Bill Blondeau

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• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Elderly Cynic @496: I am less convinced, because I idled (and swanned) through physics by just applying my mathematics to the relevant formulae. Since you display a good working knowledge of fundamental physics, I suspect that either you've learned a...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  whitroth @280:No problem. Build them in a space station, all the solar power you want, for all practical purposes of forever. Thanks, whitroth—I suspect you're right—or at any rate, close enough to right that your scenario could be an excellent...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Thanks! Hot Earth Dreams purchased....
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  And yes, there is a story in there. My working title is For Bones on the Moon, You'll Need a Special Telescope. As I emerge from my longstanding brain fog (which I'm finally doing, apparently), I'll be working on it....
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  Heteromeles @69:In the longer term, AI is power hungry. An AI-assisted search engine uses about an order of magnitude more energy per search than do search engine queries now... As we switch to solar and wind, we’re going to have...
• Commented on Do my Laundry
  Strongly concur. Reading The Atrocity Archive was pivotal for me -- switched me from Occasional Stross Reader to Embarrassingly Devoted Stross Fan. The ice giant was an astonishing piece of creative thinking. And there have been a lot of other...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Escape from Yokai Land
  I humbly submit a possibly fun fiction idea. I couldn't possibly write it myself unless the brain fog went thoroughly away. And, if it did go away, I've got a considerable backlog of other concepts to address, so nope. Enjoy...
• Commented on Place your bets
  JohnS @ 1041: ...because English in general doesn't have a standard way of marking out irony or sarcasm. Sigh. I had such hopes for the irony emoticon :Fe...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Rocketpjs @ 843: Gah! Edit: 'I can attest that clothing is not at all OPTIONAL' I had guessed from context that that was actually what you meant, but... damn, this is still a grand autocorrect story....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Troutwaxer@182: No, octopodes are sets of four antipodes aligned along a plane. There's always a lot of great stuff in comments here... but this one made my day....
• Commented on WTF
  Troutwaxer @ 1934: When you say "spirituality" do you mean spiritual or mystical experiences, or are you talking about something else? This is of course the key question. I didn't clarify the purpose or context of the analogy, and the...
• Commented on WTF
  Troutwaxer @1855: Ideology and religion both get into "This is how we live," but come at it from different directions. Ideology generally disdains the mystical, while religion welcomes it. I propose a fairly simple heuristic for considering & discussing religion:...
• Commented on WTF
  Scott Sanford @ 1543: "I'm not a religious man, right, I don't even believe in God. But still Catholic, obviously." — Irish Comedian Dara O’Brian :-) I was bemused to read that a fair number of Jesuits were/are atheists. Obviously,...
• Commented on WTF
  CharlesH @ 1500: But I rather think that Mammonism may predate humanity, if you allow it to be "the obsessive collection of things considered to be valuable" (i.e. collecting them rather than using them). It seems to be a development...
• Commented on WTF
  JReynolds @1139: "What we are seeing (or about to see) is the difference between efficiency and resiliency. The powers that be have been moving so far down the road of efficiency, they're going to find out just how very resilient...
• Commented on WTF
  RentPal?...
• Commented on WTF
  Troutwaxer @150: If you've got any resources on brain fog, I'd be very grateful if you posted them here. It's early days yet, but here are a few links that I've found helpful. Note that these are not medical papers....
• Commented on WTF
  HowardNYC @143: I really want to be a hypochondriac about it but there's been at least three intervals when I suspect I have had covid just not the (extreme) respiratory distress warranting hospitalization... brain fog & exhaustion & loss of...
• Commented on WTF
  Scott Sanford @109: More than one person, looking at his potential post-2020 options, were of the opinion that if he fled to Russia it was only a matter of time until he recreated Hans Gruber's exit. US: We have issued...
• Commented on I can't even
  Thanks for the sensible breakout, Charlie. Your mention of the National Front reminded me of the following. (h/t a shipmate, roommate, once cellmate from Liverpool -- Mick, hope you're all right mate) TRB: The Winter of '79 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6nrb1qWLI4 All you...
• Commented on Crimes against Transhumanity
  JBS @738: How many spherical physicists does it take to change a quantum light-bulb? 1.4999999999999999999999979. (You can't round off when it's a perfectly spherical entity to begin with.)...
• Commented on Crimes against Transhumanity
  DeMarqis @651: Correction: There is in fact one other possibility, although I know it won't be very popular around here: information could be leaking in from outside our universe. That is to say, it's the Hand of God (although why...
• Commented on Books I will not write: BIGGLES!!
  SFReader @ 187: Imagine if 21st century physicists were desperately clinging to the four-element model of the universe. Ah. "Quondam Physics". Well played, sir....
• Commented on Behind the Ukraine war
  gasdive (he, him, ia)@910: Someone is going to die if they keep using that lifting technique. Cut in half by a cable or have a rocket fall on their head. Yes, probably... For me, the best part of the article...
• Commented on Yokai Land Q&A
  Heteromeles@87: I'd suggest that Turing complete knitted gloves might be one place to start. Off topic I suppose, but I just want to say that I'm tremulously grateful to be reading a blog in which comments like this are both...
• Commented on Bad news day
  Pigeon @2061: You don't like John le Carré, do you? One reason he's so depressing is his descriptions of different bits of British spy agencies doing the same sort of shit to each other all the time His masterpiece of...
• Commented on Bad news day
  Richard H @1770: Robert Prior @ 1640: You mean I've been walking wrong for the last six decades? I always push backwards with my foot, not simply let myself fall forward. That's relativity! The concept of walking fast enough to...
• Commented on Omicron
  TermiteDellaPunteggiatura @98: I recently came across a short article by Derek Lowe on curcumin research. It seems to be really easy to produce spurious positive findings. So I'd be wary even of peer-reviewed science on this compound. Thanks -- good...
• Commented on Omicron
  Bill Arnold @ 70: I very much hope you recover most of your function. There has been/will be a lot of experimentation including personal experimentation being done, and sadly a lot of quackery. What have you been trying, if you're...
• Commented on Omicron
  Greg @54: I suspect I would resist an Omicron infection - BUT - what really scares me is "long Covid". Yes. Long COVID is the part of the iceberg that's below waterline. There are a lot of awful long-term disabilities...