CDC Confirms a THC Additive, Vitamin E Acetate, Is Culprit in Most Vaping Deaths - <AUTHOR> https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/12/20/790154919/cdc-confirms-a-thc-contaminant-vitamin-e-acetate-the-culprit-in-most-vaping-deat <comment><USER2> Vitamin E Acetate is _not_ a THC additive. Sure, someone sketchy in the blackmarket added it to their product but its not a thing normal people using THC do intentionally.

The cause behind recent fear mongering over vaping is pure and simple. Some jurisdictions have become dependent on the revenue from the vice tax on tobacco and have seen vaping slashing their income more and more each year. Vaping must be made out to be dangerous so there is an excuse to tax and regulate it just like tobacco.

<comment><USER3> People dying from toxic cutting agents that managed to get distributed pretty broadly across the US seems like a pretty good reason on its own to regulate it like tobacco is. Added "sin tax" revenue is just icing on the cake.

<comment><USER4> There have been fewer than 50 deaths attributed to vaping.

It shouldn't even make the top 1,000 list of things to bother worrying about.

<comment><USER3> Indeed. In the US we have the FDA and the CDC precisely so that all of us don't have to worry about it. Per the linked article, they seem to be doing their jobs. The CDC has identified the likely vector for harm, and the FDA has been cracking down on unlicensed manufacturers and sellers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > A health-surveillance system put in place after the terrorist attacks of > September 2001 has been used to pinpoint the cause of the...

That's the interesting part of the article.

<comment><USER6> More:

> It was important to understand the timing of the outbreak as part of this > investigation. Health officials wanted to know when exactly the problems > first cropped up, and whether they had missed many cases before those > initial reports. That's why they turned to the surveillance data, collected > from more than 3,200 emergency rooms from most states.

>They found a gradual increase in emergency-room visits among people who vaped or used e-cigarettes, starting in January of 2017.

> The surveillance system doesn't automatically flag health concerns – often > scientists dive into the data once their suspicion is raised, as it was in > this case. The outbreak only became apparent in the data once researchers > defined more closely what they were looking for and focused on one age > group.

<comment><USER7> > The surveillance system doesn't automatically flag health concerns – often > scientists dive into the data once their suspicion is raised, as it was in > this case. The outbreak only became apparent in the data once researchers > defined more closely what they were looking for and focused on one age > group.

I'd be surprised if there wasn't some kind of outlier detection method that could automatically flag a sudden increase in unusual cases.

<comment><USER8> The web site has a lot of papers talking about that. They do detect spikes in defined syndromes.

But for stuff like this that isn't a defined syndrome and isn't really captured well at the hospital it's not an outlier until scientists do a lot of analysis.

<comment><USER9> The ETL for 3200 emergency rooms worth of data must be a nightmare. It would have to be largely unstructured upon ingestion, and I can't imagine normalising it enough for this sort of automated outlier detection would be possible.

<comment><USER8> The guide [0] shows like 20 defined fields and then free text notes.

It would be cool, but seems kind of impossible to tell a significant outlier (vape lung) from an insignificant outlier (misspelling).

The way the article describes it, epidemiologists define a new condition (vape lung) and then look for that.

[0] [https://www.cdc.gov/nssp/documents/guides/syndrsurvmessaggui...](https://www.cdc.gov/nssp/documents/guides/syndrsurvmessagguide2_messagingguide_phn.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Really, the WHO and other governmental health authorities should be throwing _billions_ of dollars at making vaping effective and safe. The RoI is absolutely insane - even if 10k people switch to a well researched alternative to tobacco and avoid serious health implications (probably costing $1million per person at a minimum in the US healthcare system), that's $10bn saved. You multiply that by around a billion worldwide smokers and the public health benefits are absolutely crazy. Probably on the order of tens of trillions of dollars, maybe even a quadrillion dollars over the next century.

<comment><USER11> I have very bad news for you.

Smokers (and the obese) are cheaper in health care costs than non-smokers. Why? To be blunt, because smokers die early.

Keeping someone alive into their 90s is more expensive than someone who dies of smoking derived illness in their 70s or younger. This is similarly true for the obese.

[https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199710093371506](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199710093371506)

<comment><USER12> Yes and no.

The use less. But they also are able to contribute less.

That said, yes a whole lotta money is spent on the last 0 to 6 months (or so) of life. From what I understand, this is a USA only problem.

<comment><USER13> Don't people more or less stop producing economic value at age 60 on average?

<comment><USER12> Obese people? Dying of diabetes related or heart attack? They going younger than 60. Furthermore, they're missing work, are less effective, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> In case you wondered where "Vitamin E Acetate" comes from:

> Further research focused on vitamin E acetate, which is used in some of > these preparations to dilute the much more expensive THC oil.

<comment><USER15> Further, it's synthetic. I don't think it exists in any food sources naturally. Probably shouldn't be in lung tissue:

"vitamin E acetate, is a synthetic form of vitamin E. It is the ester of acetic acid and α-tocopherol" (Wikipedia)

<comment><USER16> I'm not sure the addition of white vinegar should be of any particular concern...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetic_acid) [https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/j.efsa....](https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4412) \- "The substance readily hydrolyses" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_pneumonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_pneumonia)

<comment><USER17> Food safe doesn't mean its aerosol or combustion products are safe to inhale.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Mods- could we edit the title? Vitamin E is not a "THC additive"

<comment><USER19> It's a vape juice additive and this problem only arose because of the prohibition.

<comment><USER9> It's an THC product additive, that's not used in non-THC vape juices. The title is perfectly accurate, even if it could be a little more verbose. I know a lot of commenters here have a vested political interest in promoting marijuana and its derivative products as safe, but you can't change the facts because of that.

<comment><USER18> I believe the CDC also found it in illicit nicotine cartridges

<comment><USER9> The CDC have not found it in any nicotine cartridges. The CDC have also not found the substance in the lungs of any vape users who didn't use THC products. There are also jurisdictions which have reported finding it in 100% of seized THC cartridges.

<comment><USER18> It was found in carts that had THC and nicotine combined. That makes it about as much as a nicotine additive as a THC additive, if we are using the incredibly low standards of "found in coexistence with substance sometimes" as the definition of additive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The british have a perfectly sane and working way of handling vaping products and e-cigarettes, the USA could easily copy them in how it's regulated. The USA is just too damn proud to ever copy something another country is doing, even if it's vastly superior to what we're doing currently.

