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A solar storm on Thursday is expected to make the Northern Lights visible in 17 states
  • They’re guessing, and no doubt fishing for clicks.

    X-rays from flares travel at the speed of light and hit us in about 8 minutes. Solar energetic particles (related to flares) take minutes to hours. A coronal mass ejection usually takes about 3 days. At the moment we have no way of predicting them before they happen, so X-ray flares have no early warning because nothing is faster than the speed of light. We can see a CME erupt and know if it’s heading our way.

    There are a couple of good sized sunspots at the moment that are facing towards us so the chances of something happening are decent, but we don’t know if and when and how much.

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    We visited the Falkirk Wheel last month! It lifts 500 tonnes 80ft into the air using only 1.5KWh of power (it's actually energy N•m/s).
  • 1.5kWh of energy, not power.

    And it’s not lifting 500 tons. Each bucket weighs 500 tons (regardless of boat or no boat, due to displacement physics), it is in almost perfect balance. The motor simply has to rotate the mechanism against frictional losses.

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    We visited the Falkirk Wheel last month! It lifts 500 tonnes 80ft into the air using only 1.5KWh of power (it's actually energy N•m/s).
  • Yes, people frequently get it wrong and when they are dismissive about it, they are demonstrating their lack of willingness to educate themselves.

    It may seem like semantics to quibble over technical language but if I ask someone to pass me a saucepan, when I want to use a frying pan, then it’s pretty stupid of me, isn’t it?

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    Chad Linux user
  • I feel like it’s harder to break the bootloader these days. All my dual-booting escapades worked fine, I still have most of my hair, and there’s no way my Linux skills have improved that much.

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    Need help learning how to read books again
  • It takes me about a week of holiday before I can read. No work stress, and less obsession with the continual dopamine hits of smart phones, eventually lets my brain relax enough to pick up a book.

    Every time I come back from holidays I tell myself I should keep reading. I never have kept it up though..

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