gatronicus

The speed of detonation also matters, a meteorite detonation is surely slower than a nuclear bomb which releases the energy in milliseconds.

We should be able to find the impact geological records and build a probability model.

Except that for decades REP MOVS/STOS were avoided on x86 because they were much slower than hand written assembly. This only changed recently.

Since there were so many TLS security bugs due to it's complexity, is there any push to replace it with something simpler and with less choices and attack surface?

Google gave us HTTP/2/3, but don't seem to care about fixing TLS.

Which is why we need "intelligent design" to "help" the virus jump over this combinatorial problem.

For example we can try spikes from different related viruses, or pick and choose various other tricks, like furin cleavage sites, for example like in this rejected 2018 EcoHealth coronavirus research DARPA grant proposal:

https://twitter.com/JamieMetzl/status/1439989291858513929

I have no idea how challenging that is.

Technically it's easy, Moderna already has multi target vaccines (for other diseases), one with 7 different targets. It can be as easy as literally creating 7 different vaccine liquids and then mixing them all in a single vial.

The problem is deciding what to put in, what ratio, possible side effects, etc... Lots of combinations which can mean lots of expensive and slow clinical trials.

should prove exceptionally difficult for the virus to overcome through evolutionary pressure

Which is why we need gain of function experiments to accelerate this process and get ahead of the virus so that we are prepared for the eventual successful mutation.

The main purpose of the submarine is to deliver nuclear missiles from near the enemy shore, so arguably it's most important feature would be to remain undetected.

It's unclear if modern tech can "reveal" where the subs are, rendering them useless.

I agree on your point regarding surface ships, they are walking dead, they can't defend against drone/missile swarming.

One article said that the France contract was about 7 bil per diesel sub, while the new one will be 4 bil per nuclear sub.

I can't imagine how you can justify 7 bil for a diesel sub.

Is it possible that France though that Aus had no alternative and ran the price up?

Taleb favours "street smarts" vs "intellectual yet idiot". In this context "street smarts" probably means being a one boxer.

Do not talk about the basilisk.

Germany had a N95 mask mandate (called FFP2 in Europe), nothing else was allowed, and yet had a very similar infection curve to Sweeden (according to article picture) which had no mask mandate.

Mask quality is definitely a factor, but can't be the major factor, unless people wear masks 100% of the time and never take them off outside of the house, which we know it's not true. There is also the "eye protection" factor, which seems to exist.

Russia can't ask US service to deny making business with US citizen (for example). It's completely outside of their territory.

Not sure what US citizens have got to do with this. Russia obviously was able to order Google to block relevant apps and documents for Russian people. Why would they care that US citizens can still access them?

While the article does have a point, it's too soon to conclude why some places had more or less covid infections/deaths.

If you look at the overall global picture - location, climate, size, population, demographics, education, GDP, mask mandates, ... - there is no clear conclusion, it's a causal mess.

It's safe to say that at this moment nobody can predict where a covid wave will hit and how big it will be, outside a very general sense - that it might be bad in the winter in unvaccinated places.

Just as the gov required google to remove the app they can also require the big email providers to block all emails with links to it.

99% of the people are on the big email providers.

Also, you will quickly find out that sending many emails from random addresses (ie: spamming) doesn't work these days, they will be blocked by existing anti-spamming techniques, as evidenced by multiple posts on HN of people trying to do that from their own mail server.

You need to go through a whitelisted mail service (MailChimp, ...) which is another block point.

I hope they use some of that money for a study regarding the nutritional value of Gatorade fed plants.