Bell Labs invested in research that would bring payoff 20+ years in the future. That's in part because they were a quasi-monopoly. (Also because there was less pressure back then on execs to focus on short-term stock prices.)
It's also because Bell Labs ran a lot on government contracts and grants. The government CAN look 20+ years in the future. And it does.
You can see the same effect in pharma today. Pharma R&D develops drugs that will hit the clinic in the next 5-10 years at most. The true basic research of identifying targets and understanding cancer/Alzheimer's mechanisms to launch future drugs -- that's all funded by the government.
Today, we’re just talking about a problem. That problem is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently short a commissioner, and the Biden administration and Senate Democrats just can’t seem to get that seat filled despite having nominated an amazingly qualified person. Her name is Gigi Sohn. The inability to get Gigi confirmed at the FCC has left the commission deadlocked with two Democrats and two Republicans. That means the commission in charge of regulating all telecom in the United States, including how you get your internet service, is unable to get much done. And the Biden administration can’t accomplish some of its biggest policy priorities, like expanding rural broadband and restoring net neutrality.
Yes. Abrams presided over the plea on Dec 19. Now Kaplan has the case.
Abrams' husband works at Davis Polk, but Davis Polk (firm w/ ~1000 attorneys) has represented FTX in the past. It's pretty typical for these sorts of conflicts to arise, and in this case it's probably best to remove any sniff of a perceived conflict by Abrams stepping aside. Nothing here is going to be controversial -- though our federal courts are currently going through serious turmoil due to events of last few years, albeit not really SDNY and the 2nd Circuit is mostly normal too.
The maximum total is not the realistic maximum that she would get if tried. Criminal offense category, concurrent sentences, and criminal history all need to be taken into account.
Duopoly. Plus cost of switching away once you sign up.
Network effects and monopolistic (anti-competitive) features allow bad companies to survive today. Monopolistic practices are probably a worse problem today than in the 1920s.
In the 1920s governments used regulation to break up huge firms and defeat advantages due to cost of capital (hard to start a new railroad in the 20s because the cost of trains and tracks was just so high.) Today, cost of capital is relatively less important, and things like switching cost and bundling and people valuing their time and convenience are bigger factors. We need anti-trust/government regulation to address those.
(For example, in the case of password managers, imagine if there were laws requiring publicized security audits and seamless migration to a new service of customer's choice. A competitor to Lastpass might have arrived by now.
the improvements have come in confinement and fuel
if this approach works, you'll see laser innovation over time to improve energy per shot. You'll also see engineering to contain the released neutrons so everything in there doesn't get made radioactive.
Long ran on a 300 baud modem (I think it was one bit per transition!.) Upgraded to a 2400 baud Hayes smartmodem full-duplex (V22bis!) and eventually a 14.4k Zyxel running some strange proprietary protocol with asymmetric channels. If I remember correctly, it's been a long long time.
Did anyone else's sister intentionally pick up other phone lines regularly to ditch the modem transfers so she could talk on the phone?
The context of when and why (and to who) asbestos causes cancer is simply ignored.
Asbestos causes a very, very nasty cancer - mesothelioma - that causes almost certain death. Painful death. With a very bad prognosis. And mesothelioma is caused mainly by asbestos.
There's a reason why we purged asbestos. No one wants to get mesothelioma.
The main risk factor for pleural mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos. In fact, most cases of pleural mesothelioma have been linked to high levels of asbestos exposure, usually in the workplace.
Note that talc is a mineral crystal/fiber a little like asbestos, and talc is connected to ovarian/uterine cancer. Let's not play around with dusty tiny pieces of rock, they seem to be bad for our bodies.
Amid a larger reckoning about the role of journalism in legitimizing anti-democratic ideas, Newsweek had largely stayed out of notice until Eastman’s op-ed. Newsweek claims that it is just asking questions, but its faux innocence is undercut by Hammer’s credentials and the ideological tilt of most of its contributors. Newsweek, the magazine you once read at the dentist, is like a [...] version of the opinion section of The Wall Street Journal.
Modern (semi)fascism is built on lying. What we are seeing is co-option of liberal democracies by a minority of wealthy oligarchs that have to lie to voters in those democracies.
By contrast, parties that embrace rule-of-law democracy lie much less than rightwing/fascist parties. Rule-of-law democracy is based on truthful public speech and an independent press -- to reduce lying.
Yes, exactly. Toyota is refusing to take the L on this because Toyota is the market leader in gas-electric hybrids and Toyota is not the market leader in EVs. This is business strategy 101.
"Toyota Led on Clean Cars. Now It Works to Delay Them."
The auto giant bet on hydrogen power, but as the world moves toward electric the company is fighting climate regulations in an apparent effort to buy time.
This is all very clear business strategy. And we shouldn't let Toyota get in the way of a better world for all of us, in exchange for profit for its investors.
The reason Toyota isn't all-in on EVs is because Toyota is the dominant player in a rival technology: gas-electric hybrids.
This is extremely clear business strategy: Toyota doesn't want to cannibalize its marketshare in hybrids.
Toyota pushed hydrogen fuel cells for years to obstruct EV adoption, just as Elon Musk pushed hyperloop to obstruct high-speed rail adoption. Both hydrogen and hyperloop are fantasy technology: decades away or completely impractical (hyperloop.)
Only after EVs were widely adopted in many countries did Toyota start moving towards EVs. That was a logical business strategy for them.
Toyota isn't all in on EVs because they make lots of money from hybrids. The end.
It's not just the word liberal, which means something different for most Americans than its meaning in other countries. In Australia, the Liberal party is the conservatives who are allied with Murdoch.
The word "neoliberal" is also a problem.
It is used negatively and aimed at a broad swath of center-left to center-right.
But in other countries, the people called "neoliberals" would be understood to be conservatives.
Instead of using "n*liberals", we should be calling them "conservatives". Larry Summers, for example, is a conservative.
"Just finished reading the 5th Circuit’s decision in the NetChoice v. Paxton case and it’s . . . not good. To say the First Amendment analysis is deeply flawed would be an understatement."
"I am old-fashioned, but I would think that inferior courts start with what the Supreme Court has said the text means."
(I did a quick search and found three sources that span the ideological spectrum, which show how widespread the negativity about this decision has been.)
This is a terribly-reasoned decision that doesn't make much legal sense. It's an ideological decision, motivated by the feeling that rightwing voices, which are actually boosted by the rich people that own social media, are instead, against all sense, suppressed.
Bell Labs invested in research that would bring payoff 20+ years in the future. That's in part because they were a quasi-monopoly. (Also because there was less pressure back then on execs to focus on short-term stock prices.)
It's also because Bell Labs ran a lot on government contracts and grants. The government CAN look 20+ years in the future. And it does.
You can see the same effect in pharma today. Pharma R&D develops drugs that will hit the clinic in the next 5-10 years at most. The true basic research of identifying targets and understanding cancer/Alzheimer's mechanisms to launch future drugs -- that's all funded by the government.