skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
> Why would my friends loose all of their hours if their employers don't shut down? My friends are young enough that they would likely recover quickly from the virus if they got it.

There is a chance your friends may lose their jobs in any case given how this is being managed. It'll be interesting to see how people treat each other in the coming weeks when people suspect they've not been social distancing. People are just going to get more entrenched in their politics.

> where does food even come from in this hypathetical [sic] situation?

Where does the food come from that the National Guard are delivering in New Rochelle? [1] A point that isn't well made in many of these threads is that these shutdowns are targeted. The behavior of people in the neighboring areas will also be impacted without being part of the shutdown, and these only need to go on for a limited period.

I am curious how long the National Guard, etc. have remained engaged after other deployments. Do they need reauthorization after a certain timeframe? How does their engagement prevent better alternatives getting engaged? Someone has to have researched that, but I've never seen it brought up in discussions like this one.

[1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katebubacz/inside-new-r...
What if it is a mix of a gift card and a discount card?

For example I pay now $100, and I get 25% discounts later until I the total amount of discount reach $100.

It will not fix the problem of the loose of income, but it would make the low and recovery part softer.
Also in MA and other states. But VERY important to note: "Restaurants will be allowed to provide take-out and delivery services".
Maybe not an ironclad promise, but the announcement does include this line:

"I know there will be significant economic impacts to all our communities and we are looking at steps to help address those challenges."
State governments can't provide that kind of relief without help from the federal government and the federal government has made no such commitment.

Are you expecting states to wait for something that might not come?
To be entirely fair to the statistics presented here, it is suggesting that only 4% of people require hospitalization assuming 60% are in fact asymptomatic but positive tests.
> But, wow. This is beginning to look pretty scary.

> I was homeless for a few years. The quarantine/containment measures are turning into a really big problem for the homeless population.

How so? I assume that soup kitchens and the like will still be open.
Anyone is insane if they don't 100% think that in 5 years, these shutdowns are going to be a weapon used to shut down rallies, protests, and potentially even elections that any current government doesn't feel like permitting.
> [...] the whole world of trading is built on the ability to buy cheap and to sell under the conditions where the price can be (always somewhat artificially) made higher.

Not sure what you mean by 'always somewhat artificially'? Eg retail trading of the kind that Amazon or Walmart do doesn't strike me as particularly artificial: of course, there's going to be a price difference between what the factory gets and what customers pay?

Same for commodities trading. Or even stocks: if Warren Buffett puts in lots of smarts to find undervalued companies and buys them, the rest of the world catching up some time later seems perfectly sensible.

Of course, there might be _some_ instances where the price goes up 'somewhat artificially' perhaps? But I am not sure what that would even mean? My contention here is with the 'always'.
Okay, thanks.

Though I will note that I was called a hypochondriac for years until they decided it was a genetic disorder. I sometimes say "they finally found a better name for my condition than crazy."

Then the internet decided I was crazy. It's like a curse that follows me around.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific airline just increased capacity on some flights from the US:

..this capacity increase is because the airline “understands that many Hong Kong students and citizens in North America are eager to come home as soon as possible in time for the Easter break.”

[...]

This decision comes as Hong Kong has issued a “red” travel alert for the United States, requiring a 14 day quarantine for anyone who has been in the United States for the past 14 days.

Given that this situation is about to get significantly worse in the US, many from Hong Kong clearly feel more comfortable returning there, where the situation is under much better control.

[...]
yes but you can't have a mom and pop jumbo jet manufacturer.
Show HN: Pledge to buy a gift card and support small business
Hi HN!

I looked for ways to help local small businesses that are struggling with reduced foot traffic and now complete closures due to COVID-19.

One of the best things we can do to support a local business is to buy a gift card and provide immediate cashflow. For a lot of people, we know we'll spend the money eventually.

I built a little app to help spread the word.

https://giftcardpledge.com
Yeah, lots of facts missing here. and the facts don't add up. I still think the original itinerary was a round trip - and the total fare being shown is a round trip fare. The author/CTO of the company this "blog" is on has yet to clarify.

If the facts are fudged, this is shameful. Airlines are still terrible companies, but this is shameful.
"Why would there be no net value creation?

People's willingness to pay for the service suggests otherwise?"

No - 'willingness to pay' is not 'value creation'.

The net surpluses to society are the same with a middleman, it's just they've been distributed differently.

Assume:
$1 cost to make good
$5 average consume 'highest price point'

This means, a bottle sold for $2 to a consumer, means a $3 surplus for the consumer.

If there is a middleman who buys for $2 and then sells for $3 to the consumer, the consumer surpluses are reduced. Consumers only get $2 instead of $3 in surplus, because $1 went to the middle man.

The 'economic pie' is not increased by basic arbitrage.

