Hacker News: mugwumprk

New comment by mugwumprk in "Sci-Fi Short Film “There Is No Antimemetics Division” [video]"

mugwumprk — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:27:37 +0000

“Service Model” is a recent one and I had an absolute blast with it. If you don’t have much of a humanities background, you’d benefit from skimming the Wikipedia article. There’s a lot of references to old novels you might miss if you don’t have the context.

New comment by mugwumprk in "What OpenAI did when ChatGPT users lost touch with reality"

mugwumprk — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 18:16:26 +0000

That’s a pretty limited take on “hurt”. A person without a seatbelt will get worse injuries, and require greater medical attention. In other words, it does hurt other people.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Altered states of consciousness induced by breathwork accompanied by music"

mugwumprk — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:03:31 +0000

I’m really confused why there are no binaural beats app for the Apple Vision Pro. Seems like a natural fit for the device, but they don’t seem to exist at all. If anyone has any info on that, I’d love to read it.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?"

mugwumprk — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:26:07 +0000

Petition to build Faraday cages into every public school classroom in the country

New comment by mugwumprk in "We Should Own the Economy"

mugwumprk — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 20:58:59 +0000

It's a testable theory. I personally would love to see a poll that breaks down support by wealth. But of course, that's not enough. The presidential winner isn't the person who gets the most votes, it's the person who gets the majority of the majority of states. So we'd need a breakdown on wealth & residency to get an accurate view. This is important, because the top 10% in Alabama probably wouldn't be in the top 10% in New Jersey.

No idea who they'd support. But if I was a gambling man I'd put my money on Trump in that poll as well.

New comment by mugwumprk in "We Should Own the Economy"

mugwumprk — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 19:05:10 +0000

"If the 100 richest Americans decided who was president, it would be someone like Bill Gates or Michael Bloomberg -- not Donald Trump."

That's an interesting question. I haven't seen a poll of the richest US citizens. Which is odd, considering our general obsession with wealth. I suspect that, between Harris and Trump, the 100 richest would go for Trump.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Road signs to help people limit radiation exposure in contaminated areas"

mugwumprk — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 22:28:35 +0000

Weird. I wonder how those signs were supposed to be installed. So dangerous you need to blow through at 120mph, but safe enough for a worker to stand there for awhile installing a new sign.

New comment by mugwumprk in "The Origins of Wokeness"

mugwumprk — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 19:54:02 +0000

Looking at Elon Musk, some African Americans are white.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Eyes Wide Shut: Hidden in plain sight"

mugwumprk — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 22:17:47 +0000

I read a lot of this, had to stop. In a way, it's like the film itself. It has a lot of words, a lot of details, and it seems to mean something. But at the end, it really doesn't amount to much. "Mulholland Drive" was a much more effective comment on wealth, power, and misogyny.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Geico car insurance may no longer cover Tesla Cybertrucks"

mugwumprk — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 15:59:01 +0000

Wouldn't surprise me if they dropped insurance protecting you from causing damages. As I understand it, the sharp edges and unyielding metal panels may mean they'd cause a lot more damage than an equivalent vehicle. So unless it's legally required, no form of insurance may be economically viable.

New comment by mugwumprk in "America Has Too Many Laws – An excess of restrictions has taken a real toll"

mugwumprk — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 17:48:04 +0000

The irony to me is that he just voted to overturn the Chevron doctrine. There's no way that doesn't lead to a huge increase in the number of laws.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Deciyear Calendar"

mugwumprk — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 16:04:58 +0000

Wrong approach. We should change our numbering system to base-12 instead.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Casino-like apps have drained people of millions"

mugwumprk — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 17:52:48 +0000

I think this touches on an idea that isn't necessarily intuitive. People may not always gamble for the monetary winnings; that's just their excuse. It may be that people do so for the sensory input, and corresponding chemicals their brains release. It would make an interesting (albeit unethical) study: design a casino game where it's impossible to win. Would people still get addicted? I suspect they would.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Casino-like apps have drained people of millions"

mugwumprk — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 17:43:17 +0000

I'm not in that industry, but if I was, I bet you could do something shady. Perhaps people who buy expensive skins have an increased chance of "luck" within the game. Critical hits may be more likely, more high quality gear drops. It's possible there isn't a clear line between gambling and fashion. At least, that's if the industry is unscrupulous, and I generally assume that describes most companies.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Where’s the Director’s Commentary on Streaming?"

mugwumprk — Wed, 03 May 2023 19:41:32 +0000

Rifftrax does something very similar, except to mock the films. It made "Revenge of the Sith" entertaining.

New comment by mugwumprk in "The flop that changed Apple forever [video]"

mugwumprk — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 13:46:47 +0000

Thank you. Clickbait titles like this are painful.

New comment by mugwumprk in "Banach-Tarski and the Paradox of Infinite Cloning"

mugwumprk — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 14:53:12 +0000

I do enjoy articles like this. They are such good ways to make math compelling for laymen such as myself.