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Comment He hacked capitalism (Score 3, Insightful) 272

The whole point of stock markets and such is that you have hard core rational investors ensuring valuations are accurate.

But Musk figured out that you don't need solid fundamentals, all you need is a hyper-loyal core following of retail investors who support you regardless of fundamentals. So you just bullshit just enough to keep them happy, without crossing too far into fraud, and the retail investors stay on board.

The retail investors create a floor for the price and their crowing about their winnings creates a bubble. The institutional investors then see what's happening and hop along for the ride.

The result is the two most overvalued companies in history (Tesla and SpaceX). In theory, the whole pile eventually comes crashing down, but just like any bubble the fund managers who buy are unlikely to be the fund managers left holding the bag.

Comment Re:Left vs right hand (Score 1) 155

I recall that this was discovered a long time ago when sales and marketing people realised that people would tend to turn right after they enter a store. I also seem to recall that this didn't hold true for left-handed people.

It would be interesting to see data from countries that are left-hand traffic. Streams of people in left-hand traffic countries tend to walk on the left side, and tend to move to the left if someone is walking towards them - which tends to be fun when walking about a right-hand traffic country! Though given these results were also tested in Japan, which is left-hand traffic, I'd expect there isn't a difference.

Would make sense, if you're right handed and turn to the right you're leading with your dominant eye (and hand) so better able to handle threats that emerge.

Similar if you choose to pass someone on the left, you present them with your stronger (right) side.

But this study supposedly found no correlation to handedness, so either something else is going on or maybe a sample size issue.

Comment Re:Oh look. (Score 1) 320

Sorry, let me clarify - the modern conceit of applying that term to the Arab (Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese) and Egyptian people who left instead of becoming Israelis, was invented by Arafat (an Egyptian). The word Palestine was derived from Philistine, referring to the child-sacrificing enemies of the Jewish people who were famously defeated by David and ended up founding Carthage. Those people no longer exist.

It is thought that Rome renamed the region as an insult to the Jews who were driven from their land after they revolted in the first 70's. Arafat resurrected the term in order to unite the ethnically diverse "refugees" - which I put in quotes because they are not refugees, they chose to leave instead of becoming citizens because that's how much they hate the Jews.

Drop the bigotry. They left because their land was being given away by Western superpowers to a bunch of foreigners. They did exactly what any group of people would do. And they had a far better claim to that land than Jews who hadn't lived there for centuries, especially considering those Palestinians were actually descended from the ancient Israelites.

On the other hand the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank being carried out by Israeli Settlers, with the support of the Israeli government, is not typical or excusable.

Comment Re:Not really (Score 1) 320

The main difference is that these things move. That adds to the level of danger, but not to the immorality. Landmines have done the autonomous killing for about 800 years now, apparently.

The main difference is that this technology will be harder to contain. A terrorist burying a landmine in a park is plausible, but not the most practical attack.

A terrorist letting out a few of these things in a park... that is terrifying.

Comment Re:Oh look. (Score 2, Insightful) 320

70+ years of "Palestinians" (a term invented by the Egyptian Yasser Arafat) refusing to accept the existence of Israel and trying to exterminate the Jews. The dead-enders who refused to become Israeli citizens (as very many of their fellows did) and tried to eradicate Israel the day it was formed. And then again. And then again. And then again...

What a shock that the "Palestinians" were unwilling to allow a different ethnoreligious group to move into their homeland, and give them the choice of being second class citizens or expelled from their territory entirely.

Who could imagine that they would have reacted exactly the same as literally every other group of people on the planet?!?

Comment Re:Left vs right hand (Score 1) 155

Anecdote only from me of course.but for what it's worth...I'm left-handed. Subconsciously I consider left = "towards what I know" and right = "going further out". This applies to walking, driving...all of it.

I know it's not actually true of course, but if faced with an unfamiliar t-junction while driving or perhaps I'm just out on a walk to get some distance in, that's how I think of it.

Comment Re: Maybe it's something to do with self-defense? (Score 1) 155

It's testable, I agree. However as a left-handed person where my dominant side is the left...I always go left if I can.

Interestingly, though admittedly this is purely my anecdote so take this as such, this translates to driving too. Unknown place, just driving for fun, reach a t-junction and have to choose? To me left = "towards where you know" and right = "going further out". Even if that's not actually the case, that's just how my mind sees it at first glance. Wonder if that's also looked at, and also if it's affected by location (I'm in the UK, so would drive on the left).

Comment Re:Life Expectancy Study. (Score 1) 115

That's actually not as far away from ours (UK) as I expected. I just did a rough calculation and I make it $8.43 here (converting £1.66 per litre into gallons and USD).

My EV I charge overnight and draw 22kWh per night given my commute, for 7p per kWh. My range is 90 miles, so a spot of converting tells me I pay $2.06 for 90 miles of range.

Seems ok to me.

Comment Synths too (Score 4, Interesting) 115

I bought a Roland S-1 Tweak Synth this week. Absolutely lovely bit of kit, one of the best things Roland have done for a while. It's relevance to this conversation though is that it has a built-in, non-user replaceable battery and is charged by USB C.

I've kept my Roland synth from 1989, and there are people with synths much older than that. While never massively user-serviceable as a genre, this is the first time I can think of that there's a definite life span on these things. Just like a phone, eventually this battery is going to wear out and have severely reduced capacity. I have to imagine that, as with vintage synths or older phones, someone will probably start a service for replacing the battery but wouldn't it be nice if they didn't have to and the design had been thought of in advance?

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