Now, the caveats:

1) In large liquid markets, price clearing and discovery actually ads some financial value. Even providing liquidity has material value. So in some cases, there is some systematic benefit from arbitrage. There is some 'growing of the pie' and 'more surpluses' for everyone at this point.

2) If it's 'more than arbitrage'. If the 'middleman' was doing shipping, buying in bulk and selling in units, special shipping/packaging or anything else, then there's possibly value creation. Even buying ahead of time, sitting on inventory and smoothing out the supply during demand peaks - this is not so much arbitrage/middleman - this is actually wholesaling. Again, they are creating value.

3) The demand curve has shifted quite a lot over the last little while, but I don't think this changes the arbitrage, it's really just arbitrage. It has a 'caveat' in that this middleman guy may very well have not known the real extent of a supply shock.

4) Even when there can be 'value creation' it doesn't mean 'everyone wins' necessarily, for example, the wholesaler could increase the real value of a product by $X but then sell it for exactly that much more, so the 'net economic pie' is increasing, but they were able to 'grab all of the increase' meaning consumers don't win anything.

Most capitalism involves quite a bit of economic surplus for consumers, this is why capitalism works really well and makes almost everyone rich. That you are able to buy a 'dishwasher' for $500, saves you probably $10's of thousands of dollars in labor, i.e. there are massive surpluses to you. Similar for most commodity goods - consumers win big time, even if they don't get direct dollars to put in their bank account as a measure of that value capture.
Andrew Yang Warns Coronavirus Fallout Could Be Worse Than 2008 Financial Crisis
The fed had now pushed one $1.5T stimulus package and lowered rates to zero in an absolutely desperate attempt to prop up a market when the entire country is about to shut down - what are they propping up when no one is going to spend any money?

Don't believe me? China. Iran. Italy. Spain. Austria. Multiple Nordic countries. Nationwide shutdown. Coming to a state near you.

300MM people just panicked at the same time, and the stores have been empty for two days. Imagine what's going to happen when they all discover fractional reserve banking.
The people that elected him probably don't and probably won't think this is a bad outcome.
Yes. I hope Powell (who seems bad at his job) has Bernanke on speed dial. Ben understood helicopter money. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/08221...
You might be assuming wrong.

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeless/comments/fipg6s/covid19_is...

(from: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22580519)
Gov. Baker has done the same today in Massachusetts. A one month ban on on-site service starting Tuesday. Any food establishment will be allowed to do delivery or take out even if they didn't previously have a license for it.

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2020/03/15/charlie-ba...

EDIT: It's until April 5th, so 3 weeks not a month:

https://whdh.com/news/all-mass-restaurants-and-bars-ordered-...
Because of coronavirus we’re doing things differently. How long will that last?
Weren't they afraid he or a copycat would corner potato market the next year, green pepper the next, cotton the next, etc.?
> Colvin apologized for purchasing all of the products Sunday, saying that he did not realize the spread of the coronavirus outbreak or the shortage of sanitary products across the country.

Heh. Isn't that specifically the reason he did it?
I'm shocked the haven't closed the border to the US yet.

Surely the direct flight ban from EU->USA means tons of people are simply flying to Canada then on to the USA.... I'd be interested to see if there has been an uptick in travellers transiting through Canada.
I'd suggest they put a couple of picnic tables out in the parking lot for take-out. Curious about other commercial operations that could satisfy the rule "... all gatherings under 50 participants are prohibited unless previously announced criteria for public health and social distancing are met"? Take-out biergarten? Silent disco?
History teaches that once you give up rights in time of emergency, it is very, very difficult to get them back. Americans are still not back to their pre-9/11 rights to privacy and at this point will likely never will be. Coronavirus will eventually fade away (even if it's a long, bloody road to get to that point), but the loss of rights will persist for generations.
That doesn't answer the parent's question. The requirement to come to the US even for a single hour, either before or during or after the batch, can be a huge hurdle for some founders. That's why the "fully remote" part is interesting. 99.9% remote is very different from 100% remote.
Article about the Texas mask manufacturer mentioned above: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/15/coronavir...

Very interesting read.
Age is not the only factor. A false sense of security affected Italy as much, if not more. Isn’t japan the oldest? How do you explain their relative success???

Autocracy is a bogeyman just like Socialism. Sometimes you have to temporarily rally as humanity for the good of the whole and give up your individual “freedom.”
He should. But he should look at Italy. Today more people died from COVID than from car accidents (more than 300 vs probably less than 300 based on statistics).

US is just 2 weeks from that.
Personal attacks are not allowed on HN. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and please don't post like this here.

Note this one: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."
You have a lot of trust in how health orgs report statistics to the WHO. The WHO cannot fundamentally enforce anything, all activity is fundamentally voluntary.
In the same way that many Americans are living pay check to pay check, I think it's clearer than ever that states are doing the same thing.

