Hacker News Reader

thebigjewbowskion Tesla Stops Accepting Its Own Cars as Trade-Ins

That would probably save some money on new paint jobs :)

thebigjewbowskion Tesla Stops Accepting Its Own Cars as Trade-Ins

Cars are *expensive*. If I was in the market for a car I’d absolutely buy a Tesla for below market price, eg a model 3 for less than a comparable Corolla. Seems like that very well could be a reality soon.

thebigjewbowskion Circuit breaker triggered in Japan for stock futures trading

> (and probably China to prevent dumping)

But why does the EU even want a manufacturing sector, don’t you all realize that no sane person wants those jobs? I kid, of course.

It’s truly a sad state of affairs and I hope that we all come to an understanding this week.

thebigjewbowskion Circuit breaker triggered in Japan for stock futures trading

> the list of US trading partners is dominated by less than a dozen trading blocks: EU, Mexico, Canada, ASEAN, China. That's it.

ASEAN countries are eager to make a deal. The USMCA deal is still in tact with Mexico and Canada.

> The EU, which thanks to the Trump administration is already scrambling to prepare for a war with Russia, is excluding the US from supplying them arms. This is the extent to which these trading blocks are going to shed ties with the US.

Germany is in an energy crisis and a few other members are close to a sovereign debt crisis. Domestic production of weapons will be tough and expensive. The EU’s plan to sell bonds to pursue war with Russia looks horrid. They’re in no position to be in a trade war. In a few months time when this reality sinks in, they will have to make a trade deal and remove US tariffs.

thebigjewbowskion US Administration announces 34% tariffs on China, 20% on EU

China has been trying to build up domestic markets for the past several years. With the US imposing high tariffs on Chinese goods it stands to reason that they’re not in a position to import from Vietnam, etc. because there will be domestic overproduction.

thebigjewbowskion America’s Obsession with Weight-Loss Drugs Is Affecting the Economy of Denmark

> Also, as an aside, it’s amazing to me the lengths to which people will go simply to avoid changing their habits.

I couldn’t agree more on this point.

I lost ~110 lbs in a year, exciting obesity by eating only meat and dairy with vigorous exercise.

I’ve been able to maintain the weight loss for 2 years, even after entering carbs back into my diet. I gained back 10-15 lbs depending on the week but I’m still at a healthy weight.

It was easy. No side effects. It was cheap — I largely stopped eating out. I feel way better overall everyday.

thebigjewbowskion Woman Is Awarded $1.2B in ‘Revenge Porn’ Lawsuit

I like this punishment — the damage has already been done, now he’s going to pay for it.

Of course he isn’t going to have, or ever earn, $1.2B but the court can garnish his wages.

The compensation to the victim will enrich her life to a degree. If the perpetrator was incarcerated all she’d be paid is peace of mind.

There’s nothing in this judgement that is stopping her from getting a permanent restraining order or anything. She may already have one.

In the US, when someone goes to prison, their life goes to serve private corporations by way of slave labor and exploitation or the prison itself, similarly by way of slave labor. This ultimately costs the tax payer around (IIRC) $50k/year.

Similarly, if Steve kills someone in a drunk driving accident and goes to jail for 25 years, the family of the deceased can rest assured that he won’t be on the road any longer but that does little to compensate for the fact that their loved one is gone.

Money doesn’t bring them back but a mother or father having died is going to undoubtedly become a financial drain for 95% of people in the country by way of lost earnings, child care, therapy, lost productivity of survivors, etc etc.

If instead of working for pennies in prison Steve could be barred from driving for life and instead spend his time doing productive work that earns more than $0.25 and pay a hefty sum in restitution to the victims in perpetuity they’d have the peace of mind that he isn’t driving and also have assistance with their loss.

thebigjewbowskion Harvard University encourages grad students to go on food stamps

I've seen a lot of commentary on Walmart over the years FWIW,

https://www.mic.com/articles/104994/walmart-workers-have-a-b...

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/walmart-mcdonalds-larges...

thebigjewbowskion The average Manhattan rent just hit a new record of $5,588 a month

Depends on where you’re going but neither are that bad, depends on where you live specifically in either of those places.

The Bronx has higher crime for sure.

thebigjewbowskion How to register a Kei truck in Pennsylvania

I was thinking about something similar the other day — why does anyone besides my family really care if I wear a seatbelt or not?

You know what vehicle I see all the time that doesn’t require a license or minimum age, doesn’t have any safety features and can go 15-20 mph alongside traffic and often on a city sidewalk amongst pedestrians? A bicycle ;)

thebigjewbowskion A third of North America’s birds have vanished

> But in reality there's a lot of people who see any snake, insect, or arachnid, and respond with "kill it with fire."

