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looping__lui

626 karma · joined November 28, 2019

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looping__lui··on Character amnesia in China
That seems a bit made up tbh. I’ve worked with a fair number of Chinese overachievers (both in domestic China and abroad) and family background/affluence weren’t even remotely as much of a factor compared to the US or India (except for the IITs). Also, I noticed there were many many cases of brilliant young people rising through the ranks of the academic system in China compared to India for example where teachers often simply would not show up in public schools.

Personal background: I worked and studied in the US, I worked in China and I studied in India

looping__lui··on Why conventional wisdom on health care is wrong (a primer) (2020)
So the wealthy can finally cheat death efficiently once and for all ;-)

On a more serious note: that might be hard in medicine per se to pay for “results”. And I found some of the insights from “Outlive” quite interesting: how we focus in cure but not prevention; and how in the bigger scheme of things Antibiotics was almost the only “real big invention” in western medicine for a very long time (e.g., in terms of actual medical impact)

looping__lui··on Uber terms mean couple can't sue after 'life-changing' crash
Maybe less cynical answer: maybe because Uber states that they provide insurance for drivers and riders and that’s why?

https://www.uber.com/us/en/safety/#

There’s auto insurance to help protect you Leading auto insurance providers help protect riders and drivers on the Uber app. Uber maintains commercial auto insurance in case of a covered accident, including at least $1 million in liability insurance on behalf of drivers and delivery people once a ride is accepted.

looping__lui··on Uber terms mean couple can't sue after 'life-changing' crash
Maybe the sort of liability you tout on your own website telling your customers how safe you keep them and how much everything is insured????

https://www.uber.com/us/en/safety/#

“ There’s auto insurance to help protect you Leading auto insurance providers help protect riders and drivers on the Uber app. Uber maintains commercial auto insurance in case of a covered accident, including at least $1 million in liability insurance on behalf of drivers and delivery people once a ride is accepted.”

looping__lui··on Amazon bans its drivers from moving their own lips too much at work
Or maybe not - and you just punish the people that don’t agree with your political stance. It’s a bit surprising imho to see how people get locked up in UK for 15 months over Facebook posts whereas offenses/violations/crimes that may justify actual jail time go unpunished. If everyone could get punished at any time - governments may be very picky about WHOM to punish.
looping__lui··on Amazon bans its drivers from moving their own lips too much at work
Imho more worrisome is that governments can find easy justification to lock up or punish everyone “at will”; because HAVING data to jail someone doesn’t mean the government will uniformly ACT on it :-) they can be picky - and will be as we are seeing across Europe these days/months/years. Certain laws and offenders are rigorously enforced; others not so much…
looping__lui··on DigitalOcean acquires Paperspace (YC W15) for $111M in cash
No, I don’t think so. It’s been like a few years since I tried them (2019?). I think it was running some example notebooks - but again, too long ago…

Back to the important questions: 1) Why no user support and explanation? 2) Why lock out users and keep charging them? 3) Why not give them the full refund for the period that Paperspace KNEW I could not access my account but just the 3 months I could do myself by CC chargebacks?

Why do I need to justify myself here? What part of this “we lock you out and charge you” is proper behavior? @mewmew07?

looping__lui··on DigitalOcean acquires Paperspace (YC W15) for $111M in cash
Paperspace; just tinkering around… Yeah, CC chargebacks work for 3 months or so here in Europe
looping__lui··on DigitalOcean acquires Paperspace (YC W15) for $111M in cash
I also never got an explanation or like any feedback from customer support. They randomly charged back a number of charges and deleted my account (!) so I could never find out what happened. Weirdest customer/service experience I had in a VERY long time
looping__lui··on DigitalOcean acquires Paperspace (YC W15) for $111M in cash
I have no idea tbh. Never got an email abt it. Saw the charges after a while (my miss) wanted to log back into my account to cancel - couldn’t because account was locked.