</comment><comment><USER21> Given the scale, a Mexican cartel was almost certainly the source of the bad carts. It just makes sense that someone there ordered a few barrels of vitamin e acetate from China and the problem appeared suddenly across the US but not in Canada and much less in states with legal carts.

<comment><USER22> If you're going to go and blame Mexico, you ought to have at least a bit of evidence.

<comment><USER20> oh no, he's picking on the Mexican cartel that is the primary source the majority of drugs in the USA. That's really hurtful to them I'm sure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> So how fast does this happen?

Taking a hit from a friends vape of unknown origin and substance still cool? Or is that insta KO

<comment><USER20> don't do it if people are trying to vape THC or just black market pods. Just get your own and do it legally or simply tell them nope and pass on the hit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I am curious, how it wasn't already known to people working at these vape manufacturing companies?

<comment><USER25> Vitamin E dilutions have only found in blackmarket THC vapes. There's simply no need for legitimate vendors to dilute product with vit E Acetate.

THC Distillate which is the base for most THC cartridges is made from any and all cannabis biomass or 'leftovers' from other processes. Since it's a highly pure (~94%) extraction, in terms of cannabis extracts, there is no worry about the starting products' quality/looks/smell as is the case with most cannabis products. All this results in this high-purity substance being much cheaper, and very high value for the customer.

The legitimate cannabis industry has dabbled with other diluents though (such as PG/PEG/VG and most commonly terpenes), mostly to help the very viscous THC distillate work with the cartridge hardware. However, nowadays, cartridge technology has improved so much that it is possible to use very viscous THC distillate in most cartridges. These legit vendors have known about various issues related to health concerns, due to health-savvy cannabis users. PG/PEG/VG are almost completely phased out for terpenes, which are currently seen as the better alternative (compared to PG/PEG/VG, not that it's safe). I've never come across legal cannabis vendors discussing Vitamin E as a dilutant in my research.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Obviously then ban Vitamin E, just as these imbeciles once banned Tryptophan and Ephedra.

<comment><USER27> You can buy ephedra in supplements, and ephedrine over the counter as Primatene or Bronkaid. Primatene is the perfect cold remedy--ephedrine to clear your nasal passages and guaifenesin to loosen mucus. Bonus that ephedrine gives you some zip, especially if you're in the minority of people whose viral-induced sneezing and runny nose is responsive to OTC antihistamines, which can sometimes make you drowsy (not as much of an issue for me since cetirizine went generic).

Warning: both ephedrine _and_ guaifenesin increase blood pressure, so take care if that might be of concern.

<comment><USER28> > not as much of an issue for me since cetirizine went generic

Yes, fexofenadine is great (for me at least)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Vitamin E Acetate may be the cause of the fatalities, but that's not the full extent of the problem. Lack of testing or fraudulent testing for pesticides seems to be a serious issue as well: [https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/01/07/37770867/why- eve...](https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2019/01/07/37770867/why-every- washington-pot-smoker-should-be-worried-about-californias-weed-recall)

Beyond pesticides, I'm also generally skeptical of some of the solvents used for extraction. Supercritical CO2 extraction should be perfectly fine, but apparently not every brand is using that.

<comment><USER30> I stopped all use of cannabis vape pens after reading a study that found lead often leaches into the oil cartridge over time (I believe from the pen and/or the metal contact on the cartridge). I imagine there could be other risks, as well.

Vaping is definitely safer if implemented ideally, but it looks like the ultra-portable solutions are mostly still pretty sketchy.

<comment><USER29> Vaporizers that use ground up bud instead of concentrates seem ideal to me; it's much harder for producers to adulterate the product in that form.

I get the impression this style of vape has started to go out of style though. Which is a shame because it's much more efficient than smoking, particularly if you save the toasted weed to make edibles with (extraction using food-grade coconut oil, butter, etc in your kitchen is very easy, or since it's already toasted you can even consume it without any processing.)

<comment><USER31> There are a lot of new models coming out each year. However, the oil vapes tend to be easier to use when out on the street or in a place where it's forbidden to smoke / vape as they leave very little trace and smell. But even with the dry vapes you have to be careful what you buy as some of the cheaper ones use plastics that can't take the heat, causing you to inhale plastic fumes. For example, most of the snoop dog branded vapes.

<comment><USER20> I guess I don't understand people using black market oil based anything since you obviously never know where it came from or it's the same stuff that the CDC says is destroying people's lungs. Just seems like survival of the fittest (in this case brain power) after you hear about all the people dropping like flies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I expect the other 90% of the iceberg is food and prescription drugs.

This is like how people gossiped about Boeing management for years before the 737-MAX finally demonstrated the consequences.

Or how people have smothered their doubts about the President because the market has been going up.</comment>


Microsoft OneScript - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.technet.com/b/onescript/

<comment><USER2> This website was confusing to look at. Thought process:

1\. This is a new Microsoft website

2\. Wait, no, it's just a website that copied MS's new style

3\. Wait, it _is_ a Microsoft website, it just looks like an independent website that copied Microsoft ("Who We Are", "How We Save IT Pros' Time" don't seem MS official)</comment>


Childhood Adversity Linked to Earlier Puberty, Premature Brain Development - <AUTHOR> https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2019/may/childhood-adversity-linked-to-earlier-puberty <comment><USER2> It took me into my late 20s to realize that I had a traumatic childhood. The thing is I did not grow up in a poor or abusive household. I grew up in an upper middle class family that looked extremely normal, and for a long time believed it myself, until I started wondering why I had since jr high felt acutely depressed, empty, and unable to hold on to meaningful relationships. Only a few years ago did I realize that both my parents were emotionally neglectful and did not validate my emotions at all growing up, and did not act or behave in a way that seemed like they were even aware that emotional care and validation of their child is at the core of good parenting, and not just feeding them and putting a roof over their head.

It explained a lot about how I act today, and why I became very independent at an early age. I continue to struggle with feelings of emptiness, depersonalization, emotional numbness. It sucks to feel like you cannot escape your childhood even as a grown adult.

