Hacker News: litoE

New comment by litoE in "Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him (2016)"

litoE — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:38 +0000

Something similar happened in 1975 in Uruguay. The brit that saved the penguin wrote a book, which was made into a movie, "The Penguin Lessons", currently on Netflix.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Penguin_Lessons_(book)

New comment by litoE in "Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry of E. Jean Carroll"

litoE — Thu, 28 May 2026 19:14:58 +0000

Just out of curiosity: what happens to you if you don't vote? Can you get a medical excuse? What if you are traveling?l

New comment by litoE in "Justice Dept. Is Said to Open Criminal Inquiry of E. Jean Carroll"

litoE — Thu, 28 May 2026 15:46:29 +0000

I can understand your not liking Harris, Biden, Clinton et. al. But I can't understand how you selected a person like Trump as your candidate for President. One time, maybe. But three times in a row?

New comment by litoE in "When (if ever) it's appropriate to make jokes before the US Supreme Court"

litoE — Sun, 24 May 2026 18:12:09 +0000

RBG passed away while Trump was president. Obama did pick a replacement for Antonin Scalia though: Merrick Garland. Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to even give Garland a hearing arguing it was "too close to the presidential election", even though Obama's term had about one year to go.

New comment by litoE in "Ten Signs of Fascism. America has all of them"

litoE — Mon, 18 May 2026 01:58:23 +0000

Frightening thought: Alito and Thomas resign now, giving Trump two seats to fill with younger Justices of their "textualist" persuation who will be there for a very long time.

New comment by litoE in "Zuckerberg 'Personally Authorized and Encouraged' Meta's Copyright Infringement"

litoE — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:21:01 +0000

It's very simple: if the terms are satisfactory and against an agreed upon collateral (e.g. shares) banks will give you a loan that does not require periodic payments. The interest on the loan does accumulate of course, and is just added to the principal that the borrower owes. The bank is happy as long as the value of the collateral is higher than the current outstanding loan. If the loan is in danger of going "under water" the bank can either liquidate the collateral to pay itself, or the borrower can renegotiate the loan and deposit additional shares.

It's similar to a reverse mortgage. Say Fred and Wilma own a house worth $4MM with no mortgage on it. With a reverse mortgage a bank will lend them $2MM. Fred and Wilma make no payments and continue to live in their house, spending the $2MM while the interest on that loan just increases the amount they owe the bank. After both Fred and Wilma have passed away the house is sold and the proceeds are used to pay back the outstanding loan. If there's still money left over, it goes to their heirs. If the sale comes up short, the bank loses money, which is why these reverse mortgages are typically less than 50% of the value of the house and they typically have higher interest rates than conventional mortgages. From Fred and Wilma's point of view, they can use the value of their house now, while continuing to live in it. They essentially spend their children's inheritance.

New comment by litoE in "Zuckerberg 'Personally Authorized and Encouraged' Meta's Copyright Infringement"

litoE — Tue, 05 May 2026 22:46:12 +0000

Plus, the money he borrows is not taxable. If he sold stock he would have to pay taxes before he could spend the income. Sure, he now owes money to someone, but he can refinance those loans again and again, and live tax-free the rest of his life while we, poor working stiffs, pay the taxes that built the airport where he parks the private jet he bought with the money he borrowed.

New comment by litoE in "Help Denmark Buy California – Because Why Not?"

litoE — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 04:01:09 +0000

This is absurd. Denmark can't afford to buy California. On the other hand, if they just invite us to join ....

New comment by litoE in "Trump fires Pam Bondi as attorney general"

litoE — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 02:00:36 +0000

I also think that the system of party primary elections by popular vote is a big part of the problem. To win the Republican primary you have to be more "Republican" than your opponents. Ditto for the Democratic primary. Then you end up with candidates at the far ends of the spectrum instead of more centrist ones.

In congress this means a complete inability to compromise, resulting in the current stalemate. In the presidency, you end up with someone who thinks of his opponents as criminals deserving prosecution.

New comment by litoE in "Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story"

litoE — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:46:14 +0000

Because it's in the Israeli government's interest to make the threat from Iran look bigger, rather than smaller?

