programming #SSE in #C and #vectorization of your code despite conditionals
discussion of #IPFS
#energy-density of #springs: 2.3 Wh/kg (8.3 kJ/kg) for AISI A11 tool steel, 1.1 Wh/kg for rubber (4.0 kJ/kg), 6.0 Wh/kg for carbon fiber (21.6 kJ/kg). By David MacKay, who died shortly afterwards.
a short #pdf overview of the successive over-relaxation (#SOR) method for solving systems of #linear-equations and related techniques like Chebyshev acceleration and conjugate gradient acceleration.
David M. Young’s 1950 #dissertation on #SOR solution of #linear-equations in #pdf, converted to LaTeX by Barbara Morris.
Scott Alexander’s “Toxoplasma of Rage” blog post was republished as a New Statesman article in January, covering PETA paying the water bills, the UVa rape case, etc., largely #social-justice issues.
brief biography of Ted Kaczynski, the unabomber.
Wigner’s famous “The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences” #philosophy #epistemology
multiview stereo reconstruction of #3D models from 8-bit #video-games sprites using “space carving” or maybe “voxel coloring”.
Hamming’s longer sequel to Wigner’s more famous “unreasonable effectiveness of mathetmatics” article. #philosophy #epistemology
Evan Miller disagrees with #Bret-Victor to some extent about the dispensability of abstract symbolism.
#Norvig’s more or less active-essay explanation of basic #economics, using simulations with #matplotlib and #IPython.
former operators of #drones think the program is a bad idea. #weaponry #politics #USA
workers’ #human-rights are not being protected, and “Libertarians” don’t care. Perfect rebuttal of Libertarian dogmas: “Libertarians claim that freedom is their core value and that it’s maximized when the state refrains from interfering in the private choices of individuals. They also believe, however—as every sensible person should—that individual freedom can be curtailed by private action. In fact, the idea that private action can diminish individual freedom is central to their justification for the state, which is that some state coercion is required to stop people from dominating, enslaving, and generally harming others. We all do better on the metric of freedom, libertarians agree, if the state makes and enforces “traffic rules” for private persons.” #politics #philosophy #ethics
The racist Executive Director of “Columbia Dining” at Columbia University banned speaking Spanish on the job. #free-speech #human-rights
the notorious pro-#racist "sea lion" comic on Wondermark
Wondermark’s author disavows the #racist interpretation of the #sea-lion comic, saying that it’s okay to be bigoted against people who display a certain behavior (such as going to a mosque, I suppose) in a way that it wouldn’t be okay if it were an immutable characteristic such as race.
an hour-long #video lecture on the #history of #China with very good Mandarin pronunciation (by 羅振宇) and SUBTITLES! This covers Qin Shi Huang.
Michael Nielsen’s very thought-provoking reflections on #Bret-Victor’s “Kill Math” project, including thoughts on the #active-essay form. #explorable-explanations