The diet that really works - <AUTHOR> http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/diet_and_fitness/article4523487.ece <comment><USER2> Blah blah blah blah blah. The entire article is just blah blah blah. The guy needs an editor to cut it to 10% of it's size. Is he paid by the word or something? He sure knows the art of saying nothing using many words.

Heck I can summarize it in 2 words:

Modified atkins.

<comment><USER3> It's easy to criticize 'blah blah blah'. But the style of the article is personal testimonial plus character study. It's going to include discursive storytelling, and it's not trying to boil down a diet/lifestyle/person to the fewest possible words. The cheapest form of criticism is to skewer a work for not meeting some ideal it wasn't even aiming for.

DeVany is a very interesting and credible guy with a different spin on eating and training than you'll usually find.

Check out especially his warnings about marathon/endurance running [1] compared to the typical media celebration of marathon running as some ideal of fitness [2].

[1] "Top Ten Reasons Not To Run Marathons", <http://www.arthurdevany.com/2005/08/top_ten_reasons.html>

[2] "The Perfect Human", <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/ultraman.html>

<comment><USER4> I've got to give the guy respect for giving references with his arguments but I don't think his sources are sufficient to suggest that marathon running is bad for you.

It's a shame he loses much of that respect as we near reason #1 and they get increasingly 'silly'.

Let's take #2: "At least four particiants of the Boston Marathon have died of brain cancer in the past 10 years. Purely anecdotal, but consistent with the elevated S100beta counts and TKN-alpha measures. Perhaps also connected to the microthrombi of the endothelium found in marathoners."

I'm researching this with google but, "In the United States, the annual incidence of brain cancer generally is 15-20 cases per 100,000 people." <http://www.oncologychannel.com/braincancer/index.shtml> "In 2007 more than 20000 runners completed the race." <http://www.bostonmarathon.org/>

I can't quickly find numbers for the preceding years, nor how many each year had run it previously, so lets assume the numbers increased linearly over the preceding 10 years to give a total number of runners as 100,000. That, rather conveniently, suggests 15 - 20 incidents of brain cancer should result. Shock result - marathon running prevents brain cancer!

#1 is the first runner of the marathon, Phidippides, died. Hopefully I don't need to explain why this one is silly.

Some of his other points would be worth further study but I can't find a single point without weaknesses.

<comment><USER5> The obvious problem wiht your retort is, of course, you're assuming that every year, the runners in the BM are new to the race. This isn't true.

I'm not saying his reasoning is sound, but your rebuttle isn't either.

<comment><USER4> As I poorly stated in my initial comment I am aware of this problem. My hope was that by assuming virtually nobody ran the race 10 years ago, which I assume/hope is totally inaccurate, the two errors would cancel each other out.

It's a 'back-of-a-napkin' calculation. Certainly not accurate but a nice place to start for future refactoring.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I thought low-carb was already the fad of the past.

From "The China Study" about high-protein diets:

"And yet these books are immensely popular. Why? Because people DO lose weight, at least in the short term.[...](about a study) The first sign that all is not rosy is that these obese subjects were severely restricting their calorie intake during the study (35% fewer calories). [...](list some problems) Additionally, they found that the dieters had a stunning 53% increase in the amount of calcium they excreted in their urine, which may spell disaster for their bone health. The weight loss, some of which is simply initial fluid loss, might come with a very high price. [...](from an Australion study:) 'Complications such as heart arrhythmias, cardiac contractile function impairment, sudden death, osteoporosis, kidney damage, increased cancer risk, impairment of physical activity and lipid abnormalities can all be linked to long-term restriction of carbohydrates in the diet.'".

</comment><comment><USER7> _Arthur asked himself what was going on here – and, basically, decided almost everything we thought we knew about diet and metabolism was wrong._

Yeah, that sounds likely.

</sarcasm>

</comment><comment><USER8> I was really surprised to learn that the horny old caveman was the same guy that wrote one of the most interesting papers I came across in media economics:

De Vany, Arthur & Walls, W. David, 1996. "Bose-Einstein Dynamics and Adaptive Contracting in the Motion Picture Industry," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(439), pages 1493-1514, November.

</comment><comment><USER9> I hereby nominate timesonline.co.uk for temporary suspension from Hacker News.

Too many articles submitted recently that were poorly researched and written.

<comment><USER10> Agreed. A terrible daily, bereft of insight or intellect in keeping with Murdoch's other rags.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." -- Michael Pollan

<comment><USER12> \+ exercise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I gave up on this article before I got to the 'meat' as it was too waffley ... anyway, to lose weight my best advice is to:

* avoid fizzy drink as much as possible * avoid crisps (do americans call them chips?) * go easy on fried and fast food (no need to cut them out completely) * Try to cut down on alcohol, but I don't really follow my own advice here!

Then

* walk or cycle as much as possible * take the stairs instead of the lift for 5 floors or less * and exercise 4 or 5 times a week doing whatever you find fun.

Maybe I am just lucky, but I never seem to put on any weight, and I do eat fast food and drink plenty of beer, but I do exercise a lot and cycle to work each day.

</comment><comment><USER12> This guy should have just read In Defense of Food. Not much that he says here hasn't been known for quite some time. And it's very interesting to learn exact where our diet went wrong.

</comment><comment><USER14> "Eat less, move more." - Mad TV

</comment><comment><USER15> Diet doesn't really matter, I have a horrible diet I eat anything I want, I don't deny myself anything(junk food, fast food) but I'm in good shape because I work out an hour every day and burn off the calories I gain during the day.

<comment><USER7> Wait until you hit your mid-thirties and let's talk again.

<comment><USER15> As long as your calories out => calories in, it shouldn't matter. Should it?

<comment><USER16> Yes. Food isn't only calories. If it was, we'd be able to live off of nothing but sugar water.

Food brings in not only calories, but various other nutrients that your body needs to keep itself in good condition. It can also bring in things that the body works hard to get rid of, and still do damage while they're being removed.

<comment><USER17> there are people that do live off sugar water! People in hospitals, people doing the master cleanse.

You really only need calories. It's a terrible life, and no fun, but you could live off sugar water + a multi-vitamin.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Here is the ultimate diet "Slow down on the food you like the most" ... you may add to this diet the (always right) corollary "never stop your diet"

<comment><USER7> Hardly. "Slow down on the unhealthiest foods," perhaps. I love fruit. Should I slow down on fruit?

<comment><USER6> I've actually read one book about "sugar addiction" where one candidate allegedly got their sugar fix from eating lots of fruit. Not sure how credible the book is, though, but I thought it was interesting.

It did not say that fruits in general are bad.

<comment><USER19> Fruits aren't bad. Yes, fruits have sugar, but many fruits have a decent amount of fiber, as well. Fiber helps slow down sugar absorption. It's not that shouldn't have any sugar in their diet, ever. Natural sugars, eaten at the right time, in the right combination are better than processed garbage which will spike your blood sugars instantly. A good rule of thumb is whenever you're having anything that has fruit in it, it's a good idea to have protein right along with it. Even if it's just a few almonds or walnuts alongside that piece of fruit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Call me skeptical, but I doubt a 71 year old is capable of driving a golf ball 340 yards without some serious help from the wind.

</comment><comment><USER21> why is food always the culprit? what ever happened to just increasing the amount of exercise you do? Michael Phelps seems to be doing ok on 10,000+ calories a day

This also bothers me: "But what's different about Arthur is, first, he is not selling anything, except for subscriptions to his website."

<comment><USER22> Because, unless you are very genetically gifted and/or using steroids, there are surprisingly low limits on the amount of exercise you can do and still see gains. After 45 minutes or so cortisol (stress hormone) levels rise and a process called gluconeogenesis sets in - your body begins burning muscle tissue for energy. The net effect of this is to lower your resting metabolic rate, which is what burns most of most people's calories. Which means you can cut back on the calories you consume, train like a madman _and still get fatter_.

3-4 sessions of 45 minutes per week, at a decent level of intensity, is about right for most people.

<comment><USER23> _you can cut back on the calories you consume, train like a madman and still get fatter._

Could you post a link or reference for one example of someone who cut calories and "trained like a madman" and still got fatter?

There's a lot of debate about hormones, metabolism, calorie quality and optimum exercise. However it has still proven difficult to break basic laws of physics.

<comment><USER22> There's no breaking of the laws of physics involved here. Firstly you are still losing mass in this scenerio - but it is muscle tissue, not fat. Secondly, lower resting metabolic rate manifests itself in forms such as lower body temperature, or general lethargy, so you are burning fewer calories just for maintenance. Your body is a survival machine. If it thinks you are under threat of starvation, it will prioritize fat storage and energy conservation. It will even cut back on your immune system to do so if it thinks starvation is the most immediate threat.

Google for "overtraining" or read the articles on t-nation.com or musclebulletin.com.

<comment><USER23> I read the first article listed on t-nation.com and it starts up with this poignant observation about olympic swimmers:

 _"I'm sorry but these dudes look like AIDS patients. Would it kill you to at least get a tan and not remind the world of the Holocaust? And could you butch up the sport a little bit? Because deep down I know the male divers I just saw are in shower right now, naked, loofahing each other's taut athletic bodies... ."_

With a bit of literary magic, over the course of 2 pages, we go from the Olympics to colorful commentary about Japan:

 _"You gotta wonder about the Japanese some times. These are the guys who invented vending machines that distribute soiled panties that you can take home and either use as Dennis Hopper ether masks or make soup with them. And they're the ones who invented underwear that you can wear six days straight by rotating them 120 degrees each day for three days and then turning them inside out and then repeating the underwear carousel thing for another three days. And then there's the bukkake thing, which is kinda disturbing even for a preternaturally open-minded guy like me."_

So... I guess thanks for the exercise tips and the obviously credible reference but I think I'll stick with training like a madman and not eating as much.

