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> the ratio of the volume to surface area decreases the larger you make a container Did you mean to write the reverse? i.e the ratio of the surface area to volume decreases the lar…

> California made it illegal to charge the real risk adjusted price for insurance I'd like to know more about this. Do you have a reference?

You raise a good point. The consistency of California's weather reminds me a bit of the movie Groundhog Day. Seasonal changes are so subtle that it is easy to forget that years hav…

It depends where you are in California. In parts of SoCal 100F is pretty typical. And the air quality is bad.

Harvey Mudd is an undergraduate-only college. All the others are R1 institutions.

> The basic principle is that your negative rights are a prohibition of what others can do to you. Agreed - rights that are guaranteed by prohibiting certain actions, i.e. you have…

Thanks, but I guess I just don't understand how this concept - negative rights are things that the state shouldn't take away from you - fits the concept of a "negative" right given…

> Many Texans conceptualize government and state uses of force (ie prosecution that can lead to imprisonment) as restrictions on their rights. This "negative rights" conceptualizat…

I am hesitant to agree that it's a moral victory - maybe it's more of a victory about metaphysics? (also, what is a metaphysical victory? :))

I have a similar story; undergrad at a public state school and grad at a private Ivy. My experience at the Ivy was eye-openi. The loudest [1] Ivy undergrads came from private eleme…

In my experience summer in Minneapolis is fine. Comparing it to where I have lived I think for heat and humidity, it is milder than central Texas / comparable to Rhode Island Just …

Perhaps people experience cognitive dissonance when reconciling the things that you mentioned with beliefs about reincarnation ? I am relying on a rather common and uninformed unde…

I'm an American; I don't like this, too. My experience mirrors what is described in the article, but only with people from Europe. Non-native English speakers from Europe look down…

> That doesn't mean we're literally ascribing the power of levitation to them. Exactly, it's figurative language. My point is that when we read in scripture that > Moses asked God …

God is a being in Genesis. He walks through the Garden.

I can understand the belief that Eastern Orthodoxy is more of a "trunk" than more recent "branches", but what about core ideas that predate Jesus? e.g. the immortality of the soul …

Power plants are also more efficient than cars/lawnmowers/etc. e.g. a combined cycle power plant can be ~64% [1], compared to ~40% for car engines [2]. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.o…

The republic-vs-democracy debate distracts from what we should be debating: is our system of representation fair? Obviously we are a "democracy" (we vote) and a "republic" (for mos…