<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: curio_Pol_curio</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=curio_Pol_curio</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2026 02:20:56 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=curio_Pol_curio" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[Thomas Mann: Goethe Heartened by Panama (As Suez for English, or Danube-Rhine)]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://yalereview.org/article/thomas-mann-goethe">https://yalereview.org/article/thomas-mann-goethe</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48353112">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48353112</a></p>
<p>Points: 24</p>
<p># Comments: 2</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 05:56:04 +0000</pubDate><link>https://yalereview.org/article/thomas-mann-goethe</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48353112</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48353112</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Leo's first encyclical attacks technological messianism"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>that's when it appears cum "laude" (eg)<p>in commonwealth (seniors in everyday UK, HR and pedants otherwise) usage it rhymes with dumb, like you'd expect<p><a href="https://youtu.be/RzESsmv5FhM" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/RzESsmv5FhM</a><p><i>Radcliff-cum-Chackmore</i></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 31 May 2026 01:23:30 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342231</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342231</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48342231</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Naphtha shortages in Japan"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Thermal recycling is a classic Japanese euphemism for burning plastics. Yes, for energy, but it's still misleading<p><a href="https://www.mitsui.com/solution/en/contents/solutions/circular/how-is-plastic-recycled" rel="nofollow">https://www.mitsui.com/solution/en/contents/solutions/circul...</a><p>><i>it produces CO2 and toxic substances when it is burned.</i></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2026 13:28:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48335949</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48335949</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48335949</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "The Kaiser and a "Mediocre Man" Theory of History"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Bismarck? Or<p>>his liberal father<p>Might be a stretch to imply that the Wilhelm II was a mediocre  illiberal. HIM was (for a time) interested in protecting workers' rights. However great he was, Bismarck couldn't overpower a "mediocre" populist<p><a href="https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarckian-germany-1866-1890/kaiser-wilhelm-ii-s-decree-to-bismarck-on-workers-protection-and-social-policy-february-4-1890" rel="nofollow">https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarcki...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2026 10:42:18 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48334777</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48334777</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48334777</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "The Steinwinter Supercargo"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Timeless interior. Maybe inspired<p><a href="https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/df7a5e0c-8004-40ce-93aa-a156aad81e7e.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/df7a5e0c-8004-40...</a><p>(from the electric Ferrari<p><a href="http://www.roadandtrack.com/photos/g71401901/2028-ferrari-luce-photo-gallery/" rel="nofollow">http://www.roadandtrack.com/photos/g71401901/2028-ferrari-lu...</a>)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2026 02:26:02 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48288738</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48288738</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48288738</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sir John Soane and the red telephone box]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Article URL: <a href="https://www.soane.org/features/sir-john-soane-and-red-telephone-box-0">https://www.soane.org/features/sir-john-soane-and-red-telephone-box-0</a></p>
<p>Comments URL: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247599">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247599</a></p>
<p>Points: 3</p>
<p># Comments: 0</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 23 May 2026 13:40:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://www.soane.org/features/sir-john-soane-and-red-telephone-box-0</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247599</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48247599</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Should other living systems have agentic reprsentation?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Quick TILs:<p>-preemptive defence=best offence=plausibly not a school bully<p><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/you-go-to-war-with-the-press-you-have/" rel="nofollow">https://www.brookings.edu/articles/you-go-to-war-with-the-pr...</a><p>><i>As the saying goes, you go to [HN] with the [question] you have. And you don’t want a good [problem] ruined [for want of data].</i><p>-kitsune<i>hanmen</i> is cool. "coolness" ~ "calm+wild". Isaac Newton with kh, masks inward looking cageyness under outward looking edginess<p>-enby may not be "approachable". Smiley Ben Franklin is not as cool as a Ben Franklin that threatens cougars just by _being_<p>Newton: pope=Antichrist<p>nobody: Newton=Antichrist<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therion_(Thelema)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therion_(Thelema)</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 02:32:28 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970736</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970736</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970736</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "The More Young People Use AI, the More They Hate It"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>LLM platforms are not fundamentally collaborative (think chatGPT vs stack overflow, or google DeepMind vs Bell Labs)<p>Otherwise they would<p>1. force humans to spend much more time on these decisions, and<p>2. Teach humans that the only way to save time on decision-making is to collaborate with other humans<p>I had a reply to your Asian take 
