Elites have alcohol problems too - <AUTHOR> http://andrewgelman.com/2013/04/05/elites-have-alcohol-problems-too/

<comment><USER2> Whenever you find yourself responding (or just tempted to respond) to a general claim with specific examples, you don't actually have an argument. I'm not going to make Cowen's point for him but it's fairly clear what he means:

> In part our guns problem is an alcohol problem. According to Mark Kleiman, > half the people in prison were drinking when they did whatever they did.

Is it fair to say that elites don't have significant numbers of them imprisoned after alcohol-fueled crimes? It either is, or it isn't. And if you want to attack Cowen's position, this is how you do it. By showing that there is no significant difference.

Not with Charlie Sheen. Who's gonna be perfectly fine BTW because he has had one high-paying gig after another since he was... 20?

</comment><comment><USER3> Rather wordy writeup on the use of double standards to excuse behaviour in one group which is not accepted in others. The 'elite' used to pride themselves on drinking like fishes while prohibition/temperance was seen as necessary for the lower orders. Or gambling, rich people are 'high rollers' while poor people waste money on scratch cards. And of course feminism, men are sexist bigots, while women are righting historical injustices. So yes, double standards, the only thing we all have in common.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think he's just misunderstanding the paragraph. What the original writer meant was that there is a group of people who can handle [alcohol|firearms], and are therefore 'elite'. Poor choice of words maybe, but it makes much more sense in the context of the original article.

</comment><comment><USER5> The addictions of "Elites" are treated in a much more functional manner. Not that they're anything but middle-to upper-middle class, but I note that none of the tech or software related gigs I apply for would dare drug test for fear of losing their productive employees. Executive and finance-related positions, similarly.

</comment><comment><USER6> 'Too'? How's that? Are they special in any way or different from other people?</comment>


Entrepreneurship Takes Flight - <AUTHOR> http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3538

<comment><AUTHOR> This talk covers the earth-imaging cube sats that comprise the basis for Planet Labs' global-sensing and analytics platform. The fact that they use modern processors and other electronics for their satellites is super interesting. It's one of the best talks I've seen in a while.</comment>


Patreon's new service fee spurs concern that creators will lose patrons - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/07/patreons-new-service-fee-spurs-concern-that-creators-will-lose-patrons/ <comment><USER2> What goes on? Is this a way to "Monetise" Patreon - hardly, but devil's advocacy tells me there must be a driving force behind this - and it is not the bafflegab Patreon gave out, some sort of internal costs must be eating at Pateron's innards - wages for staff?. Obviously this will chill people who donate many small amounts - as someone said $1 given to 100 people each has fees of $38 ($100 given plus fees of $38 = $138). I now see this huge fee increase and none of that goes to the creator. They call this 'The Law of Unintended Consequences' \- I predict that many people (like me) will bypass patreon, and others will get pissed and drop out.

Smarten up Patreon.

<comment><USER3> They probably didn't expect so many $1 pledges. A lot of creators on there depend entirely on marginalized people, and for many $1 is already pushing the limits of what they can do.

I was thinking about throwing some $1s around now that I'm getting some extra income from Patreon, but at $1.38 I'd rather just save it or use it somewhere else. It probably doesn't seem like a lot to the VC-juiced people at Patreon, but that's a lot of money.

It's about 1/12 of a domain name for a project, or an experiment on AWS, or more than halfway to going out for coffee with a friend at our favorite coffee shop.

<comment><USER4> In general, it's probably reasonable to have a per-transaction fee and a percentage fee for this sort of thing. Because of batching of transactions, it doesn't really line up with credit card processing charges but presumably Patreon has some costs that are effectively per-transaction: infrastructure, dispute resolution, credit card transactions (loosely), etc.

I have no opinion if these new fees are "fair" ones whatever that means. They certainly bias against small donations though. It's not even so much who pays the fees. I see the psychological elements. But I assume a lot of creators (and patrons) would be just as upset if the creators were now only seeing 62 cents out of every dollar with the rest going to "hidden" fees.</comment></comment></comment>


Avogadr.io – Molecular Wallpaper Generator - <AUTHOR> https://www.avogadr.io/?showmenu=true <comment><USER3> That's pretty neat. I think a couple improvements would be:

\- Some kind of feedback over whether the compound name is valid or not

\- Validation on the SMILES input

\- Whether it's working on building the picture or not

\- Autocomplete for the compound name

\- Different colors for each element

\- Preset color pallettes

\- List of "cool-looking" or "most often used" compounds

<comment><USER4> Some great suggestions here, really appreciate you taking the time to list them out!

<comment><USER5> Nice Service!

Would also suggest adding the ability to set the size of the rendered image. Especially for picking sizes for devices.

Also, if you want to make some pocket change from this, link it to cafepress and let me self-print molecules on a bunch of things (stickers!).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Stress Test: [https://www.avogadr.io/?background=0176ff&foreground=38ce72&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=0176ff&foreground=38ce72&compound=Maitotoxin)

<comment><USER7> Anyone have the SMILE representation of their genome?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here's a few famous molecules if people are interested:

Caffeine: [https://avogadr.io/?background=3C2923&foreground=E5B273&comp...](https://avogadr.io/?background=3C2923&foreground=E5B273&compound=caffeine) Wintergreen: [https://avogadr.io/?background=1E5454&foreground=D6DCC2&comp...](https://avogadr.io/?background=1E5454&foreground=D6DCC2&compound=Methyl2-hydroxybenzoate) Codeine: [https://avogadr.io/?background=350D30&foreground=D0ACE2&comp...](https://avogadr.io/?background=350D30&foreground=D0ACE2&compound=codeine) Acetone: [https://avogadr.io/?background=A03129&foreground=FF9800&comp...](https://avogadr.io/?background=A03129&foreground=FF9800&compound=acetone) THC: [https://avogadr.io/?background=113617&foreground=A6BC74&comp...](https://avogadr.io/?background=113617&foreground=A6BC74&compound=thc) Oxytocin (large molecule): [https://avogadr.io/?background=3a0000&foreground=ffc7c7&comp...](https://avogadr.io/?background=3a0000&foreground=ffc7c7&compound=Oxytocin) Ethanol: [https://avogadr.io/?background=4B98BC&foreground=D7E5FF&comp...](https://avogadr.io/?background=4B98BC&foreground=D7E5FF&compound=ethanol)

<comment><USER8> Since you mentioned it, THC and tetrahydrocannabinol are the same... but different. I don't know enough about these kinds of diagrams to know what the differences are - but surely they should be the same?

<comment><USER9> It looks like "THC" and "tetrahydrocannabinol" resolve to different isomers. One has wedges (stereo information) and they have different double bond positions (the double lines).

The problem here is naming compounds - a name like "THC" is not precise enough to distinguish between these isomers. A more exact name could be "(–)-trans- Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol" (from wikipedia).

<comment><USER8> Ah, interesting - thanks. I'll be honest chemistry never really was my strong point (I much preferred the more practical aspect of physics in school) - <USER2> try to pick up what I can from creators such as codyslab, nilered, nurdrage, etc, but I guess my attention to it falls in the "interesting but not interested" category, for lack of a better term.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This poor site is now experiencing the HN hug of death...

<comment><USER11> I'm curious as to what type of hardware these sites that can't handle HN traffic are running on? I've had a project go front page before, and it was nothing a $10 droplet couldn't handle. A few hundred concurrent users is nothing for a webserver/database.

<comment><USER12> It also depends on what one runs on it. This website seems to dynamically generate images (3D, maybe?), and send them to clients.

<comment><USER11> I'll give to this one in particular, but blogs have had the same effect. It's bizarre when commodity hardware is so powerful these days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> PCP looks as evil as it really is. The one drug that everything the government tells you about it is true.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFUvmZWf4hI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFUvmZWf4hI)

</comment><comment><USER14> [https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&compound=Olympiadane)

[https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&compound=Uranocene)

[https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&compound=Gossypol)

</comment><comment><USER6> [https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&compound=mdma)

</comment><comment><USER6> [https://www.avogadr.io/?background=0176ff&foreground=38ce72&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=0176ff&foreground=38ce72&compound=psilocybin)

<comment><USER15> oO that's so awesome!

</comment></comment><comment> unkown-unknowns [https://www.avogadr.io/?background=005f2f&foreground=00ff04&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=005f2f&foreground=00ff04&compound=LSD)

</comment><comment><USER16> Interesting. But it lacks a lot of simple compounds. For instance it doesn't recognize ethyne or acetylene only ethylene. These are all different names for the same thing but ethyne is the systematic name. Similarly it recognizes propane and propene but not propyne, but does recognize methyl ethylene.

This is a bit odd because all of those names are regular constructions that indicate the composition in formally defined ways.

Still fun though!

</comment><comment> ackermann-m-n [https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&smiles=CCN\(CC\)C\(%3DO\)%5BC%40H%5D1CN\(%5BC%40%40H%5D2Cc3c%5BnH%5Dc4c3c\(ccc4\)C2%3DC1\)C)

</comment><comment><USER17> why does "caffeine" look different to "caffiene"?

(I wanted to see how it would handle typos)

<comment><USER18> -iene suffix denotes the presence of a particular kind of electronic bond within the molecule, with different properties to typical electron bonds.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Any source for SMILES of molecules?

My methane is crazy. [https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&...](https://www.avogadr.io/?background=5f0000&foreground=ce3838&smiles=CH4)

<comment><USER20> Notice it says BaCKUP. I think it's just a placeholder.

<comment><USER7> Nice. I didn't notice that.

<comment><USER19> Thanks. Yes, methane is simply C.

