ls-lah_33

Not sure what you mean, are you talking about ER = EPR? I think that's mostly a way of accounting for entanglement between particles, but it doesn't create the particles to begin with like in LQG. But my string theory knowledge is probably out of date, so I could be wrong.

I'm surprised Sabine doesn't mention the way fermions are treated in Loop Quantum Gravity [1][2]. My understanding is they are treated as "non-local" or open loops of gravitational force, and thus entry and exit points in space-time. This makes them conceptually similar to the "wormhole model" of matter that Einstein and Rosen originally described.

[1] https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/9404010

[2] https://arxiv.org/pdf/1012.4719

> I don't see why we shouldn't be optimistic here because historically speaking things have gotten much much better! To me, a gradual and consistent ramping up lvt would be probably the most progressive policy a country could pass at this point :D

This is probably more feasible than you think. A hybrid or split rate combining both land and property taxes is not only possible but apparently exists in practice in some cities, for example Pittsburgh.

https://www.chicagofed.org/-/media/publications/chicago-fed-...

Worth noting that the company they work for is called Sama, which if I'm not mistaken, derives its name from the word 'equal' in Sanskrit.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-08-03-samasourc...

Bible time!

When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you,

and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.

Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive. - The Book of Proverbs

In my experience rich people are very 'outcomes focused'. They almost always expect something in return. I always ask myself why are they giving food to me specifically and not just some random person?

Don't know about regulation, but the development of the internet was initially subsidised by the US government [1]. AI research has also been subsidised in the past. The famous MNIST handwriting dataset being a good example here [2].

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

[2] https://www.nist.gov/srd/nist-special-database-19

Good to see I'm not the first one to notice. Some of the author's points are super vague:

> Use Postgres for caching instead of Redis with UNLOGGED tables and TEXT as a JSON data type.

> Use Postgres as a message queue with SKIP LOCKED instead of Kafka (if you only need a message queue).

I'm sure if we try hard enough we could find some sort of meaning in these points, but then the content is coming from the reader not the author.

Also from the author's mastodon:

> Using ChatGPT As a Co-Founder

> in 1994 when the Apartheid government handed over power to the ANC, basically everything the government had in the pipeline was scrapped

It's worth noting that under the Apartheid government energy in SA was completely dependant on the state [1]. Then towards the end of Apartheid, due to sanctions - among other things, the government basically had to default on its debt causing the national currency, the Rand, to go into a bit of a tail-spin. To cover their expenses the old government took out a loan from the IMF just before handing over power [2]. These loans often come with commitments to reduce government expenditure, amounting to basically an austerity programme.

I assume that is one of the main reasons that many of the promises of both the old government and the incoming ANC had to be scraped and replaced with essentially what amounted to series of austerity measures [3]. In 2020 the government once again took on a loan from the IMF, again with austerity conditions attached... and here we are, with a vaguely stable currency but a gradually failing economy.

[1] I assume as basically a subsidy for the mining sector.

[2] https://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/tad/extrans1.aspx?member...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_welfare_programmes_in_S...

Can't cooking solve this problem? Rare meat is problematic for this reason. Also my understanding is that some traditions in Judaism and Islam even for allow insect consumption.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy_in_humans#Rejectio...

It's worth considering that IVF fertility treatment often has discarded zygotes.

Nicaragua is not such a good analogy since US foreign policy had a deliberate negative effect on Nicaraguan politics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_v._United_States. A better analogy would be a country that was non-aligned but didn't experience much interference. I can't think of many examples, aside from maybe Botswana or something.

Recently the fed has been buying corporate debt etfs[1]. Not an expert, but I assume that must increase the money supply in the general economy? QE also pushes down the interest rate, making it easier for banks to lend to the general public.

I think QE usually doesn't lead to inflation if your employment drops at the same time or your population size is shrinking (i.e. Japan). In such a situation consumer demand decreases, balancing out the additional money supply. As evidence of this notice how QE in the US did not lead to high inflation until employment started picking up.

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/the-fed-s-corporate-bond-portfo...