<comment><USER3> I relate to this story personally. Wish you the best, and here are some resources that have helped me:

\- after many failed attempts doing CBT and mindfulness based therapy, doing psychodynamic psychotherapy with a therapist who takes relationships and trauma seriously

\- "Complex PTSD: From surviving to Thriving" (Pete Walker)

\- "The Tao of Fully Feeling" (Pete Walker)

\- "Treating Adult Survivors of Emotional Abuse and Neglect" (Hopper/Grossman/Spinazzola/Zucker)

\- "Adult children of emotionally immature parents" (Gibson)

<comment><USER4> Would also recommend Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk's lengthy tome, "The Body Keeps The Score". Been recommended on HN several times before (including once by me, I think).

Haven't checked out some of these other titles (only know of pete walker, loving "From Surviving To Thriving"), thanks. Do you know about EMDR? Worth looking into, IMO.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There is something funny about the way this article portrays early brain development.

Ask families with relatives in lean world countries who visit those countries often and they will tell you that those kids mature far more quickly than the kids here. And they see it as a positive impact. And lament how children in America do not mature as quickly. Foreign kids who come here to study do better than the kids who are from here.

Yet adversity in the article is portrayed negatively. And further, faster brain development is portrayed negatively. Then early puberty is portrayed negatively. And it is all tied together with the statement that there is more depression, anxiety and psychosis.

Mind you but those traumatic experiences become so when you are taken from a world of high stress where everyone grows up like you do to a world more relaxed where people are different from you.

Think PTSD soldiers finding it difficult to live at home. But ok to live back in war country. Think martial arts training you to be defensive and then going back to a world with only peace.

It is not the high stress that causes the trauma but rather how different life becomes when you change gears back to peace.

I will always remember the quote from the Walking Dead. Until war is over, we are just walking dead.

<comment><USER6> > Yet adversity in the article is portrayed negatively.

Well, there is "adversity", and there is the sexual abuse and other trauma that the article is talking about.

<comment><USER5> I don't find that in the article. It keeps mentioning poverty and socioeconomic conditions and refugee situations.

<comment><USER7> >Growing up in poverty and experiencing traumatic events like a bad accident or __sexual assault __can impact brain development and behavior in children and young adults.

It's literally the first line.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> Mary-Jane "The study suggests that it makes sense for parents and anyone involved in raising a child to try and shield or protect the child from exposure to adversity."

I'm sorry, this is just silly. Prior to the industrial revolution, low SES and high TES were normal; _life_ was hardship and adversity. Think about that: humans have been around for about 200,000 years - that's a lot of generations of f'ed up kids. How did we ever survive?

<comment><USER8> Could be that there is a kind of developmental switch. If life is tough as a child, it makes sense to speed up development to improve odds of survival. If you find yourself in a safe, loving and caring place, then you have the option of spending more time and energy developing the brain.

> life was hardship and adversity

Not necessarily. Many argue that hunters and gatherers lived a much better life than during most of recorded history. There is plenty of evidence for this. It's entirely possible that a child would find itself in a small, well functioning group of people, without any major adversity during childhood.

<comment><USER9> >Many argue that hunters and gatherers lived a much better life than during most of recorded history.

Then why did we stop being hunter-gatherers?

<comment><USER10> The theory is that agriculture let populations better survive bad years by grain stockpiling so they could outcompete the hunter gatheres.

In general, nothing says that better average quality of life necessarily makes you out-compete other populations.

<comment><USER11> Agriculture is also more intensive than hunting / gathering, supporting more humans per area. When the two conflicted, the agriculturalists won by strength of numbers.

Generally, more intensive civilizations outcompete less intensive ones, even though the average individual may be worse off in that society.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is very culturally specific. Childhood itself is a social construct, some cultures treat childhood very differently with various outcomes. It seems that this is one interpretation of the study results and by no means applicable to children globally. Psychology parades as a science of humanity, but in reality results are often strictly limited to the sample or population of interest. 'abnormal' development in place A may be normal in place B. Or normal under circumstance X. Researchers do their best to make sense of their data within their own cultural framework of thinking and experience.

It makes sense for difficult experience to mature the brain, that's how our neural networks strengthen. It makes sense to develop in response to adversity in order to overcome it again in the future. I would suspect the links to mental health conditions are due to another culturally constructed aspect of Western society. I.e. Mental unwellness is as much to do with how people respond to us as it is to do with any difference in brain function. The social world shapes our brain. If I withdraw from society for a while that may change some of my brain function but when I stop withdrawing and someone treats me a certain way that has another influence on my brain function. This latter influence may well be more influential that the effect of my original withdrawal. Therefore it's often difficult to firmly state that a difference in brain structure or function is due to X, when X is intrinsically related to Y, Z (and the whole alphabet).

We know that adversity is linked to mental health and therefore it must be related to brain changes. What we don't know is how exactly.if this is a beneficial evolutionary response - probably - that is almost inappropriate to a western society then it's not the evolutionary response that is problematic, it's the societal response to it.

</comment><comment><USER13> My layman's impression from paying some attention to psych/neuroscience is that there's an increased amount of scrutiny/skepticism towards this type of study which (afaict) fails to take into account potential genetic confounding while the authors describe the discovered correlations in causal terms.

We can be nearly certain that SES and TES are significantly heritable. Without accounting for that innate heritability, how can they say to what degree the outcomes are the result of circumstances/events?

<comment><USER14> I think they usually use twin studies to try to compensate for heritability but I couldn't find any mention of it in the article.

<comment><USER15> I think they usually _don't_ use twin studies because they are harder/more expensive. In this case they used the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort:

[https://www.med.upenn.edu/bbl/philadelphianeurodevelopmental...](https://www.med.upenn.edu/bbl/philadelphianeurodevelopmentalcohort.html)

I don't see any mention of twins here or on JAMA, although I can't access the full text currently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Childhood adversity and abuse has been linked to decreased trust, low impulse control, violence, learning problems, promiscuous sexual behaviour etc. before.

One way to look at this is damage caused by stress and stress hormones.

Some of the traits above may be evolutionary adaption strategy. Growing in chronic stress environment requires different traits. The limbic system may have plan B when it's flooded with stress hormones constantly. Long term thinking and planning is less valuable when the life expectancy is low.

<comment><USER17> "One way to look at this is damage caused by stress and stress hormones"

Another way is simply learning by example.

"Daddy said don't ever trust nobody, they always tryin' to get ya" (and maybe it's true in some communities) ... well it makes sense.

Or else "My father always said to just trust people, and they'll trust you back" \- which also may be true for other communities.

The variables: physical/genetic, family experience, and community experience I think all add up.