Also, I found this: [https://cactus.nci.nih.gov/chemical/structure](https://cactus.nci.nih.gov/chemical/structure) which can convert a chemical name to SMILES notation.

The Wikipedia entry for SMILES has lots of links to software utilities at the end of the article: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_molecular- input_lin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_molecular-input_line- entry_system)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_compounds_wit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_compounds_with_unusual_names)

</comment><comment><USER22> This is super cool! However, I notice that the generated PNG isn't high enough resolution for Retina or other High-DPI displays. It would be great if this gave the option to export different sizes.

</comment><comment><USER23> Nice! I love the visualization for dihydrogen monoxide.

<comment><USER24> That's really scary stuff. [http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html](http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html) /s

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Nice! I love the visualization for Crystal Meth.</comment>


Record-low SAT scores a wake-up call - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/21/opinion/bennett-education/index.html

<comment><USER3> This article reveals a shaky grasp of statistics and demographics. For instance:

> _Since when has diversity and more students taking the test become a > legitimate excuse for bad scores?_

Actually, diversity is a _very_ big factor. Especially language diversity. Bilingual households have proliferated dramatically in the last few decades, and bilingual students have placed enormous strains on already resource-poor public schools trying to push standardized curricula on increasingly large classes of students. And you'd fully expect to see English test scores declining, on average, as more English-as-a-second-language students start entering the test-taking population.

> _A conservative certainly could not get away with blaming falling test > scores on diversity. Imagine the outcry._

Ugh. Here he's conflating "diversity" the political buzzword with diversity the demographic measurement.

No one is "blaming" diversity for declining performance, or claiming that we don't want diverse students to succeed. Diversity is a great thing. But it can have a very real, though hopefully corrigible, effect on test metrics. You're going to see some lower median scores as we wait for ESL/bilingual populations to acculturate over a generation or two. That's a fact of our demography, not a value judgment on said demography.

> _As the United States increases education spending, our students' scores > should not be getting worse._

Perhaps, but this begs for further analytical consideration. First of all, _is_ educational spending actually increasing year over year, accounting for inflation? If so, where is it being allocated? Bear in mind that population is also increasing, and as it increases (and as its demography shifts), it's going to place increasing strains on the public schooling system. Has the school system grown in accordance with population growth? I would find that very hard to believe, especially with all the budget cuts at the national, state, and local level over the last five or six years.

> _"The solution, Brill says, is to overhaul the public school education > system in order to motivate and inspire better teachers."_

That's a fine and dandy solution on a case-by-case basis, but is it scalable? Do we have the resources, and will the demographics support, a scaling up of the Harlem Success I story? Do we even _have_ enough great teachers to ensure that every student in a growing population is served by great teachers? The school system needs thorough reconsideration, and perhaps even an "overhaul." But what's the rollout plan? Theory is great, but what about implementation? What's the halfway point between naively idealistic and depressingly pragmatic?

<comment><USER4> _This article reveals a very questionable grasp of statistics and demographics._

This article reveals a great deal of skill exploiting the _reader's_ questionable grasp of statistics and demographics - indeed, it's a masterful work.

Your point on increasing education spending is very well-taken! I hadn't even noticed how he slipped that in there.

Honestly, a point-by-point analysis of the rhetoric in this piece would be really informative.

<comment><USER3> _"This article reveals a great deal of skill exploiting the reader's questionable grasp of statistics and demographics - indeed, it's a masterful work."_

Perhaps, but I'm not sure if that's intentional. From the tone of the writing, it sounds like the author simply consulted a bunch of subject-matter experts, then regurgitated their talking points. I'm not convinced he is fully aware of what he's doing.

EDIT: Interesting point, and well taken.

<comment><USER4> This is where he works: <http://www.claremont.org/> \- he's fully aware of what he's doing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > The results, they say, "reflect the record size and diversity of the pool of > test-takers. As more students aim for college and take the exam, it tends to > drag down average scores."

> Since when has diversity and more students taking the test become a > legitimate excuse for bad scores?

Um... if the top 20% of students took the test in 1995, and now the top 40% of students take the test, then we've made incredibly good progress if the average score in 2011 is the same as it was in 1995. (Note: I made up the percentages, as I don't know the real numbers, but undoubtedly it's increased.)

The author of the article is either an idiot or pushing an agenda. Probably the latter.

<comment><USER4> Probably? The editor's note tells you straight up: _William J. Bennett is the Washington fellow of the Claremont Institute. He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and was director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush._

His _job_ is to push an agenda.

<comment><USER4> Oh, the Claremont Institute are real winners, too. "The Benefits of Giving Wisely": _Did you know you can support the Claremont Institute with gifts other than cash that will allow you to increase discretionary income, eliminate estate and capital gains taxes, and redirect tax dollars to the Claremont Institute?_

You can use your wealth to dodge taxes, give guys like Bill Bennett cushy Washington jobs, _and_ make sure the deficit will bring the government down, all at the same time!

From their About page: _To recover the founding principles in our political life means recovering a limited and accountable government that respects private property, promotes stable family life, and maintains a strong national defense._

So: pro-property, anti-gay, and pro-war. Those are the founding principles they most fervently like; the rest are inconsequential.

Also, they have two other sites; Victory Over Terror (avot.org, which seems to be down at the DNS level) and Missile Threat. So all in all, these guys are pretty much responsible for everything that's worst in American politics right now, and it really, really pisses me off that CNN publishes this screed as written by a "CNN Contributor" instead of "paid political shill for the oligarchy", which would be a lot more honest.

Grar!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Oh, good God, I have never read a more slanted article in my life. No mention whatsoever is made of the catastrophic No Child Left Behind Act, which eviscerates any attempt to teach children anything substantial. The fact that their reading comprehension scores are falling is no surprise at all - <USER2> they're left to simply read and learn to love reading (which is the only way to read well) their school is put on academic probation and federal funding is cut off.

The author - who was a drug czar, which hardly makes him an expert on anything education-oriented [ _edit_ \- whoops, he was the sec'y of education, my bad - I just saw "Drug" and freaked] - complains that conservatives couldn't say that diversity is at fault. As though the College Board were made up of flaming liberals, apparently; the entire piece is full of righteous indignation at the vast sums of money Americans are forced to spend on liberal teacher's unions, which are clearly at fault.

This is the other half of the one-two punch. NCLB makes it impossible for schools to function, then assholes like this one say, "See? Public schools are a waste of our hard-earned money!" This is no different from drowning any other part of government in the bathtub, and it's truly dismaying not only to see CNN print it as though this guy were qualified or in any way disinterested, but for it to appear here on HNN where it can raise my blood pressure.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think neither the ruthless testing culture glorifying route learning (as in Turkey, China, Japan) nor the, anything goes, "every child is special", "education is more than scores" approach is the correct or complete answer (I suffered through the first, entered a life-determining exam when I was 12, and experienced the second for 9 years in the US, while TAing during my PhD). If you haven't, please watch _Waiting for Superman_ , the parts about the inner city schools is the main point, but there's a small section on how even suburban schools are falling behind.

Unfortunately, due to globalization US kids, whatever their thoughts about education are, are up against Indian and Chinese competition, who went through the testing machine.

<comment><USER7> No danger from the Chinese kids. I tutor rich Chinese students in SAT and they routinely get hammered by the SAT Critical Reading and the Writing sections. They'll ace the math, but until their language and critical thinking skills improve, there isn't much danger there. The testing machine culture of China (and Korea, Japan) doesn't reward critical thinking, so as a result, those students are far behind their American counterparts once they get out of the memorization paradigm. Only 1 of my students scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT and she spent years in the US and didn't go through the Chinese educational system. Most of my Chinese students tend to score around 1800-1900 total, with scores in the 700s for math and the 500s for critical reading and writing. I don't have any data on the Indian students..

<comment><USER6> Good point, although I meant, perhaps a little tangentially to the post, kids getting schooled in China and India (i.e. 0'the generation, those coming to teh US for higher eductaion). In the tech sector, they are gobbling up jobs, as we all know. Yet in higher ranking positions, especially the number of Chinese fall off dramatically, most probably due to the factors you cite.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I think the economy could be in part to blame for the drop in test scores. When the economy is good, parents tend to pay for SAT prep classes. Since 2008, with the downturn in the economy, fewer parents have been willing/able to shell out $1000 or more on SAT classes. Granted, this would only have a small effect on the overall test-taking population, but then again, we're only talking about a 13 point drop

</comment><comment><USER9> I really wish there would be some way that schools would stop having to worry about these stupid test scores. Hearing "Education" and "SAT" together makes me cringe.

</comment><comment><USER10> There is also the increasing tendency for children to take the SAT a few times a practice. While this may help maximize one score, it may push the average down. Speculation on my part, though.

<comment><USER11> That doesn't make much sense to me. If you assume that their score tends to improve when taking the test more than once, which seems reasonable, then taking it more would push the average higher.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Along with the handwaving around what broadening a pool of applicants does to the mean, (and surely around here we would understand that -- consider more homepage viewers lowering conversion rates), there is no mention of the change in scoring systems for SAT II; maybe these are accounted for (well not the first), there's just no way to know.

It's unfortunate, because some really great data about how well students in the US are doing, adjusted for measures that would allow longitudinal comparison would be, you know, useful.

As it is, all we learned is that this guy hates teacher's unions, and liked "waiting for superman", but I could have guessed that from his Bio.

