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powerbroker

OK, OK. just drag it up to Schaumburg. Put it next to the other rock. Then call it 'micro-henge'.
There is another rock sitting alongside a chief artery about 25 miles NW just beyond Schaumburg. Silly to give these things a name.
It could be that those with poor handgrip strength suffer from a number of health maladies. And though an 'association' occurs between handgrips and depression -- the causality of depression is actually from the underlying co-morbidities.
Re:How to Build Wealth as a Career Person on Sunday October 11, 2026 @01:45PM (#50045789)
I know two engineers who worked their way to becoming centi-millionaires. One worked for the same company his entire life. Another looked at every job as feeding a 'system' of a) co-workers; b) clients; c) the economy.

Probably the single best take-away from the article is to never stop learning. I also like the tip about keep networking and building relationships.

Re:Aphantasia Beginner's Guide on Thursday August 27, 2026 @10:02PM (#49473512)
What is it called when you can vividly see the silhouette of your hands with your eyes closed -- and particularly if your fingers are brushing against your skull. I didn't discover this 'transparent skull' skill until I was in my 50s -- much like those with aphantasia don't know they perceive things differently than many others.

Totally useless of course -- but it was a weird discovery nonetheless.

Re:Tracking Costco Gas Prices During a Global Fuel Crisis on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @06:49PM (#49441731)
90% of my EV sessions are at home, at a personal time commitment of 5 seconds to open the charging hatch and plug-in. Maybe 5% of my EV charges take 30 minutes while I'm enjoying a meal or ... wasting time waiting in the car for it to complete at a fast 200 kW charge rate.
Re:Ask HN: What newspapers are you subscribed to? on Friday August 21, 2026 @06:13PM (#49394359)
Wall Street Journal electronic edition
Something is terribly broken in the software release process that constantly allows a worse user experience (including autonomous) as Tesla 'matures' its operations. I'm driving a Tesla, that recently added a 'warning' over a center-display showing the three rear-pointing cameras.

1. The cameras only show while operating in reverse;

2. The warning entirely obscures 30-50% of the view in one or more cameras;

3. The warning tells you that there is dirt or debris on the camera.

So, you are warned, that your vision, via the cameras could be better -- by deliberately worsening the view.

Genius.

Re:The day my ping took countermeasures on Saturday May 23, 2026 @11:16PM (#48254004)
I recall Ping being late to board his sailing vessel, and took a countermeasure to his backside.

To Wit:

*Excellent, heart-warming tale of exploration and discovery. Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix’s most venerable networking utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933, years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure were finalized.*

https://diffendoofers.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/the-story-abo...

Re:Happy Tax Day, New York. We're Taxing the Rich [video] on Thursday April 16, 2026 @12:15AM (#47788592)
How long before Wall Street moves to Dallas? The traders. The advisors. The lawyers. The TV finance shows.

This seems the beginnings of a 'New Detroit'.

Re:Dumbsmart on Monday April 13, 2026 @09:28PM (#47760151)
clankstar
Re:The odd disappearance of the business cycle on Sunday April 12, 2026 @03:03PM (#47743166)
The people on the bottom half of the 'K-shaped recovery' outnumber the people on the top half. This bias likely skews the Michigan Consumer Sentiment survey [1], and accordingly leads to record low optimism about the future, despite historically low unemployment.

Add to that, the rapid expansion of automation -- both in white collar and blue collar settings -- and it isn't hard to see why few can take solace in an extended recovery and expansion.

[1] https://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/files/chicsh.pdf

Re:Ask HN: Any Interesting Niche Hobbies? on Sunday April 05, 2026 @11:05PM (#47656513)
Hang gliding. It's good if you are in an area with some hills and consistent winds. There are maybe a dozen well-established launch sites around the U.S. Sadly, I broke down my glider around 2001 -- and did a post-mortem on it to discover it had a minor dent in it.

Recommendation -- don't stall the glider at heights between 10 and 25 feet from the ground. Also, avoid barbed wire fences.

Re:Ask HN: Sell me your product in 10 words on Saturday August 16, 2025 @09:25PM (#44928188)
Oh wait, I meant also "... over considerably longer timescales". (Minor technicality).
Re:Ask HN: Sell me your product in 10 words on Saturday August 16, 2025 @09:24PM (#44928186)
That movie with "I know Kung Fu" -- we do that too.
The vehicle, so evil, that it cannot be named. Life imitates art, and not in a good way.
As both a lawyer and a programmer, I tend to agree with the above. However, I've noticed among other lawyer/programmers, some further traits: easily bored, and extraordinarily focussed.

A quirky features of lawyers: can be unusually petty.

