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1:28 AM
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Q: Any news on the progress of the new site design?

fi12The latest information we've had on the site design was about a month ago. Does anyone have any information as to what progress is being made as well as when we could expect to see the site design in action?

discussion
 
 
7 hours later…
Mike L.
Mike L.
8:37 AM
So, I read the news today, after not having done so for some time.
Managed to get myself livid. I don't know why I keep doing this.
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
9:01 AM
Especially the stuff about the presidential visit.
 
 
2 hours later…
bilbo_pingouin
bilbo_pingouin
10:52 AM
@MikeL. which presidential visit?
I listen to the news every day... and I have yet to be sick of it...
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
@bilbo_pingouin The president of PRC was visiting a few weeks ago.
Because our president wants to make nice with China (even though it's not actually his job to conduct foreign policy).
And the Chinese imported some "spontaneously formed crowds" that would wave chinese flags at him wherever he went, while the police went bullying everyone who didn't like it.
Like, harassing people who displayed Tibet flags, cordoning off the site of a lawfully anounced demonstration and such.
And apparently, arrested and beat a 19yo student for shouting "You should be ashamed of yourselves" at a policeman.
 
bilbo_pingouin
bilbo_pingouin
yeah... the usual...
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
Which, you know, should be completely unthinkable according to our laws and constitution, and even the goverment coalition (loosely affiliated with the president) was outraged and ordered a bunch of investigations.
 
bilbo_pingouin
bilbo_pingouin
11:08 AM
ever heard of the Olympic Games in London? :D
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
Meanwhile, the president invited some of the policemen to the castle and praised them for "preventing the excesses of mentally abnormal people".
@bilbo_pingouin We had a revolution over this exact shit 25 years ago. That's why we wrote all that crap into the f***ing constitution we came up with then!
Sorry. Like I said, I'm getting irrationaly angry over this.
 
bilbo_pingouin
bilbo_pingouin
11:42 AM
on my account, go ahead... :)
sometimes it helps
 
 
2 hours later…
Tim B
Tim B
1:27 PM
@JonofAllTrades No need to ask permission, it's all good :) Just ask your question and edit it in. If people don't think it fits we'll say something and/or maybe edit it out again but I don't think that's ever happened so far :)
@MikeL. Which country is this in?
 
bilbo_pingouin
bilbo_pingouin
@TimB Czech Rep
 
Tim B
Tim B
Ahhh
 
bilbo_pingouin
bilbo_pingouin
well I suppose, as Mike leaves there...
and it's consistent :)
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
1:57 PM
@bilbo_pingouin yep, CZ
 