</comment><comment><USER7> When you increase the test taking pool and there is an increasing number of ESL students taking the exam, average scores are going to drop. The problem isn't legislation like the Ted Kenney/GW Bush No Child Left Behind, it's that the important critical thinking and higher level reading skills required are being ignored in lieu of an increased focus on just getting kids to pass minimum standards. As a result, the majority of educational initiatives are aimed at the lower end of the educational achievement bell curve at the expense of the true "college bound" student.

There's also a push that "every child could/should go to college" as opposed to the old days when vocational and trade programs were more prominent. As a result more kids that have no interest or ability to succeed in college are taking the SAT. It's simple -- with a larger sample size, you'll have more low scores. However, one critical area that is being ignored is that the College Board routinely re-centers scores. The real question isn't what the reported scores are -- it's the difference in the raw test scores that are the key. I would argue that the raw scores are probably just the same as they've always been -- however if more people score "above average" then of course, the College Board will have to make the "average" score more average. One might be able to make the case that scores are actually higher now than they were in 1995 and as a result the scaled scores have been adjusted to reflect this new average.

I am a high school teacher in Shanghai and do private SAT tutoring and have been studying and dealing with SAT scoring and preparation for many years -- I'm not noticing a decline in students as much as I'm noticing an increased reliance upon test prep -- which would skew the averages to be higher and result in the College Board adjusting the reported score/raw score in order for the test to maintain validity in the eyes of the colleges.

In reality, the SAT is not a valid test of anything other than the ability to take the SAT. I could teach almost anyone to "beat" the test. It really isn't a function of intelligence as much as strategy. But the College Board is in the business of selling tests and so they must create some score distribution as a means for universities to short-cut their admissions process. It's much easier to compare 20000 applications on basis of SAT/GPA than it would be to consider GPA and the full range of other indicators. While universities do consider those indicators -- it's usually only after making their private cuts based on some numeric rubric. That's the real tragedy -- not that the SAT scores are going down, but that the SAT scores are still being used at all. It would make much more sense to use Advanced Placement results since those are actual college level courses. The SAT II is also more valid since those tests are actually subject matter exams rather than some arbitrary gauge of critical thinking skills. However, the SAT has been adapting someone with more emphasis on real academic skills, but it's still a very beatable, very trainable test. It would be much more difficult to coach someone on beating the AP exam, since those test actual knowledge and application rather than just simple strategy. An increase of the AP program would cost hundreds of millions for schools and there's no way they'll do it because they're too busy teaching 10th graders how to read and making sure that kids learn plenty of political correctness.

<comment><USER4> Why do you think NCLB isn't a problem, when it's specifically the cutoff of federal funding mandated by NCLB that causes that increased focus on getting kids to pass minimum standards in the first place? NCLB doesn't care about - or measure - critical thinking or higher level reading skills.

Not that I'm disagreeing with you on your larger point, by any means.

Incidentally, could you get in touch by email, if you have a moment? My wife is a physics instructor and has seriously been considering teaching/SAT prep in China or elsewhere abroad, and I'd be interested in finding out how you got into it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> So they significantly change the scoring scheme in 2004/2005 and scores are different now! WOW!</comment>


Show HN: Photo Realistic QR-Codes - <AUTHOR> https://www.QRpicture.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN!

Inspired by a recent HN article on QR codes [0], I decided to finally publish [1] and open-source [2] a service I created 7 years ago. I got pulled away from it by projects with higher priority and it has been catching dust and been bitrot eroding since. Now reconstructed the basics and hosted on an AWS instance I would like to share so it might inspire.

Creating a photo realistic QR requires two steps. The first is to create a 93x93 dithered monochrome image. The dithering is calculated to preserve the mandatory QR framework/timing bits and keep the data/crc bits conforming. Trying to maximize the crc bits to match the original image.

The second step is adding colour information as a 186x186 dithered layer. The colour palette is created using Spacial Colour Quantification which uses the 93x93 QR image as constraints on the available colour range.

SCQ also stabilises palettes used for animations (a service not made available through the site yet).

      [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24119124
      [1] https://www.qrpicture.com
      [2] https://github.com/xyzzy/qrpicture

<comment><USER2> Cool idea. Sadly only the b/w example scans for me, and even that takes a while to register.

<comment><USER3> Which app are you using?

<comment><USER2> Default Android camera app on my moto x4 and SecScanQR

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Slightly OT, but when migrating data between iPhones, the old iPhone displays an animated point cloud that appears to function like a QR code. You scan it with the new phone, and your data starts to migrate locally through Bluetooth.

Other than aesthetics, what are the advantages of the point cloud? Higher bandwidth?

Also, if you were to transfer 100s of megabytes of data from device A to B, using A's display and B's camera, what tech would you look into?

<comment><USER5> Here is a good demo of a streaming qr solution. Not ours but a good demo of the concept.

[https://youtu.be/_0djJ1aVEXs](https://youtu.be/_0djJ1aVEXs)

We use a similar method for offline wallet transfers of private crypto keys. I'll note a couple things. Keep the frame simple and not too dense. Be careful on ecc settings. Higher res camera androids to be slower in our testing. Be ready to loop the series to catch missed frames. Gives your frames and order context. If it's really sensitive dat, encrypt it before encoding you QR. assume the video can be stolen from a camera. Inject noisy frames To help obfuscate.

<comment><USER6> Another animated QR data transfer that uses fountain codes: [https://github.com/divan/txqr](https://github.com/divan/txqr)

<comment><USER7> Hey, I wanted to use your library to send data from computer A to computer B, but I don't speak Go yet.

How easy would it be to implement a txqr reader for desktop? Piping zbarcam's output could be the easiest way.

Have you got any directions for me to do it? It would be a great addition to txqr!

Thanks!

<comment><USER6> I'm actually planning to make Go+Flutter application, which will work on iOS/Android, Desktop and Web. Out of curiosity, what's your use case?

<comment><USER7> I would use this in a security context.

I want to use a one-time pad with a friend. That requires generating a fully random file that I then need to send to my friend (physically). I don't have an Ethernet port on my machine to send the file on the wire, and I don't want to rely on weaker cryptography (WiFI, aes) to send this file (basically, everything is weaker than a one-time pad). I also don't want to leave undeletable traces of my one-time pad on a flash drive.

So what's left is the actual screen of the device, provided I don't have any hidden cameras where I live.

I could use a hard drive and then shred the secrets, but nothing is proven regarding the actual deletion of the files, and QR codes are much cooler!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Somehow, I think these kinds of "clever" QR codes would be less used. Most people aren't going to even notice that they are legit QR codes. QR codes are already underutilized enough, at least in western countries. Cool idea, though!

<comment><USER9> It's my opinion that underutilization is because of application rather than any more ephemeral thing like appearance. QR codes haven't had a killer app yet, and they tend to be used for marketing rather than any critical tasks that rely on the qualities that make it a useful technology. My guess is this will change as it's become more or less a requirement to have a cell phone to function in western society.

<comment><USER10> "QR codes haven't had a killer app yet"

When I lived in China, scanning QR codes was how we initiated payments for restaurants, groceries, couriers and other offline goods/services. It was also how we added people to WeChat.

I would guess at least 20 million QR codes are scanned per day in Beijing.

<comment><USER11> QR code payments are also sweeping Japan, despite contactless smartphone payments having existed since before the iPhone even.

For a shop to adopt QR payments, all they need a printout of a QR code. No hardware, not leasing some card reader, zero maintenance.

<comment><USER12> I think they'd need _some_ hardware to verify that the transaction happened. A small business owner can use their own phone, but other businesses need a smartphone per point of sale, which might be more expensive than a card reader (that one likely has to have anyway)

<comment><USER11> You can use a phone (or whatever) to verify the transaction, but in practice I've never seen anyone do that. It probably helps that crime is pretty low in this part of Asia.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Please be patient, I'm adding extra workers to the instance. Old instance died because it exceeded limits.

<comment><USER13> I'm a bit curious… how much traffic _is_ the front page of HN?

(I was thinking of posting a "Show HN" at some point, but I just do everything on my own machines. Not sure how much traffic my desktop would handle before figuratively melting. The nice thing about my Show HN is that it would be a static HTML page, so that's at least easier; yours is necessarily dynamic.)

<comment><USER14> I have been in the front-page twice, getting around 5k-10k visitors in the same day, which should give you an idea.

<comment><USER15> That seems to be what I typically see as well. I've seen up to 80k views over the course of a day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> That's really clever.

Using the 4 example images at the top, the first (color) and last (B&W) work flawlessly on my iPhone.

But the two animated ones in the middle will work for a second, and then the phone loses it. Animated seems like "too much" for a phone to lock on to -- perhaps just stick to static? That's cool enough.

<comment><USER17> With my Pixel 2, only the B&W worked with Google Lens.

<comment><USER18> I couldn't get any of them to work with my Pixel 3, using Google Lens.

<comment><AUTHOR> Really sorry to hear that. I do not have such a device and without. If I knew which engine was being used I might have a starting point to figure out what might be happening.

edit: I noticed that the QR needs to contain a message or it will not scan.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Funny how _QR codes scanning pictures of people_ has more content, and is more engaging, than the "Pictures of People Scanning QR-codes" [1].

In all seriousness, impressive work - and very pragmatic delivery, queue system and all.

\----

[1] [https://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/](https://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> The queuing was based on 2007 metrics on load and usage. It now seems this needs updating. Preferably making if full client-side javascript.

<comment><USER20> Going full client side would also mean you could host it for free and it could handle a ton of traffic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is really cool!

I do wonder what the practical use is, though, aside from just being pretty cool. In a real world situation I think the recognizability of a QR code as something you can scan with your phone is an important part of the value.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hiding information in plain sight :) Animations. Real life Games. Information stickers (like my photo containing contact information).

