Viewing profile — TRcontrarian

Vernor Vinge is usually fantastic.

The founding text is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992). It's short, funny, entertaining, and full of new ideas in a freewheeling early 90's spirit. The list in the comment you a…

Obsidian is the closest thing I've found to the Pensive from Harry Potter. It's a data recording format good enough for me to extract thoughts from my mind, represent them with eno…

Bee genetics are wild. When I was a beekeeper we learned that queens lay two types of eggs - normal fertilized eggs, which will hatch into females and grow into workers if fed poll…

I've had the misfortune of several alcoholic roommates, and it's disturbing. They'll yell at you, threaten you, get emotional, violent, cry, the whole works, and then deny it all t…

I've been to a few antiques stores where they have a blacklight case to show off the fluorescent uranium glass teacups and candlesticks. If you don't have a blacklight with you, it…

Is it better to live in a world where the future is unknown, and the best we can do is guess where value will be, or one where the future is known, and the prices of all investment…

I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before that becomes an astroturfing target as well. At least there's account history associated with it, so there is some effort associated wi…

The funding model is extremely sus. I used to trust them but your criticisms are right on, and their 'the best x' lists have a curious tendency to prioritize brands that already ha…

I've heard that Stephen King considers the Dark Tower series his greatest work[1][2], but almost none of his fans do[3][4]. The intent of a work can be far divorced from the public…

Interesting. When I took modern foil fencing classes, it wasn't dangerous in the slightest. The training foils (the long thin bendy swords that people usually think of when they th…

I feel the exact same way about sampling 'alien' ad culture. It's fun to switch on the local TV station in a new city and see what ads are being shown to people there. It's like a …

Putting hockey stick shaped lines on graphs with buzzwords on the x axis and dollars on the y axis does not a big idea make. I am disappointed to see ideas that have failed to deli…

Someone might find it hilarious to put that sign in their front yard to mess with passers by

Can confirm this is real. It happens with the tiger salamander subspecies we have here blocking developments.

I cook costco basmati in my zoji on the 'white' and 'harder' setting and it comes out fine. Less aromatic than my preferred jasmine rice but still great, distinct firm grains.

Oh the Places You Go was first published in 1990 and is protected by US copyright for the life of the author plus 70 years. Dr. Seuss died in 1991 (OtPYG was the last book publishe…

My parents tried to make me do treatment for video game addiction. I was appalled by the simplistic portrayal that the entire older generation had of my habits, because although th…

Hi Eric

No way, you were on the team? Congrats.

I never paid for Pasta King pasta like that, but when I lived down the road from him my roommate slaughtered chickens and sold them with an identical honor system. People just left…

Volpi's has killer gnocchi to boot

This is true, but although the devs made a great effort to keep the game playable with time dilation (colloquially known as "TiDi" by the players), in practice the game will never …

Facebook Messenger is blocking me from sending any string containing the attacker's wallet address bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh. I'm trying to send blockchain explore…