Hacker News: mikhailfranco

New comment by mikhailfranco in "YouTube to automatically label AI-generated videos"

mikhailfranco — Fri, 29 May 2026 05:15:35 +0000

A long-form critique of Suno by a musician/producer:

Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future | Adam Neely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8dcFhF0Dlk

A detailed philosophical discussion of his point=of-view:

AI Music is Not Music - Adam Neely | Alex O'Connor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbv0iX_EyLM

New comment by mikhailfranco in "New York passes pied-a-terre tax"

mikhailfranco — Thu, 28 May 2026 17:51:02 +0000

Consumption taxes and sin taxes.

Consumption tax is sales/VAT tax excluding some necessities and capital goods. Yes, there are some awkward edge cases: in the UK the exclusions were food and children's clothes, which leads to battles over prepared cold food (e.g. sandwich), takeaway and restaurant dining.

Sin taxes are obviously things society might want to discourage, mainly for health reasons, like alcohol and smoking, but also gambling and externalities, like pollution. Some might stretch that to all carbon emissions to moderate climate change.

Don't tax things you want: working / income and investment / capital gains.

Inheritance tax is doubly wrong because the wealth is already taxed, and death is unavoidable (but emigration is possible, which might help in some countries).

New comment by mikhailfranco in "The greatest shot in television: James Burke had one chance to nail this scene (2024)"

mikhailfranco — Mon, 11 May 2026 07:06:45 +0000

Also The Shock of the New with Robert Hughes.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Astronomers Find a Third Galaxy Missing Its Dark Matter"

mikhailfranco — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:35:33 +0000

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

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Tony Hoare has died"

mikhailfranco — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 13:13:59 +0000

Obituary at The Telegraph:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2026/03/23/sir-tony-h...

New comment by mikhailfranco in "CERN accepts $1B in private cash towards Future Circular Collider"

mikhailfranco — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 13:15:48 +0000

Typo?

I like the idea of a noun collider. Then we could smash apples and oranges.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Drawings of the elements of CMS detector, in the style of Leonardo da Vinci"

mikhailfranco — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 13:12:18 +0000

Maybe they're original, found buried in some obscure monastery in the mountains of Umbria.

Perhaps Leonardo invented the LHC!

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Sir Mark Tully has died"

mikhailfranco — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 14:30:43 +0000

Here is the BBC's own commentary on their much respected Indian correspondent:

Sir Mark Tully, the BBC's 'voice of India', dies aged 90

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nnp4d064do

Sir Mark Tully has died

mikhailfranco — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 14:26:10 +0000

Article URL: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2026/01/25/sir-mark-tully-bbc-reporter-delhi-best-loved-in-india/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46754313

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Design Thinking Books (2024)"

mikhailfranco — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 06:30:29 +0000

Yes - notice, observe, focus, consider, judge, refine ... repeat ...

- Photography, not to take better photos, but to see the world more continuously and deeply.

- Architecture, not to build anything, but to be more aware of urban context, visual design, practical use and emotional response in the built environment.

- Music, not to read a score or play an instrument, but to really hear the structure of music, appreciate melody, pattern, balance, pace, production, individual virtuosity and harmonious combination.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "The super-slow conversion of the U.S. to metric (2025)"

mikhailfranco — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:37:08 +0000

It's not too difficult to know or calculate inches in a mile:

    12 * 3 * 1760 = 12 * 5280 = 63,360

A few Americans may know how many cubic inches in a US gallon:

But I don't believe anyone (apart from rainman/prodigy circus performers) can do this in their head:

    63360^3 / 231 = 1,101,117,147,428.571

Estimate yes; calculate no.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "“Erdos problem #728 was solved more or less autonomously by AI”"

mikhailfranco — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:14:21 +0000

Live out of a suitcase, travel the world, hang out with a wide selection of excellent mathematicians, write joint papers with many of them, when you get bored or stuck, pack the suitcase and keep moving - for your whole life.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Starlink satellites being lowered from 550 km to 480 km"

mikhailfranco — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 06:31:18 +0000

Presumably this reduces the beam footprint on the ground, hence increases the bandwidth available to individual users in dense urban environments (reduced sharing).

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Silver rises 9% to hit fresh record high"

mikhailfranco — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 08:13:32 +0000

China is the world's second largest producer of silver, after Mexico and ahead of Peru.

It is introducing licensing for export of silver starting on 1 January 2026.

There is speculation that the new regulations will favor a few large companies, slow the flow of exports, and provide a mechanism for the government to impose explicit 'critical mineral' export controls on silver in the future.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "China reaches energy milestone by "breeding" uranium from thorium"

mikhailfranco — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 06:45:27 +0000

Geoneutrino surveys show the Tibetan plateau and western China are full of uranium and thorium:

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

Economic recoverable reserves are another matter, but there's plenty there.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Comparing the Latitude of Europe and America"

mikhailfranco — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 15:33:39 +0000

For peat's sake!

New comment by mikhailfranco in "The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia"

mikhailfranco — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 08:55:32 +0000

The lowest value coin still in use is the Uzbek Tiyin (0.01 UZS).

So 1,200,000 Tiyins to the USD.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "What's Behind the Mysterious Ancient Wall in the Gobi Desert?"

mikhailfranco — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 14:56:50 +0000

Khara Khoto appears to be on or near the extension of the 'Gobi Wall' into present day China, presumably as part of the same system.

https://cms.interestingengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/20...

The name 'Gobi Wall' seems to refer to the section of the wall within Mongolia. Its garrisons and forts are numbered from G01 at the western end of the section, where the wall crosses the border.

https://cdn.grid.id/crop/0x0:0x0/700x0/photo/2025/05/31/land...

Khara Khoto is about 100 km WSW of G01.

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Map of Near and Middle East Oil 1965"

mikhailfranco — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 13:11:00 +0000

Note Abu Musa, Greater & Lesser Tunb islands are attributed to the Emirates. These were occupied by Iran at the formation of the UAE and remain contested.

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

New comment by mikhailfranco in "Map of Near and Middle East Oil 1965"

mikhailfranco — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:56:43 +0000

Turkey claims sectors of the field all around the island of Cyprus.

Egypt has some small hope of reversing its economic decline.

A direct pipeline from the field to Europe, via Greece and Italy is contentious.

Israel invades Gaza to claim offshore resources.