Apparently that's quasi polynomial time, which grows faster than polynomial time but not quite as fast as exponential time.

So, keep in mind that single photon sensors have been around for awhile, in the form of avalanche photodiodes and photomultiplier tubes. And avalanche photodiodes are pretty commonly used in LiDAR systems already.

The ones talked about in the article I linked collect about 50 points per square meter at a horizontal resolution of about 23 cm. Obviously that's way worse than what's presented in the phys.org article, but that's also measuring from 3km away while covering an area of 700 square km per hour (because these systems are used for wide area terrain scanning from airplanes). With the way LiDAR works the system in the phys.org article could be scanning with a very narrow beam to get way more datapoints per square meter.

Now, this doesn't mean that the system is useless crap or whatever. It could be that the superconducting nanowire sensor they're using lets them measure the arrival time much more precisely than normal LiDAR systems, which would give them much better depth resolution. Or it could be that the sensor has much less noise (false photon detections) than the commonly used avalanche diodes. I didn't read the actual paper, and honestly I don't know enough about LiDAR and photon detectors to really be able to compare those stats.

But I do know enough to say that the range and single-photon capability of this system aren't really the special parts of it, if it's special at all.

Good, hopefully the plastics will eventually replace the gray matter entirely.

Inaccurate, none of the options on the right involve trying to open an ancient sarcophagus to commit diablerie.

I honestly feel like if this wasn't regulated ketchup would slowly be watered down until it was just weak tomato juice.

In a lot of situations I would rather cross mid block than at a corner crosswalk. The cars can't be relied on to stop anyway, and mid-block there are a lot less directions you have to worry about.

Even if the intersection is signalized given the existence of right turns on red it's still often safer to cross mid block.

A little while back I ended up using YouTube for a few minutes without an ad-blocker. Every single video had a transphobic ad.

I didn't think it was possible for me to hold any more contempt for advertising, but somehow they managed it.

Big Bang Theory is less like nerd humor and more like autism blackface.

There are plenty of applications for machine learning, logic engines, etc. They've been used in many industries since the 1970s.

While the "elves spend most of their long lives in leisure" explanation is kinda nice and Tolkien-esque, it doesn't solve everything to do with their lifespan.

Imagine you have an event in your setting that took place 1500 years ago. That's as far back in time as the fall of the Roman empire is from the modern day. In real life that's a long enough time for multiple empires to rise and fall, for language to evolve to the point that speakers can no longer understand the previous tongue, and for people to change their religion and forget they were ever pagan to begin with.

Elves in DnD live 750 years. A 200 year old elf PC could reasonably say "wait what if my grandpa was there? DM do I remember my grandpa ever talking about this?"

This is a result of taking something that should be awe inspiring and making it mundane (letting people play as elves). And it's not the only instance of that in DnD.

If anything didn't they avoid falling for the rage bait because they didn't increase the view count of the article?

I think you should be allowed one sign on the building itself and a listing in some sort of directory and that's it.