Readit News logoReadit News
vecter commented on Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death   energyvanguard.com/blog/t... · Posted by u/almuhalil
bee_rider · a month ago
I wonder…

I don’t know much biology, but is there a general principle where things that have a shorter reproductive cycle tend to “win” these sorts of arms races? I wonder if we will have to occasionally go out and find better copies of the bacteria, haha.

vecter · a month ago
I presume so. Here's a great example of it with bacteria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDa4-nSc7J8
vecter commented on Try the Mosquito Bucket of Death   energyvanguard.com/blog/t... · Posted by u/almuhalil
vecter · a month ago
How quickly would the local population of mosquitos adapt to the MosquitoDunks, such that within a few generations, the only surviving ones would be the ones that are unaffected by the dunks? Or is that not a real concern?
vecter commented on Jupiter was formerly twice its current size, had a much stronger magnetic field   phys.org/news/2025-05-jup... · Posted by u/pseudolus
skykooler · 3 months ago
Gravity changes little over that distance - it's more because of the compounding effect of atmospheric pressure (the deeper you go, the more air you have above you which raises the pressure, raising the density and meaning that pressure increases exponentially faster).
vecter · 3 months ago
What makes that curve exponential?
vecter commented on Supabase raises $200M Series D at $2B valuation   finance.yahoo.com/news/ex... · Posted by u/baristaGeek
jsheard · 4 months ago
> It's bananas to me that questions like these could be unanswered even 5 years after the business started.

Those are rookie numbers, Discord is coming up on 10 years old and has made zero dollars to date, yet is supposedly considering an IPO soon.

vecter · 4 months ago
It's very common for tech companies to go public without being profitable. As long as their growth is good and they have a reasonable story for how they will achieve profitability, then it typically makes sense. Of course every company is different and not all will reach their profitability goals post-IPO, but in many cases, it wouldn't make sense to wait for profitability before going public.
vecter commented on AI is killing some companies, yet others are thriving – let's look at the data   elenaverna.com/p/ai-is-ki... · Posted by u/corentin88
vecter · 6 months ago
I've noticed that since I've started using ChatGPT, I've almost entirely stopped using Google (except for the rare case where I need a specific website but don't remember the URL). In addition to a bunch of technical questions related to my work, my ChatGPT chat log has the most mundane things like:

  - What is platos frios
  - Can you download Netflix videos to your local device
  - Who composed the Top Gun theme
  - Who have been the most successful American Idol winners
  - If I check-in the day before a United Airlines flight, can I still buy additional checked bags when I go to the airport
  - If I'm buying a Schwinn IC4 indoor spin bike, do I need a floormat for it also
  - What is pisco 
  - In the US, what is the format for EINs?
  - Is it bad to use tap water in your humidifier?
  - Which NBA players are on supermax contracts
  - What are some of the best steakhouses in Manhattan?
  - How much and how long does it take to procure a DUNS number?
  - In terms of real estate, what is historic tax credit development
LLMs give me the answers I want immediately. Before, I would use Google basically as a proxy to find websites that I'd then have to sift through to find the answers to these questions. It was another layer of indirection. Now that I can have an LLM just tell me the answer (you still need to approach it with a skeptical eye, since it can certainly get some things wrong), I don't need to "search" the search results pages themselves and read multiple articles and blog posts to hopefully find the answer to my question.

vecter commented on Supernovae Evidence for Foundational Change to Cosmological Models   arxiv.org/abs/2412.15143... · Posted by u/jandrewrogers
vlovich123 · 8 months ago
If clocks run slower in the presence of gravity, wouldn’t it stand to reason it runs more quickly in a void where there’s less gravity? Or is the model saying that clocks run even faster in a void than Einstein’s theory predicts?
vecter · 8 months ago
Clocks run at "normal" speed (i.e. "1x" speed) in the absence of a gravitational field. The stronger the gravity, the slower they run (i.e. less than "1x" speed).
vecter commented on Spherical Harmonics   rhotter.com/posts/harmoni... · Posted by u/raffihotter
vecter · 8 months ago
Are these related to (or exactly) the distribution of electron orbits?
vecter commented on U.S. math scores drop on major international test   chalkbeat.org/2024/12/04/... · Posted by u/akantler
carabiner · 9 months ago
Overall though, US scores in math & science are excellent and near the top of the charts: https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil/status/1864412480677576816
vecter · 9 months ago
Wait, the US overall is ranked 18th out of approximately 50 countries (on the first chart for Math + Science). Obviously some American demographics are doing better, but across all demographics, the US scores are not excellent and not near the top.
vecter commented on Trump wins presidency for second time   thehill.com/homenews/camp... · Posted by u/koolba
nazgulsenpai · 10 months ago
Wouldn't it be amazing if we had a viable third party? I can dream, can't I?
vecter · 10 months ago
As long as America has a first-past-the-post voting system, then game theory dictates that it will always be a two-party system.
vecter commented on VC Fund gives money back, says the market for mature startups is too weak   nytimes.com/2024/10/02/te... · Posted by u/nytesky
Oras · a year ago
Isn't that an opportunity to get better deals if the market is weak?
vecter · a year ago
Weak probably means too much VC competition relative to the number of good investment opportunities, leading to higher valuations, fewer investments in top companies, and lower expected returns.

u/vecter

KarmaCake day2877July 20, 2008
About
Feel free to reach out: kev.y.wang [at] gmail

How to run a business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fQHLK1aIBs

View Original