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970518">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970518</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 02:15:07 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970648</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970648</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970648</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "AI optimism surges in Asia, unlike in the U.S."]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How about Taiwan?<p>It's not fully Confucianist like the others[0], Taoist ex-Minister Audrey Tang visualizes AI to be a glue, "a steering wheel rather than a hamster wheel"<p><a href="https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=3795" rel="nofollow">https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=3795</a><p>AI that addresses the "Golden Ticket mindset", sidestepping centralized agenda with decentralized agency.<p>In my own words,<p><pre><code>  Helps people work together to find ( not better solutions, but ) better problems
</code></pre>
(LLM platforms are far from collaborative-- there is no Confucianist "productivity flywheel' neither)<p>Maybe once the youth-driven TPP gets into power their TFR+TFP might overtake SK's<p>(gerontocrats of Taiwan are equally exploitative but fortuitously their tentacles don't reach into software :)<p>[0]the symbolisms on your flag suggests that it should be much more Taoist than it is tho?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 01:51:06 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970518</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970518</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970518</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "US National Debt Surpasses GDP"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>According to 2024 GDI, using the generous "HN definition" which includes Finland and Czechia, only
1/2 of robust democracies are in "Western Europe"<p><a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-state-of-democracy-around-the-world/" rel="nofollow">https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-state-of-democracy-arou...</a><p>Bonus: <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/imaginaryelections/comments/krvb1y/american_nations_16_economist_democracy_index/" rel="nofollow">https://old.reddit.com/r/imaginaryelections/comments/krvb1y/...</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2026 01:38:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970439</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970439</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47970439</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Iran caused more extensive damage to U.S. military bases than publicly known"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>There's this:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Marxism" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Marxism</a><p>Which I feel is the "most complete take"<p>><i>Karl Marx... only criticizing the freedom in the great inequality of wealth and power.[3]</i><p>Confucianism is mostly CPC marketing; its gerontocratic heart really beats for Legalism, though some still hope for the "tail wagging the dog, peacefully", just like we'd want "civic individualism" (now represented by Mamdani?) to wag the genroto-corporatist dog in the US.<p>Regarding the pensions, it's not like national-level legislators are getting censured for supporting their raise.<p>I'm glad Taiwan's not tied to the DPP, because I'd rather support this:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_People%27s_Party#Policy" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_People%27s_Party#Policy</a><p>Looks like it's projected to replace DPP after the boomers die off (peacefully)!<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2024_Taiwanese_presidential_election#Graphical_summary" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2024_T...</a><p>Sorry, it's just immoral to me to sow discord against CPC in an US-based geronto-corporatist forum. If you want we can continue this on a PRC youth-forum (where I'd think it would be immoral to cast aspersions on US :)<p>Regarding Taiwanese fix for liberalism, Audrey Tang (with Glen Weyl) is not wasting time:<p><a href="https://newpublic.substack.com/p/how-taiwan-is-leading-the-way-in" rel="nofollow">https://newpublic.substack.com/p/how-taiwan-is-leading-the-w...</a><p>><i>As Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson famously argued, free democratic societies exist in a “narrow corridor” between social collapse and authoritarianism. From both sides, information technologies seem to be narrowing the corridor, squeezing the possibility of a free society.</i><p>She'll probably run under the TPP flag?<p><a href="https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/08/21/plurality.html" rel="nofollow">https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/08/21/plurality.html</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 03:35:09 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943917</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943917</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943917</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "UAE to leave OPEC"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>archive for the Reuters article<p><a href="https://archive.ph/uSXJx" rel="nofollow">https://archive.ph/uSXJx</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 02:40:23 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943620</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943620</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47943620</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Iran caused more extensive damage to U.S. military bases than publicly known"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>FWIW I think both CPC and US "system" are _both_ fundamentally doomed versions of liberalism. (Are we forgetting that Marx was a liberal?) As is Taiwan's DPP. They are losing the youth vote to the more consistent but pragmatic 3rd party, which will likely lead to the loss of the Presidency to the pro-unification KMT.<p>CPC are not so much banning the Qur'an as making it subservient to Confucianism (which is a liberalish ideology that human nature is basically wholesome and does not need to be benchmarked against a higher standard)<p>More "nuanced" criticism here (facts here may be triggering)<p><a href="https://bitterwinter.org/china-promotes-a-confucianized-approach-to-the-holy-quran/" rel="nofollow">https://bitterwinter.org/china-promotes-a-confucianized-appr...</a><p>How about instead of getting angry with the heuristics of _fellow liberals_, thus shilling for the deaths of essentially apolitical billions, we get angry with our liberal selves for not being able to see how to fix the fundamental issues with liberalism-- itself not immune to cultlike thought patterns<p>Start by studying the work of Karp, ex-student of Habermas, you may learn something about yourself :)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 01:53:49 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47916884</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47916884</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47916884</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Iran caused more extensive damage to U.S. military bases than publicly known"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Your abbreviation PCC suggests to me you're francophone. So you're probably not aware that everything you say about China has an equivalent in the US (deeply divided, lacking empathy etc)<p>The political content of the respective education systems is different though. What one observes is, Chinese seem unwilling to criticize the government, but Americans seem to be unable to filter out misinformation. In the US, church or other "civic institutions" are conduits for divergent narratives; imagine the French Catholic church but much more fragmented or independent.