skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on The tech baron seeking to “ethnically cleanse” San Francisco in ~life
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Comment on Ukraine pulls US-provided Abrams tanks from the front lines over Russian drone threats in ~news
skybrian Link ParentDrones are often used for surveillance. Once found, tanks can be hit in other ways, such as artillery.Drones are often used for surveillance. Once found, tanks can be hit in other ways, such as artillery.
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Comment on Ukraine pulls US-provided Abrams tanks from the front lines over Russian drone threats in ~news
skybrian LinkFrom the article: … … …From the article:
Ukraine has sidelined U.S.-provided Abrams M1A1 battle tanks for now in its fight against Russia, in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two U.S. military officials told The Associated Press.
The U.S. agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023 after an aggressive monthslong campaign by Kyiv arguing that the tanks, which cost about $10 million apiece, were vital to its ability to breach Russian lines.
But the battlefield has changed substantially since then, notably by the ubiquitous use of Russian surveillance drones and hunter-killer drones. Those weapons have made it more difficult for Ukraine to protect the tanks when they are quickly detected and hunted by Russian drones or rounds.
Five of the 31 tanks have already been lost to Russian attacks.
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For now, the tanks have been moved from the front lines, and the U.S. will work with the Ukrainians to reset tactics, said Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady and a third defense official who confirmed the move on the condition of anonymity.
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The U.S. also confirmed for the first time that it is providing long-range ballistic missiles known as ATACMs, which allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian-occupied areas without having to advance and be further exposed to either drone detection or fortified Russian defenses.
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Ukraine has only employed them in a limited fashion and has not made combined arms warfare part of its operations, the defense official said.
During its recent withdrawal from Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine that was the focus of intense fighting for months, several tanks were lost to Russian attacks, the official said.
A long delay by Congress in passing new funding for Ukraine meant its forces had to ration ammunition, and in some cases they were only able to shoot back once for every five or more times they were targeted by Russian forces.
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Ukraine pulls US-provided Abrams tanks from the front lines over Russian drone threats
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Utopian Realism, a speech by Bruce Sterling
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Comment on The man who killed Google Search in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentHuh. Yeah, I just assumed it was gone, but I guess not. I wonder if anyone remembers dBase?Huh. Yeah, I just assumed it was gone, but I guess not.
I wonder if anyone remembers dBase?
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Comment on The tech baron seeking to “ethnically cleanse” San Francisco in ~life
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Comment on Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem. in ~enviro
skybrian Link ParentI see batteries as a possibly easier and more resilient alternative to upgrading the grid.I see batteries as a possibly easier and more resilient alternative to upgrading the grid.
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Comment on The man who killed Google Search in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentHypercard and Filemaker Pro are two I remember, but I guess that's going pretty far back.Hypercard and Filemaker Pro are two I remember, but I guess that's going pretty far back.
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Solar power is changing life deep in the Amazon
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Comment on Why Panama dollarized in ~humanities.history
skybrian LinkThis blog is pushing an agenda, but it seems to have some history that's not generally known: ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...This blog is pushing an agenda, but it seems to have some history that's not generally known:
Panamanians were stridently opposed to the centralizing of the Colombian state under Núñez’a La Regeneración. Panama was the most prosperous state in the United States of Colombia since the mid-19th century, partly because of the Panama Railway Company. It served many travelers journeying from the east coast of the USA to California via Panama (which was shorter than going overland). However, when the USA built the first transcontinental railroad, the number of passengers via the Panama route dramatically reduced. Moreover, Núñez’s policy was to extract more money from the Department of the Isthmus (Panama) via increased taxes and control of its fiscal surpluses. Inevitably, this caused great discontent.
The exploitation exacerbated by the Thousand Days War (also with the USA “nudging”) led Panama to separate from Colombia in November 1903. At the birth of this new nation, the people there had inflationary trauma fresh in their minds. The new state kept Colombia's legal prohibition on state issuance of paper money.
Interestingly, Colombia’s constitution, until 1910, still prohibited issuing paper money, but it was subsequently reformed (poorly, by US money doctors—a topic for a future post). Panama has maintained the original Colombian prohibition principle to this day.
