Hacker News: mritterhoff

New comment by mritterhoff in "The U.S. Ammo Shortage Is Worse Than You Think"

mritterhoff — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:30:27 +0000

You're moving the goalposts. There's tons we can do to improve US healthcare outcomes (we overspend compared to what we get [1]) by emulating what has succeeded in other countries. But that conversation and solution is different than "nobody has healthcare".

As to defense, I live here, as do the majority of the people I love and like. It's in my interest to have my country continue to exist as a sovereign nation with the ability to defend itself from foreign adversaries.

1. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health...

New comment by mritterhoff in "The U.S. Ammo Shortage Is Worse Than You Think"

mritterhoff — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 13:11:41 +0000

Most Americans have some form of health insurance [1].

I'd argue that my country is worth defending, despite its many flaws.

1. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-28...

New comment by mritterhoff in "The L in "LLM" Stands for Lying"

mritterhoff — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 15:11:16 +0000

No one is stopping you, and maybe it's worth trying out!

New comment by mritterhoff in "In 6 violent encounters, evidence contradicts immigration officials' narratives"

mritterhoff — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 13:57:21 +0000

It seems to be, given how many people voted for "mass deportations".

It also makes it easier for employers to get away with poor working conditions for those workers.

New comment by mritterhoff in "US electricity demand surged in 2025 – solar handled 61% of it"

mritterhoff — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 20:01:33 +0000

Moving electrons around isn't inherently immoral like slavery is. It's odd to compare the two!

New comment by mritterhoff in "San Francisco to offer free childcare to people making up to $230k"

mritterhoff — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 20:19:50 +0000

Housing is expensive because homeowners have weaponized zoning laws to make it illegal to build housing the city needs.

New comment by mritterhoff in "In New York City, congestion pricing leads to marked drop in pollution"

mritterhoff — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:43:40 +0000

A small section of it is.

> “Bowtie” bounded by Broadway and Seventh Avenue between 42nd and 47th Streets.

New comment by mritterhoff in "Size of Life"

mritterhoff — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:19:57 +0000

My understanding is that picked fruits and veg are still alive [1], and often respirating [2]. This is a big component in figuring out how to refrigerate them at the optimal temperatures and atmospheric makeup.

1. https://healthland.time.com/2013/06/21/theyre-alive-harveste... 2. https://agriculture.institute/food-chemistry-and-physiology/...

New comment by mritterhoff in "In New York City, congestion pricing leads to marked drop in pollution"

mritterhoff — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:21:07 +0000

Big agree. Times Square would be a great place to start.

New comment by mritterhoff in "Covid-19 mRNA Vaccination and 4-Year All-Cause Mortality"

mritterhoff — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 20:47:09 +0000

Agree. Also I don't think any adults were forcibly vaccinated again their will, they just lost out on certain societal privileges.

New comment by mritterhoff in "'A full-blown crisis': Americans brace for a surge in healthcare costs"

mritterhoff — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:52:30 +0000

Seems 48.6% of US employees had employer-provided health care in 2023. Lower than I would have thought.

https://www.kff.org/state-health-policy-data/state-indicator...

New comment by mritterhoff in "'A full-blown crisis': Americans brace for a surge in healthcare costs"

mritterhoff — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:48:13 +0000

> because healthcare demand is unlimited.

How's that? Beyond some level of care I suspect demand drops of a cliff. No one goes to the doctor for the fun of it.

New comment by mritterhoff in "Wealthiest 10% of Americans make up 50% of purchases and consumer spendings"

mritterhoff — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 14:23:06 +0000

Ignoring the pandemic, the percentage has been north of 45% since 2014 or so, according to Moody's: https://archive.is/AW6rW

New comment by mritterhoff in "In a U.S. First, New Mexico Opens Doors to Free Child Care for All"

mritterhoff — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 17:52:20 +0000

Why would that be better? I think you'd miss out on economies of scale and end up paying more.

New comment by mritterhoff in "Neuralink 'Participant 1' says his life has changed"

mritterhoff — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 18:19:49 +0000

I'm mostly cheering for more competition in the field. No reason for advances in life-changing technical progress to belong solely to that one company.

New comment by mritterhoff in "Meta is spending $10B in rural Louisiana to build its largest data center"

mritterhoff — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 15:41:42 +0000

I agree methane leaks (and monitoring programs cuts) are a problem. But even with them, methane burns much more cleanly than coal. The former primarily emits CO2 and H2O, while the latter emits SO2, NOx, heavy metals and more.

New comment by mritterhoff in "Meta is spending $10B in rural Louisiana to build its largest data center"

mritterhoff — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 14:57:20 +0000

While Meta has a non-binding promise to build more renewable energy, the Louisiana Legislature passed a new law that adds natural gas to the definition of green energy, allowing Zuckerberg and others to count Entergy’s gas turbines as “green.”

As much as I prefer burning gas over coal, conflating it with zero(-ish) emission energy sources like wind, solar, and nuclear is bad.

New comment by mritterhoff in "NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter"

mritterhoff — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 01:14:59 +0000

Wikipedia says it would need to be 75x more massive in order to start fusing hydrogen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter#Size_and_mass

New comment by mritterhoff in "Temporary suspension of acceptance of mail to the United States"

mritterhoff — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 00:37:28 +0000

Thanks for sharing info about MIPS, it looks great.

Short animation of how it works for anyone else who's unfamiliar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvyoSzAPIBE

New comment by mritterhoff in "The Fancy Rug Dilemma"

mritterhoff — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 23:13:28 +0000

I'm no rug expert, heritage or otherwise, but it looks like there are some really expensive rugs out there: this[1] site lists 9 worth over $1M USD. So I'd assume there's a big spread between that and rugs you get at Ikea. So I think he's being genuine, not satirical.

1. https://www.luxxu.net/blog/top-10-most-expensive-rugs-in-the...