281–290 of 553 posts
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People often refer to the Scandinavian countries or Japan as examples of low ethnic diversity and high trust. Are there any quantitative studies on this topic? It would be a stronger argument if a clear trend was observable over many countries.
What’s the argument supposed to be? Homogeneity in service of peace? I’d rather live in a diverse hellhole than some whitewashed “utopia”.
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Exactly this. As late as the 2001 I could cross into the US from Canada with as little as my birth certificate, which I often did. That was just a cotton blended paper with tattered edges with some writing, and the crest of my province printed on it. There wasn’t even a photo on it! It was closer to writing, ‘I’m daniel plz let me in’ on a napkin, than it is to my passport of today with its photo, barcode, and RFID c…
As little as a birth certificate? You can still cross EU borders with just a driving licence, or government issued ID where they have them. (In practice the vast majority using planes and boats at least probably do take a passport, I always did from the UK, but in theory you don't need one, so if you weren't planning to go elsewhere you wouldn't even need to get a passport.)
Within Schengen you can get away with just a drivers license since there are no checks, but that doesn’t make it allowed.
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"Better camera tech in recent years means nobody gets away with that anymore." Because police rely on technology committing a crime without your cellphone means you most likely will not get caught. We live in an age where wearing masks is acceptable. Where people let you steal from stores and where crime is ignored unless it's on twitter. You can get away with so much more today.
I don't know about how ubiquitous cameras are in NYC, but in China you will absolutely get caught by cameras, and no, a mask will not help you.
This 'time machine' feature of ubiquitous surveillance is going to be a brave new world.
> I'd already transferred the maximum yearly tax free gift of $10,000 to each of my kids. If I'm not mistaken, one tip I've heard is that one can transfer more than that in gifts yearly, and although that requires filing a gift tax return with the IRS, it doesn't mean necessarily mean paying any tax. There's a lifetime maximum that has to be hit, and it's extremely high. (I'm not a lawyer nor an accountant, and this…
The nuance is that if you gift below the yearly reporting amount, it does not count towards the lifetime maximum, since it never has to be reported. So if Woz had given $10,001, then he would have had to file it, and then when he died, it would have added $10,001 towards his total lifetime gift tax exclusion from his estate (currently $13M). But if he gave $10k (or whatever yearly reporting maximum) per year until he…
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When an entire population is far more homogeneous than most modern Western states, the heightened social trust and cohesion permits this kind of harmless fun (among many other benefits). It's one of those sacrifices made to accommodate diversity which is almost impossible to quantify and existentially unsettling to even try.
Maybe this struck a nerve because I'm an American born-and-raised PoC, but frankly I believe this is a bad opinion that is often pushed by racists (even if the idea itself isn't necessarily inherently racist). Heightened social trust in people of one's own ethnicity isn't a fact of life, it's just racism. It's what causes PoC to be profiled by law enforcement, on average have worse outcomes for the same crimes in the…
It is a fact of life, it's natural and there's a clear evolutionary impetus for it. I would argue that this is how we are wired.
Of course we feel more comfortable among our own. You are far more at ease if you walk into a room to be surrounded by people just like you, rather than strangers from the other side of the world with their alien appearances, behaviours, and even smells! Who knows how the reptilian subconscious analyses this information - are we at war? conquered? lost? isolated? kidnapped?
In a more modern sense, we can more readily let out guard down among our own, knowing we share a common history, culture, humour, etc, while we must precariously navigate the invisible minefield of sensitivities in a more diverse group.
I don't get the humor. Oh, look, that was so funny putting myself into a situation that most people would be scared shitless to be in and might not have ended well for them! Let's just waste everyone's time so they can humor me on a joke! I am such an edgy rich white guy! A real hacker! What an absolute tool.
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What do you mean by "dishonerable" here? Is this an instance of how Americans love the military so much that it's difficult to understand for people from other countries (where being a military isn't different from being a shop owner, or carpenter or doctor or whatever)?
No matter what country you’re in, the military is in a position of authority (except maybe Costa Rica). Generally people consider a lie to be worse if it’s a lie you can use to get power.
Definitely taboo enough to get you chewed out, and almost enough to risk a physical altercation.
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Nothing says "challenging the status quo" like a multi-millionaire messing with normal people who are just trying to do their job... I'm sure I when I first read this story, I thought it was hilarious. But since then, I've gained at least little bit of empathy. Think of this story from the perspective of the other people. Woz is being a total piece of shit, wasting their time being intentionally as suspicious as poss…
The reason why it used to be celebrated on HN, and why GP laments the change is that Woz hacked security. This is a great example of social engineering and it's in the vein of the old 80's hacker mentality. Besides for the fun story, it is a security breach that all these security personnel failed to pick up on. I agree with the GP that this kind of thing should be celebrated on HN and we should encourage the next ge…
Now, Woz was obviously an amazing hacker back in the day and has a reputation of being a good person. So one would imagine there are stories that show him being really clever that are, you know, actually clever rather than just showing off an information asymmetry about trivia (re: these sheets of $2 bills). Where the punchline is something wholesome, rather than him humiliating strangers who have done literally nothing wrong.
> I'd already transferred the maximum yearly tax free gift of $10,000 to each of my kids. If I'm not mistaken, one tip I've heard is that one can transfer more than that in gifts yearly, and although that requires filing a gift tax return with the IRS, it doesn't mean necessarily mean paying any tax. There's a lifetime maximum that has to be hit, and it's extremely high. (I'm not a lawyer nor an accountant, and this…