The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jan/04/peterloo-massacre-bloody-clash-that-changed-britain <comment><USER2> If you haven't read it already I highly recommend reading "The Making of the English Working Class", by E. P. Thompson ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Work...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class)). I know it's almost required reading in many Anglo-Saxon countries but as a guy who grew up and lives in (Eastern) Europe I only found out about it pretty recently, and I was pretty fascinated by it (and I say that as a guy who leans to the right of the political spectrum).

In the same vein I also recommend Jacques Rancière's "La Nuit des prolétaires. Archives du rêve ouvrier." (link to English translation on Amazon: [https://www.amazon.com/Proletarian-Nights-Workers- Nineteenth...](https://www.amazon.com/Proletarian-Nights-Workers-Nineteenth- Century-France/dp/1844677788/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8), I've read the book in French, can't vouch for the translation), which writes about the French worker movements active around the 1840s-1860s and their relation to utopian ideas. There are also a couple of chapters on Étienne Cabet ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_Cabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_Cabet)), a pretty interesting character.

> In 1848, Cabet gave up on the notion of reforming French society. Instead, > after conversations with Robert Owen and Owen's attempts to found a commune > in Texas, Cabet gathered a group of followers from across France and > traveled to the United States to organize an Icarian community.[6] They > entered into a social contract, making Cabet the director-in-chief for the > first ten years, and embarked from Le Havre, February 3, 1848, to take up > land on the Red River in Texas. Cabet came later at the head of a second and > smaller band. Texas did not prove to be the Utopia looked for, and, ravaged > by disease, about one-third of the colonists returned to France.[2]

<comment><USER3> I would add Peter Linebaugh's "The London Hanged". Using the court records of capital offences at the Old Bailey (which included a mass of prosopographical detail) he works outwards to examine the composition of English society just as mercantile capitalism was taking flight. [https://www.amazon.com/London- Hanged-Eighteenth-Linebaugh-Pa...](https://www.amazon.com/London-Hanged- Eighteenth-Linebaugh-Paperback/dp/B015X546C4)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Peterloo was taught in my (Northern English) school and when I lived in Manchester I walked past the site where it happened (St. Peter's Square, near the Midland Hotel) every day.

It laid the foundations for the 1832 Parliamentary Reform Act which in turn laid the foundations for the abolition of slavery in 1833, the bedrock needed for the universal suffrage movement, and a wider sense of political entitlement for the average working person in Britain.

That in turn led to the end of the British Empire, a concept fawned over by modern day Imperialists, but was clearly a cruel and barbaric exploitation to any reader of history who looks beyond the headlines and prejudice it was built on top of.

Peterloo gave away the lie that a fair and just society can exist without fair and just democracy. Where there is bias, corruption or injustice in our democracies, we will find shadows of those injustices in our society.

<comment><USER5> > _That in turn led to the end of the British Empire_

I'd say that's a bit of a stretch, given that the British Empire lasted for more than a century after that. Certainly until after the Second World War, and arguably in rump form until the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.

<comment> rm_-rf_slash The U.K. still has the Falkland Islands. But for the most part, once India achieved independence, the British empire was pretty much toast.

<comment><USER6> The UK still has many overseas posessions, but they are mostly minuscule specs of land in the world's oceans. By that argument, Ecuador has an empire, insofar as it possesses the Galapagos archipelago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Unusual thing to see on HN.

But yes, you can draw a line of history through Peterloo, Croke Park, the Troubles, the Miner's strike, and the wider colonial policing such as the Amritsar massacre. And between the Tory party of those days and the Tory party of today.

<comment><USER8> Peterloo was a dreadful event killing 18 people and injuring many more. The French Revolution 30 years earlier resulted in the execution of thousands and the deaths of at least 40,000. A line of history through that event is interesting as well.

<comment><USER9> > The French Revolution 30 years earlier resulted in the execution of > thousands and the deaths of at least 40,000

Let's not forget millions of people suffering in serfdom under the Ancien Regime.

<comment><USER10> Is that an excuse?

<comment><USER11> It's a justification, and a good one at that. Starving millions to death is not less violent than guillotining thousands, even if it is less abrupt.

<comment><USER10> [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/3964...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/3964724/Vende- French-call-for-revolution-massacre-to-be-termed-genocide.html)

<comment><USER11> I claim only that the ends are just, not that they justify ALL the means. Thanks for the link - I learned something today.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is an extremely one-side account of the event, but even from it I think if you squint right you can see the other side of things just a bit.

The crowd were carrying 'Liberty and Fraternity' flags (which echoed the bloody French Revolution's 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' slogan); they had poles with Phrygian caps (a symbol of the French Revolution). The civil authorities were deeply concerned about an English Revolution, and not without cause. Remember how ghastly the Terror was, and how much you'd want to protect yourself and your family from it, even if you _agreed_ with the protesters. Those symbols weren't wholly peaceful symbols; they could legitimately be seen as violent threats.

Should the authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of Messrs. Hunt, Johnson, Knight & Moorhouse? I don't know; it's arguable that it was necessary to preserve the peace. Did they need to use cavalry to execute the warrant? It's arguable that in the circumstances they needed to. But it's also arguable that they should have issued the warrant, and that even if they had they shouldn't have executed it the way they did.

At this distance in time, it's impossible for me to be firmly on one side or the other (kinda like the Free Silver issue in the United States, also in the 19th century). The questions they were arguing about and the premises they had in common are alien to us now.

It may be even that the immediate repression which followed the event was what enabled a longer-term, peaceful reform of the English government, whereas a lighter hand might have resulted in revolution and far more bloodshed. I certainly don't feel certain one way or the other.

</comment><comment><USER13> Looking at the wikipedia article about the incident:

> Fatalities resulting from Peterloo

> John Rhodes

> Cause: Sabre wound to the head

> Notes: Rhodes's body was dissected by order of magistrates who wished to > prove that his death was not a result of Peterloo. The coroner's inquest > found that he had died from natural causes.

Yesterday I saw news that the coroner investigating the air accident of a judge, appointed to investigate the most important corruption charges of the last years in Brazil, said that there was no evidence of assassination.

The arguments were plausible, but I am very cynical of these evaluations.

<comment><USER14> history repeats itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I always remember watching the Paul Greengrass drama about Bloody Sunday with my son who was about 12 at the time - at the end he was genuinely shocked that something like that could have happened in the the UK quite so recently.

<comment><USER7> If the 2011 London riots had gone on a bit longer, it's possible that the people calling for the use of live ammunition against rioters would have prevailed.

(2011 was not very like Peterloo and much more like the LA riots)

<comment><USER15> Presumably things hadn't got quite so bad that they were considering sending in the Paras to quell the London riots.

Edit: I can recollect a family member (who was a senior firearms officer in the Glasgow police and very much on one particular side of the sectarian divide) describing with some glee the effects of using an SLR in a built up area. This would have been in the mid 70s.

<comment><USER16> > describing with some glee the effects of using an SLR in a built up area.

And what are those effects? (besides killing people and making a noise)

I am assuming in this case an SLR is a Self-Loading Rifle.

<comment><USER15> Shots from an SLR were apparently prone to going through people, then through walls, furniture and other walls and keeping on going for quite a long time....

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L1A1_Self- Loading_Rifle#United...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L1A1_Self- Loading_Rifle#United_Kingdom)

Edit: Being rather young at the time (under 10) I had no idea about sectarianism and quite how ugly it can be.

<comment><USER17> In the rest of the world the "SLR" is referred to as a "FAL" and it's 7.62x51mm / .308 Winchester ammunition is a "medium" caliber firearm.

Quite a bit weaker than what was used commonly in WW1/WW2 but stronger than the standard 5.56mm / .223 Remington round that is used today by the armed forces. It's still a very common round and used in various applications around the world.

"Quite a long time" is a bit of fear pandering, it's what you would use to kill a deer humanely.

Any sort of a firearm is dangerous when used against people massed in tight quarters.

<comment><USER15> Don't worry, my criticism was very much intended for the person telling me this story who seemed to think that army bullets traveling as far as possible through Catholic housing was a good thing :-|

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> In a similar vein a hundred years later Sweden had the Adalen shootings: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85dalen_shootings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85dalen_shootings)</comment>


The Cause of Bubbles =Investment vs Financial Engineering - <AUTHOR> http://blogmaverick.com/2008/10/11/the-cause-of-bubbles-investment-vs-financial-engineering/

<comment><USER2> This is an age old discussion:

How do I create the incentives I think are needed to get people to put money into the things I think are good, in a way I think is good.

If you're wrong about what good is, you can make a big mess. Very big. Even if you are reasonably confident you know what good is, you still have the impossible task of making sure whatever you suggest is not having any unexpected consequences as tax implications become a more prominent effect of this, that or the other, then normal market effects.

This is the tool we're used to using to deal with these kind of issues. It's a fairly blunt utensil.

</comment><comment><USER3> Current Market Capitalization < 10 x Quarterly Revenue/Sales of the Company.

Everything beyond is either irrational or manipulation or bubble.</comment>


Ask HN: What have you accomplished in 2014? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER3> Changed jobs 3 times, including a return to the 1st job of the year. Added 30% to my annual salary in the process.

Wrote a massive iOS Application ([https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zonas-find- explore-connect/i...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zonas-find-explore- connect/id892542094?mt=8))

Attended WWDC for the first time, and in doing so, finally met a friend of mine whom I've only ever known as a screen name.

