Multiple terrorist attacks in Brussels – Latest Updates - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-35869266 <comment><AUTHOR> In addition to the lives lost in these attacks, what makes me just as sad is that this is probably going to push more people towards leaders like Donald Trump who'll take advantage of the fear/anger this creates.

<comment><USER2> Why are Muslims not taking to the streets in protest against these attacks in the same manner they do when people draw cartoon drawings of their prophet? This is a problem the Muslim community needs to solve.

<comment><USER3> Why do Christian not protest on the street when "one of their guys" commits terrorist attacks? Breivik for example as he is in the media right now.

Religion has no part in this its only a vehicle as is Christianity. The real picture is much bigger and more complex.

And please look behind the media curtain as other have pointed out you have the internet on your hands you can get all the sources you need.

<comment><USER4> Breivik's motivation were not sourced from Christian literature, whereas suicide bomber's are (from Koran and Hadith). Young Christians are not leaving home to join the Christian State of Iraq and Syria.

You can see the distinction, surely? Islam creates space and justification for these actions in a way that Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity does not. It's a difficult to swallow pill yet it's true.

Source: Am an ex-muslim and generally interested in this phenomenon.

<comment><USER3> If you look at the history of Europe the bible was a center piece in many wars. You can use any of the religious books to rally people up to fight against the non-believer.

But my point is the current terrorist attacks in Paris are committed by people who got discarded by society with no purpose in life and they found a group who gave them a place where they felt needed and respected.

Brevik is a Nazi and he is not Christian

<comment><USER4> > You can use any of the religious books to rally people up to fight against > the non-believer.

Some books are much better at this than others. And while I don't believe the bible was that prevalent in the wars of the past, even if it was, that was centuries ago. We've cast aside such foolish things yet live in a world where many people have not.

And that's our problem.

On your second paragraph - that's exactly why an ideology that can transform a person from a citizen into a terrorist because they feel marginalized needs to be addressed. There's a whole lot of marginalized people across our globe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> What we know so far

There were two explosions at around 08:00 (07:00 GMT) at Zaventem airport as people queued to check in

Belgian broadcaster VRT says at least 13 people were killed and 35 were wounded at the airport

Shots were heard before the explosions, which appear to have struck near the American Airlines and Brussels Airline check in desk

Some time later there was also a blast at Maalbeek metro station, very close to the city's main European Union buildings

The Belgian government has raised the terror alert level to 4 across the country, the highest level

<comment><USER5> What use is raising the terrorism alert level after an attack has occurred? Doesn't it sort of fulfill the terrorists' wishes by inflicting economic damage well beyond the physical attack?

<comment><USER6> Because we don't know if it's the end of the attacks yet.

<comment><USER7> Though I've been a number of people hypothesise this was a "rushed job" following the earlier arrests as the noose was tightening around the cell and they didn't want to be caught having done nothing.

<comment><USER6> Hypothesis is the right word.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Previous discussion in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908)

<comment><USER6> Heavily flagged, it disappeared quickly from the front page.

<comment> k-mcgrady This thread has also now disappeared from the front page.

<comment><USER9> Yup, despite the fact that on this thread, there have been several relevant topics of discussion (encryption, the alert response, etc.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why are people flagging these threads?

<comment><USER11> Because they are preserving the 'purity of essence' of hacker news in the most misguided way possible. I'm totally disgusted by this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> From the transport security point of view, this will be interesting to follow. As I understand it, all explosions happened in public areas. While metro stations have always been exposed, the airport-related security mostly involves not getting dangerous materials to the gates. Attacking the publicly accessible areas is not new, but can't be easily prevented.

<comment><USER11> I don't think it can be prevented at all. Every prevention mechanism you would come up with would create a new concentration of people a little bit further upstream, which automatically presents a new target in an unsecured area.

<comment><USER12> We did get big bollards and no car access to terminals after (if I remember correctly) decades ago someone drove a van into the airport entrance. I wouldn't be surprised by more sniffing dogs in by the entrance now.

Of course you can't prevent these attacks. But some ideas are not bad and I doubt there's no discussion about new options after today.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908)

</comment><comment><USER14> Seems it was a suicide bomber. To quote Billy Connolly, "every time there's a 'bang', the world's a wanker short".

<comment><USER15> I'm sure that's a great comfort to everybody who just lost loved ones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I wonder, when will politics and media finally give in to ask the real questions.

Behaviour is determined by what you start with into life and what you learn during your life, that is genes and socialization.

Now, if you take a birds eye view on the situation it comes clear to me that on both axis there are strong correlations among these terrorists.

Realizing facts helps solving problems.

<comment><USER17> You're right. People who grow up in a society feeling outcast are more likely to try and destroy it, unsurprisingly. Look at history's revolutionaries and troublemakers.

Oh, wait, I think you were trying to say that we should use racial profiling without spelling it out. Oh.

<comment><USER16> What I ask for is to study the reasons and solutions to the problem of terrorism in a scientific manner, that is not fearing inconvenient answers.

It's sad that one even has to ask for such an approach. In most cases it's undisputedly the only senseable one.

You can't work scientifically if your fear of being labeled racist guides and censors you.

<comment><USER17> That you think fear of appearing racist is stopping people telling the truth here is telling.

We know why terrorism happens. We've known this for an awfully long time. We don't need unscientific nonsense about how brown people are magically terrorists.

Science frequently comes up with inconvenient answers. But you might find that the science here is inconvenient towards your position, not others'.

<comment><USER16> > That you think fear of appearing racist is stopping people telling the truth > here is telling.

I don't get this. My impression that the fear of being labeled racists makes people censor themselves is not something I only hear others saying but also the press specifically censors the ethnicity of wrongdoers because it might appear to be justification for racism.

> We know why terrorism happens. We've known this for an awfully long time.

I'm not so sure about that one. In any case, the fact that we still suffer from terrorism speaks its own language.

> We don't need unscientific nonsense about how brown people are magically > terrorists.

I totally agree on that we don't need unscientific explanations. I call for the opposite. Ridiculing a point I never made doesn't help.

> Science frequently comes up with inconvenient answers. But you might find > that the science here is inconvenient towards your position, not others'.

My position on this topic is in many parts neutral, because I'm happy to admit that I don't know all the facts nor do I understand the whole picture thoroughly. Thats why I wish for more investigation.

Your last sentence baffles me.

<comment><USER17> > In any case, the fact that we still suffer from terrorism speaks its own > language.

Knowing why something happens doesn't mean it stops happening. First, some problems aren't easily solved. Second, there is not the will to solve some of them. Climate change is an example of this.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


It takes 3.5 hours to pronounce the IUPAC name for this protein - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titin

<comment><AUTHOR> Video of the formula being read aloud: [http://io9.com/5961395/a-3-and-a-half- hour-video-of-the-worl...](http://io9.com/5961395/a-3-and-a-half-hour-video- of-the-worlds-longest-word-being-read-aloud) Pastebin of the formula: [http://pastebin.com/wkKH8xD8](http://pastebin.com/wkKH8xD8)</comment>


Doing more than 40 push-ups shows you're 96% less likely to get a heart attack - <AUTHOR> https://www.studyfinds.org/men-more-than-40-push-ups-heart-disease/ <comment><USER2> Better summary "if you can do a push-up sprint and complete 41 pushups in less than 33 seconds without pausing you're in pretty good shape and btw you're 96% less likely to get heart disease in the next 10 years than someone that can't keep that pace up for even 10 pushups."

The most important sentence.

"For push-ups, the firefighter was instructed to begin push-ups in time with a metronome set at 80 beats per minute. Clinic staff counted the number of push- ups completed until the participant reached 80, missed 3 or more beats of the metronome, or stopped owing to exhaustion or other symptoms (dizziness, lightheadedness, chest pain, or shortness of breath)."

This was a combined strength/cardiovascular test. You had to book it. Only the firefighters that

<comment><USER2> "metronome set at 80 beats per minute ... until the participant reached 80, missed 3 or more beats of the metronome, or stopped"

This is literally a push-up sprint.

For comparison the US Army requires 42 pushups over 2 minutes (120 seconds) with any amount of pauses (to meet minimum standards) and maxes out at 71 push ups in 2 minutes.

The people I knew who were maxing out their PT tests weren't hitting anywhere near this pace and I suspect only a handful of them could.

<comment><USER3> The other detail is what they counted as a pushup. My understanding is the military is pretty strict and most gym-goers aren't. Having your arms out perpendicular to torso is noticeably easier than tucking then in towards your chest and there's a range of places one might stop at. At that pace, I think you'd be doing doing fairly shallow pushups.