<comment><USER24> Whenever I read t-nation, I'm struck by how self-conscious some of them are about being big. I see little regard for the fact that some sports don't require athletes to have enormous amounts of muscle mass.

<comment><USER22> It's the same on any site tho'. If you read crossfit.com you'd be struck by how smug they are about being smarter than everyone else about training.

<comment><USER24> And, say, at technology sites about their methods. (Irony intended.)

I have seen the elitism at Crossfit, but I read the t-nation forums for a few months. They were much more negative than, say, Crossfit.

<comment><USER22> I rarely look at the forums actually. There is some great content on t-nation once you know what to look for. Their Physique Clinic stuff is brilliant, for example.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> OMFG - diets!!?? on HN?? good grief.

</comment><comment><USER26> Much better:

<http://www.tbkfitness.org/>

</comment><comment><USER27> We need down-voting of articles

</comment><comment><USER28> This is why we should have topic limitations. Yeah, people will post stuff like this anyway, and I don't think we should punish them.

But we also shouldn't make it officially legitimate which will encourage a higher volume of such posts.

Edit: Umm, you guys like wordy articles about fad diets with bad signal/noise ratio?

</comment><comment><USER29> Someone rediscovered the paleodiet.

</comment><comment><USER30> this is a classic Atkins diet, and it will work, but it's a diet you need to stay on for the rest of your life if you want to remain lean. I'm currently addicted to carbs at the moment, and would have a real difficult time giving up beer.</comment>


My little online color tool. Hope this is helpful. - <AUTHOR> http://www.colorspire.com/color-schemes/creator/web-layout-1/A13034/A13034-431416-4A2A2B-FFC1C4-431416/

<comment><USER2> I think it would be nice to have some sample text in the Test Pattern layout that you could change the color of.

Otherwise, nifty tool.

</comment><comment><USER3> Can't see the flash preview thingy on the lower right. Can see the other ones. I've seen this before with flash in Firefox. Might be an interaction with the AdBlock extension, which can be uninstalled over my dead body. ;-)

When this happens on other sites, I just scroll down until the top of the flash item reaches the top of the browser, and then it displays. Can't use this workaround on your site, because there isn't any more content to scroll down to after that.

BTW I don't mean to complain! Nice looking site. I'm just assuming you were hoping for feedback, so there it is.

<comment><AUTHOR> Update: I did not encounter this problem after installing adblock. maybe some other reason...

I have not installed firefox adblock extension. I will install it later and see if I encounter this problem. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I like this - I agree w/bmaier that the visualization is great. Often what looks light at 20px square looks very dark on a full page.

One suggestion - right now I need to click around a lot to make changes. To change the bg, I click on the #1 box then head over to the slider, then to change the header, click on the #2 box and again head over to the slider... can you get that slider control to appear right on the page layout. That way I can go the section I want, see the slider, move it and then keep going...

</comment><comment><USER5> very cool.. you consider adding features to let me download a stylesheet and maybe some preconfigured "skins"/"themes" instead of hacing to reconfigure 5 colors, just select one skin and have it being configured to set all 5 colors.

<comment><AUTHOR> Your suggestion has been added to my feature requests list:) And thanks for your kind words.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think the best part about this is the fact that it lets you see the apparent color when displayed on the page not just the color by itself.

</comment><comment><USER7> neat. Actually, I was fooling around with color layouts today. Just in case you haven't heard of it, I ran across Munsell color pickers, which lays out colors according to how people perceive color.

<http://www.triplecode.com/munsell/>

Maybe you can add munsell later too.

What I recognized as an itch is that color pictures and theme generators would actually be better as a FF plugin, so you can adjust entire color palettes and see it take effect right on the page you're working on.

<comment><AUTHOR> wow, it's cool. thanks for your link.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A "reset" button would be a good idea, for when you click the "<<" link too many times.

<comment><AUTHOR> nice idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Very nice. Suggestion: clicking an area in the Test Pattern should change the selection to that in the Color Palette. Or at least identify the Test Pattern swatches as corresponding to one of the numbers 1-5 in the Color Palette.

</comment><comment><USER7> And oh, being able to change web layouts in your sample would be nice.

It doesn't work on FF3, fyi.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's strange I have no problem here with FF3 beta 4.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, no problem here either. And I have FlashBlock installed.

<comment><USER7> then it's just me. It's probably an old version of flash on ff3 for ubuntu.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That's a pretty nice useful tool. I'll use it next time i need to design.

</comment><comment><USER12> Nice. I found it a little easier by starting on the Home page.</comment>


Fog Creek Jumps Price of Trello Business Class from $200 to $500 per year - <AUTHOR> https://trello.com/business-class?price-increase

<comment><AUTHOR> I was browsing the page to see if they had added the features from Trello "Gold" to the business class when I noticed the price jumped from $200 per year to $500. I could not find any reference to the price increase anywhere. Perhaps it is just a typo... I hope so because Trello "Business Class" is not worth $500 to my company now or in the near future.</comment>


Bamboo Train: How Cambodians hacked together rural transit - <AUTHOR> http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Catching-the-Bamboo-Train.html

<comment><USER2> I was lucky enough to catch a ride on one of these trains in 2008 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeJjcAm_JfU>

<comment><USER3> Haha great video. I've actually been there 3 weeks ago! It hasn't changed a bit.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to name Startup and choose domain name? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I'm no good at picking names. I'm better at "code names", where I basically just find a pop culture reference that makes me laugh, like for an RSS feed reader, I might name it "Seymour" after the character from Little Shop of Horrors ("Feed me, Seymour!"), just as a contrived example.

But my one piece of advice is to make sure your startup name and domain name pass what I call the Bar Test. If your name passes the Bar Test, it'll probably be memorable enough to turn into some conversions.

The test is simple: imagine you're in a loud bar or a concert, and someone asks the name of your company. You yell the name at them, and they scream back "COOL! I'LL CHECK IT OUT ON MY PHONE"

Can they spell it correctly without you having to yell out the letters one-by one?

If your company name is "Onederful" (YC startup), then you'll yell "WONDERFUL" and they'll try and spell it that way -- and be wrong. The obvious tell that your name fails the bar test is if you find yourself constantly spelling it for people: "I work at Wonderful -- O-N-E-D-E-R-F-U-L".

Examples of names that pass the bar test: ZipRecruiter, Zoom, Twitch, Apple, Stripe, Square, Airship, Atrium,

Names that definitely do not pass the bar test: Shypt, Scalyr, Gamelynx, Roofr, Scribd, Symple, Tipe,

To be fair, there are some very popular startups/apps that fail the Bar Test, such as Flickr, but IMO they are the exception rather than the rule.

Good luck. :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Use a portmanteau generator for inspiration. Think about what words represent your company holistically. Think about content you're providing. Consider your audience. When you think of something don't tell anyone until it's registered.</comment>


Flexport (YC W14) and the freight-forwarding business - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/06/07/flexport/ <comment><USER2> It's an interesting business.

I'm impressed that

>DHL "bought three of the biggest freight forwarders for $15 billion, then spent $960 million with IBM for an IT backbone, and that failed. They wrote it off completely."

You'd think IBM could do such stuff.

See also Office Hours at Startup School 2013 with Paul Graham and Sam Altman [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syoqjYLDs48&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syoqjYLDs48&feature=youtu.be&t=19m30s)

<comment><USER3> Someone should finally break the rule and fire the guy who hired IBM.

<comment><USER4> The CEO resigned... as close as you're going to come:

[http://theloadstar.co.uk/dhl-forwarding-chief-roger-crook- qu...](http://theloadstar.co.uk/dhl-forwarding-chief-roger-crook-quits-as- pressure-grows-from-thorny-it-project/)

<comment><USER3> That's uplifting news.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Vexed Meaning of Equality in Gilded Age America - <AUTHOR> https://www.thenation.com/article/charles-postel-gilded-age-equality/ <comment><USER2> Jack Balkin has a fantastic (!) lecture on the Second Gilded Age in America. Highly worth viewing.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4daIk8PCPIc&feature=youtu.be](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4daIk8PCPIc&feature=youtu.be)

<comment><USER3> the main speaker takes the stage several minutes into the clip:

[https://youtu.be/4daIk8PCPIc?t=850](https://youtu.be/4daIk8PCPIc?t=850)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would propose The most fundamental issue US needs to solve for inequality in the US is....whether US can continue to allow corporations to reap the benefits of a strong democracy coupled with the most vibrant economy, while at the same time, bankrupt the communities by continuing to ship jobs overseas and avoid paying any sort of taxes back to the communities where they make a profit.

There are only two parties in the US right now. And one is for globalization. And the other is for stronger US labor unions, as mentioned in the article.

<comment><USER5> Neither party is for stronger US labor unions. Both parties are pro-globalism and pro-free trade.

It was under a democratic president that China attained Most Favored Trading Nation status. It was Clinton, in the 90s, who did most of the legwork to get China into the WTO - though they officially entered under Bush's term in 2001.

<comment><USER6> > Neither party is for stronger US labor unions.