Completed my first major freelance project. (First 5-digit invoice.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Congratulations on your progress! What's your plan for 2015 (more iOS, fulltime or freelance)?

<comment><USER3> Hoping to stick it out at the full-time job for a whole year. Something I haven't done since 2011, while building a freelance network to keep side income flowing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Recovered from a traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident. Moved from Melbourne to Seattle. Got a job at Amazon. Most importantly though, understood myself, the people around me and the world much better. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds like a busy year! Sorry to hear about the accident, but congrats on all the accomplishments! All the best to you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Got to early revenue and some pretty encouraging sustained compounding growth in my side-project-turned-startup: [https://www.zerotier.com/](https://www.zerotier.com/)

This is a three year old project. 2014 saw the first auto-updating binary releases on three platforms, the first commercial users, and the first revenue. It also made HN's front page twice: once for the site itself, and once for a blog entry that I wrote on the mechanics of NAT traversal.

Currently working on a lot of prep for a possible seed round in early-mid 2015. If all keeps going well it might happen.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, congratulations on your success! Have you maybe thought about redesigning your homepage? I'm certainly not in your target audience, but it was a little bit hard to understand your value proposition - maybe think whom you are selling to (CTOs, CEOs etc.) and adjust your copy accordingly. Good luck and hope you succeed in fundraising!

<comment><USER5> I'm working on a home page redesign right now, so yeah I'll have that done fairly shortly... probably a few weeks. The new version is a bit more "pro" or "enterprisey" looking and tries to clarify things a bit while continuing to keep it simple.

Clarifying the message has been tough overall. In some ways it's so simple it's hard to convey. "Connect ALL THE THINGS!!#$!#$!#4!11" ?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I got my first job in the tech industry after leaving hospitality. It was the most difficult and most rewarding thing I've done in my career.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds like something I would dream of doing - I am currently in accounting. What is your roadmap in tech? And congrats on succeeding!

<comment><USER6> Wasnt on HN this weekend. I started really simple with HTML/CSS. Then I moved on to Ruby, and then learned the Ruby on Rails framework. Now I write apps that analyze web data.

Start with CodeCademy.com. It's a great intro for people who want to get started. There are also classes on Udacity you can check out. Feel free to email me if you want to connect further. My contact info is on my profile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Wrote a book (non-technical). A very interesting experience indeed. I used LeanPub for the content and then CreateSpace for the deadtree version.

<comment><USER8> Super cool! Would love to hear more about your self-publishing experience -- mind if I shoot you an email?

<comment><USER7> Sorry for the second reply, but I have written a blog entry on my book writing experience. It ended up larger than I expected, yet still doesn't exhaust all that I would want to say, so more may follow.

[http://simonpeter.org/mechanics-of-writing-a- book/](http://simonpeter.org/mechanics-of-writing-a-book/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What I did in 2014

I travelled to China (Hangzhou), Thailand (Phuket), Sardinia, Berlin and Copenhagen for both work and leisure.

I presented my Master thesis and the associated poster to the VLDB '14 conference in China (major Big Data conference).

I also presented at PyData and two more local meetups on Big Data topics, including PostgreSQL.

I wrote a paid tech report on Big Data.

I contributed python code to three open source projects: OpenBazaar, TimeManager, Doge Terminal (:P)

I learned Scala, Ansible, PostgreSQL and PostGIS, better OOP Python, Guava, better testing, better bash, better javascript, Vagrant, vim, better git.

I understand the steps involved in setting up very complex systems and system adminstration a lot better now.

I worked on some personal projects in Python and javascript, the most important of which were a web scraper to search for flats in Switzerland, an online regex tester and a tool that uses the last.fm API to return statistics about users

I also tried my hand at CoffeeScript and configured a chat bot (Hubot) to optimize chatting with my boyfriend.

I amassed a big collection of cookie cutters for any occasion (even 3D ones) and baked cookies for my friends.

I read at least 3 proper books in German and improved my vocabulary.

Also read more than 5 programming books to improve my craft, and a lot of fiction (also some in a non-Western context which was very eye opening) and some non-fiction on economics, politics, poverty, women's issues and math.

I went to three job interviews but ended up choosing to stay at my current job. Valuable experiences, nevertheless, which made me learn more things about interviewing and negotiating which kindof contradict the popular advice one can find online.

I produced more than 10 data reports for customers all over the world.

</comment><comment><USER10> I finally finished an SaaS product that I plan to start selling in early January, once I get back from a holiday break.

Pretty excited to have a side-project that I think can generate revenue.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very cool! If I may, what niche is your SaaS product in?

<comment><USER10> Its a tool for freelancers and agencies to make a certain bit of client communication better.

Other uses are plenty, but this one is my focus.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Quit my job to start a company. Failed, but learned a lot of important lessons. Got back to a well paid job. Probably most important - got back to a very good shape.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you share some of the lessons learned?

<comment><USER11> Sure, some of the most important ones are below:

\- ideas are worthless without execution

\- focus on the product - doing anything else before having at least an mvp is dumb

\- focus on one thing at a time

\- never lie to yourself

\- we usually hugely overestimate what we can achieve in a short period of time, but also hugely underestimate what we can do in a long one

\- being in good shape greatly improve my mood and performance at work

\- don't mistake activity for achievement

And some more. Of course most of this stuff is obvious and I have always thought I knew them. This was in theory - this year I have 'learned' them the hard way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> \- Completed university with a 1st class degree in Computer Science.

\- Developed a prototype eCommerce website (not live yet) In PHP(CodeIgniter) for my final year project. (Which I am currently working on porting to Django)

\- Deployed a website (Actually took a lot more time than I thought it would.)

\- Finally took a break and went on vacation with 10-20% of good online availability for 2 months.

\- Lost 11 kilograms (24.25 pounds), although I think it was mostly due to final year stress.

\- Attended [https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/](https://www.siliconmilkroundabout.com/), my first ever technology focused meetup/job fair.

\- Started watching my first anime(Naruto) after overhearing conversations from my friends about how good it is.I finally understand why they enjoy it.

</comment><comment><USER13> \- Got my first job as a software developer.

\- Finally met my father.

\- Realized that I'm a much better programmer than I thought.

\- Realized how quickly I can learn new things.

\- Started knowing myself.

</comment><comment><USER14> I spoke at a conference for the first time and spoke at a total of two conferences. Both conferences were for languages I really enjoy: Elixir and Ruby.

This is cliche, but I met a ton of really nice people that I enjoy being around, especially programmers!

I think I've expanded my mind drastically this year. I've learned to enjoy building again and not stressing over OOP pedantry. I also finally think I'm understanding the value of functional programming.

I learned to not be dogmatic about testing or project management. Everything is so fluid. I'm learning to be patient and thoughtful.

I'm most happy that my wife and I are finally living in the same country as one another.

</comment><comment><USER15> -Have teached and tutored people in programming, for free.

-Organized an event for +200 people with +10 sponsors for a non-profit.

-Read amazing books, most notably: Zero to One, The Innovator's Dilemma, Good to Great and A Brief History of Time; among others.

-Considerably improoved my competitive programming skills

-Made various sites, I'm rocking on front-end dev

-Went to India to teach various subjects to unprivileged kids

-Went to Dubai to share time with my dad after having him away for 19 years

-Traveled to the US 2 times (Florida and North Virginia)

-Have written essays which really smart people are debating around the internet

-Despite the heavy workload, I'm keeping up with college

</comment><comment><USER16> A lot for the DayJob, unfortunately little more than nothing for side projects.

</comment><comment><USER17> Moved to a new job, finished a degree, found love and lost it as well

</comment><comment><USER18> I've managed to fix a few low-profile security bugs in various projects.

I switched jobs to one that pays double what I was making at my last one... which isn't saying much because I was being royally screwed.

I did not manage to do anything I had actually planned to do at the precipice of 2014, however.

</comment><comment><USER19> I've been meaning to launch a product per year. 2013 was SideProjectors ([http://sideprojectors.com](http://sideprojectors.com)) - which is still going quite well, plenty of people posting their projects for sale.

2014 was Postatic ([http://postatic.com](http://postatic.com)) - <USER2> people to create their HN clone (or Reddit clone or online communities, however you call it) - it's been rewarding to get so much feedback from users and improving the product.

Let's see what I can build next year. :)

</comment><comment><USER20> Created a pet project this year, it has ~400k hits/month and I earn more than $1k/month with ads. It is completely passive outcome.

</comment><comment><USER21> \- Finally got a junior dev position! Took 3 years, I already gave up when I got the email out of the blue.

\- Made an android app

\- Made a game

\- Went back to school for Software Engineering

</comment><comment><USER22> Released my first two side projects and presented at the largest Android conference in the U.S.

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome! Your side project are Android apps, correct? How did you start in Android dev?

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Went on a long job hunt, resulting in 6 offers, with the best one paying more than 5x my current current salary. Got a much better understanding of the professional landscape and the opportunities out there.

</comment><comment><USER24> Doubled the sales of Candy Japan.

Went back to school and completed my M.Sc.

</comment><comment><USER25> Regular employment.

</comment><comment><USER26> I grew a side project (appointment scheduling) 150% and even scored a large multinational corporation as a customer.

</comment><comment><USER27> Worked remotely for the whole year. It has been an interesting ride.