I don't have the ref by I remember reading that poor kids who simply moved to a 'better neighbourhood' did a lot better in life, normalizing for everything else.

<comment><USER18> > "Daddy said don't ever trust nobody, they always tryin' to get ya" ... Or > else "My father always said to just trust people, and they'll trust you > back"

But in fact, both of these are wrong! Our ability to fully develop affective empathy, and thus to intuitively and effectively strive for _win-win_ outcomes in the way that's constantly required of us by any modern society, is critically reliant on a basic foundation of intuitive trust; on the other hand, "just" trusting anyone with no fall-back of any sort simply invites abuse by unscrupulous or even actively malicious (i.e. socially predatory to the point of dysfunction, without even the most cursory interest in - or for that matter, the understanding of - the wellbeing of those they interact with!) actors, and might even leave us utterly unable to effectively counter such abuse even when we _can_ acknowledge that trust has, in fact, failed. The one effective policy is "trust but verify", and with the right attitude it can work in a wide range of communities!

<comment><USER17> I kind of disagree.

There are communities in which you should basically not trust anyone by default.

There are communities in which trust is generally a given.

(Obviously, both within reason)

There is also the possibility that people 'have it wrong' (i.e. cynical of a community that is trusting, and overly trusting in a bad neighbourhood)

My grandfather made windows as part of his business in the 1950's, most of his customers were farmers. He would trade his work often for livestock, say 'a pig' or '1/2 cow' or whatever - but he would get paid during slaughter season often many months away. There was no contract, just a handshake, and he never had to worry about the farmer taking the animal straight to the butcher. (This is before super common refrigeration, and everyone it town had a 'locker at the butcher's).

In some ways, there can be fairly deep trust, depending on the context.

I don't disagree with the other respondent's point about chemical changes either, but I suggest that a lot of our behaviour is simply learned.

<comment><USER18> > My grandfather made windows as part of his business in the 1950's, most of > his customers were farmers. ... There was no contract, just a handshake, and > he never had to worry about the farmer taking the animal straight to the > butcher.

Interesting. This sort of almost unnaturally-deep trust is actually very common to small, stable communities, with sky-high levels of social capital and a deep shared understanding of common obligations. It might be that having such stable communities around is an exceedingly-convenient catalyst to "jump- starting" broad-based social and economic development; a sort of "primitive accumulation" stage in the historically-materialistic sense where it's _social_ capital that's being accumulated, not resources. Economic history would certainly seem to point in that direction. And it raises some uncomfortable questions about the future, since many people think of "late stage capitalism" and its social correlates as being highly _corrosive_ of that trust-inducing social capital.

<comment><USER17> Yes, but I should add that 'everyone knows everyone' and so while I do like to think of this situation as a 'noble thing' ... if you do bad things, there's no escape from your reputation.

Which can be difficult as well, as there's all sorts of behavioural pressures that come from that.

I should add that some of this exists today. The local mechanic, if he knows you, will surely do a deal something like that. Also, there are favours for favours. For minor things he will definitely not charge. I don't think he's keeping track of favours, but certainly there is that.

As for the 'corrosive' aspects of social organization ... I think as we gain more wealth, we tend to be nicer and more trusting. I wouldn't say most of my modern, urban friends are distrustful for the most part.

You can see generally among the 'professional class' a fairly high degree of conscientiousness ... I'm hopeful we'll become more like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Why is it 'premature' brain development? This seems to have picked a particular lens to interpret the results.

I grew up in a European country and moved to a developed western nation at age 10. The first few years of school were a really jarring experience because the kids in my class were infantile and mentally under-developed compared to where I came from. This was also reflected in a huge gap in curriculum, we were covering skills that were taught 2-3 years earlier where I came from. Parents in western nations infantalise their children and prevent them from developing autonomy/responsibility for far too long. It's even reflected in the law, 10 year old me was shocked to learn that it's illegal to leave children under 12 unattended at home.

A different interpretation of the same findings is 'lack of adversity causes delayed brain development'.

<comment><USER17> "I grew up in a European country and moved to a developed western nation at age 10. "

European countries are 'Western nations'.

<comment><USER20> op could've meant Eastern Europe.

<comment><USER17> Eastern European nations are 'Western Nations'.

My down-voters are utterly wrong.

'The Western World' is a term derived from antiquity, in which 'the middle east' is at the centre, East would be China etc.

In modern terms, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand would be considered Wester nations.

<comment><USER21> The poster quite possibly was using the cold war definition of "west" (which is likely way more relevant to the comparison they are making), not the antiquity one.

<comment><USER20> Yep. In terms of adversity, there's a clear enough divide between western and eastern Europe that it fits the comparison.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Early puberty is linked to shorter adult height. A vicious cycle of poor genetic profiles eliminating themselves via offspring from the gene pool after natural selection?

</comment><comment><USER23> Is this linked to relative poverty? Being the poor kid in a rich neighborhood/country?

Or real "there isn't enough food today" style poverty

</comment><comment><USER24> I have a sad feeling that what we called adult brain is just hollowed out, scarred husk of desirable human brain and people who really develop our technology (and in result society) are mostly individuals that by some genetic and environmental accident managed to retain bits of their child brains.

</comment><comment><USER25> > The racially and economically diverse cohort

We already know that the races differ in speed of maturation and various measures of adversity. Was race controlled for? (Paper is paywalled for me.)

</comment><comment><USER26> Don't judge them too harshly. They may have done much better than what their parents managed in turn, and not too long ago food and shelter was all that people had time for.

I don't think Western society is ready to bring up children without some kind of major problem for decades still. School kids right now commonly suffer from existential crisis due to climate change.

<comment><USER27> > School kids right now commonly suffer from existential crisis due to climate > change.

Wait, what? You can't just drop that one in there at the end without some follow up! I know Climate Change is the current boogeyman that's causing all sorts of bad things, but now it's causing mental health problems? Is there anything Climate Change can't do?

<comment><USER28> Climate change is this generation's duck and cover but instead of being burnt to crisp within seconds its over a course of decades. And I mean that they are the same not in the sense that it may or may not be something worth having a daily existential crisis over, but rather, today's kids are being drilled by today's adults that yesterday's adults have caused this looming threat they are helpless to do anything about. It's pretty unsurprising this will cause some mental anguish in children.

School shootings probably have a similar effect on children's mental health, too.

