nkoren

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331.
by nkoren 8y ago
If Greenland melts, you get 6 meters (20 feet).[1] 1: https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/icesheets.html
332.
by nkoren 8y ago
Oh I agree with this entirely. Market competition can be fantastic, but is only really possible in domains where consumers are A.) able to make choices (eg., not fire or ambulance or life-saving medical services), based on B.) sufficiently
333.
by nkoren 8y ago
> 0. People are primarily self serving and will likely not use the money as proponents intent This is an assumption, rooted in the belief that people are poor because they are lazy, and it is wrong. There are numerous studies which dispr
334.
The Evolution of the Big Falcon Rocket(nasaspaceflight.com)
1 points by nkoren 8y ago|0 comments
335.
by nkoren 8y ago
Don't mean to brag, but making this edit to Wikipedia felt damn good: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rinderpest&type=r...
336.
Watching a species vanish in real-time(psmag.com)
3 points by nkoren 8y ago|0 comments
337.
by nkoren 8y ago
Well, if it's Trump's position that countries which egregiously violate human rights shouldn't be on the council... I guess this is a good start?
338.
by nkoren 8y ago
Aaaaah! You got me!
339.
by nkoren 8y ago
Okay, the Youtube/political angle of this is pretty horrendous and is deserving of discussion. But they pose a question about Peertube: how well does it hold? In my limited testing from central San Francisco: it doesn't. Which mak
340.
by nkoren 8y ago
One of my all-time favourite pieces of journalism. If you haven't read it, do so! Upvoted!
341.
by nkoren 8y ago
This is a very poor demo. There are other videos which show it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mgs7P16Gao
342.
by nkoren 8y ago
Ah, sorry, you're correct. The company was owned by people who wanted short-term profit maximising decisions (its shareholders). The people actually making the decisions also owned shares, but nowhere near a controlling interest. A
343.
by nkoren 8y ago
> in your case was the consultancy owned by the people making these short-term profit maximizing decisions[?] It was a publicly-listed company, so that'd be a yes. Profit is obviously over time a necessary condition for making a s
344.
by nkoren 8y ago
Even disregarding the potential for negative externalities etc., profit alone can still be a terrible KPI. I worked for a large engineering consultancy that was very profit motivated. They figured out a brilliant way to maximise profit: get
345.
by nkoren 8y ago
Maintenance for a tunnel over ten years is not three times the initial outlay.
346.
by nkoren 8y ago
> The FIU bridge was meant to mimic the look of a cable-stayed bridge. But the 'cables' were actually steel pipes that didn't play a structural role I spent 13 years, in various capacities, studying architecture and workin
347.
by nkoren 8y ago
Ish. If you automatically do an emergency braking / avoidance manoeuvre every time a LIDAR-opaque object is in front of your vehicle, then you'll end up causing a lot of whiplash for the sake of sparing some paper bags. LIDAR give
348.
by nkoren 8y ago
> Note that SpaceX is still being propped up by NASA COTS, so it’s far too early to call it a commercial success. I'm sick of anti-Elon hysteria, and I while I respect differences of opinion, I downvote FUD that's based on misi
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by nkoren 8y ago
I've been trying to overcome my prejudices about Florida, and you're really not helping.
350.
by nkoren 8y ago
On a lot of metros (eg. the deep tunnels in London) this isn't a thing. Doesn't seem to matter.
351.
by nkoren 8y ago
Ah, you're quite right, very fair point. Supersonic retropropulsion was indeed a novel technology that ended up in their critical path. Interesting to speculate on what they might've done if that hadn't worked out! Are there
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by nkoren 8y ago
Not aware of any such possibilities, no. But if you're interested in this kind of thing, ping me at nathan at podaris dot com.
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by nkoren 8y ago
No, I think the parent has the right of it. I'm not equipped to analyse Tesla as well as I am for SpaceX, but I can say that the latter was not a bet on uncertain future technologies. While they have certainly deployed some pretty ni
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by nkoren 8y ago
Coming back to the Bay Area after a decade in London, the difference is shocking, and it feels difficult to call the Caltrain "perfectly feasible". Coming into on a Sunday afternoon, I had to transfer at Millbrae. It was almost a
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by nkoren 8y ago
Ouch. So, my startup is positioning itself as a kind of "GitHub for X". When investors ask about our exit strategy, I have to be honest and say that acquisitions the big platform players in the space are largely ruled out; if we a
356.
by nkoren 8y ago
These are different goalposts. I responding to the claim that Christianity has historically been a more tolerant religion than Islam; this specific claim is bullshit. The fact that religious minorities in Islamic-majority countries even
357.
by nkoren 8y ago
Bullshit. You want proof that doesn't appeal to the Quran? Fine. In long-Islamic countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, there are a large number of pre-existing minority religions: Yazidis, Mandeans, Samaritans, and a number of o
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by nkoren 8y ago
Yep. All that stands in the way is every personal injury lawyer, class-action lawyer, consumer interest group, public safety regulator, competitor, and short-seller in the world. Shouldn't be a problem.
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by nkoren 8y ago
It's a more generalised problem than you probably think, and is a factor in virtually every multi-party accident. Even if the root cause of the accident is someone else's human error, this still leaves surrounding vehicles with
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by nkoren 8y ago
(Adapted from a deeply-nested too-late-to-notice reply I made on another thread[1], but which I suspect more people would benefit from seeing) I am skeptical that AIs capable of piloting fully driverless cars are coming in the next few year

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