</comment><comment><USER28> \- Finished a software engineer in product security internship at Twitter.

\- Ran a security class [0] in Greece.

\- Presented my master thesis on decentralized transaction identity and trust [1] for my Electrical and Computer Engineering degree, but didn't complete the degree yet.

\- Talked about BREACH [2] at the SFHMMY [3] and FOSSCOMM [4] conferences.

\- Did a talk about computer security at a local community high school.

\- Attended FOSDEM [5]

\- Invented an anonymous decentralized marketplace system [6] and joined the OpenBazaar [7] team as a core developer.

\- Traveled to the Turkey (Istanbul), Greece (Alexandroupolis, Ioannina, Athens, Ikaria, Thessaloniki, Lamia, Corfu, Drama, Komotini), Austria (Salzburg, Vienna), UK (London), Belgium (Brussels).

\- Hiked through the Vikos Gorge, the Astraka Refuge and Drakolimni in Greece. Sailed in Preveza and in the Saronic Gulf in Greece [8]. Snowboarded in Zell am See in Austria.

\- Tried two different interesting mind-altering chemical substances.

\- Spent quite a long and nice time with friends, family, and lovers often doing nothing at all with them.

\- Bungee jumped for the second time in my life, this time in Corinth and double the height (78m) of my previous jump.

\- Got hired as a full-time software engineer at Google.

\- Moved from San Francisco, US to Zurich, Switzerland.

\- Started my private pilot license.

\- Taught math, physics, programming, algorithms, web development, and security to many students privately for free.

\- Donated more money than any other year in my life to charity.

\- Started learning guitar.

\- Lived in a share-house for the first time.

\- Learned many things about security and software engineering, realized I'm a noob in so many things and fields and I want to improve a lot!

[0] [http://security-class.gr/](http://security-class.gr/)

[1] [https://gist.github.com/dionyziz/e3b296861175e0ebea4b](https://gist.github.com/dionyziz/e3b296861175e0ebea4b)

[2] [http://breachattack.com/](http://breachattack.com/)

[3] [http://www.sfhmmy.gr/](http://www.sfhmmy.gr/)

[4] [http://lamia.fosscomm.gr/](http://lamia.fosscomm.gr/)

[5] [https://fosdem.org/2014/](https://fosdem.org/2014/)

[6] [https://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/2014-M...](https://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/2014-March/013304.html)

[7] [https://openbazaar.org/](https://openbazaar.org/)

[8] [https://mapsengine.google.com/map/viewer?hl=en&authuser=0&mi...](https://mapsengine.google.com/map/viewer?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=zZBHVGggp1Bk.kCFhT8v-1O-M)</comment>


Monetizing the Rapture - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_08/b4167070046047.htm

<comment><USER2> Back in September '09 when I first saw this site, I wrote to offer my services in the Nebraska area, since I noticed that they do not offer service in the region. The response, at the time, was:

 _Thanks for your interest in becoming a post rapture pet rescuer.

At this time we are not expanding our area or taking on new reps. We will keep your email on file and contact you, should we decide to expand.

If you enjoyed this site and are a freethinker you will enjoy my web site partner's new book "The Atheist Camel Chronicles" . It has been receiving rave reviews on amazon and throughout the internet. It's rated in the top 25 of amazon's best selling atheist themed books...out of 70,000!! Signed copies available through his book's website(USA buyers only) <http://theatheistcamelchronicles.blogspot.com/> also available on amazon internationally.

Yours in reason, Brad_

<comment><USER3> Then there's an opening to follow Google's website-innovation model here: don't do it first, do it better.

<comment><USER4> I never thought about that. Couldn't you say that is also Microsoft's (intended) software-innovation model?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Problem: God is going to take 20-40 million people and your pets will be left behind.

Solution: Atheists

Business Model: $100 per every ten years. Approximately $10 revenue per user per year.

Underlying magic and technology: Heavenly power of God will take people away. The transporting of animals is just basic transport.

Marketing and sales: We plan to primarily use fear. We will also market our services through the tens of thousands of congregations around the world.

Competition: Google may enter the space as a way to get churches as advertisers. They could house the pets in the googleplex.

Team: One of our cofounders is God. He's been the founder of numerous startups including First Life.

Projections: We predict 50 million in revenue by the time of the Rapture.

Status and timeline: over 100 customers. Rapture hasn't happened yet.

Call to action: We need approximately 3.2 million dollars to further market the service and reach God fearing Christians.

</comment><comment><USER6> This raises several scholastic questions.

Would a benevolent God leave innocent puppies and kittens behind, putting them on the same level as atheists?

After true Christians ascend to heaven, will they have some sort of omniscience? In particular, will they able to verify that Eternal Earth-Bound Pets is fulfilling the contract?

One authority says "I don't know if they should necessarily trust atheists to take care of them". Atheists might torture your pets or leave them to die. What about not-so-true Christians like Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox people, who don't believe in the Rapture? Will they ascend anyway? It looks like they would be a better choice of pet carers.

<comment><USER7> If you _believe_ that a benevolent God would leave puppies and kittens behind, does hiring an atheist to look after your pets bespeak a certain lack of faith in God's plan?

<comment><USER8> True believers are well-trained in filing any obvious contradictions between what scripture says God wants and what is observable in the real world under "ineffability", and fervently ignoring them.

<comment><USER7> That's not _sporting_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It "must reassure the Rapture crowd that his pet rescuers are wicked enough to be left behind but good enough to take proper care of the abandoned pets. Rescuers must sign an affidavit to affirm their disbelief in God—and they must also clear a criminal background check."

<comment><USER10> "Well Mr. Moore, your background check came up with some problems."

"Oh..well I uh..."

"Yes, we see you have been convicted of rape, sexual molestation, and kidnapping..."

"I can explain, I--"

"Well despite that impressive resume, I'm afraid we found a copy of your high school yearbook, with a picture of you in the Bible Study club. I'm afraid we won't be able to hire you."

<comment><USER11> Qualifications?

\- Rape, murder, arson, and rape.

You said rape twice.

\- I like rape.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What a joke. People will take advantage of anything for a little cash.

<comment><USER13> How is this ethically any different than an insurance company betting against, say, you totaling your car?

That said, I wouldn't buy insurance from a company that writes trade mag articles professing the non-existence of auto accidents. These people need to get a bona fide Christian spokesperson/salesforce.

<comment><USER6> In a way I think you answered your own question: it's quite different because (obviously) auto accidents do happen every day. If you asked someone who works at an insurance company what do they do, they could tell you that they decrease their clients' risk, or that they sell them peace of mind. The insurance company guy doesn't look down at clients who haven't totaled their cars.

But I agree you have a point: if the insurance company doesn't believe that event X is likely (leaving aside the question of whether X is actually likely or even possible), they might charge a premium that's way too small. Then the client cannot have peace of mind because there's no way the insurer will keep their word.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I had this same idea a few years ago, but was going to do it as a parody site. I was going to use certified vegetarian atheists for better effect.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This service arranges for your pet to be placed in the home of a caring atheist (who will not ascend to Heaven) on Judgment Day.

The founder says "I'm trying to figure out how to cash in on this hysteria to supplement my income."

</comment><comment><USER15> Wonder how much of this is a curiosity and how much of it is an actual business model? Sure it's a fun story, but is there a real opportunity for market traction?</comment>


Driverless Trucks to Hit Alberta's Oilsands - <AUTHOR> http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/06/driverless-truck-to-hit-albertas.html#sTWYpF5ihhk57RvP.99 <comment><USER2> Fewer workers means less spent on wages, which means less contributed in income taxes. These changes reduce government's profits while increasing the oil company's profits.

The new NDP government promised as a part of their campaign to review royalty rates. This seems like an argument that they'll need to increase even just to keep revenue constant.

<comment><USER3> Canadian corporations pay taxes on their profits. They also distribute income to shareholders, who then pay taxes. If they pay their execs rich salaries, those execs pay rich taxes. All corporate profit eventually ends up in the hands of an individual over time, and Canada has relatively high personal income taxes.

It also varies by the country of course. Oil companies in the US pay among the highest tax rates.

Exxon and Chevron for example typically pay 30%+ rates.

Last three years for Exxon:

Income before tax: $188 billion; Income tax expense: $73 billion; Net income: $110 billion

Some of it is also double taxed, so the real tax rate is even higher than just counting the corporate income tax.

<comment><USER4> Not all shareholders live and pay taxes in the same place that the displaced workers do. Also, rates of taxation on dividends and capital gains often differ from those on wages, though I haven't looked up the specific rates in Canada.

<comment><USER3> Dividends and long-term capital gains are mostly a form of double taxation. That's why there is a strong argument for the rates not being as high as traditional income.

<comment><USER4> I'm no tax lawyer, but my understanding is that income trusts provide a way around this, and this particular arrangement is available to Canadian firms: [http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/deductdividendpay...](http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/06/deductdividendpayments.asp)

I'd like to believe that it all evens out in the end, but the reality seems to be that many firms are able to avoid a lot of tax through a combination of aggressive accounting and lobbying for either special tax treatment or subsidies of one sort or another. I agree with you that robotic labor may well fall subject to taxation and if so this will be why - many people don't feel they're competing on a level playing field with the owners of capital.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > "At an average (salary) of $200,000 per person, you can see the savings > we're going to get from an operations perspective."

Wow, I guess I should've been a truck driver!

