yeah, I was lucky to have already taken Classical Mechanics prior to Quantum Mechanics (it wasn’t a prereq so most of my classmates jumped straight into QM), so the math was all perfectly sensible. but the second any prof started trying to use English to interpret the math, I started having these moments where I’d have to sit back and think about the words coming out of their mouths, and sitting with how it was all actually gibberish. Feynman’s “shut up and calculate” started to feel incredibly valid really fast, whereas prior to QM, I was under the impression that physics was natural philosophy. it’s not and QM was the breaking point, at least for me, personally.

they don’t actually spin but they’re little bar magnets as if they do. if you charge a sphere and spin it, you’ll generate exactly the same kind of bar magnet, but they don’t actually spin. and just like bar magnets, like repels like. but they’re neither bar magnets nor spinning. why don’t they spin? because they’re point masses, which don’t have any extent. but actually, you can’t really observe them as point masses because they’re waves.

^^ this was the exact point at which I said quantum mechanics wasn’t for me and I’m done with physics, after completing most of a degree. it sort of all makes sense but at the same time it completely doesn’t. it all makes sense as pure math but the second you try to make sense of the math, sense goes out the window.

wait, no, this is how everyone does math. right? …right?

there are exactly 4 division algebras (over the field of real numbers): the real numbers, the complex numbers, the quaternions, and the octonians. you can’t add any more complex parts because you lost associativity with the octonians. I’m not entirely sure how the first domino leads to the last, though.

no, we don’t have downvotes on hexbear and this is what they looked like when we did. it means bad post.

nah, it was a politically conscious choice to set up something like reddit, outside the control of capital and the state. the devs have written about it.

nah, they’re just good at posting. up your game.

lol the US security apparatus is bad but it’s not that bad. you might get put on a watchlist though.

a functioning public transit system covers the whole city, nearly point to point, and it runs on a regular schedule with buses and trains arriving every few minutes.

but who’s going to pay for it???

it’s really a good thing no one has ever run the numbers on this and there’s absolutely no literature analyzing the costs of various forms of public infrastructure to determine which is the most cost effective. there’s no way at all anyone has ever done that.

have you ever been to an American city? everything is at the service of roads, cars, and space to park the cars. we have thoroughfares through residential neighborhoods, monstrous intersections that are unsafe to cross by foot, infrastructure that’s unsafe to use by any mode of transportation that isn’t a car – because the cars will run you over – and it’s all wildly more expensive and less efficient than a functioning public transportation system. think of it like this – if more people can get where they need to go by public transit, the roads won’t be so congested.

a gift economy is also an exchange of goods but it’s decidedly not capitalism - no one earns any profit and there’s no flow converting money into capital and capital back into money.

2016, the year that just won’t end.

cry harder, chud

this is your brain on civility nonsense

cancelation is cool and good. stop being a bigot or cry harder.

use container tabs, not separate profiles. profiles are for installing separate sets of addons and the like.

https://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/brave-launches-ad-and-rewards-platform-pitting-the-browser-versus-ad-tech/

it’s literally made by an adtech company. you’re falling for marketing hype

I don’t want Google to have my info. the ads are secondary.