Quirky features of programmers: can be remarkably correct and still be very opaque.

Re:Even Tesla's Insurance Arm Is Getting Wrecked on Saturday May 10, 2025 @03:31PM (#43948212)
I was driving the Model X a few years ago and ended up T-boning a minivan at ~45 MPH. Minivan rolled over. Our airbags deployed. Post accident, I discovered my glasses remained on my face and it seemed that the airbag did not even reach my body -- with the webbing taking the bulk of the impact. Car took months to repair and ~$30,000.

Not bad when you consider we were driving to the hospital at the time, and the accident prevented us from reaching the hospital as well as preventing us from calling on an ambulance.

3 'assists' that the car gave us:

1. Crumple zone is bigger;

2. Battery made our vehicle heavier;

3. (speculatively), the 'crumple parts', crumpled more and costed more -- leading to less (none) bodily injury.

1. I've paid electric bills in four different cities. Rates haven't been increased at more than 1x annually in any of them.

2. California is getting what seems to be two overhauls: a) replacing/upgrading lines and vegetation practices to harden them against sparking fires; b) massive electrification of cars, data centers, appliances. The capex has to be paid somehow... and interest rates are a drag to that.

This would improve efficiency if the number of electric vehicles on the U.S. roads was on a downward trajectory as they were in the early 1900s. But now the technology is quite different than the lead-acid used back then, and broadly accepted standards are in place. Moreover, the proportion of EVs to ICE vehicles has been growing, albeit more slowly, of late, but growing nevertheless.

That said, removing infrastructure for a growing portion of the fleet seems an odd choice.

Taking a more utilitarian approach, however, where the highest priority is to reduce federal spending, then this can make sense.

  1. Must reduce spending;
  2. Must reduce perks and credit cards among the U.S. employed workers;
  3. Parking is a necessity if we are to avoid WFH... and improve productivity;
  4. Giving free 'perk' to one group, without giving it to another, is a) unfair; b) costly.
  5. Therefore, remove the discriminatory perk, and satisfy goal #1.
A signal that an AI is better than a 5 year old is being able to respond to the following query: "What are your terms and conditions?".

For now, it is failing.

I have broken a collarbone; gotten a bruise 18 inches long; destroyed (one at a time) almost every part on my bicycle; hit an armadillo and ridden to 90 miles with a 20 mile head-wind in the final 10 miles. I've been happy pretty much every time even through some of these incidents, often because I had other riders with me.

I don't intend to live forever.

Re:Tesla AI Delivered. FSD 13 Is Mind Blowing on Wednesday December 04, 2024 @11:36PM (#42325018)
These hyperventilating videos are so cherry-picked that I've long given up hope that a not-fatal FSD will appear in my lifetime.
The constant explosions in four different compartments might have something to do with it feeling wrong. I wonder if anyone can tell us how many mounts support the engine and give it some opportunity to dampen the explosions -- and through what apparatus.
I bounce back and forth between hang gliding and kiteboarding.
Re:An idea to make EV charging like refueling on Tuesday October 01, 2024 @12:09AM (#41704547)
Typically, the battery cells that are formed into packs are rigidly arranged. So far as I know, they are arranged to have a common positive cathode by being connected as a single node with a conductor. In other words, they are wired in parallel.

I'm not a chemistry major, but everything I've seen suggests that the parallel arrangement allows them to drain concurrently and maintain a near-identical charge. Now, I'm oversimplifying, because there must be some modest isolation cell-to-cell, that lets these batteries be balanced to get to a near-identical charge level at charge completion.

That said, depleting some batteries, while others remain freshly charged (or adding freshly charged cells) can cause some problems, which I'm sure someone smarter than me will explain. But, for so long as these batteries need to hold a near identical volatage, it is going to be rather challenging to have a partial swap of some of the batteries.

Re:Breaking down a record-setting day on the Texas grid on Wednesday August 21, 2024 @09:49PM (#41315952)
Unfortunately it these batteries are unable to multiple gigawatts over many hours of excess wind energy. It will be at least a decade before the battery energy storage systems are close to big enough to absorb the oversupply of wind energy that happens a few times a week.

Don't get me wrong. The BESS helps with frequency, synchronization and voltage issues. They just do very little to flatten the wind spikes without turning off 10-20% of the wind fleet.

Re:Amazon's $650M Data Center Faces Energy Battle on Sunday August 18, 2024 @12:03AM (#41280044)
Electric grids typically lose up to 5% of electricity to heat during the transmission stage. Putting the data centers at the nuclear power plant, accordingly, adds 5% more electricity than placing it at the end of the public grid. Seems like a win to all involved.

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