Hacker News Reader

mslateon When we talk about traffic violence

Severe psychopathy is ~1% of humans--you'd hope they wouldn't drive, but many (most?) do.

I also entered the competition as an undergrad—I contacted Ben Weber 10 years later (2020) and interviewed him on my podcast:

https://theaccidentalengineer.com/adversarial-machine-learni...

mslateon Paying for Driving

There is some double counting, and you can size it: NHTSA priced US crashes in 2019 at $340B in actual bills: medical, lost wages, property damage, legal. Private insurers paid ~54% of that, so call it $185B.

But the bills are the small part. Count the deaths and the permanent injuries themselves and NHTSA's total estimated annual cost from crashes in the US is $1.4T. So insurance covers ~13% of the harm. The other trillion has no payer. Taxpayers pick up $30B of it, about $230 per household, and the rest lands on whoever got killed or disabled.

Minimum bodily injury liability runs $25,000-$30,000 per person in most states. That's the check amount that gets written when someone dies (if one gets written at all!).

If victims of traffic were made whole then car insurance would be staggeringly expensive and either (1) only extremely rich people would afford to drive or (2) a ton of un-insured drivers would be out on the roads.

mslateon Stripe acquires Clerky

Clerky when I last used it nearly a decade ago was lead generation for Delaware's business franchise tax.

Nothing ever came of my incorporated business (no spend, no revenue) and I received extremely menacing "collections" physical mail over many months about delinquent business incorporation franchise tax payments and escalating fees + fines (which I never paid).

The experience left me a very negative opinion of Clerky (and Delaware).

mslateon U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications

But titzer, are you not a wealthy resident as well? I thought we were among friends!

mslateon Nobody Died – and That's the Scary Part – Oshkosh 2026 [video]

Holy em dash

mslateon How working with a blind client revealed invisible accessibility gaps

What exactly does this have to do with the article?

mslateon How Madrid built its metro cheaply (2024)

Why would anyone prefer to drive when you can be driven?

mslateon Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M

That is a very uncharitable read.

mslateon Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M

Ironically, your sentence structure here carries the feint smell of LLM

mslateon Atherton spent $145K to delay train electrification. The rest of us paid $400M

From the article's first source:

https://calelectricrail.org/how-environmental-law-holds-back...

mslateon What if California is the most regressive state in America?

I think we’re talking past each other on this one. The article is about outcomes, not intentions

mslateon What if California is the most regressive state in America?

Exactly—and that’s the normal, healthy function of a housing market.

Prop 13 distorts that by making it financially irrational to ever move, which contributes directly to the lock-in and underutilization the article describes

mslateon What if California is the most regressive state in America?

It is interesting how you raise that yardstick on housing and not on income tax or sales tax.

Frozen property tax assessments benefit homeowners who are already rich, and disproportionately benefit the literal richest.

It is not entirely clear at all whether you’ve read the article

mslateon What if California is the most regressive state in America?

How it is framed and what the outcomes are are two different things entirely.

mslateon US SEC preparing to scrap quarterly reporting requirement

This means that employees would only be able to sell their stock 2 windows a year where they currently can sell 4 windows a year, correct?

mslateon OpenClaw (ClawdBot) joins OpenAI

What is "n8n"?

mslateon Italy investigates Activision Blizzard for pushing in-game purchases

Your analogy about drunk drivers actually makes my point: we don't just tell parents "be vigilant". We have DUI laws, road design standards, and enforcement--systemic solutions, not just individual responsibility.

With tech, we've largely abdicated that, placing the entire burden on parents to defend against industrial-scale manipulation.

Expecting individual parents to successfully counter industrial-scale behavioral engineering is a systems failure, not a parenting failure.

mslateon Italy investigates Activision Blizzard for pushing in-game purchases

When did "healthy parenting" become a full-time cybersecurity job with no training, adversaries backed by infinite capital, teams of PhDs optimizing for addiction, and sexual predators from around the globe dialoguing with your child through any glass surface your child can get their hands on?

mslateon Italy investigates Activision Blizzard for pushing in-game purchases

Should Apple/Google be liable as platform?

I'm trying to imagine how you envision regulation without going after the biggest individual apps that enable child financial fraud & sexual grooming.

mslateon Italy investigates Activision Blizzard for pushing in-game purchases

Not sure if you have children, but this is exactly what a healthy government regulatory framework looks like.

mslateon Cursor's latest “browser experiment” implied success without evidence

No one's killing a porcupine here.

mslateon OpenAI’s promise to stay in California helped clear the path for its IPO

In California, it's called an "impact fee"

mslateon [dead]

Sounds simple:

> In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC.

> The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official. But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January, according to six sources familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case, two of the people said.

> It’s unclear what reasons FBI and Justice Department officials gave for shutting down the investigation. But a Trump Justice Department appointee called the case a “deep state” probe in early 2025 and no further investigative steps were taken, the sources say.

...

> On Sept. 20, 2024, with hidden cameras recording the scene at a meeting spot in Texas, Homan accepted $50,000 in bills, according to an internal summary of the case and sources.

mslateon Show HN: When is the next Caltrain? (minimal webapp)

While cool, this does not incorporate real-time data, just the static schedule.

I've explored this--you need 511 API access to obtain real-time data, and to conceal your API key you need to stand up a web application.

Cool proof-of-concept, need to take it to the next level!

mslateon Luigi's Manifesto

US healthcare is barbaric

mslateon Air Canada to remove free carry-on from basic economy

I would be happy to pay for carry-on if it meant guaranteed space.

On the other hand, checked bags should be free/at a discount.

I have not understood why the pricing was inverse.

mslateon Databricks closes in on multibillion funding round at $55B to cash out employees

Pulling a Tanium would be to fire people right ahead of their vesting cliff: