I Nominate RescueTime for Best Enterprise Startup - <AUTHOR> http://crunchies2008.techcrunch.com/nominations/?nominee=RescueTime&category=5

<comment><USER2> I want to nominate HN for Best Time Sink.

<comment><AUTHOR> I did.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'd nominate <http://co2stats.com/> for best green startup.

<comment><USER4> Damn that website is brilliant, why the hell don't I think of these simple yet effective ideas?

Honestly, they host an image, throw a few stats in, and charge exorbitant amounts of money for websites to put a "certified" badge on their page to convince consumers they're green.

I'm working on my "Economically Trustworthy" badge right now!

edit: OK, yea there was a bit of sarcasm but I genuinely like how this site fills a niche and has (probably) great profit margins.

<comment><USER5> Stop being bitter and think of something :)</comment></comment></comment>


Dyson could become next Tesla with its electric car, says expert - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/11/dysons-electric-car-development-could-become-the-next-tesla <comment><USER2> Or the next Clive Sinclair

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5)</comment>


Shane Legg: DeepMind's third cofounder - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/shane-legg-google-deepmind-third-cofounder-artificial-intelligence-2017-1 <comment><USER2> To me the biggest problem isn't 'evil' AI (SkyNet/Matrix scenarios) since I don't think it is possible to predict the intrinsic motivations of non- biological intelligence (no evolved neurochemical dependencies like we have/infinite capacity to grow beyond our limitations). That makes way too many assumptions about AI continuing to remain like us (curious, jealous, afraid, etc.) when all our behaviors evolved in us and are limited by biology. I'm more worried about something emerging unintentionally that does harm (as in the overused 'paperclip maximizer'). In that instance, not about being on 'our side'.

<comment><USER3> Even the most optimistic AI scenario seems pretty depressing to me. Ideally we would be able to merge or at least fully cooperate with a vastly more intelligent entity. At that point, its consciousness would dwarf our own and we would be pretty meaningless. Maybe our conscious experience would live on as some vestigial relic, but I doubt it (we?) would even bother. It would be like a droplet of water landing in the ocean.

<comment><USER4> > Even the most optimistic AI scenario seems pretty depressing to me... its > consciousness would dwarf our own and we would be pretty meaningless

This seems like a classic optimist/pessimist situation, like when we find out the world/universe is bigger than we imagined. I think our brains are poor at dealing with absolute values, so we use relative ones instead: when we discover some unfathomable new landscape, our minds "zoom out" to encompass them, which makes the previous stuff look small _in comparison_.

That's just (another) limitation of the meat in our heads though. The world doesn't _actually_ get smaller when our transportation improves: it's just as vast as it was for any explorer; the Earth didn't become less special when we discovered that the planets were worlds; Sol didn't become less immense and powerful when we discovered that the stars are other suns; our solar system didn't become less intriguing when we found exoplanets; the Milky Way didn't lose significance when we discovered other galaxies; baryons didn't lose their complexity when we discovered dark matter; etc.

<comment><USER3> Right, but there is a commonality in our ability to perceive those different contexts.

The example that I heard years ago (I think from Kurzweil?) was framing the difference of us versus future AIs as comparable to an ant's perception of its surroundings versus a human's. In his example, the human has no regard for an ant, we'd just as soon step on them ("evil" AI). To re-frame that, if you could magically turn an ant into a human, why would it even matter if it was once an ant? The transition would be a complete disconnect. Maybe if you told the person that they were once an ant they would have some sort of strange reverence for ants, but it wouldn't be very rational.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> His blog from before DeepMind was interesting then, though he seems to have stopped posting. [http://www.vetta.org/](http://www.vetta.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Interestingly, he once called MIRI[1] (formerly SIAI) "the best hope that we have"[2].

[1] [https://intelligence.org/](https://intelligence.org/)

[2] [http://www.vetta.org/2009/08/funding-safe- agi/](http://www.vetta.org/2009/08/funding-safe-agi/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I believe the political class will use "AI risk" as a rationalization for tyranny, poverty and enforced ignorance on the population, long before any actual risk materializes from an AGI.</comment>


DNS over SMS, send a text message to 1(833)672-1001 - <AUTHOR> https://developers.cloudflare.com/184.108.40.206/fun-stuff/dns-over-sms/ <comment><USER2> Note to those in Canada: although calling a toll-free number is... toll- free... sending an SMS to one may incur you an international (USA) SMS fee per message unfortunately :/

This turned out a big thorn in my side when I, as a Canadian, wanted to make my existing toll-free number hosted with Flowroute then Twilio my primary contact number.

Maybe there's some magic to make the number 'Canadian' such as hosting it with a Canadian provider, but just a heads up that not all toll-free are that when it comes to SMS (even though in this instance you're only likely to try it a couple times) :)

<comment><USER3> Creator here. I've just added (289) 276-1001 for all our Canadian friends to save you a few cents as opposed to international rates :)

<comment> m-p-3 Awesome, thanks!

<comment><USER3> My pleasure :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4>
      $ nslookup
      > set type=TXT
      > dani.cloudflare.com
      Server:  220.127.116.11
      Address: 220.127.116.11#53

      Non-authoritative answer:
      dani.cloudflare.com text = "Dani rocks."

</comment><comment><USER5> This does not work with domains with hyphens. It seems to think it's part of the record type or stripping it off.

<comment><USER3> Creator here. I've done some testing myself with domains with hyphens, and it appears to be working for me. I did fix a limited edge case that may have caused issues.

Drop me an e-mail: mgall [at] cloudflare if you can reproduce and I can look again.

<comment><USER6> Agreed with the parent, I tried to resolve a name in the format:

app.example-foo.com, and got a "no records found for foo.com" error.

<comment><USER7> It defaults to AAAA records so you may need to type

A app.example-foo.com

it worked for me

<comment><USER6> So in my case, I actually performed an explicit CNAME lookup. The fact that the error message says "We couldn't find any CNAME records for foo.com" tells me that the name parser is still not handling hyphens correctly.

<comment><USER3> Interesting, I'll take a look.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Not low tech enough. Hopefully they'll consider pigeon based DNS for those cases when you don't have cel tower reception: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers)

<comment><USER3> Creator here. I was actually contemplating DNS-over-Letter, but I couldn't find a great way of handling requests that I could make reasonably safe for people who would have to handle them.

<comment><USER9> [https://www.clicksend.com/post/concealed-pin-number- letters/](https://www.clicksend.com/post/concealed-pin-number-letters/) Unless you mean the requests were that hot off the presses it burns the mail carriers hands ;-)

<comment><USER10> I assume by safe for those handling them his main concerns for DNS via letter would be letter bombs and letters containing toxic substances such as anthrax powder or ricin.

<comment><USER3> That and I planned to put stickers and stuff in. Asking for return envelopes and addresses seems a little bit terrible :)

<comment><USER9> Oh I see, People mail in a DNS request and you return it.

> Asking for return envelopes and addresses seems a little bit terrible :)

How else you going to reply with the DNS Record? ;-)

EDIT: Also thanks for the DNS Via SMS service. I've already used it twice for legit reasons. Who would of thought that having an out of band DNS service would be handy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> OpenBSD kernel support soon

<comment><USER12> RFC pending.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Doesn't appear to handle names with dashes

<comment><USER3> Creator here. I've done some testing myself with domains with hyphens, and it appears to be working for me. I did fix a limited edge case that may have caused issues.

Drop me an e-mail: mgall [at] cloudflare if you can reproduce and I can look again.

<comment><USER13> I dropped two e-mails, but I don't know if you got them (got no reply).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> We tried from three European mobile numbers (France, Luxembourg, Belgium) but it doesn't work.

<comment><USER3> Creator here. This should now be resolved.

<comment><USER15> for the US number if from international, are we supposed to include the number between parenthesis [+1(833)672-1001] when dialing ?

<comment><USER3> If you're texting internationally, it's 0018336721001 :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Hahaha this is really neat I don't know what I'll use it for but...