Did you have a natural (or learned) revulsion for bugs? If so, how did you get over it?

I’ve gotten over mice completely, never felt right killing one in the first place.

I’ve been trying to make peace with bugs; I unplugged my mosquito zappers last summer shortly after getting them when I realized they were zapping mostly everything but mosquitoes.

Still something inside of me that has such a visceral reaction to bugs. I wish they would just stay away from me and I’d happily respond in kind :’(

thebigjewbowskion Once hailed for decriminalizing drugs, Portugal is now having doubts

I’m almost scared to post this but — have you been in / around public housing in the US? (Genuine not rhetorical)

It’s not uncommon for it to be unsafe and destroyed.

thebigjewbowskion Vietnam bans 'Barbie' movie over South China Sea map

Wow. That’s really something.

I’m sure at least some of us here recall professors being investigated and fired for not disclosing relationships with China.

I’m also guessing none of this is disclosed by movie studios?

thebigjewbowskion Vietnam bans 'Barbie' movie over South China Sea map

I just logged in to post the same thing — seems odd.

thebigjewbowskion Lung cancer pill cuts risk of death by half

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

I’d read some research about this a couple years ago and didn’t remember seeing anything about effects on the cardiovascular system but that does seem like a possibility

thebigjewbowskion Say a Final Goodbye to Sprint – T-Mobile Is Reportedly Shutting It Down

Maybe tongue in cheek but that’s not exactly accurate — the government auctions off operating bands and the FCC enforces it. Not like we could enter into the space today by buying antennas, mounting them to your garage and setting up some services.

thebigjewbowskion WWE Agrees to Merge with UFC

Mark Zuckerberg practices Jiu Jitsu.

Anthony Bourdain practiced Jiu Jutsu.

Lots of actors and comedians have started practicing Jiu Jitsu.

I’m a CTO and I’ve practiced jiu jitsu and Muay Thai. I lift weights regularly too :O

thebigjewbowskion Twitter at 1am on a Friday

I was also thinking that now would be a fun time to work at Twitter.

It would seemingly be a huge gamble as to whether it is disorganized with constantly shifting priorities or increased operations overhead but if there is a vision and the plan is to go balls to the wall to get it done, that’s awesome.

thebigjewbowskion Infosys asked HR not to hire 'Indian-origin candidates', 'women with children'

I assume that he meant they are well educated, skilled and thusly won’t be working for dirt cheap as they’d have better options.

He said the problem isn’t with hiring Indians, it is with cheap labor.

thebigjewbowskion Nvidia's new AI model quickly generates 3d objects and characters

A big stopping point for me in making games or more visual things are assets.

I’d been thinking I’d like to try making a comic book when I finally get access to DAL-E

thebigjewbowskion Bikes, not self driving cars, are the technological gateway to urban progress

I surely can’t be alone in just not picturing myself on a bike…

I walk, take public transit, Uber, etc but will often drive myself places a little too far to walk despite the inconvenience of parking when I get back because of it.

All it might take to adjust to this is starting to do it… anyone go from bike-curious with an aversion to biking in general to a full blown biker?

Also, anyone living in a city with an e-bike: is this very expensive, easily stolen item you have to park outside of a store often stolen?

Edit: just to clarify I know you are supposed to use a bike lock but … bikes and tires and whatnot regularly get stolen regardless. Just curious if e-bikes are more of a target.

thebigjewbowskion Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

That’s great to hear!

It does seem to be gaining in popularity for anxiety and depression.

I really can’t imagine it being as destructive as opiates having known plenty of people who have done both to the extent of having a habit with only opiates ruining people’s lives and killing some them. As far as I understand it ketamine is more of a psychological dependence than a physical one.

Time will tell I suppose.

thebigjewbowskion America’s bad bet on sports gambling

Many people still don’t ;). I’m one of the only software engineers I know who gambles on sports or plays cards.

Sports gambling has been legal in the UK and other parts of the EU for a long time.

Betting on horses and dogs, too, has been legal for forever.

thebigjewbowskion America’s bad bet on sports gambling

The state taxes casinos and sports books an insane amount on top of regular federal taxes and whatnot.

It’s not totally extractive but they are obviously still profitable.

The thing is, everyone gambled before legalization. You didn’t even need a bookie, every online casino has taken bets from US citizens and then pay no taxes to the state or country.

Bookies are even worse than online casinos because they offer a line of credit and later coerce you to give up your business, sell drugs, etc.

All in all it’s very similar to drugs. People are going to do it anyway, might as well make it legal.

