Taking the Eco-Dome to Darfur - <AUTHOR> http://www.paulgraham.com/darfur.html <comment><USER2> Reminds me of this shovel designed to fill sandbags:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBpn3OQH7o>

I think the arguments for it were that it protects your lower back, it lets you work alone without needing another person to hold the bag open, and it's much faster, which is important if there is going to be a flood.

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://hexayurt.com> is our approach - open source design too (well, patentless-and-published, rather than "in a patent pool" so technically it's public domain.)

The key is thermal rejection. Sandbags absorb the energy slowly, so it's thermal buffering. Hexayurts have a shiny outside, so they just reflect the heat off into the ground.

Thermal performance is surprisingly good. We're talking to the Netherlands Red Cross about field testing right now (I just came back from a meeting today.)

The other thing we do is infrastructure, and you can read more about that here:

[http://files.howtolivewiki.com/TIDES%20-%20Hexayurt%20Infras...](http://files.howtolivewiki.com/TIDES%20-%20Hexayurt%20Infrastructure.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER4> The general term for the pictured style of building is "earthbag" construction. It's been around for a while now; depending on what you fill the bags with and how you frame the building you can even tailor the properties of the walls to fit your needs.

</comment><comment><USER5> Might be a nice idea, but somehow I am glad that Germany (where I live) wasn't rebuild in that way after WW 2. That also makes me question the project a bit: is the problem really that ordinary houses are too hard to build in the respective regions, or are there other problems that prevent people from getting the act together? I suspect the latter.

<comment><USER6> In the case of Darfur, they have at least one well known problem: the Janjaweed/Sudanese government. Think Arab Nazi's on horseback.

My general feeling is that a "Guns for Darfur" charity would be the most useful.

(Note: Godwin's law only applies when invoking Nazi comparisons in _non- genocidal_ situations.)

<comment><USER7> Has anyone actually set up a charity for arming genocide victims? It could obviously backfire in a really nasty way -- maybe the difference isn't that Tribe A is more evil than Tribe B, but that Tribe A is better-armed.

I haven't seen anyone suggest arming at-risk ethnic groups outside of _Cryptonomicon_ : ([http://www.innternet.de/~peter.patti/stephenson-neal- crypton...](http://www.innternet.de/~peter.patti/stephenson-neal- cryptonomicon.txt) , search for 'HEAP'; there's a description somewhere in there).

<comment><USER6> What's the worst that can happen? Genocide? It sounds worth the risk. Possible genocide is better than certain genocide. Note that neither the RPF (in Rwanda) or the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) did much retaliation after they ended their respective genocides (to take two recent examples).

Plus, there is deterrence when two parties are evenly armed.

"Lets go kill the darkies, loot their village and rape their women."

Sounds awesome. I hate those darkies, and who doesn't like loot and booty?

"Lets get into an evenly matched gunfight with the darkies and, if we survive, loot their village and rape their women."

You know, I agree the darkies are a pox on this world. But I'm not liking the sound of 'if we survive.'</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Sweyla's Color Theme Generator (vim, emacs, textmate, ...) - <AUTHOR> http://themes.sweyla.com/

<comment><USER2> This is done very well. I realized I had spent several minutes clicking "dark" over and over again with my language of choice selected, carefully weighing the pro's and con's of each little theme.

I am one of those guys that thinks that having a universal, easy-to-understand syntax highlighting scheme is very important. I'm a vim guy, and my world was completely changed when I found that the "torte" colorscheme was packaged with vim and available on all of my machines; from my OSX box to my Linux and BSD servers. I think the default syntax highlighting scheme, especially on dark terminals, looks gross.

I move my ~/.vimrc around everywhere -- the relevant lines here are:

      syntax on
      colorscheme torte

I know there have been a _lot_ of posts recently about vim. Just like the "day of a founder" posts, some of us really appreciate the inspiration and cool hacks, while some people think it's getting way too superfluous. Personally, I'm easily inspired :)

Hopefully this tool will help some people out, but I'd also suggest looking at the colorschemes that ship with vim first; it might save the headache of porting a scheme around all over the place if you're like me and edit code and text everywhere!</comment>


Best programming languages for junior high students to learn? - <AUTHOR> Just curious - what language would you recommend to teach younger children first starting out? Do you start with HTML then go on to Python? <comment><USER2> Start with Python for programming languages. Use TKinter for your graphics. Use programming functions on Canvas like create_ellipse and create_rectangle to draw.

Challenge 1: Draw a picture in Python Challenge 2: Move a picture in Python, using the sleep() function in the Time library. Challenge 3: Make your picture change whenever a Button is pressed.

