Hacker News: telchar

New comment by telchar in "Evidence mounts on toxic pollution from tires"

telchar — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 19:18:46 +0000

What an asinine no-information comment. If you think you have have something of substance to say on the topic, say that.

New comment by telchar in "Blacksmithing is alive and well in Kentucky"

telchar — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 00:21:51 +0000

Etymologically I would say it fits. "Smith" means a metalworker, note the relation to smite, which one does a lot in blacksmithing, and "black" refers to the black oxide forge scale the results from repeated heating of the iron and steel (vs other metal workers, e.g. silversmith or goldsmith).

So give they are using more or less the same methods of a blacksmith of yore and the etymology works, they would seem to be a blacksmith to me.

New comment by telchar in "How to stay safe and happy on an electric unicycle"

telchar — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:24:16 +0000

Note that's not the actual top speed in use:

"With that much power behind the 22″ wheel, the electric unicycle achieves a wheel lift speed of 140 km/h (87 mph). The wheel lift speed is the unloaded top speed of the unicycle’s wheel when the unit is lifted into the air. It is higher than the actual top speed when ridden on flat ground, but is a useful metric used in the industry for comparing electric unicycles. The actual operational top speed of the V13 is still likely to surpass 90-100 km/h (55-60 mph)."

New comment by telchar in "Analysis finds Australia’s inflation being driven by company profits, not wages"

telchar — Sat, 25 Feb 2023 03:57:25 +0000

It’s so wrong to pretend that sellers don’t have a say in how much they ask for their goods that it borders on disingenuous. To blame the market (as if that existed apart from buyers and sellers) is to ascribe agency to something which is wholly responsive in fact.

If buyers are willing to pay $80 for a barrel of oil, must BP ask for $80 and not a cent less? Of course not. You may claim they are right to do so, but don’t pretend they have no choice and therefore no blame if there are ill effects to such pricing.

New comment by telchar in "Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop"

telchar — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 14:41:01 +0000

I find ground beef smells worse than any of the plant-based alternatives, personally. Give me the impossible or beyond burgers any day over a real burger if we're judging by smell or mouth-feel. In taste, I'd say they're equal. The planty patties lose out and mouth-feel, usually, but some of them are ok in taste, and usually smell good. The planty patties tend to crumble and fall apart which makes them hard to eat as burgers.

New comment by telchar in "Microsoft is preparing to add ChatGPT to Bing"

telchar — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 12:48:54 +0000

So you think the problem of high-tech spambots is that there aren't enough people using them? Is your goal to make forums and such unusable as fast as possible?

New comment by telchar in "Show HN: Wa-tunnel – HTTP Tunneling through Whatsapp"

telchar — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 03:50:53 +0000

I'd say it's more like showing up at an all-you-can-eat buffet and eating with a fork. It's not anything that one should be charged extra for. If the bandwidth is the issue, they can charge realistic prices for bandwidth.

New comment by telchar in "Artificial superstrong silkworm silk surpasses natural spider silks"

telchar — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 14:14:51 +0000

You lost a zero in there, so more like 146km.

New comment by telchar in "Rapid Green Energy Transition Will Likely Result in Trillions of Net Savings"

telchar — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 21:04:19 +0000

You’re seemingly unaware that petrochemicals can be synthesized with energy and simple organic feedstocks. The chemistry is pretty well established to bootstrap up from water and CO2 to complex hydrocarbons and from there of course the same petrochemical processes can be applied. Green energy is perfectly capable of this.

New comment by telchar in "Real World Divorce"

telchar — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 13:04:01 +0000

Among the aristocracy, sure. Maybe the near-aristocracy. What about the other 99% of historical humans? Do you have any sources that the average peasant was marrying primarily for advantage? What advantage is there even to gain in a marriage between two peasants?

New comment by telchar in "Shannon Entropy Imposes Fundamental Limits on Communication"

telchar — Thu, 08 Sep 2022 13:07:16 +0000

You could say the first X bits of signal from the start of the communication to the point where you can realize what is being said and can predict the rest with certainty represent the informative part of the message; that is, the less you expected them to say the thing they’re saying in that context, the more information is transmitted.

New comment by telchar in "Covid: Summary of lab-origin hypothesis"

telchar — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 17:46:34 +0000

That’s the fundamental difference from the anti-GOF side. The fundamental difference from the pro-GOF side is that understanding exactly how a nuke works gets you no closer to being able to protect a population from nukes because there is no such thing as a nuke vaccine.

Your suggestion seems like a likely workable compromise if one of those labs is primarily in the US/Euro sphere and the other is primarily in the Russia/China sphere, with enforced transparency.

New comment by telchar in "America Has an E-Bike Problem That Can’t Be Solved with More E-Bikes"

telchar — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:13:49 +0000

This is a problem that would exist without ebikes since some cyclists are just much fitter and faster than others. It’s just becoming more exacerbated since there are more vehicles in the lane and a little more variation in speed. The ebike contribution to the problem is most relevant on uphill stretches naturally.

The solution is infrastructure.

New comment by telchar in "Small Vermont utility quietly builds fleet of 4k Tesla Powerwalls"

telchar — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 15:21:57 +0000

This is an electric utility that will avoid a death spiral of distributed solar -> no incentive to tie in -> go off-grid -> selling less power to fewer customers paying to maintain the lines. Other utilities could take a note for their own long-term planning.

New comment by telchar in "You can’t buy one square foot of land in Scotland and become a Scottish lord"

telchar — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 02:56:24 +0000

She’s that not because she has claimed to be, but because she lives as one in mind, word and deed. That’s what makes women women as well, not simply claiming to be one. That you don’t recognize the difference between the lived experience and the simple acclamation may explain why you have the opinion you do both this point and the broader topic. I’d suggest thinking more about that difference.

New comment by telchar in "Is sending Mississippi water to West feasible?"

telchar — Sun, 14 Aug 2022 15:35:16 +0000

Downvoted for a wholly unnecessary Nazi comparison.

New comment by telchar in "OnlyFans bribed Meta to put porn stars on terror watchlist: lawsuits"

telchar — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 22:43:13 +0000

There were bombs: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/29/politics/washington-pipe-bomb...

New comment by telchar in "Someone Is Trolling Celebs by Sending ETH from Tornado Cash"

telchar — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 17:37:16 +0000

It seems to me this highlights a flaw in the payment system - the inability to decline. Am I understanding that right? You really can’t refuse an ETH transfer?

New comment by telchar in "What Happens When Texans Protest Their “Mind-Boggling” Property Taxes?"

telchar — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:04:04 +0000

I think you're missing the point - that system invites corruption of the appraiser. There's a nice kickback in it for someone who artificially inflates the appraisal of a worthless property and, forcing the city to buy it from the owner who is in cahoots with the appraiser. Leaving the citizens holding the bag of course.

New comment by telchar in "Why America can’t build"

telchar — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 21:05:52 +0000

You’re just describing a NIMBY - someone who may be pro-development in theory but not in their backyard. YIMBY is an explicit rejection of that. In fact few people are YIMBY in theory.