Hermel

18 ms·

151.
by Hermel 8y ago
Even according to the IRS's own estimates, laws like Fatca would never pass a cost/benefit test. The implementation costs of such bureaucratic monstrosities is in the range of hundreds of billions, whereas the benefit is a few ord
152.
by Hermel 8y ago
I think it is ok to contact the authors of a paper if you think they got something wrong or omitted something important. However, here it was not a scientist calling the authors, but a lawyer calling the general counsel. This is a clear hin
153.
by Hermel 8y ago
The title is very misleading. The parliament just voted to not include a clause that would have explicitely made that data not copyrightable. Unfortunately, the article does not tell us why this clause was removed. Maybe it was just removed
154.
by Hermel 8y ago
> The Encyclopedia must establish procedures to be fair and inclusive on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, disability, and national origin. No, first and foremost the Encyclopedia must establish procedures to ensure high-quality, ac
155.
by Hermel 8y ago
Yes, the wallet is usually the first priority. However, I believe that doing work that has a deeper meaning is more satisfying. I've observed that it is for example very demotivating for employees if their work gets dismissed (i.e. whe
156.
by Hermel 8y ago
Yes, and everyone is free to criticize Apple for not supporting freedom of speech, even though if they are not obliged to do so.
157.
by Hermel 8y ago
This method is extremely slow. You have to spend 15 minutes to write a nice email just to get a paper three days later that after looking at for five minutes does not appear as helpful any more as you hoped it to be. Sci-hub is much more ef
158.
by Hermel 8y ago
Large companies should be taxed where the value is created. And because that’s hard to measure, cost should be used instead. So if Google spends 60% of its budget in the US, 60% of its profits should also be attributed to the US. (Side note
159.
by Hermel 8y ago
I find blockchains very interesting, at least from a technical point of view. Distributed computing is one of the oldest and hardest problems in computer science. However, I agree that the EU not take away 340 million from its citizens to s
160.
by Hermel 8y ago
> I think that most people who judge themselves by their accomplishments will run into this at some point. The key is not to feel good about the accomplishments themselves, but about getting there. If getting there does not make you happ
161.
by Hermel 8y ago
The problem is that by micromanaging, the commission violates the principle of subsidiarity. This is not the first time and I generally don’t have much trust in anyone who disregards his own stated principles whenever convenient.
162.
by Hermel 8y ago
The justification is complete nonsense. The claimed goal is to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean. But I fail to see how the straw used to drink a cold chocolate in a restaurant in Vienna could ever end up in the ocean.
163.
by Hermel 8y ago
What you are all not getting is that a diamond is not about its chemical properties, but about economic signalling. Just like artificial fur could not replace natural fur, man-made diamonds will never be the luxury item mined diamonds are t
164.
by Hermel 8y ago
Extradition treaties usually limit extradition to things that are punishable in both countries.
165.
by Hermel 8y ago
Real interest rates are basically the "price of capital". The question is: is it the demand side that is weakening (i.e. there are fewer and fewer worthwhile projects with reasonable returns) or is it the supply of capital that ha
166.
by Hermel 8y ago
> If all you do about my PII is “set delete = 1” (which one could argue isn’t even the best practice in every scenario), then I probably don’t want you to handle my PII at all. Are you aware that setting “delete=1” is essentially what fi
167.
by Hermel 8y ago
I think Java does that. Thanks to its built-in libraries, you can write code that works on multiplie platforms with different file systems. However, you still need to know yourself which characters are legal in which system (for example, ‘:
168.
by Hermel 8y ago
The legislative process is slow. In an ideal world, the constitution and the parliament define the laws in general terms that do not need to be adjusted for every new technology or economic development. In Switzerland, there is even a law t
169.
by Hermel 8y ago
Intuitively, I think "proof of stake" could violate Gödel's incompleteness theorems. These basically state that no complete system can proof its own correctness. And that's exactly what "proof of stake" tries t
170.
by Hermel 8y ago
No, they are under attack by eurocrats that dream of a uniform Europe under one central government. If the EU wants to do help Europe, it should become democratic (today, it isn't, the only democratically elected body of the EU is the
171.
by Hermel 9y ago
Even 50 cent diapers are less expensive than the time it costs you to change them. So I don't think they qualify as "so expensive".
172.
by Hermel 9y ago
Isn’t that essentially the same as VAT, which also is a local tax on revenue?
173.
by Hermel 9y ago
From an economic perspective, you always have to ask: what are the incentives for someone to switch currencies. At first sight, it does not seem to matter much which unit of account you are using. However, there is in fact a strong financia
174.
by Hermel 9y ago
Not all cost is of monetary nature. Wearing a helmet costs you comfort, agility, and time. That's why we only do it when the risks outweigh the costs. Which is exactly the point: sometimes the risks outweigh the costs of prevention, so
175.
by Hermel 9y ago
Of course, there is always a trade-off. For example, it is not worth spending 100$ for a 1% reduction in the risk of getting a disease that costs 1000$ to cure. If you really believe that prevention always pays off, why aren't you wea
176.
by Hermel 9y ago
There are also two critical replies, one by an economist and one by a computer scientist in the same issue of the Journal of Microsimulation: http://microsimulation.org/ijm/issues/volume-103-winter-2017...
177.
The Code is the Model [pdf](microsimulation.org)
1 points by Hermel 9y ago|1 comments
178.
by Hermel 9y ago
> Also, the gap between rich an poor has never been bigger. Actually, it has been much bigger in the 19th century. Source: Piketty
179.
by Hermel 9y ago
I would guess that the traders who hold millions worth of tether have a good business relationship with Bitfinex and have more information than is publicly available. And that information seems to make Tether more trustworthy. A reason why
180.
by Hermel 9y ago
> That's not even counting all the other things they can legally do as an unregulated exchange, like front-running, liquidation fishing with unlimited assets, etc. Unregulated does not mean that they can ignore the law. Fraud is ill

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