TutorialPoint's tutorials are really wonderful step-by-step guides to doing different things in Python. They're NOT a primer on fundamental computer science--just enough to learn how to do things in Python.</comment>


Predicting suicide attempts in adolescents: machine learning is powerful - <AUTHOR> https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/suicide/predicting-suicide-attempts-in-adolescents-with-machine-learning-powerful-but-dont-forget-bayes-rule/ <comment><USER2> This is potentially valuable but outsourcing decisions about psychiatric liability and confinement to a machine is a Bad Idea that will end poorly. Of course you will hear nostrums about it merely being an aid to busy clinicians but experience suggests that doctors are as prone to over-reliance on technology as anyone else.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Full title is: "Predicting suicide attempts in adolescents: machine learning is powerful, but don't forget Bayes' rule". I didn't edit this, I used the auto-filled title from the HN bookmarklet.</comment>


Pipe: How the System Call That Ties Unix Together Came About - <AUTHOR> https://thenewstack.io/pipe-how-the-system-call-that-ties-unix-together-came-about/ <comment><USER2> The author keeps writing "system call" when he means _shell directive for assigning stdout /stdin_.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is a system call and not a shell directive: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_pipe#Unix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_pipe#Unix)

Also, man pipe.

<comment><USER2> The use case _in the article_ is piping stdout from one program to stdin of another _in the shell_ , not using pipe(2).

To wit: '... the symbol for pipes should instead be "|." '

<comment><AUTHOR> After digging into it I came with this, which seems worth a submission on its own: [https://brandonwamboldt.ca/how-linux-pipes-work-under-the- ho...](https://brandonwamboldt.ca/how-linux-pipes-work-under-the-hood-1518/)

Basically, the shell is using the pipe system call under the hood.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> tl,dr; Ken Thompson invented them overnight in 1973 and everybody was happy afterwards. An original journal article is linked ([http://emulator.pdp-11.org.ru/misc/1978.07_-_Bell_System_Tec...](http://emulator.pdp-11.org.ru/misc/1978.07_-_Bell_System_Technical_Journal.pdf)) which shows an example of pipes at page 25.

<comment><USER4> Funny, I thought McIlroy invented them, in 1964...and the article confirms that.</comment></comment>


Food Truck Economics - <AUTHOR> http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/45352687467/food-truck-economics <comment><USER2> This article looks fairly accurate (for what I understand of the SF market) Things are a fair bit cheaper/easier in Portland. I do actually own a food truck in Portland (as well as a software company).

We made a profit on about three different days last year. The other 300 were not profitable :( It would have helped a lot if we had family members working for chips and hugs; paying staff is a huge cost particularly if you want quality gourmet-style food and hard-working employees (we have mostly 5-star yelp reviews)

Before our pod landlord decided to shut down abruptly, combined with our chef/my girlfriend getting diagnosed with brain tumors, it was costing about $3k/month (net loss) however that's the awful wet northwest winters driving people away from outdoor pods. Once the warmer weather starts back up again and we find a new pod, we should be in the black, but the business model I'm working on involves a lot of carts with a central kitchen, in clusters in a few cities. If anyone wants to chat about investing, let me know :)

We got started for about $20k total including the 'truck' which is actually a trailer that is stationary.

obligatory link, <http://theheartcart.com>

<comment><USER3> The food in the article and your food seem quite involved and niche (Thai, vegan, Nordic). Does a cart like Potato Champion do better because the food is easier to produce and everybody likes French fries?

<comment><USER4> Even Potato Champion serves some niche foods though, with Poutine and their fancy ketchups/aiolis. I think you're probably right, though, in that Potato Champion seems to have hit the sweet spot between niche/broad appeal in their market.

It also probably helps that potatoes are cheap.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very interesting article.

I just bought a food truck (literally 24 hours ago) and while I am as new as it gets in the industry what I have learned so far is in line with this article.

We looked into starting a restaurant or event just a commercial kitchen to do catering out of. After much research and searching for a location we changed direction and went with a food truck.

The food truck has several advantages to us. Overall the cost is much cheaper. Also if we were to buy or rent a building and put money into building a kitchen that would be a sunk cost that we could never get back. If we outgrow the truck or decide this isn't the business for us we can sell the truck and get our money back.

A lot of the work does go into figuring out the health department stuff. Ohio is a lot more friendly than some other states but is still an area we have to dedicate a significant amount of attention to.

<comment><USER6> Where in Ohio are you serving? Edit: probably could have just checked your profile, looks like Lebanon/Cinci area. Cool.

<comment><USER5> Yep, we are in Lebanon. We have full time "real" jobs so this is just a weekend gig. Our primary focus is going to be local events (Blues fest, country feat, etc.) but we will also be selling on non-event weekends too.

We will also be doing BBQ Competitions. The first of the season will be the VOA BBQ Bash in West Chester (<http://www.voabbqbash.org/>). If you like BBQ you should come check it out.

