Can you pick a bedbug out of a lineup? - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/16/science/bedbugs-hotels.html <comment><USER3> When you've lived and single-handedly fought an infestation, you never forget what a bedbug looks like. It's mentally exhausting, because they're EVERYWHERE.

I remember sticking one on my wall as a battle trophy.

<comment><USER4> I found bedbugs to be more mentally exhausting than anything. I have never felt more sure that I might have a mental breakdown than when I had bedbugs. They are almost impossible to find, they invade your personal space only when you are asleep, and they are very difficult to get rid of. It made me feel unsafe in my own apartment.

<comment><USER5> True psychological warfare. Having to go to sleep knowing you will wake up with bites that came from insects crawling on you is very unsettling.

<comment><USER3> Exactly, and getting woken up from tickling every hour, so sleep deprivation probably doesn't help with the mental breakdown. And freaking out every time you see or think that you see a tiny thing moving towards you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone know of there's truth to the Rachel Carson/DDT-ban side of the bedbug story? It goes like this: DDT is extremely effective against bedbugs. Just smear a little around your bed and the bed is protected for decades. People did this and that's why we all grew up hearing but not understanding "don't let the bedbugs bite". But we were going nuts with DDT, spraying it into trees up and down every road, killing birds and causing other problems. Rather than a measured response like stopping widespread spraying, we banned DDT outright. Now we have bedbugs.

It just sounds like bedbugs are so horrible that some dabs of DDT might be appropriate. Is that way off base?

<comment><USER7> Permethrin is actually a more appropriate pesticide for bedbugs but unfortunately they are mostly resistant in the US at least. I have found literally 'baking' a room to 120F + for 30+ mins is the most effective way to eradicate bedbugs. Amazon search (360 propane heater), and don't die of CO poisoning or burn your place down. For a more tempered approach, you can try setting up 'safe zones' with boundaries of double-sided sticky tape, smeared vaseline, or diatomaceous earth. (you can kinda tell they've co-evolved with us ey!).

<comment><USER8> I haven't had a problem with bedbugs but bought a powerful ozone generator a few years ago. It seems to help with dust mites, oder and generally sanitize. It's run a couple of times a month while at work. My understanding is these can kill bedbugs if you get the concentration up high enough. Be careful, especially in an apartment. Ozone can be hazardous. It degraded back into breathable oxygen pretty quickly but you don't want to stay in the room with it or have it bleed over to the neighbors and damage their lungs or anything.

[https://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Commerical-Industrial-Air- Deo...](https://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Commerical-Industrial-Air- Deodorizer/dp/B06WLNVN4V/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_201_tr_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AB6H5F3XDMDT56M0PRGR)

<comment><USER7> Interesting: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22566141](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22566141)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Congratulations! Few people have as much acumen at spotting bedbugs as you. > Have you been hanging around with entomologists or a bedbug-sniffing dog?

No, I've just traveled SE Asia for months. You learn to inspect your mattress when arriving. If they've not yet reached the crevices in the mattress, you can at least pray that they're not everywhere else in the room.

</comment><comment><USER10> It was early in the morning and I thought the title said to pick out the ladybug and i still got it right.

<comment><USER3> There's a fine line between positive and false positive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Bedbug is nothing compared to this one: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triatominae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triatominae) They can be few cm long, will suck blood from your lips and excrete nasty odour when squashed. Oh and they spread Chagas disease too.

<comment><USER3> How am I going to sleep ever again?

<comment><USER12> They don't effect people who live in modern houses and they don't (typically) carry Chagas in the US.

<comment><USER3> It's not the Chagas that's scaring me, it's the idea of a spider-like insect sucking off blood from my lips. Can you imagine the feeling?

Although I guess Chagas would have more damaging consequences.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is a bit of a PSA but...

If you're worried you have bed bugs but you're unable to catch them, I strongly suggest going to see a doctor in order to confirm the bug bites are actually caused by bugs. It's possible you could be suffering from a variation of delusional parasitosis [0], causing you to heavily scratch your skin and making you think you're under assault by bugs or parasites. Mental health issues are an incredibly serious matter. Despite considering myself a rational person, I had some issues relating to this and was unable to find my way out of it until I saw a doctor. I'd never wish that kind of experience on even my worst of enemies.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_parasitosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_parasitosis)

</comment><comment><USER14> Bedbugs are an argument for extending nuclear options to exterminators... just surround the building with some lead-backed trays filled with cobalt-60 or something and irradiate the entire building.

<comment><USER15> Honestly, why don't we do that? Seems easier on everything than huge amounts of airborne poison, and radiation will _certainly_ kill anything in high enough doses.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've never seen a bedbug, but the first is an ant, the second probably some type of wasp, the third a louse, don't know the fourth, and the fifth is a tick. So that left only one choice.

</comment><comment><USER17> Surely if you AirBNB your home you've got a good chance of getting bed bugs?

<comment><USER18> That's why you rent an apartment out and rub your hands like a good schemer. /s

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Back in 2013, I was broke and job hunting in Vancouver, BC. I discovered a hostel that apparently hadn't updated its prices in 10+ years. There was a really good deal for weekly dormitory. So I committed to 2 weeks. Whoops!

I quickly discovered that bed bug bites are harder to ignore than mosquito bites. They're significantly itchier and can last a week or so.