 _The Democratic Party believes that when workers are strong, America is strong. Democrats will make it easier for workers, public and private, to exercise their right to organize and join unions. We will fight to pass laws that direct the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union if a simple majority of eligible workers sign valid authorization cards, as well as laws that bring companies to the negotiating table. We support binding arbitration to help workers who have voted to join a union reach a first contract._

[https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/raise- in...](https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/raise-incomes-and- restore-economic-security-for-the-middle-classas)

> It was under a democratic president [...]. It was Clinton, in the 90s, > [...].

Yeah, it _was_ both those things. But _was_ is about the past, not the present. The Democratic Party— and the Republican Party, too—has shifted since then (and particularly since the Great Recession). The Democrats have seen the pro-labor progressive faction that had been marginalized since Clinton (and somewhat even earlier) by the neoliberal faction resurgent, while the Republicans have xenophobic mercantilist protectionists come to the forefront. The neoliberal consensus that peaked around the 1990s is well and truly dead; it may have supporters in bot parties, but they aren't dominant in either. No one is campaigning on free trade any more, and candidates are more likely to be disavowing their past support for free trade deals than endorsing current efforts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a review of the book "Equality: An American Dilemma, 1866–1896" by Charles Postel.

The 'Gilded Age' of America mentioned in the submission title is this period of 1886-1896.

The whole review is a bit belaboured, or perhaps bogged down in detail, but tries to show how an analysis of this period can be used to understand the concept of equality today. The book apparently examines a number of different organisations that were founded in this time, such as the Grange, Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Knights of Labor. The claim is that these organisations were, at least in part, founded to try remove inequality but ended up leading to greater inequality.

> _the national orientation of [these groups] led them to embrace a "white > nationalist framework of sectional reconciliation." The struggle against > slavery cast a long shadow over the Gilded Age. The era's radicals often > viewed it as a model for their own activism. Yet because of their desire to > organize nationally and to recruit members regardless of their Civil War > loyalties, these groups played an important role in disseminating a view of > that conflict in which slavery played only a minor part and Reconstruction > was considered a disastrous mistake. This had dire consequences for black > Americans and for an ideal of equality that transcended racial difference._

Their summary probably gets their point across most succinctly:

> _Thanks to Occupy Wall Street, the presidential campaigns of Vermont Senator > Bernie Sanders, the work of the French economist Thomas Piketty, and more > generally the dysfunctionality of contemporary capitalism, equality—or the > widespread lack thereof—again occupies a prominent place in political > debate. Beyond the fate of the individual organizations it covers, Equality > reminds us of a homegrown radical heritage that critics of today's deeply > unequal America can be inspired by and must improve upon. The ideal of > equality remains as radical as it was in Jefferson's day. But equality > limited to some is not equality._

<comment><USER8> I'm perplexed by writers who prioritize the social equality of a minority over economic equality among the majority.

Don't get me wrong - I think both are important, but if we're honest, doesn't the general peace and well-being of society (from which better conditions for the minority tend to spring) depend more on the latter? You can't solve these problems easily in reverse order; the disgruntled majority will get tired of hearing about minority issues while they struggle to put food on the table.

This is a bit of a false dichotomy, but as a continuous balance of focus between the two issues, I think the point stands.

<comment><USER9> > _general peace and well-being of society (from which better conditions for > the minority tend to spring)_

This parenthetical is doing a lot of the work in your argument, and alas, it is not always (or even usually) how things work.

<comment><USER8> It's harder to scapegoat minorities when nobody's all that mad about anything. Conversely, it's easier to be charitable when you have more to give. Finally, there's Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: self and family survival comes before everything else.

If you have counterexamples to this theorizing of mine, I'd love to see them!

<comment><USER9> Well, you could a look at the antebellum south of the US, to start. Don't think much more needs to be said about that...

Or you could look at the contemporary US. We have basically no unemployment, enormous wealth, no war on our land in over a century and a half, we're probably the most prosperous and least attacked people in history, and yet we see quite a lot of majority-minority strife.

You could also look at the article or the book it's talking about, which is also talking about a period where your theorizing didn't hold up.

Maybe let's flip it, do you have examples of peaceful high-well-being societies where people who were different from most people in the society were equivalent participants in that well being?

<comment><USER8> >Well, you could a look at the antebellum south of the US, to start. Don't think much more needs to be said about that...

The abolitionist movement was huge in the North, where economic equality was better [0]. The antebellum South was a great example of a deeply unequal society, where poor whites were easily pitted against blacks. (Still haven't solved this problem)

>Or you could look at the contemporary US. We have basically no unemployment, enormous wealth, no war on our land

Huge wealth inequality. Student debt crisis. Opioid crisis. Healthcare. Good jobs gone, replaced with bad jobs. Labor participation rate hasn't recovered since the Great Recession.

>Maybe let's flip it, do you have examples of peaceful high-well-being societies where people who were different from most people in the society were equivalent participants in that well being?

Sure, though I did only say better, not "equivalent": we can look at Jews who prospered in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth [1][2], or Jews in England during the Victorian Era [3]. As contrasted with Jews in Western Europe during the Dark Ages -- _lots_ of pogroms and expulsions -- or Jews in Weimar Germany, or Jews in Tsarist Russia.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antebellum_South#Wealth_inequa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antebellum_South#Wealth_inequality)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland_before_the_18th_century#Prosperity_in_a_reunited_Poland:_1320–1385)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland#The_Polish- Lithuanian_Commonwealth:_1572–1795)

[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England#Emancipation_and_prosperity,_1800s)

<comment><USER9> I'm ... no longer sure what your point is, but just one reply to note that you can't put responsibility for slaves on plantations onto "poor whites" who "were easily pitted against blacks". They were rich people who enslaved others just because they thought they were superior and could get away with it. No economic solution was going to solve that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN (again): What is the best affordable programmable drone? - <AUTHOR> This question was asked on both 2015 & 2016 in HN. I would like to ask it again today to know what are the newest options for this.
Q: What would you recommend as a reasonably priced (sub 150$) quad-copter/drone, that has a camera, the ability to be programmed (so that I can process video/write my own stability algorithms for it), good range, and reasonable flying time? In the event nothing fits that price point, any pointers on what the state of the art is?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> One option would be a Navio2 [1] flight controller which runs the PX4 or Ardupilot flight stack on a realtime linux kernel on an rpi. You'd then need to put that on an airframe (a F450 or one of it's many clones is a solid choice if you intend to use this thing outdoors).

You'll also need all the ancillaries (receiver, batteries, charger, rc transmitter) although you'll need those anyway if you plan to fly outdoors in a safe manner.

Alternatively, if you want a ready to go solution which is good for indoor and limited outdoor use, the Parrot ARDrone [2] runs linux, has two cameras and has aftermarket firmware available from both Ardupilot and Paparazzi projects.

Be aware that if you intend to use your drone for 'work' or commerce you should check your local air regulator (FAA/CAA/CASA etc) to see whether you require any permissions or qualifications to legally operate.

1: [https://emlid.com/navio/](https://emlid.com/navio/)

2: [https://www.parrot.com/uk/drones/parrot-ardrone-20-gps- editi...](https://www.parrot.com/uk/drones/parrot-ardrone-20-gps- edition#parrot-ar-drone-20-gps-edition)

</comment><comment><USER3> I have the crazyflie nano, comes in at $180. Camera would be extra, but not much more. You can get 1k in range with the antenna upgrade. There are also many other neat upgrades like inductive charging and indoor positioning. Buy spare motors and clips, or a 3d printer. Having some guards while you work on flight algos will be helpful. Try out some RL

[https://www.bitcraze.io/crazyflie-2/](https://www.bitcraze.io/crazyflie-2/)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a good one, the kind i was looking for. However, I couldn't find the camera option. Are you sure the integration is possible? Do you have any links?

<comment><USER4> Best I have found...

[https://forum.bitcraze.io/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=8295](https://forum.bitcraze.io/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=8295)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight and the Intel Aero systems are going to come in at like $500-$1000. If you want to process camera frames, your price target is a bit untenable for now. You might try to use any old flight controller and a pi with a camera, or a cheap wifi drone like the qr-w100s and doing computer vision over wifi (here's a repo we started for this: [https://github.com/SeneCameras/qr-w100s](https://github.com/SeneCameras/qr-w100s))

If you're considering crazyflie, Flybrix is a programmable octocopter at $189. We are developing a camera module with onboard processing for optical flow, to release later this year. we are taking extraordinary pains to get a programmable drone with programmable computer vision at a reasonable price point.

<comment><USER6> Nvidia Jetson TX1/TX2 is available now for right around $400 with 256 CUDA cores 4-8GB of ram and 16-32GB of disk.

<comment><USER7> There are drones available and in planning based around the TX1 (and presumably the TX2). Note that because of the power requirements, the drone size is larger.

<comment><USER8> I would definitely love to get one based on a TX2. It's the only chip that has enough computing power to do real time image processing, run SLAM and a small CNN at the same time.

Would deffo pay 500-1000 for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm not an expert but I have quite a bit of experience in the RC world.

I haven't seen anything that fits those requirements in that price range.

Just getting a PixHawk flight controller so you can program the drone would cost that much. Same for a good radio transmitter to actually fly the drone.

I think DIY is out of the question at that price point.