<comment><USER6> It's probably fully-loaded cost, so salary is 50-75% of that, but yes, doing a temporary and undesirable job for a large company in some remote barren location generally pays well.

<comment><USER7> Yep. It's the exact same in Australian mining towns. High school graduates can reliably get a job in the mines that pays north of $150k. The downside obviously is that it's dangerous, not to mention bad for health. But some people jump at the opportunity still.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Dammit, I love giant dump trucks.

Once they become driverless I can never look at them again without thinking of _Maximum Overdrive_. =(

</comment><comment><USER9> One interesting factoid--women are easier on these trucks better than man. At least that's what the tour guide told me when I toured some of the oil sands a couple years ago.

But even thought women are better than men by being easier on the trucks, robots can be as gentle as possible. That is something that isn't discussed as much--robotic control can be as fuel efficient as possible and as easy on equipment as possible. Driverless trucks will not only save labor costs but they will be better on the equipment.

</comment><comment><USER10> If you're getting paid $200,000 to do drive a set route in a truck then you deserve to be replaced by a robot. The justification for getting paid this much for such a monotonous job is ridiculous. Their union better be sweating.

<comment><USER4> Maybe, but look at those trucks, they're the size of a building. If you screw up you could do a hell of a lot of damage. I presume the $200k salary is a reflection of the supply & demand for that particular driving skill.

<comment><USER11> None of the risk is bore by the truck driver. If they screw up or destroy the equipment they might be sued for negligence, at worse. Risk of lives is somewhat less compared to slamming a school bus into a busy intersection. It is not clear if the risk is bore by the company because the equipment is insured, maybe they will get higher insurance rates.

$200k salary comes from living the middle of nowhere, and indeed the work of the unions.

The pay for this kind of a gig has gone up dramatically in the last 3 decades. On the other hand, despite the 200k salary the the industry remains profitable, as they simply stick their hands in the ground and pull out money.

<comment><USER4> Your response is meaningless.

If I'm not willing to pay the going rate for a competent megatruck driver in a remote location, and an incompetent driver wrecks a heap of equipment that ends up costing me millions of dollars, then I may well ask myself why I cheaped out instead of just spending $200k/year on a driver with the desired skillset and experience.

I never suggested in any way that such wages were reflective of drivers' costs of doing business or liability insurance, and don't know where you got such an idea. I think the high salary is a function of both the remote location _and_ the particular skills/experience needed to operate a truck that can weigh up to 600 tons when loaded. The trucks themselves cost a few million dollars each, I believe.

<comment><USER11> US miltary equipment, such as plains and tanks cost more and require more experience. Its not about finding competant drivers.

<comment><USER4> Working in the military isn't a regular job, and people who enlist in the military sign a very restrictive contract, so the normal laws of supply and demand don't apply. Internally the military is, by definition, a command-and- control economy.

[http://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/making- commitment....](http://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/making- commitment.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Kill it or use Flash? (don't say flash please) - <AUTHOR>

I've had this weekend project for a while now that's more or less reached it's natural end. Here it is:
http://www.ZoomRead.com
One frequently asked thing I've found is that people don't want to use Silverlight with it. I've implemented a pure script version (you see it if you don't have SL) but the performance is nowhere near as good. This just now leaves flash...
I'm not keen to use ActionScript etc but not sure what else to do. So HN, is it time to kill my weekender just as a fun learning project or is it worth knuckling down and going flashy/flexy on this baby? <comment><USER2> So far it looks like a really cool site!

A couple of things: First off, using Silverlight or Flash will drive away the free-software-only users (though comparatively, that's a pretty small number), so if you do go with Flash, keep the JavaScript version.

Second, is there anyway you could go with Python or Perl? Those languages can usually be implemented better, they're compatible with almost all browsers (no extra plugin needed), and they're free. Java is also a good language to try, though some will disagree with me on that. :)

EDIT: _cough cough_ Had that backwards! Sorry! :)

Other than that, great job!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

In terms of the browser front-end it uses a mix of jscript and Silverlight. The pure jscript alternative is still quite nice, but hard to make any faster (Chrome works best). You can see it here even if you have Silverlight (Windows/Mac, with Moonlight on Linux - man, that's slow though...)

<http://www.zoomread.com/ZoomReadjs.html?map=2010-10-03_04-40>

The 'back-end' is all Python, as in the server generates tiles as it goes and dumps it out for the front-end to find (the browser bit).

I think with any new site it's hard unless you use completely open software with no browser dependencies, as any barrier can become a stumbling block.

Linux/OSX/iOS is (I think, happy to be wrong here) the primary desktop of a lot of leading tech people - and if they can't use my app then it's hard to reach 'mainstream' people. I think ZoomRead will fall victim to that unfortunately...

PS Had a blast doing it though! :)

<comment><USER3> Where is the bottleneck in the JS version? The major browsers are coming close to releasing GPU-accelerated canvas. You might just be a bit early...

For example: the JS version is choppy, but usable at 2560x1600 in Chrome on a PhenomIIx4. However, if I switch to the Chrome Canary build (<http://tools.google.com/dlpage/chromesxs>) with --enable- accelerated-2d-canvas it is significantly less choppy. At 1920x1200 it is downright snappy.

<comment><AUTHOR> The bottleneck is mainly in rendering. Plus I actually took a lot of 'blur n zoom' effects out already (which is where the silverlight version really excels I think). I'll put them back in and retry (it's a kind of blend like anim)

I'll check out the 2d canvas - thanks for that. Ironically the IE 9 works very well too, although that group of users always seem to have Silverlight already :)

With traffic non-existent to the site it might just be too early, or perhaps some best suited as a native iOS app instead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I ran it with silverlight. A couple of points:

I was using my thinkpad and could not zoom in/out (a problem with some sites) using the scroll (nib+middle button).

Could this not be done with HTML5? Canvas? I was thinking while this is kind of inefficient on my laptop it would be pretty cool on an iPad or large format touch device.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think the technology you end up using should be something you will want to use on future projects. For example, if you endup choosing flash, will you want to keep doing flash stuff?. This fun project will serve as something to bring more attention. So what are you working on next? use it as a trampolin to build on your next skills.

<comment><AUTHOR> My next project is more about pure HTML5, so I'm unlikely to want to keep flash around. Good advice, in that ZoomRead was good to finish up as I had enjoyed working on it - flash, not so much for me I think.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I fail at clickable title text, so:

<http://www.ZoomRead.com>

</comment><comment><USER6> Your site is great, and the js version works fine for me.</comment>


Show HN: Aiveo – Free issue tracking tool - <AUTHOR> http://aiveo.ca

<comment><USER2> What happened in 6 days?? The site now shows:

"We regret to announce that Aiveo has been shut down due to unforeseen circumstances. All user information has been deleted from our databases. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us at email@example.com. Many thanks to all our visitors for your time and support! We appreciate your interest in Aiveo."

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Just thought I'd continue with some discussion. While it may seem like Aiveo is really simplistic and doesn't have the features of some of our competitors, this was done somewhat intentionally. We want Aiveo to be a community built product with lots of feedback and feature requests. What we have now is a solid and simple base for which we can quickly and easily build off of. So that means we need your feedback and criticism. Don't hold back, if you think it sucks, say so. But also tell us how we could make it not suck. Thanks everyone so far for trying it out and providing your feedback. Your support won't go unnoticed.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can't see any more detail than your very sparse splash page. Bigger screenshot? walkthrough video? anything? You haven't sold me enough on the product to get my email address yet.

<comment><AUTHOR> We appreciate the feedback. We will try to get some more details and screenshots on the home page soon. Hopefully you'll try it out in the future!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Anybody who signs up before Decemeber 31st, 2014, will receive a 50% off coupon for their first year once the beta is complete.</comment>


Resurrecting Apple ][ code from a 1980 B movie - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy1l_2MfHbE <comment><USER2> This guy has a really interesting hobby and the result are these interesting videos. Sadly he stopped making them about 6 months ago, maybe he got bored or ran out of movie code...

<comment><AUTHOR> No. I was just busy being CTO of Cloudflare. I have research completed on about another 6 films/TV series and I'll get to them at some point. Some of those videos took _a lot_ of work. Hours and hours of research.

For example, for Westworld [1] I had to track down original 1970s journal articles about the making of the film and manuals for long dead hardware. For The Terminator [2] I had to buy scanned copies of Nibble magazine and then track down the exact references to what's on screen.

All of the research in my videos is very carefully done and original and I make sure that what I am saying is accurate. That takes time. So a three minute video might be hours and hours of work even before writing the script, getting suitable screenshots and recording the video.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzvbAm0y8YQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzvbAm0y8YQ)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRnnjoiSV-U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRnnjoiSV-U)

<comment><USER2> Hey it's great to hear from you, I hoped you were okay :) All the work you have done to support these videos is evident and what makes them great. I look forward to when you get around to more of them. thanks again for making these.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I keep meaning to get around to Black Mirror where there's an Expect script. And I spent forever getting accepted into the WordPerfect Macro community to look at an old episode of The Outer Limits.

One day I'll have time...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Some people have way too much time on their hand. But thanks goodness for emulators.

<comment><AUTHOR> Some people have passions.</comment></comment>


The military keeps encountering UFOs. Why doesn't the Pentagon care? - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-military-keeps-encountering-ufos-why-doesnt-the-pentagon-care/2018/03/09/242c125c-22ee-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html <comment><USER2> "UFOs" are most certainly experimental US craft and airframes, and the UFO myth is fueled by Air Force psychological warfare, disinformation, and the public's vulnerability to it.