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Look like we killed another site from HN frontpage.

<comment><USER23> Sample pictures are on Github.

[https://github.com/xyzzy/qrpicture/tree/master/www.qrpicture...](https://github.com/xyzzy/qrpicture/tree/master/www.qrpicture.com/assets)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I must be missing something... What does this have to do with photo realism?

<comment><USER25> I has nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, OP is engaging in a cheap form of terminology hijacking.

Either that or OP has no idea what the word 'photorealism' means.

Either way OP is doing himself a disservice. Great project. Siraj-Raval vibes.

<comment><AUTHOR> That might be true. What would you suggest as a better description.

<comment><USER24> "Picture to QR code converter"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Neat, although anyone else think his has an uncanny resemblance to LSD blotters? Talk about an interesting branding opportunity!

</comment><comment><USER27> I only get B&W QR. (In case it is important, I used the first photo (one with three vertical yellow bananas) [https://www.google.com/search?q=banana&rlz=1C1CHBF_esAR839AR...](https://www.google.com/search?q=banana&rlz=1C1CHBF_esAR839AR839&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=LZxQx4PwvNVDfM%252C5ymPQx-S2visAM%252C%252Fg%252F120lq251&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kS_Ps27TvfuXUSvBgTIyh101nchpQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZzMCg8JrrAhVPD7kGHYmaCQgQ_B16BAgWEA8#imgrc=LZxQx4PwvNVDfM) )

> _If QR does not scan, then Re-Generate with more (+1) safer settings_

What does this do? Can you give a technical explanation?

I don't like when the outline is so small that it doesn't cover the horizontal o vertical part of the grid. (This is a personal opinion anyway.)

Note: Remove the two spaces before the links in your comment, so they become clickable.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the example. It's the colour threshold. But with the brief number samples already posted I'm going to replace that that and generate two QR's. A low and high colour contrast.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Related idea:

[https://www.aestheticodes.com/](https://www.aestheticodes.com/)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW39Mt5kscQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW39Mt5kscQ)

But this is probably better because it uses natively supported QR codes.

<comment><USER29> I have a pet project, "Oh By"[1] that is a replacement for QR codes that does not require an app to create, or consume, and you can just chalk them up anywhere.

The downside is that it is a centralized service. Further, you would need to trust that this centralized service would continue operating into the indeterminate future. Luckily I have a strong track record there.

A very simple example use-case is here:

[https://0x.co/examples.html](https://0x.co/examples.html)

... and the "HN-Specific" FAQ is here:

[https://0x.co/hnfaq.html](https://0x.co/hnfaq.html)

[1] [https://0x.co](https://0x.co)

<comment><USER30> From a practical perspective, the larger problem with this implementation is that unless you happen to have heard of your service (unlikely), it's not obvious what to do with the code, or even how to find out what it is. You need a distinctive, unique string format that yields to googling. Overloading the hexadecimal notation was a poor choice, in my opinion.

<comment><USER29> You are correct - there is a chicken and egg problem here wherein "Oh By Codes" are not useful unless everyone recognizes them for what they are.

Like I said - pet project. Nearly 100% of my time and effort goes to rsync.net, but we'll see ...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Related work elsewhere (2012): [https://research.swtch.com/qart](https://research.swtch.com/qart)

</comment><comment><USER32> The default Camera App in Google Pixel can auto-recognize QR codes, but unfortunately it doesnt work with these. Meanwhile, a dedicated QR scanner (such as built-in in iPhne) works.

<comment><USER33> I use gcam on a xiaomi redmi note 7 and it recognised everything except for the animated ones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I've long wondered whether you can make a photo that gets recognized as a QR code by computers. This is very cool! Is there any way you can smooth out the calibration squares?

<comment><USER35> I think you're right about that, but sometimes things are interesting enough based on the technical feat alone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Wow this is freaking cool! All worked for me in the iphone x

</comment><comment><USER37> Is there an android app for qr code reading that doesn't want all my information???

<comment><USER38> The built in camera app scans QR codes

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Sadly, on my Samsung Galaxy S9, absolutely none of them register

</comment><comment><USER40> That's wild! Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER41> That's really cool

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank You!

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I looked at this work and since it's AGPL licensed I went away.

[https://www.bitcat.cc/webapp/awesome- qr](https://www.bitcat.cc/webapp/awesome-qr) is a great alternative.

</comment><comment><USER43> QR should look MORE like QR, and always include an URL next to it.

If you display a QR Code with some url, and fail to show a shortened url next to it for people to type instead of scanning, you either fail basic common sense tests, or are intentionally being an asshat.

<comment><USER44> ... or the QR code isn't meant exclusively for direct human consumption?

A QR code is quite information-dense. With even the highest error-correction rates, a 53x53 QR code will store 100 bytes of information ([https://www.qrcode.com/en/about/version.html](https://www.qrcode.com/en/about/version.html)). That's more than you can replicate in a URL intended for typing.

For the case of the 'Show HN' here, think of semi-automatic _uses_ of the QR code that still use the provided _aesthetic_ potential, such as inventory- control stickers that look like the owning organization's logo.

<comment><USER45> Talking about what you can fit in one. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExwqNreocpg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExwqNreocpg)</comment></comment></comment>


New York Times Bans the Word 'Tweet' - <AUTHOR> http://www.theawl.com/2010/06/new-york-times-bans-the-word-tweet

<comment><USER2> The problem with this memo is that it conflates the use of "tweet" as a noun (useful and precise) with its use as a verb (much too casual for formal use). I agree with the author as to the latter but not as to the former.

There are some contexts in which a certain level of formality helps keep an elevated tone that suits the forum. I think the New York Times is one such forum. It has a long tradition of maintaining "standard English" and at least some significant portion of its reader base might be jarred should its reporters suddenly lapse into forms of expression that depart sharply from that standard.

"Tweet," though, at least when used as a noun, is really what I would call a "term of art," that is, a form of expression that captures a range of attributes not easily otherwise expressed except in wordy or imprecise ways.

Casual-sounding as it may be, it is the one word that describes perfectly the form of short message that one transmits to those to whom one is connected on the Twitter platform.

Thus, in one word, it describes:

1\. The type of platform on which the message was sent (Twitter).

2\. The fact that is 140 or fewer characters and hence either a short phrase, single sentence or two, or other informal expression of thought about a subject (as opposed to any form of carefully developed argument or expositional form of expression).

3\. The fact that it is sent originally to those who are "following" such the sender, who may be but likely are not intimate with the sender (Twitter being a very public platform).

4\. The fact that such a message can easily be spread virally by those followers to others who are in turn "following" them or can be linked to from a wide variety of sources from all across the web.

Given that the paper's own (highly skilled) writers had used it 18 times within just the past month confirms this. "Tweet" (used as a noun) is a good, solid word - precise, accurate, pithy, and almost certainly carries a meaning that is well known to anyone who knows what Twitter is. I don't think it has a good substitute that is not either wordy or imprecise compared to the word itself. That is why it is a useful term of art. For that reason, it makes no sense to dissuade use of "tweet" as a noun, and I think the memo author is plain wrong on this.

I would side with him, though, when it comes to "tweet" as a verb (as in, "I will tweet you"). This is much too casual for a formal publication such as the times. There is of course nothing wrong as such with this verb, and the issue is strictly one of tone. But the author is right that, in terms of tone, the word is misplaced in this particular publication.

Edit: point well taken, ismarc - a different rationale from that of the memo writer but a sound point about avoiding reader confusion, at least until the term acquires broader general usage.

<comment><USER3> While I agree that tweet as a noun is defensible, and is an exacting term, I wouldn't expect its use from professional journalists in a non-tech report without qualification about what the term refers to. It would be like using any other niche specific term without qualification. A good example would be etude, musicians and classical music enthusiests will immediately know it, but an average reader will not, even if the term is a similar term of art.

<comment><USER4> You can sometimes get around that with a brief inline gloss, like "Obama sent a tweet, as messages on the service are called, expressing his wish for...".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It seems quite sensible to me. There really is a significant portion of the population that has never even heard of Twitter (remember, there are lots of people who try to sign in to Facebook by typing "facebook login" into Google and blindly clicking on the first result), and they're probably disproportionately well-represented in the Times' readership. It's not about hating the word "tweet," just about "tweet" not being common among the 6.5 billion people who don't use Twitter.

<comment><USER6> I think I might just have got the concept of a conservative newspaper. The idea is to never shock your readers with anything out of the ordinary.

<comment><USER7> Clarity. That's the idea. Don't use words many of your readers won't understand (except for special effect).

"She wrote on Twitter …" is much clearer then "She tweeted …" and it seems obvious to me that whenever writing formally, you should use the first. Just as you would write "He searched the web …", not "He googled …" in formal writing.

<comment><USER8> It definitely has something to do with formal editorial usage than drinking the Kool Aid amongst many institutions. But because of this single word "tweet", almost everyone in pop culture can get a good sense of what this writer is talking about by remembering this new phenom. The only culture barrier that I see is if institutional writers do not want to use the word, then it won't change the Twitter ecosystem.

As a matter of fact, Jack and the team initially did not like using that word. It was only when the Twitter ecosystem starting vastly adopting it that they finally adopted the term. Pop culture, once again, wins.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Banned?

FTA: _"Tweet" may be acceptable occasionally for special effect._

Definitely not banned.

</comment><comment><USER10> Makes perfect sense to me. That will have additional advantages as it will allow the Times to weed out a lot of fluff pieces about who tweeted what.