As we get closer to "Going Live" we'll update our website, facebook, and twitter. <http://historicbbq.com> <http://twitter.com/HistoricBBQ>

<comment><USER7> Cool, I live right by VOA in West Chester, I'll keep an eye out for your truck!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I used to run my own foodtruck. I manage one now as well as a restaurant, so I have a bit of perspective from both sides of the aisle. Some of the numbers quoted don't really make sense to me, but maybe it's a location thing (I'm in LA, where the food truck industry is plateauing out). 200 orders for lunch is very, very rare here.

Our local food truck association actively addresses regulations that are unfair to foodtrucks on a city by city basis. Most have to do with the local business community trying to prevent foodtrucks from competing with b&m restaurants, usually by getting law enforcement to harass trucks with citations, tickets, whatever they can throw at you.

Do I see the foodtrucks eventually disrupting b&m's? Not likely, but I do see an impact. B&M's have had to be more nimble and creative to keep up, which ends up being a good thing for customers. I have been presented with business models that involve franchising our truck and concept across the country to different groups (ex-military most recently, from what I hear about the Grilled Cheese Truck) as a way to help develop small businesses. This is where I mostly see the similarity to startups. Foodtrucks are more accessible, financially and creatively. One can literally go from concept to launch in less than a month. Try that with a b&m restaurant. The thing is, I also see a high failure rate. (foodtrucks have been dropping like flies here in L.A., mostly during winter). Other similarities or takeaways, which also apply to most other business:

1\. Know your market well. Cities have different regulations, population densities, competing restaurants, etc. If you don't have a very very very good awareness of where the bulk of your business will come from, you're doomed. I've seen trucks sprout and die within a month, clueless operators and the inability to pivot.

2\. Know your product well and how to sell it. I've seen employees stutter through a dish description, with the potential sale walking away to the truck whose operator can spitfire all the ingredients of each of his dishes without looking up from the slider he's working on.

3\. Streamline your operation to deliver your most important product as fast possible and as perfect as possible. Lunch crowds can be harsh. These are people who have limited time and limited budget and (depending on location) almost unlimited choices. If you're the truck who took 20 minutes to serve a rice bowl, you can trust that person is never going back and would most likely drag all their friends to another truck the next day.

Simple 'rules' but you'd be surprised how many operators can't figure this out.

<comment><USER9> _Simple 'rules' but you'd be surprised how many operators can't figure this out._

Most new food truck operators I meet have just bought their first iPhone and are "still trying to figure out this tweetering thing." A lot of techies grossly overestimate the technical capabilities of food truck operators, not to mention performing the due diligence that you mentioned.

<comment><USER10> It seems like there's an opportunity for someone to package technology for this audience in an easy-to-use way. I forget were, although I saw it somewhere, that someone packaged an ipad, a sqaure, and a receipt printer together as a bundle, I think that may work here as well.

<comment><USER11> "I saw it somewhere, that someone packaged an ipad, a sqaure, and a receipt printer together as a bundle"

That someone was Square.

<comment><USER12> Specifically: <https://squareup.com/register/hardware/shop>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This temptation of government to limit the number of X (be it food trucks or cabs) is one of those things I wish would get addressed. It seems more and more we need a small addition to the US Constitution dealing with economic freedom.

[edit for autocorrect of addition to edition]

<comment><USER14> don't forget hotel rooms ( airbnb ). I think you're point of frustration is not really about economic freedom, but a recognition of the senescence of our society ( in the US ). As societies get older, literally and population wise, they tend to get more conservative. E.g. it's much easier to be a medical device entrepreneur in India than the US.

There are pros and cons to greater regulation. Established cities like SF, DC, and NYC, limit the number of taxis because there are literal hard limits on all the gov't provided functions around taxi's, including regulation of 'expectation of legitimacy,' and managing traffic congestion. In the case of hotels and to a lesser extent restaurants, there are zoning, housing, and infrastructure investments that cities have made from a gov't perspective and a private perspective that, AirBnB and FoodTrucks throw out of whack. Reading this article you see how much regulation FoodTrucks are now starting to come under, to try and bring their 'perceived' quality in line with that of a restaurant. It's hard to find arguments against this, other than, it is now demonstrably harder to be a new business. The same is not yet happening with airbnb style 'hotel' rooms because there is more money and the players are bigger.

I think the real problem is that the gov't is poorly organized to deal with the wisdom of crowds. I don't need a hotel regulation agency as much for an airbnb type rental because the economic interests of the 'landlord' are such that my 'review' really counts. personally, I'd prefer airbnb, food trucks, and uber to their respective old-world counterparts, precisely for the reason that it's much more difficult for regulatory capture given those de- centralized models. But there are legitimate arguments on the other side, around investment, community goals, and 'safety'. Unit economics in each of these cases make it much harder to systematically screw the customer. Now if only we could disrupt telecom this way, so I can stop dealing with Comcast.

