Hacker News Reader

undefined1on The Mars Helicopter Is Online and Getting Ready to Fly

thank you NASA (and SpaceX) for being a source of inspiration and hope in a time when it's in such short supply. amazing work!

undefined1on ‘Deep Nostalgia’ can turn old photos of your relatives into moving videos

next step is having them talk, like this deep fake where parents brought back their dead son:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6I_wEetSck&t=30s

undefined1on Bill Gates: Nuclear power will ‘absolutely’ be politically acceptable again

it ends up being the alternative in practice. just look at Germany and Japan who spun up more coal plants to replace nuclear.

undefined1on Quitting Twitter

quitting Twitter will improve your life, but here's the problem:

it leaves it to the most radical.

and why is that a problem?

because there is a pipeline from Twitter into the real world, especially via journalists and politicians who live on there.

what's the answer?

I'd love to hear ideas! but I think either we need many, many more reasonable voices on Twitter (an uphill battle, given the platform rewards and optimizes for outrage) or the pipeline needs to be severed or replaced. the latter is probably the way to go, but how?

undefined1on Chicago Faces 135% Incr in Carjackings So Legislator Seeks to Ban GTA

that's why I said relatively. and maybe it was more like 2005-2015.

undefined1on Chicago Faces 135% Incr in Carjackings So Legislator Seeks to Ban GTA

from about 2000 to 2015 we were relatively free of moral puritans trying to censor people, language, art.

but now it has returned with a vengeance and even worse than the moral panics of the 80s and 90s.

undefined1on Chicago Faces 135% Incr in Carjackings So Legislator Seeks to Ban GTA

> Once the boomers have died off hopefully so will their insane need to resort to censorship instead of accepting personal and societal responsibility.

that may not do the trick, considering how many in the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts embrace censorship.

undefined1on GameStop shares soar more than 100% amid executive shuffle

here we go again.

"Tomorrow we’ll be doing an upgrade to our systems. Buying in some stocks might be limited. Sorry for the inconvenience."

https://twitter.com/TradeRobinhood/status/136469009363465011...

edit: oops, that's a fake account! sorry, disregard.

undefined1on In the ’80s, she was a video game pioneer. Today, no one can find her

no one has to do that. whether you want to share a last name is a discussion for you and your wife. if you decide to, it can be hers, yours, a combination, or even a made up name that you both like.

undefined1on In the ’80s, she was a video game pioneer. Today, no one can find her

why are you assuming harassment and pushing a damsel in distress narrative?

undefined1on Noise pollution hurts the heart

imagine adding flying cars to the mix! it'd be hard to escape.

undefined1on Noise pollution hurts the heart

leaf blowers are such a pox on neighborhoods.

we really need to find an alternative. is it possible to make an electric leaf blower that is both powerful and quiet?

or forget the leaf blower altogether and pay kids to rake up leaves instead. make it the new paper route. $N per bag.

undefined1on Frustrated with Parler deplatforming, I am building a service no one can silence

“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money.”

― Frederick Douglass

undefined1on Website scores kill our success, waste our time

I think scores on github, stackoverflow and HN may be a net win for all concerned.

Twitter and Facebook scores on the other hand... a massive net loss for all but Twitter, FB, their employees and shareholders.

undefined1on Hurt by Lockdowns, California’s Small Businesses Push to Recall Newsom

how do you know they don't have good ventilation and/or an outdoor space?

furthermore, it's not deadly (though possibility of long-term organ damage?) for most people, especially under ~70 years of age and in otherwise good health. making low-risk people stay at home, indoors, is generally making their mental and physical health worse. not to mention their economic situation in many cases. that all needs to be factored in too.

undefined1on When Bitcoin miners take over a town (2018)

> we just tax carbon usage?

yes please, that would be the holistic approach. externalities like carbon need to be priced in. if it's in the price, then the market will adjust accordingly. a $4 [thing] will jump to $12, people will buy fewer until producers figure out ways to reduce externalities in order to bring the price down.

what's free will be overused. price it in to force efficiency and alternative seeking.

undefined1on Activists who embrace nuclear power

in a time when institutions and experts are failing all around us, I appreciate your optimism. but it's too much like a blind faith and devotion to priests for my tastes.