</comment><comment><USER17> So theoretically tunneling over DNS ( iodine ) should work with this too right?

<comment><USER18> I think iodine uses records that wouldn't fit in a single SMS. I'm not sure whether cloudflare supports splitting records over multiple SMS's...

<comment><USER3> Creator here. I could probably work something out. Let me have a ponder. mgall [at] cloudflare if you want to try it out.</comment></comment></comment>


A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-yaupon-tea-cassina <comment><USER2> This reminds me of the paw paw (not to be confused with the papaya which Australians call pawpaw) [https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/15/550985844/th...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/09/15/550985844/this- once-obscure-fruit-is-on-its-way-to-becoming-pawpaw-pawpular) It's a fruit that seems tropical, a close relative of the custard apple or sitaphal that tastes like a pina colada. Yet it grows natively all over the eastern US. It's so common that in many places it's every third tree in the forest.

I grew up in peak pawpaw country (Cincinnati), got a thorough outdoors education via boy scouts, and never learned about the existence of this incredible plant. Nobody knows about it! The day after I learned about it, I could walk a few feet into the woods in a park in the middle of the city, shake a tree and come out with tropical tasting fruit, and yet people walk by this tree every day oblivious. Mind-boggling.

<comment><USER3> Pawpaws have very inconsistent harvests, don't ship well at all, and have a very short ready to eat -> overripe time.

They are also, like you note, absolutely delicious. I have two trees in my backyard. (You need two for them to pollinate and bear fruit.) But there are practical reasons why you don't see them for sale very often.

<comment><USER4> There are a number of active PawPaw breeding programs working to improve the fruit's production, size, and suitability for shipping. Some of the named varieties are even more incredible tasting than the standard wild ones.

Kentucky State:

[http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/](http://www.pawpaw.kysu.edu/)

[http://kysu.edu/academics/cafsss/pawpaw/](http://kysu.edu/academics/cafsss/pawpaw/)

[http://ppserver.pawpaw.kysu.edu/KSUstory.htm](http://ppserver.pawpaw.kysu.edu/KSUstory.htm)

Purdue:

[https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/nexus/Asimina_triloba_ne...](https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/nexus/Asimina_triloba_nex.html)

(I grew up around the trees and my father now grows and sells Pawpaw trees commercially.)

<comment><USER3> That makes me very happy to hear, and I wish your father the best of luck in making our native fruit better known.

Does he sell to individuals? Or if not, do you know of a nursery where I could buy one of the improved cultivars? I wouldn't mind planting one or two more. :)

<comment><USER4> Thanks!

He does. Here's his site: [http://blossomnursery.com/](http://blossomnursery.com/) I'm not sure if it's the right time of year for transplanting, but he should be able to tell you if you contact him.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the link! It looks like web ordering isn't working, but I see contact info, so I'm going to give it a shot. Some great pics, too. Cheers!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Go nearly anywhere in Argentina and you will find mate. People walk around with a thermos of hot water and sip all day. It is a shared cultural experience too like saying hello. You see a friend, greet them, then offer them some mate.

Our SF-based company has an office in Mendoza, Argentina. You will not find baristas and coffee (though Starbucks just opened there), but plenty of mate for everyone. Due to this connection, we have plenty of supplies for mate in the office, but it is still not as commonly adopted here as coffee.

<comment><USER6> Very interesting. I drank mate with friends from Buenos Aires when I was a teen. We would drink it the traditional way, namely out of a small dried gourd with a metal straw. Are you saying that mate (pronounced mah-teh like a southerner saying "my tea" fwiw -- not an Australian addressing a friend) is not commercialized in Argentina? As in, people offer their personal mate and there are not "mate shops" that would equate to "coffee shops"(think third wave USA)? Or that they prefer Mate to coffee, hence there are no "coffee shops" while there may or may not be "mate shops"?

I guess I like the idea that mate is so personal than you wouldn't go to a commercial shop for their blendbut ratherwould share your homebrew with a friend on a park bench.

<comment><USER7> Mendocino here (live in the US but visit Mendoza every few years). There are plenty of places one can go for coffee, but American-style coffee shops are not nearly as popular. Mate shops aren't a thing, but it isn't homebrew in the sense that people don't grow their favorite varieties of yerba mate plants in the back yard. You get a bag of yerba at the supermarket, have a thermos with hot water, and a gourd & bombilla. People drink it with friends, but, like coffee, it's also something they drink throughout the day by themselves while working, studying, etc.

<comment><USER6> Is there anything akinto different flavours? Or brand differences?

Is it like people and cigarettes? Like Brand X is your brand ornate and you'd rather die than have to drink brand Y?

Is there such a thing like a sommelier for mate? Maybe like wine: "I detect notes of lavender...."

This is incredibly interesting!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "Mate", not "maté". I guess it's cool to add random accents to foreign words to make them look more exotic, but this changes the pronunciation of the word and in fact turns into a different one.

"Mate" refers to "yerba mate" (as in the article) or even the gourd used to consume it; it's also a common abbreviation of "jaque mate", "checkmate". "Maté", on the other hand, means "I killed".

<comment><USER9> For what it's worth, Wikipedia includes this explanation:

> _" In English, "mate" is occasionally written "maté", to distinguish it from > other meanings of the word mate, although this spelling is not used in > Spanish or Portuguese."_

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

A similar example is "résumé", so as to not be confused with "resume".

Going further down the Wikipedia hole, here's a page describing use of diacritics in English, which includes a subsection on "Accent-addition and accent-removal":

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_terms_with_diacritical...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_terms_with_diacritical_marks#Accent- addition_and_accent-removal)

<comment><USER10> "résumé" is not really a similar example, because that is the actual spelling of the word in French. Edit: but according to your link sometimes only the latter accent is kept in English.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, it varies depending on your dictionary or stylebook. For example, MW lists:

> _" résumé ... variants: or resume or less commonly resumé"_

[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/resume](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/resume)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I love both coffee and tea. Both caffeine drinks yet they taste nothing like one another. If it's a drink to have with food it has to be tea. For a waker upper it's coffee. At other times it's a toss up. I'd love to try this cassina be a while before we see it in Europe I'd imagine

<comment><USER12> > I'd love to try this cassina be a while before we see it in Europe I'd > imagine

Since it's a dried leaf similar to tea or mate you can probably get it shipped from the US, though I expect the postage will be somewhat expensive.

Look for "yaupon" or "yaupon tea" as, as the article notes that's how it's called/marketed these days.

<comment><USER11> Thanks I just found a UK site selling it [https://www.ancientpurity.com/yaupon-tea-green- leaf-113g-loo...](https://www.ancientpurity.com/yaupon-tea-green- leaf-113g-loose-leaf)

Not cheap though but it's just for curiousity sake

<comment><USER13> Bookmarked! Thanks very much :)

<comment><USER14> Or try ours. We harvest our own. That company resells someone elses ;)

[https://lostpinesyaupontea.com](https://lostpinesyaupontea.com)

<comment><USER11> Fair dues to you for finding this thread, you guys are on the ball

Actually I came across your (very nice) site first but you don't ship outside N. America unfortunately.

<comment><USER14> Thanks for the compliment. We do ship outside of N. America and you should have been able to select that as an option. I'm going to have to go take a look see.. I just sent a package to Denmark and Germany.

<comment><USER11> Fair enough, then I think you need to change the text on your shipping & Returns tab.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Another obscure-ish tea that is seems to be gaining popularity is guayusa (mostly being pushed under the brand Runa). It is another holly from warm regions, I think from rainforests in South America. I'm a big fan of the moderate caffeine content and the ability to steep it for long periods to get more caffeine out of it, without it getting bitter. It is amazing as a summer/warm weather high-caffeine iced tea. You can buy in loose tea form by the pound from Amazon for about $20.