<comment><USER15> Taxis are limited at the behest of established taxi companies. Just how zoning laws are used to keep competition down. Food trucks are simply hit by FUD spread by traditional restaurants as well as established food trucks. It is not really different than regulations requiring that interior designers, hair dressers, and the like, having to be licensed and insured and whatever else.

Existing groups use their connections to politicians to get laws favorable to them and not favorable to competition. It has nothing to do with society becoming more conservative as it ages

<comment><USER14> I hear your points and thank you for making them, as my post is totally all over the place. As to your point about societal senescence, I was wondering if you had a ready example of regulatory capture in a non-mature market.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Every time I see a story like this, I'm reminded of that scene in the Fifth Element with the flying car/boat Chinese delivery and (I'm guessing) mobile restaurant.

[http://www.commons- sense.net/blog-04/files/2011/05/Picture-3...](http://www.commons- sense.net/blog-04/files/2011/05/Picture-33.jpg)

Still bitter about not having flying cars yet, but I don't necessarily see the mobile service as anything bad. It's just the natural progression of the food cart, some of which, are exceptionally good. In New York, there's a Halal cart on 53rd and 6th and everyone from construction workers to Wall Street types wait in line... and it's all worth it!

<comment><USER17> That 53rd and 6th cart is a money factory. They charge more than any other halal cart in the city, have 4 employees at all times, and serve you an $8 plate faster than you can order it. It is really good though, although not my favorite halal cart in the city.

Fun fact about that cart is that it's one of the most and best reviewed "restaurants" in all of Manhattan, which is pretty crazy.

<comment><USER16> I don't doubt it. I enjoy it, though it's not my favorite either. The guy collecting money is almost always grumpy.

It's still very good and (even with the line) I save time over going to a restaurant. $8 Is still pretty cheap for a lunch in NY though. Eating at a restaurant all the time would make me broke pretty quick.

Plus I'm a very shy eater and that one plate will last me the whole rest of the day. Only down side is eating outside, since I walk there; I don't have time to get back and finish lunch. That's always interesting with the pigeons around ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Surprising numbers in this write-up. Still does not fully explain why most food trucks are charging restaurant-level prices for their dishes. Yes, the overhead is still expensive but at some point, the consumer has to see the reduced overhead filtered down into their prices.

If it's not faster, cheaper or more convenient than the to-go menu at a traditional restaurant, it sounds like "menu buzz" is the only thing keeping most of these trucks in business. How long can that last?

<comment><USER8> Maybe I can explain.

It's been mentioned already how trucks are most likely more convenient. I mean, you're eating at that truck because it was closer to you or that you saw it and decided to eat there. I believe the reduced overhead thing is a bit misleading. The startup costs may be different, but the overhead is more than likely the same as a b&m. Apples to apples that is.

At most chef driven trucks, you will get food prepared by the chef himself/herself. Some customers perceive a value in this, hence the willingness to pay the higher prices of some trucks.

However, I do agree that the truck and its food will have to eventually provide a value that will keep a customer coming back. $9 sliders are insane. I've seen this play out time and time again at other trucks because the 'fad' and popularity gets to their heads. Some operators of trucks that have become popular really quickly become shortsighted and cater only to the yelpers who are excited about the latest new thing. They fail to realize that their long term viability is dependent on how well they are able to keep a line outside their truck once these early adopters run for another new thing. Good prices, good food, and fast service is key.

<comment><USER19> > _but the overhead is more than likely the same as a b &m_

You can't be serious. A food truck costs as much to operate as a B&M? One of the main points of the article is pointing out that's not the case:

 _As a service that strips all the overhead costs of a restaurant down to the minimum requirements for selling food to customers, food trucks are also an irresistible metaphor for lean startups..._

<comment><USER8> Of course it depends on what b&m you're comparing it to. Some run really lean as well. If you add up the costs (some of which werent covered in that article), it gets pretty close.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Adding things up it does not look like food trucks are really cheaper day to day. "The rent of their restaurant was $4,500 a month."

 _Bobby's family borrows kitchen space in a friend's restaurant, but commissaries complete with a kitchen, waste disposal, and a parking space run up to $1,000 a month._ plus _Another expense, for trucks that sell at places like Off The Grid, is the cut they owe to the organizers. Off The Grid charges 10% - something of an industry standard. They also expect vendors to sell a minimum of $1,000 of product over the course of a lunch or dinner period. So if a truck sells with them for lunch and dinner, 5 days a week, they will pay the organizer a minimum of $1,000 per week._ which could easily be 6+k in a month.

However, I suspect the available locations are far better.