<comment><USER10> "PixHawk flight controller"

That's a nice controller, but heavy and expensive, 37 grams and $75 according to amazon. My sub-250g build used a Naze32 which weighs about 4 grams without connectors and was $35. I flashed it with cleanflight from github

[https://github.com/cleanflight/cleanflight](https://github.com/cleanflight/cleanflight)

Presumably OP wanting to modify stuff will want FOSS like cleanflight.

This is of course ancient obsolete history because things move fast in multicopter world and that was like 6 months ago. Not even sarcasm. This advice was reasonably contemporary last fall, but this spring I donno.

OP will rapidly get into a scalability problem where I assume OP wants to do something interesting or complicated and aerospace is highly optimized so OP is likely to have much more success driving a flight controller as if it servos using a ras-pi or something, than trying to compile cleanflight to add Alexa to the cleanflight itself or whatever it is OP is trying to do.

Electronics have improved quite a bit. Back in the 80s we'd buy a $200 mosfet motor controller with a half pound heatsink and connect it to a $20 motor in your RC dune buggy (running off old fashioned nicads LOL) but now a days you attach a $11 no-heatsink controller to a $40 brushless motor and call it good. Of course you don't need a cooling fan if you have hundreds of watts of fan blowing on it from half an inch away...

Something to think about ops desire for a $100 multicopter is control electronics and surprisingly chassis and props and serial receivers are cheap, but I dropped $40 on EACH motor, by far the most expensive part of the build. Of course at 220 grams flying weight my build has the vertical acceleration performance of a large model rocket, which can be slightly terrifying when learning to fly, something lower performance but still flyable might be cheaper. I just thought it interesting that most of my build's money is in the motors, like about half of it.

<comment><USER11> Do you have any videos of the acceleration? That sounds awesome.

<comment><USER10> No, but while learning to fly I'd describe it more as terrifying. OK big wind gust or whatever we're getting too low, too low, too low, floor it, ... and a second later we're 50 feet up moving very fast upward and that's the new problem.

Pilot induced oscillation, never fun.

I can hover around 1/3 throttle so that would imply 1 G of thrust so you can guess that flooring it would be 2 G vertical acceleration. So 64 ft/s squared so one second after I floor it I'm going 40 mph straight up.. It feels like throwing a $300 volleyball as hard as you can straight up.

To stay underweight I use small 500 mAH lithium poly batteries which lead to both high acceleration and short flight times, like 3-4 minutes tops. I think I have a 250 somewhere which is really small and light. I could probably physically lift 2000 mAH batteries or larger, but would then be over the FAA 250 gram limit so I'd have to register as a drone pilot, which I'm OK with, other than I haven't done it yet. Great, another government list to find myself on, just what I needed. Once you're on enough lists, one more won't hurt...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> As a DIY drone builder for 5 years, here are my two pennies.

Arduino lets you program it. Apm and multiwii are essentially arduino. Video is a bit tricky, but you can always transmit it back to your laptop and process however you like

<comment><AUTHOR> 5 years??! That's amazing. Do you have a blog about your projects? That would be an interesting read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Previous responses:

2016 [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10872233](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10872233)

2015 [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8989411](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8989411)

<comment><USER14> Tangential, for whoever also wonders this:

10872233 - 8989411 = 1882822

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is somewhat offtopic to the OP's question but I've been wondering about something mildly related for some time.

What sort of price range would I be looking at for a homemade long-range drone (I assume a plane) that could fly fairly high for a while and carry 10kg+ of weight?

I ask this as someone _completely_ ignorant of aviation; I'm not sure what sane values of "fairly high" and "fly for a while" actually are.

For "fairly high" I'd say "can it be high up enough to be hard to see and hear from the ground?" (Binoculars are fine; camera zoom lenses win _everything_ and trying to fight those would be stupid.)

For "fly for a while" I'm curious if I'd be able to fit enough gas (I don't expect batteries to work for this) to run for 20 minutes, or even an hour or maybe more.

I'd be interested in what a cost gradient for 10kg, 20kg, etc would look like.

This is just a "how much would it cost to carry things around" back-of-my-mind question I've been mentally noodling for a while.

I don't honestly need super-specifics; back-of-the-envelope ballpark figures would be great. (I expect Amazon will nail drone delivery in practice; not trying to plan business ideas or anything.)

\--

Also - what's out there that can fly for an hour+, and which is reasonably "positionable", as in something I can get to hover in place for short periods? (ie, a plane needs to fly straight to stay in the sky, so that doesn't work)

<comment><USER6> I completely disagree with the other reply to your post.

Keep in mind you said drone and not quadcopter. You could very easily buy a ready to run flying wing [1] with a 30 minute flight time out of the box for just $90. A flying wing is more more suitable for gas or jet A powered motors as the natural lift of the airframe shape keeps it up in the air and balanced. This design scales up linearly (see the B-2 bomber.)

I've hypothesized that a dirigible filled with helium or hydrogen could potentially stay up for days or weeks if you had a full carbon composite airframe with a well sealed mylar skin. Lift capacity wouldn't be as great but it's still a fun thought exercise.

[1] [https://hobbyking.com/en_us/phantom-fpv-flying-wing-epo- airp...](https://hobbyking.com/en_us/phantom-fpv-flying-wing-epo- airplane-1550mm-v2-kit.html)

<comment> semi-extrinsic Basically all civilian fixed wing aircraft have an order of magnitude less thrust than what they'd need for flying straight up. Wings are an awesome piece of tech!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> It's hard to answer this question without knowing more precise values for "good range", "reasonable flying time", and even "ability to be programmed". At this price point, I think your only option is to buy an off-the-shelf quadcopter and modify it yourself. The $30 Hubsan H107[0] can be reflashed with an open-source firmware[1], although you won't be able to process video from the camera using the onboard MCU.

[0] [https://www.banggood.com/Hubsan-X4-H107C-2_4G-4CH-RC- Quadcop...](https://www.banggood.com/Hubsan-X4-H107C-2_4G-4CH-RC-Quadcopter- With-Camera-Mode-2-RTF-p-75824.html?rmmds=search)

[1] [https://github.com/goebish/bradwii-X4](https://github.com/goebish/bradwii-X4)

</comment><comment><USER16> If you want low-level access to the hardware for reprogramming the stability routines, then any hobby racing drone running the CleanFlight or BetaFlight ([https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight](https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight)) software would be good... They can be built for under $100. However the camera won't be accessible by the flight controller.

If you only need high-level access to a flight API - e.g. sending commands like "take off" and "forward 1m", then take a look at GoBot: [https://gobot.io/documentation/platforms/](https://gobot.io/documentation/platforms/) \- they have a few quadcopters on their supported platforms list.

</comment><comment><USER17> The DJI Mavic Pro runs Linux. Some are working on reversing their firmware.

[https://forums.hak5.org/index.php?/topic/39735-reversing- mav...](https://forums.hak5.org/index.php?/topic/39735-reversing-mavic-pro- firmware/)

</comment><comment><USER18> FWIW, don't know if this is mentioned in earlier threads and I think the price is higher but I think it fits into this thread anyway (Norwegian, so you might want to run it through translation, but has pictures, videos and parts lists):

[https://nrkbeta.no/2011/10/13/slik-bygger-du-ditt-eget- quadk...](https://nrkbeta.no/2011/10/13/slik-bygger-du-ditt-eget-quadkopter- del-1/)

</comment><comment><USER19> I recently came across the following custom Eachine E010S build [0] based on a Beecore F3, which can be programmed with e.g. Betaflight, although the video processing would have to happen on the receiver side...

[0] [https://youtu.be/3ED_jCKlhP8](https://youtu.be/3ED_jCKlhP8)

</comment><comment><USER20> Tangent to the OP's question, any up to date database of the most relevant drones in commerce? I am advising a firm who is developing a testing bench for the diagnosis of drones and some numbers or market parameters would be welcome. Thanks.

</comment><comment><USER21> Ardupilot on MEGA2560 with a Pi/Odroid for any video processing would be fine. You can get away with a 3500mAh battery on a quad w/ 1045 props & 1000KV motors for 15-20mins.

PM me for another great combination/consultation.

<comment><USER22> Ardupilot team has stopped firmware development for APM1/APM2 boards in 2015. I wouldn't advise buying it now with intent to work on stabilization firmware.

<comment><USER21> Yeah but stabilisation doesn't change over time, for the most part it still remains PID based. 8-bit MCUs are so under-utilised & 32-bit processors are simply an overkill & barrier to people getting started.

<comment><USER22> The attitude stabilization- yes, I would agree.

But the development mostly seems to concentrate around higher level, position and navigation controllers and there is a lot of complex floating point math going on there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I know this isn't quite the kind of answer you're looking for, but for those who are willing to put even more work in, $150 should be able to get you reasonably far with hobbiest electronics and a 3D printer (that price is obviously not including the cost of purchasing a printer).

Take for example, this open source chassis [1] that is based on the DJI Mavic (retail $1,000). Plenty of fun for those with the time and desire to take this even further.

[1] [http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2004357](http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2004357)

<comment><USER24> I think you underestimate the price of electronics...

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I doubt you'll succeed with $150... but for programability, range, flying time & decent payload... I'd consider a Quad VTOL aerofoil....

