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newyankee

1,418 karma · joined February 19, 2013

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newyankee··on LinkedIn profile visitor lists belong to the people, says Noyb
When an entity becomes almost a monopoly, surely the rules about some behaviours should be stronger
newyankee··on Indian matchbox labels as a visual archive
Well one hobby I had when young was collecting these matchboxes. It was rumored that collecting 1000 unique ones would unlock something and gave rise to a rat race, this is pre Indian internet and no one really knew what it would unlock. I would look into the dirtiest of places against my family's protests.

A variant of the iconic 'Ship' called 'Shib', probably a misprint was the most prized possession. When I rethink this, it seems the poor man's version of baseball cards or other collectibles but as fun, a jugaad fun activity in times of extreme scarcity

newyankee··on How an oil refinery works
Wow, I had seen the inside of the refinery still partly under construction way back in 2003 when I was barely out of my teens.
newyankee··on FDA approves first gene therapy for treatment of genetic hearing loss
I do agree that FDA was quite risk averse before especially in areas where the risk - reward would be better for terminally ill or other patients. Having said that this is a different kind of risk reward treatment where the patient might themselves like to try it even if the risks were elevated compared to other post Phase 3 solutions.

AFAIK critics pointed this to be a form of regulatory capture as well.

newyankee··on FDA approves first gene therapy for treatment of genetic hearing loss
Fingers crossed. I thought the same when I had heard Stefan Heller at Stanford give a talk 15+ years back. I am sure progress is happening but Biology is hard and the hope is AI and other developments are giving it a push
newyankee··on FDA approves first gene therapy for treatment of genetic hearing loss
Actually I am unaware about what FDA policy changes helped this, can you elaborate ?
newyankee··on FDA approves first gene therapy for treatment of genetic hearing loss
Very positive news. I have something similar but in a much more difficult gene with different manifestation, but at least this gives me hope that something might come up in 1-2 decades.
newyankee··on Panipat: The rise of the Mughals
Also when discussing Mughals the most important elephant in the room is ignored. Their intention to totally Islamise India. But this is more about Indian history being editorialised by few communists and others as they hate the notion of a caste system filled India and prefer the Mughal & British rule in their sanitised version. The historic animosity in different groups exists and persists to this day and is reflected in these perspectives. The atrocities of Mughals are not only glossed over, they are completely whitewashed, especially their demolition of 1000s of temples, subjugation of native population and many other crimes are painted as something normal in their time when reality is much more complicated. This is to not even speak of the over romanticisation of Taj Mahal as something 'Indian' while ignoring numerous other architecture that still survives to this day. When pointed out that many mosques were built on top of temples whose basement still survives to this day that part of history is conveniently ignored.
newyankee··on Panipat: The rise of the Mughals
Actually there are many more interesting people in Indian history. From Chandragupta Maurya, Kanishka to even Shivaji and others. Mughals are overglorified if anything and their own primary texts are ignored in this process.
newyankee··on The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
I am sure people said the same 100 years back when they probably thought living beyond say 60 was too much. I know that in poorer countries due to high infant mortality rate and other issues just reaching 60 was a big milestone for the average person. The bigger question is how will the existing financial system adapt for such a scenario if even 10% of the population manages to extend from 82 to 100+
newyankee··on CATL's new LFP battery can charge from 10 to 98% in less than 7 minutes
In an ideal world, yes. But the only way to move forward is somehow modifying the existing world for better, step by step.
newyankee··on CATL's new LFP battery can charge from 10 to 98% in less than 7 minutes
In a well designed urban environment where cars have space for 2-3 modular batteries with swapping capabilities, I see no reason why taxis etc. need to carry battery payload > 150 km of range needed for local use, which would mean better fuel efficiency as well. Battery swapping done right is integral to this
newyankee··on CEOs admit AI had no impact on employment or productivity
WE do have self driving cars with Waymo data showing it is clearly better than human drivers in certain markets like Phoenix. It is human regulations, laws and the general societal unease that is preventing a total rapid change. In fact a Robotaxis only urban area which is continuously mapped might be feasible today and probably could even reduce the no of cars needed for the population making it accessible to many more.
newyankee··on Why Japan has such good railways
The good thing that happened seems to be that China has essentially 10xed the Japan railways template. I wonder how bad a car centric China would've had been.
newyankee··on Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection
Well a lot of Eastern religions do talk about sustainability 1000s of years back. Just because it was never part of Abrahamic faiths and their offshoot cultures which took over the world, does not mean that humans did not think this way
newyankee··on Marc Andreessen is wrong about introspection
The way I suspect they think is this. A pyramid is always going to be there, it is better we reinforce and consolidate our power at top with the friendlies below and make it sound like that is the best option for everyone.
newyankee··on I put all 8,642 Spanish laws in Git – every reform is a commit
and then we have people touting Jevon's paradox as outcome of AI disruption leading to more work. Before we create new work we need to figure out how to reduce incentive of people to unnecessarily complicate stuff and to be honest the answer is never clean or easy
newyankee··on The bridge to wealth is being pulled up with AI
the key part is 'more than ever', earlier the first world was happy with the status quo in general
newyankee··on Iran war energy crisis is a renewable energy wake-up call
Because the upside (with barely single digit margins if it exists) is mostly China and no one else being able to compete at that scale.