<comment><USER21> Actually I read that differently, I read 10% of their sales, they expect $1000 per day in sales so $100 per day, or $500 for a 5 day week. Not a $1000. Also with the fee as a fraction of sales, if you have a slow week with the truck you're out 10% of your slow revenue. But at a restaurant you have to pay the full rent, even if nobody comes in during the week because the Hockey Players are on strike (for example).

Businesses where costs are a fixed component of revenue can price their margin to always be "profitable" but businesses where costs are fixed have to meet minimum revenue goals to make minimum margin. On the plus side in a restaurant if you do a lot more business you get to keep the extra windfall.

However as the article mentions if you are really successful the landlord can up your rent when you renew your lease.

<comment><USER20> It's 1000$ per meal with 2 per meal per day your back to 1000$ /10 * 2 * 5 = 1000$.

However, I think the real trick is it's far more negotiable as you can park somewhere else a lot easier than you can move a resistant.

<comment><USER22> _However, I think the real trick is it's far more negotiable_

This is what I'd wonder, surely any market manager would give a heavy discount for a decent payment up-front? Not to mention, there'll have to be some room for negotiating better pitches and so on.

I'm basing this on the brief time I spent working on a London market stall - not sure how negotiations on stuff like this might work in different cultures/countries... oh, and places that aren't market stalls.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> A couple years ago I was privy to a conversation Danny Bowien (mission chinese) was having with a journalist at his restaurant. Danny had already had been getting buzz; and Mission Chinese was about to blow up.. The conversation led to food trucks. What Bowien had to say about the economics of them is that.. They really aren't worth it. You have to purchase a vehicle.. out fit it.. and then you still have to rent at a commissary for food prep + clean up. Plus if you really care about food.. You aren't able to make the best product in a van. Paying rent on a space that has already been outfitted as a restaurant will come out cheaper(depending on decore), and allow you to make a better product.

<comment><USER21> Hmm, did you read the article? The priconomics guys went into that where they said:

"The costs of running a food truck are relatively modest compared to a restaurent. Phat Thai is mostly a family affair, with only one employee from outside the family. The main expenses outside of labor are $1,000 a week for food and supplies, $200 of insurance, and $120 to fill up the truck's enormous tank. Its engine is the same one that powered Camaros in the seventies, but even at its terrible gas mileage, a tanks suffices for the week. Bobby's family borrows kitchen space in a friend's restaurant, but commissaries complete with a kitchen, waste disposal, and a parking space run up to $1,000 a month. "

Not only does it cost less to start from 0 to operating food truck than it does a restaurant, there is also the fact that you (probably) own the truck so rent doesn't go up. On a tax basis you can actually depreciate the truck which you can't do for the restaurant.

The food isn't prepared "in the truck" it is actually prepared in a certified kitchen. And then moved to the truck. Granted not all meals work well like this, but a number of them do.

So I suspect Danny wasn't thinking things through.

Given the surge perhaps a good investment would be a commercial kitchen tailored to support food trucks more efficiently. Sort of a food warehouse kind of deal.

<comment><USER24> The fact that employees are family is completely irrelevant and ignoring it as a cost is pure fallacy. You still have to count their labor at the prevailing wage when evaluating the economics.

<comment><USER8> Exactly. Running the truck yourself without pay and celebrating a $5k profit at month end is ridiculous.

Then again, any truck that is doing 200 tix for lunch and 100 for dinner is doing just fine, even paying 3 employees a decent wage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25>
      The cost of starting a high quality food truck ranges from
      approximately $50,000 to $150,000 or more, and the process
      takes several months.

      The biggest cost is the truck itself. Bobby's family bought
      their truck used for $37,000.

As the first wave is joined by a second, and now third wave of food trucks in my area- a fast two year growth- I am now _super_ excited to see many of these businesses go under- with hopes that those trucks can then be picked up by the next crew who think they have a good idea. There's a lot of +100k$ trucks around, I'm looking to see a lot of them again- just, reincarnated as new businesses.

</comment><comment><USER26> One of the best articles on the topic I've read. I really love all the numbers included. I feel like I actually learned something by reading this, vs having some emotion evoked.

</comment><comment><USER27> This still seems insanely high priced for a suck it and see means to find if there is demand for a food and brand in your area.

I would like to ask if one of the (surprisingly many - gotta love HN) food truck experts could comment on

1\. Stick to simple one dish in a huge wok approach as I have seen at many festivals - warm, usually tasty and easy to dole out fast.

2\. Start on private Market / land with a marquee or painted shed that came in transit van.

It just seems an enormous start up cost for cooking rice and peas.

</comment><comment><USER28> I wish we had better food trucks up here in Seattle. Mostly greasy Mexican food and hotdogs. Portland is the King of food trucks in the NW and I wish they would come up here more often. Fresh oysters, mean pork sandwiches, etc.

</comment><comment><USER19> > _$120 to fill up the truck's enormous tank_

That's like, 30 gallons. Not that big.

