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fiftyacorn commented on Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space   livescience.com/space/spa... · Posted by u/Teever
kevinmershon · 6 days ago
> This is a similar reaction to photosynthesis in plants, which produces glucose instead of rocket fuel.

This is silly, but also begs the sillier question why we aren't bioengineering plants to produce rocket fuel

fiftyacorn · 6 days ago
Sounds like Day of the Triffids
fiftyacorn commented on Ask HN: Are there software engineering areas that are safe from LLMs invasion?    · Posted by u/toxinu
fiftyacorn · 20 days ago
Legacy systems - there are legacy systems that are like house of cards and you have to move forward very carefully. These areas might have code/languages that are older and the LLM wont have as big a model to learn from

Businesses often rely on these systems - and they rely on the processes to protect them so are reluctant to adopt AI

fiftyacorn commented on Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks   blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks... · Posted by u/azalemeth
RaSoJo · 20 days ago
> bsky.app | @greg.org on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/greg.org/post/3lvt3mjvskk2i Reported: 07 August, 2025 at 19:53 Shut down on: 07 August, 2025 Geoblocking due to OSA Statue of |david behind age verification filter

So, going forward, will similar pieces of art be blocked in the British Museum as well? Like physically?

fiftyacorn · 20 days ago
I like it - request that greek statues cover up in case children see
fiftyacorn commented on Ask HN: With all the AI hype, how are software engineers feeling?    · Posted by u/cpt100
roarcher · 22 days ago
I recently used Claude to help me understand a math-dense research paper. It was useful for answering general questions about the structure of the algorithm, where to find information in the paper, and gain a high level/intuitive understanding of how the algorithm worked. It was absolutely abysmal at implementing the code, and would regularly make things up when I probed it about subtleties in the math.

Overall, it sped up my learning greatly, but I had to verify everything it said and its code was a mess. It's a useful tool when used appropriately but it's not threatening my job anytime soon.

fiftyacorn · 22 days ago
I was on reddit/math and someone was talking about how they were trying to get AI to create there final year thesis from uni. They tried 4-5 different AI solutions and reckoned they got 40-60% of the work from AI but it couldnt conclude the project. A few others on the thread had said the same

Doesnt mean it wont get there - just that it isnt there yet

fiftyacorn commented on Vanishing home field advantage in English football   blog.engora.com/2025/07/v... · Posted by u/Vermin2000
Fluorescence · a month ago
Home advantage wasn't an accident for Jeff Beck, the Cambridge United manager in the '90s because he used groundsmanship as a weapon:

- plough the pitch to kneecap expensive teams with running/passing games

- narrow the pitch dimensions to minimise fancy wide plays

- grow the grass long and pour sand in the corners so long balls less likely to go out

He then recruited the tallest forwards he could and the strategy was simple, hoof it to the big fellas up front. None of this running/passing nonsense that requires money/talent.

I expect regulations might have improved since then...

fiftyacorn · a month ago
Stoke city too - had the narrowest field and used tall forwards combined with ex-Javelin thrower Rory Delap
fiftyacorn commented on Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?    · Posted by u/justanything
fiftyacorn · 2 months ago
As Joe Dirt says "You've just got to keep on keeping on"
fiftyacorn commented on Ask HN: Casual Math Book Suggestions    · Posted by u/vriendspookstem
fiftyacorn · 2 months ago
Not a book but I like watching the numberphile youtube channel. I got into it after they done some videos making an enigma machine in python
fiftyacorn commented on Dull Men’s Club   theguardian.com/society/2... · Posted by u/herbertl
guicen · 3 months ago
There’s something oddly comforting about this. In a world where everyone’s trying to stand out, some people find peace in just noticing ordinary things. Maybe being "boring" is underrated. You don’t always need a big story to feel connected. Sometimes it's enough to care about small details nobody else pays attention to.
fiftyacorn · 3 months ago
I think its an age thing - you spend your youth thinking its important to fit in - but then reach a point where you realise you are who you are and just accept it
fiftyacorn commented on The Sixties Come Back to Life in "Everything Is Now"   newyorker.com/culture/the... · Posted by u/tintinnabula
JKCalhoun · 3 months ago
> Hoberman makes clear one crucial factor in the city’s creative energy: “cheap rents.”

I keep seeing this in various places. The rise of the "College Music" scene in Athens, Georgia during the 80's has also been in part attributed to the cheap rent in the student ghettos (typical of many college towns).

Growing up in Kansas City, the neighborhoods around the Kansas City Art Institute were also low-rent. Child (impressionable) me remembers walking through the neighborhood at night, let by my mom, for the free Friday night film ("Journey to the Far Side of the Sun", "Fantastic Planet" to name a few I recall). There was a large chicken leg sculpture, perhaps 8' tall in one yard that always spooked me to walk past. Some kind of sculpture of broken bits of mirror and glass made another small lot look like an alien set from "Star Trek"....

fiftyacorn · 3 months ago
Barry Miles book "London Calling" about the evolution of london counter culture post-war also cites this with all the artists living in squats
fiftyacorn commented on They used Xenon to climb Everest in days – is it the future of mountaineering?   nytimes.com/2025/05/27/wo... · Posted by u/nikcub
meindnoch · 3 months ago
Xenon is used by athletes to increase their endogenous erythropoietin production. As it's a noble gas, it leaves no trace in their body, so post-hoc detection of this doping method is impossible.

But as a recreational climber, why bother with xenon? Just inject EPO.

fiftyacorn · 3 months ago
More recently it was CO use to simulate altitude training

u/fiftyacorn

KarmaCake day753January 26, 2016
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