<comment><USER14> Guayusa is great. We're pretty jealous of the size of their leaves compared to yaupon leaves. Yaupon, guayusa and yerba mate are all in the Ilex genus, they're the three known caffeinated hollies (or more accurately the three known hollies with appreciable levels of caffeine)

<comment><USER16> Hey, you guys are in Austin right? Is your Chote Ave location a store? If so, I'm planning to stop by later today to buy some yaupon. :)

<comment><USER14> Naw, that's our house. Sure seems to help with SEO though! Our yaupon is in the Wheatsville Co-op on Guadalupe near campus, and the S. Lamar store. We also do four farmers markets on the weekends (Downtown, HOPE, Mueller and Lakeline)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I have tried youpon tea at a cafe before and even purchased it here: [https://lostpinesyaupontea.com](https://lostpinesyaupontea.com). I like Yerba Mate quite well, so I wouldn't say youpon in better, but I would say I like it equally well. It's definitely worth a try.

<comment><USER18> These people are great - I have ordered a bunch of yaupon from them, both light and dark. The light roast is more of a green tea flavor, while the dark roast is closer to a black tea or even coffee. The best part about yaupon is the buzz, though. It's a strong boost like coffee but without the jitters and crash that coffee can cause. It's a more lucid, feel-good stimulant with a flavor that's hard to describe. Much less bitter than coffee or even tea, it has an earthy, smokey taste that resembles yerba mate a little bit but resists easy classification. Highly recommended.

<comment><USER14> Many thanks! It's nice to stumble into a love fest :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> First line of the article: Yaupon tea, a botanical cousin to yerba maté, is now almost unknown.

<comment><USER20> and the one line about its taste: "people [prefer] it over maté in a blind taste test" (but it's similar)

<comment><USER21> A few months ago, I was in Austin and met two youpon cold brew makers selling at the farmers markets. Really delicious and smooth. The plant grew wild on many of the hikes I took.

<comment><USER22> Do you recall which market you went to? I'm curious to try some.

<comment><USER14> He's talking about Local Leaf. They're at the Mueller Farmers Market on Sundays from 10am-2pm. They're super nice and chatty. They cold brew theres to the caffeine strength of coffee. Come check us out too, Lost Pines Yaupon Tea ([http://lostpinesyaupontea.com](http://lostpinesyaupontea.com)), we're also at that market. We also do the Downtown (sat 9-1), Lakeline (sat 9-1) and HOPE (sun 11-3) markets. We sell loose leaf, tea bags and brewed tea. Ours is pretty different than Local Leaf. It's closer to green tea in caffeine and tastes a lot like (delicious) iced tea.

<comment><USER23> I never thought I'd see a vendor of Yaupon at my regular farmer's market(HOPE) on HN!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> i tried yerba mate in an an automatic drip coffee maker with some cream and sugar and i was blown away by the energy i got from it. there was no caffeine crash. it was a sustained energy. it takes a while to kick in so u gotta drink it first thing in morning. u can find some popular bags of it on amazon. it has to be the loose leaf stuff, not the individual bags. i think i tried Taragui Yerba Mate Con Palo. but there are other brands that are just as good.

i spent a while in argentina and they drink it down there with the gourds. it's interesting. we would be in a meeting and someone would start passing around a gourd and each person would drink from the same gourd during a business meeting. that person would refill it with hot water from a thermos and pass it to the next guy.

<comment><USER25> Yerba mate[0] has 2 stimulants aside from caffeine: theophylline and theobromine. Perhaps they interact in such a way as to stabilize the effect of the caffeine.

[0] [http://nativayerbamate.com/health.html](http://nativayerbamate.com/health.html) (Nativa sells yerba mate so possible bias)

<comment><USER26> I tried Mate once in the form of Club Mate, a popular alternative drink in Germany. It triggered migraine headache, so i wont drink it again. I just looked up Theobromine on Wikipedia which states that high dosis may cause headache. I think this is an explanation for why i got headaches from it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Holy crap, they are right! The OED does mistakenly define _yaupon_ as having emetic properties!

[https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/yaupon](https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/yaupon)

How does one get the OED fix such an obvious error?

<comment><USER28> It's just a little outdated; that used to be the main use of the plant. Now people have found you can "microdose" it for different effects from profuse vomiting.

<comment><USER27> The article says that numerous studies show it doesn't do this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Texas company that sells it: [https://www.catspringtea.com/](https://www.catspringtea.com/)

</comment><comment><USER30> This Maine company recently started selling Yaupon. No affiliation. [https://www.surthrival.com/products/yaupon- tea](https://www.surthrival.com/products/yaupon-tea)

</comment><comment><USER31> I bought some from a random site[1] that turned up when I searched duckduckgo for "cassina tea" because Amazon didn't return any results for cassina. Lots for yaupon, but that came farther down the article.

[1][https://wildsouthtea.com/pages/about- cassina](https://wildsouthtea.com/pages/about-cassina)

</comment><comment><USER32> Postum[1] might be the opposite. Coffee for Mormons that didn't want to break the rules. I tried it, and it was awful. But ask any Mormon you know, and they usually at least know what it is.

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postum](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postum)

<comment><USER33> You might like roasted barley. It's not awesome, but it's not bad, either.

<comment><USER34> Mugicha, tea made from roasted barley is thoroughly awesome too. Very easy to finish a liter of cold mugicha unconsciously while I'm in the zone.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I drink Yerba Mate every day, and when I heard about yaupon, definitely had to try it.

Unroasted, it's very grassy, but refreshing. The roasted variety I got tasted quite similar to mate. It's really good.

The biggest problem I have is that I can get a kilo of mate for $9, but 2 Oz of yaupon is in the $15-$20 range.

<comment><USER36> Where I live, yaupon is free (pick from ornamental bushes in front yard, or around practically any office building).

<comment><USER37> Around here I'd be hesitant to do that. Too many pesticides and other things sprayed on or around that stuff (particularly around office buildings with commercial groundskeepers). From personal yards, maybe since there you can control it better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I love yerba mate. My family traveled to Argentina when I was a kid and I remember we were delayed for about 4 hours before our flight back home late in the night. I kept making myself yerba mate teas while the lounge had the movie Screamers playing on an old CRT tv. It was foundationally terrifying to a deeply-wired and awake 10 year old kid.

As a teenager I found a seller selling it on Amazon in bulk, I bought 3 kilos of it and my friends all joked that I was buying 'kilos from South America', but that tea lasted me years.

As an adult I found that brewing it in a drip coffee maker seemed to pull out more of the chemicals that woke you up and I had a period of my college years where my grades shot up from how productive I got.

<comment><USER24> I didn't find that drinking it from a gourd quite had the same effect as brewing it in an automatic drip coffee maker. The first time I tried this, I drank a few cups at around noon. That night I found myself wide awake at 3 am.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I live in Porto Alegre and.. most days I prefer the aeropress to the mate, though. Mate is a mild taste drink.

</comment><comment><USER40> The (probably apocryphal) story I heard in botany class was that men competed to see who could chug the most hot tea before vomiting. Going to school in Tallahassee, FL, it was heartwarming to imagine that even 500 years ago, men were sitting around shouting "chug, chug, chug!" At each other

<comment><USER41> I can't link to this very nicely, but when I visited Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, Austria, they had a chair that they could put some booze into, and it doesn't release until you've drunk your way out of it. Use browser search for "certain amount" in [http://www.notabletravels.com/ambras-castle- innsbruck-austri...](http://www.notabletravels.com/ambras-castle-innsbruck- austria/) .

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Reminds me of CCC and all the Club Mate you can handle before dying from a caffeine overdose. ;)

<comment><USER24> relevant: [https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xywxm7/how-a- germ...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xywxm7/how-a-german-soda- became-hackers-fuel-of-choice)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Interesting, today's info-conjunction between coffee-cancer in Cali, and raves for Cassina (never on my radar on decades). Just sayin.

</comment><comment><USER44> I stopped drinking coffee a month ago due to some minor circulation problems. I do miss the taste and still get tempted from time to time, but I have to say that I've never felt more awake

</comment><comment><USER45> I hate these clickbait-titles.

<comment><USER46> I don't find it clickbait-ey at all. The whole point of the article is that the drink is forgotten - ergo putting its name in the headline wouldn't convey any information.