and maybe they are right about every regulation, that's a possibility! but clearly something has gone wrong when we could have had a clean grid powered via nuclear energy by now. so I think it would be wise to question everything in the chain.

undefined1on Activists who embrace nuclear power

it's an open question.

but obviously there's no such thing as perfect regulation. it's imperfect, just as with everything else. so you have to ask the question.

regulations are often good and necessary, but they also often outlive their purpose and we end up with stagnation and regulatory capture from large corporations, where startups can't compete. or in the case of nuclear, even a Bill Gates' backed company has a hard time being able to build.

undefined1on Activists who embrace nuclear power

you're setting up and attacking a strawman. didn't say all regs are bad. obviously you have to identify which regulations are good and which are not, or those no longer necessary, and find a balance so you don't quash innovation. like the example I gave with Bill Gates nuclear project.

undefined1on Activists who embrace nuclear power

how much of that is due to regulations or other overhead or inefficiencies?

e.g., "China Tariffs Blocked Bill Gates’ Plan for Safe Nuclear Power"

https://futurism.com/trump-china-tariffs-bill-gates-nuclear-...

also, SpaceX managed to make reusable rockets, I just have to imagine we could make nuclear energy feasible if we approached it from first principles and took a hard look at the entire process.

undefined1on The coronavirus is here to stay – here’s what that means

more than 40% of US adults are obese and >18% of children. why we don't tackle that with urgency is beyond me, considering it's one of the main preventable health problems we have. and getting worse.

"From 1999–2000 through 2017–2018, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4%, and the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.

The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 US dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight"

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

undefined1on Prediction Markets: Tales from the Election

agree about freedom re: healthcare. it would also mean freedom to take risks as a creator or entrepreneur, if you don't have to rely on an employer for health insurance.

the gun issue is a city vs rural thing. you don't want them in a city, but you might in the rural context.

> freedom from hate speech

but reframing censorship as freedom is blatantly Orwellian. also, the left is not a monolith.

the liberal left advocates for free speech and liberty. aligned with freedom.

the illiberal left advocates for censorship and control. the opposite of freedom.

undefined1on The Texas power outage is a nation-wide problem

an opponent wouldn't be the top wind producer in the country and second in solar.

undefined1on The Texas power outage is a nation-wide problem

Texas is the leader in wind power in the US, and #2 in solar.

https://www.kxan.com/weather/green-energy-report-where-does-...

If Texas were a country, it would rank fifth in the world: The installed wind capacity in Texas exceeds installed wind capacity in all countries but China, the United States, Germany and India. Texas produces the most wind power of any U.S. state.

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

undefined1on Texas was minutes away from months-long power outages, officials say

the governor repeatedly said all energy sources failed, including gas and even nuclear. he gave specific numbers, pointing out that more energy was lost with natural gas compared to wind. of course people omit that because it's counter narrative.

also, Texas is a leader in wind power. it produces more than any other state and more than most countries.

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

undefined1on California Exit Interview: Fleeing $17 salads and 'general lawlessness'

which is the result of policies that make construction extremely expensive or straight up prohibited.

undefined1on Journalism, particularly at the highest level, is about raw power

"All I know is that there is only one way the press maintains its power in society: by metaphorically putting the heads of powerful people on pikes."

this is what just happened with Scott Alexander. they tried to put his head on a pike, because he's a high value node in the tech community that's eroding the power of the legacy press.

undefined1on Why “Trusting the Science” Is Complicated

> proposed drinking bleach

speaking of trust. here's a PSA for those, who like myself, had trusted the media and thought that happened:

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jul/11/joe-biden/...

undefined1on San Francisco school board halts appointment based on race

focusing on race only makes it more relevant. it's an incredibly counterproductive approach, clearly.

Mike Wallace: How are we going to get rid of racism until...?

Morgan Freeman: Stop talking about it. I’m going to stop calling you a white man. And I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man. I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You’re not going to say, “I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.” Hear what I’m saying?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s

the failure to heed such wisdom is erasing all of the progress we made toward achieving MLK Jr's dream!

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."