Hacker News: mladenkovacevic

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "U.S. Life Expectancy Drops for Third Year in a Row (2018)"

mladenkovacevic — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 16:45:21 +0000

I didn't downvote you since legitimate opinions shouldn't be downvoted but the reason I think you're wrong is that US is a particularly chronic case of the government serving the needs of capitalism above and beyond the population at large.

It's like saying don't blame Catholicism, blame the Vatican. One is a direct expression of the other.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Google’s Rivals Gear Up to Make Antitrust Case"

mladenkovacevic — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 15:03:18 +0000

Or maybe they never saw it because it didn't happen in the magnitude or significance that they all must now agree was definitely the case.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Helsinki's solution to homelessness"

mladenkovacevic — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 20:56:37 +0000

Well it's natural given the circumstances in which we exist (fighting for scraps under a perpetuated myth of scarcity).

You could say "Well, humans are just animals and we were always fighting for scraps so this is our natural state". But humans only thrived and evolved because we were so good at adapting to changes. So if now our social and economic reality is artificially rigged by those with wealth and power to stagnate everyone in some paleolithic struggle for survival, instead of being allowed to enjoy the true fruits of our advancement as a species, how natural is it really? And are we being deprived of the next step of our evolution because of the resistance to keep leveling the playing field for everyone instead of the few.

I'm not a scientist so I don't know the answers to any of these. I actually sort of believe in the idea of arrow of time so literally everything "is natural" and unavoidable. It is natural that the "few" have wrestled control of resources from the "many". And maybe it is natural that this goes on forever.. but it's just as likely or even more likely that it doesn't go on.

I'm not so interested in what is cruel and what is not (although I certainly want everyone to prosper and lead a life of fulfillment and meaning). But life of any kind is such a rare thing in the universe and keeping it going seems to be a dance on the sword's edge. So I'm more interested in what is better for ensuring that life just keeps going, rather than keeps going under a set of pleasant circumstances.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Helsinki's solution to homelessness"

mladenkovacevic — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 19:36:24 +0000

I always wonder if Puritanical roots in US have something to do with it. There seems to be a general belief that people "get only what they deserve". The belief that evil and misfortune comes from within each of us and some cosmic scale is constantly judging whether each person's demons are getting the better of them. These beliefs also carried through to capitalism where individuals who out-exploit and out-hoard everyone else are able to claim most of the rewards of society but any accountability for failing is also placed on individuals who just didn't "work hard enough", or didn't "want it badly enough", weren't "strong enough". Basically if you have any genetic propensity for addictive behavior, mental illness or self-destructive behaviour, belong to a group that's discriminated against, were born in poverty or with parents who didn't have the means or the time to raise you "properly", it's nobody's fault but your own and society doesn't owe you any help, support or compassion. A very heartless and cruel culture that'll ultimately cause our stagnation and eventual downfall.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "A man who ran out of air at the bottom of the ocean"

mladenkovacevic — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 03:07:32 +0000

I think this is the current record. 24 minutes and 3 seconds. It's hard to comprehend.

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-ti...

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Yelp craters 30% as advertisers abandon the site"

mladenkovacevic — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:40:43 +0000

I already recognize their number at this point. They'll call at least twice per week.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes"

mladenkovacevic — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:13:23 +0000

That's quite drastic. If you don't like the taste of pure vinegar here's my method. I inhale all the way, then while holding my breath drink a glass of water. Doesn't that work for everyone?

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes"

mladenkovacevic — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:11:16 +0000

Yes yes, this happens to me as well, but I don't make an effort to conjure these thoughts... they come on their own as I drift to sleep. Perhaps if your brain is too active at bed time, it needs a little boost to get it into sleep-mode, in which case intentionally creating these thoughts helps.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes"

mladenkovacevic — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:08:40 +0000

Yes I find that immediately before my brain falls asleep, my thoughts turn very abstract or even surreal.. like they don't make much sense.

