Walkthroughs
The technical machinery, explained from scratch. 48 posts, best read in order.
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Where 2592 comes from
The single number the whole framework rests on, built up from three level-k categories with nothing fitted.
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Quantum dimensions, by hand
A worked calculation with the sine formula, and why an earlier table in this programme summed to the wrong number.
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The Z6 quotient and 2t + 3n + 6Y
A one-line congruence that every Standard Model multiplet satisfies. It is real group theory, and it is weaker than it looks.
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Why the central charge is 7
Three WZW factors, three central charges, and a sum that later turns out to fix the vacuum energy exponent.
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d_code = 64
A code distance that falls out of which anyons exist, and a caution about how I then used it.
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The logistic permeability function
How to write a leakage probability that stays a probability. The fix is one line and it took an auditor to prompt it.
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Instanton actions, from 8 pi squared over g squared to 4 pi squared c
The standard exponential suppression, and what happens when the coupling is pinned by a topological level.
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Two-mode squeezed states and thermal horizons
Why an accelerating horizon looks hot to anyone inside it, worked through with a covariance matrix you can check.
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Lloyd, Bekenstein and Landauer agree
Three completely different arguments about how much a horizon can compute, landing on the same number. That is worth pausing on.
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The cotangent identity on the lens space
A classical trig sum that fixes an eta invariant, and the place where this programme made an arithmetic slip.
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Preferential attachment on a finite pool
Where the logistic term in a saturation law actually comes from, starting from individual researchers picking combinations.
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Kolmogorov complexity for people who write code
The shortest program that outputs your data. Uncomputable in general, measurable in practice, and the reason I reach for a compressor.
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Causal sets in five minutes
Spacetime as a growing set of events rather than a stage. The only approach here with both a measure and a dynamics.
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Third-Order Interference: Why the Three-Slit Experiment Must Come Out Zero
Open three slits, subtract the two-slit and one-slit patterns, and quantum mechanics says the remainder is exactly zero (Sorkin's test). Why the Born rule forces it, and what a nonzero result would break.
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CHSH in one page
The inequality, the two numbers, and the one-line consequence for anyone proposing a classical computational universe.
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Two-part MDL codes, concretely
Model cost plus residual cost, with a polynomial fit you can reproduce, because the whole plateau argument runs on this.
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Superselection: realities that do not talk to each other
The stronger and more standard way to get many worlds: separate sectors of one theory, rather than extra branches.
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How to Build a Brake-Drum Forge in a Weekend
An old truck brake drum, some black-iron pipe and a hair dryer make a coal or charcoal forge hot enough to shape steel. Build steps, the heat-color chart, and the safety rules blacksmiths learned the hard way.
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How to Build a Bug-Out Bag: The 72-Hour Checklist
What actually goes in a bug-out bag, organised by the rule of threes: shelter, water, fire, food, first aid, light, communication and documents. Includes an interactive packing list that totals your bag's weight.
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How to Build a Cloud Chamber and See Cosmic Rays at Home
With a fish tank, 99% isopropyl alcohol, felt and a slab of dry ice you can watch muons from space streak through your garage. Parts list, build steps, and how to tell the tracks apart.
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How to Build a Rainwater Collection and Filtration System
Gutter to barrel to tap: size your system with a calculator, add a first-flush diverter and screens, and learn which filtration stages make rainwater fit for the garden, for washing, and (with the right treatment) for drinking.
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How to Calculate Compound Interest in Your Head (The Rule of 72)
Divide 72 by the interest rate and you get the years it takes money (or debt, or inflation) to double. Why it works, when it's off, and an interactive calculator that compares the shortcut to the exact answer.
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How to Lock Down Your Online Accounts in One Hour
A prioritised one-hour checklist: secure your email first, switch on passkeys or an authenticator app, fix reused passwords, save recovery codes, and freeze your credit. Tick items off as you go.
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How to Make a Strong Password You Can Actually Remember
Length beats complexity. How to build a random passphrase you can remember, why 'P@ssw0rd1!' is weak, what current NIST guidance says, and a calculator that shows how long each password would take to crack.
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How to Measure the Height of a Tree Without Climbing It
Three field methods: the stick trick, the shadow method, and the trigonometry of a phone clinometer. Each needs only a tape measure, and there's an interactive calculator to check your numbers.
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How to Read Binary (and Count to 1,023 on Your Fingers)
Binary is just place value with twos instead of tens. Learn to convert binary to decimal and back in your head, then flip the bits yourself in an interactive 8-bit converter.
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How to Remove Rust with Electrolysis (Battery Charger + Washing Soda)
Strip heavy rust off tools, parts and cast iron with a plastic tub, washing soda, scrap steel and a battery charger. Step-by-step setup, the polarity that matters, and the safety rules.
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How to Rename Hundreds of Files at Once with Python
A short, safe Python script that batch-renames files (photos, invoices, downloads) with a dry run first, so you see every change before it happens. Copy-paste code and an interactive previewer.