</comment><comment><USER29> The landlords sound like the social and app platform owners and the restaurants like app makers.</comment>


The IRS Tried to Hide Emails That Show Tax Industry Influence - <AUTHOR> https://www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-tried-to-hide-emails-that-show-tax-industry-influence-over-free-file-program <comment><USER2> Here is a pre CV io oust discussion from 5 days ago [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21393758](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21393758)

<comment><USER3> > _Here is a pre CV io oust discussion..._

I wonder if you could clarify what you meant, or perhaps correct it if the two-hour edit window is still open?

<comment><USER4> Link to "previous discussion", it seems. Dictation software and/or autocorrect mangle text in odd ways.

<comment><USER3> That must be it, thanks!

I really didn't mean to be obtuse, was just genuinely confused. I must learn the ways of autocorrect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The US really, really, really needs tax simplification.

The number of rules and their complexity are simply stupifying. It's horrible.

<comment><USER6> That is highly unlikely to happen. The complexity of the tax code is what supports the lawyers in the accountants who make a lot of money to find those loopholes. It also makes it easier to levy taxes, raise taxes, and confuse the public. A simplified tax code means it's easier to find where the money goes, and that is something the government cannot afford to let happen</comment></comment>


Website Security for Webmasters - <AUTHOR> http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/website-security-for-webmasters.html

<comment><USER2> Thanks for posting this, never knew about 'Gruyere'. Will definitely look through this and other Google Code University pages. Anyone know of some similar sites that have a hands on view of web app/page security?</comment>


Problems versus Exercises - <AUTHOR> http://www.epsiloncamp.org/ProblemsversusExercises.php <comment><USER2> I'm writing a book currently - I've got another view on problem versus exercise.

A problem - a real problem - is something that doesn't yet have a solution. An exercise already has a solution.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is why I hated math until Calculus. I enjoyed my calculus class and Loved Linear algebra. The course work started to consist or more problems and less exercises.

</comment><comment><USER4> The other articles on this site are pretty interesting, too. Especially the one about "Courage and Stupidity."

</comment><comment><USER5> I imagine a lot of people will take away from this article the idea that problems are important, and that exercises are not, that exercises can be discarded. That's an easy lesson to take away because, if you're like me, you like problems and hate exercises.

Unfortunately it's not true, though. Without exercises, most of us would not know as much vocabulary as we do. We would probably not know how to add, subtract, or multiply efficiently. We would not know how to write.

Exercise work isn't fun, but it serves a real purpose - it makes knowledge readily accessible. By rehearsing the act of recalling the technique, it makes that technique ready to use. It might be an interesting problem figuring out how to field strip a weapon, but a competent soldier needs to exercise that capability until it's second nature.

<comment><USER6> > We would probably not know how to add, subtract, or multiply efficiently.

Why do we need to do simple arithmetic efficiently in our minds? We already have readily accessible computers for this, let's focus on something computers can't do for us yet.

> but a competent soldier needs to exercise that capability until it's second > nature

I'd prefer a robot to fight in a war(instead of me).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I guess these correspond to what mathematicians and the like call "trivial" and "non-trivial".

<comment><USER8> Not exactly.

Trivial usually denotes solutions that are obvious and not very interesting such as 0, 1 or the empty set. It's more of a property of the solution than the difficulty of the problem.

By extension sometimes you can say a proof is trivial, when it's very easy, but I think the primary use is the one I mentioned above.

<comment><USER9> Feynman on "trivial":

[http://books.google.com/books?id=7papZR4oVssC&lpg=PA84&ots=e...](http://books.google.com/books?id=7papZR4oVssC&lpg=PA84&ots=esWVgdoKZZ&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q&f=false)</comment></comment></comment>


I wrote a hacker koan - <AUTHOR>

(for those who don't know what hacker koans are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_koan )
A hacker was working at a large company where he had just been hired. One morning, the project manager asked him:
"I want to see what you're doing. Send me email reports of everything you do."
Eager to please, the apprentice set up a script to email his boss on every git commit he would do.
This worked fantastically the first week, and the apprentice was delighted to have pleased his boss. On the first day of the second week, the apprentice was figuring out a nasty bug, when the manager erupted in his office:
"I haven't seen  a single commit from you this morning, what are you doing?!".
Embarrassed, the apprentice didn't know what to say. He turned to his left, where sat a greybeard hacker who had been at the company for decades. Slowly, looking at the angry manager, the wise hacker said:
"I've changed a setting on the email server; you'll now get daily digests."
At that moment, the apprentice was enlightened. <comment><USER2> I thought you were giving out LOANS</comment>


$$ Apple / HP laptop price comparison - <AUTHOR>

I love my macs (MBP13, Pro tower) and my HP Envy 17, but $1,255 more for a MBP is insane.<p>http://bit.ly/ffnFJ7 <comment><USER2> There are two features of Apple laptops that, for me, close any price gap. Both features are aimed at improving usability: the large, flush, glass trackpad and the command key.