I was spending most of my days in a cafe nearby with my laptop. I got to talking to one guy that was also a regular, he went through a few different used laptops and was setting up linux and playing with it. He turned out to be staying at homeless shelters. I momentarily felt envious, because he told me there no bed bugs at his shelter.

</comment><comment><USER20> Fun story, my wife and I had bat bugs at an apartment several years ago - <USER2> look identical the naked eye and the panic that sets in when you see them is real! An entomologist or even just someone who knows what they're looking for with a microscope can accurately identify them separately from bed bugs by the tiny hairs on their thorax. Luckily bat bugs aren't NEARLY the pest that bed bugs are - they really only like to eat bat blood and typically only show up when there are bats around, finding their way haphazardly toward anything else when bats are unavailable for food.

This also means that I'm acutely aware that number 4 was the right answer.

</comment><comment><USER21> When I had beg bugs I started having night terrors and anxiety during the day. It was horrible. I can always recognized their heart shaped bodies.

</comment><comment><USER22> here is a comforting article I read about bedbugs when I had my own case: [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/09/bed- bug...](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/09/bed-bug- extermination)

        "Don't sit down on public transport."

</comment><comment><USER17> I feel like I'm getting the occasional bedbug bite at home but haven't been able to spot any yet to prove it.

The bites are itchy but not like mosquito bites.

<comment><USER23> Bed bugs tend to bite multiple times, usually in a straight line. If they're one off bites then it's likely not bed bugs.

<comment><USER24> They only bite in straight lines ones they've grown large enough. If they're still small, then one-off bites are possible. A better tell is the bite location; they like warm, moist areas like around the waist and armpit area.

<comment><USER25> This is incorrect information. Bed bugs tend to bite center mass, neck, arms, and hands. You can confirm this with a google search.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Just reading these comments I'm starting to notice multiple linear marks on my legs, arms, neck. I'm itching all over. This is horrible!</comment>


Should a security library log sensitive information? - <AUTHOR>

I'm looking for some more input on an issue I have with an XML encryption library, Santuario. First off, love the library, but opened this issue and getting some resistance.
The library logs in DEBUG level decrypted content and I believe this should be removed and is a security concern. Can anyone give their insight?
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SANTUARIO-413
EDIT: Here is some more clarification on a use case:
To understand the concern please read the following example (let's pretend its an app running on Android): Security is all about layers – changing a log4j.properties file is orders of magnitude easier than reverse engineering a Java library and extracting an AES key that has been obfuscated before being placed in the code, for example. I'd prefer to stop people from seeing decrypted content just by modifying the log4j and changing it to DEBUG. <comment><USER2> I'm not really sure it is a valid security concern. Putting any application in debug mode is going to expose a lot of information (even decrypted) to users. It's kind of assumed that you'll never be using debug mode in production.

A notification is warranted, though, "Hey you should probably not use this in production."

</comment><comment><USER3> In DEBUG level it is fine to log decrypted content, it is not a security concern, and is quite welcome.

If you're using DEBUG level logging in production, that is the security concern. The functionality isn't.

The argument "what if the bad guy can change the logging level?!" is pretty weak, if such a person could change such a thing, they could also change a lot of even worse things and likely make that just the tip of the iceberg.

Seems like your mental model of the security is a little off. If the system is compromised your Java XML encryption library isn't going to save you, in particular as you have to be storing the private keys on the same system.

<comment><AUTHOR> My issue is with the application running somewhere like an Android app where an attacker could easily change logging and see the sensitive information, as opposed to having to do a more sophisticated attack to get to the decrypted data (through finding out the key, patching class files, etc,.)

<comment><USER3> I've decompiled Android APKs before, it wasn't a big technical barrier. Just extract the APK using any zip utility, use Dex2Jar, and then run this: [http://jd.benow.ca](http://jd.benow.ca)

I certainly wouldn't patch class files. I'd just extract the private key, then write a new Java application, utilise the same libraries, and point it at the XML. Boom, decrypted.

Is changing a text file a little easier? Perhaps. But extracting the private key is only slightly more work, and the benefits of being able to debug are worth it since the security arguments are pretty weak borderline non-existent.

If you're really paranoid about this just hash log4j.properties and check it on startup. Then crash out with "corrupted log4j.properties, please reinstall" if it has been modified.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've reverse engineered plenty of Android apps before and yeah, unpacking it and seeing .class files is pretty straightforward. More sophisticated than modifying a text file, but still pretty easy.

Extracting the private key though is not that easy if it is obfuscated well. The key isn't just stored as a static variable and used as-is. I think the overall thing I'm trying to explain is:

* There are different classes of attackers * Everything can be broken, but we want to stop as much people as we can * Layering security is a good thing * Is it really necessary to have the library log the information, as opposed to letting applications decide?

<comment><USER3> Fair enough. Did you see my point about just hashing log4j.properties's contents? Since I assume you won't be modifying it after you publish as you don't want debugging. As long as you check the hash before you decrypt any XML this should solve your concerns.

In order for someone to then abuse the debugging functionality on Santuario they would need to modify your APK which is frankly just as big of a barrier as finding and pulling the private key(s).

<comment><AUTHOR> It would be possible but not that straightforward, you can change how log4j loads/finds properties file, for example, so it would be hard to enforce that.

Its pretty easy to unpack an APK, change log4j stuff to DEBUG, repack, and run vs. unpacking APK, disassemble class files, go through files, find how key is stored, routine for deobfuscation, etc,.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's a concern, yes, but also useful functionality. Two examples from other software: OpenSSH AFAIR logs every keystroke when in high enough log levels (and accordingly warns that using DEBUG1-DEBUG3 log levels violates user privacy). Postfix will log user passwords if asked to do so.