Or maybe I'm just making excuses for not being able to do this.

<comment><USER4> I wonder about this too. During all of my PE classes in elementary and high school a pushup didn't count unless your nose touched the ground and you came all the way back up. Pushups I see all over the place now, from tv shows to YouTube videos to folks in the gym are incredibly shallow, often only dipping down a few inches from the top position.

Just as pullups and chin-ups are different things, perhaps these shallow pushups should have a different name to distinguish them from "to the floor" pushups.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 99% of people who can't do 40 push-ups are going to fail because they don't have the strength. Firefighters are probably one of the only demographics where you are going to get a non-trivial percentage who have the strength but not the cardiovascular health required.

<comment><USER6> But the study also measured cardiovascular fitness via treadmill and didn't find the same correlation.

<comment><USER5> I mean it's not surprising that, in firefighters, pushups would be a better predictor of cardiovascular health than a VO2 max estimation. For the treadmill test, they cut participants off at 85% of their _predicted_ max heart rate. Whereas with 40 push-ups you're pretty much guaranteed to be at your actual max heart rate after the first 10 or 15.

In other words, push-ups are probably a better measure of cardiovascular fitness than the treadmill test, but only for the tiny percentage of the population who isn't limited by strength.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Participants in the highest pushups-completed group were younger, weighed less, had lower blood pressure, and were likely to be non-smoking compared to the two lowest groups.

For a person who is 5ft10in, the BMI comparison in pounds would be 187lbs avg for the highest group vs 231 lbs, 211 lbs avg for the two lowest groups.

Look at the details from Table 1 in the Study (go to [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2724778), on the right hand side, click on 'Figures and Tables', then click on the 'View Large' link for Table 1):

BMI = Body Mass Index, BP = blood pressure, SD = Standard Deviation

Mean Avg Values for the two lowest groups of pushups (0-10, 11-20):

      Age: 48.4 (SD=10.1), 45.1 (SD=8.6)
      BMI: 33.1 (SD=5.8) , 30.3 (SD=4.9)
      BP:  136.9/89.4    , 129.96/86.5
      Smokers (Prev & Current): 54.7%, 58.8%

Value for the highest group of pushups (41+):

      Age: 35.1 (SD=7.1)
      BMI: 26.8 (SD=2.9)
      BP:  125.2/84
      Smokers (Prev & Current): 30.9%

from [https://www.bmi3d.com/table.html](https://www.bmi3d.com/table.html)

      BMI: 25-29.9: - overweight, >= 30: obese

from [https://www.heart.org/-/media/data- import/downloadables/pe-a...](https://www.heart.org/-/media/data- import/downloadables/pe-abh-what-is-high-blood-pressure-ucm_300310.pdf)

      BP: high blood pressure = 1st number >= 130 or 2nd number >= 80

<comment><USER8> Wait, this means that all groups had high blood pressure? (2nd number >= 80)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Isn't it generally more likely for someone who can do 40 push ups to be also living a more active life?

I mean the ability to complete 40 push ups could be a result of exercising in general.

<comment><USER2> "metronome set at 80 beats per minute ... until the participant reached 80, missed 3 or more beats of the metronome, or stopped"

To hit this top group that gives you less than 33 seconds to hit 41. You're not gonna hit those numbers just by exercising in general.

<comment><USER9> But someone with such a good performance in push ups is more likely to be more active in general.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't have training to make a formal argument, but this has got to be bullshit.

They take the few people that had some form of heart disease (37 out of 1104 over ten years) and noted that none of them _except one_ could do 40 pushups. By some magic, this is translated into a 96% reduction in chance of a heart attack.

If that's really the reasoning, could I not just pick _any_ metric (i.e. words typed per minute over 120, or IQ over 130) which is likely to eliminate almost all of the participants and conclude that it is reducing risk of heart disease?

Am I missing something? Is this kind of reasoning _not_ complete bogus?

<comment><USER11> That's not how this sort of analysis is done. They separated people by push-up capacity, and compared the rate of heart disease in the low-capacity group versus the high-capacity group; those rates were 36 "cardiovascular events" for the 948 low-capacity guys (so, 3.7% of them), and 1 for the 155 high- capacity guys (0.6% of them.) I know which group I'd rather be in.

It is true that, with the small number of events, the precise "96% reduction" number shouldn't be taken too seriously- the study notes that the 95% confidence interval is 99% to 64%; essentially, there's a one-in-twenty chance that it's a 99% reduction, or likewise that it's only a 64% reduction. Science never grants absolute uncertainties- but sadly, that part never makes it into the news story.

<comment><USER10> Thank you for the explanation, that makes a lot more sense.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This study smells funny to me. Why did they divide pushup numbers into groups of 10 and test there, rather than use a continuous measure? I sense multiple comparisons/researcher degrees of freedom problems.

<comment><USER2> Considering how the test was actually run I feel like it's a nearly meaningless test. The bar they set was extremely high once you read the details.

I used to be able to do 40+ push ups, but at no where near the pace that the researchers required.

<comment><USER13> I find I can easily bust out 40 pushups at that rate, but if I try to go slower, it's harder to reach 40.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'd expect that 40 push-ups are a proxy for good cardiovascular health rather than a cause of it. I.e. practicing push-ups in isolation is unlikely to improve cardiovascular health by itself.

<comment><USER15> hard to tell from the description of the study, it was done on firefighters, I would have though most would have reasonable cardio, I'm not sure if they did anything to isolate an overall lack of fitness from pushups

<comment><USER5> > I would have though most would have reasonable cardio

I don't know if there are any national standards. But I'm under the impression that at most places there is some baseline cardio component to the fitness test, but that the upper body strength standards are much more demanding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I bet they could say the same about 20+ pull-ups (which is more difficult than 40 push-ups based on anecdotal evidence). Not too interesting of a study in that sense.

</comment><comment><USER17> Most firefighters in the US face a significant physical test to become a firefighter - example: [https://nationaltestingnetwork.com/publicsafetyjobs/cpat_inf...](https://nationaltestingnetwork.com/publicsafetyjobs/cpat_info.cfm)

</comment><comment><USER18> I think the type of oil we consume also makes a difference [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_oil#Comparison_to_other...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola_oil#Comparison_to_other_vegetable_oils) in [https://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/cardiovascular- performance...](https://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/cardiovascular-performance- assessment/)

</comment><comment><USER19> Worth mentioning that all participants were firefighters - so not randomly selected individuals with variety of jobs.

</comment><comment><USER20> Got to thirty-eight before I got total lactic burn in my biceps and deltoids. Then I got three more ticks and failed.

<comment><USER8> You probably mean triceps?

<comment><USER20> Strangely, no. Was the biceps, not triceps.</comment></comment></comment>


Dr. Ben Goertzel on Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism and Open Source - <AUTHOR> http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-dr-ben-goertzel-artificial-intelligence.html <comment><USER2> I worked for Ben about 10 years ago - definitely a fun and interesting experience. I still follow him on twitter and read most of the papers/articles he links to. You might be interested in his open source AGI code: <http://opencog.org/></comment>


What's the association of complementary medicine with cancer treatment survival? - <AUTHOR> https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2687972 <comment><AUTHOR> The actual title is far too long for HN's character limit: Complementary Medicine, Refusal of Conventional Cancer Therapy, and Survival Among Patients With Curable Cancers

I did my best with the first para: What patient characteristics are associated with use of complementary medicine for cancer and what is the association of complementary medicine with treatment adherence and survival?

But there are probably better titles. Sorry.</comment>


Data scientists are the new rockstars - <AUTHOR> http://startupjuncture.com/2013/05/08/data-scientists-are-the-new-rockstars/

<comment><USER2> Bullshit.

"Big Data" and "Data Scientist" are the latest buzzwords like Web 2.0 and Java were during their ORA hype-r eras.

There is a lot more data. There are a lot more tools and technology to deal with data. There is a need for high quality people that understand how to handle data. But there are no rockstars, there are people that have passion and spent years learning and teaching their craft. But they aren't rock stars. The best may get paid as much as a very well off doctor or business owner, but they aren't going to fill stadiums around the world, sell millions of t-shirts or be targets of media gossip columns.