Clickbait would be if the article was about a drink we're all familiar with, and the title refused to tell us which one.

<comment><USER47> > I don't find it clickbait-ey at all.

Let's consider two alternatives:

        (a) A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries
        (b) Yaupon tea: A Forgotten Drink That Caffeinated North America for Centuries

Would anybody be better off if they had chosen (b) instead of (a)? Yes, potential readers would have more information of what to expect and hence a better basis for choosing whether to click.

Would anybody be worse off if they had chosen (b) instead of (a)? Yes, Atlasobscura would get fewer clicks and hence less advertising money for yet another one of their Wikipedia copy and paste jobs.

In other words, it's clickbait.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> It's funny to read about "a caffeinated drink called x" when I just slice & dice Jet Alert tabs into whatever mix I'm having. There are mornings when 30mg is enough to push my intuition to extreme levels, and there are days when 100mg does nothing until I find the right song on the radio. I am using caffeine and ibuprofen as experimental tools to fight depression and keeping logs on how things go. So far it's amazing how well they work. Wish I had known back when I had chronic severe depression. No medical advice here btw, keep your own logs...

<comment><USER49> How long have you been doing this? I was drinking a ton of coffee every day (4-6 cups of strong drip coffee) for the last 2-3 years. It helped a lot with my motivation and general energy levels. Recently (in the last year or so) I started getting some pretty significant mood swings, I'd basically feel horrible every week for Monday/Tuesday. I also had some alarming blood pressure measurements (up to 150/110 or something) which finally prompted me to quit the coffee. Not only did that reduce my blood pressure down to 136/90 but the mood swings and general funk have pretty much gone too.

I still think coffee is great for short sprints / crunch time, but I don't think I'll go back to ongoing high levels of use.

<comment><USER50> > mood swings

Friendly advice: drop the sugar first. It's really really hard, I know...

Caffeine is most likely to mess up your mood when you also consume sugar, or alcohol. That's why green tea for example works much better: it's disgusting to oversweeten it, to mix it with sweets, or to have it immediately before or after a pint or two ;)

Coffee otoh can even be delicious in combo with fries, ice-cream and beer. Hence I only have it in the morning when I'm not tempted to mix it in such disastrous combinations.

<comment><USER49> I eat very little sugary stuff. Plenty of booze on the weekends, which I'd originally suspected as the cause of the mood problems. Cutting the alcohol didn't change things significantly, though, while cutting the caffeine gave me two weeks of feeling awful (and I mean seriously bad), followed by a significant improvement in both mood and energy.

(Would have posted this last night but I hit the rate limiter, heh.)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Leaked image reveals early build of Microsoft's new 'Spartan' web browser - <AUTHOR> http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-10-leaked-image-reveals-early-build-of-microsoft039s-new-039spartan039-web-browser

<comment><USER2> Annnnnd it's gone. [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DW-8mM...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:DW-8mMT5DaAJ:www.neowin.net/news/windows-10-leaked- image-reveals-early-build-of-microsoft039s-new-039spartan039-web- browser+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) (scroll to bottom)

They sourced BGR, hah. Who knows if that's even the slightest bit true then.

[http://bgr.com/2015/01/06/microsoft-spartan-pictures- release...](http://bgr.com/2015/01/06/microsoft-spartan-pictures-release- internet-browser/)</comment>


Swarm casts humans as ants in the first Google Glass MMO game - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/06/google-glass-game-swarm

<comment><AUTHOR> Our app is based in research we've published, which we've made available here: [http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.6376](http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.6376)

We're also actively seeking developers and game designers for the project, and we're accepting donations =)

I'm watching this thread, and I'm happy to talk about anything related to Swarm!

edit: send any inquiries to swarm.over.glass@gmail

<comment><USER2> Love the concept, but

      Using GPS data collected by Glass, the game generates a record of each player's daily routine.

Scares me a bit. Do you have more details on it?

<comment><AUTHOR> I left the following comment in a reddit thread:

Hi Thorse! I'm one of the developers for Swarm. You comments are well taken, and deserve a response. Our strategy for collecting and presenting data about collective action abstracts away from individual habits. We're interested in features of collective action (at the 'caste' and 'colony' level), not your personal daily routine. The data we collect will be groomed to remove individual data in such a way that, I hope, would allow people who are as concerned about privacy as you and I both are to confidently use the app.

The other thing to make clear is that not everyone needs to play Swarm in order to build useful models for everyone. Consider Yelp!: maybe you don't want people to know your eating habits, but some people love leaving reviews. That record potentially helps anyone looking for a restaurant, whether or not they contribute their own opinions to the record. Similarly, Swarm trails might be useful to you whether or not you contribute to the trails yourself. I would also (humbly) object to the claim that Swarm! treats your life habits as a game mechanic. Your life is your life. Swarm doesn't intrude on that process to give you 100 points for buying chips at the store, or anything so cheap. The game aspects of Swarm interact with trails at an abstracted level, in order to reveal patterns about collective human behavior; but it won't be possible on a system like ours to watch, mess or interact with, or otherwise represent the activity of individual players directly.

Its not about you, this is about us. For instance, which are the most scenic trails in Inwood Park? A populated Swarm! map instantly tells me how the populations that have traversed these trails before have distributed their walking patterns along the park. From passive players I see their aggregated preferences, and from the active players I may have incentive (both in game and out) to respond to the attractions they've built in the course of their travels. From that information I might choose to trust the reliability of the crowd, or contribute to the inspection of a road less traveled, or blaze a new trail altogether. In other words, you can live your life however you want; Swarm! just lets you do it with the ant superpower of instant access to collective memory. As long as enough people have that superpower, we'll all be a little smarter.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1jysa5/our_first_loo...](http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1jysa5/our_first_look_at_the_only_mmo_currently_being/cbjw1sp)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm torn between oculus and glass games on who's going to win the war with gamers. Opinions?

<comment><USER4> I don't know that either has to "win." Oculus games clearly replace the hardcore FPS/Computer game sort of market, whereas Glass games are more a replacement for cell phone games, more casual things, or real-life MMOs/ARGs (which there hasn't really been a market for before, except maybe Ingress and a few others). I see both being pretty popular with gamers (although I guess the stereotypical ones who just sit at home all the time won't necessarily enjoy ARGs).</comment></comment>


The Most Popular Online Business Ideas - <AUTHOR> https://www.oberlo.com/blog/online-business-ideas/?utm_source=news.ycombinator.com&utm_campaign=online-business-ideas&utm_medium=social <comment><USER2> At least one of those links - brainpickings.org - felt like a trojan with its modal popups demanding I update Flash player. Felt like one to avoid.</comment>


There Is a Second, Secret DNA Code Which Controls Genes - <AUTHOR> http://earthweareone.com/scientists-finally-admit-there-is-a-second-secret-dna-code-which-controls-genes-2/

<comment><USER2> The original research articles are interesting. They are 1 year old, but I hadn't read them before. But this articles has a sensationalist tone that I really don't like.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have to confess that I stopped reading this after they started using harmonics of DNA to justify why hypnosis works.</comment>


Google now allows you to flush cache for a domain on their public DNS (18.104.22.168) - <AUTHOR> https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/cache

<comment><AUTHOR> It's global, too. Here's the announcement [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/public-dns- announce/O_...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/public-dns- announce/O_goLLYq9HE/YZougiP9xSYJ)

Quite a big deal, actually. I have run into problems with outdated zones on some of Google's servers a few times lately.</comment>


The HTML5 and Flash Debate from a Flash Developer's Perspective - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVjIsL8qwNw

<comment><USER2> The most important part is when he shows a <canvas> demo running poorly and says something along the lines of "in my day to day work, I can't use this. It won't work as a solution."

The debate right now is one side saying you should use "HTML5" because it's more open than Flash while Flash is buggy, bloated, and proprietary. The other side is saying "I need Flash to give my clients what they want." Just like people started using CSS over table-based layouts when it was pragmatic, people will stop using Flash when Flash stops being the best tool for the job. There's nothing wrong with that.