</comment><comment><USER11> I seem to recall more than a few articles over the last decade on how best to refer to the internet, or web sites or email.

The tip of the spear is always the smallest, but hardest point. There will always be some new communications medium that only a rarefied few use and understand before the rest of the world catches on. In that in-between time there is apathy, confusion and even resentment.

</comment><comment><USER12> According to Dave Itzkoff, an employee and frequent contributor to the NYT, this is a hoax. <http://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/15847765293>

<comment><USER13> Nope, not a hoax, but not a 'ban' either

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I presume ornithology articles are exempt from this.

</comment><comment><USER15> from the guidelines

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

<comment><USER16> Flag it then. Meta-comments like this aren't very useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> There is a certain irony in claiming that '"tweet" has not yet achieved the status of standard English', and yet "it has appeared 18 times in articles in the past month, in a range of sections".

Surely, the NYT considers itself a good sample of standard English usage?

</comment><comment><USER18> I am banning the phrase "reach out". Call or email me if you object. Tweeting is ok too, if I am following you (unlikely), but please don't reach out to me. _edit grammar_

</comment><comment><USER19> That seems a little futile to me. It's like trying to ban "google" as a verb. Or "xerox."

NY Times' standards editor Phil Corbett can set whatever rules he wants for the paper, but his disdain for this verb isn't going to influence all of the blogs, the social media, and other publications in using it.

<comment><USER20> _NY Times' standards editor Phil Corbett can set whatever rules he wants for the paper, but his disdain for this verb isn't going to influence all of the blogs, the social media, and other publications in using it._

I don't think he's trying to. I think he's saying that Twitter is not yet in the standard English lexicon and should therefore be postponed from appearance in the NYTimes. If at such time it does become as popular as Xerox or Google then perhaps they will reevaluate their stance. As far as his position on usage outside the NYTimes, he may personally dislike the world but professionally I don't think he cares either way.

<comment><USER21> I was at a wedding two weeks ago, filled with non-technical, non-Silicon Valley folks and in one of the songs before the wedding they ad-libbed in the word "tweet" for "call" or "write" or some other verb.

Everyone in the audience got the joke and laughed.

<comment><USER22> Though it should be noted that you only need just enough people to get the joke for a whole audience to laugh.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Considering the embarrassing way that the NY Times has attempted to transition into the digital age, this is not really a surprise. Consider:

\- The Times has tried twice to create paywall models that have utterly failed. The idea was to charge to read Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman. Utter disaster b/c nobody really values them all that much even though they get a lot of web traffic when free.

\- The Times does very little investigative journalism of significance.

\- The Times has strong pretensions, as evidenced by its coverage of socialite weddings, etc.

\- In the buildup to the Iraq war it was the Times' sloppy fact checking that sold the war to many, many people who had been skeptical prior to reading its coverage.

\- The Times attack on the Pulse news reader turned what should have been superb publicity into a petty attack on a small startup that obviously loves the Times.

For all its flaws, it's still a great paper, but far less great than it once was or than it could be if it had more sense and guts and had to fight harder to maintain its position.

Banning a word like "tweet" suggests an annoying sort of editorial rectitude that is at least as unbecoming as any of the foibles mentioned above, especially in light of the Iraq war fact checking fiasco. We have wars going on and all sorts of corporate fraud and the Times is wasting ink (or pixels) on why it banned a silly sounding word?

<comment><USER13> Ok, where to begin...

\- "The Times has tried twice to create pay-wall models that have utterly failed"

Um, not true. They did it once. It was called Times Select. It actually worked quite well, however the advertising market picked up in a big way where revenue from ads would exceed subscriptions. Not the case anymore, but thats another story.

\- "The Times does very little investigative journalism of significance"

Ok, I'm gonna leave this one alone. Clearly we are on different planets.

\- "The Times has strong pretensions, as evidenced by its coverage of socialite weddings, etc."

I guess so... ? Is it? I mean its not tabloid, but I think thats good, right? Whats the "etc"?

\- "In the buildup to the Iraq war it was the Times' sloppy fact checking that sold the war to many, many people who had been skeptical prior to reading its coverage."

I'm not sure how this relates to helping your point about "transition into the digital age" or the whole "tweet" thing.

\- The Times attack on the Pulse news reader turned what should have been superb publicity into a petty attack on a small startup that obviously loves the Times.

Yeah, I personally think that was short-sighted.

"For all its flaws, it's still a great paper, but far less great than it once was or than it could be if it had more sense and guts and had to fight harder to maintain its position."

Been waiting to say this... ahem..."{citation needed}"

"Banning a word like "tweet" suggests…"

Okay, I think you need to re-read the article (or maybe I do). The word is not banned, it is highly discouraged. It does give examples where "tweet" is appropriate so therefore it is not banned.

"We have wars going on and all sorts of corporate fraud and the Times is wasting ink (or pixels) on why it banned a silly sounding word?"

The Times is also wasting many hours every day on things like lunch, coffee breaks, expense reports, HR policies and the like. Don't they know there is a war on!?

And to re-visit the "embarrassing way that the NY Times has attempted to transition into the digital age", I just want to say this:

\- NYTimes.com is 83rd Most-Visited web site on the Internet (1st for Newspaper) according Google: <http://bit.ly/bsbBMB>

\- <http://developer.nytimes.com>

\- <http://open.nytimes.com> (my favorite: [http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/self-service- prorat...](http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/self-service-prorated- super-computing-fun/) )

\- <http://www.nytimes.com/timeswire>

\- <http://www.nytimes.com/timesskimmer>

\- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadoop#Hadoop_on_Amazon_EC2.2FS...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadoop#Hadoop_on_Amazon_EC2.2FS3_services)

And in case it does come up, this is entirely my own view and not that the Times at which I work but I'm not in editorial or anything like that. I just felt that while you made some good points you were off-base on a few.

To wrap up, I just re-read what I wrote above and it could come across as snarky which is not my intention, rather I was aiming (badly) to be a little tongue-in-cheek.

<comment><USER23> Good points. I admittedly was a bit unfair. I do think it's a great paper. I guess I just have a bit of a bias against things that come off as "language police" activity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Tweet" is already on Wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweet>

So anybody reading the NYT could easily look that up, in case they lived under rock for the past three years.</comment>


If Mark Zuckerberg runs for president, will Facebook help him win? - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/09/mark-zuckerberg-president-facebook-algorithm <comment><USER2> I remember reading in a reputable publication quoting sources that Trump is considering him as the most serious candidate.

If anything Trump would be afraid of non-politicians, given the anti- establishment sentiments prevalent recently and fueled by Sanders.

In my opinion, Trump won because Hillary and the DNC in general is full of corrupt crooks. The DNC conceded nothing to the Sanders side during the nomination, turning off lights on their side. That's the votes that swung in Trump's favor. Rather than reforming themselves, they diverted attention by concocting Russia collusion story, something that fell completely flat.

With Zuckerberg/Sanders/xyz-not-establishment running, I think we may have a chance at beating Trump for the second term.

<comment><USER3> I would vote for Trump to prevent Sanders or Zuckerberg from being President. As far as I'm concerned the Democratic party died sometime during Obama's second term when they decided that they didn't need working class people anymore.

<comment><USER4> I can understand your disdain for the Democratic party. I share it.

However, if I may offer up some counter points on Sanders specifically.

First, let's be clear that the republican party does not have the interest of the working man at heart either. Let's not forget that the first actions of almost any republican candidate in recent times almost always involve tax cuts for higher income brackets and budget cuts on education, infrastructure, health care, and environmental programs. These budget cuts adversely effect the working class.

Second, Sanders wasn't really aligned with the democratic party. In fact, the system was purposefully rigged against him. This isn't a conspiracy theory. Many high ranking officials of the DNC have admitted to it.

Third, Sanders was the working class' best hope. He was in favor of raising taxes in all brackets in order to raise money for public works programs, universal healthcare and no-cost tuition for higher education. As you might imagine, these platforms definitely rustled some feathers. Not only was his platform based around dismantling the racketeering industries that are higher education and medical insurance, his platform also seemed somewhat _gasp_ socialist. Socialism is a dirty word in the U.S. no doubt because of the cold war. However, these programs were shown to be successful in other nations in Europe and also in Canada.

Fourth, Sanders was the most honest and squeaky clean candidate that has ever run for the office. He legitimately believed in his ideas, he wasn't in the pockets of large corporations, he had a voting record consistent with his platform, and there is historical evidence of him supporting strikes and equality protests.

All I'm asking is that you understand that Sanders wasn't a Dem candidate. He wasn't running on party platforms. He was purposefully ousted by the party because they knew he wouldn't listen to them and their corporate backers. Sanders used the Dem as a way to gain legitimacy. He really had no choice considering that most people in the U.S. consider third party candidates to be a joke.

<comment><USER5> >Fourth, Sanders was the most honest and squeaky clean candidate that has ever run for the office. He legitimately believed in his ideas, he wasn't in the pockets of large corporations, he had a voting record consistent with his platform, and there is historical evidence of him supporting strikes and equality protests.

That scares me the most, I want a pragmatic president, not an ideologue.

<comment><USER4> I don't have a problem with it as long as the ideas aren't harmful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Zuckerberg is only hyping running so he looks more important to the Chinese government so he can get more leverage for getting Facebook into China. He's doing this because rolling over by creating backdoors and censorship tools to appease the Chinese Gov was apparently not enough. It's a scummy move but given our current president ......

</comment><comment><USER6> Whenever his other merits or demerits Zuckerberg seems to have very little mass charisma (i.e. the ability to fire up a crowd or inspire people over tv).

