Hacker News: nickff

New comment by nickff in "US federal budget deficit jumps 12% in one year to nearly $2 Trillion"

nickff — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 18:03:28 +0000

That isn’t enough; there would have to be cuts to social security & medicare. The rich don’t have enough money to cover the federal government’s obligations.

New comment by nickff in "Anthropic assigned highest junk credit rating in June"

nickff — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 23:11:36 +0000

The fact that the only rating published is ‘junk’, and that it was from a small agency tells us quite a lot. Given the fact that Anthropic (or its representatives) likely ‘shopped’ for a rating means that this was the best anyone was willing to give them, and that the larger agencies probably refused to rate them without more information. I would have been surprised if the bankers hadn’t lobbied for the highest rating possible, as higher ratings increase their profits from the IPO.

New comment by nickff in "Tesla Roadster"

nickff — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:35:25 +0000

You're posting from a 1-day-old account...

New comment by nickff in "The Economic Complexity of the Western Roman Empire"

nickff — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 20:14:53 +0000

Lots of things are threats, including long-range stealth bombers, of which the USA already fields 19, and is manufacturing more. Attack submarines are a threat as well, because they can destroy SSBNs, which are the only credible second-strike credibility.

New comment by nickff in "The Economic Complexity of the Western Roman Empire"

nickff — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 18:41:46 +0000

Shipping weapons, ammunition, and other supplies to one side in an active conflict is much more 'provocative' than building a facility located hundreds or thousands of kilometers from the border of a potential adversary.

Most things which differ are not equivalent; pointing that out isn't helpful.

New comment by nickff in "The Economic Complexity of the Western Roman Empire"

nickff — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:13:37 +0000

>"They frame anything other than complete capitulation to Russian invasion as crazed aggression against Russia..."

This has been common among many groups for a long time; I recall the GWB administration proposing a missile interceptor system based in Eastern Europe in the mid-oughts, and Democratic Party members in congress opposed it as 'provocative'. The (Liberal) Canadian government of the time opposed that as well as the Alaska based 'shield' as being 'aggressive'.

I suspect this has something to do with (politically self-identified) disempowered groups generally wanting to 'shoot down' initiatives, but the Trump administration seems to have a different motivation.

New comment by nickff in "Suicide rates highest ever among middle-aged men"

nickff — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 22:15:31 +0000

But Europe isn’t really supporting Ukraine, they’re just providing enough supplies to keep them in the fight. No state seems willing to provide enough assistance to allow for Ukrainian victory, because of the costs and risks associated with that aid. Even countries at little risk of reprisal from Russia are reluctant to do much at all.

As such, all of us doing nothing more than “voicing support” on the internet and some far-away rally, should offer our empathy, and not presume to tell them how much we’re “helping”.

New comment by nickff in "America didn't lose its rare earth industry, it sold it"

nickff — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:42:56 +0000

The combination of tax policy disincentivizing capital investment, and regulatory policy making physical things hard to do has shifting increasing amounts of investment into finance, software, and services (and away from resource extraction, processing, and manufacturing).

New comment by nickff in "Fire at Starlink site in Bulgaria after suspected sabotage in Poland"

nickff — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:38:15 +0000

>"you're responsible for securing your own property, security guards are a thing everywhere."

Maybe Bulgaria differs from most countries, but security guards seem to be mostly theatre. Private actors are generally very limited in what they can do to secure property, and they're usually required to basically call the police and hope the police show up in time to do something, which is often unlikely in either the countryside or industrial areas.

New comment by nickff in "Fire at Starlink site in Bulgaria after suspected sabotage in Poland"

nickff — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:18:43 +0000

>"Bulgarian Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev told parliament that additional security measures had been introduced at similar facilities, even though responsibility for their protection rested with their owners."

It seems absurd that the government is blaming SpaceX for not securing its property against trespass and vandalism/arson, especially when it seems likely that the violations are by foreign-state-sponsored actors. If this sort of issue is not the responsibility of local police and federal agencies, I am not sure what is. I understand that railways in some countries have their own police, but it is my understanding that SpaceX has not been granted such powers in any country.

New comment by nickff in "Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navanethem Pillay"

nickff — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 23:02:37 +0000

I think you might have replied to the wrong comment; my post said nothing about politics or Saudi Arabia.

New comment by nickff in "Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navanethem Pillay"

nickff — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 19:48:02 +0000

>"There are actually people who spend their lives working for peace, and die in the effort."

These people would not be eligible for the Nobel Peace Prize, because its rules disallow deceased candidates.

New comment by nickff in "Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees"

nickff — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 23:26:17 +0000

This doesn't help with payments which take place without a card present, such as online and phone payments, which make up a large (and growing) proportion of transactions.

New comment by nickff in "Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees"

nickff — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 22:24:47 +0000

Every level of my government has been defrauded of a significant amount of money (relative to their budget,) in the last five years; I do not support their losing more of my money to fraud.

New comment by nickff in "Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees"

nickff — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 20:54:37 +0000

The problem is the ‘fraud safety’. Your ‘safety’ is likely to be some else’s inconvenience (or vice-versa), and credit cards are all about ease-of-use. Fraud-related costs are also one of, if not the largest single contributor(s) to payment processing fees.

New comment by nickff in "Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees"

nickff — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:09:32 +0000

It seems like many of these prosecutors/plaintiffs just want to go after the largest organizations in a given industry, almost irrespective of their culpability. It seems to me that most 'consumer protection' lawsuits seem to be more focused on obtaining publicity for the lawyers than actually doing anything useful, but getting a few settlements from larger organizations is a lot easier than actually going after wrong-doers, so it is a somewhat sensible strategy if the goal is to 'win' as much money as possible.

New comment by nickff in "I asked Claude build a physically accurate O'Neill cylinder you can walk around"

nickff — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 20:57:03 +0000

The Vertical Assembly Building was used for both the Apollo Program and the Space Shuttle, though it had much more ‘headroom’ for the latter. From what I’ve read the rumors of clouds forming inside of it are actually a myth, though there are condensation and airflow issues. I don’t have citations handy as it’s been a while (decade) since I’ve read this.

New comment by nickff in "OpenAI still doesn't seem to have a handle on all of its rogue AI activity"

nickff — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 19:54:57 +0000

There is almost no will to prosecute big-business shenanigans until the scheme or organization collapses. See back-dated options during dot-com, SBF-FTX, Libor scandal, etc.

New comment by nickff in "Back and shoulder surgery is often worse than useless"

nickff — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:30:01 +0000

>"I'm fond of pointing out the stat (true as of a year ago) that Massachusetts (I think it's MA?) has more MRI machines than the entire country of Canada."

Long wait times (6-12 months+) for MRIs (due to a lack of both machines and technicians) are a frequent complaint by Canadians.

New comment by nickff in "California is chasing wealth that has feet"

nickff — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 21:54:23 +0000

The number of different taxes is constantly increasing, obfuscating the total tax burden, and making democratic accountability almost impossible. Additionally, tax collections are already at a historical high, while government deficits world-wide are also at record levels, with services on the decline, and no realistic prospect of balancing budgets. This is true for most western countries.

Given the current situation, I do not agree that "we need more taxes", but would welcome your clarifying exactly what you mean.