Something like skin in the game. US (low), EU(moderate), China (high), Global South (high with caveats to leapfrog but financing crunch always there)

Renewables need front loaded funding compared to Oil & Gas which are the incumbents that make them sticky.

Otherwise is a lot of US consumers were rational and only price minded they would've run TCO calculators on EV vs ICE for day to day use even without subsidies

newyankee··on The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild
Not just agriculture but highly water intensive agriculture like almonds. Also I read that a lot of laws about water in some US states contain so many grandfathered clauses that few people 'control' a lot of water use, not sure how much.
newyankee··on Corruption erodes social trust more in democracies than in autocracies
Civil Servants in India (with traces to British era) are considered the invisible rulers of the country. Getting selected is like becoming a local lord.
newyankee··on I'm glad the Anthropic fight is happening now
The algorithm rewards those guests who follow the trends, he rose the wave to be at the top very fast and now possibly has the leverage where the who's who in AI have to be on his podcast to broadcast their views
newyankee··on I'm glad the Anthropic fight is happening now
More than that the questions about space based solar vs land solar for data center calculations seemed hollow as they are easily verifiable. He let Elon get away with this admin does not like Solar as an answer instead of what he is doing to convince them otherwise
newyankee··on Billion-Parameter Theories
Literally countries with so much surplus land: Canada, Australia etc. have housing crisis where most of the top 10-20% of the population has become speculators in housing and openly NIMBY with no interest in supply side solutions unless forced down.
newyankee··on Is legal the same as legitimate: AI reimplementation and the erosion of copyleft
If you think about creative outcomes as n dimensional 'volumes', AI expressions can cover more than humans in many domains. These are precisely artistic styles, music styles etc. and tbh not everyone can be a Mozart but may be a lot more with AI can be Mozart lite. This begs the question how much of creativity is appreciated as a shared experience
newyankee··on Workers who love ‘synergizing paradigms’ might be bad at their jobs
Operational jobs are filled with these though. Not saying they are bad at work but the corporate culture leads to this language and style overwhelming everyone else and rising to the top
newyankee··on Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is killed in Israeli strike, ending 36-year rule
Well if you take religious interpretations to do the extreme they hate all 'non believers'. I am assuming that even the Sunni Muslim countries' average population might not be that happy with the bullying (their perception)
newyankee··on OpenAI raises $110B on $730B pre-money valuation
What would really help is knowing the details of such funding. The hierarchy of who gets paid first in event of going under is very illuminating and while I am not a banker I always wonder if there are caveats too complicated even for the large investors to understand
newyankee··on Following 35% growth, solar has passed hydro on US grid
India has effectively electrified almost all of its rail transit. USA or other countries do not need to electrify all lines and the long tail is too long but even the major ones can bring in big benefits. No need to even get China in this equation.
newyankee··on Nearby Glasses
Not an expert, but my suspicion is that the camera following lips can add an extra streaming data point making transcription accuracy much higher even at low volumes. Again a hunch and I guess the computational power and battery needs might still be insurmountable
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