Having multiple levels of DEBUG like OpenSSH or extra options like postfix probably is a good idea, and as is printing an explicit warning if started with such log levels.</comment>


Indigenous women kept from seeing their newborns until agreeing to sterilization - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-november-13-2018-1.4902679/indigenous-women-kept-from-seeing-their-newborn-babies-until-agreeing-to-sterilization-says-lawyer-1.4902693 <comment><USER3> The article doesn't say anything about _why_ and _who_ made the order to sterilize the indigenous.

It looks tempting to believe that there's a motivation to make this particular indigenous race vanish.

Who wants that? And why?

<comment><USER4> Historically it was Canadian policy. You'd probably have to look to the 1930s (start of forced sterilization) or the 1880s (start of policy of suppression of indigenous peoples) to find out where, when, why and how. And as to why it's never stopped? How long have Indigenous people in Canada been protected by human rights? And how long between setting that policy and people getting used to the idea? (2008-2013 through various steps, and probably 2-3 generations at least, if people stop teaching the racism as "correct")

I live in Saskatoon, in a predominantly First Nations area. People here are not treated well by just about anyone.

<comment><USER3> I've always thought of Canada as a very tolerant country. That hostility is surprising to me.

When you say that people in Saskatoon are not treated well by just about anyone, how do you experience that over there?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Tubal ligations:

> At least 60 Indigenous women are pursuing a class-action lawsuit launched > last year, alleging they underwent forced sterilizations over the past 20 to > 25 years in Saskatchewan.

</comment><comment><USER6> As someone who's never even been to Canada, this article makes little sense to me. Who are these Indigenous people, and why would anyone want to do this to them? Skimming some of the other comments, it seems I'm not alone in this sentiment.

That's what racism looks like from the outside. To people who've lived their entire lives unaware of the conflicts and prejudices between races, the practices employed to oppress a people seem unrealistically sinister, as if they're from some dark, dystopian novel. If this had been about US physicians coercing African American women into undergoing sterilization, I would've just shrugged it off as yet another act of racism, the sort to which I've grown accustomed to seeing everyday. The same beast is rearing its head in this case, yet only when it happens elsewhere does it look utterly foreign to me--"that would never happen in _my_ country!"

It's rare that I actually get an opportunity to observe racism from this perspective. Over the course of a lifetime, I've learned who hates whom and how they go about expressing that hatred on a regular basis. But I was entirely unaware of the conflict between these two peoples, despite living quite close to the Canadian border. It's a reminder that the racism I witness on a daily basis shouldn't be a part of my life, and it is utterly ridiculous to attempt to excuse it on the basis of ignorance. I'm the ignorant one here: I wasn't aware of this issue. The people involved in these acts of racism aren't ignorant; they're consciously choosing to engage in malicious acts against an arbitrarily defined portion of their own society. And their crimes should be treated as exactly that: pure, unprovoked malice.

</comment><comment><USER7> Whenever a topic like this comes up I find it meaningful to mention the number of people who lived in North America in the year 1500. The population is thought to have been roughly one hundred million. Now the indigenous peoples are nonexistent in most places. Our government policies should cherish these populations.

<comment><USER8> Just FYI, this figure that gets used comes from the high end of a range that is estimated from 20 million to 100 million for a population of North America around 1500. The estimate for Europe is around 50 million to 60 million. [https://www.quora.com/Is-the-claim- that-100-000-000-native-A...](https://www.quora.com/Is-the-claim- that-100-000-000-native-Americans-were-killed-by-non-native-settlers-anywhere- close-to-being-true)

<comment> crooked-v Entire major temple complexes overrun by South American jungle have only been found because of modern deep scanning radar, so I feel it's pretty likely that the number is on the higher end compared to estimates from even 20 years ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Who supported this practice and why? Can anyone provide context?

<comment><USER5> No context, but prejudice against indigenous people is not novel.

USA: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterilization_of_Native_Americ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterilization_of_Native_American_women)

> restricted to only four of the many IHS facilities nationwide and examined > only the years 1973 to 1976. The GAO study showed that 3,406 involuntary > sterilizations were performed in these four IHS hospitals during this three- > year period.

<comment><USER10> Native Americans are 7x more likely to be fatally killed by police as well.

Source: [https://priceonomics.com/the-places-with-the-most-and- least-...](https://priceonomics.com/the-places-with-the-most-and-least- police/)

<comment><USER11> "now I will kill you until you die from it!"

Seriously though this is hideous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is horrific and I hope the international spotlight is put on Canada for this, from Trudeau all the way down. Indigenous rights are routinely trampled upon all over the world, and the developed nations have an obligation to set an example.

</comment><comment><USER13> Canada is so weird to me - you have Trudeau, who is fairly left wing, you have the controversial C-16/speech stuff (I don't know enough to comment here, but progressives seem to like it), and then you have the Tar Sands, which are so environmentally horrible it's remarkable. You have Trudeau pushing for NAFTA to have language protecting native peoples - which is very progressive - <USER2> then you have fucking forced sterilization? It's mind boggling.

It wouldn't be so weird to me if they didn't act holier-than-thou about the US, but at least Americans readily admit we're weird and fucked up.

