I might be generalizing and basing this on anecdotes but often people that work in the drug trade are users/addicts themselves, including the ones who are drawn to positions where it grants them the illusion of unlimited power & material excess. It's ironic that becoming a drug kingpin is the least efficient way of attaining those things, but when you live in a region where there is little to no economic activity, getting a Netflix drama portraying you is the highest point, even if it means doing consecutive life sentences in a maximum security prison where you can no longer enjoy the very things you've worked hard towards.
The "entrepreneurs" who simply come from the same pedigree but who has access to both capital and network with capital that propels them to force the transfer of wealth through deception, including imitating the attires of those that have successfully convinced us they are the good guys, whose popular products produce so much human misery in another country where people couldn't care less about.
Similarly, that same banality we feel towards another far away country, can be amplified towards anything in life. If you ask a criminal why he did it, the answer you get is very much the same as a consumer--"because the opportunity existed". To you it may mean indifference to the children to adults working in horrid conditions overseas, to a criminal, that same indifference is just far more profound and pervasive. Literally a criminal will describe robberies, scams in full pride-just like you they were indifferent to the suffering and damage caused around them, instead these were "opportunities" that they took advantage of because no other options were desirable.
I hope not too much longer, but I think the proximity to China and Russia will prevent decent, republican government from winning out.
America had her chance to put North Korea back down for years, any time before the acquisition of nukes. Officials from both sides were too cowardly, and America allowed one more nation to get nuclear weapons. One more threat to her citizens, and a completely irresponsible action by every politician.
What chance? The last time we tried China sent over a million soldiers. China protects North Korea, and China has been a nuclear power with ICBMs since the 70s.
But for China we could probably sweep through North Korea faster than NK could deploy a nuclear response, assuming they even have a viable weapon.
We could probably trade Taiwan for North Korea, but I doubt that's ever going to happen. We could maybe get away with a promise to leave the Korean Peninsula if they deposed the North Korean regime, but if China accepted that it's because it would weaken U.S. alliances globally (having abandoned a military ally) as well as puts them in a slightly better position to take Taiwan by force. (Alternatively, we could phone Jinping at the very moment we invade NK and promise him that we'll withdrawal all permanent forces, but without formally ending our military alliance with South Korea. An ask for forgiveness rather than permission approach.)[1]
I wouldn't underestimate China's commitment to North Korea. To the old guard in the PLA the defense of North Korea is a pillar of their strategic posture and a matter of honor. As they've died off (and they're not all dead, yet) new leaders have found other reasons to remain committed to North Korea.
[1] With some decent planning I would think we could sufficiently blunt NK's conventional retaliatory capabilities--i.e. the big guns pointed at Seoul. Surely, with a couple of years preparation and sufficient commitment, we could poise ourselves to track and target in real-time their artillery with a massive coordinated strike.
Do you mean e-residency (https://e-resident.gov.ee/)? I work there, happy to answer questions if you have them. The value of starting a business in Estonia vs. elsewhere depends on a number of factors - we mainly focus on folks from outside the EU (or citizens of the EU but living outside it) who want an EU based company they can run remotely in English which is tough in some jurisdictions
Ah yes! Pleasantly surprised you'd follow up on here.
Does Estonia offer any anonymity through its e-residency program?
A lot of us have stereotypes towards EU regulations as being restrictive, wonder if you could address this one glaring fear in the back of our minds (ex. GPDR).
What should folks on HN know a thing or two about Estonia? I've literally only heard of the country 4 years ago when I played Arma: Cold War with an Estonian gamer, which ironically is a military simulation of gorilla warfare against a USSR invasion of the Baltics..... (see OF: Resistance)
Haha I'm a big HN reader so I was happy to jump in :) Sorry for the delay, I'm actually on vacation back home (I'm an American from SF)
It depends what you mean by anonymity - if you're just an e-Resident (eg. you've applied for the status and gotten the card) then it's not public to anyone except you and the Estonian government. If you open a business however, then there is a large amount of transparency. Estonia is very very transparent, I can even see things like the age of the owner of a company if I'm so inclined to look it up.