Such as: [http://px4.io/portfolio/deltaquad- vtol/](http://px4.io/portfolio/deltaquad-vtol/)

</comment><comment><USER26> Not sure about reasonably priced UAVs, but the AscTec Hummingbird is high on the state of the art ranking:

[http://www.asctec.de/en/uav-uas-drones-rpas-roav/asctec- humm...](http://www.asctec.de/en/uav-uas-drones-rpas-roav/asctec-hummingbird/)

</comment><comment><USER27> There is nothing for that money but if you want to DIY a programmable UAV, start here:

[http://ardupilot.org/](http://ardupilot.org/)

It's hard to recommend anything without knowing the specifics of what you want to use it for

</comment><comment><USER28> Phantom 3 standard is about 330 bucks. You can use the DJI SDK to program it.

At 150 its going to be quite hard to get all the features you are looking for. Even with DIY route you will need Motors, Controller, Camera, Transmitter etc. Easily 300+ bucks.

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool but where can you get Phantom 3 standard for 330 USD? I'm seeing $499 on their official website.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Pretty much any ARM based flight controller board would be programmable...

</comment><comment><USER30> A bit more expensive than what you are looking for, but I got the DIY (not built) 3D Robotics Y6 for $600 which runs the PX4/Ardupilot stack. I have been able to use it with ROS.

</comment><comment><USER31> About "reasonable flying time" \- are there any options available to use solar panels? Most importantly are solar panels good enough to power the unit?

<comment><USER32> A quick sanity check is that there aren't many solar-powered flying creatures.

A 15W solar panel is about three square feet, and probably weighs several pounds. A 15W quadcoptor is about two square feet and has a takeoff weight of less then three pounds.

You might be able to carry a small solar panel as a backup in case the copter runs out of power in a remote location, but it would have to sit for quite a while before it's ready to fly again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Drone with Apps & Games: [http://adia.tech/](http://adia.tech/)

<comment><USER34> the idea is amazing, but is not available and the website is pretty horrible the subscribe link don't work and seem made by screenshoot..

<comment><USER35> The entire website is just one giant image.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> With all the below, you'll have a solid drone with more power than you are likely to need even in heavy wind. You can program it in a couple ways. One way would be to use the flight controller provided, put it in air mode, and balance the signal with an external arduino/mpu6500 combo that feeds the signal to the normal receiver inputs. Another option is you can just go in to the BetaFlight code and modify it to your liking. A third option, is to remove the flight controller altogether and just use the arduino/mpu6050 combo to feed signal to the esc.

If you are trying to use the camera for some sort of remote processing, you'll need a vtx [7]

The thing no one is saying so far though, is be careful. Playing with your own balancing software on a quadcopter is an easy way to turn it into an unpredictable missile with an exposed blender attached. You will get hurt or someone else will get hurt. Do it inside and tether it down at first, that way the only day you ruin is your own

Here's a part list for you ($108 total):

\- [1] Lisam-LS-210 Frame ($16): cheap, sturdy, lots of room for your stuff

\- [2] Matek Power Distribution Board ($4): easy to run power to everything, plus it gives you 5v and 12v BEC for powering your other stuff like an Arduino

\- [3] Omnibus Flight Controller ($25): runs cleanflight/betaflight open source flight controller software. That way you can choose whether you want to write your software on the controller or on your arduino

\- [4] 4x 2205 2300KV brushless motors ($25): these will let you add a decent amount of stuff to your platform without it bogging down

\- [5] 4x 20 amp esc's ($26): Needed for the brushless motors. They run BLHeli control software, so yet another thing you can fiddle with

\- [6] camera ($12): simple camera, decent but not hd quality

[1] [https://www.banggood.com/Lisam-LS-210-210mm-Carbon-Fiber- Fra...](https://www.banggood.com/Lisam-LS-210-210mm-Carbon-Fiber-Frame-Kit- Mini-Quadcopter-p-1001216.html?p=CB061349323732016062)

[2] [https://www.banggood.com/Matek-Systems-PDB- XT60-W-BEC-5V-12V...](https://www.banggood.com/Matek-Systems-PDB- XT60-W-BEC-5V-12V-2oz-Copper-For-RC- Multirotors-p-1049051.html?p=CB061349323732016062)

[3] [https://www.banggood.com/Betaflight-F4-Flight-Controller- STM...](https://www.banggood.com/Betaflight-F4-Flight-Controller- STM32-F405-MCU-Integrated-OSD-p-1103940.html?p=CB061349323732016062)

[4][https://www.banggood.com/4X-Racerstar-2205-BR2205-2300KV-2-4...](https://www.banggood.com/4X-Racerstar-2205-BR2205-2300KV-2-4S-Brushless- Motor-2-CW-2-CCW-For- QAV250-ZMR250-260-Multirotor-p-1066837.html?p=CB061349323732016062)

[5] [https://www.banggood.com/4-PCS-Racerstar- RS20A-Lites-20A-Blh...](https://www.banggood.com/4-PCS-Racerstar- RS20A-Lites-20A-Blheli_S-BB2-2-4S-Brushless-Motor-for-FPV- Racer-p-1105427.html?p=CB061349323732016062)

[6] [https://www.banggood.com/700TVL-2_8mm-Lens-100-Degree- Wide-A...](https://www.banggood.com/700TVL-2_8mm-Lens-100-Degree-Wide-Angle- FPV-Camera-NTSC-PAL-p-1044895.html?p=CB061349323732016062)

[7] [http://www.banggood.com/TS5823S-Micro-VTX-5_8G-200mW-48CH- Mi...](http://www.banggood.com/TS5823S-Micro-VTX-5_8G-200mW-48CH-Mini-FPV- Transmitter-SMA-RP-SMA-for-RC-Racer-p-1127469.html?p=CB061349323732016062)

All this is basically straight from this part list, but seems applicable</comment>


Is Canada Broken? - <AUTHOR> https://thewalrus.ca/democracy-is-canada-broken/ <comment><USER2> Maybe it's just where I live, but I don't really see any of what's described in that article from average people. I see the usual election signs out, haven't heard anyone really saying anything either way or even had any conversations about the elections with anyone. The media's been playing it up pretty bad and I've heard some pretty ridiculous campaign ads from all the parties but that's about it.

Haven't heard a lot of white power fascist sentiment either. Sometime last year though I remember they had a rally planned, but there wasn't actually enough of them to have a rally so nobody showed up.

It really bugs me the media's trying to get Canadians to play the same stupid political games as America. Our election system doesn't even work the same here. You don't vote for the prime minister. You vote for the party representitive in your area. This bullshit started back when Trudeau was first running and it's just gotten worse. The political parties here haven't changed. A vote for NDP, liberal or conservative is still the same vote it would have been last election cycle. Their policies are all the same as they've ever been.

<comment><USER3> Maybe what you've seen is due to where you are, as it certainly doesn't match what I've seen. Where I live in Alberta, people have been swinging hard to the right. They've already shown they'd rather elect a highschool flunky and send their carbon taxes to Ottawa than treat people with dignity or consider alternate career paths.

Even people who were fairly reasonable before the last provincial election just lost their minds and starting parroting incoherent bullshit they heard from the radio. And it has only gotten worse with the federal election looming.

<comment><USER4> Did you only just move to Alberta? It's literally always voted right-wing except our very brief NDP government. The PCs (Progressive Conservatives, remember them?) literally ruled our province for 44 years. The OG populist right-wing party originated here (Reform Party). Remember Ralph Klein? The original high school flunkie Premier.

Alberta's always been like this.

<comment><USER3> I've lived in Alberta for a few days less than 29 years, and I'm aware that people have elected conservatives for the majority of that time. Perhaps it was due to the respite offered by the NDP gov, but I honestly feel that the stupid has gotten way worse than it was before we had the brief NDP intermission.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Again an english speaking newspaper which says bill 21 in Quebec is outright xenophobic without even trying to understand where it comes from and why the majority supports it...

The Quebec has a long history with religions dating from the beginning of the colony. In the 20th century, we had a long period of conservatism that we called the Grande Noiceur (the great darkness: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Noirceur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_Noirceur)) during which the religion and the government were acting together against the interest of the population (think about censorship, fear based policies, mandatory brain washing of children, etc). This resulted in an important delay in the economic and cultural development of the province. This period ended abruptly in the 60s with the Quiet Revolution ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet_Revolution)) where the Quebecers outright rejected the oppressive religion and conservatism that hold us back for so many years. We are now an open and very progressive society with strong values like woman/man equality. Now you can understand why everything related to religions is very sensitive as it brings bad collective memories from years of oppression and abuses. Some symbols (think burka) are seen as a threat to our collective values and we want to do something about it. Maybe our approach isn't perfect, but saying that we are just a bunch of racists is just acting in bad faith and it won't help us evolve as a society.

</comment><comment><USER6> Like everywhere else in the world, once reactionary plutocrats take over the media, the country becomes ungovernable.

<comment> core-questions Is there some implication here that the media was not always "taken over" by some group or other? It's a reasonable assumption that all mass media has been exploited to push people to take one path or another for the benefit of the publisher, sponsors, etc.

I mean, if we're going to get into "who runs the media" conspiracy theories, well, most people know what kind of dialogue that's going to lead to. Whether there's anything at the bottom that's worth delving down to is a good question, but ultimately the solution is to decentralize the control of media by personally moving away from the consumption of mass media entirely, ideally replacing it with a balanced consumption of voices that allow us to synthesize our own conclusions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Lament from one camp that political discourse has been more polarized is often hard to distinguish from them hating on the world for leaving their camp. People don't have to stay in your camp forever, aka "not polarized".

</comment><comment><USER8> What an atrocious article, exemplifying and worsening the problem it claims to discuss.

