Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water • Hacker News Board

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#111

Post by Retric » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 4:39 PM UTC

leftyted wrote: post #105

Retric wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a falsifiable argument. US has averaged faster economic growth with high marginal tax rates than low ones. The reality is rich people have no choice but to invest their wealth or inflation eats it up. The only real change from 15% to 70% marginal tax rates is the amount of effort put into tax avoidance. The reason for this is maximizing income occurs before taxes are calculated, so you can get nearly identical…

I don't think you've falsified the argument. Maybe you would have if economic growth and marginal tax rates are the only variables. I think it's pretty clear that progressive taxes create negative incentives, particularly when it comes to encouraging people to get rich in the first place (which usually means starting a business). > Further, equality of opportunity is surprisingly cheap over time. You end up with more…

Plenty of evidence for the same thing exist in other countries. Which is my point, if that’s your line of argument you need to verify it not just assume it to be true.

Anyway, few people are going to turn down becoming rich because they end up with only 100 million instead of 300 million dollars. Opportunity however plays an important role and again you can measure relative importance via social mobility. Comparing different counties at different time periods and once again Opportunity ends up far more important than high but not punitive tax rates.

We are never going to have absolutely identical opportunity for everyone in society. But, these are not platonic ideals rather measurable and testable pragmatic choices.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#112

Post by apacheCamel » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #57

Sure, but why? What harm do these things do? I know, lots of articles are published that cite one another. But none of them have any actual harm documented. They just vaguely refer to one another with "It's well-known that these things are harmful" and then cite another article that says the same thing. It reminds me of 'solar roads', another hyped-up internet sensation based on nothing.

We do not know the consequences yet. But that is partially what makes it scary. Having no idea what consuming all this plastic (animals in general, not just us) will do mixed with it being extremely widespread makes it a very scary situation. These are clearly foreign objects being forced into our environment in ways that haven't been seen before. Cleaning up the issue, and working out the side-effects should go hand in hand.

We could possibly be having an effect on our environment directly with our actions and we are trying to figure out how to stop it. Solar roads is more of a fad "solution" to the issue. Microplastic is the problem.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#113

Post by majewsky » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 5:08 PM UTC

secfirstmd wrote: post #80

notfashion wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ireland's per capita level of funding for research has been lagging badly behind the European average, though. It's really a cultural problem: R&D doesn't happen here, except in rare cases. It's not really down to the size of the population: in the 19th C we had Hamilton and Boole, the world's largest telescope in Birr, Grubb telescope manufacturing in Dublin, and the Titanic was built in Belfast in the early 20th C.…

I would also argue that the successful way that Ireland has brought big companies to the country hasn't yet resulted in the spin off of benefits that the presence of such companies has had in other areas.

Has Ireland really brought big companies to the country? Honest question. I'm only aware of big companies having their accounting department there for taxation purposes.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#114

Post by ummonk » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 5:19 PM UTC

Azrael3000 wrote: post #17

ummonk wrote: post #4

This seems like it should deserve way more attention than Ocean Cleanup.

It should not be a competition about anything, instead all the efforts should be supported to solve the plastic issue, from reduction of use to clean-up.

What do you mean "all the efforts"? The global economy is 80 trillion dollars a year. Should all of that be focused on various ocean plastic projects?

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#115

Post by pvaldes » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #69

secfirstmd wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Irish person, I feel both proud of his work and saddened by the fact that our own university research system is so lacking he has to move abroad.

Well, don't take it bad. Ireland has like 5 million people? How would it have/support an adequate university research system to support a top-tier talent?