It's hard to remember of an example right now because this all happens in some layer of subconsciousness and evaporates as soon as you fall asleep/wake up but it's something like "oh I'm just here smelling this colour and it kind of tastes like cinnamon."

Actually probably even more abstract than that, but that's the best I could do on short notice while fully awake.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "The Nuclear Power Plant of the Future May Be Floating Near Russia"

mladenkovacevic — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 20:50:26 +0000

You first said that the Qatar pipeline is not going anywhere because of destabilization in Syria... I guess you should've been honest from the beginning and said that it's not going anywhere because the project to remove Assad from power has failed.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "The Nuclear Power Plant of the Future May Be Floating Near Russia"

mladenkovacevic — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 20:28:33 +0000

I didn't mention US in my post, but since you insist... here is what is declassified and publicly known: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "The Nuclear Power Plant of the Future May Be Floating Near Russia"

mladenkovacevic — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 19:08:18 +0000

Because Assad was going to let a Qatar pipeline go through Syria in the first place? Hmm I wonder which foreign powers destabilized Syria and have been trying to overthrow the current government for close to 7 years now.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "The Maker of the AK-47 Is Entering the Electric Car Market"

mladenkovacevic — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 19:34:32 +0000

Was just reading about this "retro-mod" of a GAZ Volga that cost $500,000

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/volga-v-12-coupe

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "The Maker of the AK-47 Is Entering the Electric Car Market"

mladenkovacevic — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 15:58:34 +0000

I don't know.. that chassis is the best looking thing on this car... can I just get that with a regular combustion engine and without the shitty headlight kit?

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Russian hackers targeted U.S. conservative think-tanks, says Microsoft"

mladenkovacevic — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 16:03:15 +0000

Your world-view is wrong. Russia wants to be a stabilizing force in Syria. US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE have thrown literal billions at arming and training jihadist militias to take towns and terrorize the Syrian population. Compare stability and the rule of law in areas retaken by government forces vs those still being held by militants.. Night and day.

Some articles about refugees returning to Syria and who is even interested in that or rebuilding Syria.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-russia-syr...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-seeks-u-s-help-in-return...

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/return-of-...

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "How a Political Engineering Firm Exposed Their Code Base"

mladenkovacevic — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 19:53:35 +0000

She also had the financial fate of the DNC in her hands, and, as early as 2015, had a secret agreement giving her power of the party's finances, strategy, and all the money raised. Additionally, as per Donna Brazile: "Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff."

This is the rigging that took place.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Exercise should be kept to a healthy minimum"

mladenkovacevic — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 16:37:49 +0000

Humans are cars that run constantly. So the human analogy to a car with 20 miles would be a baby.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Did the Intercept bungle the NSA leak?"

mladenkovacevic — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 02:37:32 +0000

Can you describe how rare do you feel it was for US officials to straight up lie on or off the record? Also based on what data did you make this assessment?

I can recall of a number of occasions during the Bush and Obama era where high-level officials were caught lying, sometimes in public testimony. And I don't even have any data points for Russia because we don't get their official statements on our news so I don't even know how I'd compare. How did you get both sides of the story accurately enough where you feel so confident in your beliefs?

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Did the Intercept bungle the NSA leak?"

mladenkovacevic — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 02:31:51 +0000

And you've constructed a belief system that we better believe anything that comes out of the NSA about adversaries of the US because well, I feel the NSA is really competent and what else are we supposed to believe anyways.

My belief system isn't convincing me that Russians didn't hack the election system, or that they aren't capable of it. Just that this particular document is not the smoking gun.

New comment by mladenkovacevic in "Did the Intercept bungle the NSA leak?"

mladenkovacevic — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 21:42:36 +0000

I don't know about Sam Biddle, but a former CIA agent and whistleblower who served 30 months in prison for leaking CIA's torture techniques, also names Matthew Cole as another reporter that worked on this article and has previously also burned him as a source: https://twitter.com/JohnKiriakou/status/872087259985694721