myrmidon

23 ms·

421.
by myrmidon 11mo ago
I really liked this podcasts; the host generally does a really good job, his series with Sarah Paine on geopolitics is also excellent (can find it on youtube).
422.
by myrmidon 11mo ago
I did not mean to imply that AI isn't helpful already. But a screw-driving assistant is more useful if he drives in screws on his own than if you have to prompt his every action. I'm not saying that a "dumb" assistant
423.
by myrmidon 11mo ago
Another limitation that I see right now is that for "economic impact" you want the things to have initiative and some agency, and there is well-justified hesitancy in providing that even where possible. Having a bunch of smart d
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by myrmidon 11mo ago
I'm not convinced, because all a keyboard really costs you is latency , while almost every human-machine interaction is actually bandwidth limited (by human output). Even getting zero latency from a perfect brain-machine interface w
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by myrmidon 11mo ago
Kassel is under 200k people, with ~100 raccoons/km² though! Curiously, that raccoon population was established legally and intentionally in the 30s to bolster local fur production; later efforts to eradiacte the animals (for being pest
426.
by myrmidon 11mo ago
> Getting serious in 2014 (after Crimea) would have given Europe options. Realistically, what options? The only thing that could have really helped in my view in hindsight was either massive visible arms-deliveries to the Ukraine befor
427.
by myrmidon 1y ago
An interesting take, but I think it goes a bit too far; you don't need to be a porn or gambling addict for increasingly available screen-based entertainment/interaction to "leech" time and motivation that you would othe
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by myrmidon 1y ago
China is not exporting LNG at all, did you mean Canada? The US is still a very large and attractive market for European exporters, and it would at the very least substantially least hurt Europeans if they had to fully substitute the US with
429.
by myrmidon 1y ago
I 100% agree that Europe regarded Russia as a potential trade partner (and possibly more positively than the US) even after the 2014 annexation. But I don't think that this makes EU policy necessarily incorrect : Would German military
430.
by myrmidon 1y ago
What is happening right now is that legacy carmakers have to compete harder because their core know-how lost value. That was somewhat inevitable, but banning/destroying that industry 10 years earlier would have hurt much more and wou
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by myrmidon 1y ago
Excellent writeup. I wish it was also adressing the Helion Energy approach, too (FRC plasma configuration, pulsed operation, extracting electric energy directly from the magnetic field), which I see as a possible "out" for fusion
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by myrmidon 1y ago
Counting just private jet flight about 200 Elons (5kt CO2/y). Some people are even higher, and large yachts are worse than business jets I'd assume. But I'd say that people tend to actually overestimate the share of super-ric
433.
by myrmidon 1y ago
If those are below average in CO2 emissions you would make the numbers worse though, and that seems pretty likely to me. Need to deport only rich immigrants owning more than one car.
434.
by myrmidon 1y ago
It might be a tiny bit more feasible to convince 200000 households that they don't need a second car (or switch to electric ones), but mass murder would have a comparable effect on CO2 emissions, yes.
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by myrmidon 1y ago
> where are the lobbyists that prevent policymakers from writing regulations that harm the affected citizens Voting is there to keep incentives aligned with the population at large. On specific issues, lobbying is also feasible for non-
436.
by myrmidon 1y ago
> It's the "unreasonable" rules that were unilaterally implemented that made car companies panic and finally start competing. I believe the margin for effective regulation is much smaller than you think. Sure, the EU could
437.
by myrmidon 1y ago
> Industries that cant comply to modern standards should be harmed. Those "modern standards" need to be codified into law, and feedback from established companies is valuable for doing that. > We dont need industries willing
438.
by myrmidon 1y ago
I'm not a fan of her either, but what do you actually expect ? Politicians are not generally domain specialists anywhere , their purpose is to make decisions and serve as a pretty face for some more or less coherent policy. Lobbyism
439.
by myrmidon 1y ago
So your position is that opinions (from all parts of the political spectrum, depending on topic) get routinely supressed via the flagging system, making HN a "non-functional social space"? I disagree with that strongly as well. Lo
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by myrmidon 1y ago
> The bias comes out when the subject matter becomes in any way controversial. I do not agree on that. I think if you flip the perspective in topics like this to the other political side ("Chicago is finally doing something against
441.
by myrmidon 1y ago
I don't think it is ridiculous to flag topics like this. The problem is that topics like this are incredibly hard to keep civil, and the "HN factor" ("prominent" people involved chiming in) is not really there, eith
442.
by myrmidon 1y ago
> Top marginal tax rate was surprisingly not too correlated to government revenue Yes. Which is interesting, but also makes sense if you assume that a frequent goal is to shift the tax allocation between wealth classes (adjustments to to
443.
by myrmidon 1y ago
Labor is always a big driver of cost, because you need to plan, build, maintain and operate those factories with humans even if fully automated, and a lot of the indirect costs is going to scale with the price of labor, too (local legal r
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by myrmidon 1y ago
> Manufacturing labor cost in China has surpassed parts of Eastern Europe. This is a good point, but I think that only really the underdeveloped/underindustrialized/unstable parts really qualify, possibly Romania, Serbia, Ukrai
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by myrmidon 1y ago
I think your 2% number is extremely misleading. From what I can see, taxation as GDP percentage was never really under 10% since 1950, while big cuts to the top tax rate happened in the 60s and 80s (and the federal budget was continuously i
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by myrmidon 1y ago
The grippy skin on your hands is also often thick enough on its own to protect you, especially when callused, same for bare feet (so you can pinch them without getting stung). The problem is all the thin skin (ankles, wrists, lower leg&#x2F
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by myrmidon 1y ago
Median wage in urban China is about $20k/year. That is objectively dirt-cheap compared to basically all of the west. Yes, wages might be even cheaper in neighboring countries, but those lag behind in infrastructure, education, politi
448.
by myrmidon 1y ago
> Making heat from electricity is hard! Why? All you need is resistive wires, and minimal, dirt cheap electronics for regulation and shutdown/safety. You can find this in literally any $20 kettle or toaster, no need to supply Africa
449.
by myrmidon 1y ago
Battery power for an oven like this is not necessarily cost-prohibitive; if you want cost effectiveness and long lifetime, LiFePo cells can be had for ~$60/kwh, which would be under <$200 for an ImpulseLabs sized oven. Absolutely ag
450.
by myrmidon 1y ago
Wealth inequality is a problem because it deprives median citizens of limited ressources; consider urban housing as an example. There are two factors at play: - Average people have to compete on price with the wealthy (which becomes harder

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