The thing that annoyed me most is: they knew the account was locked and I could not used it and still charged me.

looping__lui··on DigitalOcean acquires Paperspace (YC W15) for $111M in cash
Oh, fun memories - locked me out of my account (froze it or whatnot) but happily charged me. Didn’t notice for a while as I didn’t really use it. Support just ignored my questions.
looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
Where do u get the hydrogen from and how do you transport it at the scale required is one of these “questions for starters”. Megawatt scale isn’t really gonna cut it - the largest one in Germany has 110 MW (?) so we would need almost 1000 of them to cover our need when the sun doesn’t shine or there aint no wind
looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
You need to provide >100% installed capacity with gas as you phase out coal and nuclear. Because renewables aren’t reliable and you kind of need a conventional backup today.

We are missing 50% in gas plant capacity.

Your happy collection of “nice happy ideas” isn’t gonna cut it at the scale we need it to happen within 7 years. I’m so tired of this nonsense by people like you.

This isn’t some elementary science fair project. It’s people gambling away the economic foundation of Germany over some “would be nice” ideas.

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
You need to support 50% of the grid with new gas plants.

You *CANNOT* phase out gas plants , coal plants and nuclear and solely rely on renewables as of today (and the next 30, 50???) years in an industrialized nation like Germany.

And maybe don’t paraphrase the article like “hey its a challenge but possible”. We don’t have enough agricultural space to cover our demand. The number of (ethical,infrastructure,price) problems is so long that the idea defies reality. But you are talking about IDEOLOGY and in Germany, if you have the right IDEOLOGY, reality doesn’t matter any longer. That’s other people’s problem.

Jan Seven rechnet damit nicht. „Aus volkswirtschaftlichen Gründen ist es nicht darstellbar und auch nicht zu rechtfertigen, Biogas in dem Maße weiter zu fördern oder bestimmten Umbauszenarien zu folgen.“ Biogas sei verglichen mit den anderen erneuerbaren Energien die mit Abstand teuerste Energieform. Auch, weil Lebensmittel, die in Biogasanlagen zum großen Teil genutzt würden, teurer geworden seien. „Deswegen sehen wir beim Biogas eigentlich überhaupt keine Kostenreduktion, die wir bei Solarstrom und Wind massiv gesehen haben im letzten Jahr.“ … “ Diese Energiepflanzen belegen 15 Prozent der deutschen Ackerflächen. Insgesamt 1,5 Millionen Hektar, die eigentlich dringend benötigt werden, um dort Lebensmittel und Futter anzubauen, sagt Jan Seven. „Auf diesen Flächen wachsen keine Lebensmittel, es wachsen keine Futtermittel für die Tiere, die wir in großer Stückzahl halten. Die Futtermittel importieren wir aus Brasilien. Wir haben eine direkte Konkurrenz zwischen Teller und Fermenter.“ In einem Fermenter werden in einer Biogasanlage die Rohstoffe erwärmt und zersetzt, sodass Biogas entstehen kann.”

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
Like an unproven technology at industry scale to power 50% of Germans electricity need reliably - all within the next 7 years? We don’t even have fast internet. Yeah.
looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
Well, is that notably really possible?

https://www.capital.de/amp/wirtschaft-politik/kann-biogas-ru...

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
Well, don’t be fooled by “you can just replace gas by biogas”:

https://www.capital.de/amp/wirtschaft-politik/kann-biogas-ru...

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
“Green gas”. You mean Biogas?

That isn’t really an option: https://www.capital.de/amp/wirtschaft-politik/kann-biogas-ru...

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
I’m talking about non-renewables.

I think (and I might be wrong, but the ballpark should be right), we will have 600% capacity installed in renewables and 100-150% installed in conventional capacity by 2030. So shifting to renewables means like 700+% installer capacity, which means that when sun shines and wind blows, you will only be able to use 1/7 of the electricity produced during the day whilst also potentially running the gas turbines full steam at night. We have observed this a lot this year in Germany (e.g. wind was taken off grid because solar produced too much whilst gas and coal only delivered a minimal (?) operational load).

