One of the main challenges of maintaining peaceful international relations is the escalation of distrust and the ensuing arms race.

The possibility that others might attack you is a reason to arm yourself. But this step will in turn be interpreted as a threat by the other, who will in turn arm itself (even more). Etc.

Aren't there ways to simply invest in purely defensive weapons? So that your efforts to remain safe do not in turn threaten others? Which in turn allows others to also de-escalate?

In other words, are there military set-ups that are useless for offensive actions but good enough for defending a country?

I always think about the fact that I will die one day. Can you give me a reason why I shouldn't worry about it?

Can robot or a device be made that, given the requisite resources, could construct and assemble a functional copy of itself?

To entertain this hypothesis further, let's add a set of explicit constraints or expectations:

1. The copy must structurally match the original device as is realistically possible
2. The device must be able to manufacture at least one copy of itself
3. The overall replication process should sustain itself for an indefinite amount of iterations
4. The device must not repurpose its own parts as parts for its copy
5. The device must not peform any task other than replicating itself and preserving itself to be able to replicate
6. The device may sustain damages of repairable or non-repairable nature as long as it obeys constraints 1 and 2
7. The device may take as much time and resources as it needs to construct its copy as long as both remain finite
8. The device may make use of essential external resources like electricity and cooling to sustain itself as long as its able to accommodate its copy to do the same

Can reproduction be emulated mechanically while obeying all the constraints above or is there a fundamental limitation stopping us from realising this concept? If so, what is it?

I am reading up on logic circuits, families and levels because it's fun. I have no formal education in physics, computing or electronics.

For power supplies, sometimes one of the supply rails is referred to as ground (abbreviated "GND") – positive and negative voltages are relative to the ground. In digital electronics, negative voltages are seldom present, and the ground nearly always is the lowest voltage level. In analog electronics (e.g. an audio power amplifier) the ground can be a voltage level between the most positive and most negative voltage level.

I know from previous reading, that electricity - at least when it comes to direct current, but perhaps even when it comes to AC? - has a way in ("line"?) and a way out ("neutral" or "ground"? - disregarding for a second the fact that ground also carries current in case of a ground fault).

Again, from previous reading, I know that we work computers by either supplying them voltage or not (or in some circuits a higher voltage and a lower voltage). In any case, it's a choice between one or the other, since that is what we are trying to represent: boolean true or false.

So, what is this "negative voltage"? Is this a figure of speech or can voltage actually have a negative value? The part from the article that I quoted above states in relativistic terms, that "the ground can be a voltage level between the most positive and most negative voltage level" (italic text by me), which makes me assume "yes". But if voltage is electromotive force, how can it be negative? I amusingly imagine a force "sucking" the current backwards. 🤭

Explain it to me as if I was five. 👶

https://youtu.be/ZFikMkSPFWE

So I'm kind of new to electronics but I understand a fair bit. The power button he wires in connects the board directly to the ground through the grounding pad and one of pins for the port to the button. This bypasses the capacitive touch sensor on the 360 slim and turns it into a mechanical button.

How?

Isn't this the same as connecting the board->ground and pin->button->ground?

If so, could I do that to use a mechanical keyboard button for the power button?

Is there any reason you can't wire them to the port on the bottom left that the ribbon cable for the stock buttons connect to?

Any help would be appreciated, I'm working on a total overhaul of my old 360 slim and this is going to be a big part of the aesthetics when I'm done.

It's weird because Switzerland is one of the most armed countries in Europe, as in they have firearms but barely any shootings of any kind (so you don't often hear news equivalent to a guy shooting students in a classroom or killing people at a shopping mall over there). Part of it has to do with the draft (most people who purchase firearms have a form of training, as they learnt how to properly handle them during military service).

I googled it and it seems to be a bunch of stuff about abstract sets. As someone who did ok in math at high school, I find it hard to understand why people are so obsessed with sets. They're just collections of elements and should be very simple, right? So why do we need complicated equations to describe them?

My conspiracy spidy senses are tingling.

There's the:

• International Switch 2 (Expensive, has all language packs)
• Region Locked Switch 2 (Cheapest, only supports Japanese)
• Upcoming EU Exclusive Switch 2 (It has Portable battery)

I mean, they look exactly the same on the outside with the only difference being the console price. The "Normal" Switch 2 is 470€ (inc. VAT) / $450 (+Sales Tax) while the JP version is closer to ~270€ / ~$307 (if importing: consider custom duties besides shipping) with a catch to keep in mind: only Japanese language is supported and JP accounts are only valid.

There is going to be a European variant with the difference being that the battery is portable & detatchable (I think?) integrated into the console that'll release sometime next year. Since the Japanese version doesn't have the ability to change language or region but it's the cheapest, even though I can understand and speak it should I really purchase the console?

The Japanese version can read cartridges from foreign copies but with this sacrifice: the language pack (if supported) will be set to Japanese by default (unless there are in game settings where you can manually select languages) but for the most part: games detect what language your console is set in, so by default it'll be the same as your hardware.

or does it go back to a simple username and password that anyone can use?

30 something woman here, apparently I masturbate a lot compared to my friends.
I have to say "yeah once a week too" when they raise the subject ,when in fact it is multiple times a day. Husband would also do 2 times a day if he kept to his "normal" cadence. I know "whatever works for me" is right, but I'd like to compare to other people my age that aren't my friends.

Just for reference. I am a heavy beer drinker. But can do 5 miles a day if i push myself.

I live in the USA, btw.

I just have a weird headache, but I don't know if these are the symptoms. Also, everything feels unnerving, like I don't feel at home. I'm trying to say everything felt comfortable. I try to tell AI and Google, but they are useless.

Hi, so here's the situation : I need to access government services in a different country to the one I live in permanently, and therefore I need a number in said country with the ability to receive SMS for login and payment confirmations. How should I go about it ?

I guess the easiest thing to do would be to wait for the next time I go there and buy a cheap SIM card there. But the problem is I'm only going to that country in a year from now, so I'd like to speed up things.

I thought about getting an e-SIM with the lowest amount possible of data, but it still comes out pretty expensive for just receiving confirmation messages.

Anyone have a better idea on how to do this ? How do double citizens go about this usually ?

Edit : didn't think it would matter much, but the country I need a verification number in are Brazil and Colombia, while I am in the EU

Title. I miss my dad, this sucks.

Edit: Thanks guys, grief is a wild ride.