nickff

23 ms·

601.
by nickff 2y ago
Everyone that I’ve ever heard mention ‘induced demand’ with respect to roads does so while advocating against the construction of additional infrastructure capacity for passenger vehicles (cars). This correlation is consistent enough that i
602.
by nickff 2y ago
If Foxconn workers had either average or worse-than-average mental health (in their country), this outcome appears to be positively impacted by their employer. This seems like a reasonable assumption, unless you have some countervailing inf
603.
by nickff 2y ago
The problem with the 'induced demand' paradigm is that it leads to cities not investing in infrastructure, and often designing the city to be hard to enter or exit, and impossible to bypass. This is one instance where there are ma
604.
by nickff 2y ago
It depends on your understanding of Article 1 Section 8: > "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United S
605.
by nickff 2y ago
If you're going to resort to Constitutional arguments, you shouldn't gloss over the fact that the federal government is supposed to be one of enumerated powers, and there's no 'bribing universities to do what you want&#x
606.
by nickff 2y ago
Kling and Haidt would agree with your respective paragraphs, though they do add a lot of color, and their books are worth reading.
607.
by nickff 2y ago
Even the language that the different parties use is targeted at certain sets of values; Arnold Kling wrote this short book on the subject ("The Three Languages of Politics"): https://cdn.cato.org/libertarianismdoto
608.
by nickff 2y ago
It’s a cartel, and as with most commercial cartels, it’s enabled by government enforcement.
609.
by nickff 2y ago
AFAIK the Canadian government’s ‘subsidy’ is to allow R&D expenses (but not investments) to be fully deducted in the year they are made. This seems analogous to the old rule in the USA.
610.
by nickff 2y ago
Agreed! Uncertainty to do with short term economic issues, medium term geopolitical risk (Trump, China, Russia, etc.), and longer-term issues (national debt, Medicare, etc.) also shouldn’t be underestimated.
611.
by nickff 2y ago
De-scoping is also a commonly-cited result of higher interest rates. We recently lived through a prolonged episode of zero-interest-rate-policy (ZIRP), which encouraged long-term and risky projects. When interest rates go up, the minimum ac
612.
by nickff 2y ago
The Su-35 has a combat range of 1600 kilometers, and the two Canadian fighter bases are about 2750km apart, which means they can barely fight in the area directly between the bases! The Su-35 would not be an effective interceptor when so f
613.
by nickff 2y ago
Which ‘serious supersonic threats’ to Canada is the F-35 incapable of intercepting? The problem isn’t a lack of F-35 capabilities, the problem is that Canada doesn’t know what it wants. AFAIK Canada only has two fighter bases, and given the
614.
by nickff 2y ago
It depends on how you define success; the EU has certainly managed to achieve a great deal of standardization and compliance, at the cost of rate of progress and business model innovation. You might think this is a worthwhile trade off, but
615.
by nickff 2y ago
Not parent or grandparent, but ‘disproportionate’ is different from ‘about the same’; you’re shifting the goalposts.
616.
by nickff 2y ago
I think you’re pointing out a very important point; it seems like everyone pretends that you can ‘scale up’ scientific research, when it’s more like a service (that doesn’t scale). One problem might be that the people allocating the funding
617.
by nickff 2y ago
That really depends on which police you're talking about, and one's views on the Constitution. State and local police have fairly broad powers, and I don't know much about California's laws, so I'm not in a position
618.
by nickff 2y ago
I mostly agree with you, but there’s a difference between using a non-covert method of communication like telephone or SMS, and a social media post, which is designed to be relayed and amplified.
619.
by nickff 2y ago
Both SLS and Ariane 6 are late and over-budget, with little hope of being cost-competitive sans-subsidy. Aside from that, they’re very different rockets.
620.
by nickff 2y ago
When were the Americans “demanding” that Europe ‘give up’? The criticisms of Ariane 6 are mostly based around the expendable architecture and high launch costs. The Wikipedia article covers the program’s programs fairly well.
621.
by nickff 2y ago
Many American companies have reinvested their revenue into R&D; notable large examples include Google and Amazon. I rode a Waymo today!
622.
by nickff 2y ago
The system proposed in this piece could probably be safely implemented, but it would much more challenging to do than the author seems to indicate. There are a variety of failure modes that they ignore. The author also glosses over a 20% po
623.
by nickff 2y ago
Please design a physical product to reliably fail after a specific and precise amount of time (not usage, because that’s easier and not what you’re arguing), then come back and describe how easily you accomplished that feat. Everyone readin
624.
by nickff 2y ago
If that’s the case, why doesn’t the Air Force tug up its fighters? It’d be a huge advantage.
625.
by nickff 2y ago
If that sort of complexity were viable for commercial aviation, we’d be air-to-air refueling airliners.
626.
by nickff 2y ago
Why do you jump to the conclusion that Bezos is being extorted? It's also possible that he just thinks some of these editorial positions are bad for business. WaPo was a failing business when he bought it (and doesn't seem to be d
627.
by nickff 2y ago
Per my comment on another message, it seems like Matt was telling the truth, but not the whole truth, which is probably more than he was legally required to do.
628.
by nickff 2y ago
It seems like Matt was telling the truth, but not the whole truth, which is probably more than he was legally required to do.
629.
by nickff 2y ago
I suggested that the WPF-Automattic relationship was “the norm”, and you countered with a post where Drupal describes itself as “unique and groundbreaking within the Open Source community”. While Drupal might be better (or worse), this post
630.
by nickff 2y ago
Matt didn't attest under oath that he was transferring the rights to an arms-length organization; others might have assumed that, but I'm not sure why they would. Isn't the WPF-Automattic relationship more or less the norm wi

More ›