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Let’s start with the original 1904 constitution. In it Article 117 states that there ‘shall be no obligatory tender paper currency in the Republic’ (“No podrá haber en la República papel moneda de curso forzoso”).
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When “curso forzoso” (obligatory-tender) is correctly interpreted, it has two parts. First, it means that the currency in question has liberatory power (referred to in local jurisprudence as el poder liberatorio), which is the power granted by law to discharge debts. Second, it means that the currency is not a claim on underlying silver or gold and cannot be substituted for such. Remember that in 1904, “true” money was silver or gold metal. So, obligatory-tender paper money should be considered non-convertible paper money.
For a paper currency to be convertible means that it is backed by underlying assets (often in those times silver or/and gold), and if you wanted to, you can return the paper currency to the issuer and receive the underlying gold or silver.
So, to be absolutely clear, the constitution does not prohibit all paper currency, only non-convertible paper currency.
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It is usually assumed that the United States government forced the Republic of Panama to make the United States dollar legal tender. The populace, academics, and literati in Panama also generally believe this. But that’s not what happened. The initial request to make dollars legal tender in Panama actually came from the Panamanians.
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In June of 1904, Secretary Taft was notified that a Fiscal Commission from Panama was in New York on official government business, and they also wanted to meet with him.
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I know these details because a stenographer recorded the meeting, and later, the transcript was entered into the record at a U.S. Senate Hearing in 1906.
The conversation was revealing. The Panamanians had started creating new monetary laws as part of their state-building process. Remember that Panama had just separated from Colombia, and all the elements of a state needed to be built almost from scratch.
The stenographically recorded conversation explicitly states that the Panamanians already made this decision and are now seeking confirmation.
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The post-separation transitional government in Panamá wanted to avoid a situation where the economic activity of the Canal Zone placed severe pressure on the monetary capacity of the new Republic. (Remember, finite metal coins were the norm—not infinite digits on a screen.) The increased demand for metal coins to pay imported labor would put a great strain on Panama’s capacity.
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The Isthmian Commission did not have the idea to create a new currency within Panama. They thought that would be wholly impractical. It was necessary that Panama's money would remain stable relative to the US gold dollar which they would need to use concurrently.
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Panama did not dollarize because of a macroeconomic crisis. Dollarization was part of Panama’s initial state-building process. The state leaders' monetary ideology was based on their recent experience of an inflation spiral caused by excessive paper money creation in Colombia. They wanted to avoid this entirely in their new country, so they chose the dollarization path.
It was a coincidence that the Secretary of War at the time was William Taft, who had first-hand experience with currency mismanagement in the Philippines. Taft knew the best way forward was to agree to the idea of the Panamanians to adopt USD as a legal tender in Panama. And he entered this agreement even though he was unsure if he had the power to do so by Congress. Yet, it worked. And today, Panama has the most stable monetary system in Latin America.
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Why Panama dollarized
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Comment on San Francisco office sells for a stunning 90% discount from 2016 price in ~finance
skybrian Link ParentSan Francisco's rent control seems to be limited to older buildings, 1979 and older. It seems like a pretty big exemption to me, but maybe I'm underestimating how many older buildings there are. I...San Francisco's rent control seems to be limited to older buildings, 1979 and older. It seems like a pretty big exemption to me, but maybe I'm underestimating how many older buildings there are.
I expect statewide rent control still applies, though? I didn't find a website about that explicitly.
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Comment on The man who killed Google Search in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentGoogle has discontinued lots of products, but I still think this meme is a bit exaggerated. Many products get killed pretty soon after launch because they were disappointments by Google's rather...Google has discontinued lots of products, but I still think this meme is a bit exaggerated. Many products get killed pretty soon after launch because they were disappointments by Google's rather high standards. When I go through the list of "Killed by Google" products (and it's a long list), they're mostly things I never used, and you probably haven't either. Some I never even heard of. FitStar Yoga?
