Hacker News Reader

Ouch. His CFO quit, and his lawyer just quit.

Tesla Inc.’s general counsel is leaving just two months after being hired in the wake of Elon Musk’s run-in with U.S. securities regulators. Shares of the electric-car maker declined on the news.

I don’t want to, but more and more I smell the hints of a dumpster fire around all of this. I hope that I’m wrong though.

bcOpuson New experimental drug rapidly repairs age-related memory loss and improves mood

Lithium is a mood stabilizer, and greatly predates modern psychiatric intervention. I believe that the earlier generations you’re thinking of are tricyclics and MAOI’s (Monoamine oxidase inhibitors). Both are still used, but are no longer the first pharmaceuticals of choice.

bcOpuson Air Force 'rods from god' kinetic weapon could hit with nuclear-weapon force

Independence requires more than the ability to “drop rocks” it requires total self-sufficiency. Without that you’re bombing the people who can kill you just by withholding essentials like food, water, and air. No one is even pretending that a colony on the moon or Mars could be self-sufficient to thst degree with anything like our current technology.

bcOpuson Data leak reveals China is tracking almost 2.6m people in Xinjiang

The formula of appealing to a small base which keeps you in power through cronyism is the formula for power. It’s true in every place you find political and financial power, from Beijing to small-town USA, to corporate boardrooms around the world, and tinpot dictators around the world.

You might enjoy reading The Dictator’s Handbook.

bcOpuson Finding Lena Forsen, the Patron Saint of JPEGs

Not the person you’re replying to, and fuck me if I’m wading into the question of sexism, but professionalism and maturity are things. We get paid the big bucks now, we’re not snotty kids in our parent’s garage; a whole world of acceptable professional behavior goes along with that.

bcOpuson Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

Sometimes with progress, you gotta break a few legs.

Where “progress” is synonymous with “profit” and the things being broken aren’t yours. Having said that if you’re volunteering, I know a guy with a hammer.

bcOpuson Winnipeg ‘chocolategate’: Does a box of treats come with strings attached?

It’s not a fallacy, it’s an ideal, a goal to be strived for while accepting human limitations. No one can perfectly design and build a house, but we don’t shrug and say “Perfect right angles are an illusion, enjoy your crooked house.” Besides, there are laws around this concerned with something called *the appearance of impropriety” which is to be avoided by judges, elected officials, and others. You can legitimately get yourself in deep muck, not only by being improper, but by merely seeming to be (to a reasonable person standard).

bcOpuson One year into legal pot sales California doesn’t have expected bustling industry

And of course that black market is on average actually cheaper, often by 2x than the “legal” sources. Nobody gets taxed for growing a little on the side, or buying on the black market. As usual local greed is strangling an emerging market with the potential to net billions. As usual small operators are kept behind until the big boys (Altria et al) can dominate the market and slash prices and quality.

IMO that’s what this is about; a delaying game until federal laws change and the multi nations can take over.

bcOpuson One year into legal pot sales California doesn’t have expected bustling industry

Then those people are actively seeking to maintain the supremacy of the black market, despite decades of evidence as to the inability of such measures to reduce consumption. Maybe people who have such ignorant and baseless beliefs shouldn’t be heeded.

bcOpuson Wikileaks' Assange says Ecuador seeking to end his asylum

The Russian diplomat would have immunity, the car is not a magic “immunity” force bubble for the occupants. Unless they grind him up and stick his remains in a diplomatic pouch, he’s gettable outside of an embassy. Diplomatic immunity doesn’t mean the police can’t pull you over and search you, it just means the diplomats in question can’t face criminal penalties as a result of what’s found.

bcOpuson Decensoring Hentai with Deep Neural Networks

It will vary by country. In a lot of Europe and the US the content will still be illegal. In Japan it won’t be. At some point the issue is going to come down to what you want to spend manpower and money fighting, people who actually endanger and harm children, or people who use computers to emulate it. It might not be a very clear cut thing though, because I frankly wouldn’t be shocked to find out that the overlap between people who want pornography of real and simulated children is significant.

Where it might be a little more clear cut is feeding the market that clearly exists for “teen” porn, which is currently filled by 18+ actresses. I suspect a non-trivial percentage of the non-child-abusing population would consume simulated 16 year old porn without ever considering the real thing. In that case you might see some changes.

Reply edit It’s already outlawed. In the US for example pornographic drawings of children are outlawed. In the same way it’s illegal to try and sell cocaine stimulants, it’s illegal to try and sell child pornography simulations. I doubt the A.I. itself would be illegal, just its output.

bcOpuson Tech giants face 2% UK digital services tax

I’m pretty sure FB already maximizes their profit per user based on what they think the user can tolerate, and I doubt it can be arbitrarily pushed further on a whim.

bcOpuson Are Narcissists More Likely to Experience Impostor Syndrome?

By no means is this a universal truism, but in general if you think you have a Cluster B personality disorder, you probably don’t. If you think you’re the smartest, best person in the world and other people are inferior and should know it... then you might.

bcOpuson Google paid Andy Rubin $90M while keeping silent about a misconduct claim

Conversely maybe it’s easier to rise into the ranks of rich/powerful/famous if you view people as objects to be played with. If you’re not being restrained by anything like a conscience, it’s probably a lot easier to fight the kind of dirty battles needed to reach those heights without burning out or turning to drugs to soothe a battery sense of self.

bcOpuson Dandelion Seeds Fly Using ‘Impossible’ Method Never Before Seen in Nature

Fluid dynamics is hard and a simulation can only work with the inputs and parameters you set it up with.

bcOpuson Instagram Has a Massive Harassment Problem

Maybe the answer would be that such communities should be restricted in their growth in terms of how many they can manage without the “thundering horde” taking over, rather than how many they can sign up.

bcOpuson High Crime in the Cocaine Industry

They’re already snorting one of the more famously addictive drugs that does quite a number on your cardiovascular system, they’ve already demonstrated a lack of judgement. If they snort a lot of cocaine on a regular basis, then like a heroin addict they’re desperate to get high and would happily snort borax if it had a little coke in it. Of all the drugs out there the ones to really avoid are the ones that are powerfully physically addictive, and offer little therapeutic benefit: cocaine, heroin, meth. They’re just bad news, and at best you get away clean, at worst your life is wrecked. It’s not like pot or mushrooms or even responsible acid use, some drugs are just best avoided. Having said that I’m against prohibition, but people should fucking avoid coke.

Or as is popular, TL;DR “who knows what could be in there.” They already know it has cocaine in it!

bcOpuson Air India Express 737 Hits ILS, Damages Wall on Departure, Flies for 4 Hours

A fever is, at it’s core, an increase in metabolic rate. Your hypothalamus is telling your body that it’s temperature set point is higher than usual, and it takes energy to raise your temperature. I don’t see how a difference in air pressure would have a similar effect.