2 days ago • Comments on a post

Yes, it sounds like there are multiple disconnected infection clusters, with the assumption of a similar mode of transmission in each. (I’m obviously inferring this based on limited thin evidence.)

Consider a hypothetical autocratic regime with a history of criminalizing sexuality, committing human rights violations, and researching biological weapons. If their military felt it was time to deploy an airborne virus within enemy population centers, wouldn’t it make sense to do so simultaneously? And why wouldn’t this regime release it in a class of location that create plausible deniability, maligns a population historically persecuted by the regime, and foments societal conflict in the enemy?

Personally, given the implications, I’m hoping this warfare proves to be more informational than biological.

3 days ago • Comments on a post

FYI this is an old clip. I can’t recall the original source, but I’ve seen this video before. I think the interview was also before Covid.

4 days ago • Comments on a post

The outcomes are only contradictory if you interpret them as such. As for me, I don’t believe a person’s choice of vote, between at most two viable parties, is sufficient evidence for classifying their moral beliefs – certainly not to the extent that I can recognize them as contradictory to their actions.

5 days ago • Created a post

Ask HN: What can I do today to prepare for anti-aging tech of the future?

39 points • 49 comments

9 days ago • Comments on a post

That’s what this is. Nobody knows how, or if, any of this works. If people are putting money into it they can’t afford to lose, that’s their problem.

10 days ago • Comments on a post

> stop using third party DNS caches

What is the best way to go about this? AFAIU the root DNS servers will refuse requests for recursive resolutions. So I understand the need for a self-hosted caching resolver in the middle. But is it actually necessary? If I configure my iPhone DNS to use a root server IP [0], will it perform the recursive resolution locally? And if so, is there any downside, other than increased latency, to contacting the root servers directly?

I guess privacy and trust might be issues, when asking untrusted computers (any of the intermediate resolvers) to resolve an address for your client. You would certainly give the host of a domain more information when you contact it than you would by using a third party caching resolver as an intermediary. It’s basically a question of spraying small bits of activity to many resolvers, or all your activity to one resolver. Which is a smaller attack surface? Depends.

[0] https://www.iana.org/domains/root/servers

10 days ago • Comments on a post

> The probability that Elon is margin called by year end is roughly 40% according to option prices.

This sounds like “two more weeks, MOASS, trust me bro” level of analysis. How can you possibly have enough insight into Musk’s financial holdings to make such an assertion? Nevermind the structure of the Twitter deal itself, which doesn’t exactly require him to fork over $40 billion in cash.

10 days ago • Comments on a post

But the US military is not engaged in a war with Russia in Ukraine. Congress would need to declare war for that to be the case. So why should we so easily accept the premise that the US military is responsible for purchasing equipment and delivering it to war zones in countries where we have no troops, to be used for killing soldiers with whom we are not at war?

10 days ago • Comments on a post

Well, thanks for the first response that isn’t rehashing my top two favorite movies. :D

Still, it doesn’t answer my question. Who disburses the “spending” to the vendors who provide weapons in exchange for that money? And how do they choose who gets it?

I think what irks me is that while I understand the benefits of this system when it comes to supplying the US military (rapid mobilization), I question the ethics of redirecting the output of this system to another country, who is ultimately an additional end customer for the arms companies.

I can’t articulate the precise source of my discomfort, but I know it feels wrong for this artificial market to exist according primarily to the whims of politicians and those who pay them.

One argument in favor of the military industrial complex is that it keeps the wheels greased for when a real war happens. And we’re seeing the benefits of that in Ukraine right now. But to be honest, I get the sense that the MIC, i.e. the power structure controlled by executives at the top US arms manufacturers, has a vested interest in prolonging this war, any war, so long as the weapons need replacing.

10 days ago • Created a post

Ask HN: From a business perspective, how does an “arms deal” play out?

5 points • 11 comments

13 days ago • Comments on a post

> re-litigating the past, it’s pointless and doomed to failure.

If re-litigating the past is pointless…

> Trump violated the rules a lot for years building up to finally getting banned

…then why was his past behavior relevant when banning him for what was allegedly a single action?

Also…

> Anything you do to undermine this undermines the validity of ALL bans

That’s the point. Many were not valid.

17 days ago • Comments on a post

Nah, I think we need an orange variant of Godwin’s Law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

20 days ago • Comments on a post

Joke’s on you, I’ve read this entire comment thread and I’ll still get those questions wrong when I try them later today.

21 days ago • Comments on a post

I think the answer to this is to do more interesting things on a regular basis. If every weekend you do something different, then the month feels longer than when you stay home every weekend.

21 days ago • Comments on a post

Well, we know that Brendan Gregg left Netflix and then the stock crashed. So maybe Intel should make sure they can hold onto him.

27 days ago • Comments on a post

By “making friends” do you mean he buys a popular social network?

27 days ago • Comments on a post

If you were a few thousand kilometers tall, would the cells in your feet age at a different rate than those in your head?

1 month ago • Comments on a post

How would space-based solar increase the risk of warfare in space more than space-based communications and geolocation infrastructure already risks it? Knocking out GPS satellites seems like it’d be nearly as effective as knocking out power-supplying satellites.

I guess maybe the difference is there is redundancy in the GPS network – taking out one satellite wouldn’t do much damage, but with power supplying satellites I presume it would.

1 month ago • Comments on a post

It’s not an interesting thought experiment. The finger on the button is no different than the toe on the gas pedal.

1 month ago • Comments on a post

Sure, you go first.