m-i-l

I love the concept of this. Not so much to capture energy from individuals who are using the devices purely to produce energy, but to capture the energy produced from large groups doing something that…

Including the British pound - until decimalisation in 1971, the abbreviations for pounds, shillings and pence were Lsd (with the L often having a single or double cross bar) from the Latin libra, soli…

This aligns to the timings of the switch to ICE, which appears to be between 1914 and 1917 - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20181692 .…

"In 1914: 38% of all the cars on the road were electric; 22% gasoline, 40% steam powered."[0] "by 1917, only 50,000 electrics were registered compared to 3.5 million IC cars. Steamers w…

I remember reading (a long time ago so can't provide a reference) that in 1000s of years most humans would have an extra finger. I'd assumed that this was because of the evolutionary advanta…

The article asks "What accounts for its staying power?" but misses what I think is the main reason for its staying power - it has something of relevance for each era in which it is read. In …

Well given the pseudoanonymous nature of the original cryptocurrency, and its popularity for illegal activities, I would assume not. But maybe it is more about rampant capitalism and maximise-personal…

Art is very different from physical property, given it tends not to have any intrinsic value, generate income etc. Fractional ownership of residential property is already possible in the UK, without c…

To all the cryptocurrency devotees dreaming of a new world cryptocurrency displacing existing government-backed central banks - be careful what you wish for, it just might come true. This might be the…

> Can anyone explain what the point of a pegged cryptocurrency is? Since you are dependent on the issuing entity to honour the stated peg In this case there wouldn't be a single issuing enti…

> ICOs are like lottery tickets Actually in most countries lotteries are pretty heavily regulated to ensure that they are indeed redistributing a share of ticket sales as winnings and are also fair…

One of the things I hadn't fully appreciated, until reading the link, was how divided even the perpetrators were. Firstly, there are indications that not all the armies worked together, e.g. &quo…

Depending on where you live, there may be a lot of government sponsored guidance on how best to manage the environmental impact of micro hydro schemes - see e.g. https://www.gov.scot/p…

Thanks for this. I wasn't too keen on them to be honest because they reminded me of little fleas jumping around. But it is sad to read "These shrimp are social creatures, but the Ecosphere s…

The article doesn't cover this, but how do people discover these group chats? All the Discord servers I've joined I've essentially found by word-of-mouth, which doesn't seem very h…

I've a vague fantasy about returning to the remote Scottish island where I was born, which is pretty windswept with almost no trees, and building a house and garden inside a large Solar Dome, gro…

I saw a shop selling these once: https://www.ecospheres.co.uk/ . They contain small marine shrimp, and "The only care the sphere requires is a source of indirect natural or artif…

My dad's workplace had several original Atari 520ST machines (not the STM with FM modulator or the STFM with floppy disk and modulator) which they used simply as VT220 terminals for accessing the…

I got a Taf Toys "My First MP3 Player" a few years back. Parents could load a USB stick with MP3s on any PC (including Linux), then plug the stick into a secure compartment on the device (re…

> Is there a word for the converse of "clickbait"? The opposite of bait is repellent, so in that sense it would be "clickrepellent". However, I don't think that gets across…

During the big offshoring craze in the UK 15 years or so ago I knew of developers who retrained as trades people - you can't offshore plumbers, electricians etc., you need them on site.

Yes, the Windows TCP/IP stack was from BSD. I'm not sure if the code is still in Windows, but I think it is still configured via an etc/hosts file. I believe the BSD licence was prefera…

Just don't do anything with the leaves! My parents used to have some rhubarb in the garden when I was young, and I had it drummed into me how poisonous the leaves were (not that I was the sort to…

I'd hope not - high doses of aluminium can cause considerable irreversible damage to the brain, see e.g. the Camelford poisoning[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelfo…

Nearer 10-15% in the UK. If you manage to find a good one they're definitely worth it, but the problem is, at least in my experience, the majority aren't.

"Brevity takes effort": "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

Its a NatWest Reward card. Cashback is normally 0.5-1%, but they have additional cashback from selected vendors at different times, e.g. they had 10% on amazon.co.uk purchases and 3% for household bil…

I don't see what is in this for the consumer either. If you are not already a holder, why would anyone want the hassle of becoming one, just to pay high fees for each and every transaction (e.g. …

As the parent comment suggests, most people are right eye dominant so from a safety perspective keeping the dominant eye closer to the oncoming traffic is preferable. And even before cars, most right …