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megapolitics

77 karma · joined January 19, 2022

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megapolitics··on AI financial advice is surprisingly good, especially if you ask right questions
Does that assume that you're able to perfectly time the investment with the market bottom?
megapolitics··on Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time
What relevance does your quote have here? The area in question has no civilians to speak of.
megapolitics··on Facebook and Instagram to offer ad-free service in UK for up to £3.99 a month
Why would there be a privacy-respecting free option? The content is not free to produce.
megapolitics··on Bayeux Tapestry Will Return to the U.K. In 950 Years
I don’t believe the courts would rule such a loan to be a disposal given the trend towards judicial activism in the UK.
megapolitics··on Bayeux Tapestry Will Return to the U.K. In 950 Years
I think a loan of the Parthenon Sculptures within the next few years is more likely than you think.

Both Kier Starmer and George Osborne are keen for a deal, and the majority of the British public are in favour of the sculpture’s return.

It would be a temporary loan on paper, but everyone involved understands that they would never return to the UK.

megapolitics··on Figma Slides Is a Beautiful Disaster
Both. I have to look at a GUI to use it.
megapolitics··on Live Map of the London Underground
It’s probably excluded because TFL don’t classify it as an Underground line. Similarly, hovering over the DLR will produce a tooltip but the line is excluded.
megapolitics··on Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon
> I believe in reality a not guilty verdict is, we didn't have the evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt this person committed the crime.

That’s a description of the Scottish “not proven” verdict, not a “not guilty” verdict.

megapolitics··on How many High Streets are there in London?
I don’t see King’s Road as being a good example. King’s Road has a lot of traffic and the pedestrian experience is very poor.
megapolitics··on Japanese police arrest man for tampering with Pokémon Violet save data
>Let's not criticise Japanese law without acknowledging that US law is also fucked up.

This doesn’t need done at all. This is just whataboutism. This story does not involve the USA and the discussion about other countries does not need to be derailed every time with discussion about and comparison to the USA.

megapolitics··on Notes on El Salvador
That’s just not true. The violent crime rate in Russia is many times that of any Western European country, and their intentional homicide rate is slightly higher than America’s. In terms of murder rate Belarus sits much closer to Western Europe than America, but it still sits above Western Europe.
megapolitics··on Exxon throws a fit over shareholders exercising their rights
> But it’s still investing in oil companies and giving them more money.

Buying shares on the market from third parties does not give the company more money.

megapolitics··on Nepal bans TikTok and says it disrupts social harmony
My observation has been that the comments on high engagement TikTok posts are generally quite pleasant, whereas the comments on high engagement Instagram posts feel like a KKK meeting.
megapolitics··on Ukraine: Europe clearly overtakes US, with total commitments now twice as large
It’s a flawed democracy, but it’s on a consistent upward trajectory.
megapolitics··on British Gas starts to turn off Hive smart home devices forever
>consumer rights only kicks in when you "take ownership" of something

No they don’t. Consumer rights law in the UK applies to services too.

megapolitics··on FTC investigating ChatGPT over potential consumer harm
>NSDAP were in power for over a decade before the first concentration camp was ever built.

The first concentration camp, Nohra, opened in 1933, the year the Nazis took power. The more well known Dachau was also opened that year.

megapolitics··on Apple’s Mac security is so good, it’s sending used M1 MacBooks to the scrap heap
>if someone saw my laptop and a mac laptop left alone in the same room, they would try to steal the Mac, making my laptop even safer by virtue of not being from Apple.

That might be true now, but it might not be as time goes on and this bricking functionality becomes common knowledge.

megapolitics··on Shaped Charges – Sheet of copper going through 1ft of solid steel (2010) [video]
That’s more of a problem of a lack of cases brought by the government than a problem with the courts. The courts have generally seen through such things quite well when the government actually brings forward cases.
megapolitics··on The fake Twitter account of “Marina Ovsyannikova”
I think the parent comment was saying that Iraq was invading a sovereign country in the Gulf War. I can see how the comment could be parsed as saying America invaded the sovereign country of Kuwait, but given the third example is Ukraine I think the parent was just giving 3 examples of invasions of sovereign countries in general and not just invasions by the US.
megapolitics··on Climate change won’t wait for future innovation – we need action now
>I'll stop you right there because the major producers of greenhouse gasses aren't third world countries. Historically, the majority of greenhouse gasses emitted comes from industrialized nations.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't tackle emissions in third world countries.

megapolitics··on Consent-O-Matic: Automatic handling of GDPR consent forms
The consent form situation did not get this bad until GDPR was passed. Prior to GDPR cookie-consent forms were simple "Yes" or "No" buttons without all the insane pages of toggles.
megapolitics··on Is Putin’s end game the roll out of a domestic CBDC?
>one of whom was the Chief of Staff the army

Vitaly Gerasimov was the Chief of Staff of an army (41st Combined Arms), rather than the Army. The similarly-named Valery Gerasimov is the Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

megapolitics··on UK says it will back Poland if decides to send jets to Ukraine
>Same UK that said it would back Ukraine if Russia invaded?

The UK was always very clear that the backing to Ukraine would be in the form of the supply of weapons to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia. Nothing more was ever promised.

megapolitics··on Thank you Wise for blocking our business account
Sanctions can be implemented with a "wind down" period for companies to gradually come into compliance with the sanctions. In the UK, for example, there is a wind down period expiring at 23:59 tonight for sanctions relating to "sovereign debt, loans and money market instruments".[1] The situation in the OP is not necessarily related to any sanctions though, it may be a voluntary act on the part of Wise.

[1] https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/uk-introduces-new-fi...

megapolitics··on Wordle is pretty damn smart in many subtle ways
That may have been accidental.

The array used to store valid guesses did not contain any of the words from the result array. Both are checked when you make a guess to determine whether it’s a valid guess. Removing a word from the result array also removes it as a valid guess unless it’s added to the other array.

I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt considering they also removed “inoffensive” words like “Agora” and say their removal as valid guesses was unintentional.

megapolitics··on Intel unveils BonanzaMine, a Bitcoin accelerator ASIC
>I suppose that's why it has grown in price in spite of its supply slowly increasing. Because it's unusable!

The fact that the price is consistently increasing is what makes it an unusable currency. A deflationary currency is a useless medium of exchange as any rational actor will not spend it due to the potential future increase in price. I hold multiple crypto assets but I think you have to be kidding yourself if you think that Bitcoin and the like are usable currencies.

megapolitics··on Amazon sent the FBI to take my family’s bank accounts
>What are some strategies you could use to insulate yourself from this, even a little?

Don't inflate the value of real estate deals in exchange for kickbacks.

megapolitics··on Discord is a black hole for information
That sounds indistinguishable from forums or subreddits, which are usually touted as superior alternatives to Discord. Your final point actually makes Discord look preferable to the other two, as Discord servers have found a solution to a problem predating Discord.
megapolitics··on How fresh grads with zero experience get hired as senior engineers
A previous employer of mine gave all devs the title of "Technical Specialist" as opposed to some variation of "Software Developer." They also had a progression system where "Junior" was not actually the lowest rung, but the second-lowest after "Graduate". Needless to say I just put "Software Developer" on my CV without a second thought.

The only time I would recommend putting the "Junior" title on your CV/Linkedin is if you get a promotion which could be perceived as faster-than-average upward progression.

megapolitics··on Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?
This looks very useful, I'm looking forward to playing around with it. Do you have any plans to add support for Plan 4 (Scottish) student loan repayments?
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