Google Reader and Google+ are products I did use. Google+ was obviously a flop, but I liked it. Google Reader is sort of like a cult classic TV show that didn't find a large enough audience.
Some products on that list have obvious successors. Apparently, AngularJS is dead, but Angular is its successor? (I'm not familiar with the differences.)
There are also many products that are obviously successful and seem pretty unlikely to disappear. Some that I don't believe will ever be killed include Gmail (they tried hard to improve on it with Inbox and failed) and the office suite (Docs, Calendar, Sheets, Slides, etc.). They are very popular with paying business customers, plus Google uses them internally. What is Google going to do, switch to Microsoft?
YouTube is obviously successful and isn't going away. Google Photos seems likely to stick around. (They did kill its predecessor, Picasa.)
If someone made a similar website for Microsoft or Apple, how many products could they list?
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Comment on San Francisco office sells for a stunning 90% discount from 2016 price in ~finance
skybrian Link ParentIt seems similar to having a sale, a way of offering a better deal without lowering the official price. When the sale is over, the price goes up again, but it doesn't look like a price increase....It seems similar to having a sale, a way of offering a better deal without lowering the official price. When the sale is over, the price goes up again, but it doesn't look like a price increase.
Also, maybe it's due to rent control? California has (mild) rent control now that limits price increases, so that would be a way of getting around it.
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Comment on On surveys in ~science
skybrian Link ParentI've long thought that the answers from an interviewer asking 'so why did you answer the question this way' would be more interesting than the answers themselves.I've long thought that the answers from an interviewer asking 'so why did you answer the question this way' would be more interesting than the answers themselves.
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Comment on Can friendships be forced? in ~talk
skybrian LinkFriendships often form between children who are neighbors, who go to the same school, or maybe go to the same summer camp. But I would call that creating the opportunity for friendship to arise...Friendships often form between children who are neighbors, who go to the same school, or maybe go to the same summer camp. But I would call that creating the opportunity for friendship to arise rather than being forced. It can go the other way, too.
It seems similar for relatives, like cousins? You see each other pretty often, but you might or might not get along.
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Comment on San Francisco office sells for a stunning 90% discount from 2016 price in ~finance
skybrian (edited )Link ParentI believe artists would live in lofts that lacked basic amenities, and maybe technically it wasn’t up to code for inhabited space? One difference might be that the rent was cheap, so it didn’t...I believe artists would live in lofts that lacked basic amenities, and maybe technically it wasn’t up to code for inhabited space? One difference might be that the rent was cheap, so it didn’t matter if there were a lot of quirks? And maybe the landlords never earned high rents before for industrial space, so they don’t have high expectations.
That would be a situation where the landlord didn’t do an expensive conversion to residential space. They just rented it out and didn’t ask questions.
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Comment on Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem. in ~enviro
skybrian Link ParentYeah, that too. I was thinking more along the lines of home owners wanting to do some kind of upgrade to be more green. Solar is the first thing people think of. Load shifting and local energy...Yeah, that too. I was thinking more along the lines of home owners wanting to do some kind of upgrade to be more green. Solar is the first thing people think of.
Load shifting and local energy storage are both ways of reducing the need to upgrade the grid. Batteries also help for outages. In some areas, power companies are cutting power more often to avoid wildfire risk.
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Comment on San Francisco office sells for a stunning 90% discount from 2016 price in ~finance
skybrian Link ParentThis all makes sense, but it seems uncreative. There used to be a lot of old buildings converted into lofts. I suspect that’s a pretty inefficient use of space, but it still happened. What do...This all makes sense, but it seems uncreative. There used to be a lot of old buildings converted into lofts. I suspect that’s a pretty inefficient use of space, but it still happened. What do markets have to be like for that to make sense?
Does this sort of thing have any chance at all of being popular with San Francisco voters? I don’t follow politics there very closely, but it seems like it would be a radical shift.
It doesn’t seem like edgy rhetoric that’s popular with a certain crowd on Twitter would work in real life with Democrats and leftists. Or at least, not this kind. We have had billionaires try to spend their way into political office unsuccessfully before.