Size is not all. Ireland, Norway, and Denmark, being small countries of similar population, all somehow managed to have a similar amount of nobel laureates than China or India.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#116

Post by cheez » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 5:42 PM UTC

52-6F-62 wrote: post #108

cheez wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago, we were considering relocating to Toronto. We went to a school and had a meeting with the principal of the local school. This principal said to us in no uncertain terms that if we can afford private school, to not send our children to public school in Toronto. Now, could this be a selfish reason on his part? Sure, but I doubt it. He walked us through why. Toronto is huge. What you see with the teenag…

I grew up on the other side of that coin—a small town without enough resources. It wasn’t the worst of them, but when school boards were amalgamated it sparked internal politics as to where funding was allocated. I was a kid, so I wasn’t directly involved, but looking back on it—it was sad. Rural regions basically battling each other to keep textbooks up to date. And even in that state there were kids winning nation-…

Sounds good but it's that kind of thinking that leads to the current situation (I mean this literally) . School is basically glorified babysitting at this point.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#117

Post by ajayh » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

majewsky wrote: post #113

secfirstmd wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also argue that the successful way that Ireland has brought big companies to the country hasn't yet resulted in the spin off of benefits that the presence of such companies has had in other areas.

Has Ireland really brought big companies to the country? Honest question. I'm only aware of big companies having their accounting department there for taxation purposes.

Google, for example, have over 7,000 staff in Ireland. I know of at least 9 buildings in Dublin it owns/rents.

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#118

Post by yowlingcat » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 6:02 PM UTC

bb101 wrote: post #34

"Ferrier sat his Leaving Certificate exams last month at Schull Community College and is due to attend university in the Netherlands. The teenager works as a curator at the Schull Planetarium, has won 12 science fair awards, speaks three languages fluently, plays the trumpet at orchestra level, and had a minor planet named after him by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory." Anyone else feeling somewhat inadequate in comparison…

I don't think inadequacy is the strong emotion I'm feeling. It's probably more relief, or some sense of hope. I wish this sort of youthful experience was more the norm the world over. Outside of the curator and minor planet part (which are very much out of the ordinary for obvious reasons), many of these other characteristics match up pretty closely with high achieving students I saw grow up around me in my own youth. I very much agree with a sibling comment that "This reads like a figurative kick in the face to those who argue against free education and social programmes."

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#119

Post by OisinMoran » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

majewsky wrote: post #113

secfirstmd wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would also argue that the successful way that Ireland has brought big companies to the country hasn't yet resulted in the spin off of benefits that the presence of such companies has had in other areas.

Has Ireland really brought big companies to the country? Honest question. I'm only aware of big companies having their accounting department there for taxation purposes.

Apple set up their first base outside the US in Limerick, which now also boasts the likes of Analog Devices (Limerick was where the current CEO started out), who actually do a lot of design and manufacturing there. Dell also used to have a massive presence, mainly making keyboards and the likes. Also I think something like nine out of the top eleven pharma companies worldwide have manufacturing facilities in Ireland, mainly in Cork I believe.

These are just a few off the top of my head, but the history is really interesting. A good bit of it has to do with Shannon, which actually served as inspiration for Shenzen believe it not!

I've been tempted to write up this history for quite a while because it's not really well known, and even despite being in STEM myself was quite surprised when I found out Analog Devices actually do design and manufacturing here and were making chips for Apple and Waymo!

Re: Irish Teenager Wins Global Science Award for Removing Microplastics from Water

#120

Post by _edo » Sun, Sep 15, 2019, 6:11 PM UTC

jtr1 wrote: post #110

_edo wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what happens to society as a whole when we abandon a person's right to own the products of their labor? What happens when highly productive people decide they have better things to do than go to work and get taxed at 70%? A lot of people like a carbon tax because it will lower carbon emissions, if you tax productivity it has the same effect. A lot of people like clean energy subsidies because it makes clean energ…

> And what happens to society as a whole when we abandon a person's right to own the products of their labor? You don't acquire a $100 million fortune by performing 1000x the labor of a person with $100k, you get it by skimming the fruits of a lot of other people's labor.

No, you add value to their labor and in return get to keep some of it.

Or you can solve some previously unsolved problems which allow you to produce better products for lower costs than your competitors. This is how Carnegie, Rockefeller, Walton, Bernard Kroger, Aaron Montgomery Ward, Richard Warren Sears, etc. all made their fortunes. Even modern tycoons like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, etc.

Can they get too much market power and start stealing from society? Absolutely, that's why we have anti-trust laws. But to see a fortune and assume a theft is to fundamentally misunderstand economics.