People literally don't have enough money if they don't go to work, and states literally don't have enough money to pay people (or businesses) not to go to work.
Shrimp grown from stem cells heading to Singapore's menus soon
I'm sitting at SFO right now waiting to get on UA 1 back to Singapore so I can go home.

My personal, anecdotal, experience defends United but it's not perfect.

Let's dive in -

1. I was originally set to fly on Apr 5 on UA 1.

2. Obviously I wanted to move it up, so I set it for Mar 24.

3. In the process, I had a premium economy seat bundle that would not automatically transfer.

4. I called, 1 hour on hold. Moved days & seats no new charge. The price of the new flight was cheaper by US$10, I did not see any money back.

5. Today, Mar 15, I decided to go home on tonight's UA 1 flight.

6. Called, 1.5 hours on hold, moved my date and my premium economy seat.

7. I realized I had a bundled extra bag with my old seat. Normally not refundable she said, but she would try. She tried, she got the extra bag refunded no problem, saved me $67.

That whole list boils down to - I lost $10 in price difference but gained $67 back in a refund that I would not normally get.

Overall I'm very happy.

Everyone flying, stay safe and healthy!
I'm sorry Mr. Trump we'll make the website since your organization is "busy".
Which is reporting on the initial article which again just states that Germany said the US was trying to invest in the company, not that they were looking for an exclusive arrangement. Show me where Germany confirmed that the US was looking for an exclusive arrangement, we have multiple people saying this was not the case.
Aside, but I want to call out Miami Dade Public Schools for being the only public school system I'm aware of that has had a contingency plan in place for years:

On rare occasions it may be necessary to close a school(s) due to weather or other emergency situations. If this occurs, the district will make every effort to ensure that our students' educational opportunities continue while at home. Throughout the years, the district has compiled a comprehensive collection of online content and digital resources. The district also provides mobile devices for students to check out for home use to ensure that district students (non charter) can continue their learning without interruption.

...

The Instructional Continuity Plan (ICP) has three components: Content Delivery, Mobile Devices, and Internet Access. Content Delivery explains which resources students will use for core instruction and which materials can be used as supplemental resources to enhance core instruction. Mobile Devices provides the steps the district is taking to ensure that any student who needs a mobile device to access the instructional resources will be provided with one, upon request, for the duration of the schools' closure. ... Internet Access poses the greatest challenge to ensuring that M-DCPS students can continue their studies while at home. The district has taken steps throughout the years to assist students in getting access to the internet at home through projects such as The 1Million Project; however, partnerships with service providers is crucial to providing free or reduced-cost internet service to students should the district close in case of emergency situations.

http://icp.dadeschools.net/#!/fullWidth/2943

Also:

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is continuing its efforts to provide support to students and their families during school closures, which begin tomorrow, March 16. From distance learning, to community feedings, to facilitating childcare for essential medical personnel, M-DCPS stands firm in its commitment to support the South Florida community during this time of uncertainty.

A support hotline was established for teachers, students, and parents seeking assistance with distance learning.

During school closures, students and families may pick up hot meals to go, both breakfast and lunch, between 9:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

A Mental Health Services hotline will be available for students.

An Employee Assistance Program hotline will also be available.

http://covid19.dadeschools.net/#!/fullWidth/3024

In contrast, I am extremely disappointed in how haphazard things are going in NC. I'm particularly disappointed in the UNC system which appears to have done zero advanced planning.
> At least 10% of cases

That is likely 10% of people showing symptoms.

The study says 50% of people are asymptomatic (mostly 60+ years old from that data) then the total number of people in population needing a bed halves to 5%.

However I found it unclear from paper whether 50% are not showing symptoms because they only just got infected (i.e. would show symptoms 5 days later on average).
In Both SK and DP sick people got the best treatment. Without having access to enough respirators, CFRs would have been way higher there, which is exactly his point.
California Governor has just done the same: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22589365
NYC too
It occurs to me that there is a whole supply chain of these companies for youtubers and podcasters. Firstly, the content creator uses one (or many) of a selection of traditional and web-based tools to produce content not possible three decades ago, then youtube, or a syndication service, gets your content in the right places, there it is discovered by users, the content creator is then rewarded with ad revenue, subscribers through patreon, or through sales of merch through yet another platform.

Even as someone who mostly consumes this kind of content rather than creating it, I feel I benefit massively from this complex of buisnesses and tools. The web is a vibrant and encouraging place so long as you look past some of its worst festering piles of madness.
> Why is one type of price gouging accepted as capitalism and another type not?

'Price gouging' is not an accepted part of capitalism. Those laws (and customs..) that call out some prices as 'gouging' are bad economics and not 'proper capitalism' either way.

