Hacker News: basementcat

Why Is Elon Musk Invited to Speak at AI Startup School?

basementcat — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 06:13:05 +0000

The man is responsible for taking away life saving medication from over 20 million people in the last few weeks. Why does Y Combinator demean itself to the point of associating with this person?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43086581

Points: 23

# Comments: 10

New comment by basementcat in "Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley"

basementcat — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 04:07:49 +0000

Recently discussed here

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43029164

New comment by basementcat in "Gold Is Worth More in New York"

basementcat — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 04:04:57 +0000

Wasn’t that part of the plot of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon?

New comment by basementcat in "[dead]"

basementcat — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 01:09:34 +0000

So $55 billion in exchange for denying life saving medication to 20 million souls.

New comment by basementcat in "Net neutrality under Trump? Not so neutral"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:17:10 +0000

For those who aren’t familiar, VDARE is "an anti-immigration hate website" which "regularly publishes articles by prominent white nationalists, race scientists and anti-Semites" according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDARE

New comment by basementcat in "[dead]"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 19:33:18 +0000

What level of financial savings would justify threatening the lives of 20 million souls?

https://pepfarreport.org/

New comment by basementcat in "[dead]"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 19:12:32 +0000

> throwawaydpresd 1 minute ago [dead] | root | parent [–]

> I feel guilty that I'm still using hacker news. I feel like I'm supporting the regime

Can someone explain why this is downvoted?

New comment by basementcat in "Ask HN: Is This Normal?"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 18:49:17 +0000

I would agree that protests alone are less effective than if they are combined with other things.

New comment by basementcat in "Ask HN: Is This Normal?"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 18:45:14 +0000

If the number of threats of physical harm (death, disfigurement, rape, etc) my colleagues are receiving are an indication, I feel the protests are having an effect.

New comment by basementcat in "[dead]"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 18:42:54 +0000

Why is this person still invited to speak at AI Startup School?

New comment by basementcat in "Elon Musk ridiculed a blind person on X. Then a mob went to work"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:40:03 +0000

Why is this person still invited to speak at AI Startup School?

New comment by basementcat in "Ask HN: Why was my post on cybersecurity flagged?"

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 09:49:36 +0000

Garry Tan and Paul Graham are lauding DOGE (I, like pretty much everyone else, am also all for employing new technology to optimize business and government) but have not expressed concern about the 20 million people who have lost access to lifesaving medicine except for possibly vague suggestions about "proceeding cautiously" with respect to dismantling USAID. Why would anyone want to associate with people who have such disregard for human life? Do Elon and Trump possess personally compromising information on Paul and Garry? Or is this, as you suggest, just Paul and Garry revealing their true colors?

Justice Dept asks Supreme Court to decide if ethics watchdog can remain fired

basementcat — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 06:55:00 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-supreme-court-hampton-dellinger-office-special-counsel-rcna192427

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43075992

Points: 10

# Comments: 1

New comment by basementcat in "[dead]"

basementcat — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 22:40:51 +0000

Before this is flagged, I would appreciate it if someone could explain the benefit of removing educational videos and/or how it saves taxpayers money

New comment by basementcat in "[dead]"

basementcat — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 20:58:55 +0000

I would appreciate it if someone could explain the benefit of removing educational videos and/or how it saves taxpayers money.

New comment by basementcat in "[dead]"

basementcat — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 20:14:05 +0000

> Pausing their work now, while there are no elections occurring, to ensure the work they are doing is inline with their statutory responsibilities seems like a good idea.

I really hope you're being sarcastic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_elections

New comment by basementcat in "Half of CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Laid Off"

basementcat — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 20:09:20 +0000

This sounds like an unserious answer but I'll try to give you the benefit of the doubt.

> First of all, the way CDC works, it's just a board of directors from many pharmaceutical corporations.

Citation needed. This is very much as odds with what is described at

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

> CDC also plays a role here by promoting drugs/vaccines in cases you only need a change of habits (like eating well to minimize flu severity)

What fields of medicine did you specialize in?

I find it puzzling that there are people out there like you who want to dismantle public health infrastructure when we have active outbreaks of measles, bird flu and who knows what else.

I'm all for improving and optimizing public health services (or all government services for that matter) but I don't understand this willingness to threaten people's safety. Does Google just take down their search engine when they want to merge in a PR?

New comment by basementcat in "Half of CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Laid Off"

basementcat — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:52:50 +0000

I would be interested in hearing arguments for why it is helpful to gut the CDC’s globally recognized applied epidemiology training program

New comment by basementcat in "Half of CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Laid Off"

basementcat — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:51:49 +0000

It is a 2 year fellowship. Assuming hires are uniformly distributed, it would stand to reason that approximately half were hired in the within the past year.

https://www.cdc.gov/eis/php/participants/index.html

I would be interested in hearing arguments for why it is helpful to gut the CDC’s globally recognized applied epidemiology training program

Half of CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service Laid Off

basementcat — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 07:09:08 +0000

Article URL: https://newrepublic.com/post/191579/robert-f-kennedy-jr-cdc-infectious-disease-research

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43066048

Points: 56

# Comments: 19