<comment><USER3> People often make the nuclear war comparison but it's different. With nuclear war, we just have to hope that a couple hundred people are sane enough to not push the button. In comparison, with climate change, it seems like the vast majority of older (and much of younger) generations simply don't care that the status quo is going to screw us. Also consider the fact that a private corporation (Exxon) had all the knowledge to give us enough lead time to avert this situation and decided to make piles money instead, and it gives you a pretty bleak picture of humanity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I don't know how to put it politely, but you may be creating a problem out of nothing. If you didn't know you had a traumatic childhood, then most likely you didn't have one. No families are perfect and most parents try to do best they can, occasionally failing. Growing up is not without problems, and things turn out mostly OK most of the time. Not knowing your specifics it sounds like you try to find someone to blame and try to find some exotic condition you can identify with. " did not validate my emotions at all growing up " \-- what about giving life to you and feeding you though? What does "validating emotions" even mean. I encourage you to let this resentment go and move on with life.

<comment><USER30> I'm sure you didn't intend it this way, but this comment crosses into personal attack, which breaks the site guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

We detached this subthread from [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20067793](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20067793) and marked it off-topic.

<comment><USER31> I really don't see how it's a personal attack.

<comment><USER30> When someone shares their personal story, they put themselves in a vulnerable position. If an internet commenter comes along and presumes to know better about that person's experience, psychologizing, giving condescending advice, and dismissing their understanding of their own life, that's presumptuous and invasive. Since it crosses a line into an intimate place disrespectfully, I call it crossing into personal attack unintentionally. I realize that people often think they're helping the other person this way—e.g. the tough-love approach. But comments on an internet forum lack the relational connection that's necessary for someone to receive help in this way. Instead, it just feels like being talked down to or scolded or worse.

I replied that way to the GP comment because those elements were in there. Knowing better: "You may be creating a problem out of nothing." Condescending: "Growing up is not without problems". Condescending advice: "I encourage you to let this resentment go and move on with life". Psychologizing: "You try and find someone to blame and to find some exotic condition you can identify with". Dismissive: "What does validating emotions even mean". Even if the commenter is guessing perfectly and all those points are correct, this is not the way to communicate such information. Indeed, being correct would make it even more humiliating.

<comment><USER29> For the record, I agreed with your comment and your decision to detach the thread and regretted my hasty comment. Seeing my initial comment now dissected like that is somewhat humiliating as well.

In any case, keep up the good work, and all the best.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The poor, misunderstood innerText - <AUTHOR> http://perfectionkills.com/the-poor-misunderstood-innerText/ <comment><USER2> Anybody who's interested in improving innerText's standing in the world should check out the WICG discussion on [standardizing innerText][1] and [CSS Plain- Text Conversion][2].

[1]: [http://discourse.wicg.io/t/standardizing- innertext/799](http://discourse.wicg.io/t/standardizing-innertext/799)

[2]: [http://discourse.wicg.io/t/css-plain-text- conversion/976](http://discourse.wicg.io/t/css-plain-text-conversion/976)</comment>


Ask HN: Where would you go if HN shutdown for 1 month? - <AUTHOR> From all the talks about HN lacking in many areas for some users, I was wondering where HN folks visit for quality content/comment/userbase?<p>Side question: Would you come back if it shutdown for a month? <comment><USER3> Nowhere in particular, but I'm sure as hell my productivity would boost :)

<comment><USER4> I couldn't agree more, I waste countless potential working hours 'learning' on HN that if this site closed down, I would probably cure cancer, invent "the new X" and single handedly save the world in the first week with the spare time I would have.

<comment><USER3> Keep lying to yourself, I bet we'd find another distraction to justify procrastination :D

<comment><USER4> I couldn't agree more, I know that once I've read all of HN (which is really to say the first 5 or 6 pages of top stories and new) I tend to head over to Reddit or chat to someone on Skype or Facebook.

My day seems to be divided between minor distractions to keep me working, it's no wonder I'm behind on my work!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> <http://www.reddit.com/r/hackernews> As long as everyone goes there, we can make it work.

<comment><USER6> Or <http://www.reddit.com/r/startups>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> <http://www.reddit.com/r/programming>

</comment><comment><USER8> Back to work!

</comment><comment><USER9> I'd go to Reddit but reluctantly. Frankly I dont know of a good HN replacement. I'd certainly be coming back each day to see if it's no longer down.

<comment><USER10> r/programming is good

<comment><USER11> No. It's not. Within the last two days, a comment was upvoted which implied that a VM like the JVM was the same as a virtualization platform such as Xen or KVM.

<comment><USER12> Also, there is a lot more of the "you're a fucking idiot" attitude on display on Reddit. Mistakes like the one you cited do get downvoted and called out here, but generally, you don't hear the "comic book guy" voice when reading them out loud.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Don't know where I'd go but I didn't "come back" to many forums, slashdot, digg or reddit when whichever one of us outgrew the other.

</comment><comment><USER14> Quora and my facebook friends. Maybe a little bit of twitter with a select set of people. A few private mailing lists. Some private IRC channels.

Same/better discussion (on the private lists), but not generally driven by media articles.

Probably would come back after a month, but not after 3 months.

</comment><comment><USER15> Outside

<comment><USER16> Agreed :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Despite going downhill continuously for half a decade, slashdot still gets the job done for about 50% of the big stories that come thru HN.

For more startup-ish news, TechCrunch and GeekWire.

</comment><comment><USER18> I fall back to reddit/programming when I don't find anything interesting here. I'd go there waiting for HN to come back, as I find r/p to be of lesser quality than HN.

</comment><comment><USER19> I would be forced to go back to work :-(

</comment><comment><USER20> Where would I go if HN shutdown for 1 month - <USER2>

Would I come back - definitely!

</comment><comment><USER21> Can I ask my own question? Is this more than a hypothetical inquiry?

> Would you come back if it shutdown for a month?

1\. Yes.

2\. That's not what "shutdown" means. "Suspend" is closer to the apparent meaning.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm more interested in seeing if there is something else out there. I haven't figured out why I haven't really found anything else I like so I'm asking what you like.

<comment><USER21> The truth is there are few options that have HN's quality level, for various reasons, one being its relatively small following.

At risk of igniting controversy (or generating more heat than light), I might rank social media sites this way, from worst to best:

4Chan | Digg | Reddit | Slashdot | HN

Reasonable people may differ, of course. But I think there's little controversy over the idea that, when a site becomes popular, its quality necessarily declines -- unless there are barriers to membership.