Look at some recent matchups and think about who had more mass charisma:

Clinton v Trump

Obama v Romney

GWB v Kerry

GWB v Gore

Clinton v Dole

Does it make any sense at all for a party to nominate a candidate with poor mass charisma?

<comment><USER7> No. Especially since Trump is a master at projecting emotion on a mass scale. Zuckerberg could not rely on photo ops and videos to convey an emotional message when Trump is going to be shouting to audiences of thousands. He should just sit this one out, don't jump the gun on this one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The ol' Zuck means well and I think he'd give the go a nice solid try with proper intentions. But I do not think he would be that successful in the office, whatever "successful" means these days.

<comment><USER9> Why not? Zuckerberg is clearly a smart man, and he seems to be as qualified as any one else. Infinitely more qualified than the current occupant of the office. Just because you don't think of him as a politician doesn't mean that he won't do a good job.

<comment><USER10> Why is Zuckerberg infinitely more qualified than Trump? Both came from wealthy families. Both are billionaires. Both are only capable of running due to their billionaire status. Neither has any experience of any kind in politics.

Folks were worried about Trump's conflicts of interest, but Zuckerberg quite literally owns one of the nation's largest news redistributors which is already actively taking steps to control which news is shared.

<comment><USER11> > Zuckerberg quite literally owns one of the nation's largest news > redistributors which is already actively taking steps to control which news > is shared.

Not just the nation. He controls much of what the developed world sees and reads, and has access to and control over much of the developed world's public and private communication.

<comment><USER12> Let's not forget the whole free-basics ordeal. Zuck is just gross.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I have thus far avoided any Zucker interviews, but I will say that I have had enough of presidential conflicts of interest. Facebook is too big, and he would need to completely divest.

</comment><comment><USER7> I hold a contradiction over Zuckerberg. He would work harder than most to understand issues, fundamentally transform government to embrace tech, and also have a very powerful platform to reach out to voters directly.

However, given all of this, running as a Democrat would not protect him from the same pressures and problems as Trump. It would probably exacerbate tensions, with him ending up much more isolated than Trump from the political establishment. If we think the Trump presidency and its coverage are hectic, just imagine the air when Zuckerberg blows through all of the weak political candidates. Everyone D and R will unilaterally oppose Zuckerberg, 10x as they do Trump, just because of his power.

Additionally, it's dangerous gamble for Zuckerberg to run, as all Facebook products WILL face a massive exodus stoked by political enemies. The debate of him vs Trump will not please anyone. His path to the nomination will feel so forced like a repeat of Hillary's campaign without all the enthusiasm.

Despite all of this, in my recommendation, it would be incredibly foolish of Zuckerberg not to run. If not in 2020, at least afterwards.

2020 is not an election anyone should want to be involved in. Ever. With the optics and warping that Trump's campaign style involves, traditional campaigns (and even with an adept tech strategy, direct messaging, etc.) do not work against Trump. Even co-opting his strategy and style (energy, heart, voice) is suicide. It would take an exceptionally practiced person to channel, reflect and amplify the frustrations of the electorate as a candidate to displace Trump.

<comment><USER14> >"I hold a contradiction over Zuckerberg. He would work harder than most to understand issues, fundamentally transform government to embrace tech, ..."

What does this mean?

Do you believe that the US government doesn't currently "embrace tech"? Look up 18F and the USDS.

Do you not think that every law maker in Washington doesn't have a smart phone and an ipad?

Would "embracing tech" somehow result in less pork barrel politics, partisan gridlock, deficit spending or kicking the can down the road on policy making? These are the real structural issues with Washington not the lack of tech in the workplace.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> People are seriously considering Mark "The People's Privacy Champion" Zuckerberg for president?

[http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg- ims...](http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims-wont- help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5)

>Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

>Zuck: Just ask.

>Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

>[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

>Zuck: People just submitted it.

>Zuck: I don't know why.

>Zuck: They "trust me"

>Zuck: Dumb fucks.

I suppose the 2020 edition of this would look like this:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone in the United States

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 320,000,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: I became the president.

</comment><comment><USER16> Can Zuck rise people up like Trump and Obama did? I doubt he could give a politics/"vote for me" speech without half the people falling asleep.

</comment><comment><USER17> I think the modern presidential role needs more technological savvy and broad- scale systems thinking than in the past. I'd put those abilities at a greater weight than typical political communication / dealing. There are tech CEO/Founders/Businessmen I would rather have in the White House than Zuckerberg, but there are very few politician/lawyer types that I would prefer over Zuckerberg.

Facebook's practice of experimentation and data-driven decision making is something our country needs more of. Incentives are pretty out of wack, in many cases the only way to align incentives is with information systems regulating more complex relationships. I'd also like to see some really aggressive pushes towards infrastructure improvements in internet, education, and transportation . All of these are things I think Zuckerberg would be a good bet to organize.

</comment><comment><USER18> Given the power Facebook have, does Zuckerberg even need to run for president? I think that's the problem with these huge companies.

</comment><comment><USER19> El Presidente (Señor Teflon Trump) has a unique set of skills that Mr. Zuckerberg probably doesn't have. These have been covered by the hypnotist cartoonist, Scott Adams:

      Like many of you, I have been entertained by the
      unstoppable clown car that is Donald Trump. On
      the surface, and several layers deep as well,
      Trump appears to be a narcissistic blow-hard
      with inadequate credentials to lead a country.

      The only problem with my analysis is that there
      is an eerie consistency to his success so far.
      Is there a method to it? Is there some sort of
      system at work under the hood?

      Probably yes. Allow me to describe some of the
      hypnosis and persuasion methods Mr. Trump has
      employed on you. (Most of you know I am a
      trained hypnotist and this topic is a hobby of
      mine.)

      [...]

\- Clown Genius (August 15, 2015), [http://blog.dilbert.com/post/126589300371/clown- genius](http://blog.dilbert.com/post/126589300371/clown-genius)

Two posts later was _Wizard Wars_ [1], which discusses some of the hypnosis training that El Presidente went through.

[1] [http://blog.dilbert.com/post/126916006856/wizard- wars](http://blog.dilbert.com/post/126916006856/wizard-wars)

Milton Erickson (the grand master) -> John Grinder -> Anthony Robbins -> Donald "Teflon" Trump

The Clintons [Bill & Hillary] are also friends with Anthony Robbins. I don't know why Hillary didn't learn anything - maybe it's because she was a career politician who spent her formative years interacting with politicians, instead of with real people.

Adams pointed out somewhere that Teflon Don's pastor growing up was Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote _The Power of Positive Thinking_ and other books about effective mental habbits. Señor Trump used his persuasion training in his reality T.V. show, in building his twitter audience, and in his presidential campaign.

One Saturday morning, when I was going to get the taxi, I heard a blurb on NPR about the screening of the Milton Erickson Foundation's new documentary, Wizard of the Desert [2] [3]. I called one of my "Project Passengers" [4] and let her know that we were going to this screening.

Later I had a session with the president of the organization. Dr. Zeig precisely identified how I was sabotaging my efforts...

[2] [http://www.wizardofthedesertmovie.com/](http://www.wizardofthedesertmovie.com/) (auto-play video, starts with Anthony Robbins)

[3] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_YMCHDzLm4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_YMCHDzLm4)

[4] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13286085](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13286085) \- she is doing very well now, no thanks to the State's efforts. Her family & "art therapy" & "peer support" training were much more helpful with getting her alcohol use under control than was 2 years in minimum security prison.

<comment><USER20> The entire line of thinking that Scott Adams has is basically comparable to being a dedicated pickup-artist.

Adams has studied all the tricks of how to manipulate people and rationalizes it to the point of deluding himself. It's like saying that if you're a pickup- artist who _successfully_ seduces your target using all manner of clever and manipulative tactics, well, they were indeed seduced so, you judge that they liked it and had a good time, so it's all good.

Adams is obsessed with persuasion to the point of completely ignoring _what_ you persuade people to do or think. Like an avid pickup-artist who treats Casanova as the hero to model, Adams sees that Trump is successful at manipulating people, so he sees that as all the proof needed that Trump is to be admired and treated as the ultimate model to follow.

Short version: Adams is a lousy source for actually understanding Trump. Adams is right about some things and wrong about others, and he is among the most extreme victims of confirmation bias I've ever seen.

A good understanding of Trump and the aspects Adams talks about is this: [https://newrepublic.com/article/124803/donald-trump-not- liar](https://newrepublic.com/article/124803/donald-trump-not-liar)

<comment><USER19> > Adams has studied all the tricks of how to manipulate people

There is more than "tricks" to effective communication. _THIS_ is Milton Erickson's insight, and this was what my comment was about. 'Tricks' were all Hillary Clinton had in her linguistic arsenal (ex: calling Trump 'dark').

You ignored my whole comment, and just compared El Presidente to a 'pick up artist'. (The premise of that field is the lesson I had to give to one of my female passengers one night, about the 'difference between boys & girls': [http://www.taxiwars.org/2016/02/the-difference-between- boys-...](http://www.taxiwars.org/2016/02/the-difference-between-boys- girls.html) \- women get to take their pick of potential suitors, whereas men have to market themselves effectively. Sometimes men resort to using linguistic 'tricks' to get women into bed. Women would be well-served by being able to recognize the language patterns that are sometimes used...)

"If the definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result, then that's exactly what Clinton was doing in this campaign. There was zero evidence from the Republican primary that a traditional campaign would work against Trump. But she ran one anyway. Why?" \- [https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/09/06/politics/hillary- clinton-...](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/09/06/politics/hillary-clinton- memoir/index.html)

Your New Republic article is from 2015, which was before El Presidente steam- rolled the republican primary field. Do you have anything newer?