It starts out with a bit about the importance of dialogue and how bad polarization is.

Then immediately switches to automatically, and totally assuming that anyone who opposes current immigration levels is simply a "racist". No discussion.

Clearly the author thinks the problem isn't polarization. The author thinks the problem is the other side, and uses words literally synonymous with evil to refer to them.

This kind of journalism isn't discussing the problem; it is the problem.

<comment><USER9> It really shows a remarkable lack of self awareness and exemplifies the "liberal elite media bubble" which so much populist sentiment is a reaction to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Article covered a lot of ground for me about what's going in EU and US (especially since I'm not actively reading the news)

This line spoke to me:

> The more complexity there is in our mental frames, the more of it we are > willing to tolerate in others.

This leads me to think: the better read a society is, the more balance it is.

Perhaps the recent issues of intolerance can be solved by, reading more?

<comment><USER11> I think average person does read a lot more than they used to, IMO the problem seems to be the content.

I'd like to mention that I'm utterly out of my depth here, I dont even know what the field of study is called that tries to understand this phenomena.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think these types of conversations are setting the stage to "scuttle the ship" of political discourse. Stop making excuses for the Liberal party. They lost the plot and are going to lose seats because of it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Not Canadian, so the question, combined with what's visible in the news outside Canada, with Trudeau, clubbing animals for fur, exporting asbestos to poor countries, made me think of this:

[https://www.azquotes.com/quote/503127](https://www.azquotes.com/quote/503127)

"Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals."

The statement resonates, as it's simple, pithy, and no counterexample is obvious.

<comment><USER14> The seal hunt is undertaken by the Inuit peoples. Seals are a major source of food and clothing for them. Commercial hunting is banned. Whats so different from it than hunting deer or duck?

On the topic of asbestos, it's up to those countries to ban it. If Canada stopped exporting it, those countries would just get it from somewhere else.

<comment><USER13> What a laughable justification for shameless behavior.</comment></comment></comment>


Tech's diversity problem is because of toxic LeetCode interviews - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/techs-diversity-problem-because-toxic-leetcode-anirudh-mathad/ <comment><USER2> Don't see how leetcode causes diversity problem... Very weak argument tbh. Even though it's a broken system but in other ways.

</comment><comment><USER3> In my experience these "leetcode" interviews are just one part of several interviews. They still look toward people interactions in other interviews with managers, etc. So it's not prioritization over interaction, it's a filter for those that can't really program so they can then continue to interview and learn their personal skills as a team member. I.e. why waste a manager's time with a poor candidate.

If it wasn't the coding question interviews that warranted complaint it would be the personality interviews. I've seen plenty of people dropped because while they were smart, they were shit at working with other people. So yeah, hiring is a series of filters. That's life imo.

</comment><comment><USER4> >How did we get here?

People apply to coding jobs that _literally_ _cannot_ _code_ .. like at all.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the most user friendly videocall setup for old (age 95) people? - <AUTHOR> Because of COVID-19 measurements my grandma (95) cannot have any visitors in her nursing home since a few days. She also cannot meet her friends downstairs for coffee or play some rummikub. So she feels quite lonely. Luckily we can still call her and send her postcards, but that's just it. She never used Skype or any computer before, so we are not sure if we can teach her to use Skype on a tablet either. Anybody have experience with teaching a senior how to use Skype? And are there tablets out there that have accessibility features like bright light flashing when an incoming call comes in? And is very loud in volume? Her ears are not the best any more.
A permanent open connection is not preferred :-). Just something with a TV and a large button would be the best.
Any suggestions or experiences are welcome! Thanks <comment><USER2> Easiest solution is something like an iPad with FaceTime. Only put in the few contacts she needs and clear off one of the screens till the only thing on it is FaceTime and she can push it and push the persons name to call them. And if she gets a call, just push green to answer.

I know FaceTime isn't perfect, and iPad's aren't cheap, but it is easier then a computer setup and all the potential things that can happen there. Skype, GoToMeeting, Zoom etc are all way to complex for what you want to do IMO.

Might be able to do something similar with an Android tablet and Google Duo, but I'd probably say iPad with FaceTime is easier. This has been my goto solution for a few elderly people I have helped with similar things where they wanted to be able to talk too the grandkids etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> Question: Does she use email?

From what I've used:

GoToMeeting: \- Pro: doesn't need install, can work in browser

Slack: \- Pro: Easy to sign up and login to desktop app, video calls are easy to use IMO.

I think join.me is also easy to use

<comment><AUTHOR> She never used a computer at all</comment></comment>


WikiLeaks publishes 30,000 leaked Sony documents - <AUTHOR> https://wikileaks.org/sony <comment><USER2> Absolutely shameful that WikiLeaks would choose to publish stolen, private correspondence, and frankly I'm surprised and disappointed there are people in the HN community that don't seem have an issue with it.

Even if you supported the publishing of the NSA documents on the grounds that it was whistle-blowing, and thus aided in uncovering a greater crime, there's no such possible justification here. (Certainly not in publishing them in bulk.)

We have due process for the discovery of private communication, and that process protects _all_ of us. In fact, our personal freedoms depends on our consistent application of those protections, regardless of whether they're being use to protect you, me, our best friend, or someone we don't even like.

If we decide that it's up to thieves to decide what we do or do not get to keep private in our own lives, then we'll have fallen so far as a society. Good luck when they come for you next.

(Personal request: since this is obviously a polarized topic, consider posting your rebuttal as a comment, so everyone including me can learn more about the nuances of the debate.)

<comment><USER3> I don't feel the same. When the lines between corporations and government are as blurred as they are today, I don't think they deserve the same privacy as individuals inside their homes. Organizations aren't people.

EULAs, DRM, Super PACs - corporations are our rulers and we should not lay down and quietly submit.

<comment><USER4> I think you're forgetting that a corporation did not send these emails. People did. As others have pointed out, these emails include a great deal of very personal information that have nothing to do with Sony the corporation, or any other topic of public interest.

If Wikileaks had reviewed these emails and released only the ones that are of genuine interest to the public (or did not disclose sensitive personal information), as it did with the Manning leak, that would be one thing. But I can't agree that it's responsible to release the entire trove of emails simply because they were sent to and from corporate email accounts.

<comment><USER5> That's pretty much why Snowden went to Glenn Greenwald instead of WikiLeaks - he didn't want to just publish all the info he took, possibly doing a lot of damage and risking people's lives, and he also didn't feel he should decide for himself what to expose, so he left that in hands of journalists.

<comment><USER6> Yep I definitely think there is an argument to be made that our current press does not publish enough details (numerous incidents of big press delaying publishing of big stories at government request), but I feel like the Wikileaks "publish everything" model is on the other end of the spectrum and it's not the solution. There needs to be a middle ground and responsible review/disclosure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/135225](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/135225) [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/49813](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/49813)

Nice, forcing the execs to chime in to a $50.000 bribe

<comment><USER8> Please describe how this is a bribe.

<comment><USER9> Are you suggesting they didn't expect anything in return for their money?

<comment><USER10> Isn't getting something in return (tangible or not) for supporting an aligned cause the entire point of supporting it in the first place?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> They discussed using Civil Forfeiture and the Economic Espionage Act to steal the Slysoft.com domain from Slysoft: [https://wikileaks.org/sony/docs/05/docs/AACS/Litigation/Outl...](https://wikileaks.org/sony/docs/05/docs/AACS/Litigation/Outline%20for%20Website%20seizure%20argument.DOC.pdf)

<comment><USER12> This is where I expect an attorney to step ITT and chortle about how companies and individuals have no power or influence over the government's laying of criminal charges.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I thought the initial concept of wikileaks was to publish documents that would reveal scandals. Instead it is becoming a pirate bay for stolen documents. I am sure the leaks of the Sony documents will reveal the nasty side of Hollywood (which are well known, Hollywood made hundreds of movies on that topic!), but how is that a matter of public interest? What scandal will come out of this? Even the diplomatic cables didn't really reveal any major wrong doing. Most documents were, at most, of interest to diplomats and historians. But no major scandal came out of these leaks.

Too often wikileaks is compared to the Snowden leaks, which triggered a rightful outrage.

<comment><USER14> Are you seriously asking how revealing corruption in politics is in the public interest?

[https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/135225](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/135225)

<comment><USER15> You needed leaked emails to tell you that companies donate to political candidates they like? [https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00282038](https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00282038)

<comment><USER16> If you read a follow up email here: [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/49813](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/49813)

You will be aware of the damning evidence. They intended to donate $50k. They are subject to a $5k donation limitation. They are deliberately skirting the law.

<comment><USER15> Are you saying it's illegal to email coworkers and ask them to donate to a campaign? Or that it should be?

<comment><USER17> The email implies a specific intent of soliciting individual donations toward a cause (in this case, a politician) which is directly beneficial to the interests of the organization as a whole.

It would be one thing if the emails amounted to "hey, you should donate to this guy because he's a cool dude". That's not the case here, though; it's instead a case of "hey, you should donate to this guy because the company you work for wants to donate $50k but can't because of legal restrictions, and this guy's been really good to us", which - legal or not - is (in my opinion at least) morally deplorable and certainly skirting around the intent of the existing law.

<comment><USER15> Sorry, I'm not really seeing why asking people to donate for one reason is ok but another is morally deplorable.

 _> The email implies a specific intent of soliciting individual donations toward a cause (in this case, a politician) which is directly beneficial to the interests of the organization as a whole._

Sure, agreed. Makes sense to me. Why is this "deplorable"?