<comment><USER14> Progressives have loved eugenics for at least 100 years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> The key "says lawyer" portion of the headline is missing in the title.

</comment><comment><USER8> This might be putting the cart before the horse but is it easier to implement these kinds of policies when they are mandated by a central authority? I'm thinking about nationalized healthcare here. This is the type of banal evil that the free market can stand against. The moment the word gets out about the practice that isn't forcing sterilization, I'd imagine they'd go there if the option was available.

</comment><comment><USER16> Just to highlight the details of this situation, I wonder if other groups received the same treatment or not?

The practice is, either way, heinous. It would clarify some details to know if this was racially motivated against indigenous, all minorities, or just common (mal)practice against all mothers?

</comment><comment><USER17> >As a senator calls for a nationwide review of the forced sterilization of Indigenous women

A review?! WHAT. I hope I am missing something here. But what-the-actual-fuck is this nonsense?

There is nothing to review. Don't do that. Stop it. Just... Stop.

<comment><USER18> The word "review" is a bit misleading here. She's calling for an investigation.</comment></comment>


The Heart of a Swimmer vs. the Heart of a Runner - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/well/move/heart-health-swimming-running-exercise.html <comment><USER2> Long time swimmer and runner here - the biggest difference between the two IMO is the focus on lung capacity for swimming.

A common swimming training set most competitive swimmers will be familiar with are "lung busters". You do a 200y free that's 50y breathing every 3 strokes, 50 every 5, 50 every 7, 25 every 9 and then a 25y butterfly without breathing. I had a coach who would have us do 6 of these on 2:45 (meaning about 15-30s of rest for strong distance swimmers). Everyone would be audibly gasping for air by the end of these.

In races, how often you breathe is a critical part of race strategy. In a 50y/m free you generally shouldn't breathe at all; in a 500+ race, there are big debates about whether to breathe every 2 or 3 strokes. Additionally, how much to kick is a key part of strategy since kicking's contribution to speed is not great compared to how much oxygen it depletes.

I really don't think running compares in terms of how stressful the sport is on the lungs. That said, running 400m sprints with small rest intervals is extremely hard on every part of the body and I found the muscle stress from running far greater than from swimming.

<comment><USER3> This is super fascinating, thanks for sharing.

I did an olympic triathlon a few years back, and while I consider myself a decent runner and a strong cyclist, the swimming absolutely kicked my ass to the point that I'm not sure I'll ever do another triathlon to avoid it. Seems to take another level of strength to be great at it.

<comment><USER4> Technique buys you so much more speed and/or efficiency in swimming compared to cycling or running. Those that lack good technique will thrash themselves into a tired mess in order to keep up with the others on the swim.

Some swim coaching, and subsequent drills in your usual training, would soon get you on your way to enjoying the swim part of a triathlon and stop it being horrendous.

The cheap and less effective method is simply watching/studying this video every time before you go to the pool: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3HhNlysFDs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3HhNlysFDs) and then watching it afterwards and thinking about your own stroke.

<comment><USER5> One thing I noticed in the video you included: when the shot is following him from behind I noticed that Van Hazel's head is completely stationary, no lateral or up-down movement. Amazing!

<comment><USER6> Also notice how far his shoulders rotate. I see lots of people mainly moving their arms instead of rotating their entire torsos.

<comment><USER7> Thats been a big thing for me to learn - if you want to be able to breath without taking long pauses, your whole torso needs to move, and it creates a very natural motion to pop your head left or right to breathe a pocket of air

<comment><USER8> Another bonus to rolling -- it is initiated with your core, so it uses large powerful muscles. Once the roll is initiated you can feed your kick and your pull with that momentum. You end up using more powerful muscles to feed your stroke, so you can pull harder without wearing out your arms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'd like too see more study on the long term damage of endurance sports on the heart. I'm hoping to begin running marathons at the end of this year and ultramarathons next year. But reaching that level of fitness requires multi- hour runs, sometimes as many as twice a week. When training for mountaineering, I sometimes climb 5000+ feet in a day. Days like that tend to elevate my resting heart rate for up to a week afterwords. This probably means I'm sustaining heart damage, at least temporarily.

There are notable case of ultra runners dying, and autopsy shows long term heart damage. Some combination of duration and intensity seems to be dangerous, but the risk factors are not well understood yet.

<comment><USER10> > There are notable case of ultra runners dying, and autopsy shows long term > heart damage

I wonder how much of this is pre-existing heart conditions that went undiagnosed versus running _causing_ heart damage.

> Days like that tend to elevate my resting heart rate for up to a week > afterwords

This is surprising to me... I've run almost 5000 miles and 6 marathons so far and this has not been my experience. Maybe it's due to over training? Have you asked a doctor about it?

<comment><USER9> > This is surprising to me... I've run almost 5000 miles and 6 marathons so > far and this has not been my experience.

Do you track your resting heart rate on the days after running a marathon? It's been pretty consistent to me. If I sustain near max exertion for multiple hours, it takes at least a few days to feel normal again, and resting heart rate seems to be a very good indicator of the overall stress of the exertion. Obviously my RHR is dropping over time. These are temporary variations.

<comment><USER11> I've been reading this thread and I'm curious if you've had any cardiac checkups done.

I had a friend who was very healthy and fit but, like you, experienced elevated heart rate (and some loss of energy) for a few days after hard exercise days. Turns out, he had a partial blockage in a cardiac blood vessel. It was not blocked enough to be noticeable under normal workloads. But under hard work loads, part of his heart did not get enough oxygen and experienced damage. Eventually he experienced a heart attack, which is when it was caught and stented. Every other vessel was clear... it was just one of those flukes.