A good read is Mark Pilkington's Mirage Men, there's also a documentary to accompany the book[1][2].

As far as this article, however, it seems to be advertising for Tom Delonge's "To The Stars" media company[3].

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Mirage-Men-Adventure-Espionage- Psycho...](https://www.amazon.com/Mirage-Men-Adventure-Espionage- Psychological/dp/1602398003)

[2] [https://www.amazon.com/Mirage-Men-Robert-J- Durant/dp/B00IXPQ...](https://www.amazon.com/Mirage-Men-Robert-J- Durant/dp/B00IXPQUCQ)

[3] [http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Crowdfunding- New-...](http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Crowdfunding-New- Extraterrestrial-Technologies-121848.asp)

</comment><comment><USER3> Probably because someone high enough up the chain knows what they are (alien or not) and is killing investigation of them. Maybe they're experimental US tech, but whoever knows isn't saying, and doesn't want others to know.

</comment><comment><USER4> The author should probably frame it as a national security threat.

We can be almost certain we won't be able to predict exactly what exactly a will UFO will look like or how they will approach, which creates enough insecurity where it's worth having a team or small agency dedicated to looking at these anomalies where it possibly won't be a total surprise when it does happen...

It wouldn't take much of the countless billions spent on random DoD projects to build a simple cross-agency database for tracking events with comparable parameters and a single liaison/analyst person representing each major branch (army/navy/space) to keep track of this stuff and compare notes.

It's at least as plausible a scenario as many of the more radical DARPA research projects which get approval and would be popular among the tax paying public who finances these projects.

</comment><comment><USER5> Because they are a waste of time. Either they're ours or something else entirely. If these were "little green men from another planet", we'd have figured that out a long time ago and we'd all be a space-faring species by now (maybe we already are?). I want to believe but perhaps this whole phenomenon is a mirage...sure, evidence of "something" but maybe not what we think at all.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is a duplicate: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16559423](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16559423)</comment>


Skin colour map: skin colour & latitude - <AUTHOR> http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/skin-colour-map-indigenous-people

<comment><USER2> Clearly proximity to the equator is an important effect (the horizontal banding). Can anybody explain the variations not running north/south?</comment>


Mark Williams Company Sources - <AUTHOR> http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/source.php <comment><USER2> In case you're wondering, Bob Swartz is aaronsw's dad.

If you ever want to write a manual, have a look here:

[http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/manual.php](http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/manual.php)

It was by far the best book available at the time, and my copy outlasted the use of the software by a decade (and then it fell apart!).

<comment><USER3> I agree. My company bought me a copy of Coherent back around 1992 so I could brush up on finding my way around Unix because we took a bunch of SCO Unix boxes on maintenance contract (I was a field engineer). The manual was top notch, I think I might have mine in a box somewhere.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I was reminiscing about Coherent today and, lo and behold, it had been open sourced just a few weeks ago! I always felt it was a cool little operating system, even if it was in essence just a clone.

<comment><USER4> re: being a clone - Not at all dissimilar to Linux. >smile<

Years ago a couple of friends and I huddled around a System V Unix manual at our public library and discussed how exciting it would be to actually have a Unix machine we could use. I remember seeing an ad for Coherent in a magazine for, if memory serves, $99.00, and hatching a scheme to get my friends to pitch in with me and buy it so that we could have that Unix machine we wanted. (The plan ended up falling apart, sadly...)

Maybe now I'll actually take some time to play with it. Could be a good use of the old 286 I've been hanging on to.</comment></comment>


A Tiny Nation Got Filthy Rich Overnight - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eec0OLOvVMU <comment><USER2> It's a typical problem with investment. People who get rich in one industry suddenly think they have the expertise to cross industries, and it seldom ever works that way.</comment>


Dove releases rogue Photoshop action that undoes 'real beauty' manipulations - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/6/4070254/dove-real-beauty-campaign-photoshop-beautify-action-scam

<comment><USER2> It's just marketing. Dove's parent company sells a tonne of beauty products by marketing unrealistic expectations of beauty.

Good on Dove for trying, but it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth as I can't get past their corporate duplicity.

</comment><comment><USER3> Am I right to understand that Dove is misleading people as to what this app does? This doesn't seem to be the best way to advance their cause.</comment>


The soul of a new machine (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://nevalalee.wordpress.com/2018/11/13/the-soul-of-a-new-machine/ <comment><USER2> Sadly not the Tracy Kidder version...

</comment><comment><USER3> this article by the same author is also very interesting:

[https://nevalalee.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/the-kitsch-of- sur...](https://nevalalee.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/the-kitsch-of-survival-2/)</comment>


Ask YC: How to pay payroll taxes? - <AUTHOR> Hi All,
I'm looking for suggestions on how to pay payroll and payroll taxes. I currently use Zenefits but the price for 1 employee is $760/year. Seems high to me.
Thanks <comment><USER2> Gusto, ~$14 a month iirc, this is what I use

<comment><AUTHOR> Unless I misunderstand it looks like its $45/month. Which comes out to $540/year.

[https://gusto.com/product/pricing](https://gusto.com/product/pricing)

<comment><USER2> Oh yeah, there are flat fee per month options, then a number of per person plans</comment></comment></comment>


Automated tests for your infrastructure code - <AUTHOR> https://terratest.gruntwork.io/ <comment><USER2> Great tip. I've been using Molecule [1] to write my Ansible roles. It's good to be able to write your tests before heading to your roles. It also makes it easier to reuse roles.

[1] [https://github.com/ansible- community/molecule](https://github.com/ansible-community/molecule)</comment>


Pricing Experiments You Might Not Know, But Can Learn From - <AUTHOR> http://conversionxl.com/pricing-experiments-you-might-not-know-but-can-learn-from/ <comment><USER3> I remember a great discussion my class had in our high school Econ class about why "pay what you want" fails so often:

The basic working theory of an economic exchange between parties is that the exchange happens because both parties feel like they are getting more value post-exchange than pre-exchange. I agree to pay you $5 for a sandwich because I have decided that the sandwich is more valuable to me (in my hungry state) than this $5 bill (even if only marginally so) and you have decided that $5 in the register is better than keeping the bread, cheese and meat in the kitchen. It works. If the sandwich were $20, I might not make the same value judgment. Possibly even if it were $7.

When you throw "pay what you want" into the transaction, in theory, you're actually breaking that structure. I'm no longer getting MORE value from the sandwich than from my money - by definition, I'm getting exactly the same value.

So even though the consumer is deciding on pricing, that subtle feeling of "getting a deal" goes away and consumers on the whole actually feel less intrinsically satisfied with the purchase.

<comment><USER4> Interesting point.

I have only one experience at a restaurant that was "pay what you want" and I found the whole thing uncomfortable. Am I paying too little? Am I paying too much? In the end I decided that the uncertainty detracted from my enjoyment so much that I never returned to that restaurant. I much prefer knowing what the price is upfront.

On a related note: I also hate stores where you don't find out the price until you are at the register. It might get a few more dollars out of me the first time I come in, but I won't come back. I guess it makes sense at places like airports where you don't have a huge amount of return customer.

<comment><USER5> Glad I'm not the only one who feels the same way about it. Even if it's only a couple bucks difference, the uncertainty adds a whole layer of anxiety for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1\. I tried "pay what you want" while doing pro photography gig and it didn't work well at all - people got confused, people didn't know what to pay and just left without buying anything.

Bottom line #1: people need to be told what to do, including how much money they need to give.

2\. When selling subscriptions (I'm the author of MemberWing - <USER2> plugin allowing bloggers to sell flexible subscription packages to sell access to premium content) it is wiser to charge flat fee yearly access instead of montlhy access. Why? Because what people are willing to pay today is _way_ different from what people are willing to pay tomorrow. Why yearly? Impulse buyers! When person is excited - he is willing to buy more and pay more.

Bottom line #2: Monetize positive emotion! It may not last long :)

<comment><USER7> "Pay what you want" can give the impression that the seller doesn't believe what they are selling has any significant value.

Also, it's easier for the average person to "feel" if something is too expensive or not if it has a real, fixed price. Especially if it is something that is not necessarily utilitarian, like art.

I agree though. People need to be told what to do. This is one of the drivers behind frameworks. They reduce the number of decisions and things to think about for developers. Clearly not the only reason, but a significant one I think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Previous discussion:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4370904>

</comment><comment><USER9> Is there any data on offering a lower first-months or first-years price on a subscription deal? (i.e. "Pay $2.99 for your first month!" with "$7.99 a month thereafter" in smaller print)

</comment><comment><USER10> Awesome article. I'm glad someone has resposted it here.

</comment><comment><USER11> Site's offline.

<comment><USER12> HN traffic took it down. Keep trying :)</comment></comment>


House Republicans release watershed copyright reform paper - <AUTHOR> http://boingboing.net/2012/11/17/house-republicans-release-wate.html

<comment><USER2> Alas, the blowback was swift, and the Republicans caved: [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121117/16492521084/that-w...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121117/16492521084/that- was-fast-hollywood-already-browbeat-republicans-into-retracting-report- copyright-reform.shtml)

<comment><USER3> This makes me _really_ sad. I was so excited when I heard news of this report earlier in the day :(

<comment><USER4> Why sad? It just proves the point - they probably weren't sincere to begin with.

