Hacker News: mannerheim

New comment by mannerheim in "Finland seizes ship from Russia suspected of breaking telecom cable to Estonia"

mannerheim — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:50:13 +0000

Piracy used to be punishable by death. There would be a lot fewer people willing to pull these kinds of stunts if they knew they would actually face consequences.

New comment by mannerheim in "The Chan-Zuckerbergs stopped funding social causes"

mannerheim — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:04:22 +0000

>then you can, you know, put a bit more into making them work

Assuming it's a problem that can be solved by more money. The US has the fifth-highest amount of education spending in the world, behind countries like Luxembourg and Norway, but ahead of Germany, France, UK, Sweden, and Belgium. Some problems can't be fixed with money alone, and throwing good money after bad is foolish.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ukraine destroys more than 40 military aircraft in drone attack deep in Russia"

mannerheim — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 19:24:35 +0000

There were no good people at the end of the USSR fighting for the USSR. They fought for their country in the sense of their individual nations, but anyone fighting for the USSR was fighting for what really was an evil empire.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ukraine destroys more than 40 military aircraft in drone attack deep in Russia"

mannerheim — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:03:38 +0000

EW is needed at the front, and these bases were deep within Russia. Lasers are not common technology for anti-drone use yet, and likely kinetic weapons are superior since lasers will not work in any sort of bad weather.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ukraine destroys more than 40 military aircraft in drone attack deep in Russia"

mannerheim — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 23:59:33 +0000

Russia has gone to great lengths to insulate its populace from feeling the effects of the war. For Russians not directly involved in the war, one could hardly tell there even was a war going on. You can see this from interviews with the residents of Sudzha.

Whether or not they value individual lives, putting a hospital out of commission will be something they will need to divert resources to.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ukraine destroys more than 40 military aircraft in drone attack deep in Russia"

mannerheim — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 23:46:18 +0000

They produce large quantities of drones, like the kind that were used in this operation.

2.2 million in 2024. Some of those could be diverted to worthwhile targets for deterrence purposes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/12/45-million-...

New comment by mannerheim in "Ukraine destroys more than 40 military aircraft in drone attack deep in Russia"

mannerheim — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 23:35:50 +0000

>The attack occurred a day after Russia launched airstrikes at multiple cities in Ukraine, killing 57 and wounding 160.

Needed to get 32 more.

New comment by mannerheim in "Police arrest apparent leader of 'Zizian' group"

mannerheim — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 18:40:17 +0000

Well, if we're ignoring everyone else's descriptions of SBF, Caroline Ellison had a tumblr on which she repeatedly self-identified as a rationalist: https://caroline.milkyeggs.com/worldoptimization

New comment by mannerheim in "Police arrest apparent leader of 'Zizian' group"

mannerheim — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 08:55:05 +0000

There's also the other time the rationalist community made national news, when a similar cult accidentally gambled away ten billion dollars in cryptocurrency.

New comment by mannerheim in "Mysterious Bay Area Rationalist-Adjacent Group 'Ziz' Linked to Six Deaths"

mannerheim — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 17:44:06 +0000

'We have the Manson family at home'

New comment by mannerheim in "Another undersea cable damaged in Baltic Sea"

mannerheim — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 09:42:50 +0000

Back in the day, sailors would be hanged by the neck until dead for acts of piracy like this.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 19:50:19 +0000

That hollow, symbolic win could have been given to them by anyone other than Trump. If nobody else thinks a group's interests are worth listening to, don't be surprised when they start chasing after the tiniest morsels.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 19:37:13 +0000

There are credibility issues if you make promises you don't follow up on, especially very public promises that are completely within your power to carry out; there are no limits on the presidential pardon power, barring that it only applies to federal crimes.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 18:11:55 +0000

Many were convicted of the same acts and received far lighter sentences. They specifically sought to make an example out of him. That is contrary to the rule of law.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 15:21:07 +0000

Selectively punishing someone with a grossly disproportionate sentence on the grounds of their political beliefs seems contrary to the rule of law.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 02:54:38 +0000

One issue with any potential trial for murder-for-hire is that the allegation as presented in the Maryland indictment has two problematic witnesses: DEA agent Carl Force who acted as the hitman, now in prison for embezzling cryptocurrency from the Silk Road case, and Curtis Green, the would-be victim in this case, who has previously insisted that Ulbricht was innocent of plotting his murder (and was also recently imprisoned for cocaine distribution last year, although I don't think that would be too relevant). Maybe the other allegations might have more meat on the bone, but they didn't make it on to any indictment.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 01:19:16 +0000

Biden could have taken the wind out of Trump's sails by commuting Ulbricht's sentence when he was in office. If you don't think a group's interests are worth listening to, don't be surprised when that group votes for someone who does.

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:30:00 +0000

Possibly a deal with the Libertarian Party, which chose not to run their candidate in several states to help Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhDKYYdD2vY

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:25:10 +0000

A video from Reason magazine a few days ago[0] mentioned a deal between the Libertarian Party leadership and Trump in which they selectively didn't run their candidate in several states in order to help Trump. If this is true, Trump could have reneged, but evidently decided whatever political blowback for pardoning Ulbricht (which is probably small potatoes at this rate) wasn't worth the credibility cost.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhDKYYdD2vY

New comment by mannerheim in "Ross Ulbricht granted a full pardon"

mannerheim — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:21:39 +0000

He was in jail for running a darknet drug marketplace. Hiring a contract killer was a crime he was neither charged with nor convicted of.