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maxwellon Google is the only search engine that works on Reddit now, thanks to AI deal

They're both running on fumes at this point.

maxwellon The effect of daily usage of Mouthwash on the oropharyngeal microbiome

Good luck repealing the Twenty-first.

maxwellon The rise of the camera launched a fight to protect Gilded Age privacy

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

https://archive.md/n3eiy

maxwellon The rise of the camera launched a fight to protect Gilded Age privacy

> the ability to record things in near perfect fidelity is a problem

Ancient Egyptians and Romans would seem to have relished such a problem.

maxwellon Color Wheels Are Wrong (2011)

> In fact A and B are the same color (#787878), but you can’t see it even when you know this. To prove it to myself I had to open this picture in an image editor and actually move one square over another to see it was the same.

Looks like they're actually both #434343...

maxwellon Don't use 7-segment displays (2011) [pdf]

There is: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18566

maxwellon Canada became a car theft capital of the world

The police response:

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/03/14/leave-car-keys-at-fro...

maxwellon Cutting Board Designer

"Chopping" is a way of cutting.

maxwellon Twilio confirms data breach after hackers leak 33M Authy user phone numbers

Doctors and dentists are shifting to apps with integrated VoIP calls and dropping PSTN.

maxwellon US Supreme Court throws out rulings on state laws regulating social media

Not at all—more lucrative to say what people want to hear, raise a bunch of money, and lose, than it is to get in office and need to violate your campaign promises to appease the donors with steering influence.

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/s-ha...

maxwellon Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

If Congress doesn't want to do anything, and this one clearly doesn't (they look to be on pace for the fewest acts ever), then that just effectively kicks the responsibility down to State legislatures. Good for distributing power. You know, laboratories of democracy.

maxwellon Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

It's not moving power from the executive to the judicial branch, it's forcing legislative responsibility back on Congress.

Note that constituents in the U.S. have the worst representation of any OECD country. Worse than Commie China. America's biggest problem is the "Permanent" Apportionment Act of 1929.

maxwellon Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

What side effects?

maxwellon Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

This Court seems to be reducing both executive and judicial power, pushing it back to the legislature where it belongs.

But we now have worse representation in the United States than in Communist China, we're an extreme outlier among every OECD country, and this Congress is close to doing literally nothing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acts_of_the_118th_Unit...

So the result will be reducing federal power itself, kicking it back to the States. You know, laboratories of democracy. And now seemingly autocracy and theocracy as well...

maxwellon Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

In the U.S., the federal government only has powers that have been explicitly allocated by the sovereign (the People). The executive, under the guise of any three letters, can't "decree" shit beyond EOs. The President has enforcement and federative powers, not legislative.

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

I mean, maybe we go with OKC instead:

https://therealdeal.com/national/2024/01/28/who-is-real-esta...

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

Or let's give Washington back to Maryland (like Alexandria to Virginia), move the federal district to Lincoln, and build a new Capitol to accommodate a House with representation more like 70k:1 than the current (abhorrent) 700k:1.

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

Rome is over 15 miles from the coast, London over 20, Paris over 90. OTOH, Lisbon, Amsterdam, and Antwerp have direct sea access (and benefited early in the Age of Sail).

Boston, New York, Philly, Baltimore, and DC all have direct sea access.

Agreed. To me New England and the Great Lakes seem the best positioned U.S. regions for the 22nd century.

maxwellon Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

Then they can consult with experts, put it in a bill, and vote on it, instead of leaving it up to later extra-legislative discretion from political appointees with questionable expertise.

It sounds like you're referring to Locke's view on separation of power? He did hold legislative power supreme over the others like you say, but also noted that legislative power derives its authority from the people (consent of the governed), who have the right to make and unmake the legislature.

> And when the people have said we will submit to rules, and be governed by laws made by such men... nobody else can say other men shall make laws for them; nor can the people be bound by any laws but as such as are enacted by those whom they have chosen, and authorized to make laws for them.

Representation is now extremely poor in the United States. Colonial Americans enjoyed better representation on paper (though virtual) than the average American does today. People have better representation in Commie China. We're an extreme outlier among OECD countries, with over 700k constituents per rep. Compare Nordic countries, with more like 40k per rep, closer to the U.S. in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The only act of Congress I advocate for is repealing the "Permanent" Apportionment Act of 1929.

maxwellon Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old "Chevron deference" doctrine

Seems like we're evolving from common to civil law, probably for the better in the long run.

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

I'm a Midwesterner in New England who's taken maybe a dozen trips to New York. I wouldn't mess with the steam system if given the chance, just see that it gets documented I guess. There's a steam system at the college I went to, Manhattan-style steam in the Maine woods was pretty cool...

Personally I care more about bringing NYC-level transit to more of the country than further optimizing one of the few pretty good systems we have.

If I ran, I'd run on a transit ticket, with a platform of mostly cutting subsidies for private passive transportation, and increasing subsidies for public and active transportation.