To be honest, I haven't seen much in terms of restrictive policy in Estonia specifically with the exception of banking - Estonia is a small country of just 1.3m and most of the banks are foreign owned. That means there's not much sway we have domestically over policy and it's dictated from outside (mainly from the parent banks in the Nordics) and it can be tough to open a bank account as a foreigner if you don't have strong ties to Estonia. That said, this is getting tighter just about everywhere as banks try to comply with Know Your Customer regulations (however, my impression is that this is mainly brought on by the US rather than the EU and banks are so stringent because they don't want to lose their US dollar payment capabilities from correspondent banks)
There are a lot of interesting things about Estonia - I'll skip the Googleable things and say that from living there the most interesting thing is on one side how closed and yet how open the people are. To give an example, in my apartment complex I don't believe I ever spoke one word to any of my neighbors in a year, but for the people I met via some group activity or was introed by Estonians I knew from work, they are incredibly open and friendly (basically if you don't have a reason to speak with an Estonian they think you're incredibly strange if you try to initiate a conversation, but if there's a reason, they're very friendly people). The other really interesting thing I've found is the Russian/Estonian dynamic. There's still a large Russian minority of people in Estonia from the Soviet days and some communities are not integrated at all, there are constant political debates about forcing schools to only teach in Estonian (there are currently ones that have all Russian courses). So you have a situation where there are people born and raised in Estonia but who don't speak the language and live pretty much only in Russian communities and have a different worldview of many Estonians.
is it possible to somehow buy this off-line in person in mass quantities? seems like it takes ages to ship from alibaba, also I'm afraid of the Chinese government tapping my phone (as I suspect happened on WeChat I foolishly installed, literally seduced by this Chinese chick who claims she's in Vancouver but then doesn't know where Surrey is???? red flags) potentially, so I want to tinker with these interesting DIY projects and get started with soldering and PCB etc., but I always can't be at complete comfort (I am well aware and conscious of the fact that my privacy standards are in the extremes), knowing what I read on HN all the time, maybe it's a good time to take a break.
So I would really love it if somebody could sell me large bulk of various stuff like this that you could literally get from Alibaba in some vain hope that some wholesale buyer/middle man can make a premium off this paranoia, I'd gladly pay $3~$4 for this if it meant that somebody bought like a million of these for $10,000, and then sold me a chunk of that (at a markup of course which I'm more than happy to pay for the same reason people use VPN and Incognito or Tor), why not for electronics?
tl;dr: Looking for somebody to start a wholesale brick and mortar business based on DIY electronic parts like this so I can pay with cash to escape suspected foreign state surveillance.
Imagine a younger, ambitious, slightly politically sensitive you from the past, expressed a common consensus held by a specific group of like minded peers who believed that a certain country Brad Pitt made famous in the 90s should be free to exercise their political, religious and cultural will against an aggressor state, those things suddenly attract the wrath of peers from that said aggressor state, who think very differently from us, things escalated and I'm still to this day freaked out and feel tense when I hear people speaking the official language of said aggressor state. Call me disturbed, paranoid, I don't care, you weren't there man, you weren't there when the Charlies flanked us and got embassy involved. What is this...People's Republic of Vancouver?
Pretty near all of this stuff is available from North American distributors, Adafruit/Sparkfun for more hobbyist-minded stuff, Digikey/Mouser/Newark for industry. Adafruit takes bitcoin if you're that paranoid.
You're going to have a hard time getting along in the current world, especially in electronics, if anything Chinese sets you on edge though. I'm trying to be gentle, and I know you didn't ask for advice, but consider some counseling if you're "freaked out and feel tense when [you] hear Chinese people talking in Mandarin". Sounds like you're dealing with some history that you could afford to talk to somebody about.
I am considering laying off the ganja for a while. but I need it to meet deadlines, to do the work the market demands at the best possible time to the best possible consumer, I am the invisible hand that keeps pushing me, in this struggling and character building times. thanks for the advice 친구!