<comment><USER3> I was hopeful that something actually might change. Call me naive if you will :(

<comment><USER4> Even if some within there would want it, others would sabotage any such attempt. Their dependence on lobbyist money is too strong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I actually have a lot of sympathy for the traditional "conservative" values of limited government, personal liberty and accountability, and fiscal conservatism.

If the Republicans ever get tired of using race baiting, warmongering and decoy social wedge issues to elect self-serving plutocrats and starts actually doing something to promote these values it's possible I might even vote for one of them some day.

<comment><USER6> You need to be the change you want to see. Become a moderate Republican. That's what I did. Seriously.

<comment><USER7> What exactly is a moderate republican? Sounds like a closet libertarian..

<comment><USER6> Libertarians are, to me, more about rigid ideology.

<comment><USER7> Isn't ideology rigid by definition? What's the alternative? Pseudo principles?

<comment><USER6> Pragmatism. The realization that taxes can be too low or too high, or that we cold be spending too much or not enough, or that the conflict isn't between too much or not enough regulation but between good and bad regulation.

<comment><USER7> You're confusing intuition with pragmatism.

<comment><USER6> Maybe. Although I like to think that being reality-based on ones approach is more pragmatic than intuitive :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Already being discussed here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4797036>

</comment><comment><USER9> The pulled report is still available here: [http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/rsc_policy_brief_--...](http://keionline.org/sites/default/files/rsc_policy_brief_ --_three_myths_about_copyright_law_and_where_to_start_to_fix_it_-- _november_16_2012.pdf)</comment>


Smarter Ranking with Bayesian Average Ratings - <AUTHOR> http://www.evanmiller.org/bayesian-average-ratings.html <comment><USER2> The proof in the mathematical appendix can be simplified and generalized a bit.

To avoid confusion I'll let 'S' be the score and 'R' the random variable representing the _actual_ rating. In that case the 'loss' (denoted by L) as defined in the article is (R - S) if R > S and k(S - R) if R < S.

Now the goal is to minimize the expected loss E[L]. Assuming everything is well behaved, the optimal value S should satisfy:

        dE[L] / dS = 0.

and therefore

        0 = E[ dL / dS ]
          = E[ dL/dS | R>S ] P[R>S] + E[ dL/dS | R<S ] P[R<S]
          = (-1) P[R<S] + (k) P[R<S]
          = (P[R<S] - 1) + k P[R<S].

Solving this last line results in the formula:

        P[R<S] = 1 / (1+k).

Now note that P[R<S] is the cumulative distribution of R, which in the case that R has a beta distribution is the incomplete beta function.

In fact, all the formula tells you is that if being too high is k times worse than being too low, you should try to place your estimate such that it is k times more likely that you're too low than that you're too high. Which seems kind of obvious really, but I guess it's nice to have a proof.</comment>


Where did we get the name Xobni? - <AUTHOR> http://www.xobni.com/blog/2008/05/15/where-did-we-get-the-name-xobni/ <comment><USER2> I never really loved that domain.

I understand the reason behind it, and its great to have a fabricated word as it's very trademarkable... but it never sat with me well.

<comment><USER3> Maybe "InboxAdvisor" [snort] is better?

<comment><USER4> RosivdaXobni.com still available.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I for one am relieved that they removed the macron from the 'o'. Why in the world would you go out of your way to put a diacritic there if you don't even follow its pronunciation rule?

<comment><USER4> It was causing me sleepless nights as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I like the current logo. After reading this, it makes me wonder how much time was spent worrying whether the reflected 'b' should be forwards or backwards.

<comment><USER7> Interesting how it pulls out a somewhat subtle observation about letters.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> _Finally, my Photoshop skills improved and I discovered my new favorite font: Trebuchet MS_

This made me chuckle.

</comment><comment><USER9> Xobni's marketing strategy is as memorable as Serutan's: in both cases you have to immediately explain what the word is ("It's Nature's Spelled Backward!"). Normally the goal of positioning is to own a word or phrase in the prospect's mind, this approach may be as ill-fated as Volkswagen's "Farfegnugen" campaign.</comment>


E-Ink Is Dead, Pixel Qi's Amazing Transflective LCD Just Killed It - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5443895/e+ink-is-dead-pixel-qis-amazing-transflective-lcd-just-killed-it <comment><USER2> I wonder, is there any possibility at all that the iThing will have one of these displays? It would seem to be a perfect match.</comment>


Made addictive iOS game. See if you can collect colors - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/color-tiles-dont-tap-wrong/id905643147?mt=8

<comment><AUTHOR> Has anybody tried out? Can you think of any improvement ? Is it too hard to play ?</comment>


Mass-Scale Cold Fusion a Success? - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/29/rossi-success <comment><USER2> If it sounds too good to be true...?

No graphs, no public measurements, no scientific publication: no merit.

Honest inventors want to be transparent and have their historical claim validated by top-ranking organisation. Clearly another case of wired.com diving into the fantastic and inspirational. Just search and see what their methodology is over the past months. Just invest a bit more money and we can do a bigger test... Nice income source, not an energy source.

Just look at how the media is being manipulated. Amusing if it wasn't a waste of time and resources.

<comment><USER3> _Clearly another case of wired.com diving into the fantastic and inspirational._

Actually, _Ny Teknik_ , one of the publications cited in the article, is a serious engineering/technology news publication. They do voice strong concerns, so I wouldn't say the media is obviously manipulated.

<comment><USER4> That's the problem. It's a classic con technique. They get a few respectable organizations to cover you and write articles like "2011's Cold Fusion Fraud", and then they go around promoting their product as "Featured in _Ny Teknik_!"

You can't defeat a con with a rational discussion. The solution is to shun or propagandize back.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I really want to believe it works, but this cloak and dagger stuff is killing me. Anonymous customer, technical glitch preventing it from generating the advertised megawatt, connected power cable? Is it real or not?

Then again, with Starlite we have real videos showing that it withstands at least a torch, yet nobody commercialized the stuff, because the inventor was supposedly too greedy... what a shame.

<comment><USER6> You would think that anyone with half a brain would have foreseen that not disconnecting the 500KW generator from the set up would look suspicious. But neither the inventor nor the customer had this insight?

It's also very suspicious for the planned 1000KW output to be reduced to the exact output level of the generator.

<comment><USER7> I don't believe this is real for a second, though I would love it to be. But I wonder why, if it was connected to the grid, did they not just produce the expected 1MW...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> As described, no independent validation, power cable connected, all smoke and mirrors; it's an egregious wrong to call that a "test".

<comment><USER9> Add to that it's all being done by an ex-convict entrepreneur and it looks to me like the only reason this is a story is because it's a story. He did a good job hyping it.

<comment><USER10> I don't think, after a very cursory review of some of the reports on this E-cat stuff, that yours is a fair summary.

He didn't just do a good job "hyping" it, it seems, but a good job selling it too. I don't mean selling in the exchange of goods/services sense but he appears to have won some high profile support.

For example:

"Rossi has licensed the technology to a start-up called Ampenergo. Though new, the company has credentials; one of its founders is Robert Gentile, Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy at the US Department of Energy (DOE) in the 90's." (Wired, [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/06/e-cat-cold- fu...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-10/06/e-cat-cold- fusion?page=2))

"Together with Sergio Focardi, professor emeritus at the University of Bologna, and Giuseppe Levi, a professor in the university's Department of Physics, the trio claimed a low-energy nuclear reaction device that produced extraordinarily large amounts of excess heat." (from a New Energy Times article strongly criticising Rossi, [http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2011/08/07/rossis- scientific-...](http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2011/08/07/rossis-scientific- failure-in-seven-steps/)).

And again: "On March 29, two Swedish professors went to Bologna, expenses paid by Rossi, to see Rossi's device in action. Sven Kullander is professor emeritus at Uppsala University and chairman of the Swedish National Academy of Sciences Energy Committee. Hanno Essén is associate professor of theoretical physics and a lecturer at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology and was the chairman of the Swedish Skeptics Association until April, when he declined to run again. On April 3, they wrote a report endorsing Rossi's claim." (New Energy Times again, <http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2011/37/3705report3.shtml>)

Clearly there's a bit more to this than just a convict hyping some vapourware.

I'm not saying you can't fool professors of physics however.

From the little I've read it seems that there is an assumption being made (see <http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2011/37/3705report3.shtml>, "Steam quality ...") that all of the water is being ejected as dry steam when it is probably wet steam, steam mixed with a fog of droplets of water. This error leads to vastly inflated calculations for the emitted energy.

However, that wouldn't explain the current ½MW demonstration ...

It's going to be interesting to see how this one breaks down.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> So I'm guessing this guy invented the bit about his secret customer too. Hired some actors in lab coats to play engineers from said company.

</comment><comment><USER12> Other discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3170907>

Frankly I'm assuming it's a scam, or at best very very badly named, until we find out more details.

</comment><comment><USER13> Leaving aside the speculation about whether this is real or not, the E-Cat is not cold fusion.

Rossi: "is not cold fusion but weak [force] nuclear reactions."

New energy times quote from Rossi - [http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2011/36/3626-energycatalyz...](http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2011/36/3626-energycatalyzer.shtml) Wikipedia - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer>

<comment><USER14> "New Energy Times" is published by Rossi. Why are we all still talking about this nonsense.