<comment><USER22> Wow, the real Paul Lutus is on Hacker News. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Isn't it ironic that we have come to only 2 alternatives to Hacker News when there are zillions of websites? Can this be a possibility of another website?

</comment><comment><USER24> I'd currently go to app.net. Finding news is more difficult, but the threads / discussions there are of really high quality too.

</comment><comment><USER25> Back to work!

</comment><comment><USER26> I'd go on vacation or do more work ;) and sure I'd come back after a month!

</comment><comment><USER27> #startups on freenode, and I would be back as soon as possible.

</comment><comment><USER28> Given all of the recent discussions about problems with HN I wonder whether there would be any positive effects of actually choosing to shut it down for a month?

I would certainly come back if it did shut down for a bit.

</comment><comment><USER29> I'd go to my grandmother's house in West Virginia.

</comment><comment><USER30> Good old slashdot.

</comment><comment><USER31> Still waiting for nReduce News, or nN in short.

</comment><comment><USER32> www.dailyrotation.com - get the top 100 articles list

</comment><comment><USER33> Quora.

Or I might actually get some work done.

</comment><comment><USER34> I shall write an article "How not to go back to HN" and read it again and again. Well, until HN wakes up.

</comment><comment> olog-hai I would go to a site where people know that "shut down" is spelled with two words.

<comment><USER35> According to Merriam Webster 'shutdown' has been used to mean the cessation of activity since 1888 at least: <http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/shutdown>, although M-W only has it as a noun.

Collins lists verb versions as well: <http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/shutdown>

OUP also has it: <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/shutdown>

<comment><USER36> Doesn't "shutdown" work like "login"?

"To shut down", "To log in" are verbs. "I will shut down my computer in 10 minutes", "Click on the key to log in".

"Shutdown" and "login" are action nouns. "The shutdown happened at midnight, two hours after the planned deadline", "A problem occurred during the login phase".

If that is the case, grand-parent would be right: the correct phrase should be "if HN shut down for one month" (cfr. "after HN shutdown").

PS: obviously I am not a native English speaker.</comment></comment></comment>


Laptop Camera Cover - <AUTHOR> https://www.amazon.com/Yilador-Premium-Computer-Smartphones-Security/dp/B079GQG2X3/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title&linkCode=sl1&tag=twitter06c2-20&linkId=04fb7b8c4ff95ec6f8b016cb2a27b549&language=en_US <comment><AUTHOR> Mark Zuckerberg and James Comey, among others, were reported to be using black tape: this is far more elegant. [https://www.amazon.com/Yilador-Premium- Computer-Smartphones-...](https://www.amazon.com/Yilador-Premium-Computer- Smartphones- Security/dp/B079GQG2X3/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title&linkCode=sl1&tag=twitter06c2-20&linkId=04fb7b8c4ff95ec6f8b016cb2a27b549&language=en_US)

<comment><USER2> I think the black tape is cheaper, though I use part of a post-it.

<comment><AUTHOR> After using one of these devices for a day, I've gone back to black tape. Why? Because you're never certain the camera's blocked with a 2-position switch unless you look each time, whereas with tape it's ALWAYS where you want it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> My friend used to have a laptop with a "webcam" that turned out to be just a paper glued on top of the display. Different kind of protection i guess

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm using one of those covers, probably a different vendor but the same product. It's almost invisible on my black laptop. I used to hang a piece of folded black cardboard but this cover is much more convenient.</comment>


Ask HN: Honestly, what's evil about Oracle? - <AUTHOR>

I've been getting an "Oracle is evil" vibe lately (duh). I've brought it up with a few people, but it's always essentially come down to being in a band-wagon, or wanting free (as in beer) software. I respect the opinions on HN, and I have to believe there are better reasons than this, I just haven't heard them.
Personally, I know several people who worked there during the acquisition, and there's an overwhelming response of relief that their company isn't being run into the ground anymore. I've always had good experiences with Oracle's products and support, and I'm not aware of any free products that are no longer available (maybe I'm wrong?) Open-source software can still be branched if people don't like the politics (like LibreOffice).
As far as I can tell, Oracle is simply not going to spend money on things that it doesn't benefit from. It's a business, and they're not breaking any contracts or laws. Granted, their lawsuit against Google looks ridiculous, but that can't be all there is to this vibe. <comment><USER2> Oracle is the archetype of "enterprisey": a massive convoluted platform that costs a fortune and requires specialists to babysit, which businesses use because many years ago there were no viable alternatives. They're much more interested in milking their cash cow than innovating, which may very well be the correct business decision, but it makes them unappealing to most hackers. None of that makes them "evil", but it does make it easy to side against them in the Google case, especially given the dislike for patent aggressors in general.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't really know much about Oracle but from what I read their company culture is not the kind of culture I'd work for.

For example the way they treated Gosling.</comment>


Command line made easy: five simple recipes for grep - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/05/command-line-made-easy-five-simple-recipes-for-grep.ars

<comment><USER2> grep -c "^<segph\\(ault\|one\\)>" channel.log

Anyone know why all the syntax is escaped there?

<comment><USER3> Yes. If not escaped grep will consider the syntax as literals and search for them. Being escaped makes grep treat them as syntactic elements of the regular expression, not characters to match.

For example, "te(s|x)t" will match neither "test" nor "text", but will match anything that has "te(s|x)t" in it. On the other hand, "te\\(s\|x\\)t" will match any line with "test" or "text" in it.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How does a UI specialist transition to AR/VR? - <AUTHOR> Being that AR/VR are such new fields, it's clear that there is no clear path yet.
I think that the future of interfaces lies in AR; as someone whose career has been focused on the UI side of things (everything from design to front-end engineering), I'd like to pursue AR while it's still nascent.
The issue lies in that my work has been exclusively web-related, the software I write being predominantly JavaScript and the interfaces I design inherently being tied to flat screens. Is there a logical segue into (developing experience with) AR from here, or is it absolutely necessary to start ground-up with graphics and core CS fundamentals?
To be clear, I'm already studying CS theory and plan to delve into graphics, but I'm unsure whether I'm already equipped to dive into AR or not. <comment><USER2> I'm glad you recognize that there isn't a path yet; many people don't!

