returningfory2

Just a note that [1] is really out of date - in 2025, more than 50% of Americans have a passport. https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/...

> As far as the "landscape" - the whole country is a giant meat factory swimming in cattle feces; the landscape was ruined centuries ago.

Love this comment so much. And it's true!

I grew up in Ireland and was immersed in the "everything in Ireland is the best" mentality. I think it was when I started regularly visiting the Hudson Valley in New York, which is mostly still wooded, that I really realized the "countryside" in Ireland is just manmade. It's not natural. The whole island was trees.

My understanding is that you've left Ireland; hope you're making your peace with the problems of the country now that you don't have to deal with them as much!

Housing is more important than aesthetics.

Using more energy is not itself "wasteful". For example, the US spends a bunch of extra energy on air conditioning, and as a result less older people die of heat deaths in the summer compared to Europe (and of course the population at large is generally more comfortable).

The ultimate reason the wealthy are earning so much in rent is housing supply shortages.

To the downvoters: this comment is correct. E.g. [1] for an example of this being enforced.

Apparently the problem is the law is not enforced that much? And that there are loopholes around it.

[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/norfolk-southern-agrees-give-...

What happens on year 11?

The Japanese embassy and consulates in the US only accept applications from residents of the US.

E.g. the NYC consulate: https://www.ny.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/visa00.html

> You may apply for a visa at this Consulate if you are currently residing within the area covered by this Consulate.

> That generation is leaving behind an enormous amount of paper and it is mostly going to waste.

But what is really the problem with this? (Assuming the paper in the books is recycled, to be clear.)

I disagree with the idea that books are generally precious objects. At this point in time we have many more books than we need, and many of the books in existence simply will never be read again.

Good news is that it’s being rebuilt/replaced!

The article says this company has one third of the market. This is not a monopoly.

Crossing the Mexico US border illegally nowadays involves a multi-day hike through the desert and is extremely dangerous. I’m not sure if it’s as dangerous as crossing the Mediterranean on a smuggler boat, but many people do die making the trek from Mexico to the US.

I feel like tourist places are “weirdly concentrated” as you put it. When I was Florence the center was obviously super busy, but walking only 15 minutes in one direction there seemed to be almost no tourists around (of course, the area I was in didn’t have any sights). It made me think that maybe there’s a bias to the feeling of overtourism because people think about the one part of the city where all the tourists are.

I struggle to believe this. How can the average Korean tell the difference between a white American and a white Brit?

I think there’s a zero sum fallacy in play here. For example you say “Those fancy resorts take all the prime real estate” but many resort towns in Mexico like Cancun were literally invented out of thin air for international tourism. The alternative reality is not “Cancun for the locals”; the alternative reality is no Cancun.

In general we have the ability to expand the amount of available housing/hotels/etc. to meet increased demand. It’s not a zero sum game.

Indeed, but in my experience many of these places have an unspoken sub-rule that the tattoo rule is not enforced for foreigners.

Anyone can play but only ~70 million people can win :)

Canada the country, being a democracy, is owned by the Canadian people, not the king (just like the United States is owned by the American people, not the president). If Trump encroaches on the sovereignty of Canada it is an affront to the Canadian people. What the British think is of distinctly secondary importance.

I'm not sure you see the irony of your stance. You're complaining about the American president butting into Canadian affairs because it infringes on some supposed colonialist rights of an absentee king.

The fact that they share a head of state is irrelevant? If it was relevant, you could equally make the claim that Britain is under the "stewardship" of the Canadians. I think the British would be surprised to hear that!

Canada is an independent country and not under the stewardship of the British.

The idea that LLMs are uniquely bad for the environment has been debunked. https://andymasley.substack.com/p/individual-ai-use-is-not-b...

You don't need to store the diffs for the coordinates that are not in the bloom filter. If the number of coordinates that changed is small, the size of the bloom filter will be small, and this is a significant optimization.

I think there's a bunch of different things going on in the US healthcare system. I think for sure part of it is inefficiency.

But I don't really buy the argument that healthcare quality is the same elsewhere. Like, do you really think you're going to get the same care for, say, long term multiple sclerosis in the United States versus Guatemala? I feel a lot of the "the care is the same" comes from younger people who have had relatively easy interactions with the healthcare system. When you're over 70 it's a totally different ball game.

Yeah, I find it very strange that he's a well known thought leader even though he hasn't had a long tenure anywhere. To me, software is easy in the short term and hard in long term.

This only reinforces my point, which is that most of the states don't have any preexisting status and were created by the federal government.

The main reason is that the government isn't funding it, like in other countries. I do agree the healthcare system in the US should be reformed. But the cost isn't going to go all away - it's just going to be shifted to higher taxes. Which is fine.

> Alberta was created within Canada by subdividing what was then the Northwest Territories, already part of Canada.

The same is true of the majority of the US states. The original 13 colonies and Texas and Florida (and maybe a few more?) had some preexisting status, but the rest were created out of Federal territories.

Or is it possible the LLM did try to run `DELETE FROM hackernews.full`, was denied, and then is prompted to return the response you saw?

The LLM likely does not have write access to the database, so even if wanted to run that query it couldn't.

That sounds reasonable, though I’ve read online that Mexico generally refuses to take them back.