joubert

> Switzerland is a country that has done very well for its people, but the lessons which have kept it stable and safe over the past two centuries (have a lot of mountains, and don't be worth invading) are not ones which extrapolate out.

Would you say that Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s political thought has been valuable and influential in the world?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau

> We shall disperse the Swiss Armed Forces. We have signed a treaty with the Russian Federation, in which we pay them $1B a year (less than 20% of our previous defense budget). and they promise to nuke everyone should someone invade us. We believe that renting a nuclear umbrella is a cost-effective way to maintain territorial integrity.

Does not compute.

Thought travels faster than pen on paper travels faster than code ok editor.

Did some research; think I’ve figured it out. See whether this is correct.

Occupied palaces, like Buckingham Palace, are owned by the reigning monarch ‘in right of the Crown’ (like you pointed out).

Similarly, the Crown Estate belongs to the reigning monarch ‘in right of The Crown’.

“In right of The Crown” means it is owned by the monarch for the duration of their reign, by virtue of their accession to the throne.

So, you are correct (and I was wrong) that Buckingham is not part of the Crown Estate.

Notwithstanding this technicality, would you agree that the overarching point remains that it isn’t as if “the money goes to the monarch for their personal enjoyment” (which is what I interpreted you implied), but towards Buckingham renovations, which is a property of The Crown[1] (i.e the state) and which in turn is embodied by the reigning monarch.

It sounds to me as if the monarch is like a custodian/shepherd of these assets for the benefit of the state (the crown).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crown

> A crazy stat for me is that as a percentage of population more people in the Netherlands speak English than do in the US.

The US is very diverse.

A fun stat is that there are over 600 languages spoken in New York metro, making it one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world.

https://www.6sqft.com/new-map-shows-over-600-languages-spoke...

> This idea that therefore the Netherlands has a zero-tax policy that's screwing other countries is nonsense. There are many other examples and discussions you can have about Dutch taxes creating issues overseas (the Netherlands is certainly not perfect), but the tax regime for corps with a legal HQ in the Netherlands isn't one of them.

Sampling from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/business/netherlands-tax-...:

Of Nike: “ The sports apparel maker used a common, legal method of shifting profits to a tax haven, according to the consortium’s research. First, it allocated ownership of its “swoosh” trademark and other intellectual property to a subsidiary in Bermuda, which has no corporate income tax. Then, its subsidiary in Hilversum paid royalties for the use of the trademarks to the Bermuda unit. The royalties counted as business expenses and in that way avoided taxation in the Netherlands.”

And more generally: “ The Netherlands long justified its laws by arguing that they encouraged multinational companies to establish their headquarters in the country, creating jobs and investment.

More recently, however, legal thinking and public opinion have turned.

Officials in Brussels have accused the Netherlands of violating the European Union’s rules by helping Ikea to shear its tax bill. And polls show that Dutch voters have become increasingly angry at what they see as special privileges for wealthy corporations paying little or nothing — middle-class residents of the Netherlands, by contrast, can easily pay more than half their income in taxes.”

Agreed. Double edged: as the new entrant network effects of incumbent(s) can be the wall you hit. Can also be your moat if you innovate the space into a new, different direction.

Timing difference, i.e. majority of assets are not held in cash (it is put to work), so if many people try to withdraw lots of money at the same time, it can trigger a downward spiral (“bank run”).

I’d you’re curious to understand more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_run

> I should clarify what I said about its supply. Although Bitcoin is limited in supply, digital currencies are not limited in supply because new ones have come along and will continue to come along to compete so the supply of Bitcoin-like assets should, and competition will, play a role in determining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices. In fact I assume that better ones will come along and displace this one because that is the way the evolution of everything works—i.e., new ways of doing things and new things always have and always will replace old ways of doing things and old things. Since the way Bitcoin works is fixed, it won’t be able to evolve and I presume that a better alternative will be invented and pass it by. I see that as a risk. For those reasons the “limited supply” argument isn’t as true as it might appear—e.g., if Blackberries were in limited supply they still wouldn’t be worth much because they were replaced by competitors that were more advanced. I still don’t know the answer to why that isn’t a risk, but I would welcome my naïveté being corrected.

it was indeed cool. also generating audio. fun times. I never managed, no tried, to put a jpg on screen though. Not sure how many lines that would require.