The short answer today is: you have to ramp up on creating content in 3D engines. If you can't build out all of the content yourself, you can't effectively work. That means, to some degree, creating original 2D _and 3D_ assets. The #1 thing Microsoft tells designers who want to work with Hololens, is learn Unity and learn the workflow to deploy Unity content into a Hololens yourself, without developer/engineer assistance. (UnrealEngine4 is the other major option.)

As a web-based designer, tools like React VR and A-Frame _might_ be useful, but your tooling there is always going to be a distant second to the established 3D players, and so your content quality will also lag behind.

YC's guide: [https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-get-into- vr/](https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-get-into-vr/)

Some other Medium post that wasn't bad: [https://blog.prototypr.io/designing- for-vr-a-beginners-guide...](https://blog.prototypr.io/designing-for-vr-a- beginners-guide-d2fe37902146)

As far as using real hardware, your AR options are kind of limited if you can't afford a Hololens. You could try and find a second-hand CastAR Kickstarter developer prototype headset. You could maybe fake something with the Vive's front-facing camera or the Leap Motion as a camera on an Oculus Rift. You could cobble together a Pepper's Ghost-style Google Cardboard-alike, like Aryzon: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aryzon/aryzon-3d-augmen...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aryzon/aryzon-3d-augmented- reality-for-every-smartphone) or this DIY version: [http://www.instructables.com/id/Cardboard- Hololens/](http://www.instructables.com/id/Cardboard-Hololens/)

But, mostly, of course, you have to have something to build, and blog posts won't help you there! There isn't a curriculum of standard AR/VR exercises like there basically is for web-based design (build a landing page, build a CMS admin interface, build a shopping cart, etc.).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comprehensive answer, all good stuff to look at :)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How can a single person objecting get a post moved from the front page? - <AUTHOR>

Recently, when a single person vehemently objects to a post, it disappears off the front page.
Liken a submission to Reddit, or call it over-hyped, and it's a goner.
I've noticed this trend recently, and it just happened with one of my submissions:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5684770
Or do votes not count any more?
(I have a feeling this may mysteriously disappear) <comment><USER2> I have no official standing, but I've been here a while, and I pay attention to community dynamics, so I may have an insight.

It doesn't take many flags from ordinary users to get an item off the front page. Flags carry a heavy penalty, and it seems that just three or four will take an item a long way down the rankings. If one person points out that they think an item is inappropriate, or isn't really of "deep interest" to the hacker culture/mentality, others will stop to wonder, and then they may also flag. Thus a single comment like that will often result in enough flags to take the item down quickly.

I've found a good predictor is the ratio of points to comments. The item you mention has 23 points but 42 comments. People are replying without upvoting, and that is a predictor of something that many will think is not really contributing value to the site as a whole. Correlation is not causation, etc, etc, but I've found it to be a good predictor of what I personally want to read.

So those are my thoughts - they're probably worth about as much as you paid for them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Can I ask you a question, Colin. Do you think the subject of domains is against hacker culture, or anti-startup in any way?

<comment><USER2> I can't comment on hacker culture, or what would be of interest to hackers, or what the HN "community" might regard as being of "deep interest." For me, the list was absolutely pointless, but I'm not looking for a domain.

And if I were starting a business again, I wouldn't care about three character *.io domains. And go look at the discussion - is there anything there of interest to hackers? Really?

Since you ask me personally, that entire thread feels like hackers shooting the breeze over coffee, and it has no substance. You may disagree, I'm sure there are many others who will, and I'm speaking for myself, from my perspective, with my background and interests. I personally wasn't interested in it.

But I didn't flag it - I am pretty parsimonious with flags, reserving them for what I feel is of serious negative value.

<comment><AUTHOR> > is there anything there of interest to hackers? Really?

codepen.io and card.io (who got acquired by Paypal) may disagree.

Or people using them for "playfully clever" things -- to use a term I've heard Richard Stallman use to define hackers.

<comment><USER2> You're arguing with the wrong person in the wrong place. It got flagged, learn from it. Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it. If you think this is of interest then write a post explaining why, and include the data as part of the post, don't just submit raw data and expect everyone instantly to agree that it's interesting and of value.

I think I've pretty much said everything I have to say on the subject now. If you have a question or comment that isn't already answered in one of my other comments, fine, but otherwise I won't repeat myself further.

To quote Samuel Johnson:

        "Sir, I have found you an argument;
         but I am not obliged to find you an
         understanding."

<comment><AUTHOR> >don't just submit raw data and expect everyone instantly to agree that it's interesting and of value.

It was of value. People were taking action over the data.

You may not be looking to start a business, or do projects:

(To quote you from earlier) "And if I were starting a business again..."

But a lot of people on here are. And the very people who needed the data the most had it taken away from them.

<comment><USER2> <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5685671>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> How many complaints should it take? What number represents a quorum on HN? If a complaint is sufficiently strong, reasoned, and evidenced, then just one _is_ enough. One person with an exceptional reason for a story to be removed should be enough to remove it.

Your point should really that the complaints aren't justified properly rather than there aren't a sufficient number of them.

<comment><AUTHOR> The point is, it seems to only take one person to _vehemently_ object.

> complaints aren't justified properly rather than there aren't a sufficient > number of them

it's not that they aren't "justified properly", it's that they aren't justified at all.

From my submission: "I hate to be that guy who posts this sort of comment. Especially on HN. But still: Someone has to say it.

Pointless hipster-TLD is pointless. Utterly pointless."

Is it pointless?

Tell that to codepen.io, or card.io (who got acquired by Paypal).

"But still: Someone has to say it."

Did someone have to say it?

Saying something is pointless over and over doesn't make it pointless. That seems to be the basis of the argument.

<comment><USER2> If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several flags, and that's what appears to happen.

Largely speaking, and with few exceptions, this is a community moderated forum. Enough of the community decided that the submission wasn't sufficiently on-topic.

If you feel strongly that the data you presented is on topic then perhaps you would fare better not simply to post a bare list, but write a blog post about why short names like this are of value to startups, and how having a short domain name can radically improve your chances, and how you wrote a script to create the list, and now you're sharing it because you believe it to be of value.

You claim the protester gave no reasons for claiming it's pointless, but equally, you gave no reasons for why it is of value.

And just in case I need to say it again, I'm merely providing my analysis of this situation through my model of how the community works. I personally am passing no judgment on how HN works, nor on the community's interests and/or actions.

