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watoc

216 karma · joined October 21, 2017

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watoc··on Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI
I had to search for it
watoc··on Using drones to terrorize a city [video]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/02/charities-halt...
watoc··on Ask HN: Problems for the next decade?
Rather than focusing on billionaires I think the overarching issue is the widening wealth gap. this is not sustainable in the long run and will lead to catastrophes for our society.
watoc··on MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism
He's right. That's not altruism it's just business.
watoc··on Using ChatGPT as a Co-Founder
Did you generate your comment with ChatGPT? I can't tell.
watoc··on Using ChatGPT as a Co-Founder
What would impress you? A system that could answer any questions better than any current experts? Ok it's not always completely accurate and sometime plain wrong but still looks really impressive to me.
watoc··on Israeli rules say West Bank visitors must declare love interest
Foreigners have to declare a relationship with a Palestinian within 30 days to the country occupying the West Bank. How is that similar in any way to what's happening in the US!??

It is apartheid.

watoc··on Putin puts Russia’s nuclear deterrent forces on alert
Very unlikely that they could be intercepted. IIRC those missiles launched from Russia can reach the east coast in an hour.
watoc··on How to Think: The Skill You’ve Never Been Taught
I'm pretty sure you can find convincing articles that would explain that overthinking leads to bad decisions and that you should be more spontaneous.

Some of the best/well known books have also been written in less than a month.

watoc··on Y Combinator’s European founder intake continues to grow
As a European founder you can do exactly the same. You can hire contractors in Europe and won't have to pay employer taxes, mandatory PTO...

I don't think there is any difference if your company is in the US or Europe. In both cases however you have to be careful that your contractors don't get reclassified as permanent employees if you hire them for too long (more than 2 years in a row and 40 hours a week is risky).

watoc··on Israel, Cyprus and Greece agree to link power grids via subsea cable
> The issue is Arabs and Jewish people not anything to do with Islam, Christianity or atheism.

Religion has a lot to do with the issue. Religion and ethnicity are often strongly related especially for Jews. Judaism is the main element that identifies Jews together and the vast majority of Arabs living in Israel/Palestine are Muslims.

watoc··on Israel, Cyprus and Greece agree to link power grids via subsea cable
Didn't the Trump administration declare that the settlements were not illegal? Palestine is not even fully recognized as an independent state.

Besides the comparaison with Crimea, the point was that borders throughout history have been shaped by colonizations and invasions but that cannot be used to justify colonization itself.

watoc··on Israel, Cyprus and Greece agree to link power grids via subsea cable
There has been a continuous use of the land by Christians and Muslims for centuries as well. So because Judaism has existed the longest they have the right to expel everybody else or best case scenario, make them second-class citizen (Law of Return, Jewish National Fund ...). There has also been a continuous presence of native Americans for much longer than Europeans in North America...

If you're denying that colonization even exists it will be difficult to have a discussion based on facts.

watoc··on Israel, Cyprus and Greece agree to link power grids via subsea cable
That's a very slippery slope if you justify the colonization of Palestine by Israel because it was part of a jewish kingdom thousands of years ago. Spain has been muslim for centuries would that be acceptable if they settled again there by force?
watoc··on Israel, Cyprus and Greece agree to link power grids via subsea cable
AFAIK very few countries have recognized Crimea as part of Russia. So my comment is still valid, most countries did not accept the annexion.
watoc··on Israel, Cyprus and Greece agree to link power grids via subsea cable
You're right but that doesn't mean we should accept it. Why we didn't accept it when Saddam invaded Koweit or when Russia annexed Crimea? Colonization of Palestine has very negative direct and indirect consequences on our world.
watoc··on Diego Maradona has died
I prefer Maradona but Messi is better and it's not about stats.

You just have to look at any game from the 2010/11 season to realize that.

watoc··on Diego Maradona has died
Champions league is by far the best competition in the world. Number of world cups won is not a good criteria.
watoc··on Diego Maradona has died
Messi is probably already the best football player of all time.

Maradona had more charisma and leadership though.

watoc··on Covid-19: death rate is 0.66% and increases with age, study estimates
> 1.54%/0.3 = ~0.51%.

Shouldn't this be 11 / (712 / 0.3) which is 1.54 * 0.3 = 0.462

watoc··on New York Fed Adds $115.14B in Short-Term Liquidity to Markets
The easiest way is usually to trade one of the ETFs that track gold price (some of them are backed by physical gold while others use futures or other derivatives on gold).
watoc··on New York Fed Adds $115.14B in Short-Term Liquidity to Markets
Gold? Doesn't generate any income though.
watoc··on A woman who doesn't feel pain
There was a documentary called a life without pain a few years ago about her and a boy from Norway with the same condition. Kids with this condition usually die at a very young age due to injuries.

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

watoc··on Facebook failed to block 20% of uploaded New Zealand shooter videos
Then you'd just turn these social media platforms into the best recruiting tool for terrorist groups of all kinds with complete control of the narrative.
watoc··on Facebook failed to block 20% of uploaded New Zealand shooter videos
> The video of the 757s hitting the WTC isn't purged from the internet, why should this video be?

That's different though. This video has been released by the perpetrator. Do you think beheadings videos released by ISIS should be easily accessed by anyone on Facebook?

watoc··on Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?
As a non-habitual resident in Portugal or Spain, it seems that the dividends are tax free if they come from a foreign source but you still have to pay taxes in the country of origin [1].

So maybe if you set up your company in another tax friendly country, you would be able to pay your corporate tax and taxes on your dividends there.

[1]: http://www.newco.pro/blog/en/portugal-or-spain-two-tax-regim...

watoc··on ReactXP – A library for building cross-platform apps
Looks more like an alternative to React Native for Web[1] and React Native Windows[2].

[1] https://github.com/necolas/react-native-web [2] https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-windows

watoc··on 2018 Stellar roadmap
That's because a lot of current crypto holders are potential future losers. If you settle all crypto in USD today, most people will be left with close to 0.
watoc··on Ending Bitcoin Support
I don't have an opinion on Lumens but the fact that the supply is uncapped would make it much more suitable as a currency.
watoc··on Show HN: Collateralized Debt Agreements Using Smart Contracts and Virtual Cats
That's usually the issue I have when selecting a technology before knowing what problem I want to solve.
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