Who knows if you have the same issue, but I would suggest it's worth getting checked out.

<comment><USER9> Yeah I'm feeling a little unsure myself after reading these replies... I had a checkup very recently and got the all clear... The most recent incident I was referring to (I hiked up 5000 feet in a couple hours and ran the descent) caused severe DOMS, and I think the elevated RHR may have been due to muscle damage in my legs. I was probably not physically prepared for that large of a running descent. But I'll keep an eye on it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> In the article it's stipulated it's because of gravity. But it's also mentioned in passing that swimmers hold their breath. I wonder, is there any effect in being able to hold your breath for long when it comes to cardio? As in, I can hold my breath for 4:58, does that offer me any advantage?

Or what about training with a bigger lack of oxygen, as in waiting longer between strokes to breathe or holding your breath while running, does it do any good?

<comment><USER13> I found that sentence odd... Swimmers do not really hold their breaths often. Some training involves breath holding, and sprinters will hold their breath, but the majority of training and all distance swimming involves relatively normal breathing - the body exhausts itself quickly when there is no oxygen coming in to the system. I do masters swimming after starting to swim recreationally in college, and the first thing you learn to conserve energy is to breath normally and _not_ hold your breath.

<comment><USER14> Swimmers hold their breath constantly from turns to different patterns depending on the stroke. Also in freestyle it's common to breath in through your mouth and exhale through your nose which isn't like running which is all mouth breathing.

<comment><USER15> Breath control drills (i.e. "breathe once this lap" or "breathe every fourth stroke") are also standard for competitive swimmers.

This study looked at top competitive athletes, who might be pursuing a different strategy than masters swimmers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Hardly a word on the type of runners? Typical track and field running disciplines are a very different load than marathon or longer and the training cannot be compared at all. The same question would apply to swimming, if there were truly established long distance disciplines outside of triathlon (but even there, the swimming part takes only a fraction of the time of the others).

<comment><USER17> The study was 16 swimmers and 16 runners.

From the paper itself:

"For runners, sprint/power athletes were defined as those who competed in 100–400 m races and high jump, while distance athletes competed in races ≥800 m. Short distance swimmers comprised those competing in 50–200 m races while middle-distance/distance athletes competed in 400–1500 m races. Eleven swimmers swam freestyle, 3 swam breaststroke and 2 swam backstroke."

The phrase "there were interesting if small differences" makes me suspect nothing statistically significant was found. Digging into the paper, I found the sentence I was expecting:

"Further research is required to delineate whether these observations are a product of a superior exercise stimulus, or a necessary adaptation to promote filling during upright exercise."

Any small sample of undergraduates always gives the same scientific result: more grant money required.

<comment><USER16> But "≥800m" could be anything from "some 800 and even a 1.5k" (sub 5 minute efforts) to "mostly marathon and some ultramarathon" (multiple hours). Swimming tops out at 1.5k, which would be a sub twenty minute effort for world class athletes. The longer ones are clearly anaerobic efforts, but still a long shot from endurance disciplines. Except for those six individuals who might run utramarathons or 800 meters, we don't know.

The study is nicely apples/apples if those six are well within the track running range (800, 1.5k, 5k, even 10k would be close enough in duration to 1.5k swimming which is the longest subdiscipline there), but if there are road endurance runners in the group, they will likely skew everything from a comparison between running and swimming to a badly made comparison between athletes aiming at multi-hours efforts and athletes aiming at minutes or even seconds.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I was a national level 5k runner in Canada

I often have doctors tell me that my resting heart rate was too low for the machine to read. The lowest I've clocked is 34 bpm.

I assume there's a safe limit to how low a heart rate can go, which makes me wonder what the limit to cardiovascular performance in running is.

<comment><USER19> I've heard of some professional cyclists years ago who turned their bodies into such efficient biking machines from training + drugs that when they when to sleep, there was a change of them dying in their sleep because their heart rate was so slow. They'd have to get up in the middle of the night and bike just to stay alive. Only anecdotal, but worth considering.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT8GZlBBv5k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT8GZlBBv5k)

<comment><USER20> I understand it's anecdata, but I still do not completely get how you can die from slow heart rate?

Why heart shouldn't get a signal to beat more frequently if body starts to lack oxygen during sleep? Is it just because the blood is so thick and moving so slow it will clog and may produce a sudden heart attack? Thus you need to "manually" keep up the heart rate?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > But even now, he says, "an important message is that all of the athletes > showed better function than a normal person off the street, which supports > the message that exercise is good for hearts."

Or people with good hearts become athletes and their hearts improve with exercise.

</comment><comment><USER22> If anyone is interested in cardio activities, jumping rope is another one that gives high numbers:

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent#Activitie...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_equivalent#Activities)

</comment><comment><USER23> It's certainly an interesting finding, but I wonder if there are any long term implications of it? Especially as swimming should be easier on the knees than running is.

<comment><USER24> Like all repetitive activities, runners are prone to overuse injuries and the most common is to the knee. However, runners are still much better off than non-runners. Also, knee pain is almost always due to a biomechanical or strength issue. If you're smart about your running (most runners, self included, are idiots about their running), you need not get injured and you're way better off than sitting on the couch.