> I know how much one needs to know in order to have a valuable opinion in the markets, so I wouldn’t bet on my own views.

Good to emulate.

> There is an old finding in political science that Americans are “symbolically conservative” but “operationally liberal.” Americans talk like conservatives but want to be governed like liberals. In California, the same split political personality exists, but in reverse: We’re often symbolically liberal, but operationally conservative. Renaming closed schools is an almost novelistically on-point example, but it is not the most consequential.

And Buckingham is part of the Crown Estate, which is not the private property of the monarch.

The Crown Estate is not the private property of the monarch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Estate

Also see, from https://www.royal.uk/royal-finances-0

> The Crown Estate as a whole dates back from the time of the Norman Conquest.

In 1760, George III reached an agreement with the Government over the Estate. The Crown Lands would be managed on behalf of the Government and the surplus revenue would go to the Treasury. In return, the King would receive a fixed annual payment, which was called the Civil List. With effect from 1 April 2012, the Civil List was incorporated into a new system of funding referred to as the Sovereign Grant.

The Crown Estate is not the personal property of the Monarch. It cannot be sold by the Monarch, nor do any profits from it go to the Sovereign.

The Crown Estate is managed by an independent organisation, headed by a Board, and any profit from the Estate is paid every year to the Treasury for the benefit of all UK taxpayers. The Treasury is effectively the principle Government stakeholder and is kept informed of the estate’s overall business plans and strategies.

The Estates portfolio has a value of over £7.3 billion, from beef farms in the north of Scotland to Portland stone mining in Dorset. Windsor Great Park is the only Royal Park managed by the Crown Estate. All other parks are administered by the Royal Parks Agency.

You don’t have to plant all the trees in the US. There’s one atmosphere.

Still, the slowness feels indicative of unseen rot on the inside of the machine.

    The slowness is like an off smell.

Faith is tested.

More books: https://racket-lang.org/books.html

Interesting write-up of the performance of Cramer's investments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cramer#Performance_of_Cram...

> I have about a thousand times more confidence, that if I use my smart TV as a dumb screen connected to an Xbox one or PlayStation 4, that over a multi-year period of time, Microsoft and Sony will successfully keep their operating systems automatically patched, updated, and secure. As compared to any tv manufacturer.

How do you feel about a Sony smart TV?

> So they shorted Gamestop (GME) from $20, to $10, to $4. Their greed kept compounding. They kept doing it again, and again, for months. Making billions of dollars, and almost bankrupting this company.

I haven’t followed the history. In what specific way did driving the share price itself down lead GameStop to near bankruptcy?

> As the social media and tech oligarchies get emboldened to attack less extreme groups

To what end? Wouldn’t it hurt the bottom line too much? I don’t buy the “they’re out to get us” idea.

> How can you know what is a slur and what is not when judging the way others communicate in their relationships? What if it’s a nickname from childhood?

How can you know what is an insult and what is not when judging the way others communicate in their relationships? What if it’s a nickname from childhood?

How can you know what is a threat and what is not when judging the way others communicate in their relationships? What if it’s a nickname from childhood?

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

> that a single company has a monopoly on their online social life

Isn’t that what people are also basically saying of Twitter. And Facebook. And ...?

Have they released subsequent versions?

> tolerance is about tolerating the most horrid things.

No it isn’t. No society survives if it is tolerant without limit. You are arguing that anything and everything should be allowed. No laws, no justice.

I suppose it is a valid position to have but I don’t think a practical one over the long term if you want to be alive.

Aren’t there more ways how and more places where you can speak out today than ever before? Aren’t people able to say more radical or extreme things at scale than ever before?

I’m reminded of folks claiming that their voices are silenced but say so on Twitter, at physical events, on the news, etc.?

The irony seems mind boggling to me.

Related: "How the 'Western Mind' was shaped by the Medieval Church" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25704563

Yeah I didn’t have to compile fpc/Lazarus for it to run on M1 (it works just fine), it is just that I wanted to give it a try!

Mac Mini, 16GB RAM.

Managed to compile FreePascal and Lazarus for M1 (aarch64); was fairly straight forward.

I’ve been playing / prototyping with FPC/Lazarus over the holidays so it’s nice to run without Rosetta.

Compiles are super fast, but of course fpc/Lazarus is pretty quick already. ;-)