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
Oh, but you are aware that we need to DOUBLE our installed capacity for gas by 2030 in order to be able to manage our electricity grid towards renewables, right? Page 25:

https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/de/documents/p...

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
Bit not in the way people would anticipate.

According to the modeling of the Fraunhofer (base assumption), we will need to double our capacity from gas (yay), double renewables to eventually achieve twice the carbon footprint of France by 2030. The base load is so high in Germany and renewables are so unreliable, that we need >100% installed capacity from “conventional” sources. The storage and “smart grid” is not really feasible or likely to happen imho.

More info: https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ise/de/documents/p...

Disclaimer: I have PV, use ground heat in my house; I’m totally pro zero emission but Germany’s ideological decision making makes it impossible whilst pumping up prices beyond affordable.

looping__lui··on Germany Achieves Record 57.7% Renewable Energy Share for First Half of 2023
Oh, we also started importing nuclear electricity from France at scale to bridge the gap. So, it’s not as bad as you put it. Nuclear waste is now somebody else’s problem…
looping__lui··on Ask HN: What is the most complex software that you have built/worked on?
If you have a lot of input-output relationships then some ML/XGBoost may take away that pain. Unless you are dealing with very explicit guidance on a billion IF-ELSE relationships…
looping__lui··on Europe: Is compulsory military service coming back?
Switzerland, Germany (post-WWII until somewhat recently) versus like UK, US, France?

If your military consists of your society instead of a “professionally hired military” that only answers to politicians instead of their girlfriends, mums n dads - I’d argue: less military “peace missions” abroad?

Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya - rings a bell? You think you could have send conscripts there?

“Strong standing in law” - Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya; you think the PEOPLE of these countries would agree???

looping__lui··on Europe: Is compulsory military service coming back?
This bunch of “unmotivated young men/people” are the least likely to get a war eagerly started but are REALLY only willing to fight if it’s necessary (e.g someone invading their home country and firing artillery at their home village).

In most countries the military doesn’t serve “the people” but the will of politics.

If a big portion of your military IS YOUR SOCIETY (e.g., young men very happily doing a lot of stuff except bombing the shit out of a random country) - it reduces the risk of some bogus operation.

Having conscripts as an important foundation of your military can bring a lot of peace and stability…

Maybe you want to read up a bit on the Vietnam war and how the public was deceived; it isn’t just much “sending conscripts over to a overseas to die for some piece of dirt” - if conscripts see no purpose in fighting over that patch of land, maybe politicians shouldn’t either !?

looping__lui··on French tax officials use AI to spot 20k undeclared pools (2022)
Keep in mind that marginal tax rate is not equal to effective tax rate. Also keep in mind that companies also pay tax on profit - which means that dividends get taxed at company level only to get taxed again at personal level.
looping__lui··on The planning of U.S. physician shortages (2020)
In Germany I can only see a specialist doctor if I 1) wait half a year, 2) am at the brink of dying or 3) give some cash. Most people have the illusion that the system works because 99% don’t have to deal with it and it’s a nice thing to believe if the yearly insurance fees are about $10k for public insurance (employee+employer). Whilst I agree that in Europe we do not have these outrageous costs for medication and intransparent and greedy billing - quality of healthcare is literally NIL. I have zero confidence this system would be able to help me beyond an ear infection or maybe removing an appendix.
looping__lui··on FAA seeks public input on drone operations
I take this as your personal opinion that is probably mainly motivated as a person benefiting from it.

Not sure I met many “wealthy” balloon pilots, but glad you make “the trillion dollar industry of drones” a “fight for the common man”

looping__lui··on FAA seeks public input on drone operations
Playgrounds and sidewalks also add little economic value to society.
looping__lui··on FAA seeks public input on drone operations
Cut me some slack, it was 6 am in the morning for not keeping track of user names.

Who goes after balloons with “balloons are a risk, not UAVs”!?

In General Aviation thats like kicking puppies. And this direct quote to me very much sounded like “UAVs are not a risk”.

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