That said, I don't know what happens to the knees of swimmers, weightlifters, cyclists, etc, but inactivity is the worst thing you can do.

Sorry, I just hate this very common misconception that runners are out there destroying their knees.

From [https://www.runnersworld.com/health- injuries/a20850408/5-thi...](https://www.runnersworld.com/health- injuries/a20850408/5-things-runners-should-know-about-knees/)

 _Runners don 't get arthritis in their knees more often than nonrunners.

Those are the facts. Period. If anything, long-term studies have found that runners have less incidence of knee osteoarthritis. One study[1] that followed runners and nonrunners for 18 years found that, while 20% of the runners developed arthritis during that time, 32% of the nonrunners did. A large study that looked at runners and walkers[2] found that regular runners had roughly half the rate of arthritis as regular walkers. In that second study, the runners with the highest regular mileage had the lowest rate of arthritis._

1\. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2556152/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2556152/)

2\. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23377837](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23377837)

<comment><USER25> Right now I weigh a little more than 100kg and am currently trying to better my life to live healthier and be more active.

I can run pretty well, currently about 10km with a heart rate monitor to not exceed my limits. I've tried swimming as well but for some reason I get knee pain during swimming, it's probably just bad technique but it feels so stupid to have to get out of the water because of knee pain.

At my max I weighed 115-120kg and I'm pretty sad that I didn't start doing all this stuff earlier.

<comment> 52-6F-62 How tall are you?

Also, the article _briefly_ mentioned rowing. I didn't enjoy it as much when I was competing when younger, but it's a brilliant exercise if you have access to even (or can afford) an ergometer (indoor rowing machine).

As long as you study form and adhere to that principally before exerting yourself, it's a great aerobic exercise that also helps build and maintain muscle mass (arms, back, and legs mainly). It's easier on the joints as well—again, and I must stress, as long as you maintain proper form. I see so many "cross-fitters" yanking and janking their arms and back and shooting their butts around it makes me cringe knowing what kind of hell it's going to render to their bodies. With proper form, it's one of the best compound exercises. I wish I had access to an erg these days, but I'm trying to keep my own costs down by using the limited gym in my building.

Also if you're in a town with a rowing club, they often host "learn to row" sessions that will guide you through a lot of it—and get you out on the water as well, if you're not averse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Define runner. I skimmed the article and didn't see it. Maybe I missed it. Some runners train for long distances - marathons or longer. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the sprinters who train for a short burst of maximum speed. And there are competitions for many distances between these extremes. It wouldn't surprise me if difference between these extremes were as great or greater as those between runners and swimmers.

</comment><comment><USER27> The sample size is very small. Makes me nervous about any conclusions.

<comment><USER28> They address that a bit, though, and they point out that this is just a cross- sectional study. I think it's more like a starting place for this research (land vs. water exercise) instead of anything meant to have hard conclusions drawn from it.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if other "news" agencies report on the NYT report with headlines like "Runners Have Much Stronger Hearts Than Swimmers, Study Says".

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> We're really a furnace burning oxygen inside which deteriorate cells faster when you're doing sports competitively, sports are great for health, what about competitive sports? is it really that good? is there any data showing that they live longer and healthier because of those intense exercise?

I exercise regularly but always had this doubt about "over-exercise" that could do more harm than good.

</comment><comment><USER30> Does anaerobic activity (lifting) improve the condition of the heart?

</comment><comment><USER31> Would love to see a comparison with bike exercise.

</comment><comment><USER32> Does gravity really affect our health?

</comment><comment><USER33> now do the knees...

</comment><comment><USER34> can i get a tldr? stuck behind paywall

<comment><USER35> right-click, open in incognito window...

<comment><USER36> I always browse in Private Mode, but NYtimes has started to block reading in that mode.</comment></comment></comment>


"Obama orders US to draw up overseas target list for cyber-attacks" - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/obama-china-targets-cyber-overseas

<comment><USER2> It will be extremely interesting to see the government's reaction to all this top secret information being leaked. I'm sure orders are being yelled into telephones right about now.

</comment><comment><USER3> Particularly interesting that this time he included an entire Top Secret document in the posting (although it's a Presidential Memo, and thus probably essentially content-free).</comment>


Firebase.com and all firebase hosted apps are down? - <AUTHOR> https://firebase.com/ <comment><USER2> Mine were down and just went back up. What really made me panic was when seeing no issues on the status page:

[https://status.firebase.google.com/](https://status.firebase.google.com/)

For a moment, I thought it was an issue with my account.</comment>


Simulating the World (In Emoji) - <AUTHOR> http://ncase.me/simulating/ <comment><USER2> Well, this was a lot of fun!

Game of Life: [http://ncase.me/simulating/model/?remote=-KDMc4MyNjW2j-zHfri...](http://ncase.me/simulating/model/?remote=-KDMc4MyNjW2j-zHfria)</comment>


Silicon Valley calls us unicorns - <AUTHOR> http://unicornspeakeasy.net/

<comment><USER2> Is there a secret handshake too?

<comment><USER3> Yes, it's mentioned in the linked page.</comment></comment>


Aurora RDS vs. Google CloudSQL Benchmark - <AUTHOR> http://2ndwatch.com/blog/benchmarking-amazon-aurora/ <comment><AUTHOR> I saw this study by the folks over at Google and their 2nd Generation Cloud SQL.

