Empact

> I’ll never understand

In activism, people have the capacity for voice and exit. He apparently is exercising both.

> Nobody cares what you think

The letter being discussed here seems rather to confirm that people do care.

> All that's needed for good indoor air quality (IAQ) is an ERV/HRV which exhausts stale indoor air and brings in fresh outdoor air (through a filter)

The recommendations you mention are together features of the Passive House[1] building standard that seeks low energy use as well. If you build a building to a high standard, it will have a tighter envelope to retain heat/cool and protect against water intrusion. If the envelope is tight, you must actively manage airflow through an ERV/HRV. The consequence is that these buildings are supplied with continuous fresh air, and their ERV can be set up to dynamically react to air quality and other issue to ramp up the transfer.[2]

There's a subculture of builders pursuing these qualities in their building, represented for example by groups like "Building Science and Beer" in Austin[3], and Matt Risinger's Build Show[4].

[1] https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-a-passive-house-principle...

[2] https://www.broan-nutone.com/en-us/ai-series

[3] https://www.instagram.com/bs_and_beer_atx/

[4] https://www.youtube.com/@buildshow/videos

I recommend getting connected with The BUILD Show[1] and/or the related BS[2] and Beer meetups, where you can reach forward-thinking builders.

[1]https://youtube.com/@buildshow

[2]Building Science

Would you elaborate on what you’re referring to?

You’re responding to a different point than the one I made: it is true that western civilization has been Christian for roughly the past 2000 years.

Certainly, other civilizations exist, before and elsewhere, but what proof do we have to demonstrate that other systems would have produced a comparable outcomes: in terms of progress, human development, etc.?

And could they sustain themselves? Many cultures and religions have failed, been out competed, overrun, or collapsed.

You’re free to assume you can create a better society on other principles. I will urge modesty, and refer you to Chesterton’s fence.

Which are you referring to?

I’m referring to western civilization, which has been broadly Christian since Emperor Constantine (the 300s).

> Religion, all religion, had been a drag on progress

That’s a bold claim - are you sure that your fast-moving atheistic society would sustain itself? Prominent recent examples such as the USSR have failed spectacularly. Cosmopolitan societies like ancient Persia were overrun by the religious - ie they were outcompeted. Europe too, would have been overrun by Islam, had the Christian kingdoms not banded together in the middle ages.

Certainly it’s possible, but the absence of evidence confirming it is stark to my eye.

Christian principles have maintained civilization for thousands of years. We have yet to see whether progressivism can maintain civilization.

Is it arrogance to observe that, or to claim they are equivalently gibberish?

Likewise, the french press and moka pot are extremely simple, easy to use and require no electricity to operate.

Congratulations on being the first person in human history to call the end times correctly.

Again and again we’ve shown we can make these transitions, including surviving a major ice age. While there’s good reason to worry, as lack of worry denotes foolhardiness, despair is both self-defeating and counterfactual to the whole of human history.

This time it may well be different, but if it is, then your attitude is guaranteed to lead to failure, as we will then not take the necessary steps to secure the future.

My money is on a technological solution overall, but there are many things regular people can meaningfully do, such as driving less, giving up one or more cars, or choosing to build or renovate toward highly insulated, potentially net carbon sequestering house as with the passive house standard, switch to heat pump based a/c and water heating, and voluntarily contributing to carbon sequestration efforts such as through YC alum Wren https://www.wren.co/join/Empact

If you think that’s not enough, and perhaps you’re right, what lever do we need to press to make change? It is our responsibility as the current generation to identify and press that lever to secure the future for our descendants.

Politically, my money is on the Citizen’s Climate Lobby effort to bring about a carbon tax, and the American Conservation Coalition for its effort to raise the prospect of environmental policy in the Republican sphere. If enough people vote on this issue alone[1], as the second amendment and abortion communities have effectively done over the past forty years, then we have a chance to shift policy in the direction of conservation/protection.

For me that means: a carbon tax to reduce demand, unleashing zero-carbon sources like nuclear to further out-compete the fossil fuel plants, while also embracing efficient infrastructure like pipelines to efficiently convey that supply we continue to use. On this last point, remember that the demand is constrained via a carbon tax.

The world needs our earnest efforts. You can keep your despair.[2]

[1] particularly in the primaries, as most house districts are now non-competitive between the parties

[2] Incidentally, I think the hysteria on the left is also counterproductive, as “the sky is falling” only reaches so many people before it discredits the speaker, and the goal should of convincing the middle does not require them to be terrified - IMO the easiest way to do that is to make the behavior high-status and motivate people that way, e.g. see Tesla, solar panels, etc.

4 shipping containers

> They envision the plant being delivered in four truckloads: the reactor container, the power conversion unit (an open-air Brayton Cycle system), an instrumentation and controls container and miscellaneous support and equipment (like a heat exchanger to capture waste heat for district heating).

State reps have a much more informed and salient interest in maintaining their state’s sovereignty, as their power directly derives from it. Much of what the fœderal government does now to usurp state power is to simply bribe the states to change their policies (e.g. the drinking age, but many such examples). Would state reps willingly select senators who would bribe them to change their own policies?

For me, I focus on the concept of temperance. Temperance is a long-venerated cardinal virtue that speaks to the vice of over-indulgence, but it's special in that it doesn't insist that you never indulge, only that you assert yourself and pull yourself back from that indulgence. You temper your urges, and drink perhaps one drink less than you otherwise would, pass on one opportunity that presents itself. This act of will empower you by giving yourself the agency to limit your indulgence and choose between engaging or holding back.

> Why not inquire why those schools are first choice & if those factors can be deployed to every other school?