<p>It also depends on the time period. As China modernizes it has become less repressive to the average citizen-- though probably still as repressive to dissidents. Rural versus urban divide exists too, just like in the US. (Modern Vendee?) What were the religious background of the people you talked to? PCC is terrified of cults which spread alternative politics under the guise of spirituality. For historical reasons. You will notice that mainstream Islam is fine.<p>In any event, when wars happen due to decisions taken by government, civilians take the bulk of the damage. It is not a noble thing to speak on the side of violent foreign policy, especially when its couched in the language of "liberation" or "security"</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2026 08:06:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47908369</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47908369</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47908369</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "'Perfect Japan' posts spark Gen Z social media backlash"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>USians being proud of their nonconformism is like PG or Elon taking pride in their (children's) (meta)cognitive abilities (or HN talking its curiosity book)<p>The more sophisticated equilibrium to compare with the Japanese is the Swiss: it seems that the reason Swiss max(quirkiness) is significantly less that JP's is that CH has been optimising for <i>skepticism of Karens</i> ("pride" is maybe the key metric to look at, if we care to do a 3-agent strong-link weak-link analysis)<p>As SF (city and literary genre) become less like the frontier, the individual-community tradeoff is going to look more like the <i>Dutch</i>-- all the commercialised quirkiness does is make you groan, the way rbanffy's kids make him (if he has any)!<p>Btw, 2-way Protecting Power Mandate is a terrestrial image of  the Mandate of Heaven, imho<p><a href="https://www.swisscommunity.org/en/news-media/swiss-revue/article/switzerland-as-a-protecting-power" rel="nofollow">https://www.swisscommunity.org/en/news-media/swiss-revue/art...</a><p>(I read the above as OSA propaganda :)<p>Eg between minimally viable narcissists and individuals who are merely or quietly nonconformist</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:03:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47897294</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47897294</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47897294</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Texas Populists Almost Destroyed the Two-Party System"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Guessed that this was way before the Great (values) Party Flip.<p>After the Flip it was more clear that the pachyderm hides behind "sincere deviance" (long before Nixon-Kissinger; I'll dig that up later) but the asinid hides behind "sacrificial (thusiatic) normativity".<p>"Let's be honest our brutality helps everyone, including ourselves."<p>VS<p>"I struggle to say it out loud,  but you suffer just like us"<p>><i>As one West Texas tenant farmer wrote, ‘We must work together to help our brethren see the light. Give us Socialism and the religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’</i><p>Thus an internal values-flip happened in the R-elite.. were there philosophy manuals that made this legible (besides Ayn R's)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:28:52 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871363</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871363</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871363</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "Technical, cognitive, and intent debt"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>How does it --if it does-- relate to your idea of "affordability porn" :)<p>That line (between your other values?) was uproarious; I apologise for not u*voting it, partially because I couldn't vocalise my peculiar fetish att (+ "gnarliness-pornstar" doesn't sound nearly as enticing as "AI-affordability-pornstar" X)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:10:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871255</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871255</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47871255</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "The levels of Mong Kok: one of Hong Kong's labyrinthine camera malls"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>MK is like (lower) midtown west?<p>In terms of food options too<p><a href="https://youtu.be/fHmMx98G2cs" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/fHmMx98G2cs</a></p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 22 Apr 2026 03:39:34 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858638</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858638</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47858638</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "We accepted surveillance as default"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Ads on the FB & goog network (this includes phys.org btw) are NOT paper tigers, in the sense that<p><pre><code>  they are a reliable anti-signal
</code></pre>
(to short, not to buy, to look at rising competitors, to look into reasons why a product might be failing, to sus out the lack of foresight in their investors, to extract other high cost channels/signals that they are still using ntless<p>As an example of the last one, I just learnt about an ISO standard.. 
)<p>YMMV depending on how much the network knows [it doesn't know] about you ofc ;)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 23:59:56 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47842833</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47842833</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47842833</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by curio_Pol_curio in "America Lost the Mandate of Heaven"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>GP might be making a prediction about Demis Hassabis, who happens to break the mold you've just described<p>(but he is not a member of "the Physics community" so their expectations won't mean anything to him?)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:42:47 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47832477</link><dc:creator>curio_Pol_curio</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47832477</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47832477</guid></item></channel></rss>