<comment><USER3> My main objection to it is that this rebranding of statistics (and machine learning I suppose) obscures the deep political connection statistics has[1] and in so doing obscures the fact it's going to have major political ramifications across this century. Happy clappy summer of code donations from Google to EFF or the Sunlight Foundation are entirely not proportional to the extremely high level of abuse that could potentially stem from these technologies (see the use of IBM sorting machines in the Holocaust).

Technology at a basic level amplifies agency, certain techniques and their resultant technologies have benefited individuals and citizens more than State agencies and with others it's been the inverse. I think we are moving into an stage where there is potential for massive recentralisation of control in various domains.

But this is HN, not a political discussion forum, most of the 'frighteningly ambitious ideas' to grace these pages are to do with pushing out more ads or other such pablum. PG isn't a philanthropist and YC isn't a charitable foundation; HN is naturally aligned with those objectives.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_statistics#Etymolog...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_statistics#Etymology)

<comment><USER4> Thanks for this. It's a humbling comment that puts reality into perspective: there are several ethical and moral challenges we coders are gonna be put through in this century, far, far removed from the Silicon Valley bubble and it's love of ads. And it's this love of ads (read, millions and billions of dollars) at the expense of enriching corporations and tearing down privacy that worries me a lot about our future, if it's going to depend on programmers' current moral standards--though really, it's all human nature, it's not like we're a different breed. But we definitely are more informed than the average citizen, and more of us should take responsibility for increasing freedom and basic human conditions, as opposed to selling social local deals.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So plain old "scientists" don't already use Data the right way? How about boring old "statisticians?" Not enough javascript?

</comment><comment><USER6> Please, let the term "rock star" die.

<comment><USER7> Slippery slope though. We might need to throw in ninja, craftsman, hipster, and guru while we're at it, too.

<comment><USER8> that sounds like an awesome slope to slip down on. let's get rid of all of those ridiculous terms.

how about we just use the oh so boring "professional" instead? i want respect from society for my work, not a cute pet title co-opted from other industries, where they can use these terms with a straight face and without rolled eyes from the audience.

<comment><USER7> Unfortunately even "professional" gets a bum rap from some quarters: <https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1631100714> ;-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What troubles me most about the title "Data Scientist" is that it really means "Statistician" or "Statistical Analyst". There are so many interesting things you can do with lots of data, stats is but one of them. What do we call people who are good at some of the other disciplines?

I've spent bits of my career working with fairly large data sets at one time or another, and providing discovery, insight and analytic tools into that data, but very little of it seems to have anything remotely to do with what the job descriptions for "Data Scientist" are asking for.

Consider this, building a very large graph of the internet, then using various models on that graph to find unique and actionable insights: such as finding routing bottlenecks for a video delivery service, involves lots of data, lots of scientific like exploration, yet isn't a "data scientist" job by the job reqs.

How about this, building a text parser that can finely categorize and make recommendations for a research organization based on millions of grant proposals, all categorized into various "mission silos" that research organization is built around. Not a "data scientist" job.

Analyze multi-lingual news stories to build a real-time alert system for conflict analysts. Not a "data scientist" job.

Building a tool that can scan multi-spectral aerial imagery and automatically extrapolate man-made structures from natural, catalog all of the different vehicle makes and models, and generate a predictive model of commuting patterns, or make recommendations for housing development based on perceived socio-economic conditions? Not a data-scientist job.

Collecting information on who propositions who from a dating web site, normalizing the data for population and writing a report on the findings? _That's_ a "data scientist's" job.

It's not that that kind of work isn't valuable, only that there are so many other kinds of things that involve what might intuitively be called "data science" that calling just the one discipline "data science" is doing a disservice to what should be an amazing discipline -- part Computer Scientist, Part Analyst.

</comment><comment><USER10> As someone who's statistically inclined, I am not looking forward to this.

</comment><comment><USER11> How do you call the phenomenon that leads statisticians to rename themselves "data scientists"? I propose the Freud-inspired "science envy".

</comment><comment><USER12> Is there a type of science that does not involve data?

</comment><comment><USER13> This is a pretty fluffed up article that missed the wave of "data scientists are awesome" articles last year.

But I think it's important to not underestimate the shift that has been happening. The race to automate tasks has always been accelerating, but it hit an inflection point a few years ago when mainstream business people realized what current technology can achieve. Pretty much every industry I've seen has been or can be drastically transformed by better data management and predictive analytics.

It's going to affect all of us, so I think it's worth following closely.

<comment><USER14> I agree. The article was meant to be a high-level introduction to the phenomenon for the Dutch audience. They missed that wave. I had know idea it was going to end up here:) Apparently a controversial title can still trigger lingering emotions:) Most people still don't seem to have a clue what is possible, though.

IMO something is accelerating/changing and we hit an inflection point. It does help to give it a denominator. It's human, not just marketing. I'm sure one time people thought compsci and software engineering were redundant or pretentious. I'm still ambivalent about the name data scientist.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Data Science and "Big Data" have done a _really_ good job of marketing themselves. As a result, people recognize that these roles are valuable, Data Scientists get paid & treated well, and it tends to work out well for everyone.

What can we learn that we can apply to technology in general? I feel like "programmers" and "IT" tend to be undervalued while Data Science tends to be accurately or even overvalued.

<comment><USER16> > What can we learn that we can apply to technology in general? I feel like > "programmers" and "IT" tend to be undervalued while Data Science tends to be > accurately or even overvalued.

Given that Data Scientist is just a sexier rephrasing of Analyst, my suggestion would be to retitle Programmers as Computational Engineers. Or use Lisp.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> If anyone from the site reading this, didn't work on my nexus galaxy. A dumb share popover took up the whole screen and didn't scroll away.

<comment><USER18> thanks, DiggDigg issue catching us out :S

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Delusional thoughts from fantasy island.

</comment><comment><USER20> It is confused to give data science much credit for the success of Netflix. Netflix succeeded because of content, wide platform availability, and solid marketing. They ran a million dollar prize contest that ultimately did nothing for their code base, but did generate a lot of positive press.

</comment><comment><USER21> But who are the new ninjas?

<comment><USER22> "growth hackers", whatever that means

<comment><USER2> Sounds like someone who prunes trees and shrubs.

"Did some growth hacking on the hedge funds, bagged it, 100% organic product..."</comment></comment></comment>


Cure for Radiation Sickness Found? - <AUTHOR> http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3748014,00.html

<comment><USER2> Great research and could maybe be used to help destroy cancer cells without destroying normal cells during radiotheraphy etc. (although so long as the cancer cells don't suddenly get immune to radiation etc. as well).

On another note, is there any reason why they had to exlicitly state that the scientists were of Jewish descent? The only possibility that comes to mind for making this explicit is that this is the reason they got Israeli investment?

<comment><USER3> It's an Israeli newspaper; if a Russian-American scientist made the discovery, I'm sure the Russian papers would mention that fact as well.

<comment><USER2> Yeah I guess I see a difference between those two.

They are not saying an Israeli-American but a Jewish-American. The emphasis is not on nationality but on ethnicity.

However, I won't pretend to understand the cultural sensitivites involved (I'm Australian).

<comment><USER3> Yep, Israel and Judaism are a bit tricky when it comes to religion vs. ethnicity vs. nationality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> a bit more balanced and less hyperbolic article:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7341336.stm>

<comment><USER5> Thanks-- it doesn't have giant flashing skyscraper ads with position:fixed either.

<comment><USER6> Yes, because above all else I judge the quality of news based on their CSS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's probably a megadosage of vitamin E or a related compound. Studies from Nagasaki and Hiroshima showed that survival was highly correlated with vitamin E levels.

If you take large amounts (>2000 IU or more) of vitamin E your skin won't sunburn as badly and possibly not at all depending on how much you take. The more vitamin E, the less the sunburn. There's no practical maximum dosage.

Instead your skin will feel warm but won't hurt. It won't turn so red and in particular it won't blister and peel. You _will_ tan. Rather than die off quickly with massive inflammation, the skin loses cells slowly so that in about a week there will be a slight graininess to the skin.

It does help, although not as much, to take large doses of vitamin E _after_ a sunburn. I'd recommend at least 10,000 IU for an adult sunburn.

Here's a link (low dose = 400 IU): <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11873518?dopt=Abstract>

Quotes from the linked article: "vitamin E at a dose of 400 IU/kg acts as a good radioprotectant against lethal doses of cobalt-60 radiation."

"Vitamin E was more efficacious when given subcutaneously than when given orally." Which is why I recommend very high oral dosages.

<comment><USER8> Isn't Vitamin E fat-soluble? Is it safe to consume such high levels for extended periods?