The command key is so wonderfully consistent and logical across the vast majority of apps that I can't believe Google didn't clone it in ChromeOS - it's a design decision that'll haunt them for years.

Long term macbook users trying to use a PC laptop is like trying to sleep in a crib after years of sleeping on a king size bed.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think there's a lot of value in comparing spec to spec heads up and I $1,255 price difference is a lot so kudos to HP for creating a similar laptop at a much lower price. Here's the intangibles that are hard to quantify and differ based on personal preference:

1) Status symbol - Let's be honest, probably doesn't factor in for HN audience but to the larger general public, status symbols are part of their lives and identities. Using an Apple product conveys outward that this is a person who can afford an Apple product, is perhaps appreciative of design, and is part of a more "elite/creative" crowd. Not my personal opinion fully but I don't think I'm wrong with this generalization.

2) Operating system - OS X vs Win 7. I'm not even going to start this discussion but it's a preference thing and to many, using the Mac OS is worth $x more.

3) Design - The HP Envy looks nice but it's missing the roundness and sleekness of the unibody MBP. What is .21" of extra thinness worth to a user?

4) Battery life - Can you add this since it's a big deal to a lot of users, especially when traveling.

I might have glossed over this, but how about the value of Thunderbolt?

<comment><USER4> What's even more amazing is that HP can produce a machine like that while paying a very heavy Microsoft tax to include Windows. Apple can bundle it in pretty much at no cost to themselves.

<comment><USER2> Wouldn't that only be true if the cost of developing osx was 0? Isn't it possible that HP pays less per license than what it costs Apple to developer, support, ... osx? Isn't that one of the points of outsourcing?

<comment><USER4> Apple can allocate money to OS X development independently of hardware sales, but HP is committed to paying Microsoft a fixed fee per unit sold. That's the difference. It's possible that HP is actually paying Microsoft more money than Apple spends on pure OS X development.

I've heard that companies like HP spend more than $600M a year on Windows licenses, and that's at OEM wholesale prices, simply because of volume. From every bargain-bin netbook to high-end server, they get taxed.

Although Apple doesn't disclose their budget for developing OS X, the core development team is surprisingly small in relative terms. Apple doesn't have to cover as many bases as Microsoft does.

Every so often you can read of grumblings about how much some OEMs pay to Microsoft and how they could be better off keeping the money and doing it themselves: [http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/12/hp.developing....](http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/09/12/hp.developing.own.os/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I had a HP tablet with a wacom-integrated screen. It cost me around $1000 USD several years ago and suffered various problems: graphics crashes, overheating, and worst of all, a malfunctioning tablet. The vent fans were placed and designed such that if I didn't disable the tablet, my cursor would jump down to the lower-right corner where the vent was and constantly wiggle/click.

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed.

My second HP I bought about a year ago; I was the proud owner of a DV8t, one of the first i7 laptops. Not only did customer support lie to me (infinite glass screen, what?), but this laptop is badly-designed, too. The battery has been completely dead for several months now and I hadn't even owned the laptop for a year at that point.

The volume, wireless, and CD tray are all controlled from a touch-sensitive panel. The kicker? The panel often malfunctions, resulting in my sound going haywire, my CD tray popping out randomly, and worst of all, my wireless flipping on and off constantly.

To add insult to injury, I can't disable it from the device manager like I could the crappy wacom layer in my previous laptop.

So whatever the price difference between Apples and HPs, I'm sure they cover something other than just the numbers associated with the hardware. I'm certainly never buying another HP and I'll tell everyone I know about how terrible HP's machines have been to me whenever I have the chance.

</comment><comment><USER6> What is it going to take for LCD manufacturers to provide high resolutions for 15" laptops. 1366x768 is low on a 15 inch laptop imo. Not blaming HP here, it seems to be an industry wide trend. Used to be the case that you could buy 1920x1200 in a 15 inch form factor. Then it came down to 1920x1080, now even thats gone.

<comment><USER7> Last I looked some of the thinkpads (15") on lenovo's website had an option for 1920 by something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not sure if your links are out of date or what, but the MacBook Pro you linked to is $2,548 with AppleCare, not $2,768. It also has a 750GB drive, not a 500GB drive.

The listed HP with 4GB of memory (down from the standard 6), a 750GB drive upgrade, Windows 7 Pro and a $199 warranty costs $1702 according to the supplied link.

That means a difference of $846 at the end of the day. $150 of that difference is simply the higher cost of AppleCare vs. HP extended warranty.

Even then, if you consider the life-span of this machine to be on the order of three to four years, which is not unreasonable, then that's a premium of about $16 to $22 a month amortized over that time-frame.

