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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • It really mostly doesn’t, and Quanta Magazine is (as is typical for them) full of sh*t.

    Ternary is most efficient if the space (power, etc) needed to implement an operation on a base-b digit is proportional to b. (Then the cost is b * log(n) / log(b), and b/log b is minimized at e, but is lower with b=3 than with b=2.) However, in practice most operations take space that increases more than proportionally to b. For example, saturated transistors are either on or off, which is enough to implement binary logic, but ternary logic needs typically several more transistors. Transistors, and especially CMOS style implementations, are generally well-suited to binary. If future computers use a different implementation style (neurons! who knows) then something other than binary logic might be best.

    Storing and transmitting data is different: this is often most efficient in bases other than 2. For example, if a flash cell of a certain size can reliably store 4 different amounts of charge, and the difference between these can reliably be read out, then flash manufacturers will store two bits per cell. This is already done and has been done for years. It’s most often done in bases that are powers of 2, but not always.

    Ternary calculations are occasionally used in cryptography, but as far as I can tell, at least the first ternary crypto paper the article cites is garbage.

    There are also other architectures like clockless logic, which uses a third value for “not done calculating yet”, but that’s different from ordinary ternary logic (and is generally implemented using binary anyway). It also showed a lot of promise for saving power, and also some in reducing interference, but in most settings the increased complexity and circuit size required have been too much to deliver that savings.






  • Yes, but it doesn’t matter, these people don’t read the Bible.

    They do read the Bible though, at least in my experience. I’ve gone to a number of different churches, Evangelical and otherwise, and the Evangelical or otherwise Calvinist folks were the ones that read the Bible the most and in the most detail — but perhaps also the ones who came to horrible conclusions the most often. Like that you should shine the light of Christ into the world by blocking women for promotion at your job, because 1 Tim 2:12 says that Paul does not permit them to have authority over men. (Real example, if possibly the worst one I’ve seen.) Maybe my experience is not representative, but I don’t think the problem is primarily that Evangelicals don’t read the Bible.

    I have a long theory about some of the ways that Evangelicalism distorts Scripture, but one root of the issue is that (IMHO) Scripture was written by humans, reflects the biases of the authors and their societies, and has a lot of horrible things in it. If you take a sola scriptura view and then read it through a lens that’s been cultivated over years to reinforce patriarchy and supremacy (see e.g. Manifest Destiny, the curse of Ham, etc) then you will end up absorbing the genocidal and supremacist bits and not the hospitable and altruistic bits.

    For them, it’s just an excuse to do whatever it is they’re doing.

    For sure. People don’t want to repent. They want to find justifications for what they were already doing, or planning to do.


  • solanaceous@beehaw.orgtoJokes and Humor@beehaw.orgEels
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    1 year ago

    Follow-on serious answer: there are also electric rays, which are known as torpedos. According to Wikipedia, this is from the Latin torpidus meaning “paralyzed” or “numb” (the same root as the English “torpid”). The weapon is named after the fish. Edit: some of these live in the Mediterranean, and that Latin name predates understanding electricity; they were also known to Hippocrates who called them narke with a similar meaning in Greek.

    IIRC some of the other pre-electricity names for electric fish are based on their ability to numb, paralyze or stun people and other creatures.


  • I was having a weird one today so I read through the book of Amos. It’s shockingly similar to the current situation.

    Amos prophesied that Gaza would be destroyed, even genocided, as a reaction to crimes that included kidnapping entire communities. But that’s just an intro to a prophecy that Israel would be violently and mercilessly destroyed in response to a long list of their own crimes.

    I’m not saying that Amos predicted the current situation, just that it’s sad how little we’ve improved in 2500 years.





  • Some further flavor to reinforce this: as I understand it, abortion is legal in the Netherlands until the fetus is viable, which was estimated to be 24 weeks but due to better care for premies IIUC it’s moving toward 22. After this time it is only legal in the case of serious medical problems: eg a risk to the life of the would-be mother, or because the fetus isn’t viable due to a defect. Until this year there was also a 5-day waiting period for abortions; I think that’s no longer legally mandated but the doctor still has input. I believe they also require more medical scrutiny after the first trimester.

    IMHO these are common-sense restrictions, though you could argue about the exact details. Abortion is accessible if you need it, but after a certain point a fetus is close enough to a person that its interests must also be taken into account.

    The official abortion rate in NL is slightly over 1/3 of that in the US. It may or may not actually be the lowest in the world: it’s hard to collect statistics in some places, especially where abortion is discouraged or illegal, or even in places where you would get one with no medical supervision (by pills taken at home).

    The Netherlands also has a low maternal mortality rate, around 1/5th of the US, and also one of the lowest in the world (says CIA world factbook), though I’m not sure how consistent these measurements are across countries.

    The US could achieve these things too, and likely have a lower abortion rate than it can achieve even through draconian restrictions. But it would require proper education and medical care, and that’s not what certain states want… they want the crueler option.