<comment><USER7> like vitamin A, Vitamin E is fat-soluble. But an overdose of vitamin A can kill you.

In contrast there is no LD50 level defined for vitamin E IIRC. There are anecdotal descriptions of unpleasant side-effects (e.g., diarrhea) but these are vague and may be the result of consuming a large amount of oil at one time (vitamin E is usually taken in oil solution), without ramping up the daily dosage slowly. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever died or suffered permanent ill effects from taking vitamin E.

Vitamin D is also fat-soluble but much less toxic than vitamin A. You may have had your doctor recently test your blood for vitamin D levels. If you test low (and most do) you may be given a prescription of vitamin D of 50,000 units twice a week for 10 weeks or so. As recently as two years ago many doctors would have become alarmed should you tell them you took a vitamin D dose higher than 400 units/day. Obviously something has changed: vitamin D has proven to be much less toxic and far more efficacious than rumour and folklore medicine has said it was:

[http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-13-vitamin-d- tes...](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-13-vitamin-d-tests_N.htm)

The revised recommendations for vitamin D were slow in coming. I had for years seen rickets in otherwise well-nourished children resulting from parents slathering sunscreen on their offspring before every outing. Nieces and nephews were affected by the overzealous recommendations of the American Academy of Dermatology. After all this time vitamin D proves to be a keystone ingredient to preventing cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, indeed most diseases.

My point is that, just because a vitamin is "fat-soluble" doesn't mean that megadoses will hurt you. Most of the lore associated with the term is from vitamin A's history.

If you get a serious sunburn or burn take a big dose of vitamin E. It will help and, unlike CBLC102, it is cheap and readily available _today_.

If you fear nuclear terrorism then my recommendation is to buy a bottle of vitamin E and put it on your kitchen shelf. Next time a nuclear bomb goes off in your neighborhood take a mouthful and run like hell.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This sounds useful for other cell-suicide problems, such as stroke damage.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is awesome. It alleviates one of the greatest fears of nuclear strikes, aside from the destruction.

I know there have been several discussions floating around about dirty bombs and nukes that could be used in terrorist attacks, and it has seemed to me that what most people are afraid of is not the bomb itself, but the fallout. This could be a huge relief for those fears.

<comment><USER11> cancer rates would still be astronomic for anyone exposed to the fallout. worse, perhaps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Keeping radiation-damaged cells from undergoing apoptosis sounds like a great way to make _sure_ you get cancer.

/scratches head, sure I'm missing something

<comment><USER13> _One risk of preventing cell death is that defective cells may be allowed to survive which could then turn cancerous.

However, the researchers found no sign of this happening in the laboratory tests on mice._

It doesn't stop cancer, it stops cell death from radiation, which incidentally _may_ allow higher doses of radiation therapy.

<comment><USER14> Mice are tiny and very short lived. Cancer rates in mice don't translate well to cancer rates in humans.</comment></comment></comment>


A Guy from a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-a-guy-from-a-montana-trailer-park-upturned-150-years-of-biology/491702/ <comment><USER2> (2016)

<comment><AUTHOR> I know, I saw that. But the story is still an awesome one in many ways and was "news" to me and never submitted here.

<comment><USER2>
      and never submitted here.

Actually, it was submitted five times:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Montana%20overturned&sort=byPo...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Montana%20overturned&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

(Original: 170+ points)

Appending the year for prior-year articles is just polite identification, not a criticism of the submittal.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well I'm glad to see it got some attention. Usually HN sends me to the OP if it's been submitted, but that didn't happen.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Strongloop and Express - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/code-adventures/40b8bcb8e5af

<comment><AUTHOR> Some more context: [https://github.com/strongloop/express/issues/2264](https://github.com/strongloop/express/issues/2264)

Overall, the FOSS arena is a crazy place

</comment><comment><USER2> Seems to be a response to:

[http://hueniverse.com/2014/07/30/open-source- dickishness/](http://hueniverse.com/2014/07/30/open-source-dickishness/)</comment>


$149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer - <AUTHOR> https://developer.palm.com/content/resources/develop/developer_device_program.html <comment><USER3> Blackberry gave away Playbooks to anyone who developed an app for it, which resulted in a lot of "developers" who produced low-quality, minimally useful apps.

Is there some quality control that will limit who counts as a developer for the TouchPad? If not, I expect this will have a similar result. And really, even if they get real mobile developers, it may result in some half-hearted ports unless it becomes clear at some point that the platform has some kind of future.

<comment><USER4> They should recast the program to send out the tablets as loaners, then forgive the debt for the developers who make actually decent apps. A curated giveaway.

<comment><USER5> And how exactly would you define a "decent app" in a way that wouldn't be absurd or totally not useful and wouldn't give you ton of grief if a developer tried to challenge your decision? It's essentially the iOS App Store problem except you're mailing around physical hardware to boot.

<comment><USER4> I have no idea, I'm not a developer-relations or product manager. I'm sure something relatively fair could be thought up, though. I'm not pessimistic about that, and someone is going to complain no matter what, so I think as long as you tell everybody up front what the rubric is, that static can be minimized.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great ... I can't register for a developer account because I'm from Slovenia. Guess it's time to move to Somalia so I'll be able to register :\

<comment><USER7> Don't be too disappointed, but the page only mentions developers from North America and Europe can get a coupon.

That means Somalia would be out, too.

Now why can't Australian developers have coupons, too?

US, UK, Canada, but not Australia?

<comment><USER6> Still ... Slovenia is in Europe :)

<comment><USER8> Only until the next referendum ;)

<comment><USER6> Europe != EU

<comment><USER9> You're right. And Slovenia has been in the EU since 2004.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Given the indecision of the HP board as of late, how can they expect developers to make any significant effort to develop for their platform?

<comment><USER11> According to Palm Developer relations, because there's money to be made on an uncrowded platform. There are plenty of existing TouchPad owners thanks to the firesale, and those that use their devices are willing to pay to improve their experience (since the experience won't likely be improved by HP themselves long-term). And you might have more success short-term by selling smaller apps on the Palm Marketplace than you would fighting for space in Android's.

<comment><USER12> Am I the only person to think that this is a patently ridiculous line of thinking?

<comment><USER13> I've talked in 2002 or 2003 to a guy who was still developing fro BeOS at the time. Better have a near monopoly on an uncommon OS than be some invisible me- too :)

<comment><USER14> The question is: is there a profitable long-term market in the Touchpad?

Who actually bought the device? Corporations who will commit to long term usage (I doubt it) or tech nerds who will flash the device to run Android (leading to a different, well-populated market) or tech nerds who will use the device as is (and abandon it in a year or two)?

Honestly, this sounds like very short-term thinking on the part of Palm.

<comment> X-Istence I bought the device because I honestly believe that WebOS is an interesting take on a tablet OS (and I like it much better over Android). However I will not be purchasing any apps on the device. I use it strictly as an eReader.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Maybe I'm dumb. Well, I'm definitely dumb. But where the heck to I go to buy this thing? Can't find where on the HP site to do so.

<comment><USER16> I would assume the "coupon" is actually a private link to the HP store with a promo code associated with it. The promo code decays after it is used for a single purchase.

<comment><USER15> This seems like a really clunky way to do things. I have to a) create an account if I haven't already b) send an email and c) somehow redeem that coupon.

They already have my PayPal info...why not set up the program to integrate with my developer account so that I can click a link there to make the purchase.

I wonder if this inefficient process is indicative of how HP operates; if so it's pretty clear why they're on the ropes.

<comment><USER17> Alternatively, it just may be another barrier so that they get more committed developers rather than people that know the word developer and want a cheap Touchpad.

<comment><USER18> Like me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> May be available to Canadians, but you appear to need a 'tax identification number' from the IRS to open the account.

"Form W-8BEN should be completed by all Non-US developers planning to make their applications available for sale to US customers/end-users. The form and instructions may be found at the following IRS website ...."

Fortunately the form accepted '-' as a 'valid' number ... we'll see if they try and validate it later.

<comment><USER20> I'm a Canadian developer and it was no problem getting one of those from the IRS. In fact, I did it over the phone. It was surprisingly painless.

<comment><USER19> My concern is what I'd be signing up for by having one -- does it mean I need to file some US tax paperwork annually even if there is no income?