<comment><USER10> In which case he publishes a lot of dissenting matter, <http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2011/37/3705report3.shtml>. Wouldn't that suggest that he believes the process works too?

Or is it your contention that this is all part of a huge fraud and that publicly annihilating his own claims is part of Rossi's method?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> If they used US tax dollars to buy this, there would be serious hell to pay.

<comment><USER16> What if the secret investor is Solyndra? ;)

<comment><USER17> If that were true then it would represent a microscopically small fraction of the taxpayer money wasted on experiments and prototypes performed every year on behalf of the defense department.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Question in Headline?

Answer: no.

</comment><comment><USER18> They should sell energy, not that power plant. You don't sell duck that lays golden eggs. Obvious scam.

<comment><USER19> Not necessarily. If I'd invented a wacko free energy source (and I don't believe for a moment that they have) then I'd sell the machines, or the patent to the machine, and not the energy.

Why? Because I don't want to spend the rest of my life running a utility company.</comment></comment>


Thermally Chargeable Solid-State Supercapacitor - <AUTHOR> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aenm.201600546/full <comment><USER2> see also previous work

[http://rdcu.be/mF3f](http://rdcu.be/mF3f)

Thermally chargeable supercapacitor working in a homogeneous, changing temperature field Hyuck Lim, Yang Shi, Yu Qiao

First Online: 22 March 2016

DOI: 10.1007/s00339-016-9981-2

Cite this article as: Lim, H., Shi, Y. & Qiao, Y. Appl. Phys. A (2016) 122: 443. doi:10.1007/s00339-016-9981-2

With a nickel-coated carbon nanotube or nanoporous carbon-based electrode, the thermal sensitivity and the electrode surface area are enhanced simultaneously, leading to a high output voltage around 100–160 mV and a high specific energy of 600–1800 mJ per gram of electrode material in each thermal cycle, with a mild temperature range of ~50 °C.</comment>


Lyft is building a self-driving platform with auto supplier Magna - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/14/lyft-is-building-a-self-driving-platform-with-auto-supplier-magna/ <comment><USER2> This seems to me like it would be an extremely short-term play, wouldn't it be? Company X gets an early source on self-driving cars and begins taking over Ubers market. Then consumers start getting self-driving cars. And someone else develops an app to let those people rent their cars when not being used and destroys Company Xs market. In the extreme, a company pops up and offers people free or drastically reduced cost self-driving cars so long as they dedicate a certain number of hours a week to the self-driving rental network. At the end of the day, the whole rideshare thing is an information service. A few servers running an API that client apps can communicate with. And the servers are optional. Building a purely p2p version of it would be slightly more challenging, but one would think market forces might pressure towards that. And at that point, only the people actually offering value, the ones providing vehicles, will be the ones making money from ridesharing.

<comment><USER3> People stop owning cars once SDC is dominant is the theory

<comment><USER4> I'm extremely skeptical lyft is replacing anyone's car. The "sweet spot" is cities, and you probably already didn't need a car if lyft is all you need.

Meanwhile, leaving the city would be extremely expensive and unreliable with lyft.

<comment><USER5> You can't take a self-driving Lyft to the airport or the self-driving bus terminal?

<comment><USER4> I don't think either go to where I would like to spend time. If you want to go into the country, you need a car. A bus could get you to a place, but everything would be so spread out you'd have to hitchhike or use crazily expensive taxis—i'm talking 1$/minute here.

But, I see your point about going to other large public transit areas and I agree wholeheartedly. It's already about twenty times cheaper to BART to SFO than to grab a lyft. Yet I grab the lyft anyway....

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The info-link to Magna is wrong. This is Magna: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_International](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_International)

</comment><comment><USER7> Is this another round of investment, from Magna, or has this already been accounted for in the previous raise?</comment>


Ask HN: What's your blog/website stack look like? - <AUTHOR> I'm hoping to discover some new blogs to follow and I'm also interested in what stacks are being used :) <comment><USER2> I blog about React, Redux, and related topics, at [http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/](http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/) . Just using Hugo, a variation on the "Vienna" theme, and Markdown content. Loving it so far.</comment>


2,891 Murdoch Media Stories Trashing Islam in a Single Year, Study Reveals - <AUTHOR> https://newmatilda.com/2018/03/03/2891-murdoch-stories-trashing-islam-single-year-study-reveals/ <comment><USER2> So about 8 per day distributed across 5 media outlets.

It's also important to highlight the article's last two paragraphs as it constrasts significantly with the tone of the headline:

> Articles were regarded as "negative articles written about Islam", if they > "referred to Islam or Muslims alongside words like violence, extremism, > terrorism or radical". It should be noted – this is a pretty expansive > definition. A story that accurately reported a noteworthy incident of Muslim > violence, without being inflammatory or misrepresenting material facts, and > which had the respectful cooperation of Muslims, would still be caught up > under this definition.

> Indeed, the definition could go further. A report that noted Muslim women in > a non-government organisation helping victims of domestic violence might > also be caught up under this definition. It should also be noted – there is > an implicit slippage, in the sense that a negative story about Muslims isn't > necessarily a story about Islam. Thus, I would argue that the definition may > be overbroad.

Edit: Originally, I erroneously wrote that this was 8 per day across all Murdoch owned outlets. That is not the case, it is among 5 specific ones.

<comment><USER3> About 8 per day too many, no?

<comment><USER4> Wouldn't that depend on accuracy? You're assuming here that all negative press for Islam is necessarily evil, which is false. Negative press isn't the same as bigotry.

Incidentally, I would be interested in the amount of negative coverage, say, the Catholic Church gets in the media as a point of comparison, perhaps especially in the left-leaning media.

<comment><USER5> Just because you present the facts doesn't mean you aren't biased.

Note the focus of some of these articles on individual incidents in a civil war, for example a particular group of predominantly Muslims killing a lot of Christians on a particular day. The reporter neglects to cover the other six days of the week when many more Muslims were killed by this group.

Is that fair coverage? Does it appear to be accurate? Is it negative about Islam?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > A story that accurately reported a noteworthy incident of Muslim violence, > without being inflammatory or misrepresenting material facts, and which had > the respectful cooperation of Muslims, would still be caught up under this > definition.

So, they're not separating factual reporting from fake news about islam? How does this not _entirely_ invalidate the study?

Yes, islam gets discussed a lot... but islamist extremism is a global problem. Calling criticism of islam "islamophobia" is incredibly counterproductive. The more we try to clamp down on criticism of islam, the more we stoke anti- islamist fears and hatreds.

This pisses me off as much as seeing people still defending convicted pedophiles like George Pell because they're catholic clergy.

I get that people like their religions. That doesn't mean those religions should be placed above reproach. We need to make a clear distinction between criticism of islam and islamophobia. As far as I can see (since I refuse to disable my anti-tracking and anti-ad plugins on a strange site) the study the article is talking about doesn't do that.

</comment><comment><USER7> > Articles were regarded as "negative articles written about Islam", if they > "referred to Islam or Muslims alongside words like violence, extremism, > terrorism or radical". It should be noted – this is a pretty expansive > definition.

One important question is how many of these stories are substancially true?

It is one thing to call for the suppression of false stories. It is another thing entirely to call for the suppression of true stories.

Does this, then, mean that true stories are automatically OK? Not necessarily; Weak men are Superweapons: [https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men- are-superweap...](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/05/12/weak-men-are- superweapons/)

</comment><comment><USER8> This goes right to the heart of the division we see today. The "endless state of war" Orwell warned about in 1984, is not just wars between nations, or proxy wars ~ we see it in the democratic systems as wars between factions of the population.

The system has an incentive to never produce a victor, only to prolong the conflict.

Much fighting in these wars occurs in social and traditional media, centered around "battleground topics", the OP being a clear example.

The OP is an example of a message in the battleground topic of "Islam vs the West" (aside: which is actually historically incorrect since Islam really can be said to be closer to the West than separate from it, one reason is that Islam revived Europe / Western civilization around the Mediterranean 1000 years ago [1]).

The OP article supports for the Islam side, one of many such articles. There are also many articles supporting the West side of this battleground topic.

The system will not permit there to be a conclusion to the argument, it is actually motivated to promote both sides, because this constant state of conflict is stabilizing to the democratic systems.

[1]: read this book, [https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now- Patterns/dp/031261...](https://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now- Patterns/dp/0312611692)

<comment><USER9> Given that 1 million Europeans were kidnapped as slaves by Arabs, and both Spain and Sicily having been conquered by Muslims, and how most of the Yugoslavian region was called the "Military Frontier" for _three centuries_ due to the Ottoman incursions it had to guard against, how on Earth do you arrive at "Islam vs the West" being historically inaccurate?

<comment><USER8> No offence, but it seems to me you want to see "Islam" and "the West" as a conflict. Maybe that story of Islam and the West in conflict has been manufactured, and your response (like many others') is desired by, and plays into the hands of, those who benefit from manufacturing conflict.

<comment><USER10> How much of history do you believe is a fabrication? Do you believe the Battle of Vienna possibly never happened?

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

<comment><USER8> I didn't say facts didn't happen. I said the stories we make of them are optional.

I assume I know the same facts as you, and I choose a different interpretation. But maybe that's not true, maybe the facts you and I know are different.

