a test to join the CPC [2]. Either way, if you don't get in your opportunities are limited.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_(bureaucrat) [2] https://daily.jstor.org/communist-party-of-china/

CitizenKane commented on A Cycle of Misery: The business of building commercial aircraft construction-physics.com/... · Posted by u/HR01

CitizenKane · 2 years ago

It's a fascinating read, and makes a lot of sense why it's so hard to develop a commercial aircraft that actually ends up being profitable. One thing that got me wondering, and maybe someone here might know this, is why hasn't Boeing attempted to miniaturize the 787 as opposed to continually re-purposing the 737? From the outsider's (and complete layman's) view it seems like this would be a more sensible way to build a successful modern aircraft in that vein as opposed to trying to repurpose a design which is now well over half a century old.

I fly a fair amount an honestly the 787 is an impressive aircraft. I'm surprised that Boeing hasn't tried to take what they learned from their developments there and apply them in a way that could potentially help them recoup the costs of that program.

CitizenKane commented on Loungy: An Application Launcher Written with GPUI, the Zed GPU UI Framework github.com/MatthiasGrandl... · Posted by u/goranmoomin

mgrandl · 2 years ago

Author here: it is definitely still early and a lot of what you would expect from an GUI framework is missing. It just gives you the bare minimum of building blocks.

You can think of it like building a website with exclusively <div> <img> and <svg> :)

CitizenKane · 2 years ago

Thanks for the reply! That makes a lot of sense given where it is right now. Hopefully it will flesh out over time, but I'll definitely be giving it a look!

CitizenKane commented on Loungy: An Application Launcher Written with GPUI, the Zed GPU UI Framework github.com/MatthiasGrandl... · Posted by u/goranmoomin

CitizenKane · 2 years ago

GPUI is looking more and more interesting by the day. I haven't had the chance to dig into it. Can anyone with experience comment some more on how it compares to other UI frameworks? Seems like it's a really compelling alternative to things out there. On the surface, seems almost like a rust variant of Qt, but not having to deal with C++ potentially makes it much more widely applicable.

CitizenKane commented on TSMC to build second Japan chip factory finance.yahoo.com/news/ts... · Posted by u/ytch

azinman2 · 2 years ago

So if it’s so successful why doesn’t Intel etc just copy this process?

CitizenKane · 2 years ago

To add to what others said here, another salient factor is that in Taiwan it's pretty possible to get late night food, drink, and other things. These things are almost non-existent in the US which would make working night shifts extra rough.

CitizenKane commented on TSMC to build second Japan chip factory finance.yahoo.com/news/ts... · Posted by u/ytch

toephu2 · 2 years ago

Actually TSMC has 2 fabs in Mainland China (a 12" fab and an 8" fab), and one in the USA (8" fab) [1].

[1] https://www.tsmc.com/english/aboutTSMC/TSMC_Fabs

CitizenKane · 2 years ago

They do, but they don't produce any of their leading edge chips in mainland China, just as they won't be in the USA either. Looking at the wording of my post I should have made the leading edge part more clear. My mistake there!

CitizenKane commented on TSMC to build second Japan chip factory finance.yahoo.com/news/ts... · Posted by u/ytch

jmartrican · 2 years ago

> Currently TSMC has the only leading edge chip fabrications plants (fabs) on the planet and they're all located in Taiwan.

What about Samsung? I thought they also made leading edge.

CitizenKane · 2 years ago

They're close, but I believe they're not doing any 3nm manufacturing at the moment but I could be wrong about that.

CitizenKane commented on TSMC to build second Japan chip factory finance.yahoo.com/news/ts... · Posted by u/ytch

gipp · 2 years ago

So, maybe someone here can explain this to me. I anyways hear about how the entire semiconductor industry is completely dependent on TSMC, and nothing can operate without them, thus their geopolitical importance.

But then what are Intel, Arm, etc in this picture? I don't understand semiconductor manufacturing in enough detail -- I assume TSMC occupies a different part of the supply chain? But chip manufacturing seems like a pretty integrated process top to bottom; what's the division between them? In concrete terms, what is it that TSMC is doing that nobody else is?

CitizenKane · 2 years ago

Currently TSMC has the only leading edge chip fabrications plants (fabs) on the planet and they're all located in Taiwan. They account for all new chips for all new Apple products, all new AMD products, most new Nvidia products, etc. Most companies design the the chips, but then outsource the manufacturing of them to TSMC as building a fab has astronomical upfront costs.

TSMC has acquired a lead in this area through a number of different methods. One of the main things is that they focus deeply on manufacturing. Another is that they work 24 hours a day in R&D, running 3 shifts so they basically have the lights on all the time. And as mentioned above, the upfront costs are incredibly high with a fab costing on the order of 20+ billion dollars to construct.

Intel is attempting to catch up, but it will likely be another 3 to 5 years before they are able to do so. Honestly just having R&D up and going all the time is probably a huge advantage for TSMC and probably a big reason behind their success. Regardless, suffice to say basically all cutting edge product shipments would cease in a matter of months if TSMC fabs were destroyed.