<comment><USER20> Good question. I haven't filled out any paperwork in 2 years since I haven't had any US income to declare. I got it done for the iOS App Store -- not sure if Apple does that paperwork for devs (since it acts like a sales agent).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Hm, you can only register as a developer if you have a Paypal account - <USER2> the Paypal page you are directed to does not work. Well, perhaps it is for the best, given Paypal's history.

</comment><comment><USER22> I already got my touchpad (running android now) during the fire sale but this is awesome for anyone who missed it.

Anyone know much it costs to sign up as a developer though to get this deal? It says you need paypal so I'm guessing there is a cost but it doesn't actually list how much it is until you sign up.

<comment><USER23> Free at the moment, they say they have waved their fees for the time being, which is unsurprising given the state of WebOS

<comment><USER24> Is there a way to register as an individual? It seems that you must have a company to be able to register in developer program, right?

<comment><USER25> You can register as a sole-proprietor, so yes, you can register as an individual.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I had some hassle filling in the final part of the registration form with my company details, this might help if you're have the same problems:

If you're in the UK and registering with your Limited company, you need to put your company name in the "Tax Identification Number" field, and your VAT number in the "Registration Number" field (if you're registered for VAT, obviously.)

If you're not sure what your VAT number is internationally, you can check it here: [http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do?select...](http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/vieshome.do?selectedLanguage=EN)

For the UK, you have to put "GB " in front of your VAT number.

</comment><comment><USER27> Has anyone emailed them for a coupon? And if so, has anyone heard back from HP yet?

<comment><USER28> Yup, I emailed. Didn't hear back yet.

<comment><USER15> Nor have I.

<comment><USER29> Same here.

<comment><USER30> I'd be curious to know if anyone's got one yet - or any kind of reply at all, in fact.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> "You will use your PayPal account to pay HP for things like PayPal Account update fees and annual developer membership fees (free for a limited time)."

I'm signing up now but will likely cancel just to avoid any big charges in the future.

</comment><comment><USER32> I clicked the email@example.com link, and it apparently executes some javascript to unencrypt the actual email address you're supposed to email.

It didn't work, though. I tried Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. I just emailed email@example.com directly -- anyone have any insight into this? I see no errors in my Javascript console, but when I paste the JS call in directly into the console, the return value is undefined.

<comment><USER33> It seems to execute a mailto to the same email address with a subject of "Developer Device Program NA TouchPad"

<comment><USER18> Yes, that is what it did for me when I clicked it. It brought up a new email in Thunderbird (remember that?) filled in as you describe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Why do you need to give a company name in order to register as a developer? Does anyone know if the deal is available to people who have just signed up?

<comment><USER35> I just put my name in there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> So are they still making a loss at that price? iSuppli seems to think so, they estimate about USD 300 in costs per Touchpad. But if that's true, why did they resume production in late August? And now a developer program for a EOL platform? It all seems sort of bizarre.

<comment> X-Istence This is a musing of mine, so it may be completely wrong.

HP most likely "resumed production" so that they could clear out any remaining stock. I can imagine that they had warehouses full of parts that were just not put together yet and had already paid suppliers for. These would have been written off and either sold back to the vendor or been destroyed. Also, it is entirely possible that HP had a contract with their manufacturer for a certain time period and if they broke that contract they would be out X where X is bigger than Y which is the amount it would cost to build and ship these devices at a loss.

This isn't the first time that I've seen a company do a "last run" to clear out the remaining parts before shutting down a product for good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> The thing that makes me hesitant about this is that it requires a paypal account.

</comment><comment><USER38> _Registered developers in the US, Canada, and Europe will be able to purchase up to two TouchPads at a discount while supplies last._

No love for developers in Australia, New Zealand

</comment><comment><USER39> Now semi off topic, aren't they killing webos? Why would you still want to become a developer? The $150 price is a good deal though...

<comment><USER40> It's a good device in general and with android coming in in the future, knowing what I know now, I'd probably still buy it (got one already, so I don't have to).

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Going to be really difficult for Palm to compete in the tablet market given their industry instability. They contacted us about getting our game onto an HP TouchPad -- then promptly announced their discontinuation (???).

Plus, Google has already given me a free Galaxy Tab (for attending Google I/O). Among that and my iPad, it's pretty easy to guess which I'll be hacking on.

</comment><comment><USER23> They seem to be sold out in UK and US online stores at the moment though.

<comment><USER42> Yeah I'm interested to know how this works too. Because according to the link, HP give you a discount coupon, but where do we use the coupon?

<comment><USER16> Terms and conditions: "Coupon codes are not valid anywhere but the HP online store, and may not be used for any products intended for resale or OEM activity as defined by HP, on employee purchase programs, retroactively on previously purchased items, or for cash redemption."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Did anybody actually receive a coupon for a device from hp?

I sent a request with my developer account name in the email body, but haven't received a coupon yet. Or is this some kind of lottery again?

</comment><comment><USER44> This is, at the very least, and opportunity for arbitrage.

</comment><comment><USER25> Looking at the page for the new TonidoPlug2, I wonder if the $150 HP Touchpad could be used as a server?

</comment><comment><USER45> what? where is the promised $99 good?

<comment> X-Istence This is for the 32 GB TouchPad which sold at the fire-sale for $150. The $99 one was for a 16 GB TouchPad which apparently they no longer have.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> It's funny how the title reads as:

"[THEY WILL GIVE YOU] $149 for a Touchpad if you sign up as a developer [THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY JUST TAKE IN CASH]."

When the reality is: "This Touchpad costs $149 if you go through a bunch of complicated forms, give away your info.. oh, and in reality, it costs like a lot less than $149 even so we'll still be making a shitload of money from it."</comment>


Ask HN: What businesses started by software developers do you know? - <AUTHOR> I don't mean technical co-founders, but businesses where developers actually took their idea and executed it. <comment><USER2> Microsoft

</comment><comment><USER3> Dropbox

</comment><comment><USER4> Sendgrid

</comment><comment><USER5> carrd.co

</comment><comment><USER6> AlchemyAPI, now part of the Watson portfolio.

Hofstadter.io, pre-funding

Both solo-dev started

</comment><comment><USER7> Facebook

</comment><comment><USER8> GitHub</comment>


Spaceship Generator - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/a1studmuffin/SpaceshipGenerator/ <comment><USER2> Sadly it doesn't seem to generate UVs for the models. But using the cube projection in Blender seems to do an OK job.

Add a skybox and a couple of simple particle effects in PlayCanvas.

And we have some WebGL spaceships :-)

[https://playcanv.as/p/kZtPZpnH/](https://playcanv.as/p/kZtPZpnH/)

<comment><USER3> Holy crap that site basically stops my computer.

<comment><USER4> That feeling when your cell phone is better than someone's desktop.

<comment><USER5> Firefox yes. Safari no.

Chrome though would start opening everything on Google apps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I love that the ships look more like "skyscrapers in space" then airplane like spaceships we usually see in tv shows/movies.

This is most likely (according to multiple hard scifi authors) a much more realistic depiction of how spaceships are going to look like.

Example given: The Expanse - "Flip and Burn" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4EiW1bHwsQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4EiW1bHwsQ)

<comment><USER7> See Mistake 6 at [http://www.dedoimedo.com/physics/sci-fi- mistakes.html](http://www.dedoimedo.com/physics/sci-fi-mistakes.html)

Mistake 7 also hints about the possible shape when there are no preferred orientations.

Also interesting

[http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep- space/a8140/what-...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep- space/a8140/what-would-a-starship-actually-look-like-12869471/)

[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/24/spaceship_design/](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/24/spaceship_design/)

<comment><USER8> Since you linked these pages, you and others also might find this interesting:

[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/misconceptions....](http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/misconceptions.php)

In my opinion Atomic Rocket contains the most accurate discussion of hard science fiction I've ever encountered.

<comment><USER9> I just spent the last 6 hours reading a fraction of the pages on that site. Thanks for the link!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I saw the headline and initially assumed it would be some droll Game of Life invention. Then I thought, no, maybe its some automatic sci-fi art generation script. And I was rewarded!

Procedural generation like this is quite possibly key to the future of indie games- if you don't have the team to design large sets of art assets, its important to be able to put _something_ pretty out there using your own wit. (A good example would be No Man's Sky.)

<comment><USER11> You are severely underestimating the effort good procedural content takes.

<comment><USER12> And perhaps you are severley underestimating the effort large-scale world assets take to create.

I agree that doing procedural generation properly takes a lot of work, but there's a reason that AAA open-world games like GTAV cost hunderends of millions of dollars to develop.