New comment by litoE in "Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional"

litoE — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 19:51:44 +0000

Florida must be using cheap cameras. My daughter got a red light ticket in Beverly Hills a couple of years ago. They mailed the ticket to her as the registered owner of the car, including the photographs from the cameras which showed that a) she entered the intersection on a red light, b) her car front and back showing the license plates and c) the face of the driver, establishing it was her. From her expression on the photograph you could tell she was saying "oh, shit!" She just paid it.

New comment by litoE in "Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?"

litoE — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:29:59 +0000

Back in 1969 I had a summer job in the engineering department of a factory. The Chief Engineer was an old guy who was a slide rule artist. He taught me how to solve second degree equations (ax^2 + bx + c = 0) with just a slide rule. The standard formula that I had learned in high school includes adding and subtracting, which a slide rule cannot do. His method involved pulling out the slider of the slide rule and inserting it backwards. Then, through some clever manipulation using the D and B scales (which now faced each other) and the A and C scales, he could actually solve the equation with just the slide rule. I wish I could remember exactly how it was done.

New comment by litoE in "Ask HN: Is there anyone here who still uses slide rules?"

litoE — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:13:13 +0000

You don't have to multiply the powers of ten in your head. In your examples, the slider of the slide rule must be moved to the left of the body of the rule. This means the number of digits left of the decimal point in the answer is the sum of the number of digits left of the decimal point in the two multiplicands.

If the slider had been to the right of the body, the number of digits left of the decimal point in the answer is the sum of the number of digits left of the decimal point in the two multiplicands MINUS 1. .

New comment by litoE in "Leaked chats expose the daily life of a scam compound's enslaved workforce"

litoE — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 23:57:37 +0000

I have been getting repeated emails saying something along the lines of "We have a family office who has a strong interest in making an investment into industry. Can we set up a time to discuss this opportunity?". They are signed with different names, always female, and coming from email addresses with a TLD of .help or .shop

It's obviously a scam and I am not replying, but I'm curious what the scam is here.

New comment by litoE in "Yes, It's Fascism"

litoE — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:36:22 +0000

If your definition of Democracy is based on how we elect our leaders, then Hitler's Germany was a Democracy because Hitler was elected Chancellor by a majority. You need to define Democracy based on how we replace our leaders. In that case, Hitler's Germany was not a democracy since it was impossible for the people to replace the Fuhrer had they wished to. In Trump's case, we may still be a Democracy but there are worrysome indications ("Trump’s recent musing that there should be no 2026 election may or may not have been jocular").

New comment by litoE in "How Slide Rules Work"

litoE — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 04:12:30 +0000

When using a slide rule, keeping track of the number of digits to the left of the decimal point (DLDP) in the result is fairly simple if you know the basic rule:

For multiplication, the DLDP in the result is:

- the sum of the DLDPs of the multiplicands MINUS 1 if the multiplication is done with the slide sticking out to the right of the ruler's body (for example 2.0 x 3.0 = 6.0).

- the sum of the DLDPs of the multiplicands if the multiplication is done with the slide sticking out to the left of the ruler's body (for example 5.0 x 4.0 = 20.0).

There's a similar rule for division, but that's left as an exercise for the student.

New comment by litoE in "The emergence and diversification of dog morphology"

litoE — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 01:35:47 +0000

Every child should have a dog. It gives them valuable life lessons about responsibility, fidelity, unconditional love and to always turn around three times before you lie down.

New comment by litoE in "The English language doesn't exist – it's just French that's badly pronounced"

litoE — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 23:58:04 +0000

The whole thing does not make sense to me because the grammars are so different. In English you say "Mary's house". In French it's "La maison de Marie."

New comment by litoE in "Cyclist falls down 130-foot ravine in France, survives 3 days by drinking wine"

litoE — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:49:38 +0000

Did the wine have anything to do with him falling into the ravine in the first place?

New comment by litoE in "Iran's president calls for new capital to replace Tehran"

litoE — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:44:51 +0000

Washington D.C.