Let's build out a national high-speed rail network. It's been great to see the economic development along the Downeaster tracks since reopening in 2001, and exciting that it looks like a new Black Hawk line will happen in northern Illinois near where I grew up.

Automobiles have been a disaster for the country. I didn't see a noticeable improvement in safety metrics from seatbelts in the data: the only correlation I saw was reduced crashes during periods of economic decline... Pedestrian deaths keep climbing. Emission and safety (hood height) standards are a clown show. EVs don't solve for MPs in TWPs/RWPs. One more line in New York isn't where I'd focus my energy, but I'm all for those lines and improving connections with NJ and New England.

Americans have never moved less, and more and more intense hyperlocal squabbling seems a result. Historically, if you didn't like local decisions or wanted better opportunities, you moved. That's not really the case anymore. (I previously cofounded a moving and storage startup.)

Imagine if the Chinese had spent the last twenty years keeping the 19th century alive like veritable steampunks in Shanghai [1] instead of building out the world's best high-speed rail system.

1. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/08/26-years-of-growth...

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

Ah, good point, I stand corrected on New York Harbor, glad to see that.

That seems true for most cities that made it through the Age of Sail, but less true before and unclear going forward. It seems trade routes by land were generally more important, and conquest and shipping were more carried out on land than sea until the technical developments of the 15th century. Most large ancient cities seem to have lied along the Silk Road, and many large (and late) ancient cities that still exist (Rome, Paris, London) aren't right on the sea as in the Americas.

Going forward the bigger issue seems to be insurability. Who's going to hold the bag on all those high rises in Miami...

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

> a serious comparison.

Sounds like what an ancient Greek might've said if you suggested comparing contemporary Athens with ancient Thebes. I don't see why not. You can certainly compare, say, square pyramids with equal sides, be it the Great Pyramid built around the 2600s BCE, or the smaller Luxor pyramid in Vegas and that scar on the face of Paris built 4500 years later. It's only been a few thousand years, what's really changed that much?

The Romans didn't quite get to an urban steam system, it's true, but they were quite close with the hypocaust (central heating), Aeolipile (Hero's steam engine), and Cloaca Maxima (sewer system).

> Better comparisons would be present-day Tokyo, London, Moscow, Paris, etc.

Of those it looks like only Paris has a steam system. Do any other major cities (still) have steam systems? Have there been any new recent installs outside college campuses?

I don't think so. It's a legacy technology, and legacy technologies are such mostly due to cost. Old infrastructure generally gets more expensive, until it becomes unsustainable. But people expect continuity and push back against changes that compromise the perceived identity of the place (like steam in Manhattan), hence most historical cities are no longer around at all.

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

But New York Harbor no longer has any cargo ports. Shipping shifted to Newark Bay decades ago.

Same with San Francisco. No longer any cargo ports. They're all in Oakland now.

And what's even the advantage of living near a cargo port in the 21st century anyway?

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

I'd connect the country with high-speed rail and focus entirely on manufacturing, just like China. Lots of cities and towns would pop up along the rail corridors, as in the UK and the first time we built out our rail infrastructure and everywhere else it's been done. The U.S. stopped building new cities around the same time we started adopting automobiles.

Our highway system has enriched incumbent cities and created a nation of gas stations, inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food, tire salons, automobile dealerships, and billboards.

Let's build Hyperdrive City, Nebraska, where you can rent an apartment on the 93rd floor of the mall for $200 a month:

https://br.ifunny.co/picture/derek-eedrk-can-we-build-one-of...

Or one of these:

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/chengdu-future-city-design...

maxwellon Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

I would never join a cartel like the American Bar Foundation myself, but that's not my understanding.

https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-2020/obs...

I hope you all the best. We live in a Second World country.

maxwellon Living Computers Museum to permanently close, auction vintage items

Have you sued DHHS / CMS?

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

Comparing cities doesn't makes for a serious comparison...?

It sounds like the steam system is important because it's important?

Do you have any numbers beyond idioms and anecdotes? At what point in the maintenance curve will the steam system become unprofitable?

And to be clear, I love the NYC steam system, but for romantic reasons, not economic.

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

Only seeing hand waving, not a single number.

Lots of cities were founded in the Americas over the past 10k years.

No major cities have been incorporated in the U.S. since Anchorage in 1914 and Vegas in 1911.

On the other hand, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, the Bahamas, Paraguay, Brazil, and Belize have founded major cities since then.

Why not in the U.S.?

Cancun was founded in 1970!

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

What if the infrastructure is (economically) unmaintainable?

Ancient Rome had a million people at the turn of the 1st century and was the financial and entertainment capital of the world too. People lived and stayed there too, until they didn't.

How many steam systems are left in the U.S. (outside college campuses)?

maxwellon Why it takes NYC nearly 10 years to install 500 feet of pipes

Historically the way to deal with legacy urban design like this was to, you know, build new cities.

Alas, we stopped founding new cities over a hundred years ago in the U.S.

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