<comment><USER13> There's a reason that AAA open-world games like GTAV are using rather limited procedural generation, too.

The problem is that to create N pieces of satisfyingly unique procedurally generated content, you need M pieces of content that were carefully designed within additional restrictions to make them combineable in various fashions - making them harder to create. Then you add code to glue that all together. If you think M=0, that just means you've hardcoded your content in code.

When N >> M - e.g. you're generating thousands of similar-yet-distinct roguelike levels, trees, etc. - procedural generation can pay off.

But even for large-scale world assets, it's frequently the case that N < M. Making the content non-procedurally is going to be cheaper - fewer limitations to worry about, and fewer pieces of content to actually generate. A few clever tricks - rotating, retexturing, tweaking a base model, etc. - let you make a lot of non-procedural content without creating each piece from scatch, and lets you stretch that content to appear like you have more variations than you actually do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I don't really like most procedural generation. It has no meaning and the results are not intellectually stimulating. At best you can't spot the pattern and parameters but you usually can after a few examples.

An idea I am more interested in is that you generate requirements and use an optimiser to solve the actual design. This way, there is a hidden "why". With some study, a human might be able to discern why x is so thick or why A is attached to B. When a design has a use in mind then it has meaning.

<comment><USER15> Yeah, as I was watching the animation for the algo, I was thinking how nice it'd be if you added purpose to all these segments and features, then produced ships for various applications through fitness algorithms and evolution.

Simulate a small space economy, create a DAG of how components and materials are produced, simulate situations this ship will be placed in and calculate net present value, see the outcome in the difference between a freighter and a fighter.

<comment><USER16> Would be pretty funny to see a genetic algorithm go to play on that. I imagine it would end up something like most people screwing around with a spaceship builder "and what if we add forty engines?"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I find the arguments of procedural vs artistic content somewhat humorous given that artistic content is just an attempt to create something that is a fascimile of actual natural and human generated artifacts. The natural world is by definition procedural (unless you believe in a Creator). The human artifacts have some artistry - but only in the broad strokes. Most buildings, and most details of architected buildings, follow a procedural semantic. The natural decay of human artifacts follow a procedural semantic.

I assume that in the near future of VR that few will play "AAA games" (and hence few will exist) because they won't be able to complete with free procedurally generated environments.

<comment><USER18> I don't know why you're getting downvoted, because you're absolutely right. Most human architecture is highly procedural, with many tradesmen specializing in highly repetitive, focused tasks, that have predictable, reliable outcomes, in order to produce safe structures based on well-understood principles.

As for the VR thing, I think that will gain less traction because the idea of sleeping one's life away, strapped into goggles and headphones, is only so attractive.

<comment><USER19> _Most human architecture is highly procedural, with many tradesmen specializing in highly repetitive, focused tasks, that have predictable, reliable outcomes_

Yes, but human architecture is shaped by forces following from function. (As in Alexander's Pattern Language of Design.) That's why it becomes interesting, because we can relate to how the architecture relates to human needs and perceptions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I find Blender quite handy when it comes to (randomized/parameterized) generation of 3D objects for the purpose of rendering, although I've only done really simple things. However the API, while in Python (which is good), feels very unpythonic and clumsy, all while being severely under-documented. It would be really nice if the API could be cleaned up in a future major release...

</comment><comment><USER21> Cool, but the ships are all rather samey. They all spring from the root hull, with a main body being longer than it is wide. Perhaps that is needed to conform with our terrestrial concept of "ship". But I think it could be improved by randomizing the number or shape of starting hulls. It would also be interesting to see what could be done by extruding spherical shapes rather than boxes.

</comment><comment><USER22> The selected examples got me thinking: Those eight are presumably examples the author felt turned out particularly well. Could one build a neural network trained on generated ships that "turned out well" to automatically generate better-looking random ships?

Could this sort of process be used in games where procedural generation might otherwise be rejected because it looks "too random"?

<comment><USER23> You can think of the random possibilities as exploring one path through a huge tree of possibilities. You can then pick 9 paths for the next step and have the user choose the one they prefer and keep repeating until the user feels that they're done.

We used to use this sort of approach to produce random shapes for animation and display on large screens in clubs in the mid-90s. You can also animate by tweening one or more parameters at particular branching points or between branches. If you pick the right places on these ships that could produce some interesting movement in the craft as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Very cute, although the ships look samish (would probably be interesting to start with different base templates etc.

Still, it's only a few steps away from "random British 1970s SF book cover".

<comment><USER25> Do you have a link to the book cover generator? Or is that a metaphor?

<comment><USER26> I think he might have meant Chris Foss:

[http://www.chrisfossart.com](http://www.chrisfossart.com)

I grew up imagining these spaceships becoming reality, and now .. they sort of are .. at least, I can bend and play with spaceships just like them now, albeit .. in Blender .. ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The extreme examples remind me so much of the Shivan ships in the Freespace series.

I don't think the script replaces a professional designer, but this is awesome for brainstorming ship ideas.

</comment><comment><USER28> My physics knowledge is pretty weak. Wouldn't you want a space ship to be closer to something like an oblate spheroid? Less surface area <-> volume ratio builds cheaper, lighter space ships presumably? The primary thing I'm unsure of is steering, but how much of a problem can that be?

<comment><USER29> Pure speculation, but I think heat dissipation is probably the more important bottleneck of spaceship design -- no convective cooling, so you potentially want more surface area to increase radiation.

I think aerodynamics (both lift to weight and streamlining) are the reason for the compact design of aircraft and submarines (also perhaps reducing the profile for military vehicles).

Weight maybe an issue for maneuvering in combat, but there's tons of structural material literally floating around in space, so I'd wager that base material cost would not a limiting constraint.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Something to do this in Lego Digital Designer would get _considerable_ interest.

<comment><USER31> I did pretty much that for a previous challenge in /r/proceduralgeneration - procedural castles, where I used LDraw as backend for rensering.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Great work! I love a lot of the ships you show. I'll have to look at the code next weekend. I liked the city-building scripts from years ago in Blender too. Fun stuff to create a ton of assets automatically.

I was working on a procedural art generator in Blender in 2006, and I tried to use genetic programming written in Lisp to create random parameters into a fixed generator I had written in Python copied from a parametric formula renderer. I can't remember the original author. I couldn't get it to work well, and got sucked into Processing shortly thereafter, and other things Blender.

You could meld your script with a Genetic Program to present quick renders it evolves, and use Neural Nets to drive towards what you like, and away from what you don't to evolve a design. This cuts the search space, and thus the time, down from a simply random form generator in producing images you may want.

You've killed my next weekend!

Again, great work!

</comment><comment><USER33> Form follows function! No wait... I think I have it backwards

</comment><comment><USER34> Awesome stuff. Would love to see concept artists incorporating procedural generated assets in their workflow. Produce 100 samples like this, teach the computer which ones they prefer, produce 100 more, take a few and refine them by hand.

<comment><USER35> A lot of artists in various industries use Alchemy to generate ideas like this.

I like to use the ms reading on my stopwatch when I don't have anything else nearby. I'll draw up a few scales like inorganic <\---> organic, long <\---> short, heavily armed <\---> unarmed, and then get a 0-99 ms reading for each by pausing my stopwatch.

Edit: Example. [https://www.instagram.com/p/BG0Gr5BRBs7/](https://www.instagram.com/p/BG0Gr5BRBs7/)

The same can be done for character gen, scenario gen, life choices :), etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> When I tried to run it, I got:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/spaceship_generator.py", line 737, in <module> File "/spaceship_generator.py", line 711, in generate_spaceship AttributeError: 'BevelModifier' object has no attribute 'offset_type'

I ran it with Blender 2.69

<comment><USER36> Works with 2.77a though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Very macross of you.

</comment><comment><USER5> Has anyone 3D printed one of these models?

[http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/prepping_blender_files_fo...](http://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/prepping_blender_files_for_3d_printing)

</comment><comment><USER5> Dawkins wrote the biomorph software to demonstrate evolution, you got to select squiggles and breed them.

What would be call is to evolve spaceships by selective breeding.

No doubt this being The Internet this was done by a Russian seven years ago, and I failed to GTFA.

</comment><comment><USER31> Thing is, /r/proceduralgeneration is running a monthly challenge for exactly this right now but I haven't seen it listed as entry yet. Check out the previous entries, some of them are neat (others less so).