<comment><USER3> Yes, they will. It's a big "when" though.

I work with Flash and I don't think it's buggy or bloated - that's overblown. It's not perfect, but it's definitely much better than people paint it to be (specially people who don't work with it).

In the same vein, HTML5/canvas is unreliable both in terms of performance, adoption, and consistency among different environments. People like to think of "standards", but when it requires as much hacks as any other 'standard' work nowadays do, and when it's not even available in half the browsers out there, I wonder how can anyone think it's the golden goose people like to claim it is.

<comment><USER4> > I work with Flash and I don't think it's buggy or bloated - that's > overblown.

Depends if you're using Windows or not. On Mac and Linux, the performance and reliability are pretty bad (compared to other modern software, anyway).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Seems humorously apropos that it's in 10 minute long Flashy (errr HTML5y) video format rather than skimmable text as I'd prefer.

<comment><USER6> I don't think he would be able to show the performance of HTML5 and Flash demos using text, even when coupled with some images. For that it requires video, and I prefer a single video showing all the "article" and demos together than clicking _play_ on five or six different embedded players.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Useless FUD. Yes, let's compare a 15-year-old mature platform to one in its infancy, and dismiss the latter on grounds of the performance of its more esoteric features. We get it, Flash developers fear change; cry me a river. Considering the relative rates of progress of Adobe, the only company that can advance the Flash platform, and every other tech company in existence currently working on HTML5, I know where the safer bet five years from now is, barring Adobe doing something smart and opening up the Flash runtime. So HTML5 is still rough around the edges, big surprise there.

The fact is, for video playback, it does just fine today, even on limited mobile devices, and if sites were to only replace Flash with HTML5 for video and audio playback, we're talking about 90% of Flash's popular use right there. As HTML5 matures, including content creation tools and the performance of various browser runtime implementations, it'll eat into Flash's share for other tasks as well. Apple is creating a market demand for HTML5 development tools and expertise, which is the first necessary step in order to bring the platform to maturity. After that happens, Flash developers will jump on board and forget this thing ever happened. Until then, just keep coding your crappy Flash ads and leave the rest of us who actually want some progress for the open web alone.

<comment><USER8> Yes lets compare them. Why shouldn't we?

The mature platform and an immature platform.

HTML5 holds promise but it's simply not capable of delivering anything close to what the flash platform can.

Just because something is new doesn't mean it's better. Let it naturally outperform flash once it's better, nothing hinders that.

So if you believe HTML5 will be better then let it prove itself.

So far it's no where near.

<comment><USER7> My point is that HTML5 does do SOME things better, some things that Flash is quite commonly used for, like video playback without pegging my CPU quite as much. To say that all of HTML5 is useless because it doesn't replace Flash for games or because Canvas and SVG browser support aren't quite up to snuff, is idiotic. That support will come, and HTML5 will become a practical replacement for those functions as well at some point. For now, people will keep using Flash for that, and figuring out something else for iDevices. Adobe Flash CS5 can already export to Canvas, so the content creation support is obviously on its way. Flash isn't the end-all web platform either, and webGL can do many things in 3D that Flash developers could only dream of. Flash has its place, but that place is at the periphery, not the core of the web; Flash-only sites deserve to die in a fire. To think that HTML5 will stand still now that there's a market pressure to support it is incredibly short-sighted.

<comment><USER8> You should really learn to put forward your claims without having to resort to strawmen. Who said HTML5 was useless? No one did.

That you get better performance with video using HTML5 does little to remedy the fact that playback of video is really all you can do.

You try and seamlessly integrate video, with logic, dynamic text, vectors in HTML5 and you will be pretty disappointed.

The Flash isn't the be all end all. But what it does it does so many times better than HTML5 for quite some time.

<comment><USER7> I agree that Flash is better for many things, that the tools that support the format support greater capabilities, especially for things like access to webcam and mic hardware, and obviously 2D and extremely basic 3D interactive games and presentations, and Flash will likely be better for some or all of these things for a while longer. But I also think Flash is widely abused, with ads and other site elements doing things like playing videos or animations and consuming resources (precious on mobile devices) without user intervention, and worst of all designing entire site interfaces in Flash with no HTML fall- back. I support what Apple is doing because it really forces site operators to reevaluate how deeply they rely on Flash for their web presence, and because it drives the development of content creation tools that support HTML5 content, as well as progress in browser support. I acknowledge that it's painful to undertake a transition like this, especially as you've got clients asking why they have to pay this much more to get their content on iDevices now. But in the end, we get a more open web, which means more user control over the experience, which is a good thing for users like you and me.

<comment><USER8> Given the CPU usage of the HTML5 examples shown in the video it seems like Flash is not alone with that problem.

With regards to designing entire sites in flash. Go to thefwa.com check out some of the sites on that portal. Then tell me why you would want an HTML fallback for that? That is kind of like saying that all video should have transcription of what is being said.

Sometimes there is no substitute.

With regards to the open web argument. Since we are in agreement that Flash isn't the be all end all of the web, then what is the problem?

If HTML5 is better then it will eventually outcompete FLASH. Until it is, support both. That is what I don't understand with Apples claims.

HTML5 is right now rather resource intensive as shown in the video. It actually going to be worse for the battery life of an iPad than flash is.

It's a hollow argument.

<comment><USER7> At least any browser developer can do something about the HTML5 performance characteristics, including giving their users greater control over activation of certain elements on platforms where that may be especially critical, such as ones where you don't want to be wasting batteries on content you didn't care about seeing in the first place, like ads. Only Adobe can fix Flash's issues, and they've not done a great job so far.

As for that site you linked, you may want to find a better example. All that stuff seems relatively straightforward to implement in CSS/javascript and Canvas, and that would probably be much less painful to actually use, if possibly more effort to create. That site was a terrible experience, and a perfect example of why encouraging this kind of behavior by web developers a bad idea.

<comment><USER9> WiseWeasel, dude, you're all over the place. Like many of the "vs." crowd. I am gonna hit all of your points, so you don't Republican the debate.

ThomPete - you're a voice of reason and contemporary fact.

To the "vs." crowd: try and read all the points; not skimming and then commenting without paying the respect to do some legwork.

* ads - HTML5 ads will exist. The easier they are to make, the more of them there will be. Advertisers will use whichever has the widest audience. In fact, advertisers will be more encouraged by all the circle-jerk mob-mentality surrounding HTML5.

* video playback - for one, HTML5 doesn't play better or with less CPU. I think about 10 or so YouTube videos have proven this (visually, not blog opinion rhetoric). I'd link a few to you, but let's face it...you're not gonna look at them. You'd be forced to see proof. (If you do manage to be overcome with a neutral state of mind, do some research)

* cpu - another red herring. So far, I've not seen 1 canvas+js example (of which has a close equal to a Flash equivalent) that outperforms Flash. I wouldn't expect it to, either, since Flash is compiled and JS is interpreted. Bottomline: an immersive experience is going to take some CPU. Realize it applies to all technologies and get over it.

* ipad/mobile - Flash depletes battery. I agree. Equivalent canvas+js experiences use similar CPU. Taking that into consideration...the battery specifically hates Flash? Please.

* greater control/poor coding - Do I really need to point out that this applies to everything? Not just Flash?

Let's consider that HTML5 is being implemented in 2010. I've been on the 'net since 1995. That's 15 years for video to make its way into the browser -- without the "dreaded" plugin tech.

You know what's dreaded? Not being able to move ahead at the speed necessary to make great, immersive experiences. Being tied to a set of slow, archaically-driven, standards.

Flash (or more specifically plugin arch) is a petri dish for the web's innovative future. It can't and shouldn't die. If anything, it should become more open, more accepted and more accessible.

