mikeash

18 ms·

151.
by mikeash 7y ago
Lots of people buy organic on principle, so those are automatic customers regardless of quality. Many other people buy organic for quality, but that doesn’t actually require quality, merely the perception of it. For a lot of people, the “or
152.
by mikeash 7y ago
Fossil fuels don’t have positive externalities. They have benefits, which are entirely captured by the user. You don’t need (or want) to subsidize those, because they’re already being paid for.
153.
by mikeash 7y ago
Unfortunately, you don’t have the option of not breathing in the exhaust of everyone else’s petrol cars.
154.
by mikeash 7y ago
That doesn’t add up. The I-PACE and Taycan both have similar weight to the Model X, yet are substantially less efficient. The e-tron is lighter than a Model S and has absolutely horrible efficiency.
155.
by mikeash 7y ago
People risk death to come here because they risk death at home if they don’t. It’s aboit safety, not freedom. Approximately nobody is risking death to come to the US because they want to enjoy our freedom.
156.
by mikeash 7y ago
“...the woman has bipolar disorder and had missed her medication.”
157.
by mikeash 7y ago
That doesn’t seem to explain why other cars are getting less range from batteries with similar capacity.
158.
by mikeash 7y ago
Eating healthy food and exercising regularly isn’t optional in this sense either, and yet people avoid it. Sunscreen isn’t optional if you’re light skinned and go out in the sun, but people often skip it. More examples abound. You can talk
159.
by mikeash 7y ago
Overdosing pretty clearly is an unfortunate side effect of addiction to a substance that can be overdosed with, especially one that has to be obtained on the black market.
160.
by mikeash 7y ago
Bullets are better than hauling everyone off to secret prisons where they are tortured to death over months. So I guess bullets are cool!
161.
by mikeash 7y ago
Why not shit on a company supplying tear gas to an oppressive regime?
162.
by mikeash 7y ago
And if you need pills routinely you should probably think twice before having a chronic condition.
163.
by mikeash 7y ago
How does them taking a swing at their rescuers tell us anything about their relative costs and benefits to society? What makes me think people don’t? The fact that you begrudge $50 to save an addict’s life, while your theoretical reaction t
164.
by mikeash 7y ago
Everybody needs regular food to avoid dying. Many need insulin or heart medication. Many need regular pills to keep their brains from going off the rails. Is this so different?
165.
by mikeash 7y ago
While this is true, trying to figure out ahead of time if they’ll cost more than they contribute is the path to madness. (And even trying to figure it out after the fact is pretty ridiculous for the vast majority.) A person who eats poorly
166.
by mikeash 7y ago
It also says you don’t have any incentive to improve them legitimately. The whole problem with metrics is that they can’t distinguish between gaming them and real improvement.
167.
by mikeash 7y ago
25% fuel savings doesn’t mean you convert the excess into payload. It just means you need less fuel. The Saturn V could get ~50 tons to the moon using ~3,000 tons of fuel. A 25% savings means you get 50 tons to the moon using ~2,250 tons of
168.
by mikeash 7y ago
In theory, it may not be. In practice, lots of sites that split out shipping make it hard to find out just what shipping will cost until you’re very deep in the checkout process, and then charge insane rates.
169.
by mikeash 7y ago
That quote is vague fluff, not “practical consequences.” What actual change was brought about by those protests? As far as I can see, there was none: no democratization or other political liberalization happened, just a bunch of dead or dis
170.
by mikeash 7y ago
What practical consequences did Tiananmen Square have? You say it’s why they can’t just march into Hong Kong, but I don’t believe that. They can’t just march into Hong Kong because of the international condemnation that would ensue, and bec
171.
by mikeash 7y ago
If so, that seems to reveal a pent-up desire for divorce that was suppressed by making it legally difficult. Having the government force people to stay together when they don’t want it seems like a bad thing.
172.
by mikeash 7y ago
Tiananmen Square. Rabaa (Egypt, 2013). Prague Spring. Some more are scattered around this Wikipedia list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_events_named_massacres The aftermath of a massacre comes down to the gover
173.
by mikeash 7y ago
And peaceful protestors can also be massacred and completely fail to bring about any change. Peaceful protests can work sometimes. Other times they do nothing. Same with armed resistance. Declaring one or the other to be the only possible w
174.
by mikeash 7y ago
The international reply coupon racket was legitimate, though. It was kind of shitty, since it was abusing a loophole in the rules to extract money from postal services, but it was legal. In terms of morality, it’s little different from arbi
175.
by mikeash 7y ago
I can totally understand how people get taken in by scams, but I’m completely baffled at how it’s so common to double down on them after they’re exposed. Human psychology is weird. Any thoughts on how to handle this better? I imagine many o
176.
by mikeash 7y ago
Maybe they did. This article is awfully light on details and heavy on speculation.
177.
by mikeash 7y ago
The ESA isnt a governing authority here. The proper analogy would be two planes in uncontrolled airspace on course to come uncomfortably close. One asks the other to change course, and the other refuses. No FAA involved. This sort of thing
178.
by mikeash 7y ago
Just to be perfectly clear: I’m not proposing anything in the realm of international relations trying to force countries to do anything. Regarding your specific points: 1. Yes. Maybe only for resident visas (arbitrarily turning away tourist
179.
by mikeash 7y ago
Emissions from everything else are rising fast too. Surely curbing emissions growth from electricity generation will have a much bigger impact. The articles about SO2 and NOx emissions are clickbait. They compare to cars, which are extremel
180.
by mikeash 7y ago
I don’t see how the anarchic and deeply selfish world of international relations would shed any insight on that. I think you’re trying to make a point with all these questions, but damned if I know what it is. Maybe you could just say it?

More ›