<comment><USER38> It's the top link on the challenge thread, isn't it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> [http://stellarismods.com/graphics/spaceships/](http://stellarismods.com/graphics/spaceships/)

</comment><comment><USER40> I'm delighted by how little code this is!

</comment><comment><USER41> Someone should be working on spaceship guidance software with UI interfaces for humans. We're going to need it.

</comment><comment><USER42> There is an error in script.

seed = 'tweer' obj = generate_spaceship(seed)

Python can't redefine functions as variables. Seed is a function.

<comment><USER43> i'm not the author but i frequently code in python and am unable to understand what you're saying from that snipped of code.

1\. you can overwrite everything in python

2\. seed has been set to a string

3\. obj uses the value of previously set 'seed' variable, which should be a string at that point.

its not a good idea, like overwriting the id variable, but it should work...

and just in case somebody wonders: its still possible to use the "true" seed() by calling it over __builtins__.seed()

i did similar stuff previously without realizing and only found out about this after i switched to a real IDE that warned me about overwriting inbuilt functions

<comment><USER44> 'seed' is explicitly imported on line 18, then overwritten on line 736, and yet it's used as a function on line 526. As far as I can tell, that is an error.

        >>> from random import seed
        >>> def f(): return seed(10)
        >>> seed = 50
        >>> f()
        Traceback (most recent call last):
          File "<pyshell#4>", line 1, in <module>
            f()
          File "<pyshell#2>", line 1, in f
            def f(): return seed(10)
        TypeError: 'int' object is not callable
        >>>

I haven't run the script, so take this with a grain of salt.

EDIT: Since generate_spaceship is always called with an empty random_seed parameter, this error won't happen when the script is run.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> This … this is awesome. Thanks for sharing!

</comment><comment><USER46> If this works as "advertised" then this is amazing. I'd love to see a game implement this.

</comment><comment><USER47> For a second I had to look if this was from the "limit theory" guy but no, RIP LT.

</comment><comment><USER48> Awesome work! Now I need website where I can just generate them and view them in webgl.

</comment><comment><USER49> Oh wow - I can procedurally generate 3D models ?!!! Blender tutorial needed :-)

<comment><USER50> Coincidentally, Blender's UI was procedurally generated as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> I'm guessing not the algorithm used to create the Destiny.

</comment><comment><USER52> Why are there windows on a spaceship?

<comment><USER53> [https://youtu.be/C-qEmmpGYvA?t=36s](https://youtu.be/C-qEmmpGYvA?t=36s)

Seems to be human nature.

<comment><USER54> Was that a historically accurate representation of the spacecraft designer's German accents, or was the movie gratuitously racist?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> This is very impressive. Nice work.

</comment><comment><USER56> Could you do procedural cars?

</comment><comment><USER57> > Start with a box.

And end with some boxes stuck together.

<comment><USER58> This is a pretty standard 3D modelling strategy, unsurprisingly, called "box modelling". You can create an incredible amount of things with box modelling. Including, obviously, a lot of spaceships. I built several crud spaceship designs with box modelling back in school. The main key advantage, is all of your 'parts' are built off of a single object in the editor, and aligned perfectly.

The other thing though, you can do to a box modelled project, is round all the edges to varying degrees, and end up with something looking much more fluid and amorphous. However, I suspect the results would be far more unpredictable if he through something like that into this script, so it'd be difficult to go there procedurally.

<comment><USER59> Yeah back when I made 3D models of star trek spaceships (trekkie in your name significant?) that was one of the go-to methods for making the shuttles, smaller craft, borg (obviously), but stuff like Voyager and the Enterprise-E you would often resort to more advanced lofting/spline patch based techniques and work off of a sketch.</comment></comment></comment>


Iran overturns death sentence for 'CIA spy' and Game Programmer Hekmati - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17261257

<comment><USER2> Correction: He wasn't a game programmer.

<comment><AUTHOR> The article does not mention his programming background, but other sources do.

[http://kotaku.com/5890496/iran-overturns-game-developers- dea...](http://kotaku.com/5890496/iran-overturns-game-developers-death- sentence)

<comment><USER3> It mentions he was involved with a game - but no one has actually said the role was as a programmer. Given his military background it might have been as, say, a consultant etc. (not to break balls or anything - just pointing it out :)).

<comment><AUTHOR> You are correct, nothing has said programmer. For the sake of clarity, will alter title to say game developer.

EDIT:

Too late to alter the title. Will have to stand.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this the same guy that was going to be executed for writing an image uploader last month? If not, what came of that case? Did they end up going through with the execution?

<comment><AUTHOR> No, that was Saeed Malekpour, and the discussion is here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3599396>

Also, I just realized that Amir Mirzai Hekmati was a game programmer, not a web programmer, and will edit the title accordingly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm surprised that people who leave Iran go back to visit, even for family. It just doesn't seem safe. Then again, I am writing this from an incredibly outside perspective informed only by horror stories of people getting arrested.</comment>


Proposition HN: I Will Validate Your Startup Idea With 100 Real Customers - <AUTHOR>

Premise 1: Most start-ups die because they are unable to find enough customers to keep them alive.
Premise 2: They can't acquire enough customers because they built a product people just don't really care about so acquiring customers is a tough expensive process that eventually puts them out of business.
Premise 3: Many founders know that they are meant to somehow validate their ideas with real customers before they build anything, but they just don't know how to go about this process correctly.
Based on these premises, I present The Proposition [Version 0.1]:
I will help you acquire 100 beta-testers (potential customers) for you start-up idea and based on the insights we are able to gather from them about the problem you are trying to solve with your idea, develop a business model and an initial concept for a product that will effectively meet their needs.
I am offering this service FREE to 10 HN founders; If you are interested, you should send me an email here – firstname.lastname@example.com – and I'll book you in for a Skype interview. <comment><USER2> The title is misleading. You offer 100 real customers, but then go and say that you will help acquire 100 beta testers (potential customers, as you say). Plus your profile is empty, and there is no sign of your work anywhere.

People, beware. This _might_ be a scam. There are many "internet marketers" who do this. They get you wound up and charge you a couple hundred bucks and then run away.

I'm not accusing the OP of being a scammer, but he needs to provide some background.

Founders Beware.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello Orangthirty,

I understand your reservations but if you want to know about my background just ask. there is no need to attempt to slander my reputation.

If you have a product i will get you 100 customers.. but if its an idea we can only call them beta testers.

The value of the service i am looking to provide is to test the market for your idea and find out what you should be building

If you want answers, ask for them next time and don't try to slander my reputation.

Thank you FELIX

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I do have a startup idea and I am very interested in this proposition. But, the idea is still fully in development and no actual "beta" is available, as I am still developing the product. Is this proposition still open for just an "idea" test?

<comment><AUTHOR> The GOAL of this is to get you 100 beta-testers BEFORE you start development, so you can make sure you are building the right product from the start.

My proposition however is still open to you. Send me an email and we'll talk

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting idea But: \- what's in it for you? \- who are you?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello 1773biz.

Everyone that contacts me via HN will get this service FREE. If this free pilot class is successful and I sense a real market for this service, I'll launch it commercially on a larger scale.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is great proposition. I've been running into something I might call Premise 4: Not knowing precisely who makes a meaningful beta customer.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the point of taking your idea through the customer development process.

Specifically to discover who your customers are and how to best reach them

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The format of this proposition looks oddly familiar

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for that ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> what field are you in?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello taigeair,

I started out in internet marketing (5 years ago just after high school and throughout college) then i moved into product development. I brought 2 iPad styluses to market before my profits dried up due to stiff competition from china.. by far the most exciting business i have been involved with so far.

Internet marketing is a very cut-throught world to be in and to service you almost certainly have to make sure there is a market for what you want to sell otherwise you'll go broke and enter debt really quickly.

It is this experience i am drawing upon to offer this service

<comment><USER7> We have a web product for SaaS. Would you be interested? Kera.io

<comment><AUTHOR> Send me an email - email@example.com</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Paul Graham: The Art of Funding a Startup  - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005MEG11Q <comment><USER2> I should have done a blog post to explain what's up but I've become so obsessed with one part of Mixergy that I let this (and other things) slide.

pg knows about this. It was done by a YC company. My site wasn't scraped. This is more than the interview.

Also, entrepreneurs like pg are heroes. Till I'm old and unable to move, you should expect to see me experimenting with ways to get their stories out. If I knew how to draw comic books, you'd see my interviews in the comics section of amazon too.

