troyunrau
troyunrau t1_j7devv4 wrote
Reply to comment by duncan345 in Lead Plates and Land Claims in North America and Europe: When did the practice begin of burying lead plates to establish ownership of land, and why did it die out, and was it ever used successfully in a court of law to establish ownership? by whyenn
Furthermore, there are specialized tools like the Schonstedt Maggie (and similar) that are technically magnetic gradiometers -- largely referred to as "pinfinders" -- which are used by legal surveyors to find these buried corner markers on a regular basis. Doesn't help with lead, but anything with iron in it generally works.
troyunrau t1_iyb791p wrote
Reply to comment by I_Speak_For_The_Ents in Childhood’s End Appreciation by SterlingR3d
>!aliens show up. Put humans into little reservations until a kid unlocka part of their mind. That kid can then spread that unlock to the rest of humanity.!<
troyunrau t1_iy9pgzl wrote
Reply to comment by Sinaaaa in Russia steals almost 900 tons of grain in Luhansk Oblast by sviterochec
Yeah, on the global scale, it's absolutely trivial. On the local scale, it is going to suck. At $300/tonne, this is about $270k worth of stolen grain. Less than the cost of a single house in most first world markets. But probably the livelihood of several Ukranian farmers.
troyunrau t1_iy90vyz wrote
Reply to Childhood’s End Appreciation by SterlingR3d
I really like Clarke, and yet disliked this book a lot. And probably for the same reasons you liked it.
In the 1950s and 1960s there was a lot of sci fi that sort of dealt with the premise: "we only use a fraction of our brain! Imagine what we could do if we unlocked the rest of it!" There are many books that follow this notion in a variety of ways, including: Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Le Guin's City of Illusions, and of course, Childhood's End -- and many many more. But it is all largely wishful thinking and power fantasy. No, our brains don't have an unused organ that will unlock telepathy! There are more recent examples too.
So, while it's a fun book, it's flawed by "magic". And not the good kind of magic, as defined by Clarke as "sufficiently advanced technology"
troyunrau t1_j8o68s8 wrote
Reply to comment by MetricVeil in NASA's "evolved structures" radically reduce weight – and waiting by Maxcactus
r/generative
Basically, letting the computer fill spaces using some constraints. Artists love it. But also, for example, game designers (need to create a forest? Well, you could 3D model each tree, or create a generator that generates 3D models of trees...)