I know unsolicited advise is often not appreciated (for good reason sometimes), but perhaps you need to work on a better work-life balance. If you need weed to get through the day and meet tight deadlines, perhaps you need a less stressful role. Personally, I've cut back on the hours I work for this reason. Sure, I earn a lot less, but I'm much less stressed, happier and am starting to get my life (physical, mental and social health) in order.
PS: I buy most of my electronics from mouser or if its a hobbyist pre-assembled item, sparkfun/adafruit. I am just a hobbyist, though.
You really hit the nail with those simple percentage, its clear as day to me now.
So it seems to me that Groupon really makes sense for businesses with fixed & low variable costs, thick enough margins to come out ahead and either repeat business or extra spenders.
I think the advertising comparison makes sense here.
Very promising but I'm going to hold out until I actually see this being applied in places like South Korea, literally suffocating from a combination of both local and foreign smog from Korea's favorite neighbor.
You can't really fault me because we've often seen groundbreaking, extraordinary claims, and very little of it is actually realized. Sort of like how we get news about how somebody found a cure for AIDs or Cancer. Again, not trying to shit on anybody, just practicing good old skepticism, I will believe it when my nephews and nieces in Korea are able to breathe in cleaner air and can play outside without wearing industrial face masks. Until then, fingers crossed and hope this is the real deal.
I totally agree on skepticism. We are working hard to prove our economics. We are targeting selling renewable gasoline from the air for a profit next year. It will be much better for air quality too!
How will this improve the global average of air quality? If you are removing the CO2 from the air then reintroducing it back into the same environment (assuming it is not repurposed in another sector e.g. jet fuel, commercial containers) wont the net effect be the same?
I understand this will concentrate the pollution significantly and may even reduce it in the short term, but wont the average effects be the same?
By "air quality" I believe he is saying that an extra benefit to being carbon neutral is that their fuel combusts more purely than fuel made from crude oil. This means less SOx, NOx, particulates, etc.
Hope the best for you guys, I really do! If realized, this could be too seductive for foreign governments that depend on importation of oil and polluting their air to support export industries. Cleaning up the air AND mining the skies for gasoline? Good deal imho.
So the retailer is forced to provide a deep discount, even if it forces them to sell at a loss? Who gets the final say here, might we assume Groupon? If so, why would retailers continue to utilize Groupon if it ends up being a net negative operation?
Can you elaborate on why you think its a scam? What did the founders do previously which supports those allegations?
There are always customer acquisition costs. But you hope you get some combination of repeat customers and the customers who do come end up spending more.
For instance one breakfast place we frequent is always running a $20 worth of food for $10. We always end up spending more. Besides soft drinks have ridiculous margins. Movie theaters make most of their money from concessions, food (movie and dinner type theaters) and the bar.
I see so the primarily utility of Groupon is that businesses can pay for a chance of repeat customers and/or extra spenders? I think the theater is a good example of the latter.
Then the question arises, why can't businesses do this themeselves? Why can't the breakfast place you frequent just advertise $20 worth of food for $10? Why Groupon? Is it because Groupon can send foot traffic on demand for a cut of the sales?
I'm sorry, it's been too long since I read about it. It was years ago. Maybe a Rolling Stone story?
To your first question, yes, Gropon decides the price. There are many examples of comapnies who made an offer through Groupon which put them out of business.
> It's a very compelling illusion of actually understanding the topic. I've seen less coherent responses on Stack Overflow and, dare I say it, Hacker News.
I think you've highlighted a very interesting angle. A lot of writings by users on the internet have common grammar mistakes or more like, the apathy towards adhering to correct English grammar.
After arguing and correcting people on the Internets for the past 20 years, the semantics became more urgent than the syntax, and as a result, I often read my own writing in aghast-the realization that when people write tl;dr they really meant it-because as soon as you hit submit the original meaning is lost and with our limited cognitive resources we choose to filter out only what we want to read and ignore the rest.