<comment><USER7> I'd be fine with it being open. I'm just very happy to see a vendor push website operators to not completely rely on Flash, a proprietary plugin controlled by Adobe. If Adobe were to open up the Flash runtime, I would have zero issue with it, and I'd even wager that Apple would turn themselves around on the issue. To have the entire web at the mercy of Adobe is a bit much for me to swallow. Flash is great at a few things, but websites completely reliant on it needed a swift kick in the pants.

<comment><USER9> I agree with what you're saying.

However, I am alright with a website being 100% reliant on Flash just as I am alright with a website being 100% reliant on video. The key issue here is openness, not platform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm not going to comment on the subject matter, but this guy is pissed. You can tell by his nervousness -- shows that he is passionate about his tools. Good for him

<comment><USER7> Or it shows that he's freaking out, because some people are telling him he's hitched his cart to a dying horse, and trying his best to rationalize them away.

<comment><USER9> Flash developers (read: not designers hacking together an intro/banner) don't care if the Flash technology dies.

Flash developers want the development experience that Flash offers. HTML5 doesn't offer it...yet. When it does, I personally would love to migrate to it.

Your assumptions are pitiful and illogical.

<comment><USER8> Exactly my thoughts.

Let HTML5 prove itself instead of insisting that it's better because it's open.

That isn't an argument anyone outside academia can afford making.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The "vs." crowd won't watch/care for this. It has proof in it.

</comment><comment><USER11> wasted 10 min of lifetime. Really useless ...

<comment><AUTHOR> I found it to be pretty interesting.

I tend to fall on Apple's side when it comes to not wanting to be forced to support a technology that it is against. That being said, seeing the CPU usage on these simple HTML5/JS games was a bit shocking - no idea if that is due to sub-standard coding, or if it's inherent in JS, but it seems to blow a hole in the "Flash is a resource hog" argument.

I am wondering if better developer tools for creating graphical HTML5/JS and/or JIT compilation will help with this. Clearly an iPhone is capable of amazing things graphically, but that's all been on the native app side.

<comment><USER12> > I tend to fall on Apple's side when it comes to not wanting to be forced to > support a technology that it is against.

How is that Apple's side? Allowing something to be installed is not by any means the same as being "forced to support" it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Apple does allow Flash to be installed on Mac OS X, and actually includes it with the OS.

Right now there is not a way to "install" something on iPhone OS that would then become available to Safari and other apps. To do that, they'd have to build a plug-in architecture for iPhone OS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> so.... flash developers are to 'cool' to write things down? Are the people upvoting this actually watching it???

<comment><USER14> It is more of a (biased?) demonstration than a debate, and obviously video is a better choice.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: HTML5 Programmer - <AUTHOR>

Hey guys,
I just watched this presentation on The Real Benefits of HTML5 For Games (http://vimeo.com/41825829) and there was a slide that said good javascript programmers do not necessarily translate to good HTML5 programmers.
Now, what exactly is a HTML5 programmer? <comment><USER2> > Now, what exactly is a HTML5 programmer?

It's someone that knows a lot about the HTML5 spec. Where as someone writing a game in HTML5 will most probably be using only a handful of the features in the HTML5 spec, and it would most likely be the <canvas> element, some <audio> maybe localstorage, and that's it.

Where as, HTML5 programmers will know almost everything there is, and they are most likely subscribed to all the top blogs that talk about HTML5.</comment>


Kojima Productions - <AUTHOR> http://www.kojimaproductions.jp/ <comment><USER2> Wonderful, writing my application now. That's why I learned Japanese in the first place, and some day it _has_ to pay off!

(Well, the experience alone was worth the effort, of course.)

<comment><USER3> Good luck to you!

<comment><USER2> Thanks, I'll need it! The chances are low, but hey, why not? I've been planning this for 15 years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you look at what was finally released of MGS5, after how long in development though, you can kind of see where Konami might've got fed up with Kojima.

Duke Nukem Forever now gets to sit there forever as a reminder of why you should definitely be worried about perfectionists for whom it's never done.

<comment><USER5> It's rather the other way around: Kojima was fed up with Konami's new management. The new CEO didn't really know anything about videogames or who Mr. Kojima was. He treated Mr. Kojima very disrespectfully, telling him that he wasn't really all that important to the Metal Gear franchise.

The new management is strictly business-focused. They believe that free-to- play mobile titles are the future. From a business standpoint, such reorientation may be the right thing to do. From a creative standpoint, this is unacceptable to someone like Mr. Kojima.

I don't know what you mean by "look at what was finally released of MGS5", either. The title was very well received by critics and sold very well, too - unlike Duke Nukem Forever.

<comment><USER6> As a long time MGS fan I can tell you that MGS5 was an unfinished mess. The rushed release and the unfinished product was much heavily criticised and discussed among the fanbase.

The most publicised issue is that the last chapter that was completely cut from the game, but the issues with the game go much further then that. One of the hallmarks of the MGS franchise is it long dialogue and cinema like cutscenes, however MGS5 has hardly any dialogue or significant cutscenes. Towards the end of the second chapter, the game forces you to replay old missions to progress with the main story. Many scenes just feel janky and unfinished, like the car ride with skullface where you sit and stare at each other for a few minutes while the theme music plays. One of the major overarching plot points is your characters descent into becoming a "demon", yet I feel that the game really failed to convince me that any decision I made was particularly evil. If Kojima had more time, maybe he could of done a better job with that.

The best scenes are the ones that made it to the trailer, if the rest of the game could of been at that quality it would of been fantastic. Perhaps the most disappointing thing about the game is that it clearly had a lot of promise and if Kojima was given the time he needed, it could of been an amazing game.

<comment><USER7> I was happy with the lack of cutscenes. MGS4's narrative basically collapsed under it's own weight in a (misguided, IMO) attempt to explain everything, which is a shame because the short gameplay segments in-between the cutscenes were quite fun.

I think splitting the prologue mission off from the main game and releasing it as it's own game hurt TPP. The core game mechanics are polished and fun in MGSV, so I'm happy with that. It was obviously released in an incomplete state, but it looks like that wasn't Kojima's fault. Maybe in a few years he'll be able to do a "director's cut" of it.

<comment><USER8> I think that balancing plot and gameplay segments has been a problem with the series as far back as the second entry - I seem to recall there being a half- hour long, unskippable cinematic fairly early on in that game. And the plot itself is kind of a mess, which sapped a lot of my motivation to commit to the series.

<comment><USER7> At least MGS2 only has epic cutscenes at the beginning or end of each "chapter". That's actually bearable compared to MGS4.

MGS2 is my favorite entry in the series. It certainly had the most ambitious plot (about information control, and how being a soldier in a game is nothing like being a real soldier.), the mixed reaction to which made Kojima dial it back for all of the subsequent games.

It also has incredible production values, being one of the best looking games on the PS2 while holding an almost-solid 60FPS.

The series certainly has it's ups and downs, but on the whole I enjoy it. The worst parts are a silly science fiction-themed soap opera, but the best parts are some of the most compelling and exciting gaming I've ever experienced.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Context: This is the reformed Kojima Productions after the _kerfuffle_ between Hideo Kojima and Konami.

</comment><comment><USER9> > [https://youtu.be/7ZfB-lNSR5E](https://youtu.be/7ZfB-lNSR5E)

That video is a funny mix between straight-to-the-point and sugar-coated talking.

<comment><USER10> [http://i.imgur.com/5JLblMV.gif](http://i.imgur.com/5JLblMV.gif)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Well HN is not really the place for fanboyism, but just want to remind Konami one thing: karma is a bitch.

<comment><USER12> You can tell Hacker News is full of Kojima fans because this has been up for twelve hours and no one has spawned a thread complaining about the site hijacking native scrolling.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> That logo, Kojima's entering his MSF phase.

<comment><USER14> PUNISHED KOJIMA

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What's the story behind this & the Konami departure?

<comment><USER12> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMK- kajdgMA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMK-kajdgMA)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Oh boy oh boy! Can't wait to see what Kojima will be doing next! Here's to a great success!

