Hacker News: whimsicalism

New comment by whimsicalism in "Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead"

whimsicalism — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:49:05 +0000

maybe. personally i would definitely not trade places

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

whimsicalism — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:32:16 +0000

Is it complaining to ask for a workaround and point out HN guidelines?

> It's ok to ask how to read an article or to help other users by sharing a workaround. But please do this without going on about paywalls. Focus on the content.

I am earnestly curious to read a recounting of what was said by the Trump official.

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

whimsicalism — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:03:33 +0000

Anyone have non paywalled reporting? Technically I think this post is HN guideline-breaking as there is no easy bypass for substack paywalls.

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 23:41:35 +0000

Your analysis also supports a covid trough, not a covid peak and certainly no covid effect. I agree with other commentators suggesting that flock cameras are not the full or even most of the story, but absolutely disagree with the GP that car break-ins are some identifiable covid phenom or that the decrease is merely a post-covid return to normalcy.

Hopefully there was nothing wrong with posting a news article with a graph instead of doing the data analysis myself.

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 23:39:06 +0000

Consider that we should just do the dumb and stupid thing that statsig reduces traffic deaths rather than being galaxy-brained about it.

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 23:35:14 +0000

well that's because you're discussing in good faith

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 23:25:13 +0000

I might question why you are so opposed to interventions that save the lives of people in poorer neighborhoods (disproportionately not owners of cars).

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:47:25 +0000

welcome to hn

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:45:58 +0000

It's very possible that I'm misinformed, but if so it was mostly from reading 'radical conservatives' like the NYT and other related reporting, along with ex-ACLU lawyers. [0]

0: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/aclu-free-speech.html

I think this is particularly noted as a post-2022 shift

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:11:13 +0000

Usually allocation decisions are related to actual car/pedestrian fatality/injury counts + trial placements and measurements. Either way, wouldn't you be in favor of measures that remove police from overpoliced poor neighborhoods in favor of a technology focusing on traffic safety enforcement?

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:00:52 +0000

the difference is that they would not do this today

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:30:59 +0000

that drop is obviously in early 2020, not 2019 and there is no way you can look at that chart and describe car breaks ins as a "COVID blip"

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:27:09 +0000

you think speed cameras violate the 4th amendment?

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:26:08 +0000

i encourage other people reading to look at the chart so they can assess the veracity of ^ comment

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:22:57 +0000

it's clearly not a covid effect https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/sf-car-breakins/

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:20:01 +0000

we enforce laws presumably in the name of safety, is this really nefarious framing or marketing? seems pretty straightforward to me.

New comment by whimsicalism in "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology"

whimsicalism — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:18:39 +0000

I'm very in favor of speed & redlight cameras and don't have a particular problem with license plate trackers. I think we partisan-ize far too many things nowadays, unfortunately.

New comment by whimsicalism in "Anthropic expands partnership with Google and Broadcom for next-gen compute"

whimsicalism — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 00:25:59 +0000

pretty sure evolution spent more time and energy getting there then we ultimately will

New comment by whimsicalism in "Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]"

whimsicalism — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 16:05:07 +0000

I find it odd how reluctant you are to say it is more just today. I think it is no comparison.

New comment by whimsicalism in "Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon [video]"

whimsicalism — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 19:48:41 +0000

do you think the current environment is more or less just than it was during the 1969 moon landing?