 
2 hours later…
DJMethaneMan
DJMethaneMan
4:06 PM
@James This (possibly untrustworthy) article might interest you in regards to my question. The Japanese debt, if this debt clock is to be believed, is ~9 trillion USD.
The United States national debt, according to the same clock, is ~19 trillion USD as of this post.
This CNN article claims Japan "owns" more US debt than China, though I did some digging around on the and found very little. You should also note that this article as a year old and much can happen in that time. This Wikipedia article contradicts the CNN article, though, and places Japan 2nd on the list.
Wikipedia is backed by this official document released by the United States Department of the Treasury on US debt. The US owes both Japan and China ~1.2 trillion USD, regardless of who is actually the master of our debt.
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
since I'm here, can someone explain why debt matters? 19 trillion sounds like a lot, but people don't seem to be too worried about it, and governments can just print money anyway so I get the feeling debt means something very different at the national level
plus, who enforces debt? If the US has the biggest military in the world, who's going to try to collect?
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
@DaaaahWhoosh When governments print money, they effectively take it from the people using it.
And debt matters because you need to pay for its maintenance, which means that less of what you tax people can be usefully spent.
The problem doesn't happen when somebody comes to collect, since that is largely infeasible even with smaller countries than the US; it happens when people don't want to lend anymore.
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@MikeL. then I guess my final question is why do people keep on lending to the US?
or other countries with a lot of debt
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
@DaaaahWhoosh Because so long as US is paying it back, it's a safe way to get interest on your money.
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@MikeL. and I guess we are paying back, albeit slowly?
and probably with a lot of interest
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
4:21 PM
What the debt mostly looks like is a whole lote of small, termed loans, realised as bonds. You buy a bond that has, say, five years on it, and a certain interest, and government bonds tend to be really stable, until said government defaults.
@DaaaahWhoosh The interest is not huge, but it mounts.
So the trick is to find the government that borrows a lot on good interest in a stable currency, and stop buying the bonds just before it goes bankrupt.
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
Yes, I did it!
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
Once there is a suspicion it might default, suddenly nobody wants to buy the bonds anymore, the government runs out of money because it can no longer borrow, and actually goes bankrupt.
That's why those ratings are so important; they represent the experts' opinion on how likely that particular government is to default.
Which also dictates how much interest the government has to offer to get people to buy the bonds.
And is also the reason why the politicians in countries with lots of debt (like most of the EU) don't like the fact that the rating agencies are independent and keep going on about how they should be "regulated" to "prevent excesses".
When Czechoslovakia had a "monetary reform" in 1953 (effectively a bankrupcy after the Communists have been "building a better tomorrow" with their centralised control of economy for five years by that point) our rating was dropped a couple of grades; we still haven't entirely recovered from that.
@DaaaahWhoosh Anyhow, it's really nice outside and I'm mostly done here at work. I'll go get a burrito and eat it on the bastions while the sun sets; if you have more questions, I'll answer them later.
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@MikeL. no, I think that'll do it for my economy questions for the month
thanks for the detailed response
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
Apparently, while trying to find the percentage of Earth's 2466 population killed at the time of the 1999 FN53 attack, which now has a speed of 150 km/s (after a period of acceleration) at an angle of 57˙, and 3.04 teratonnes of TNT on impact, I had to do some population numbers. The findings mentioned in the robots chat are these......
So....assuming today's current growth rate, the planet's population would be at 10.1 billion by 2040, far earlier than I initially expected, and a growth rate of 0.5% from there means a population of 13 billion by 2100, not counting colonisation efforts already in place since 2001 (when the International Lunar Outpost was born, and that was only 50 - 100 by ATL 2016). :/. That is part 1.
And then I reduced it to 0.01% growth rate, which takes into account an explosion in colonisation beyond the Solar System and by 2466 I have a nice, stable 14,116,157,556 humans living on Earth. :) And those are my findings.
Problem now is distribution of populations on each continent.
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
4:37 PM
does that factor in major wars or diseases? There might be a few of those in the interim
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
That number was a guesstimate based on current growth rate, followed by some guesstimates accounting foe fertility reduction, increasing development and those factors to some extent.
And that is just Earth from ATL 2016 to that point.
And then during the Second Extraplanetary War, by the time of the 1999 FN53 attack, this is Earth's population: 14,130,280,067 humans.
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
My question on "El Dorado" is up. I've kinda started answering it myself, doing conversions between carats and tons is remarkably fun
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@SerbanTanasa I find that really hard to believe, but am not willing to prove you wrong
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
So....in your opinions, what would be each continent's population and distribution across each region if using my estimates?
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
@DaaaahWhoosh OK, it's a horrible tedium, and wanted to unload it upon unsuspecting WBers
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
4:52 PM
@FutureHistorian that really depends on where the center of civilization shifts over time. A couple hundred years ago, no one would have expected the distribution we have today
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
So, if Africa and the Pacific contained most of Earth's population, what would be the percentage located in both continents separately?
Specifically, the Asia-Pacific Region.
However, a large portion is also concentrated in the Americas, especially Latin America.
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
@FutureHistorian, the population is expected to age, and fertility is expected to decline along the lines of the trends seen in developed countries
so perhaps using today's growth rate would be unadvisable
but rather use the un's low or medium projections
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
Oh.
Link?
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
@DaaaahWhoosh, I was initially going to call it "Building Revelation Jerusalem"
but I thought it would be too contentious
do you guys think that title would work better?
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@SerbanTanasa It might help, since you're not just using gold
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
5:01 PM
@FutureHistorian esa.un.org/unpd/wpp
@DaaaahWhoosh, now I fear the waves of religious people objecting... we'll see
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@SerbanTanasa I really hope people aren't trying to defend Revelation
the way I see it, Christianity should be four Gospels (but not the four in the Bible) and some letters of Paul (the real one, not the impostors)
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
@DaaaahWhoosh, I mostly want real, tangible pearly gates
and a budget
 
DJMethaneMan
DJMethaneMan
@SerbanTanasa That would be nice...
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
5:22 PM
@SerbanTanasa Is it actually possible to make anything out of pearl?
are there processes for crushing up pearls and making them into other things?
or is there just a heavenly gate-shaped oyster out there?
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
Dunno about Crushing, but maybe cutting?
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
just a bunch of tiny pearl bricks?
little pearl LEGOs?
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
Pearlego
I'm talking about the gate tho. so they could be inlaid into the wood or metal of the actual door
 
DJMethaneMan
DJMethaneMan
@DaaaahWhoosh A quick google produces a bunch of bible references... @SerbanTanasa Those religious fanatics you are worried about are closing in.
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
Back.
And at last, I still need a growth rate to build up from the medium UN estimate by 2100.
 