</comment><comment><USER17> If they manage to buy or license the MGS IP from Konami I'd be very excited

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm a huge MGS fan since since the PS1, but I'm impartial to what happened. MGS is a huge icon in the video game space, but it never was a commercial success for Konami. The tension between H.K and Konami only got worse when Hideo keep taking longer time to make each successive MGS games. Maybe it's his perfectionist nature, but Konami wasn't able to make any of their investments back. The rest is history. Let's hope Sony will be able to shoulder H.K's future venture with more success.

<comment><USER5> >Maybe it's his perfectionist nature, but Konami wasn't able to make any of their investments back.

What the hell are you talking about? MGS5 made 179 million on _launch day_ , at a budget of 80 million.

[https://www.vg247.com/2015/10/15/metal-gear-solid-5-made- twi...](https://www.vg247.com/2015/10/15/metal-gear-solid-5-made-twice-as- much-as-avengers-age-of-ultron-on-launch-day/)

The only complaint that Konami is going to have is that they didn't make their money back _fast enough_ , when they could've produced countless shitty free- to-play titles instead of MGS5. With Mr. Kojima gone, that's the future we all can look forward to now.</comment></comment>


Global seed vault 'Doomsday vault' threatened by climate change - <AUTHOR> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/28/doomsday-vault-threatened-climate-change/ <comment><USER2> I'm really surprised they didn't think of this scenario.

Is anybody aware of how seeds fair when being stored in zero gravity and zero oxygen environments? Curious if storing on the moon is a viable secondary option.</comment>


Aurora massacre survivors sued, and four ended up owing the theater $700k - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-batman-shooting-lawsuit-20160822-snap-story.html <comment><USER2> I find so much of this article simply appalling. I'm not sure how the movie theater is actually responsible for the shooting. The shooting was a horrible and tragic event, yes. Could safety be improved? In general terms, probably. Would these general safety things helped this incident? Almost certainly not.

Is expecting a movie theater to provide this level of security reasonable? Probably not - and the truth is that most reasonable folks wouldn't want this level of security at a movie theater. It is probably best left to law enforcement.

I understand these folks' lives have changed for the worst. I truly think they are entitled to have their medical bills and therapy and things covered. If they cannot work, I do think they are entitled to having income at their previous levels. But not by the theater.

And all along, this lawsuit had many failings. I find it amazing that a lawyer would take the case. I find it amazing that said lawyer, if he was not paid upfront, is not partially responsible for the other side's fees. (being paid upfront changes things, as he'd not really profit from the winnings). I find it weird that the case was allowed through and not thrown out earlier. I find it appalling that these folks aren't taken care of as I mentioned before - because I truly believe this stuff would lessen such lawsuits.

Such an odd world we live in.

<comment><USER3> you find it odd that a lawyer would take this case? you must not know many lawyers. here in colorado, we've allowed them to advertise their services. almost all of daytime tv is inundated with ads for ambulance chasing shit slingers.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, in a way. At some point, doesn't a reasonable person stop to say, "This is quite ridiculous, isn't it?"

I forget about those commercials, honestly. I remember a few from Indiana some years back, but disconnected from TV and switched countries since then (and that could affect my viewpoint). I don't view those folks well - but at least occasionally they wind up actually taking justifiable cases. Again, though, the safety net thing would render them unnecessary in many cases.

<comment><USER4> A good lawyer will generally advise you not to take on near unbeatable odds or politely decline to take a case like this.

<comment><USER5> The "good" lawyers should start taking some responsibility for the shit lawyers like "Marc Bern" mentioned in TFA. Law is still considered a profession, by some people anyway. Physicians don't let other physicians sell snake oil; why are lawyers and judges comfortable doing that?

However the "good" lawyers in this case are also scumbags. On an open-and-shut case like this, in which the plaintiffs spent $22k on expert testimony, how is it reasonable for the defense to spend $500k? It isn't clear from TFA that defense expenses will have to be paid for the state-level suit, but if so most of that should be thrown out. If in fact the federal judge doesn't throw out most of the apparently >$700k federal expenses, the two explanations for that would be corruption (of course) and a fit of pique against the intransigent four for not respecting his authoritay.

Incidentally TFA is a mess. Why does it use the defense expenses for the state trial to calculate what the federal plaintiffs will have to pay?

<comment><USER6> >Physicians don't let other physicians sell snake oil;

Eh? do you know how many BS "Doctor" (MD, Ph.D. And Wannabe) sites, tv and radio shows, segments and infomercials that sell snaken oil (and in many cases simple snake poison) are out there?

<comment><USER5> No I don't know. Regardless, one wouldn't hold physicians responsible for the actions of PhDs and other charlatans. If a snake oil salesperson claims to be an MD (or DO?) on the internet, one could believe that or not. When I am treated by physicians, they are held to the standards of their profession. If I consulted an attorney, that wouldn't be the case.

<comment><USER6> There are plenty of MD's which are utter charlatans and sell considerably worse things than snake oil and they aren't being called out by physicians everywhere.

Both physicians and attorneys are held to the standards of their profession both of them have code of ethic they have to follow, and both of them are liable for their actions. Just like physicians lose their licenses over gross misconducts attorney are disbarred all the time.

If an attorney can be proven to have acted not in the interests of client, not in good faith, was negligent etc. they can be sued for legal malpractice even if the bar does not investigates them directly.

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

People can be selfish assholes regardless of their profession, there is nothing inherently more just or ethical in the actions of physicians over any other profession.

<comment><USER3> lawyers serve clients and a system; they aren't paid to give a shit about the truth (or justice for that matter), and most don't.

<comment><USER6> This isn't about the truth this is about representing the interests of your client, if you as a lawyer are serving your own interests for example by not advising them very strongly to take a settlement knowing that they are most likely going to lose in court just because your cut form the proposed settlement isn't enough in you taste you have committed a gross violation of the codes of ethics of the legal bar, you can be disbarred for it, and are liable to be sued for legal malpractice.

"Truth and Justice" do not exist out of context, these are meaningless terms even with applied arbitrarily to the legal system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It seems like a really bizarre case from a European perspective. If one concluded that the theatre was liable for the actions of a gun carrying lunatic wouldn't the same apply for all service providers acting in public space? Concerts, bars, cafés etc would all be expected to prepare for terrorist-style shooting incidents. Whatever about the excessive cost of such preparations (which would be passed on to the consumer), the effect on public consciousness by constantly rubbing up against militarised zones would be horrible.

<comment><USER8> It would be a problem that was largely solved if gun manufacturers held any liability - a far better target than the cinema. The protection of lawful commerce in arms act protects them.

<comment><USER9> I'm not against gun control measures, but I've never understood this argument. Maybe I'm missing something, but is there another industry where we hold manufacturers liable for a properly functioning, legal product? If there is something they can do to make guns safer, just require it. If there isn't, it just makes more sense to ban gun sales than to make gun manufacturers liable for gun crimes.

The automobile industry seems like a good parallel. Manufacturers can be liable for manufacturing defects, and seat belts and such are required. There are more advanced safety features available, but as far as I am aware, a manufacturer can't be held liable for injury simply for not including them.

Perhaps it's just an end-run around the 2nd amendment. That's the only way this policy has ever made any sense to me.

<comment><USER10> In the US, the tobacco industry was litigated against both by states and by private individuals until the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement [1] of 1998.

Interestingly, a widow of a smoker suing the tobacco companies is the plot of the 1996 John Grisham novel 'The Runaway Jury'. When it was made into a movie in 2003, the script was adapted to a widow suing gunmakers after a workplace shooting.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Master_Settlement_Agre...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Master_Settlement_Agreement)

<comment><USER9> Perhaps I'm mistaken, but isn't the premise of this litigation that tobacco companies engaged in marketing and other campaigns to hide or muddy the waters around the negative effects of smoking? I don't think that applies to gun manufacturers, whose product is designed to kill and marketed as such.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _" Weaver had been pushing for, an acknowledgment that the theater chain would take new measures to protect patrons."_

Another TSA at the cinema? No, thanks. We can't secure every step from mass shooting and/or terrorists attacks without making cities into the huge prisons. While our society functions normally and mass killings are _very_ rare, there's no need to take additional security measurements. A much better way is to invest these money into mental health programs. So no, despite the alarmist tone on this article, the court ruling was sane and probably the best one in this case.