<comment><USER3> My first reaction to this was, "OMG, a new book from pg! Why didn't I hear about this before"? The comments here cleared up things for me. I think having the word "interview" in big letters somewhere on the cover would be less misleading.

You do explain things somewhat it in the Product Description, but in a very PR way "hold the answers, etc." without mentioning the book _is_ based on the interview. Some people here say that it's just the interview? Can you clarify if it is more than that and if that what have you added?

In addition to the blog post, I think you should have a better description on Amazon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> All - just want to re-affirm Andrew's points and provide some more clarification - we're the publisher behind the eBook, and we did partnered with Andrew/Mixergy to do it.

In short, we work with domain/subject-matter experts to publish high-quality eBooks. Some we create ourselves, some we work with publishers who already have great content (eg, Mixergy).

Since we're a startup there's still a lot that we need to improve, but one thing we're doing is making the books more interactive, and for PG's book we'll be adding video clips from the interview. Unfortunately Kindle doesn't have an easy way to provide existing customers an update, but if you did buy the book, please email me (email@example.com) and I'll share it with you.

Also, if you have knowledge on any topic that people would pay to learn more about, and want to create a beautiful, high-quality eBook to share that knowledge, please reach out to me - we're actively recruiting authors. A big thing of ours is sharing a lot of the content for free, it's not purely altruistic since that's great for building loyalty and traffic too. Thanks!

Kevin, Founder of Hyperink

PS Right now hyperink.com has almost nothing on it, we'll be launching a marketplace for our eBooks and our authors in the next 2 weeks

<comment><USER5> Considering that you're the publisher, what is your response to this review? [http://www.amazon.com/review/RMK171BE5NOQ1/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm...](http://www.amazon.com/review/RMK171BE5NOQ1/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B005MEG11Q&nodeID=133140011&tag=&linkCode=) The third and fourth points, specifically, seem to contradict your claim that you publish "beautiful, high-quality eBook[s]."

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Maybe I'm wrong but it looks like Andrew is taking an old interview, converting it into an eBook, adding the interviewee as an "author", and selling it?

<comment><USER7> If it wasn't with PG's explicit consent, this would be rather dishonest. If that panned out I'd be very wary about conducting an interview with Andrew..

I'm probably being overly cynical, but I'd love to see either Mr. Warner or PG clarify that separate permission was granted for this ;(

<comment><USER8> I'm sure he asked PG for permission.

Hyperink, the publisher, is a YC company, which may have been part of PG's incentive for doing it.

<comment><USER7> You're probably right, and I certainly hope so. I respect Andrew. He generally does decent interviews, and I think he's likely a good guy over all.

I do think he tends to push the boundries of what's socially acceptable somewhat, which is why I'm questioning. I'm sure I just have a somewhat cynical perspective, forgive me.

I'd still love to see it stated on-the-record, as it were, however.

<comment><USER9> I bought the book for Kindle and it's just an interview. Since the publisher is a YC company and Andrew is a cool guy, I don't feel bad giving up $5 for this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I bought it and it looks terrible on my Kindle, some sentences repeat themselves and there is a "Paul Graham" string shown 3 times per page. The about Paul Graham text was actually behind his picture, so overall quality of this is extremely low.

</comment><comment><USER11> Here's the table on contents in case anyone wants to get a better idea what they're buying: <http://i.imgur.com/pzjj7.png> The eBook is around 20 pages long.

In other news, Kindle.app only allows copy & pasting 33 words at a time... hence the screenshot.

<comment><USER12> "Foreward"? Is that on purpose?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Highly desirable content (from PG)...check

Supporting someone (Andrew) who provides a huge service to startups...check

Easy-to-consume format for Kindle...check

Easy-to-consume price...check

Shut up and take my money.

</comment><comment><USER14> I watched the interview, which was great. I wonder, does this add to the interview, or just break it down?

I wish the cover listed the author...it took me a minute to figure it wasn't a book by PG.

<comment><USER15> Wait, Paul Graham didn't write this? Do not want.

<comment><USER16> Amazon is listing both Andrew Warner and PG as co-authors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "It turns out", the secret is ... Paul Graham?

</comment><comment><USER18> Why is there no dead tree version?

As much as everyone here loves their e-readers, some of us still find hardcopies more enjoyable. I, for one, won't be purchasing for this reason only.

<comment><USER19> I'm genuinely curious why you prefer a paperback, could you elaborate? Also, wanted to ask: have you tried the Kindle app on your Mac/PC and mobile device yet?

<comment><USER20> I can answer for myself:

• I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them.

• I don't own an ebook reader or a tablet. I don't have any plans to purchase one. I have no desire to read a book on my phone, and the only books I read on my laptop are technical books with no real value as literature.

• I like physical collections of things. I've never bought an eBook, nor music, nor movies to be downloaded. I have hundreds of CDs and vinyl records and around a thousand paper books. Books aren't simply things to read, but a physical representation of my life's history: virtually everything I've been interested in in my life is displayed on my bookshelves.

• I can give a book away. I do that a lot. Two walls of my living room are covered in bookshelves. When I'm talking to someone and there's a book I think they should read, I give it to them. I've bought my favorite books half a dozen times, because I want to have them around to give away.

• I mostly read books away from home, in places that I don't want to whoop out an expensive device (because it makes it a target for theft, because I think it looks dorky) -- parks, the subway, cafés. This is connected to the first point -- I like getting away from the distractions of the internet and being somewhere where I can just read.

• I can throw books in my bag when I'm headed to places where there's a high propensity for me to lose or have my bag stolen. Catching the subway on the way to a concert? If I lose my book that's $10 down the tubes, not $100.

<comment><USER17> All good points, but I thought I'd point out that...

> I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the > distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them.

... the Kindle is actually fairly good on this count. Checking email on it is so clunky as to not be a temptation at all. It doesn't make noises or have alerts, and it has a very long batter life. So if you get into a book, the fact that you're reading it on a device does fade into the background, leaving you to concentrate on the content.

<comment><USER21> I concur, kindle.app and variants, kindle fire, all have nothing to do with the real Kindle, which just a book, slightly more convenient.

Like GP, I also buy, collect, give paper books, and have a wall of them in our living room, including all Balzac in a 18xx edition. But when I travel I take my Kindle instead of spending one hour pondering which book to take.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Didn't this site have a no-affiliate-link policy?

<comment><USER23> Whether it does or not, I'm flagging it for that.

<comment><USER24> It seems to be a normal link now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> _About Hyperink, the publisher: [...]_

 _There's no writing required and it's a unique opportunity to build your own brand and earn royalties._

No writing. That's disruptive to traditional publishing.

<comment><USER26> Not really. Ghostwriting is a well-established phenomenon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Its awesome when things like this are put out into the community. I hope it gets very specific. Paul's experiences are most similar to where an early stage startup will have. A couple years back most of the information on this topic glossed over angel investing, which was the first step an entrepreneur needed to know about. Without understanding how to get past that part, knowing how to raise a series A didn't matter.

</comment><comment><USER28> Looks like something in between a blog post and a real book. Are these Hyperink books organized like real books or just transcriptions of interviews?

</comment><comment><USER29> No preview? Only Kindle? I'd be curious to know if this eBook/MixergyNotes touches on funding ventures other than just YC.

<comment><USER30> It is also available on B&N in ePub format. There seems to be a free sample as well, didn't look at it though.

I noticed one funny thing while browsing the B&N site, in the "People who bought this also bought" section : <http://imgur.com/ZFAwY> :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> This is obviously a specialty book. Small audience. He probably should have charged more.

</comment><comment><USER32> PDF download link plox

</comment><comment><USER33> I've noticed a lot of crap e-books in Amazon lately that are comprised of Wikipedia or about.com style articles and selling for a few dollars. Some of them appear to be computer generated scrapings from PDFs, or some other unreliable method.

Make a killing publishing individual Wikipedia articles as ebooks...check.

I'm wondering:

1) Does the publisher have a right to this material, and to charge for it?

2) Is this material available elsewhere on the web?

3) Does Paul Graham or anyone else get compensated?

I would encourage anyone considering buying this sort of thing to know the answers to these questions before their purchase.

</comment><comment><USER34> Always find PG's talks and blog posts engaging....might be a good read.</comment>


NYPD wants to jam all cell phones during the next terrorist attack - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/nypd-eyes-disru.html

<comment><USER2> I don't think it is the worst idea in the world, but why not instead make it easier for law abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms? Bad people are going to do bad things, why not make it easy for the good guys to arm and defend themselves?</comment>