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How to Sharpen a Knife on a Whetstone (and Find the Right Angle)
Pick the right grit, hold a consistent angle, raise a burr, and finish it off. Includes a calculator that turns any sharpening angle into how high to lift the spine of your particular knife.
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How to Spot a Phishing Email (Interactive Quiz)
The seven red flags that give away most phishing emails, what to do when you're not sure, and a hands-on quiz: click the suspicious parts of a realistic fake email and see how many you catch.
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How to Write Regular Expressions (With a Live Tester)
Regular expressions look like line noise until you learn about a dozen symbols. The essentials, five patterns you'll actually use, and a live tester to experiment with in your browser.
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How to Model Nootropic Pharmacokinetics and Synergistic Stacking: A Computational Guide
A mathematical and code-driven walkthrough for simulating plasma half-lives, receptor binding kinetics, and Loewe synergy in herbal nootropic stacks.
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How to Standardize Botanical Nootropics: Extraction Mathematics, Active Titration, and Biological Assays
A step-by-step laboratory and mathematical guide to calculating extraction yields, titrating bioactive compounds, and standardizing botanical nootropics from raw biomass.
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How to Make Safe Drinking Water in an Emergency
Boiling, chlorine and filters do three different jobs, and picking the wrong one can leave you sick. The doses, the contact times, the pathogen that only boiling or a cyst-rated filter removes, and a calculator for both the bleach and the amount to store.
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How to Size a Backup Battery and Solar Panel for a Power Outage
Add up what you actually need to keep running, convert it to watt-hours, then pick a battery and a panel that match. Loads with real numbers, an interactive sizing calculator, and the four things that make an outage plan fail.
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How to Find the Slow Part of Your Python Code (Without Guessing)
Almost everyone optimises the wrong thing. Measure with cProfile and timeit instead, learn to read the output, and use the two facts that explain most slow Python: membership tests that are O(n) inside a loop, and Amdahl's law, which caps how much any one fix can buy you.
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How to Get Common Stains Out of Clothes (What Works on Each Stain)
Blot first, pick the right water temperature, and treat the stain not the garment. The master method plus exact treatments for grease, coffee, red wine, blood, sweat and ink.
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How to Make a Herbal Tincture — and Work Out the Dose
A tincture is an alcohol extract, and two numbers decide whether it works: the herb-to-solvent ratio and the alcohol strength. How to choose both, how to dilute strong spirits to the strength you want, and a calculator that does the arithmetic.
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How to Meal Prep Freezer Meals (Cook Once, Eat for Weeks)
Two hours on Sunday buys twelve dinners at about two dollars each. Which meals freeze well, how to cool-pack-label them safely, and an inventory tracker so nothing is forgotten at the back.
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How to Measure the Speed of Light — with a Microwave and a Chocolate Bar
A microwave oven fills its box with a pattern of standing waves, and the hot spots are exactly half a wavelength apart. Melt chocolate in short bursts, measure the spacing, multiply by the oven's frequency, and you have the speed of light to within a few percent.
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How to Start Vegetable Seeds Indoors (Dates, Lights and Hardening Off)
Count back from your last frost date, give seedlings strong light close above them, and harden them off before transplant. A start-date calculator and the kit that actually matters.
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How to Build a Personal Knowledge Management System That Actually Works — The PARA + Obsidian + Sync Method
Stop collecting notes you never find. This guide builds a working PKM system in 90 minutes: PARA structure in Obsidian, git-backed sync across devices, capture templates, weekly review protocol, and an interactive setup checklist. No plugins you don't need. No complexity that rots.
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How to Read a Scientific Paper in 20 Minutes (Without Reading Every Word)
Title, abstract, intro first-and-last, results headings, conclusion, figures. The 20-minute pass that extracts 80% of a paper — plus when to go deeper.
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The Slow-Food Comeback: Fermenting Everything at Home
Vegetables, salt, time. Lacto-fermentation needs no equipment you do not already own, costs pennies, and is one of the few kitchen techniques that actively improves with age. Here is the whole method.
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How to Measure Your Home's Ventilation and Fix a Stuffy Room
A CO2 sensor, a closed room, and one equation give you the air changes per hour your house actually achieves. Then you find which windows to open together. Most homes manage 0.5 ACH with everything shut.
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The 3-2-1 Backup Rule: Three Copies, Two Media, One Offsite
Three copies of your data, on two different media, with one offsite. The entire strategy fits in one sentence, and almost nobody does it. Here is how to actually set it up in an afternoon.
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How to Wire Your Home Network Like You Mean It
Wi-Fi is a shared, half-duplex shouting room. One afternoon with a spool of Cat6, a patch panel and a cheap termination tool buys you gigabit to every room, forever.
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How to Do a Personal Data Inventory in 45 Minutes
You cannot protect data you have forgotten exists. A short personal inventory reveals which accounts hold your money, identity, files, and recovery paths—so you can secure the few that matter most.