Non-linear equations have entered the chat.

Chaos and non-linear dynamics were treated as a toy or curiosity for a pretty long time, probably in no small part due to the complexity involved. It’s almost certainly no accident that the first serious explorations of it after Poincare happen after the advent of computers.

So, one place where non-linear dynamics ended up having applications was in medicine. As I recall it from James Gleick’s book Chaos, inspired by recent discussion of Chaotic behavior in non-linear systems, medical doctors came up with the idea of electrical defibrillation- a way to reset the heart to a ground state and silence chaotic activity in lethal dysrhythmias that prevented the heart from functioning correctly.

Fractals also inspired some file compression algorithms, as I recall, and they also provide a useful means of estimating the perimeters of irregular shapes.

Also, there’s always work being done on turbulence, especially in the field of nuclear fusion as plasma turbulence seems to have a non-trivial impact on how efficiently a reactor can fuse plasma.

I’d like to read up on this if you have sources

I think this is a really insightful comment that adds more depth to the conversation than the original article does. It definitely feels like we’re living in a society where all subconsciously agreed, to some extent or another, that we owe each other nothing. That doesn’t seem like a sustainable way for a society to be.

I dunno, I’m mixed on what the author is talking about here. On the one hand, it’s really not good to have any half of society just checking the fuck out; I think that the loneliness epidemic, regardless of gender, is a problem that is both real and addressable. On the other hand, what the author is pining for here is, imo, best left in the past. The kind of social norms she’s missing sound really unhealthy/toxic to me, and like they don’t really benefit anyone. I half expect some shit like this in Project 2025.

The mod engine is supposed to be an eye-watering 700gb. Holy fuck. I’d considered trying my hand at some mods, but, uh… that might have to wait for me to pop another drive in my machine first.

I’m glad they shipped when they did, messy as it was. They really needed to just get something out the door, before it ended up permanently stuck in development hell.

We’ve got a company that comes around and floods people’s yards with Bifen to kill off all the “invasive pests”. I don’t know how many of my neighbors are using them, but I worry that it’s higher than I want to believe.

any luck? I’ve noticed a sharp decline in pollinators over the last two or three years. I DID manage to get some success with the native bees with some guerilla gardened sunflowers, though. That is, until someone cut them down.

I don’t see a reliable statistical difference myself. For my part, I’ve got ADHD that causes shit to simply stop existing the moment it’s sat down, and that ends up causing a lot of clutter

This is going to be the breaking point if we actually put boots on the ground in Iran and don’t just engage in drone terrorism and bombing runs. More military action in the middle east is a ubiquitously unpopular platform, and wars that are perceived as pointless have almost always been devastating to ruling party / presidential support. Further, the US military has been struggling to hit its recruitment numbers for years now, and this isn’t going to help that. It also stretches the government’s attention even further, and makes it more vulnerable to dissident activity at home.

stealing refug.ee, as one myself

Don’t worry, I’m sure he and a few other democrats will be along shortly to censure Padilla like they did Al Green.