frezik

In Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, there's an alchemist priest who is really interested in trying to make infinite gold. Not because he wants to get rich, but because he wants to collapse the market and eat the rich.

It's been a long time since I read it, but I seem to remember that he's not as much of a hero as the above makes it sound. Though that series is pretty pro-early stage capitalism, so take that as you will.

It also creates some radioactive isotopes of gold, so it'd have to sit there for 12-14 years before being useful.

My guess is that once the radioactive cycle time is up, it'd create more gold than the economy knows what to do with, and the price would collapse. They're quoting 5 metric tons of gold created per GWh of electricity created by the fusion reactor. There are 3,000 metric tons of gold mined every year. Worldwide energy production is 26,000,000 GWh. If we had 20% of that on one of these fusion reactors, there would be 26,000,000 metric tons produced.

It's estimated that for all of human history, 244,000 metric tons has been mined.

Gold ain't that useful, and it isn't even that artistically desirable if it's common. I think we'd struggle to use that much. Maybe if the price drops below copper we'll start using it for electrical wiring (gold is a worse conductor than copper, but better than aluminum). Now, if the process could produce something like platinum or palladium, that'd be pretty great. Those are super useful as catalysts, and there isn't much we can extract from the Earth's crust.

If late stage capitalism hasn't played itself out by then, what's going to happen is similar to solar deployment now. Capitalists see that solar gives you the best return on investment. Capitalists rush to build a whole lot of solar farms. But focusing on just solar is a bad idea; it should be combined with wind, hydro, and storage to get the best result. Now that solar has to be turned off so it doesn't overload the grid, and that cuts into the profits they were expecting.

Same would likely happen here. The first investors make tons of money with gold as a side effect of electricity generation. A second set of investors rushes in, collapses the price of gold, and now everyone is disappointed. Given the time it would have to sit before it's at safe radiation levels, this process could take over 20 years to play out.

My wife's grandfather considered himself a pacifist. He drove a tank as part of the liberation of France. He also sometimes snuck up on Nazi positions, punched their lights out, and hauled them back as prisoners.

In the years before he died, he was known to say "what do you mean don't punch Nazis? What else are they good for?"

I was honored to be a pallbearer at his funeral.

Pacifism can be flexible, which I personally think is the only way pacifism makes sense.

Not a lot of debate among scholars. There's no other evidence of the "eye of the needle" being used in a way that refers to the small doorway in a larger city gate or any of the other alternative readings. Conversely, there are sewing needles dated to that time and place that are roughly the same as modern sewing needles.

The statement is exactly as radical as it looks at first glance. Rich people can't be right with God, period. All the rest is trying to invent a loophole to let rich people be Christians after Constantine made it widespread in the Roman Empire. First century Christians were almost entirely made of the poor people of the Empire, and would have had no problem at all with the statement as read. The modern reinterpretation is often argued by the exact same people who say you're not supposed to "read between the lines" of the Bible.

Here's a Religion for Breakfast video on it: https://youtu.be/sf0Fm8aVApk

And don't get me started on Paul's "the love of money is the root of all evil". Just totally bastardized for the Prosperity Gospel.

I was looking at fiber supplements on Costco's web site, and there was one where the guy had more or less the experience above, but after just one. He said he wouldn't touch them again after that.

I can't help but think that if this is what happens after taking just one, you really, really needed to have a fiber supplement.

Them: Democratic governments should allow all voices to be heard

Us: Free Palestine

Them: Terrorist!

Do it, and the grown man/ass man political compass will be complete.

Disney never comes right out and says these things about their cartoons. Ursula is based directly on the drag artist Divine, but you won't catch a Disney executive admitting that.

But yes, Scar is basically the gay uncle.

It has nothing to do with SEO. We do server side rendering because it's the simplest thing that works.

Interesting because there's a very old gay stereotype that they're extremely violent. These days, it's usually that gay men are effeminate and passive, and I think a lot of people don't even realize this stereotype existed.

Baron Harkonnen and Scar (The Lion King) are examples.

Also, the evidence points to Bill being one of many rich and powerful clients, whereas Taco had a much deeper relationship. Their level of guilt is not the same.

I could be proven wrong on that, and Bill can fuck off in any case.

It's more common than you think.