I founded a startup. Is it wrong to email my employees and ask them to support tax breaks for startups? Or to contribute directly to the politicians who implement those tax breaks?

<comment><USER18> > I founded a startup. Is it wrong to email my employees and ask them to > support tax breaks for startups?

It's not wrong, per se, but since you're the founder it does skirts _rather_ close to this statue in the California Labor Code, so be _very_ careful how you word that email. (Many other states have similar laws if you are not in California.)

California Labor Code § 1102: No employer shall coerce or influence or attempt to coerce or influence his employees through or by means of threat of discharge or loss of employment to adopt or follow or refrain from adopting or following any particular course or line of political action or political activity.

<comment><USER13> In the Sony case, it seems to be an employee inviting the executives to make a donation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Several years ago the studios brought siteblocking litigation in Norway to test that country's implementation of EU Copyright Directive Article 8.3. We lost the case and as a result of lobbying, Norway implemented a specific law this past summer embodying the 8.3 siteblocking requirements."

"As a result of lobbying, Norway implemented a specific law"

[https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/114787](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/114787)

<comment><USER15> Were you under the impression that lobbyists weren't supposed to advocate for specific laws?

<comment><USER11> There's a big difference between arguing your case in public on equal terms with your opponents and one side manipulating the politicians behind closed doors.

It's scary that a company in effect can write and pass laws, without the public being involved.

<comment><USER15> Sounds like you're against lobbying in general, which is fine, but I'm not sure this is a smoking gun of any wrongdoing. I assume the law was passed through Norway's standard (public) legislative process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This unacceptable and outright disgusting. For me, Wikileaks lost all credibility. It is wrong to violate the privacy and confidentiality of employees and contacts of the company. It does not matter if there are clues of wrongdoing or if somebody calls the contents trivial.

Government ties, connections to the military industry and support for politicians? How is that a scandal? And how is that worth violating people's rights. Nothing is redacted. Nothing is explained in context. This is awful.

If something is worth a scandal, it's the chutzpa of Wikileaks.

<comment><USER20> While I agree that it's distasteful revealing people's email, and I've had no interest in looking in what was revealed, it's not clear to me what rights are being violated here. These were corporate accounts, and, anyone who is an employee of a corporation, knows that _every_ email they write/send on a corporate mail server, absolutely can come into public purview, quite often during legal discovery. The old saying, "Do not put anything in email if you don't want it to appear on the front page of the New York Times" is absolutely correct.

(True story - while I was working for desktop support at Netscape, one of my fellow technicians ended up having one of _his_ emails end up in the New York Times - and _he_ had sent it to our internal lawyers. Turns out even that can't protect you).

Sony probably has strong grounds to come after whoever breached their security, and send them to prison for many, many years - but I don't know if their are specific individual "rights" being breached by wikileaks here.

<comment><USER21> _anyone who is an employee of a corporation, knows that every email they write /send on a corporate mail server, absolutely can come into public purview_

Is this coming from the HN crowd that registers domains with contact information anonymity enabled, loves to incorporate in Delaware and complains about privacy and NSA spy programs?

Could you please turn your emails public so we can review them in case you might be doing something wrong? No? Thought so.

It's for the courts to decide if Sony is doing something wrong. Wikileaks is a nice idea and I've supported them for a while, but they can't help but shoot themselves in the foot with dubious behavior like this.

<comment><USER22> Corporate != private. Companies are subject to a large number of restrictions in a tradeoff for limited liability. People acting on behalf of the company are substantially shielded from personal liability for their actions - but the business must be subject to scrutiny.

Private individuals don't have to file audited accounts, for one thing, just a tax return.

<comment><USER21> Perhaps part of the reason that people are so OK with mass publication of private emails not specifically tied to anything is because they have lost faith in the laws and the institutions tasked with maintaining them. That I can relate to, but I don't think it justifies what WikiLeaks is doing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> "This archive shows the inner workings of an influential multinational corporation. It is newsworthy and at the centre of a geo-political conflict. It belongs in the public domain."

Yeah, right. Some of is of public interest, sure, but then find it, edit it and publish the results. Ah, I forgot, it's not how wikileaks operate. For them making everything public is good in itself (except, of course, when it's about themselves).

<comment><USER24> The armchair historian and anthropologist in me wishes we had something like this for the corporations of the 1800s. To a historian or anthropologist, the mundane, everyday interactions are every bit as important to study as the momentous occasions.

<comment><USER25> My browser history might be useful, but I dont want you looking at it until my children are dead.

<comment><USER26> I initially read your comment somewhat differently to how it was intended I suspect.

<comment><USER27> This pleases me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I've seen multiple comments complain about the lack of a "scandal", using that same word. Why does something have to be scandalous to be worth preserving for history's sake?

Such an archival strategy will lead to us never learning from the successes and failures of the past, because they've all been exaggerated into a series of unreachable highs and lamentable lows.

The actions of the hackers who tried to blackmail Sony and stole the documents are wholly unjustifiable. But now that the damage has been done, there is incredible historic and sociological value in seeing what "normal" means inside of a major media corporation.

<comment><USER28> Inherent in this argument is that privacy is worth nothing or at least less than the small insight into a company.

I find it odd that there is a large overlap in people who support "Transparency" and those who are very big into "privacy."

They are contradictory principles in my mind.

<comment><USER24> Privacy for individuals, transparency for large institutions. Like I said I don't support the hacking at all. But the data now exists, and much can be learned therefrom.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/139607](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/139607)

So it would seem Scott Forstall (of Apple) is now an advisor to Snapchat, and owns 0.11% of the stock... I'd been wondering what he'd been up to after Apple.

<comment><USER21> How's is this whistle-blower material?

<comment><USER30> It's not, this is a full dump.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Unrelated to Sony, but related to WikiLeaks... Andrew O'Hagen was tapped to ghostwrite Julian Assange's autobiography. It didn't work out. The story behind why, and the insights into workings Wikileaks and the personality of Assange, are incredible:

[http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew- ohagan/ghosting](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n05/andrew-ohagan/ghosting)

Great long long long read.

<comment><USER32> I don't have time to read this, care to share a summary of why it's incredible?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sony CEO Michael Lynton and Presidential Advisor Valerie Jarrett being very "cozy"

[https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/?q=Valerie+and+Jarret*&mfr...](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/?q=Valerie+and+Jarret*&mfrom=&mto=&title=&notitle=&date=&nofrom=&noto=&count=50&sort=0#searchresult)

<comment><USER33> Where?

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> "dotcom":

[https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/?q=dotcom&mfrom=&mto=&titl...](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/?q=dotcom&mfrom=&mto=&title=&notitle=&date=&nofrom=&noto=&count=50&sort=0#searchresult)

</comment><comment><USER35> Oh, so they are finally making a film about Tesla. Cool. [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/86961](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/86961)

<comment><USER36> Oh, wrong Tesla.

<comment><USER37> No, the right Tesla.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I found this one rather ironic: [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/70993](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/70993)

> "Subject: SPE Email Retention Policy

> Email Retention

> SPE's email retention period is two years."

They might want to rethink that. Or perhaps use encryption.

> "There should be no expectation of privacy when you use SPE's email system"

Indeed.

I don't condone this leak. But it's explicitly stated in their policy that these emails should not be considered private. They might want to rethink that one too.

</comment><comment><USER39> Corporations are people now, so they should probably get used to having their privacy infringed upon.

<comment><USER21> Should the EFF fight _for_ Sony then? :-)

<comment><USER40> yikes: [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/101702](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/101702)

<comment><USER21> The public didn't need to know that this woman's mother was trying to find her a new job and, probably out of ignorance about the whole Sony vs World situation, contacted someone at Sony about it. But I guess WikiLeaks doesn't care, as long as it hits Sony directly. If only they could take a lesson from Snowden.

<comment><USER41> Wikileaks has been like this for a while

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Search "propaganda"

[https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/?q=propaganda&mfrom=&mto=&...](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/?q=propaganda&mfrom=&mto=&title=&notitle=&date=&nofrom=&noto=&count=50&sort=0#searchresult)

<comment><USER32> It's amazing that so much pro-Israel (and anti anti-Israel) content, news, analysis and perspectives are traded at SONY including the TIP "NGO". Anyone know who Pascal or Amy are?

It also cropped up some goodies:

"They mention that it was a sony executive that told them to not use a fictitious name, but to go with kim jong-un - They mention that a former cia agent and someone who used to work for Hilary Clinton looked at the script - this might all be fine, but this is all info that the journalists have at this time."

"This was the first of the important article re; the subject for our doc that appeared in the British press this summer during the Gaza crisis. I think we will get full cooperation from the impt media in europe, the eu, the current conservative govt. in the uk, the current govt in france, angela merkel in germany, many academics ( def at Oxford, Cambridge, LSE ) and of course, major jewish orgs in the uk france germany and in most eu countries .......... during the high holidays this year, no synagogue in britain or jewish school did not have police protection and private security provided by the cst ( the community security trust, an organization created to report hate crime and provide security to synagogues etc ...... kind of an armed ADL ...... funded by Sir Gerald Ronson ) The same for synagogues in every major European city. The threat here is very real ....... in certain parts of London ....... even an American accent is commented on ........ negatively, since thebombing of Isis has begun. This documentary is an essential tool for spreading our message. Ron"

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I love the sony PR damage control in this topic. Keep up the good work.