<comment><USER8> What about dealing with mental health and guns? Both of these are hard but the guns one is pretty much untouchable unfortunately.

<comment><USER12> In the US, depriving someone of a right is a legal process. If someone has been adjudicated mentally incompetent, they cannot legally own a gun.

<comment><USER8> Except when the correct process isn't followed and they just buy one, which unfortunately occurs. [http://everytown.org/press/new-fbi-data-shows-mental- health-...](http://everytown.org/press/new-fbi-data-shows-mental-health- records-in-background-check-system-tripled-since-release-of-fatal-gaps-report- pressed-states-to-submit-records-of-prohibited-gun-purchasers/)

<comment><USER12> Your response is a complete non sequitur. If someone has been adjudicated incompetent, they may not legally own a gun.

<comment><USER8> Except when they walk into a shop and buy one, hence the link.

<comment><USER12> Please cite an example of someone adjudicated mentally incompetent who purchased a firearm from a "shop".

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure you get what I have just said. The process doesn't work. People clearly mentally unfit to own guns can buy them legally. The process is not followed and they don't get barred. People who are unfit don't get flagged as unfit and then buy guns. How many examples would you like? Half a dozen come to mind. There are no shortages of publications that state this.

<comment><USER12> I can think of no examples where someone who has been adjudicated as incompetent has purchased firearms from an FFL and gone on to commit crimes - and I'm _quite_ familiar with the process, let me assure you.

You saying someone is "unfit to own guns" does not make it so.

<comment><USER8> It does when it's their healthcare professional and that is what they are seeking help for. When their doctor fails to follow the correct process things fall apart. This has happened repeatedly, as the provided link indicates.

<comment><USER12> It takes more than a medical diagnosis. A person must be involuntarily committed or adjudicated incompetent. Both of these are legal processes, not medical ones.

This is appropriate. Individuals should not be deprived of their basic human rights without due process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> tl;dr There were 41 survivors suing the movie theater for failing to secure the theater from an armed attacker. 40 voted to settle for a small amount of money. One rejected the settlement which caused it to fail. 37 then removed themselves as plaintiffs fearing they would lose the case and be responsible for the movie theater's legal costs. The four remaining lost the case and were held responsible for the movie theaters bills. And that's how 4 of the survivors ended up owing the movie theater $700,000 in legal costs.

</comment><comment><USER14> The article seems to paint the theatre in bad light, as if they are responsible for the shooting, or at least for not preventing it - do we really want to live in reality where you have to go through metal detector to see a movie? While I feel very sorry for the survivors, I feel like they are a bunch of exploitative arseholes for trying to sue the theater for any damages - it's beyond ridiculous.

<comment><USER15> Why is this even an acceptable hypothetical? "if they are responsible for the shooting"... Seriously? Unless someone employed by the theater hired the shooter, I would love to know what other scenario could possibly have made them responsible for it.

Adults since ancient man have been expected to be responsible for their own self-defense. But for some reason in modern day America, people think someone else is responsible for protecting them. Well they're not.

<comment><USER3> it's mostly predatory whore lawyers causing problems like this. we're a ridiculously litigious country, and the expense is visible in everything from the cost of healthcare to insurance to buying carrots at the store.

<comment><USER15> The experts who gave testimony might be to blame too, it sounds like they charged a years salary for their 30 minutes of testimony.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > Then one plaintiff rejected the deal. Her suffering had been profound: Her > child was killed in the shooting, she was left paralyzed and the baby she > was carrying had been lost.

I'm curious if she rejected the settlement—and (presumably) stayed on the case—because she thought they would win? Or because she thought shooting victims owing the theater $700k would be a bigger black mark against Cinemark, than it settling for $150k?

A $150k settlement makes it sound like Cinemark wasn't at fault and they settled for a pittance to make it go away (which is true); having the shooting victims owe it $700k sounds like an injustice. I certainly doubt Cinemark wants the results of this case to be widely publicized. It's not like they're ever going to receive even a fraction of that $700k anyway.

<comment><USER17> > I'm curious if she rejected the settlement—and (presumably) stayed on the > case—because she thought they would win? Or because she thought shooting > victims owing the theater $700k would be a bigger black mark against > Cinemark, than it settling for $150k?

I don't think there was any logic involved in her decision at all. I'm guessing that the unimaginable horrors that had been inflicted upon her and her family clouded her judgement. I feel really sorry for her, but I agree with the decision, and the law that led the judge to make it.

<comment><USER16> > I don't think there was any logic involved in her decision at all.

Yeah, probably. I guess I'd prefer to think that she knew what she was doing, but who knows. I can't imagine Cinemark is very happy with the results, since rather than the case going away quietly they got a $700k judgement they can't do anything with. But then insurance gets involved, and I'm not going to pretend I know that will work out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > On a conference call, the federal judge overseeing the case told the > plaintiffs' attorneys that he was prepared to rule in the theater chain's > favor. He urged the plaintiffs to settle with Cinemark, owner of the Century > Aurora 16 multiplex where the July 20, 2012, shooting occurred. They had 24 > hours.

Is it common for a judge to tell one party in a dispute which way he intends to rule, in advance of the actual ruling? That would seem to give that party an unfair advantage in settlement negotiations. The article doesn't say that Cinemark was given the same information in advance. Had they had that information, they wouldn't feel compelled to offer much of anything to settle the lawsuit, except perhaps for the sake of PR.

</comment><comment><USER3> tldr: most plaintiffs settled for peanuts (the judge didn't believe the theater was to blame or could have reasonably prevented the massacre), the others went against judicial advice and ate cinemark's attorney's fees.

<comment><USER18> That TL:DR is inaccurate.

All plaintiffs agreed to settle for a share of $150k rather than face the prospect of paying the legal costs of the theatre. One plaintiff (who was one of the plaintiffs getting a larger share) refused the deal at the final minute which meant there was no settlement for anyone. The next day the judge found for the theater and costs were assigned to the plaintiffs. At which stage there were only 4 left on the case as the others had withdrawn so im not sure if the 700k was between all original defendants or the 4 remaining ones.

<comment><USER19> I don't understand how they can just withdraw after an attempt at settlement but before the decision was made. Seems to me like all 41 should be on the hook for those legal fees.

<comment><USER18> But 40 of the 41 would have accepted the settlement so why should they be on the hook for the fees when only one refused the settlement.

<comment><USER19> Because they're a part of the lawsuit? Refusing the settlement doesn't mean the lawsuit is lost.

<comment><USER18> did you read the article? All this is explained. The lawsuit was lost, the judge had pretty much told them he would be giving a decision in favour of the defendants the next day hence the need to agree a settlement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Suing the theater for something so obviously out of their control is crooked. Suing the victims to re-pay the exhorbitant fees for your "expert testimony" is also crooked. Everyone involved are crooks. That is interesting.

<comment><USER9> I wonder if it makes sense to limit fees for expert testimony.

<comment><USER15> People summoned to give testimony should not be allowed to get paid for it at all. It's enough to cover their expenses. It should be a duty.

<comment><USER20> That's both counterproductive and unfair. Counterproductive because unless you'd start arresting and forcing people to testify, you'd just mass evasion, just like there already is for jury duty. The only "experts" willing to come would be self-promoters trying to get their name on the newspaper.

Unfair, because that "duty" would be almost exclusively levied on the most capable and productive members of society. If you think expert testimony is a social duty, then it should be imposed on the whole of society, by getting the State to finance it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Good.

Why do we assume people who were just sitting in a theater where good people?

Why should they get to sue?

Do we realise what would have happened if they won.

TSA at theaters being needed to keep their insurance.

Theaters going broke.

The judge even gave them warning.

Bad things happen every day. A car accident is an awful thing.

Why do people get special preference the more media coverage they get.</comment>