<comment><USER20> There's better and worse tricks, and then there's real communication. Scott Adams is like Hillary Clinton — both full of mediocre tricks, although there's a big difference. Adams seems to really believe what he's saying and so comes across more compellingly (despite lacking real substance and intellectual rigor). Clinton seems to be obviously deceptive and bad at hiding it (even as she's deluded herself much of the time).

The New Republic article aged better than almost all the other press out there. I referenced it because it's correct and clear.

I'm not sure why you brought up Clinton, but let me make this completely explicit: zero of the insights or persepctives on Trump need to describe him in contrast to Clinton, and there's no basis to think that critics of Trump have anything good to say about Clinton necessarily.

My point mostly wasn't even about Trump. I'm not saying Trump himself is a pickup-artist and that's it. I'm saying that SCOTT ADAMS has an ideology comparable to that of pickup-artist culture and his (Adams') admiration for Trump is based on seeing Trump as a master pickup-artist who also can be assumed to just have the best of intentions for everyone. Adams and Trump are different types of fools.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


4iP Invests in jlees's FestBuzz - <AUTHOR> http://www.4ip.org.uk/blog/post/festbuzz/

<comment><USER2> \o/

Forthcoming and potentially of interest to HN-ers: A blog post about what to do when your competitors get techcrunched on the day you were meant to be.

(Answer: Panic.)

<comment><USER3> link to your startup plz

edit: i'm just confused. could you explain what happened. did you panic or are you referring to your competitors? if you're the founder of festbuzz what's the problem?

<comment><USER2> There's another site doing exactly the same thing (but in a less cool way, naturally). We were meant to be on TC, but the guy dealing with it went on holiday and we got tech-blog-gazumped :( Fortunately, when your customers are attending an arts festival, that's not the end of the world...

<comment><USER3> oh, I see. 4iP != TC. maybe you'll be on TC next when the guy gets back...i don't get it. my bad.

as for the tech-- nice work ;-) i've already emailed links to my friends.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Congrats dude!!!! :)</comment>


Ask HN: Why On Lisp could download for FREE? - <AUTHOR>

Hi. Paul Graham's great book on macros: On Lisp could download for FREE. I'm wondering why not his intro book: ANSI Common Lisp download for FREE? Because On Lisp is for certain people who have enough Lisp experience. And ANSI Common Lisp is that experience they need. <comment><USER2> This is usually up to the publisher, in cases where the author has signed a traditional publishing deal.

It looks like Prentice Hall has taken _On Lisp_ out of print. After publishers do that, they often let the author post a version online, since they are no longer selling it anyway. _ANSI Common Lisp_ , on the other hand, is still in print.</comment>


Is math a socialist plot? - <AUTHOR> http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_02_10.html <comment><USER2> One of the saddest things about America at this point in history is how so many people are ignorant and damn proud of it.

<comment><USER3> I don't think it's proud of being ignorant, but rather an anti-intellectual.

Geoffrey Canada (a guy who's doing some great work as CEO of the Harlem Children Zone) had an interesting comment during an economic competitiveness summit on a similar trend:

"There is a sense in this country that in my belief is anti-intellectual. There is almost a case to be made against smart people and that has penetrated I think from the top leadership in this country right through the 'hood' where people look down on folk who are academically prepared gifted and we've gotta change this culture, America is fascinated by whether you can drink a beer. That's not, that should not be the qualification for a president. A president ought to be able to lead the nation in a direction where young people aspire for the kind of genius that's around this table."

"Smart" people have sometimes done mean things and deserve some of the disdain they get, but I'm just disappointed how much social value is placed on silly things like excessive beer drinking which leads to popularity and thus what some young people aspire to do because intellectuals are seen as irrelevant and dull.

I think there is some connection between this perception and lower desire by students to want to enter into math and computer science... right at the point in history where such skills are in demand.

(p.s. video of summit where Canada made the comment: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z7_A-rkOjA> )

<comment><USER4> '"Smart" people have sometimes done mean things'

Trivializing it like that will help hide the true situation from you. Look back on the twentieth century. Find the five largest slaughterings of human life. Intellectuals claiming to be in the service of high intellectual ideas will show up in at least two of those (Stalin's farm purges, Mao's political purges). Hitler's purge would be debatable, though I'm willing to agree that simply fancying oneself an intellectual is not the same as being one. Some of the other largest slaughterings that don't make the top five, but still involve hundreds of thousands to millions of deaths, have intellectual roots.

That's just one example of the problem, I could go on. But those examples alone are sufficient to establish my point.

While it's true that America's distrust of intellectuals has blurred into a distrust of learning, there is a kernel of truth there. Intellectuals have a great failing that has cost millions their lives and caused misery for billions more, which is trusting their beautiful theories too much, even when reality is smacking them across the face with the fact that the theories are wrong or not working. (For the love of Pete, some "intellectuals" still study Marxist economics as if it has some sort of bearing on reality! Studying it for historical reasons is one thing, but not as if it's real.) Distrusting intellectualism is not a sign of irrationality; in fact I'd go so far as to say too strong a faith in intellectualism is rather the irrational position. If the 20th century taught us anything it is that reality is irreducibly complex and the beautiful-but-invariably-oversimplified theories beloved of intellectuals can not possible capture reality, but this lesson doesn't seem to have filtered out of the mathematical domain very well.

The problem is that to really understand what's going on you have to detach "learning" from "intellectualism". I like learning, I distrust intellectualism and still see no overwhelming reason to start trusting it.

We're in the middle of one failure of intellectualism even as we speak, as the global warming consensus falls apart; I don't know what truth will replace it but I feel very confident it will be much more nuanced. That came close to beggaring the entire world in the service of an intellectual theory. And more quietly, IMNSHO we're in the middle of the intellectual dietary consensus falling apart. And if I'm right about _that_ , you can chalk up tens of millions of premature deaths and hundreds of millions of people in unnecessary fat misery into intellectualism's column, in the service of the simple-but- wrong theory that the body can be modeled as just a passive rubber bag.

That's hard to get across to a large mass of people, of course, and easy for it to get blurred. But if you don't understand this, you won't understand the real reasons for the anti-intellectual strain of American thought. It isn't just "we hate dem dare learnin' folk", which is just an excuse for not understanding.

<comment><USER5> It seems you are conflating (intentionally?) "intellectual" with "ideologue".

Also, what can this following sentence possibly be but doublethink?

> Distrusting intellectualism is not a sign of irrationality; in fact I'd go > so far as to say too strong a faith in intellectualism is rather the > irrational position.

(What is intellectualism if not a deep faith in rationality itself?)

<comment><USER6> I think he's trying to make the point that influential idealogues, more often than not, _are_ intellectuals.

I'd like to note that, even if they are correlated, this does not in itself show that there is a causative relationship between intellectualism and dangerous ideology.

<comment><USER5> I don't think jerf drew any distinction between intellectuals and ideologues at all, not even in an attempt to argue for causation -- it's generous of you to assume he did.

To rephrase the grandparent comment's line of reasoning in a more sarcastic way: "Wildfire kill Ogg family! All fire bad! Ogg anti-fire!"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The point he made, which I think was central to the piece, was that our math education system specifically is totally broken. He makes that point very, very well. If you want to read just that, start reading around the "Who is to blame?" segment, or a couple paragraphs before that (for context).

<comment><USER8> I am somewhat amused by the irony of your comment. :-)

It took only a few minutes to read the article in its entirety, and although it was maybe a _little_ longer than it could have been, it wasn't bad as is.

So, if even HN readers don't have the attention span for something like this, then where does that leave us?

<comment><USER9> 'A little longer' is being very generous.

I thought the meandering conversational tone with all of the asides was flat out tedious.

Which is a shame because it is a very important topic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I can't believe this person has never heard the term 'over-educated' before. It expresses a populist sentiment which accuses those who have spent too much time in academia from of not being in touch with the working class.

It implies elitism and a lack of practicality: the 'over-educated' person is privileged, (how else could he afford such an education?) considers himself better than the average person and worthy of telling him what to do and how to live, but has not contributed to society in any meaningful way himself.

<comment><USER11> When I read that headline a few days ago, my interpretation was this: the study shows that educated people tend to prefer Obama. However, they can't print that, even if it's true, because it will insult a lot of their readers. So "educated" becomes "over-educated" which retains some degree of accuracy and doesn't offend "over-educated" people as much as the other version would offend under-educated ones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> _"Okay, I admit, the socialist connection was a pretty small part of my essay, albeit an intriguing one. (It intrigued you, right?) My main reason for choosing the title I did was to try to ensure that you read through the entire column."_

<comment><USER13> "This sentence contains a provocative statement that attracts the readers' attention, but really only has very little to do with the topic of the blog post."

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I do own "Marx demystifies calculus" (not as ridiculous as it sounds nor as profound) and 3 soviet era math books (published through MIT press -threadjack: has anyone else wondered if MIT ever felt any heat circa McCarthy as they did a lot of collaboration with soviet scientists not to mention the cybernetic work of werner/stafford beer)

<comment><USER15> During the Stalin era and for several years afterwards, cybernetics research was discouraged as "anti-soviet": [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressed_research_in_the_Sovi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressed_research_in_the_Soviet_Union#Cybernetics)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Hmm, I was expecting a bit closer of a connection, but I suppose this'll do. A better "math is a socialist plot" argument, though, could focus on a 19th- century "scientific socialism" approach to optimizing society and the economy via central planning.

