HackerNews Summary (2023-06-13 11AM)

Source: Sources Tell me some Messed Up Stuff is Happening in Commercial Real Estate

Summary
The largest property companies in the United States are raising a significant amount of money. With non-recourse loans, they are reportedly planning to walk away from any buildings in which the loans are worth more than they want to pay. Banks will suffer significant losses, and the US government will likely have to bail them out. The property companies will then buy better properties for cheaper and end up financially better off.

Facts

💰 Property companies are raising huge amounts of money to prepare for the mass walking away from buildings they don’t want to pay for.

💸 Non-recourse loans allow property companies to walk away from any building where the loans are worth more than what they want to pay without incurring significant costs.

🏦 Banks will bear significant losses as a result of the property companies’ actions.

💰🏠 Property companies will capitalize on the crisis they caused by buying better properties for less money than before.

---

Source: The Icelandic Art Of Swim Lessons

Summary
In Iceland, the swimming pool is a vital communal space, serving as a social hub that brings together people of all walks of life. Iceland’s swimming culture dates to its Viking settlement. After thousands of Icelanders died at sea, the country went on a national campaign to achieve universal swimming literacy. Today, all school-age children in Iceland must participate in compulsory swimming lessons for a month each year until the age of 14.

Fact

💦 Iceland has roughly 160 swimming pools that serve as critical communal spaces.

🏊‍♂️Swimming pools are a public utility in Iceland, like grocery stores and banks.

🧑‍🏫 All school-age children in Iceland must participate in compulsory swimming lessons.

👶 Babies as young as 4 or 5 months old are inducted into swimming pool culture.

🌊 In 1984, Guðlaugur Friðþórsson survived six hours in fatally cold water after his fishing boat capsized 3 miles offshore.

---

Source: Track HN: analyze the survival rate of 120,396 Show HN stories (June 2023)

Summary
An up-to-date database of all public Hacker News items is maintained through analyzing public datasets and using the HN official api. There are 120,396 valid Show HN stories, with a survival rate of 66.45%.

Fact

📊 There are 4,714,023 stories and 30,363,533 comments from 867,097 users in the dataset.

📈 The first Show HN story was submitted on March 10, 2009, and the last one was submitted on May 31, 2023, at 23:38 UTC.

🗓️ The heatmap of item submissions shows that the highest activity in Hacker News occurs during Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, from 13:00 to 18:00 (UTC).

🔍 The top domains used for submitting Show HN stories are chrome.google.com, itunes.apple.com, medium.com, play.google.com, and youtube.com.

💀 The survival rate of valid Show HN stories is 66.45%.

---