Hacker News: quadragenarian

New comment by quadragenarian in "DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Says People Should Be Prepared to Prove US Citizenship"

quadragenarian — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 01:40:49 +0000

The irony I see here is that she is relatively young. By making these declarations, she and others in this administration are making an implicit bet that there won't be another sensible e.g. law-abiding administration in the future that won't put them in jail.

Politics is a fickle world -- being brazen by breaking laws is a risky business. You might be in charge now, but are you sure your people will always be in charge?

New comment by quadragenarian in "Statement from Jerome Powell"

quadragenarian — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:05:24 +0000

These are the very people who would help him rewrite history that yes he indeed did earn the Nobel Peace Prize as it is obviously and prominently displayed in his office, the words and records of the Nobel committee be damned.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Statement from Jerome Powell"

quadragenarian — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:00:06 +0000

I love how you put that! Suspicious is too gentle of a word.

New comment by quadragenarian in "US gov shutdown leaves IT projects hanging, security defenders a skeleton crew"

quadragenarian — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 00:13:35 +0000

What about if the administration lays off staff during the shutdown instead of furloughing them? I would think that would not require any compensation.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high"

quadragenarian — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 22:30:48 +0000

This already does happen for nighthawk coverage for example where a non-US radiologist will provide a wet read and then a US rad will sign off. The US rad will always bear the liability however.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high"

quadragenarian — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 17:21:23 +0000

You do realize that in order to interpret imaging for a US based patient, any physician needs to have a US medical license?

New comment by quadragenarian in "Demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high"

quadragenarian — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 17:14:57 +0000

Radiologists are often the ones who are the "brains" of medical diagnosis. The primary care or ER physician gets the patient scanned, and the radiologist scrolls through hundreds if not thousands of images, building a mental model of the insides of the patient's body and then based on the tens of thousands of cases they've reviewed in the past, as well as deep and intimate human anatomical knowledge, attempts to synthesize a medical diagnosis. A human's life and wellness can hinge on an accurate diagnosis from a radiologist.

Does that sounds like an assistance's job?

New comment by quadragenarian in "Demand for human radiologists is at an all-time high"

quadragenarian — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 17:09:33 +0000

Interesting - living near a large city, all of the radiologists I know work for hospitals, spending more of their day in the hospital reading room versus home, including performing procedures, even as diagnostic radiologists.

I think it may be selection bias.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Four-year wedding crasher mystery solved"

quadragenarian — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:57:52 +0000

So the night before, was he at the wrong venue as well?

New comment by quadragenarian in "From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens adjusting to the smartphone ban"

quadragenarian — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 12:32:33 +0000

Separate from the phone and screen time discussion, you are at an important juncture of your life, a transition to parenthood that could change everything. I say "could" because I fundamentally believe that half of people who have children don't have the self-awareness to change and adjust their habits and emotional state.

One of the monumental realizations for me when I became a parent (not necessarily the first day but over the first 5-7 years) was distinctly what my parents did right and wrong. My dad told me on the phone one day that I shouldn't show my child my feelings, that I should hide any negative feelings and only show positive feelings. And now I see that this is what my father did to me and it constrained my ability to share negative feelings with my friends and family, instead leading to me bottling up negative feelings like anger and sadness.I realize that this is not the correct way to parent, your child should see the full range of human emotions from their parents and although you want to be careful to not put too much emotional burden and stress on them to create an anxious child, you want to also be sure they see you at your best and worst. They should see you discuss your feelings with others and with them and when you lose your temper, as we all do, you should also afterwards rationalize what you were feeling with them, apologize if necessary (and it's usually always necessary because there is no need for any human to lose their temper with another human that's been on the Earth for only a few years).

Any way, I think of parenthood as a journey of self-reflection and improvement, much like childhood. Just like some people have a negative painful childhood, parenthood can be similar. The goal for you is to be open and honest with yourself and your growing family, and to be constantly looking for ways to improve.

Apologies if this sounded like a lecture but wish you the best in what may turn out to be the most important job of your life.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Curtis Yarvin's Plot Against America"

quadragenarian — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 01:38:57 +0000

Having had a stint in my youthful life where I studied Technocracy a great deal, I still see some powerful concepts that I can't let go of. The emphasis on standardization and elimination of the price system, even if nothing more than a though experiment on human nature, seemed like worthwhile concepts to consider. Rather than demonize the technocracy movement, I would recommend some investigation into the ideas that underpinned it, especially as we now witness a transition from a limitless growth world to steady state.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Moody’s strips U.S. of triple-A credit rating"

quadragenarian — Fri, 16 May 2025 22:44:45 +0000

Not to be overly pedantic but there are more than 3. It's just 3 that are commonly used in asset management (S&P, Moody's, Fitch). Others include Morningstar DBRS (Dominion Bond Rating Services - rates primary Canadian debt issuers). Kroll is another one (used to be Duff & Phelps).

New comment by quadragenarian in "US judge finds administration wilfully defied court order in deportation flights"

quadragenarian — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 01:58:50 +0000

It's very difficult if not impossible to design a system that allows for a madman to be in charge, because to do so, the system would have to severely curtail the executive's powers which would render him or her useless. The tacit assumption has always been that the voters would not select a madman to run a complex system but here we are.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Ask HN: I'm a Harvard researcher. Everything is gone"

quadragenarian — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:09:46 +0000

The value of life isn't your work. Work can be turned off any moment, due to tyrant or recession. Work is fleeting. The value of life is your personal relationships, your family, your own character and ability to deal with difficulty. We don't know what the future will bring, but stay strong, we all have an uphill climb ahead.

New comment by quadragenarian in "ICE director envisions Amazon-like mass deportation system"

quadragenarian — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 01:28:19 +0000

Another example of the idea that "treating people like objects" is evil and in fact, is the cause of most evil in the world.

New comment by quadragenarian in "American Disruption"

quadragenarian — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 03:13:19 +0000

If foreign investors like China dump our debt, prices will go down and yields will go up. As long as we increase our debt ceiling and don’t do anything intentionally crazy like try to renegotiate existing debt (which would be a technical default), we could always issue more treasuries at the higher rates with the caveat that more money will need to be spent servicing the debt, which requires even more debt be issued. A vicious cycle for sure.

New comment by quadragenarian in "American Disruption"

quadragenarian — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 03:06:48 +0000

New debt would be cheaper. Most US treasuries are fixed rate debt. There may be some FRNs (floating rate notes) floating around (pardon the pun) but not many. Tbills are discount instruments but also wouldn’t be affected until they mature and new ones are issued.

New comment by quadragenarian in "China intends to crush the trade war"

quadragenarian — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:39:41 +0000

Could you provide more information on what you mean by "repudiated the debt"? Does this mean reneging on US Treasury bonds? Because that's nuclear. That causes fixed income markets to implode and brings upon GFC 2.0.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends"

quadragenarian — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:46:00 +0000

As someone who's worked at Lincoln Labs, I do wonder if the poster here has considered this. Although, it is worth noting that LL requires citizenship for many/most of its divisions.

New comment by quadragenarian in "Trump Threatens to Slap an Additional 50% Tariff on China"

quadragenarian — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:43:00 +0000

As mentioned in the article you linked, the president has a veto over any law to restrict his own tariff powers; the only way to override his or her veto is to pass the law with 2/3rds majority in BOTH chambers, the House and Senate.

That does mean a fair number of Republican Congresspeople would have to join Democrats. This level of cooperation seems to be in itself anathema to Republicans, notwithstanding the actual principle of the bill itself.