<comment><USER17> Honestly, I feel duped by the title. The title had NOTHING to do with the article. I don't think it's fair to readers when you dupe them into reading your article by promising that it is about something different than what it's actually about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> His point was math has to become relate able again, and in todays world everyone (under and over educated people) can relate to software as a way to solve problems. There are tons of great math problems with practical application out there. Couldn't agree more with that because that's what drew me into math was programming and the practical application of that.

He could have said this in a more direct way without all of the asides and weak socialist plot bait. Clear and concise communication is a mutually exclusive to math skills.

<comment><USER19> >His point was math has to become relate able again

And there's the rub. Having studied math in grad school, I'd say _at least_ 99% of mathematics research has little or no connection to anything tangible in the real world.

One of my good friends is a professor of math, and every once in a while I make sure to rip on him about being "the world's leading expert in something nobody gives a shit about," because it's true. There are probably fewer than 10 people in the world doing work that's closely related to what my friend is doing.

The thing is, (we) mathematicians _like_ it that way. We're proud of the fact that we choose to work on hard theoretical problems that might not have any kind of real world payoff in our lifetimes because what we're really doing is investigating fundamental logical structures.

And, to an extent, part of the reason it's hard to come up with applications of math to daily life is that the mathematics of daily life has become invisible. Sure, I can talk about how CDs use error-correcting codes so they can survive being scratched up a bit and still play, or I can tell (say) my mom about how Google's pagerank algorithm works to help provide her with good quality hits when she searches the web, but CD's and Google searches are such a part of daily life anymore that these things utterly fail to impress. The "average" person probably thinks mathematics is irrelevant to his or her daily life because they never studied much of it in school and still managed to get by without it.

<comment><USER20> > _And there's the rub. Having studied math in grad school, I'd say at least > 99% of mathematics research has little or no connection to anything tangible > in the real world._

I'd be surprised if it were that high a percentage. But, I'd agree with your statement with one alteration: "yet".

I find your last para quite persuasive but if you compare it to how you might consider your own knowledge of cardio-pulmonary chemical processes to be irrelevant to your need to and ability to breathe then I think a Googlers argument that maths is irrelevant to them still wins.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Math doesn't coerce anybody. People do. Just keep in mind that prices are discovered, not decreed, and don't send armed men after me for disobeying you, and we'll get along just fine.

<comment><USER21> Heh, I always get down-modded for saying bad things about the use of force.

<comment><USER22> I agree with your sentiments about force but you were probably downmodded for not having read the article... The socialism line was admittedly a bait and switch to get people to read the article.

Also, the commenters cited in the article who originally raised the notion were probably trolls and/or being sarcastic.

<comment><USER21> I skimmed the article, being knee-deep in number crunching and having already read an earlier article about optimal parking. The author threw "socialist" in the title as red meat to bait people into reading. Made me look!

It sounds like a ploy but it hints at something real, namely "scientific socialism" where certain individuals claim the power to engineer the lives of others, by force if necessary. As it turns out, force is _always_ necessary, and this turned much of the planet into a bloody abbatoir during the 20th century.

Math and science make me humble, not arrogant. Familiarity with distributed systems, computability, chaos, probability, trade, and the subjective theory of value have enhanced my appreciation for purely voluntary action, and my disgust with the top-down application of force.

<comment><USER23> You might want to consider that that things like non-computability and so forth are relatively recent mathematical discoveries. At the beginning of the 20th century most educated people still believed in a Newtonian universe and the idea that everything was calculable, cf Russell & Whitehead's _Principia Mathematica_. Einstein, Godel and others demonstrated that things were not so cut and dried, but even Einstein had difficulty with the random-seeming nature of quantum mechanics. The boundaries between linear and nonlinear behavior (in mathematical terms) remain somewhat obscure.

I suggest that it wasn't rampant intellectualism that caused the 20th century to be such an abbatoir, but the influence of industrial and technological change on the ancient human practice of warring with ones' enemies, combined with new technologies such as motion pictures and speedy photography which helped to make us more aware of the costs of war.

The US civil war was particularly bloody and gruesome, even though there was nothing resembling the 'scientific socialism' you decry; one might also point out that in the Viet Nam war, the opponents of communism had no problem with dropping napalm and various toxic defoliants all over a country to which they had no territorial claim in the first place and seemed perfectly willing to engineer the lives of others by force in the name of freedom.

<comment><USER21> Great point about the evils done in the _name_ of freedom.

I recently spoke at length with an older man who was deeply involved in Vietnam before the Kennedy and Johnson escalations. At the time they focused on killing specific communist leaders and training the South Vietnamese -- pretty much low-key guerilla tactics. But after Diem was assassinated the full military-industrial complex was engaged and they all had a party with Other People's Money.

True about the US civil war. Slavery was part of it. A burgeoning abolitionist movement, both in the north and south, threatened the institution of slavery. Many southerners feared slave revolt ("servile insurrection"), and many northerners feared an influx of freed slaves. The advent of mechanized agriculture was also making slavery obsolete. The other part was tariffs. If the south seceded, the north would be hard up for revenue. Even the governor of New York was talking about secession, and battles were fought in downtown Manhattan.

The industrial and technological change of which you speak also made the US civil war particularly bloody. They fought battles the old way, facing off in lines, but did it with vastly improved weaponry. That's how you got over 20,000 people killed in a single day at Antietam.

I am very happy to see increased awareness of the perils of force. The 21st century is bound to be a happier, freer time. (wink ... gulp)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> It should be repeated at this point that Ben Stein is an idiot who has reduced himself to marketing Internet credit protection scams on TV. After he got kicked out of the New York times (because the Times thought he tried to associate the credit protection scams with their newspaper) he has really lost all credibility, and one should not worry too much about what he says.

<comment><USER25> Fair enough, but the article only talks about Sam Stein.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is there a (developed, or developing) country in the world right now with a healthy respect for education and intellectualism?

<comment><USER26> "Is there a (developed, or developing) country in the world right now with a healthy respect for education and intellectualism?"

Both India and China would fit I think. As would Japan. Large chunks of Asia certainly.

<comment><USER27> Turkey also seems to have some respect for education.

<comment><USER28> Turkey's respect for education ends when you talk about some basic historical facts, or the reality of the opinions of certain ethnic groups in Turkey.

It is kind of like how in the USA we respect science until it challenges the Bible. Except that the Turkish objections are to more recent events, and is more likely to result in things like jail time.

<comment><USER27> You may be right. And I am glad that I visited Turkey in 2008 and not 10 years earlier. They have made huge strides but there's still a lot of progress left to achieve. While I was there they banned youtube several times for showing silly (Greek) videos that claimed Attaturk (the republics founder) was gay.

However --- what I wanted to say in the first place --- people who can afford it, delight in sending their children to university. `Hard' (sciencey) subjects are appreciated.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why We Need Web Apps on the Desktop - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_we_need_web_apps_on_the_desktop.php <comment><USER2> Good article.

We recently decided to move to AIR/Flex as jQuery and the like was insufficient in providing a true event-driven experience for the multiplayer technology we're developing. Flex/AIR handles the presentation layer a lot better than jQuery, lets us rapidly develop and prototype, and allows for a secured XMPP data path.

For interacting with users in real-time, traditional web technology just doesn't cut it I'm afraid... especially for gamers. The amount of HTTP polling necessary to replicate XMPP's inherent functionality creates ungodly amounts of lag on both the browser and their internet connection...

Side note: hooked on Twitter simply because of Twhirl.

<comment><USER3> Why did you choose XMPP over RTMP?

<comment><USER2> it's more versatile for our needs as our technology is not limited to AIR/Flex/Adobe; it once ran through AJAX and IRC/AIM bots. And, we may combine the benefits of a flash media server in the near future... you could say we're still experimenting. This is web 3.0 territory we're talking about here... :P

Look for our tech in Quake Live, a free web-based version of Quake, if happen to be a gamer. It's coming soon...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What makes something a Web app?

Is it (not) simply the ability to fetch and post data via HTTP?

<comment><USER3> In this case, they're talking about apps that were designed to present their UI inside a browser.</comment></comment>


A Billionaire Mathematician's Life of Ferocious Curiosity - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/science/a-billionaire-mathematicians-life-of-ferocious-curiosity.html

<comment><AUTHOR> For discussion see later submission [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8004244](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8004244)</comment>


Salesforce Notifies Some Staff of Job Cuts - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/salesforce-notifies-some-staff-of-job-cuts-11598462934 <comment><USER2> Salesforce is laying off employees in San Francisco.

"The cloud computing company, San Francisco's largest private employer, is laying off four workers in general administration, 42 in sales and customer service and 119 in technology and product divisions, according to a state filing. The cuts span the company's three downtown towers: Salesforce Tower, 350 Mission St. and 50 Fremont St." [0]

An ironic situation, given a quote from Benioff (CEO) regarding the recent profits: "This is a victory for stakeholder capitalism because I think, you know, that we did a great job for our shareholders this quarter, but we also did a great job for our stakeholders, as well." [1]

Although the layoffs may be delayed due to the pandemic, the market is and will continue to be flooded with people looking for work -- it really is an awful time to be let go.

[0] [https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Salesforce- to-l...](https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Salesforce-to-lay- off-165-SF-employees-despite-15516748.php)

[1] [https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/25/salesforces-marc-benioff- cla...](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/25/salesforces-marc-benioff-claims-a- victory-for-stakeholder-capitalism.html)

<comment><USER3> For experienced software devs from a FAANG, it's really not that bad.

There's still plenty of work.

For folks starting out ... not so much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> (-- Salaries) === ( ++ Dividends)</comment>