James
James
5:45 PM
Well i missed most of that conversation
hey all
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@James hey
@James were you the one with that job interview that one time? For some reason I feel inclined to ask how it went
 
James
James
lol, last friday yeah. Seemed pretty good, but I am still waiting to hear...which is super annoying
ok
whoops wrong window
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
6:00 PM
@James you were trying to be a Scrumlord, right?
or some similarly awesome title
 
Serban Tanasa
Serban Tanasa
ScrumPirate?
Chief Scrummer?
 
James
James
I am going to go with Scrum Pirate.
it has a nice ring to it
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
@James So, funny thing. That blade seems like it was painted in something, or maybe galvanized.
 
Worldbuilding Meta
Worldbuilding Meta
0
Q: How will the privilege requirements change, once phase two of the graduation takes place?

T3 H40Worldbuilding has graduated! That's is awesome, and resulted in some changes, like voting for our moderators some time ago. However, The site will still receive a full design from one of our designers, which will be packaged with an increase in the amount of reputation needed to access each ...

support graduation privileges
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
What I had thought were black spots that weren't coming off were places where the upper layer was broken, and the steel underneath rusted
after ~11h in the vinegar bath when I take a scouring pad to it, the upper layer is coming off in places.
Hope I'm not handling anything poisonous.
 
James
James
6:14 PM
@MikeL. Don't lick it and you should be fine. Which, come to think of it is probably good all around advice to live by...
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
@James Yeah, sometime I'll tell you the story of how we almost called poison control after my stay in the sauna world:D
I'm using gloves and everything, and after some research, it doesn't look like zinc at least. Too shiny.
 
James
James
thats sounds like a classic story..
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
The coated surface gets a rust-like colour when I expose it to air straight out of the bath.
only very slight, though
 
James
James
hrm...my metallurgy skills are minimal...that is something I need to read up on
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
and chrome plating wouldn't have come off with acetic acid, so I'm probably safe from that as well
not to mention it wasn't nearly shiny enough for chrome
 
James
James
6:27 PM
have a picture?
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
I can take one, though I've put it back in the bathtub.
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
6:57 PM
Found a better number: 12,668,678,878 humans on Earth. This assuming a growth rate 0.04% starting from 2100.
Particularly from the UN moderate estimates.
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
7:16 PM
....or not.
13,017,358,113 humans from the recent 2015 estimate. :/
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
@FutureHistorian You could probably pick any number within a billion of what you've found and very few people will disagree. As long as you're not talking about this world, a lot of things could happen to prove you right
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
Actually, yes, this one, in an alternate timeline. :/
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
yeah, so just assume that there are things in your alternate timeline that lead to whatever number you choose
either that, or just figure out exactly what's going to happen and then count the people
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
Well, you make a good point.
But the pointsvof divergence is in the mid-20th Century, as you may already be aware.
*points of
*are
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
that's fine, as long as the divergence isn't in the future
if it's in the past then things could have already been set in motion to agree with your number
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
7:26 PM
Well, it does not affect Earth events in a grand scale. Most of those affect space exploration. :/
 
DaaaahWhoosh
DaaaahWhoosh
Well, sure, but the point is you can come up with a lot of different numbers for population, no one really knows how it'll go. If you're making an alternate history, all you have to do is say it goes that way
 
James
James
@DaaaahWhoosh kinda what I was thinking
 
 
3 hours later…
Future Historian
Future Historian
10:09 PM
Back.
And I think I made an error with the mathematics. :(
 
Future Historian
Future Historian
10:33 PM
Now....moving on......I fixed the problem in a different question.
0
Q: 2.19 Gigatonnes of TNT upon collision could case how many casualties?

Future HistorianSo, after going through a some rough calculations, I figured my earlier question ran into a few problems regarding the final velocity of the asteroid. I pulled the mathematics a bit incorrect, so I dumbed it down to a speed of 40,264.06 m/s at final velocity. The Delta v, though is 26,264.06 m/s,...

science-based reality-check space hard-science space-colonization
 
Mike L.
Mike L.
10:47 PM
@James So, the surfacing is still gradually coming off. I can now see the pitting, which is pretty deep in places; a lot deeper than I could remove without also removing the surface etching.
 

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