But you are right, that the drug prices are an even more egregious example. And, of course, we get those weird prices because of heavy and incompetent government interference in the drug markets. So we should probably look into scaling back that interference, instead of adding even more.

(And I specifically mention incompetent interference. To give a counter-example, for the most part I am quite happy with the economic policies of my local government. But then, I live in Singapore, where our Prime Minister was the top math graduate of his year in Cambridge, writes C++ sudoku solvers for fun and is looking forward to learning Haskell when he retires.)
Yes, Trump is literally turning a blind eye to a plague for which most of the casualties will be his voters.

Highly ironic, but not really, because they're getting the government they voted for.
The fact that you don't know the difference between viruses and bacteria is apalling. Stop reading about coding, because you are ignorant.
Would fit in anticounterfeiting laws so, probably illegal, specially if the pieces aren't clearly marked as different from the original brand, and much more specially if they are designed for replacing the originals in public health purposes.
Coronavirus Calculator: will coronavirus kill me?
This is acknowledged in the announcement.

"These are very difficult decisions, but hours count here and very strong measures are necessary to slow the spread of the disease. I know there will be significant economic impacts to all our communities and we are looking at steps to help address those challenges."
I do not think that in 5 years these shutdowns are going to be a weapon to shut down rallies and protests, and I think that you are tremendously ignorant of how creeping tyranny actually works in real life instead of comic books.
Also, the lack of sporting events jobs are going to push many people back into homelessness, as they’re used as a transitional stage out of it.
That's really interesting! I've heard great things about Canlis but never had a special enough occasion to go, and I moved away from Seattle last year. I would have loved to try their meal delivery.
Hardly true. Some things are necessary (resulting in grave consequences for non-purchase) and may not have other suppliers or may be cartelled.
I only see facts.
Also,

“In 1955, Onion Futures accounted for 20% of trades in the futures market. In the fall of 1955, Siegel and Kosuga bought enough onions and onion futures so that they controlled 98 percent of the available onions in Chicago.[4] Millions of pounds (thousands of tonnes) of onions were shipped to Chicago to cover their purchases. By late 1955, they had stored 30,000,000 pounds (14,000 t) of onions in Chicago.[5] They soon changed course and convinced onion growers to begin purchasing their inventory by threatening to flood the market with onions if they did not.”

~Onion Futures Act on Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Futures_Act
The Mayor of Austin and other City officials were still encouraging people to go out to clubs and restaurants after they canceled SXSW.

Stupid has no party.
There is an enormous non-OEM (“aftermarket”) parts market for automobiles. It’s a little over $300 billion (with a B) per year in parts and service. Elon can pound sand if someone wants to make a Tesla-compatible aftermarket fender or brake pads.
The roided up monster antagonises, waiting for the slightest excuse to explode in violence.

A slightly sneakier version of the same monster would antagonise more non-physically and perpetually.

There's slippery slopes and giving inches; there are deleterious attractors all human interaction ecosystems can fall into through a tragedy of the commons (see meditations on moloch by slatestarcodex). How do you prevent this, or even start to stand against it? Schelling points.

The guy shouting on the corner is reliable. He's obvious and slightly unpleasant. But he's a lesser evil than the creeping decay that girdles you and smothers you while whispering honey into your ear.
> State governments can't provide that kind of relief

Maybe not all states, but some states can afford it better than others.
You really shouldn't wear the same pair of leather shoes two days in a row. Keep several pairs in rotation and let each dry out properly. They'll last much longer, whether they're Allen Edmonds or any other brand.

This is one reason why minimalism taken to extremes is counterproductive.
Some countries have been successful in getting the virus under control.

Quick, decisive quarantine followed by heavy testing to carefully track and manage the virus has enabled badly effected regions to mostly get back to normal.

The worst places to be right now are the areas with insufficient testing and no broad quarantine.
Boy, intelligent enough to recognize the economic consequences of this quarantine, and the consequences if we don't quarantine?

Sounds like you need to register a vote for one Mr Bernard Sanders. It's not too late.
Do Americans really like long queues and black markets?

That's what you get from these kinds of laws.

There was a striking example during the 1970s oil shock:

The US had price caps on petrol. Which nominally kept the stuff cheap, but that was an illusion, since you couldn't buy it at that price: you had to add the extra hassle of queuing and rationing and even risking the occasional outbreaks of violence.

Meanwhile, Canada had no price caps on petrol. And while the nominal price for petrol was higher, you could actually buy at that price. As much as you wanted.
Depends on what you want from life, but I think that at the end of the day you want people to achieve some sort of "well being". Shocks can be alleviated by centralized action, after which we should quickly return to market pricing. The trouble is usually with the "return" part of the idea - just look at the endless QE that kept distorting the price of risk.
NYC to put new restrictions on bars, restaurants and entertainment venues