[https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/08/Cloud-SQL- Secon...](https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/08/Cloud-SQL-Second- Generation-performance-and-feature-deep-dive.html)

The results they posted didn't exactly mirror what we saw.

You can get the raw data without the "Gated" access page too. [https://github.com/2ndWatch/aurora_benchmark](https://github.com/2ndWatch/aurora_benchmark)

Everything was stood up using Terraform, the benchmark tests were conducted using Sysbench, and all data was plotted using R.

Since we didn't have access to Google's original data, we provided some overlays in the post as an easy visual comparison. However the data used to produce all of those graphs as well as additional data is in the repo.

</comment><comment><USER2> > The claim that low thread counts are typical for web applications (and thus > what people should focus on) is inaccurate. There are a large number of AWS > customers who run applications using Aurora, and it is very common for them > to run with hundreds of threads (and many customers choose to run with > thousands).

For your typical web application, you do have very low thread counts, and you usually get parallelization through multiple instances of the web application (in my case, an API).

<comment><USER3> doesn't many instances with low thread counts equal a high overall thread count? there is still only one database instance

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can you really assume your app server and your database are in the same Availability Zone? I would expect to have app servers spread across different AZs.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you take a look at the data, I tested the database in cross-az functionality as well. Still better reports than what Google has shown in their benchmark. The only thing I can gather is they were testing from an instance on Google's platform.</comment></comment>


Is anyone else getting a flood of spam followers on Google+ - <AUTHOR>

Google+ used to be my refuge from spam followers but I'm seeing a strange inversion: More traffic from people I know and work with on Facebook, and a flood of spam followers on Google+. <comment><USER2> What does the phrase "spam follower" even mean? Where relationships are reciprocal (e.g., where "follower" also means, at least by default, "invited sender" \-- as in the case with Facebook friends) I guess its somewhat meaningful, but where following someone's output is independent of your output being sent to them, how can a "follower" be "spam"?</comment>


Open source Angel sensor health tracker nears initial release (June 2015) - <AUTHOR> http://www.angelsensor.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> I was looking for a fitness tracker that leaves the user in control of their data and whose software was free and open source. There is almost nothing to choose from. There may not be anything to choose from.

I've just found this band that had a very successful crowdfunding: [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/angel-the-first-open- sens...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/angel-the-first-open-sensor-for- health-and-fitness)

The first batch are estimated to be released in June for pre-orders. Pre- orders are now open via their store.

Their blog has some nice videos of the manufacturing process and a demo of the app: [http://blog.angelsensor.com/](http://blog.angelsensor.com/)</comment>


Dear HN: I wrote a cross-platform GUI image compressor - <AUTHOR> http://kilianvalkhof.com/2010/web/trimage-image-compressor/ <comment><USER2> "I wanted an easier way to compress my files that didn't involve mucking about on the command line or _uploading all my images to some server far away via a crappy flash application_ ".

And this is why a 100% cloud future is unlikely to actually happen. Local apps not only use local and cheap computing power, but are often easier and more flexible to use.

<comment><USER3> Or you could use a good webapp, maybe something like this HTML5 tech demo from Mozilla: <http://demos.hacks.mozilla.org/openweb/imageUploader/> (video if you can't run the demo [http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/02/an-html5-offline-image- edit...](http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/02/an-html5-offline-image-editor-and- uploader-application/) )

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I got the idea for this a while ago while writing a comment on HN: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1032135> and it's done now :)

</comment><comment><USER4> Neat. I've read that it's inspired in ImageOptim (OS X) and I love this app. It can strip up to 10% of the size of a 180k JPG photo and 60% of a tiny PNG. Will try.

There is one feature that I miss though, and it's some results about the compresion. Like "You saved 120KB (12%) of a total of 20 files (1024KB)".

</comment><comment><USER5> I was under the impression that PNG/Gif/JPEG are already in compressed form. Your examples also do not show achieving any significant reduction in image size.

<comment><USER6> Yes they are but they can all be further losslessly compressed (even JPEG) than the output you'd traditionally get from an image editor.

This has become more well-known than it has in the past, so perhaps there is less low-hanging fruit, but it's still a worthy part of your optimisation routine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm not sure I understand the point of saving few kilobytes in an application's images.

Does it change anything for the user?

<comment><USER8> I think you misunderstood, it's not designed to shrink images that are used in a GUI. It's a GUI based application designed to shrink images (most likely for web sites).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> ptipng and advpng are great, but pngout still produces smaller files. Without it, I'll be sticking with imageoptim. I would love for someone to figure out what pngout does and start an open source implementation.</comment>


The Rockefellers and the Angry Commoners - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/id/2176203

<comment><USER2> "The real question of today's Gilded Age, highlighted by the comparison to its predecessor, is not why the rich became rich, or whether they behave well with their billions. It's why the rest of us seem to feel we can do so little about it."</comment>


Ask HN: Tips on Migrating from Heroku to AWS? - <AUTHOR> I highly value the ease of deployment and monitoring found on Heroku and wonder what the modern way to setup something similar is on AWS? I know of Kubernetes and the CloudFoundary stack, but I feel like there must be some out of the box AMI's that I just dont know about.
I have a Rails hobby project that is costing me ~$200+/- a month because its on the heroku ecosystem. The app is not too wild, but occasionally takes some batch processes which force me to make some spin up higher quality services (increase Redis memory, increase processing power/"worker" count, etc).
Can anyone point me in a direction worth exploring? <comment><USER2> Dokku started as Heroku alternative. I no longer see Heroku directly mentioned [http://dokku.viewdocs.io/dokku/](http://dokku.viewdocs.io/dokku/)

Years ago I migrated an app from Heroku to AWS ElasticBeanstalk. One requirement was having a Redis server and Heroku simply was too expensive. Migration and later scaing worked alright.