> You are the boss of a company of one

Nitpick, but companies have limited liability, natural persons do not. It's for that reason that I would probably never get hired if I actually was an employee of a "company of one" (formed me for example). Companies would obviously prefer to contract with me directly, not my company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_liability

> When unions get involved with promises of higher wages, it disincentivizes the business from growing in that area because it has effectively no benefit over the higher cost areas.

Say the Alabama workers decided to unionize, I don't think amazon could easily relocate warehouses to a another state/country in the same way that Boeing could do with manufacturing. There just isn't that much cheaper labor available in the country.

Not just denialism, but travel costs could also be an issue. I know in more highly vaccinated countries the government had to basically pay people to take the vaccine.

> I'm older, so I have 'habits' that don't tend to change.

> So what is the government reporting?

In addition to CPI, the government also reports CPI-E for elderly consumers. It is generally higher than the more widely used standard CPI (all urban residents).

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2012/ted_20120302.htm

The US was founded as a rebellion against aristocracy.

However, in 1825 Jefferson noted that, much like today, the country was becoming increasingly controlled by what he termed 'monied in corporations' and therefore seemed to be eroding the achievements of the revolution:

[T]his opens with a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry. this will be to them a next best blessing to the Monarchy of their first aim, and perhaps the surest stepping stone to it.

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-5...

> Many companies don't have sufficient margins to raise wages.

Not too sure how you came to that conclusion. Profit margins for many companies in the UK seem to have actually gone up [1]. You probably assume that companies are subject to perfect competition. That might be true for small businesses but is not really the case for large firms [2]. Some large firms practically are the market and can get away with employing few people for low wages. It's similar to a monopoly that is incentivised to sell few goods at high prices.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-antitrust-idUSKBN...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony

It's worth noting that their search and other services rely on something similar:

https://arstechnica.com/features/2017/04/the-secret-lives-of...

Yeah, I had a laugh there as well. The author's equivocation between cancel culture and Stalinist censorship does seem like a bit of a stretch. I think a better analogy would be the explicit promotion of 'patriotic education' as a matter of official state policy [1].

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/what-1836-project-texas-promote-pat...

The US government once made a microblogging service called ZunZuneo [1] for Cuba in an attempt to encourage political change there. It failed to achieve its intended outcomes, but is nevertheless quite interesting because the it shows that the US government is well aware of how electronic media has great potential for exerting political influence.

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

Not to mention that one of the largest maximum security prisons in the US is actually a repurposed antebellum plantation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_State_Penitentiary

Most electrical transmission is cooperatively owned in rural areas of the US.

https://www.electric.coop/electric-cooperative-fact-sheet

It's apparently possible [1] to use an android emulator like anbox [2] to run whatsapp in a sandbox. I'd like to know if anyone here has experience with this approach as as a long term solution?

https://anbox.io/

https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/188040/whats-sa...

What's even more strange is that at one stage even some high ranking members of the Israeli military saw the benefits of the nuclear deal.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-militar...

Yeah, the debate between the left and right in the US [1] is basically irrelevant to the well-being of the average person. Though, I think the distinction between authoritarian and libertarian definitely does matter. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Finland and Switzerland are both rigorously democratic: Nordic countries have strong labour unions and worker co-determination [2] to keep big businesses honest, while Switzerland has direct democracy [3].

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

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-determination

[3] https://www.eda.admin.ch/aboutswitzerland/en/home/politik/ue...

The BBC gets roughly a quarter of its income from commercial sources

https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2021/j...

I agree that the government's hard lock-down was excessive, but just one nit-pick: most of what's called 'looting' in the SA press is actually what's technically referred to as 'irregular expenditure', which the Auditor General is very clear does not mean outright fraud but rather referrs to breaches of tendering legislation. This could be anything from over-priced goods (as you mention) to noncompetitive tendering offers. I therefore think 'inefficiency'/'croynism' would be more appropriate term. This means only a certain percentage of the $700M could be reclaimed with perfect efficiency and it's not completely clear that would be enough to cover all vaccine costs.