Hacker News: peterbecich

New comment by peterbecich in "US and Iran announce deal to end military operations"

peterbecich — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 23:33:46 +0000

What are the odds of the optimal deal being reached on Trump's birthday (Eastern Time)? Who knows, maybe US stalled before, and/or gave a little extra concession to conclude today.

New comment by peterbecich in "How to earn a billion dollars"

peterbecich — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 21:08:08 +0000

Sure, it is logical that opening a previously restricted or infeasible product space is an easy way to produce business opportunities. Like the legalization of gambling in Nevada.

New comment by peterbecich in "U.S. to dismantle system tracking Atlantic currents that are at risk of collapse"

peterbecich — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:58:47 +0000

That cheapest option may not be the cheapest option in the long-term when the next Democratic president would re-activate the devices.

Same reasoning as removal of many post office boxes in last days of Trump 1 term.

New comment by peterbecich in "Toy Story 5 shows 'terror' of children's screen addiction, says Tom Hanks"

peterbecich — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:58:35 +0000

This is consistent with the very old topic of television as babysitter

New comment by peterbecich in "Toxic chemical leak at a manufacturing facility in Orange County"

peterbecich — Sun, 24 May 2026 07:51:44 +0000

Chemistry question: is there any advantage to preempting the possible spontaneous explosion with a controlled explosion? This controlled explosion would happen when the MMA is in a less volatile state, perhaps.

Second question: would it be futile to lift a containment vessel over the tank? Would a containment vessel of sufficient strength be too heavy to lift? For starters I'm thinking of a shipping container...

New comment by peterbecich in "Toxic chemical leak at a manufacturing facility in Orange County"

peterbecich — Sun, 24 May 2026 07:13:31 +0000

What about airlifting a containment vessel on top of it? To lessen the impact of an explosion?

New comment by peterbecich in "Cloudflare CEO on how he chooses which employees to replace with AI"

peterbecich — Thu, 21 May 2026 00:02:34 +0000

The distinct categories of building, selling and measuring seem fallacious

New comment by peterbecich in "Germany Overtakes US in Ammunition Production Capacity"

peterbecich — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:25:56 +0000

I'm going to guess if net energy use goes up, due to a glut of renewable energy, the gaps on cloudy, windless days will result in greater fossil fuel use than before.

There need to be assurances renewables are replacing fossil fuels rather than just adding capacity.

New comment by peterbecich in "The Classic American Diner"

peterbecich — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 22:59:43 +0000

Agreed completely. Other examples: long-distance telephone minutes, shoes, clothing, air travel... probably all cheaper.

New comment by peterbecich in "Show HN: Semantic atlas of 188 constitutions in 3D (30k articles, embeddings)"

peterbecich — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 11:01:46 +0000

Neat, how about adding historical constitutions as well, such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_constitutions_of_Franc... or the U.S.S.R.?

New comment by peterbecich in "Why the US Navy won't blast the Iranians and 'open' Strait of Hormuz"

peterbecich — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 07:47:56 +0000

That is partially due to damage from the previous reserve drawdown.

New comment by peterbecich in "The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild"

peterbecich — Sat, 21 Mar 2026 08:01:22 +0000

That is why I said "artificially low." As there is a water shortage, the current price should justifiably be higher. Instead we will simply run out or damage the acquifer by saltwater intrusion.

New comment by peterbecich in "The Los Angeles Aqueduct Is Wild"

peterbecich — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 20:09:33 +0000

There are environmental and financial concerns https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/05/california-desali...

I don't understand the financial concern at all. How could increasing the water supply increase the price? It only makes sense to me if the price is artificially low right now.

Environmental damage by a desalinization plant couldn't possibly be worse than overdrawing the acquifer -- the defacto solution.

New comment by peterbecich in "The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory"

peterbecich — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:49:10 +0000

Stratospheric aerosols: the dangers of this seem overblown. It is milder than a volcanic eruption. It seems like a reasonable thing governments should be attempting.

New comment by peterbecich in "Wooden compass with single red arrow leads people with dementia to their homes"

peterbecich — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 18:19:07 +0000

Thoughtful concept but agreed. I.i.r.c the phone can assess the inaccuracy of the compass and prompt the figure-8 movement. But that is not practical here.

New comment by peterbecich in "A middle-class family's only option: A $43,000 health insurance premium"

peterbecich — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 08:56:14 +0000

> If wages do not rise sufficiently to cover increased costs, that does not imply that the generational contract was unfulfilled; the taxes were paid.

That's an interesting alternative view I had not considered. I think it is debatable. I believed the generational contract to be "healthcare for 65+ with 20% copay, etc., no gov. expense spared" whereas you argue the generational contract to be "Medicare payroll tax of X% is constant over all time; spend it wisely." I would argue the first option was the original intent of the Medicare law.

> Fundamentally, children are an investment. They produce cash flow (taxes) from increased public health. The end-of-life are not

You could argue the same for the end-of-life, in at least two ways: * the end-of-life patient has already produced cash flow to the government, just in reverse order from the student * Good education produces a higher taxpaying adult, the investment you refer to. I would argue the assurance of end-of-life healthcare also produces a higher taxpaying adult.

I acknowledge the costs have gone up faster than wages+population.

New comment by peterbecich in "A middle-class family's only option: A $43,000 health insurance premium"

peterbecich — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 08:24:30 +0000

Speaking only of the financial aspect, not any other ethical issues:

Those end-of-life patients paid into the system, earlier in their lives, financing the cost of earlier generations of end-of-life patients. It would be unfair to change the social contract now.

In my opinion, it is no different from how adult taxpayers finance public education for children. It is a rolling responsibility from generation to generation.

You may be able to alleviate this financial issue (and not any other ethical issues) by phasing-in this policy change with the youngest generation of Medicare taxpayers, somehow.

New comment by peterbecich in "Four Million U.S. Children Had No Health Insurance in 2024"

peterbecich — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 21:16:57 +0000

I did not claim it would save from unexpected costs. The full premium is an unexpected cost. I claimed COBRA is more affordable than out-of-pocket healthcare if you are in the middle of an expensive treatment at the moment you lose employer coverage.

Jumping onto ACA via unemployment exemption or Medicaid could require a transfer to a different doctor, etc. in the middle of treatment.

New comment by peterbecich in "Four Million U.S. Children Had No Health Insurance in 2024"

peterbecich — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:53:34 +0000

The OP is claiming the country should re-align its priorities to optimize this health-insured number, not claiming the gov does not already track this number.

New comment by peterbecich in "Four Million U.S. Children Had No Health Insurance in 2024"

peterbecich — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:39:35 +0000

Excessive testing to protect against legal liability, also.