That's not an easy question to answer, but have you asked it yourself? Why don't public schools adopt the successful practices of charter schools that have the prospect of saving their youth from a life of crime? My explanation is that teacher's unions fight against the practices proven successful in other context, such as merit-based hiring and compensation.

> So the question is, where should the fix be applied?

We could start by not forcing them into a school system that is highly correlated with outcomes of criminality[1]. Then we could stop subsidizing dependency and instead ease the paths work, education, and entrepreneurship, e.g. by reducing the cost of compliance by e.g. reducing scope and burdens of licensure requirements, instituting opportunity zones.

I leave as an exercise to the reader considering why the Democrat party does not support the above policies, while the Republican party does.

[1] "Overall, I find that winning the lottery to attend a first-choice school has a large impact on crime for high-risk youth. High-risk lottery winners experienced roughly a 50 percent reduction in the measures of criminal activity that weight crimes by their severity." https://www.educationnext.org/does-school-choice-reduce-crim...

The coins have to be introduced to the market somehow. Mining is a fair, open way to distribute these new funds. Literally anyone can participate on equal terms.

In the case of bitcoin, the monetary inflation/issuance rate of bitcoin is currently ~1.7%, below the Fed's target for the USD, and will drop by 50% in 2024. https://charts.woobull.com/bitcoin-inflation/

> The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make micropayments impossible.

— Satoshi, 2009-02-11 https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/posts/p2pfoundation/1/...

> pseudonymous: why do I want anyone to be able to see my transaction history?

Transactions are viewable in the blockchain so that every party involved can audit the system and confirm the issuance.

Aren't Obergfell and Loving based on equal protection, rather than privacy? That seems a more valid basis, to this Roe-skeptic.

Actually, it does: "arms" is a general term that describes weapons including the Ak47.

The problem with saying technological change invalidates the 2nd amendment, is that you have to also explain or accept that the 1st amendment only applies to letters written with a feather and a pool of ink.

MLS = Major League Soccer was not a given for me. E.g. Multiple Listing Service. Update title?

I see at least four reasons this is the reasonable policy - Bicyclists:

* have a much better communication with their surroundings: unimpeded sight lines, and typically less sheltered from surrounding sounds

* suffer more risk and do less damage in a collision

* lose momentum in stopping that must be spent getting back up to speed - as to the significance of that last point, it affects the speed at which you arrive and the exertion you expend doing so - you can look to the preferential user experience of electric bikes as an example of how different cost/benefit energy/velocity trade-off influence use patterns

Finally, it is in society's interest to incentivize bicycles over cars, as they exhibit far fewer costs on society, in the form of parking, pollution, and physical violence.

There’s a far cry between commenting on public information relative to a governmental official, and misusing information as a private company.

And several prominent efforts to remove that power from the government’s hands are ongoing.

They are contributing to decreasing income inequality by describing how they increased their income.

Why should it follow that people who break from a culture of poverty should be forced to support those who do not? It smacks of the “black tax” described in the article - a response that undermines the good that could otherwise follow from greater employment and productivity.

This is described in the article, see “pedigree collapse” therein.

Anyone interested in following this line of thinking should look into Orthotropics[1] and Mike Mew.[2] A key insight is that bones are modeled not only according to a genetic program, but also in response to pressure - they move so as not to clash with one another, and reinforce themselves to deal with more demanding environments / greater pressures.

Personally I grew up with difficulty breathing through my nose, and didn't realize until my 30s that I had an undiagnosed tongue tie[3]. I've been applying orthotropic practices for several years and now breathe easily through my nose.

[1] https://reddit.com/r/orthotropics/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY3bIMRKil8

[3] It was noted a few times over my life by dentists, but in the form of noticing the symptoms of the issue, such as a tongue thrust swallowing pattern. In my case, my breathing was restricted, but an ENT could not see why - my best guess as to why was that my airway was constricted front to back (ventral to dorsal).

Presumably TSMC https://electrek.co/2020/08/18/tesla-hw-4-0-self-driving-chi...

For-profit schools also take on more marginal students, who may be less likely to prosper in any case.

My father, admittedly an outlier, went from growing up in poverty, to ITT Tech, to Marquette (a Catholic University), to a Ph.D. from U of I Urbana-Champaign in one long continuous path of transfers.

It’s not clear to me that he would have achieved what he did without the initial venue to acquire and demonstrate skills, but I could see how many might not travel that path.

To what extent can we really weigh the experiences of those who do net benefit (presumably the 60%) against those who do not? Perhaps one man’s preying is the answer to another man’s prayers.

Infinitely divisible money is an unit with unlimited ability to scale to the circumstances - if more is needed, simply add another zero. You err in comparing this to roads, which are necessarily in proportion to the amount of traffic over them. Money needs only to be able to represent value, and the relative value of different things.

Good monetary policy may be practicable by angels or saints, but not by men, who stand at the gates of unimaginable wealth that emanates from the printing press. Literal trillions of dollars - who can even conceive of that value, let alone decline the exercise thereof? Better to take it out of our hands.

Is it really so difficult to imagine a world where people spent less conspicuously, and invested more prudently?

In a sound currency world, interest rates are set by the relative availability of funds for investment - that is, they are counter-cyclically market-determined: if there is little investment, rates will be low, if the economy is booming, rates will naturally rise.

Secondly, the rate of deflation is determined by the rate of increase in the economy: if the economy is shrinking over time, there is no deflationary incentive to hold - so here again the currency is counter-cyclical, discouraging rapid growth while allowing for measured growth.

Is that sand? Or sanity?

You presumably live in a developed economy. There's a reason 70% of El Salvadorans don't have bank accounts, and it isn't a context of easy online banking.