markvdb

45 ms·

481.
by markvdb 6y ago
TLDR: Twitter and Facebook regulating platforms causes more backlash, this time from Murdoch linked sewer press.
482.
by markvdb 6y ago
Even if this thing were to respect one's privacy, it still normalises the intrusion by other smart speakers.
483.
by markvdb 6y ago
You might want to have a look at straw panel construction. There's several across the EU. https://ecococon.eu/ is the major one. Not affiliated with them. I built the walls of our summer house out of jumbo straw bales
484.
by markvdb 6y ago
> For example, I routinely see people in cross-cultural relationships try to learn each others' languages but fail miserably at learning when they get into disagreements and have that disagreement in English instead of the language
485.
by markvdb 6y ago
Thank you for the kind words. It's incredible how many doors even basic language skills opened...
486.
by markvdb 6y ago
It was complicated quite a bit by the fact I never lived there full time: - started summer 2013 - kept up the anki thing for about half a year - spent about 30% of my time there in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 15% of 2017 - regularly had Latvian f
487.
by markvdb 6y ago
My strategy for Latvian was roughly as follows: - Go mad because you don't understand a word of what's happening around you for the first time in your life. - Decide to do something about it. - Take a three week university summer
488.
by markvdb 6y ago
My strategy for Latvian was roughly as follows: - Go mad because you don't understand a word of what's happening around you for the first time in your life. - Decide to do something about it. - Take a three week university summer
489.
by markvdb 6y ago
Why not take this one step further? Surplus electricity produces green hydrogen produces conventional fuel using Fischer-Tropsch [0]. Not very efficient, but that would be an incredibly flexible green energy storage system. [0] https:&#x2F
490.
by markvdb 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Davis
491.
by markvdb 6y ago
The article text doesn't refer to it a lot, but it does mention some interesting resources. [0] [0] 10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.11.019
492.
by markvdb 6y ago
In Belgium, starting an llc will set you back: - about 90€ for registering yourself individually as an economic operator - about 275€ in state fees for the llc - 50€ for activating your VAT number - about 1000€ excluding VAT in legalised ro
493.
by markvdb 6y ago
A stirling powered hybrid car seems to be a popular idea, but not taking off: - https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/stirling-hybrid-engine/ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehWbFoMfmMo - https:&#
494.
by markvdb 6y ago
A stirling engine might be a perfect part for a bare bones open hardware hybrid car. A stirling engine might not produce enough power to power the wheels directly, but it could produce electricity quite efficiently at constant power output.
495.
by markvdb 6y ago
That would be absolutely true for those with unlimited mental bandwidth and time, large nations' intelligence services for example. If one wants my attention for something that looks like scientific writing, except for rare exceptions
496.
by markvdb 6y ago
> Putting the Bannon label aside, No. The Bannon label is the problem here. White collar way to start dumpster fires. This is malice. Knowingly and actively undermining public trust in the scientific method. Whatever works to make two st
497.
by markvdb 6y ago
Is there any actual form of proper CO² emissions accounting worldwide? There's something limited within the EU, but otherwise?
498.
by markvdb 6y ago
It's not as if the school (district) is going to buy the teachers what they need. Why not let the teachers decide by how much they want to subsidise education from their hard-earned wages? The sensible path of course would be for the s
499.
by markvdb 6y ago
"Sabulum in apparatu" makes me smile. "Sand in the machine!" suddenly sounds less contrary and anarchist in Latin :-)
500.
by markvdb 6y ago
For solo developers or childless couples, Riga, Latvia is not too bad if you can stand the long winters: - The socialised medicine is not as bad as one would think. If that doesn't suffice, additional private medicine is affordable. -
501.
by markvdb 6y ago
Does anyone know if something like this has been implemented in some way already? In old mine shafts maybe? The geology has been studied, and some shafts at least there already...
502.
by markvdb 6y ago
More difficult than the baby boomer generation most certainly, but not impossible. You could take the arbitrage further by increasing upfront and post move earnings and decreasing future expenses: - Save up "no thanks" money at th
503.
by markvdb 6y ago
That would be a 100% correct observation if I didn't own a car right now, but I do. I just didn't buy it. I received it as a hand-me-down gift. Owning a car certainly shifted my lifestyle, but it didn't change my preferred ca
504.
by markvdb 6y ago
If I'd ever buy a car, I'd rather not have antifeatures in it. I'd rather have the Lada/Zhiguli [0] of the future: - safe - simple - electric - cheap - mass produced - open hardware - public road certified The Dacia Spri
505.
by markvdb 6y ago
> Latvia is predominantly Russian-speaking. This seems to imply the majority of residents of Latvia speak Russian natively. That might have been correct had the USSR existed a bit longer, but history took a different turn. "Most Lat
506.
by markvdb 6y ago
> What? What could the US have done beyond what we did other than all out war? The US response to this was very harsh. Signing the TPP could have helped _a lot_. DT gave China _a lot_ of diplomatic leverage there, for free...
507.
by markvdb 6y ago
This. Humans are spectacularly bad at this kind of scale in time/project budget/size...
508.
by markvdb 6y ago
Network effects are a symptom of the internet. They yield incredibly strong market control. Very few economic actors run extreme profit margins at giant scale [0][1]. They extract a disproportional profit share from the market economy. Appl
509.
by markvdb 6y ago
It speaks usb-c and it runs a fairly unlocked embedded linux if I'm well informed. You'd probably get lucky hooking it up to a page turn pedal... If I weren't such a cheapskate, or if there were a budget for these kind of thi
510.
by markvdb 6y ago
Of course it will cause some kinds of inflation. Just as zero interest rates also create inflation (stock market, housing, ...). UBI would certainly create a different kind of inflation. Negative income tax would probably not work as effici

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