Manuel_D

19 ms·

541.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Rotterdam has 3,000 people per square kilometer. Contrast that with the San Francisco bay peninsula's ~1,100 people per square kilometer. This is demonstrating my point about population density and transit.
542.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Many American cities don't have the population density to make metros and trams economically viable. And those few cities that do have comparable density (New York, Chicago, namely) do have metros. Public infrastructure has high overhe
543.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Insurance companies are some of the most regulated industries: their profit margins are capped by law, at least for healthcare insurance. Ironic that you mention algorithmic renting fixing: a single digit percentage of the rental market act
544.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Presumably some people's rates also go down on account of more extensive information gathering. If the insurance company just raised rates across the board, they'd no longer be as cost competitive as other insurance providers.
545.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
And when the data about me is aggregated... what then? I get served ads that are more likely to actually interest me? The data gets leaked and the degree to which I nerd out about amateur radio and videogames is supposed to be scandalous?
546.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Is it inconceivable that people actually see lower savings in exchange for tracking shopping habits is a beneficial transaction? Safeway can more effectively distribute products. I get to save money. Safeway has an incentive to keep this da
547.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
For what it's worth, international arrivals are down about 3.8%: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/08/26/have-for... https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025&#x
548.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
A lot of the applications listed don't need humans and probably don't even need "AI" either. At least not beyond speech to text. When my Xbox 360 hit the red ring of death, I called in to Microsoft support and went throu
549.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Presumably the above commenter is referring to an analogous intervention in Venezuela, not Panama.
550.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
In theory, the US constitution forbids states from interfering with interstate commerce too.
551.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Because it does? You either have to have a dispatchable energy source to turn on at night and on cloudy days (usually fossil fuels), or storage for 12+ hours. Actually more than 12 hours in case there's extended periods of cloud cover.
552.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
People still want their software to work at night. And last I checked, Louisiana had access to lots of water.
553.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
No, the batteries had degraded to the point that they could not supply enough voltage and current to stably run the chip at full frequency. Replacing the battery would restore full performance.
554.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
The other issue is that the steam loses energy as it's pumped over a long distance. Iceland and a few other locations are big users since they are on fault zones with hot rocks relatively close to the surface. Even if deep drilling is
555.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
More importantly, though, is that agricultural water is mostly consumption . That water is either evaporated or absorbed by plants. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of water used by thermoelectric plants is not consumed . Electric
556.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
While I do agree the hysteria around water use is unfounded, it's just patently false to say that fresh water cannot be wasted, pointing out that the molecule is just in a harder to access state is pedantry.
557.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
That's like saying fossil fuels don't actually pollute or emit greenhouse cases, because we're just X joules away from sequestering it back from the atmosphere. Desalination, and pumping water over thousands of miles is extre
558.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Note that water use is not the same as water consumption . If 100 gallons of water passes through a heat exchanger and 99 gallons go back into the river, only then 100 gallons were used but only 1 gallon was consumed . Thermoelectric
559.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
So now we're asking data center builders to prove a negative?
560.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
The NYT article says that the couple suspects that sediment buildup is blocking pipes, not that there is a water shortage causing taps to run dry: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/technology/meta-data-c
561.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Water shortages are highly local problems. Sure, running a data center in Arizona might have some genuine water concerns. But even then, it can be mitigated by changes like using wastewater. The Palo Verde plant does that for its heat excha
562.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
A short global lockdown? China pursued the zero COVID policy for two years. Even highly restrictive measures weren't enough to stem it. COVID is no longer a novel virus and its deadliness has vastly decreased. Yes it is by any reasonab
563.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
We'd have been able to see, for example, ice cores showing chemical changes in the atmosphere from industrialization. You can't carry out the same kind of massive activity that humans did without leaving some evidence. Even the Bl
564.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Because the former is a reduction in real terms. The latter is an increase in real terms. The increase from $2.15 2017 dollars to $3.00 2021 dollars is well above the inflation in that time frame. The article points this out quite explicitl
565.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Courts have previously held that heuristics based determinations are not sufficient to serve as probable cause. E.g. "predictive policing" technologies can be used for e.g. scheduling officers to different areas, but aren't v
566.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Democratic Socialism still entails collectivization of the economy. If you're thinking of countries like Sweden and Norway, those would be called social democracy.
567.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
15 years disparity in life expectancy exclusively attributed to air quality is not incredibly obvious. To put this in perspective, nationwide average disparity in life expectancy is 5 years between Black and white people. Triple that amou
568.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
For certain industries it also applies. Common carriers (e.g. telecoms) and utility companies are also not able to censor or refuse lawful business.
569.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Unless you're referring to Mao's rule, "Chinese socialism" is another word for "capitalism". The US, too, has some fields of the economy that are almost entirely state owned. E.g. roads, K-12 education, public
570.
by Manuel_D 1y ago
Median price per sq ft in Denver is $377 according to Google. That's still on the order of half the cost in Seattle of SF.

More ›