<comment><USER4> > If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there > would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several > flags, and that's what appears to happen.

It would be good if users were given not only flag, but also unflag possibility. As it is right now, it takes only a few users to flag an article to disappear, although there might be hundreds users that would be opposed to that that can affect the flagging process because there is no unflag option.

<comment><USER2> There is an unflag option, it's voting that can't be undone, and you can't downvote a submission.

<comment><USER4> There is unflag option where you can unflag your own flag, but it doesn't counter other peoples flags, IIRC. I'm not sure about that now, since flag right has been removed from my account some time ago, and I don't see neither flag nor unflag links anymore.

<comment><USER2> Why should you ever be able to undo someone else's flag?

<comment><USER4> Why would someone else's flag affect my front page?

<comment><USER2> I really, really don't understand your question.

Consider your front page. It's the same as everyone else's front page. The ranking of the items is a function of how old each item is, how many points it has, how many flags it's got, whether it's trip a filter, _etc._

Now I flag an item. That penalizes the item and causes its computed value to fall. This in turn may cause its position in the rankings to fall, and thus will affect the front page.

But _the_ front page is _your_ front page, and hence my flagging an item can affect "your" front page.

How can you think it would be otherwise?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The top comment on that story explained why it was a dull, uninteresting story.

Colin has very patiently reasoned with you about what may have happened (for the record, I didn't flag that story, and I would never have visited it at all but for the question I'm seeing in this thread). There is no reason to be argumentative with Colin; he is just trying to help.

I agree that lists of three-letter domains, or four-letter domains, with this or that top-level domain suffix make for dreadfully boring submissions. I think some people massively overestimate the usefulness of a cute domain name. Hacker News gets plenty of interest even with a domain name like

news.ycombinator.com

and other sites too have better eyeball-attraction value than their names might suggest.

<comment><AUTHOR> You edited your reply.

> Colin has very patiently reasoned with you about what may have happened

And I patiently reasoned back. It's a discussion. Yes, he has been somewhat helpful, but it doesn't explain how, a seemly increasing, number of submissions are disappearing from the front page.

> I agree that lists of three-letter domains, or four-letter domains, with > this or that top-level domain suffix make for dreadfully boring submissions

People were voting it, people were using it to buy domains for projects. I don't read 100% of the stories on the front page either, but calling reasonable submissions out seems to be getting somewhat popular.

Are you saying, objectively you can't see how that list is useful to anyone? Or is this about the submissions not being titillating enough?</comment></comment>


Teaching data structures with real-world examples - <AUTHOR> http://blog.vivekhaldar.com/post/27259540482/teaching-data-structures-with-real-world-examples

<comment><USER2> Couldn't disagree more. This is precisely analogous to mathematics - you can focus on "real world examples" in the exercises, but the basic course material needs to deal with the pure underlying principles.</comment>


Mailing Lists vs. GitHub (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://begriffs.com/posts/2018-06-05-mailing-list-vs-github.html <comment><USER2> There's one thing that keeps stopping me from adopting the mailing list approach, in favour of GitHub Pull Requests, and that's this:

If, ten seconds after I've clicked Submit, I discover an embarrassing error in the code, or that I've accidentally committed some personal information, or I've sent the e-mail from the wrong address, or anything else I haven't thought of yet, there's nothing I can do and it's _public forever_.

Some would see this as an anti-feature, but I really do like using GitHub because I have the ability to go back and edit or delete my Pull Request if I spot an embarrassing mistake. I know the solution to this is "be more careful", but I still feel anxious sending e-mails to a mailing list, and calm using GitHub.

Does anyone relate?

<comment><USER3> More careful is actually a stupid advice. People make mistakes, it's unavoidable. GH makes mistakes easy to correct, which is how it should be.

<comment><USER4> There are bots out there that scrape sensitive information from Github repositories. If you inadvertently push up a commit with a secret in it, then consider it compromised. Email is no different in that regard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think most of these advantages are overblown. Glad I read this though because I didn't know about the 'patience' diff algorithm and I've been looking for something like that for years!

> Finally, creating patches by hand with diff can take advantage of other > options, like annotating the hunk headers with which C functions are > affected (using the -p flag), and the choice of various algorithms such as > "patience."

<comment><USER4> > I think most of these advantages are overblown.

One thing that wasn't mentioned as an advantage of a mailing list is the index a mail client provides for discussion. This allows one to easily see which messages have been read, who has responded to whom and the ability to jump to a particular message in the discussion.

Github, on the other hand, mixes the overall diff with comments, so if there are a lot of comments, and the diff is large, then it requires a lot of scrolling to find a given comment. It also takes some time to find a given comment and see if it someone has responded to it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Always wanted to try using email for Git since it is built in and decentralized. A lot of core Linux projects do this, but I wish there was a better guide on getting started.

<comment><USER7> Have Fun:

[https://git-send-email.io/](https://git-send-email.io/)</comment></comment>


PUBG on VirtualXposed - <AUTHOR> https://virtualxposed.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> VirtualXposed doesn't show PUBG app when added to virtual space.. Does anybody know why this happens?I downloaded the APK from a third party source ([https://virtualxposed.org/](https://virtualxposed.org/)) Could this be the reason for this problem?</comment>


An extension that makes it easy to navigate to any url with a simple keyword - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/kritts/redirect/blob/master/README.md <comment><USER2> Excited to give this a try. Thanks.</comment>


iPhone 6 bricked by independent repairs, damage to home button - <AUTHOR> http://blog.icracked.com/blog/2015/11/24/error-53/ <comment><AUTHOR> Account of one case where the phone was bricked without any attempt to repair it:

[http://www.dailydot.com/technology/what-is- error-53-iphone/](http://www.dailydot.com/technology/what-is-error-53-iphone/)

What if you're somewhere where there's no Apple store? Tough:

[http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-...](http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple- iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair)</comment>


Ask HN: How do I know if my Android phone is still getting security updates? - <AUTHOR> I have an Android phone that is 3 years old or so. Running Android 7.<p>How do I know if it still is getting updates or if at some point any website or app can take it over? <comment><USER2> It depends entirely on your phone producer. Check the support status with them.</comment>


#HugOps: A culture of empathy - <AUTHOR> https://www.pagerduty.com/blog/hugops-in-practice/ <comment><AUTHOR> Love those blamestorming sessions....</comment>