marvin

80 ms·

871.
by marvin 6y ago
Someone on HN suggested an amendment to the rule that private companies are not obliged to follow any freedom of speech principles when they grow to a size where they are closer to a carrier than a service. I think it's time to serious
872.
by marvin 6y ago
What's the average P/E ratio these days? 20-ish? That implies a direct return of 5% (what's the English word for this?), assuming no future growth or reduction in earnings. That's a low risk premium if you measure it aga
873.
by marvin 6y ago
Huh. Seen in retrospect, it's sort of obvious. Propeller efficiency can be increased by mounting them in pairs, one behind the other, where the two are rotating in different directions. This reduces the "twisting" movement of
874.
by marvin 6y ago
That just means prices will go up. Nothing is certain, of course, but those prices are low mostly because of high competition, not because people are unable to pay. There will certainly be a bit of both, but it's not like you won'
875.
by marvin 6y ago
It's also lethally good for consolidating their lead in tech and manufacturing cost. Fossil car manufacturers have been given the apparent gift of lower gas prices, but this is really a curse in disguise. While fossil-fueled cars may n
876.
by marvin 6y ago
Are VPNs legal in China? It would be hilarious to set up a chain of VPN connections that are each in a jurisdiction that will not cooperate with one another. E.g. one connection each in China, Russia and USA, and three more in the opposite
877.
by marvin 6y ago
You've missed that Tesla was already negotiating to open up one week from now. This is a 7-day advancement of a plan that was already likely to happen with complete legal support. We could still debate the moral wisdom of resuming prod
878.
by marvin 6y ago
Interestingly, the coronavirus response is close to war-time level focus. The same focus should be directed towards climate gas emissions and climate change.
879.
by marvin 6y ago
Well, to be fair to Musk, there's also the whole "switch to renewable energy and transportation, since putting all this CO2 into the atmosphere is a dangerous experiment that must stop, or the future will be terrible." Somewh
880.
by marvin 6y ago
And if you want a less glamorous tidbit to add to that list, OOP originated in Norway with the SIMULA language in the 60s.
881.
by marvin 6y ago
We have lots of bumblebees on our property in Norway. We just leave some parts of the garden completely untouched, with a rich variety of wild plants growing, and they’ll move in there and seemingly thrive well.
882.
by marvin 6y ago
Imagine seeing some 10 million euro fines over that. Would be glorious.
883.
by marvin 6y ago
Perfectly agree that this is preferable to bankruptcy. I might have worded myself ambiguously -- the emergency government loan might be a sort of bailout, but it wasn't a gift to the shareholders. When I hear bailout, I normally expect
884.
by marvin 6y ago
Why do you consider that unreasonable, when the free-market option is bankruptcy? They got to keep 5%, rather than 0! The terms of the emergency loan was a certain debt:equity ratio, so in order to qualify, their very high debt load had to
885.
by marvin 6y ago
Bankruptcies or stock offerings at crisis prices would help too. For instance, the airline Norwegian just accepted 95% dilution of existing shareholders in order to qualify for a government emergency loan. If they'd refused this, they
886.
by marvin 6y ago
"Wow. Do you mind if I call in our resident have a look at you? This is a great case study."
887.
by marvin 6y ago
This thread is the first time I've heard someone makes this argument. It resonates with an idea that I've had for years, since the first time someone pointed out that an internet forum is not bound by the first amendment. Yes. But
888.
by marvin 7y ago
Their potential market will certainly be _lower_ while the pandemic is ongoing, but there's plenty of high-income folks who haven't been materially effected by the epidemic and might still want a luxury car. Most people I know are
889.
by marvin 7y ago
Also, if there should be any trouble at all getting a dirt cheap bailout loan from the government, a solid history of holding the party line will be a guarantee for success. I don't know if Musk deliberately plays this strategy, but it
890.
by marvin 7y ago
He was definitely wrong by a factor of 3, then! But probably more.
891.
by marvin 7y ago
That doesn't bode well for Tesla earnings later today.
892.
by marvin 7y ago
Well, we'll know in two weeks. Bet you it's wrong.
893.
by marvin 7y ago
People are grasping at straws. It's so horrendous to believe that the world will be struggling with the pandemic for 18-24 months that any plausible-sounding indication otherwise is taken as truth. Been seeing it for three or four week
894.
by marvin 7y ago
Well, yes. But there's not enough time right now to do that goat study, and that's what we're advocating if we want to follow science to the exclusion of common sense.
895.
by marvin 7y ago
Let me clarify. You can follow a scientific approach, and you can follow Science the ritual. When uncertainty goes up and time is of the essence, the latter is to a large degree subjected to the limitations and blind spots I highlighted. Th
896.
by marvin 7y ago
There is a dark side to this. Scientific consensus follows certain rituals and heuristics. Even if you can assume that the scientific consensus is the closest to truth you can get (this is debatable), the approach will fail in some situatio
897.
by marvin 7y ago
Speaking of today's situation, that's straightforward. Fewer infections in the population in general, lower probability that an elder care worker in a given facility gets infected and goes to work contagious without their knowledg
898.
by marvin 7y ago
Sad to say, I'm completely unsurprised that countries with rampant Covid19 spread have a lot of deaths in their retirement homes. It's practically deterministic. People are contagious in the pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic case. S
899.
by marvin 7y ago
Just for reference, Norway's epidemic also started with a large influx of cases from Italy and Austria. But the countries have used different strategies from that point on.
900.
by marvin 7y ago
Sweden: 1,937 deaths. 50 fewer seasonal deaths than expected. Norway: 187 deaths. No increase in seasonal deaths. Denmark: 384 deaths. Seasonal deaths unknown to me. Finand: 149 deaths. Seasonal deaths unknown to me. Sweden has approximatel

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