Hacker News: umanwizard

New comment by umanwizard in "AI Will Be Met with Violence, and Nothing Good Will Come of It"

umanwizard — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 15:38:30 +0000

Utter nonsense. There are plenty of good stupid people and smart evil people.

New comment by umanwizard in "AI Will Be Met with Violence, and Nothing Good Will Come of It"

umanwizard — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 15:36:58 +0000

That had nothing to do with AI

New comment by umanwizard in "1D Chess"

umanwizard — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 18:59:42 +0000

No. That is a draw assuming it is the player with only a king’s turn to move.

Translating your notation to normal chess notation:

White king on h1, black rooks on a2 and g8, black king in some random other place, white to move.

That is a draw, because white is NOT in check, but has no legal moves. That scenario is called stalemate. If white were in check, it would be checkmate and a win for black. Set it up on any chess analysis board website and it will say the game is a draw.

New comment by umanwizard in "1D Chess"

umanwizard — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:17:44 +0000

Black can’t move the knight: it’s illegal to make a move that puts yourself in check. Thus black has no legal moves, but isn’t in check, so the result is a draw.

New comment by umanwizard in "The Pentagon Threatened Pope Leo XIV's Ambassador with the Avignon Papacy"

umanwizard — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:59:20 +0000

My guess is the vast majority of those are Hispanic Americans who have been Catholic since birth, and not part of the modern far-right Catholic conversion movement (like Vance).

New comment by umanwizard in "ML promises to be profoundly weird"

umanwizard — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 01:23:43 +0000

What is reasoning?

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:24:48 +0000

I think you're right, it's a bracketing ambiguity.

Rather than "Iran to use Hormuz fees for (reconstruction instead of reparations)" it's more likely to mean "Iran to use (Hormuz fees for reconstruction) instead of reparations"

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:23:14 +0000

Of course Iran wouldn't block its own ships at its own checkpoints, but the US is capable of easily interdicting Iranian shipping if it wants to.

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:17:27 +0000

Yes

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:16:55 +0000

Of course Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, etc. shouldn't have nukes, i.e. it would be bad for global stability if they got them. But that's not what the comment you replied to was claiming -- they were claiming that it's in their interest to get nukes, and that there's a good chance they'll try to do so.

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:12:16 +0000

I agree with most of your comment; I'm certainly not in favor of the war and think it was both morally dubious as well as a strategic disaster for the US. I'm just saying that Israel isn't a theocracy, which is true.

Also, there were no opinions in my comment; indeed, there were only facts.

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:03:08 +0000

Israel is mostly secular and is by no means governed by Halakha; it’s not any more of a theocracy than the US is. Netanyahu is not religious at all, and though some members of his coalition are, they’re not the majority partners.

This isn’t a pro-Israel comment (I’m generally not a fan of Israel), it’s just factual. When Israel describes itself as “the Jewish state” it understands “Jewish” as referring to something that could variously be described as a culture, ethnicity or “nation”, not to the religion of Judaism.

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:57:00 +0000

That would mean Saudi Arabia is starting a war with Iran, which they presumably don’t want to do.

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:55:44 +0000

I’m 99% sure that if there is a deal where Iran collects a toll, it’s going to involve counting that toll (and/or sanctions relief, and/or unfreezing Iranian assets) as reparations. I would be very surprised if the US or Israel ever agree to direct payments to the Iranian government.

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:53:54 +0000

Not quite, since they plan to share the revenue with Oman, or at least that’s what they’re currently claiming.

New comment by umanwizard in "US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire"

umanwizard — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:52:52 +0000

They have given back territory they don’t care about (Sinai), or “given back” territory but kept it under a permanent near-total blockade and military control (Gaza), but never given back territory they do care about and which is the main sticking point of the conflict (East Jerusalem and the West Bank). And they never will unless someone forces them to, which is unlikely.

New comment by umanwizard in "When legal sports betting surges, so do Americans' financial problems"

umanwizard — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 20:34:40 +0000

Adults can and do become addicted to gambling (and drugs, etc.) and ruin the lives of themselves and those around them.

Recognizing this fact isn't treating them like children, it's treating them like the adults they are.

New comment by umanwizard in "German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad"

umanwizard — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:41:09 +0000

There are a lot of non-white citizens of Canada (and Germany) whereas the comment you’re replying to is about non-citizens. Also Canada hasn’t had conscription for a long time as far as I know, the friends you refer to were volunteers.

New comment by umanwizard in "F-15E jet shot down over Iran"

umanwizard — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:38:16 +0000

So Iran would sell its main natural resource at half-price forever to pay for China to keep bases on its territory? That also doesn’t seem plausible.

Realistically there is no amount that Iran would be willing to pay and that China would be willing to accept for China to essentially agree to be responsible for the defense of Iran. It’s a non-starter.

New comment by umanwizard in "German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad"

umanwizard — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:34:24 +0000

That’s essentially what the commenter is proposing when talking about banning birth control. This would be equivalent to compelling women to reproduce (or forego sexual relations, which in reality most people won’t do).