The true test for this sort of text transformer will be to generate an equally incorrect syntax and idiosyncrasy through writing style and skew towards the use of specific group of vocabulary (ab)used by the author, meaning an entire Reddit drama thread generated purely by AIs, complete with trolling, argument traps, and generalization, the complete toolbox of an Internet keyboard warrior.
edit: I finally got a response back from the generator: I typed 'lick my butt' and the result is shockingly good-its everything I'd expect from someone who would start off with that phrase: lick my butt. I don't know what kind of ass you got. I'll just crawl next to you. I'll crawl next to you like this, so that if you get a little pissed, you have time to take it easy and go back to enjoying the show. Don't make me go back to enjoying the show. You can go back to enjoying the show. You can walk with me. You can take me. You can crawl next to me. Don't go. It's okay. I'm just making you comfortable again. And, I don't want you to leave. And, it's fine. I'll let you keep my body. You can take me but don't keep me. I don't need you to keep me.
That's just the opening I mentioned from when she says goodbye and leaves him for it. It has been a while since I have been "comforted;" and not comfortable in a nice way. He's gone over her body in a way that just takes her from me, into my body again; but, doesn't take her any further. She continues to leave behind me that way, but we both know that this isn't just about me anymore. It's about her.
I don't know what to say to her at this point. As much as I want to go over what I experienced with her last time, I can't just let this go. After all, this wasn't a last-minute fuck because I couldn't come. It wasn't because he wasn't enjoying himself. It was because he has a girlfriend; and, he feels that she deserves to be comforted. (The way he says that doesn't work either; it's one thing if he needs me to be comforted, but it's another to tell her he wanted her too and he just needed time to enjoy himself. She deserves to be comforted too; after all, he is getting older and older.
Especially that line 'last-minute fuck because I couldn't come' is completely in line with the overall tone of the generated text. You would think this post was written by a 20 something red pill poster.
>After arguing and correcting people on the Internets for the past 20 years, the semantics became more urgent than the syntax.
[Continuation]
By the summer of 1995 a man calling himself "Wakefield" had launched a Facebook page calling for "an event on the Day of the Dead which was to be held in Washington DC, on June 30" in which "all manner of Satanic rituals were to be performed in a mass-exhibition". The event was to be attended by more than 2000 people and was apparently intended to be an "expose" of the occult. The message of the day stated, "Satanic rituals are a symbol of the death and resurrection of human beings and the cult of Horus [as well as related concepts] is in direct opposition to Christianity and Judaism" The date was listed in the same manner so that most people would have seen it as July 1, 1995. Some claimed to see it through July 31, just as July 1 marks the...
Well. I think Transformer certainly understands the cult-like nature of semantics over syntax. :)
After arguing and correcting people on the Internets for the past 20 years, the semantics became more urgent than the syntax, and as a result, I often read my own writing in aghast-the realization that when people write tl;dr they really meant it-because as soon as you hit submit the original meaning is lost and with our limited cognitive resources we choose to filter out only what we want to read and ignore the rest. One moment is worth 2, when it's only one second worth 4, when time has a finite amount you should stop reading everything and enjoy yourself. In this way, people stop reading before they know what they're looking at, and they are in the process of filtering out their own words and expressions. "How does this change my reading?," was my initial reaction, and it turned out to very different than how I thought it should change me if people realized the literal meaning of their words. Once people stop reading, they become increasingly interested in the meaning, and so they are not only more engaged in the conversation, but they actually have become more open to their own words and expressions.
The "entrepreneurs" who simply come from the same pedigree but who has access to both capital and network with capital that propels them to force the transfer of wealth through deception, including imitating the attires of those that have successfully convinced us they are the good guys, whose popular products produce so much human misery in another country where people couldn't care less about.
Similarly, that same banality we feel towards another far away country, can be amplified towards anything in life. If you ask a criminal why he did it, the answer you get is very much the same as a consumer--"because the opportunity existed". To you it may mean indifference to the children to adults working in horrid conditions overseas, to a criminal, that same indifference is just far more profound and pervasive. Literally a criminal will describe robberies, scams in full pride-just like you they were indifferent to the suffering and damage caused around them, instead these were "opportunities" that they took advantage of because no other options were desirable.
My 2 cents in reply to your question.