Hacker News: Tarsul

New comment by Tarsul in "Over 150k Flights: Airlines Just Flew the Busiest Day in Recorded History"

Tarsul — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 16:55:06 +0000

I believe climate dictatorship will come already this century if our decarbonisation efforts stay as weak as they are. It won't be under that name though. One sufficient policy would be to price everything in money + co2 equivalent currency. Every person in a country gets a certain co2 currency budget per year. Pretty simple actually (yeah yeah, the small print will still be long but the gist is simple).

New comment by Tarsul in "France and Spain wildfires: more than 300k people displaced"

Tarsul — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 20:45:31 +0000

Kill the cows?! .... I mean, you did ask for radical steps that could be undertaken quickly. Aside from that, remember that the covid lockdowns led to a CO2 dent especially due to less traffic (car, planes..). But yeah, even these steps would be too little, too late. But still, they would still help. We have to remember that steps undertaken now, even if small, do still help. This planet will be here in hundreds and hundreds of years, so humanity has to show within this century that it is wanting to be there, too. Right now it all feels like our civilization is a little too much yoloing...

New comment by Tarsul in "Why skilled workers come to Germany and then leave again"

Tarsul — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:07:33 +0000

assimilation of German pessimistic tendencies.

New comment by Tarsul in "Europe's new climate in seven charts"

Tarsul — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 14:50:10 +0000

The present has accepted this challenge. As Wiki states: "The scientific consensus is that severe AMOC weakening explains the climatic effects of the Younger Dryas." And with the news about AMOC weakening today, we could as well be off to quicker temperature swings (particularly in Europe) than we've seen the last decades that might well challenge the Younger Dryas.

New comment by Tarsul in "Microsoft Needs Windows Lite"

Tarsul — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 21:10:30 +0000

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer stopped working once I updated my Win10 to Win10 LTSC. (have enough games that do work, so I will not change again until 2032 or rather until Steam discontinues Win10 support)

New comment by Tarsul in "GTA 6 Physical Copies Won't Include a Disc, Will Just Be a Code in a Box"

Tarsul — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 09:50:31 +0000

Civ 5 is from 2010 :)

New comment by Tarsul in "A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown"

Tarsul — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:02:49 +0000

In most countries the public "believes" in climate change. But it don't matter: People still consume much more than the planet can bear. Because they like to consume. And because they don't want to change "if no one else does it" (tragedy of the commons). So you're asking the wrong question (maybe not for a US audience, I give you that). The real question would be: How to change the behavior of a population? My best guess would be: by reforming capitalism (and/or democracy), e.g. carbon tax (imo best way would be that there's a second currency next to money for the carbon effect of every good/service). But good luck with that.

Disclaimer: For myself, I do believe in personal changes, e.g. consuming less (red meat, flights, gas etc). Not because it makes a big impact but because that's just my personal morality and it makes me feel better to do it. On a societal level it's tougher because most/many people's brains don't work like that (I think).

New comment by Tarsul in "Clothing, not air conditioning, should be 1st layer of response to extreme heat"

Tarsul — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:07:37 +0000

Clothing doesnt help much. Less concrete, more plants and trees would help much more. Also white roofs.

...But yeah if we're talking about things that can be changed nearly instantly, then yes ok let's talk about clothing. Better then nothing.

New comment by Tarsul in "Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism"

Tarsul — Tue, 19 May 2026 20:51:49 +0000

Due to a broken right-hand, I had to write with my left for 3 months and noticed that our alphabet is made for right-handedness. That's why I agree with your take that writing with the left hand is basically unnatural. But since typing is more important than writing nowadays (or am I in a bubble?), I don't think students should be guided to write with their right hand.

New comment by Tarsul in "I am worried about Bun"

Tarsul — Tue, 05 May 2026 01:23:53 +0000

positive ROI for customers?

New comment by Tarsul in "The Australian government has announced gambling advertising reforms"

Tarsul — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 22:48:54 +0000

I gotta admit I laughed heartily at the quote. I expected the slippery slope argument, I did not expect it to be made so clumsy :)

btw. what followed is worse: <>

Gambling business is not a positive force. It's not even zero sum. It's a negative sum game. I hope no one is nodding along to these kind of arguments, they are nonsensical.

New comment by Tarsul in "Bets on US-Iran ceasefire show signs of insider knowledge, say experts"

Tarsul — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 02:25:43 +0000

Not nefarious enough?

New comment by Tarsul in "Wired headphone sales are exploding. What's with the Bluetooth backlash?"

Tarsul — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:55:14 +0000

here's hoping that someday headphones without pressure (e.g. active/passive noise cancelling) will make a comeback, too. But then again I think there still exist cheap wired ones without such "advanced" technology. As one woman in the article said best: "'I don't like how this feels' and we're all kind of returning to the last place we were comfortable."

New comment by Tarsul in "Iranian Women Graduate in Stem 3× the Rate of U.S. Women and Has 5× More PhDs"

Tarsul — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 11:42:28 +0000

I have an anecdata where it was true: Angela Merkel. She studied physics not because it was her favorite but because in the system that she lived (GDR) it made more sense than social studies or politics.

New comment by Tarsul in "Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable"

Tarsul — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 17:00:03 +0000

I got the same or similar but let's not kid ourselves that this is in any way small. It would have been giant by 2015 standards. That's how much the overton window has shifted.

New comment by Tarsul in "Metformin shown to prevent Long Covid across risk groups in randomized trials"

Tarsul — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 17:07:45 +0000

I once read a study during the height of covid about this[1], which is why I loaded up on Metform. Was lucky enough not to get covid in the meanwhile (or didn't notice), but better safe than sorry.[2]

[1]2022: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2201662 [2]2024: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/common-diabetes-drug-low...

Screen time limits for children are no longer enough, new US report finds

Tarsul — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 02:27:21 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/25/screen-time-report

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46761150

Points: 6

# Comments: 2

New comment by Tarsul in "Trump's Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw"

Tarsul — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:02:21 +0000

I've been thinking: Trump won't settle for less than Greenland unless it's the Nobel Peace Price. So... why not give it to him but with caveats? E.g. It will be presented to him in an extraordinary pompous celebration (to tickle his ego) but will remain in Norway until the day of the end of Trump's presidency. He will receive it again on that day, and can keep it!, in another majestic ceremony.

New comment by Tarsul in "The unbearable joy of sitting alone in a café"

Tarsul — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 17:49:09 +0000

Humans are not rational. Even if you are 99% of the time, with a smartphone in your pocket there's a good chance you will use it for your emotional 1% within 2hours (and unravel). Read Rutger Bregman's goal for 2026: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/jan/04/lifes-t...

New comment by Tarsul in "AI-generated videos showing young and attractive women promote Poland's EU exit"

Tarsul — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 13:25:19 +0000

Yes. It's propaganda, not speech. Also the algorithms favor this sh*t. Also this massive generation of content floods the zone[1]. There is nothing "freedom of choice" about it if it resurfaces all the time. Upvotes/Views count disproportionally in most social media against downvotes/"not interested" (tiktok is better but even there you can't downvote enough AI-videos for them to not resurface. Probably because the algorithm isn't good enough to understand what is AI and what not, so these downvotes often don't count against AI).

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_the_zone