There has been no invasion of privacy. These are all work emails. And if some corporation that is member of MPAA and RIAA gets destroyed - the better.

<comment><USER44> Are you kidding me? These are not just work emails.

In 15 minutes of reading I've found personal communications, medical issues, people confiding in a friend over marital problems, etc.

This is 2015. People use their work email for personal communications. Should they? Probably not. However, any reasonable person knows that most people do this.

Sony isn't going to get "destroyed" over this, sorry. A bunch of innocent mid- level employees just trying to support their families just got wrecked, though! Woo, we did it internet!

As someone who considers himself far-left leaning, this shit just embarrasses me.

<comment><USER45> Of course they are just work emails, the content of those emails might not be, but at the bottom all these emails come from the corporate system that workers to this corporation were assigned, so once again -- these are only work emails.

<comment><USER44> Sorry, that's not how the world works.

HN is so hypocritical.

NSA accused of spying on peoples private data? Get out the pitchforks!

Tons of innocent peoples private lives leaked by Assange? Woo! We did it Hacker News! We showed them!

Get a grip, guys. You sound like a bunch of insane people.

<comment><USER45> Meh, this whole thread is loaded with so much bullshit and different opinions, it's one big ego/personality trip if you put in bigger perspective. Definitely some good points, but mostly back and forth arguments.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/132611](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/132611)

Sony CEO Michael Lynton was already pitching press secretary Jay Carney on his last day at the White House

</comment><comment><USER46> Looking for a downloadable PostgreSQL or MySQL database, git archive, or gzipped tarball. Anyone point me to one?

Searched of course: [https://www.google.com/#q=site:wikileaks.org+download+sony+a...](https://www.google.com/#q=site:wikileaks.org+download+sony+archive&safe=active)

Seems that Wikileaks is bearing unnecessary cost in hosting the search interface in addition to publishing.

</comment><comment><USER47>
        To: Amy Pascal
        From: GC <email@example.com> [note: George Clooney]
        Subject: "Re: knowing this email is being hacked"
        ...

        And so you know... According to Scotland Yard....
        We are being hacked. So I'll give you a secure address...
        Now this is gonna be fun.

[https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/31233](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/31233)

</comment><comment><USER48> Can you imagine the conspiracy theories that Assange would be spewing on twitter if his emails were hacked and published. He would demonize the hackers, accuse the CIA, the NSA, MI5/6 etc. of colluding, and his friends at the Guardian would be writing pages of vitriol railing against the hackers/cia/nsa/mi5.

But Hollywood screwed Assange with The Fifth Estate so now they are fair game. He would have prefered to publish Disney emails, but this leaks plenty of conversations about Disney, or that reference Disney, so I guess its good enough.

I thought Wikileaks jumped the shark with "Collateral Murder", but this just about puts them in the same league as the worst elements of the NSA. If Sony broke the law, they could have selectively published those emails.

Yesterday is was the military, todays is large corporations, next I guess Wikileaks will publish the accounts of prominent individuals they don't like.

For the record, I think any mainstream media that republish these emails are just as bad as Wikileaks.

<comment><USER22> QV the UK press "hacking" scandals.

The problem is the role of press and activists as a sort of citizen's law enforcement branch. The rule of law is not strong enough that crimes committed by powerful individuals, companies, militaries, and so on will be actually investigated. So scandals must be uncovered from the outside. But the public is also quite hungry for non-illegal scandal.

WRT "Collateral Murder", what do you think is the correct way to investigate war crimes when you know the military involved will not punish them internally?

<comment><USER48> I dont have any issue with publishing the video. I have issue with them spinning it. And they did not just spin it, they edited it for effect.

Pointing at other corrupt organizations and saying they also have done wrong that went unpunished (although as far as I know the UK hacking did not go unpublished), does not justify doing wrong. The irony of course is that Assange is hiding in London precisely to avoid appearing in court.

But I also acknowledge we all have a different set of morals. For some the ends justifies the means. I personally believe the ends never justify the means.

The ends justifies the means is usually what war criminals claim to be their justification.

<comment><USER22> I wasn't pointing out the UK hacking as an unpunished wrong, I was saying that there are certain wrongs which (in practice) can only be exposed by (potentially illegal) leaks.

A better example from the UK might be the widespread allegations of uninvestigated child abuse by members of the establishment that I'm not going to name for fear of libel litigation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> Searching for e-mails and documents related to BitTorrent: [https://search.wikileaks.org/advanced?q=bittorrent&exclude_w...](https://search.wikileaks.org/advanced?q=bittorrent&exclude_words=&words_title_only=&words_content_only=&publication_type%5B%5D=26&sort=0#results)

<comment><USER50> This one looks interesting: [https://wikileaks.org/sony/docs/05/docs/Anti- Piracy/IP%20Obf...](https://wikileaks.org/sony/docs/05/docs/Anti- Piracy/IP%20Obfuscation%20v0.7.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> They didn't make the entire archive available to download?

<comment><USER52> There used to be an archive from WL where you could download all the raw material.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> Fun anecdote: Amazon's game with Hachette cost Malcolm Gladwell more than $50k per month.

[https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/127944](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/127944)

Disappointing fact: Gladwell uses a Blackberry

<comment><USER54> You should look into Gladwell's history with big tobacco; I lost respect for him after I came across it, and don't mind at all that he lost $50k as a result of the Hachette issue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> What database system is WikiLeaks using for querying those texts and documents?

</comment><comment><USER55> [https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/20615](https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/20615) \- digital alteration of The Interview

</comment><comment><USER56> I'm very surprised that HN moderators allowed this to stay on the front page for 10 hours. I know it would not have stayed on the front page if it was about Sony [YC S15]. I honestly don't know who they're trying to appeal to these days.

</comment><comment><USER57> Why do people _here_ applaud to this activity?

<comment><USER58> Because this stuff is incredibly important? Because, as it turns out, most things in this world are not decided on merit or logic or laws, but in social systems and a big big helping of inertia?

Frankly, we should require every company to turn over it's archives after a 20 year or so grace period. This is extremely helpful in a quest to understand _how the world actually works_ , and not archiving and analyzing it dooms us to continue the mistakes of past generations. You ask why there are not more women studying STEM or in CEO positions? Well, answers inside, partially. Pick any other social issue, you'll learn something here.

Stuff like this and the diplomatic cables should be required reading in schools. Otherwise students could get the idea that what you read in a newspaper or hear in an interview reflects reality in any way. The best way to teach critical thinking is to show people how friendships and informal alliances and intrigue are the principal components of any decision process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> Sony Corp is a private business. It is not a public institution so we can go after them and expose their dirty laundry to the public.

I can't understand WikiLeaks anymore. They seem now like teenage trolls with infantile attitude and manners.

</comment><comment><USER60> What's the big deal? Why do you care about those documents so much? They all seem really meaningless, but maybe I'm missing the point... someone enlighten me?

<comment><USER61> If you don't care about anything political you won't care about this. But, surely, you must understand that other people do care about those things and therefore would care about this.

<comment><USER62> But is this really political? In that this is information that is beneficial to a democratic society to have out in the open? Or is it something being done to embarrass a political rival which only serves the interest of a single party?

Because it really looks to me more like the later. Not that I feel sorry for Sony, but do they as a private-sector company not have a right to privacy? There's been a lot of talk lately about wanting to improve the state of privacy on the internet. Through pervasive encryption, controls on data collection, net neutrality, and limiting government surveillance. And then, because Sony happens to be unpopular, they get hacked and data stolen from them. I'm supposed to celebrate this breach of privacy? This tells me that if I value my own privacy I should be careful not to do anything that makes Julian Assange unhappy.

So no, I'm not going to join in the anti-Sony lynch mob. Privacy, like free speech, is something that if you value it for yourself you must defend it at all times, even if you disagree with who is using it.

<comment><USER63> I think this makes it fair game:

Quote: "Sony is a member of the MPAA and a strong lobbyist on issues around internet policy, piracy, trade agreements and copyright issues. The emails show the back and forth on lobbying and political efforts, not only with the MPAA but with politicians directly. In November 2013 WikiLeaks published a secret draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) IP Chapter. The Sony Archives show SPE's internal reactions, including discussing the impact with Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative. It also references the case against Megaupload and the extradition of its founder Kim DotCom from New Zealand as part of SPE's war on piracy."

<comment><USER21> No, it doesn't. In all those cases, courts (remember?) have the power to request the emails and use them as evidence of wrongdoing. If they are not doing that, there are legal ways for all of us to chime in and pressure them to do so. Release private company emails to the world (without much discretion, giving how useless most of them are) is completely stupid. It's the opposite of what Snowden did with the NSA documents and completely disconnected from responsible disclosure.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How can I tell *why* a news item was blocked? - <AUTHOR> I submitted a story that was flagged. I would like to know <i>why</i> so I might better evaluate the source. Is there any way to tell? <comment><USER2> The literal cause is that several HN readers clicked the "flag" button, and not many upvoted it.

People probably flagged it because it's about identity politics, which doesn't usually lead to constructive discussion on HN.

For more about what makes good submissions, see the guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> update: It got un-flagged. I wonder if it was flagged by user(s) and there was an editorial override?

<comment><USER3> Users can also vouch to get it unflagged. If the mods take an editorial decision to unflag a controversial story, dang usually pins a comment to the top explaining the decision and asking everyone to please keep it civil.</comment></comment></comment>