You can contact any casino and request to be excluded from play indefinitely. You can set deposit limits and cannot lift them for a month at a time. There’s some “harm reduction” required by law.

thebigjewbowskion Cannabis legalization decreases stock market value of major pharmaceutical firms

I’m always curious about using ketamine for situations like this.

I’ve found that with medical marijuana you still feel the pain but you just don’t care because you’re stoned, granted I haven’t had pain such as yours.

With ketamine, at low doses you get a disassociated effect without much cognitive load but I haven’t taken it when I was in pain and unfortunately don’t have ready access to it anymore.

I’d taken Vicodin for 2 days after a surgery and quit it immediately because I couldn’t think clearly, nausea, etc and didn’t want anything to do with it.

thebigjewbowskion Will California Eliminate Anonymous Web Browsing? (Comments on CA AB 2273)

> No more firing up incognito mode to view some YouTube video you’d rather not feed your algorithm. No more browsing the ‘other side’ on twitter privately. No googling for information about embarrassing rashes without Google and webmd knowing exactly who you are.

I agree with you on principal and don’t mean to sound dismissive but they’re all doing this already.

When I’m trying to look at anything on Twitter it shortly launches a full screen thing demanding I login (I refuse to sign up).

YouTube requires sign-in for age restricted content.

Google, most annoyingly, makes me complete several captchas for using incognito+private relay

Instagram won’t open in safari with incognito+private relay; I have a throwaway account for just looking at the odd link someone sends me in a meme group-chat; I have to use another browser.

I often have to replace “www.whatever.reddit” to “old.reddit” on my phone to be able to see an “age restricted” post, most of the time they aren’t anything a kid shouldn’t be see either, not sure how they’re determining that.

thebigjewbowskion Observations from our Joe Rogan Experience experience

> Media companies have layers of editors, they have at least some diversity, a woman will hopefully look at a story or script before it goes out, sometimes even a lawyer might tell them to tone it down a bit

Sometimes editors and a corporate machine behind the news isn’t the best thing.

Take, for example, Amy Robach. A CBS reporter who wanted to air the Jeffery Epstein story years before he was arrested for the second time. Then ABC tipping off CBS and the leaker being fired.

There’s also the Chris Cuomo basement scandal.

Or Brian Williams lying about his experience covering Iraq.

Or Glenn Greenwald and Bari Weiss being pushed out of their newspapers.

Or studies showing that the media covered Russia’s invasion of Ukraine far more than the US invasion of Iraq.

Or censoring of the Hunter Biden laptop story. Also haven’t seen much about the contents of the diary in the mainstream press…

The media has failed time and time again on what I outlined above and much more. They have an agenda, be it left or right, that is larger than any one person and are largely beholden to advertisers and whatnot.

I applaud independent media. There are a lot of people doing really great work on substack. Jimmy Dore, for example, does amazing reporting and really shows the bias of the media.

People like Alex Berenson, Matt Taibi, Glenn Greenwald, etc are doing really great investigative reporting that I once respected mainstream outlets for.

Just because someone has a large audience doesn’t mean they should be censored. Talking to people about things for hours is invaluable and Rogan does a great job on his show.

https://nypost.com/2019/11/05/abc-news-amy-robach-claims-net...

https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-glenn-beck-program/cbs-fi...

https://freebeacon.com/media/chris-cuomo-fakes-emerging-from...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brian-williams-credibility-ques...

https://www.globalissues.org/news/2022/04/12/30585

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

thebigjewbowskion Startup is selling tech to make call center workers sound like white Americans

You really hit it out of the park here.

The inverse of the first point is also true. It’s often harder for the person on the other end to understand you if they’re not an English speaker leading to continually repeating yourself and spelling stuff out.

thebigjewbowskion Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become

> I feel like some people who take this mindset see their lives as being two distinct phases… the building/growth phase where you grind and learn and work non stop, and then a later phase that comes after where you enjoy what you built.

I actually just had this realization when I was lifting weights.

Initially I just wanted to lose weight and I had this idea of where I’d be once I did. Then I got to my goal weight and that wasn’t it. Now if I stop lifting, exercising and eating healthily all of my progress will eventually be gone; it’s a life long process not just something to do for awhile until I reach some goal.

I think it’s something I should apply to my professional life as well but it can be scary to take your foot off of the gas. I’ve done it in the past for the wrong reasons and wound up regretting it.

thebigjewbowskion Spiders seem to have REM-like sleep and may even dream

Kind of fun to think about, no?

I had a cellar spider that was hanging out by my outside door for about a week and he would seemingly wave when I walked in and out. I wonder if he ever dreamed of me.

I imagine their nightmares are probably about birds and centipedes.