Hacker News: matthewmcg

New comment by matthewmcg in "Live: Artemis II Launch Day Updates"

matthewmcg — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 23:59:47 +0000

That’s fair but the amount of interest in this crewed mission vs. prior uncrewed and robotic moon missions shows that many people find manned missions more compelling.

New comment by matthewmcg in "Artemis II Launch Day Updates"

matthewmcg — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 23:55:39 +0000

It’s interesting to compare to Apollo 8 (circumlunar Apollo mission). That mission culminated a year that saw escalation of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

New comment by matthewmcg in "London's most controversial cyclist"

matthewmcg — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 18:48:56 +0000

I’ve fantasized about carrying a bullhorn on my bike and just calling people out: “hey you in the Tesla, put your phone down!” Sadly the enforcement of the hands free law where I live is nonexistent. What’s surprising to me about this article is that the police will actually act on this guy’s tips and evidence.

New comment by matthewmcg in "Delta single handle ball faucets (1963)"

matthewmcg — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 04:39:08 +0000

The terms of sale are so clear and concise. But I don’t see a warranty period. Would they still replace a part on a 1961 sink?

New comment by matthewmcg in "Shifts in diatom and dinoflagellate biomass in the North Atlantic over 6 decades"

matthewmcg — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 23:11:09 +0000

If you’re interested in more context for this, the book The Blue Machine by physical oceanographer Helen Czerski. There’s a great discussion of this and other ocean issues.

New comment by matthewmcg in "White House has asked U.S. military to develop options for the Panama Canal"

matthewmcg — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 12:44:21 +0000

Very interesting perspective, thank you.

New comment by matthewmcg in "White House has asked U.S. military to develop options for the Panama Canal"

matthewmcg — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 18:56:17 +0000

Zonian: my father was born to an American family but outside the Canal Zone (Panama City). I asked my Dad whether they considered themselves Americans or Panamanians growing up. He said his parents (my grandparents) considered themselves Panamanians and that they strongly supported handing over the canal during the treaty negotiations. What was the feeling like among the “Zonians”?

We just had a family reunion of sorts in Panama and needless to say the relatives that still live there (all over the political spectrum) were not enthused by the new U.S. posture.

New comment by matthewmcg in ""Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order"

matthewmcg — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 18:43:49 +0000

Right, but what is “executive power”? It is the power to put laws into effect—to execute them. And Congress writes those laws. Article 2 Section 1 does not confer power beyond what the laws provide.

And “vested” does not mean exclusive. Many U.S. laws grant executive power, including the power to promulgate regulations, to persons in the executive branch other than the president. For example, the Communications Act of 1934 creates the FCC and gives the commission the power to “perform any and all acts, make such rules and regulations, and issue such orders, not inconsistent with this chapter, as may be necessary in the execution of its functions.”[1]

There is no authority in the statute for the President to override these determinations made by the Commission.

[1] 47 U.S.C. 154(i) https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/154

New comment by matthewmcg in ""Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies" – Executive Order"

matthewmcg — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 23:43:34 +0000

What about the constitutional directive that the President shall ensure that the laws are faithfully executed? Congress has prescribed how agencies may issue regulations and interpretations through statutes shouldn’t these statutes control?

New comment by matthewmcg in "Alcohol-free booze is becoming big business"

matthewmcg — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:20:54 +0000

The pricing makes sense for the better brands as they have to basically make a nice wine, and then take additional steps to remove the alcohol. At least that’s what they do for the better alcohol-free Rieslings. See https://thezeroproof.com/products/buy-eins-zwei-zero-rieslin...

New comment by matthewmcg in "Scale Model of Boeing 777-300ER, Made from Manila Folders"

matthewmcg — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:25:28 +0000

This is wonderful. The loving dedication to getting the details right reminds me of the engineer hobbyist that built a functional scale model of a Ferrari 312PB race car as shown on this classic Top Gear episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeUMDY01uUA

New comment by matthewmcg in "Young Doctors Want Work-Life Balance. Older Doctors Say That's Not the Job"

matthewmcg — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 00:10:30 +0000

The reality is created by policy. The AMA zealously protects MDs and (Medicare-funded) fellowships as a cartel exempt from antitrust laws. Any they fight PAs and NPs tooth and nail.

New comment by matthewmcg in "Did Sandia use a thermonuclear secondary in a product logo?"

matthewmcg — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 11:19:20 +0000

He says it a few paragraphs in: “To give a sense of how strange this is, here is the only “officially sanctioned” way to represent a multistage thermonuclear weapon, according to US Department of Energy guidance since the 1990s:

Figure 13.9, “Unclassified Illustration of a Staged Weapon (Source: TCG-NAS-2, March 1997),” from the Nuclear Matters Handbook 2020 (Revised), published by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Matters.

Two circles in a box, maybe inside of a reentry vehicle. That’s it. Nothing that gives any actual sense of size, location, materials, physicality.”

New comment by matthewmcg in "An abundance of Katherines: The game theory of baby naming"

matthewmcg — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 03:35:21 +0000

Author listing: Katy Blumer, Kate Donahue, Katie Fritz, Kate Ivanovich, Katherine Lee, Katie Luo, Cathy Meng, Katie Van Koevering

For people unfamiliar with common English names, all of the authors have first names similar to or derived from Katherine.

New comment by matthewmcg in "From RSS to My Kindle"

matthewmcg — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 20:30:29 +0000

I looked into this in 2013. At that point there was a "My Clippings.txt" file stored on the kindle that was accessible as a USB storage volume when plugged in. This file stored each annotation in plain text, along with the document ID and the start and ending location of the annotation.

Trouble was, the location was in the Kindle's "Loc" format which is nontrivial (at least to me at the time) to connect to specific text in the document.

I'm sure someone's probably worked this out by now?

Update: yes, at least 160 projects

https://github.com/search?q=%22my%20clippings.txt%22&type=re...

New comment by matthewmcg in "The Rise and Fall of Silicon Graphics"

matthewmcg — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:25:19 +0000

Much of this history is also described in Michael Lewis’s book the New New Thing (2000) which profiles Clark and his various ventures. It’s really a snapshot of pre-.com crash Silicon Valley.

New comment by matthewmcg in "Visiting Scarfolk, the most spectacular dystopia of the 1970s (2016)"

matthewmcg — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 12:00:12 +0000

This strikes me as a darker version of the late 70s early 80s British educational videos aesthetic captured in the Look Around You series.

Example: https://youtu.be/FBaVwwuErmU?feature=shared

New comment by matthewmcg in "Sell for half a billion and get nothing (2021)"

matthewmcg — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 18:21:13 +0000

The liquidation (or dividend) preference is the differentiating feature of preferred stock. In corporate finance, preferred stock is, for the reasons you give, treated as a hybrid of equity and debt.

New comment by matthewmcg in "Show HN: I made an app to use local AI as daily driver"

matthewmcg — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 17:39:30 +0000

The headline had me thinking you had a DIY self-driving car for a moment there. Didn't initially register that this was just the common metaphor. Looks like a great app.

New comment by matthewmcg in "The Einstein-Szilard Refrigerator (2020)"

matthewmcg — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 02:36:52 +0000

Here’s a much better article on the collaboration from 1990s Scientific American: https://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise/P3374fa17/EinsteinSzilar...