<comment><USER3> Are you using Dokku in production? I'd be interested to hear how the experience been so far. Are you running it on one single beefy VM or what is your setup?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would start with the codestar rails elastic beanstalk blueprint, possibly swapping beanstalk for fargate if beanstalk isn't hands off enough or the scaling triggers aren't finely grained enough. I'd also look at aurora serverless so your db auto scales too. Redis labs seems to have a better product than aws elasticache for redis, and they can place instances in your region, probably in your vpc too.

</comment><comment><USER5> Get a dedicated server, set up everything once and be done with it. Hetzner EX42 is 34 EUR / month and you get an i7, 64 GB RAM and 2x 512 GB NVMe.

<comment><USER6> That sounds like great value

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> AWS Fargate may be interesting as you can use containers but don't need to manage VMs. There is support for scheduled tasks as well. I'd consider looking for convenience CLIs or wrappers on top.

</comment><comment><USER8> AWS already have ElasticBeanstalk which is a Heroku alternative. However, if you decide to build your infrastructure manually, use Terraform.

<comment><USER9> Or use CloudFormation that is supported by AWS and the technology behind Elastic Beanstalk, CodeStar, SAM, etc....

<comment><USER10> Agreed. Try to setup a template.yaml for CloudFormation, read the docs, try, get an error, retry... Until you have your perfect setup.

And then only make changes to the template, then package, then deploy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Expect to pay a lot more unless you value your time as free" is a good rule of thumb here.

<comment><USER9> I'm a devout fairly knowledgeable AWS fan, but I couldn't recommend using AWS to "save money" for hobby projects in almost any scenario outside of using Lambda that has a generous always free tier and DynomoDB with an always free tier or Aurora Serverless (Mysql/Postgres) that is really cheap for low use scenarios. Neither seems appropriate for what the poster wants.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It might be worth costing out Digital Ocean. They now have managed db services.</comment>


Id0-rsa.pub: exercises related to computer security - <AUTHOR> https://id0-rsa.pub <comment><USER2> After you can use an RSA key in software, you might want to try my RSA common factors puzzle:

[http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/rsa/](http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/rsa/)

<comment><USER3> This looks like a lot of fun—thanks for sharing! edit: meant for my comment to be in reply to schoen's, but it's also true for the OP.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Great work!</comment>


Ask HN: Is personal branding of startup founders important? - <AUTHOR>

Building new startups would mean delivering a brand that is first unknown to the communities. In building startups, would the branding of founders matter in "make or break" question of a new startup? <comment><USER2> People generally don't adopt new products because the owner is interesting. They buy or use your thing because it solves a problem for them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Often the team and their connections matter way more than the idea itself, or the execution. So I'd say yay, super important.

</comment><comment><USER4> Super important in getting funded, but I'd venture a guess that it's a contrarian sign for product success.

</comment><comment><USER5> No. Can you name the CEOs of the top-10 startups on Product Hunt right now?</comment>


Painting in Clojure - <AUTHOR> http://tombooth.co.uk/painting-in-clojure/ <comment><USER2> Hi I am the author of this post,

I'm going to be knocking around if anyone has any questions, as I think you all deserve a finished post.

If anyone wants to contribute or have a look at the code it is all hosted at [https://github.com/tombooth/painting-in- clojure](https://github.com/tombooth/painting-in-clojure)

Tom

</comment><comment><USER3> This is great. I imagine similar tutorials for sounds/music can resonate with different folks.

<comment><USER4> [http://www.repl-electric.com/](http://www.repl-electric.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love this! I made a project for executing Sol LeWitt's instructional art in JavaScript (but any language is great): [https://github.com/wholepixel/solving- sol](https://github.com/wholepixel/solving-sol)

</comment><comment><USER6> Did not realize it used math to simulate paint hitting the canvas like that! I like the research that went into this. Pretty neat stuff.

</comment><comment> guard-of-terra This is my take at drawing in Clojure:

[https://github.com/alamar/elegraph/blob/master/moscow.png](https://github.com/alamar/elegraph/blob/master/moscow.png)

An infographic showing voting in some elections in Moscow, and presumed violations thereof.

One pixel - one vote. One blob - one voting comission. Had to learn to draw circles of a given area.

</comment><comment><USER7> I like the fact that it uses Processing to do this.

The right tool for art.

<comment><USER8> Most likely by way of Quil ([https://github.com/quil/quil](https://github.com/quil/quil)). Using quil in your ide of choice is a dream and a remarkable improvement over the native processing env in terms of interactivity with the sketch.

<comment><USER9> > _This truly was an amazing place. Here, dreams and reality had been drawn > together - all in one Process. "__Why _would I ever leave? " he barked with > joy! __Why _indeed!_

Is this implying that this framework was the work of _why the lucky stiff, or is it just some kind of reference to him? The description does very much seem like his style.

<comment><USER10> Just a reference, but the style is intended to emulate _why.

Quil came from clj-processing, and the relevant discussion about naming is here: [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/clj- proce...](https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/clj- processing/bInbqLUuEMo)

(I wasn't involved, I just remember things)</comment></comment></comment></comment>