If you read the entire book, I think you'll know why I say Islam is part of the West, not versus it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> One potentially useful context would be how this compares to other religions.

A quick internet search tells me there are about 1.5 billion Muslims in the world and about 2.19 billion Christians.

If we consider the amount of media attention the various catholic churches have been receiving it isn't difficult to believe the number of "negative" stories could be _much_ higher than ~3000 per year.

Does anyone know if this comparison has been done?

</comment><comment><USER12> From the article

> It's a shame that the study didn't investigate other media more fully. .... > Interestingly, though Fairfax has considerably less coverage of Muslims than > the Murdoch press, it's still pretty substantial, at over 100 every month. > That is, over three negative stories every day at the less Islam-obsessed > Fairfax. ...

I hate this kind of "study". It is impossible to put them in context.

\- Are those media generally negative toward everything, or just Islam?

\- How many Islam stories do they publish?

\- How many positive Islam stories do they publish?

\- How many are objective facts? How many are commentary?

\- How does this number compare to, let's say, Christian / Scientology / science etc?

</comment><comment><USER13> It'd be interesting to see the numbers from another media conglomerate for comparison.

<comment><USER14> The subheadline says "And before you Fairfax readers say 'I told you so', they didn't fare all that much better."

<comment><USER12> I think the media are generally negative towards everything, not just islam. Negative story attracts more eyeballs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> HN, is that you?:) When we touch on a slightly non-PC subject, we get slammed immediately by moderators. Then you allow this??!!

</comment><comment><USER16> The credibility of the Imam of Peace being called into question is a new thing for me. I follow him on social media and find his overall message to be uplifting and positive.

This post questions his title and Wikipedia states he's a self proclaimed Imam. His website seems to reference some authorities claiming hes legit: [https://imamtawhidi.com/licenses/](https://imamtawhidi.com/licenses/)

He's far from perfect in all of his messaging but overall his messages are positive.</comment>


Who's Who: Using machine learning to identify the cast from Parks and Recreation - <AUTHOR> http://blog.algorithmia.com/post/130768558569/whos-who-facial-recognition-made-simple <comment><USER2> I tried with a picture of Aziz Ansari ([https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/aziz_ansari.jp...](https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/aziz_ansari.jpg)) and it guessed Jim O'Heir, which I got a kick out of.

</comment><comment><USER3> I tried this image:

[http://ia.media- imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY2MjQ2MzAwOF5BMl5Ban...](http://ia.media- imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTY2MjQ2MzAwOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMzAzMTc4NTE@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg)

And it suggested Nick Offerman :)

Cool exploration though!

</comment><comment><USER4> It seems to fail (in funny ways) on actors that are not in Parks and Recreation.

<comment><USER5> Most ML models will only work with what they were trained on. In this case only actors from parks and rec

<comment><USER4> Shouldn't there be a measure of error to decide that it is not any of of them?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not sure what it's trying to suggest ;) [http://i.imgur.com/KfGH6Rb.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/KfGH6Rb.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER7> I tried three pictures of Nick Offerman, and it only got one.

</comment><comment><USER8> Didn't recognize L'il Sebastian. Total Fail. =)</comment>


The Talk - <AUTHOR> http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-4 <comment><USER3> I'd like to see more complex topics explained this way. Imagine an organic chemistry comic novel!

I think people make a lot of topics seem way more complicated than they need to be, probably to make themselves feel important.

<comment><USER4> In that case, I recommend "The Manga Guide to ..." series. [1]

I haven't read all of them, but they're a good attempt. (If you enjoy or can tolerate the quirkiness of japanese manga style.)

Check out The Manga Guide to Databases

[https://smile.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Databases-Mana- Takahash...](https://smile.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Databases-Mana- Takahashi/dp/1593271905)

or The Manga Guide to Statistics

[https://smile.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Statistics-Shin- Takahas...](https://smile.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Statistics-Shin- Takahashi/dp/1593271891/)

or The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra

[https://smile.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Linear- Algebra/dp/15932...](https://smile.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Linear- Algebra/dp/1593274130/)

[1] [https://www.nostarch.com/manga](https://www.nostarch.com/manga)

From the top Amazon review on The Manga Guide to Databases:

"STORY: A friend loaned me this book to show her, so I gave it to her and asked her to try it. If she read the first 10 pages and it was boring, she should stop. If she liked it, she could keep it until she was done. She opened it on the spot and was 20 pages in before she realized she still was standing in the middle of our kitchen. One day later, she was finished and said it was "cool" and that she liked it.

I asked her if she learned anything or if it was just a story and she started talking. She said a little bit and talked about tables and how information is stored in columns and rows. She talked in a 9 year old's language and vocabulary, but basically explained to me the concept and benefits of centralized data stored in a single database. She made a couple other comments whose specifics I can't remember, but clearly articulated database ideas. It was somewhat surreal hearing these things come from a 3rd grader's mouth. She didn't feel like she had learned very much. I told her I probably could count on my fingers how many people at my work (300 people total - <USER2> industry, not IT) knew more about databases than she did, based on what she had finished telling me."

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the links! I have to take Linear Algebra after this winter break and the manga guide to Linear Algebra looks like it could be a good primer to my course.

<comment><USER4> Make sure you pick up Axler's "Linear Algebra Done Right". It is my definite pick for someone entering the topic. And the second edition has a solutions manual floating around, which is very useful for practice (more importantly, every theorem proof in a math book is the solution to a practice problem...).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Heh heh, I like the dig at Penrose at the end.

(Only because I used to argue the exact same thing with my dad when I was a teen, and we had both read his books, and I have a human bias that when I read something that agrees with me, I smile, feel vindicated, and don't think about it further.)

<comment><USER4> Scott has talked about Penrose's books and ideas several times, one of them in direct conversation with him: [http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2756](http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2756) [http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec10.5.html](http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec10.5.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> For a more in-depth, but still funny and entertaining, explanation of quantum computing check out 'Quantum Computing Since Democritus' by Scott Aaronson, the co-author of this comic.

</comment><comment><USER8> For the first time viewers: don't miss to hover over the cartoon (or on the iOS, long press on the image):

"Somewhere in the multiverse, there's a superior universe where all comics are this dorktastic."

And the big red button at the end:

"Out-nerd me now, Randall!"

\----

And more to read: Scott Aaronson's "Making of The Talk":

[http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3058](http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3058)

<comment><USER9> Yeah, I pressed that button, as one does at the end of SMBC comics, and was momentarily very startled.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I didn't understand any of that.

</comment><comment><USER11> I understood some of those words. 5/5\. Would read again.

</comment><comment><USER12> Was that last frame a dig at Douglas Hofstadter?

Zach, I think you may have finally surpassed Randall.

<comment><USER13> No, it's a dig at roger penrose

<comment><USER12> ...Ah. I should have known.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> (ex) Nuclear physicist here. I wish I had had this explanation at the start of my quantum mechanics courses.

</comment><comment><USER15> On the scale of, "Scientists keep their discoveries hidden," to, "Overly simplified explanations abound in order to 'popularize' science," we've definitely gone too far the other way. Of course the only remedy then is more precise explanation. Favorited.

</comment><comment><USER16> The even bigger problem is that current quantum computers, if indeed they are, are not heading down the universal quantum computer route, but instead heading down the route of adiabatic quantum annealing. I mean if you can explain that to your kids, could you explain it to me?

I would take issue with various claims in the comic anway. The idea that quantum mechanics is a "generalisation of probability" is itself a simplification. The wave function can be used to derive the probability P=Ψ.Ψ*, but it's not probability per se. It does neatly encapsulate why the Copenhagen Interpretation of the wavefunction leads to a lot of magical thinking about what the wave function represents.

<comment><USER17> The co-author Scott Aaronson has a chapter in his lecture notes about that "suspect" subject which does a good job of motivating it: [http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec9.html](http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec9.html) His whole book on the subject "Quantum Computing Since Democritus" is excellent and worth a read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm starting to become skeptical of our understanding of quantum mechanics because we completely discredited a common theory with only one experiment over a hundred years ago:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson%E2%80%93Morley_exper...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson%E2%80%93Morley_experiment)

We never recreated the experiment again until Ernest Wilbur Silvertooth did about one-hundred years later in the 1980s. He found a possible connection to the Ether, but by this point every scientist in the world committed to thinking the opposite; they didn't care for his findings.

People say GR works, but they keep running into weird situations where they have to keep fudging their mathematical models -- none of the equations work together, i.e. no unified field theory, -- and everyone is too afraid to suggest we've been approaching it all wrong.

God, I love how political science has become: funding, faith, pride... The world didn't care for Galileo's theories, either: it turned their whole world upside-down.

<comment><USER19> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_special_relativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tests_of_special_relativity)

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

<comment><USER18> Is that where they explain particle-wave duality, or is that where they pretend it's not an issue?

<comment><USER20> If you regard particle-wave duality as an "issue" that needs to be "solved," (other than perhaps "duality" being a poor choice of term) you're really approaching this from a strange and incorrect perspective.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Critics angered by new law making it illegal to wear a mask at unlawful protests - <AUTHOR> http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/canada/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2013/06/01/outrageous-critics-angered-by-new-law-making-it-illegal-to-wear-a-mask-at-unlawful-protests

<comment><USER2> As far as I know, most states in the Southern US have laws against obscuring one's face during a political gathering, in response to the Ku Klux Klan in the past.</comment>