<comment><AUTHOR> The links and prices are correct. You'll have to match the specs on the sheet when configuring at Apple's store.

Note that the drive option (500GB vs 750GB) does not change the price -- you can have either for the same price. I chose the faster drive (7200 rpm) over the slower (5400 rpm) -- a 25% increase in drive speed makes a world of difference in performance.

I'm not sure what you did with the HP configuration -- starting with the base config ($999), adding the specs listed on the sheet (note: there is no base 6GB to downgrade to 4GB -- and Apple memory options are never* competitive compared to other options), the price remains as noted on the sheet. Perhaps try it again from the base config. So, the rest of the analysis is unfounded.

<comment><AUTHOR> I should add that given the mention of 3-4 years amortization (which doesn't net out, given the correct pricing on the sheet), Apple limits your coverage to 3-years. There is no option under any circumstance to acquire a 4th (or further) year of coverage (Apple FAIL). HP, on the other hand, will cover your machine for at least 4 years -- and I believe you can purchase coverage indefinitely (requires further investigation). Killing support on a machine that should last 4-6 years demonstrates a complete disregard for environmental conservation, given the enormous* (frankly staggering) energy required to manufacture it in the first place. Shame on Apple.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Sigh. IMO one really really has to give up the thought that you are paying for the hardware when buying Apple products.

</comment><comment><USER9> The HP link doesn't seem to work for me -- it points to their old HP envy 14 line.

As for 16x9, blame HDTV.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry ebiester -- I had the heading incorrect (Envy 15 rather than Envy 14) -- they discontinued the 15 and 13 in favor of the new 14. The link should point to the new machine and the heading is updated. +1 on HDTV bastards!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Without size and weight included, which are to me the primary attributes of a laptop, the comparison is moot.

<comment><AUTHOR> Heh... fair enough, updated the doc -- the numbers show HP is getting better at cloning by the year:

Dimensions \--- MBP: 14.35 x 9.82 x 0.95 HPE: 14.01 x 9.33 x 1.17

Weight: \--- MBP: 5.6 lbs HPE: 5.5 lbs

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> HP Envy 17 is clearly a rip off.</comment>


Living Near Trees, Not Just Green Space, Improves Wellbeing - <AUTHOR> https://www.citylab.com/environment/2019/07/urban-tree-canopy-green-space-wellbeing-research/595060/ <comment><USER3> Unsurprising result.

I was so sad (figuratively speaking) when we moved from an older office - <USER2> one which had trees all around and even running water - to a very modern, but boring open floor glass paned antfarm-like building.

After some time I got literally depressed. Walking around the concreted block did nothing for me anymore. No trees, no water, no birds, no squirrels. Just cars and a lot of heat in the summer - and a lot of wind during the winter.

<comment><USER4> I work in central London and feel the same way. Coworkers are often surprised that when I moved to London, I chose to go quite a bit north and have to take the tube for 45 minutes to get to work.

But I live on a one way street with no traffic, and when I look outside my window, there is a giant field of grass with lots of huge trees.

I can go outside, lie down in the grass, enjoy the peace and quiet. I will watch the squirrels outside on my days working from home, trying to fight the crows for food. The crows outsmart them every time, without hesitation. It's part of what keeps me sane in this big city.

<comment><USER5> Why do people say London density is so bad when there are homes with trees only 45min away?

<comment><USER6> Because 1.5 hours is a lot of time out if only 24? Unless you live to work.

<comment><USER7> Hahahahahahaha.

(Hello from the Bay Area)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Living near trees implies living in an area where space usage is prioritized for nature instead of the stacked concrete boxes most people (have to?) live in. It is likely a less stressful environment overall than places filled with just concrete walls, asphalt and, at best, some grass.

Personally I find tree tops swaying in the wind oddly hypnotic and relaxing. I've thought of why... One reason could be that babies around here are (like I was) put into baby trolleys to sleep outside, summer and winter. If living near trees, chances are that tree tops are the last thing one sees before sleep and the first thing when one wakes up.

<comment><USER9> It's evolution. The windows XP homescreen w/ the rolling green hills was chosen b/c it puts us humans at ease. Our monkey brains like wide open pastures b/c we can easily see any incoming predators making us feel safe.

<comment><USER10> In the article, wide open pastures with no trees were "associated with higher odds of psychological distress." Don't our distant (monkey) cousins live in and amongst trees, usually?

Open pastures with no tree cover just mean easy pickings for an incoming predator, so maybe that hints at why it causes us "distress."

<comment><USER11> The protection-from-predators theory is interesting, and sounds plausible. I've always disliked nature that was too much groomed also, like perfect lawns, shaped bushes, parks with only two types of trees in them, or whatnot. Sterile, human-made nature. It always lacks diversity - there are few insects, fewer birds, and no larger animals in such environments. I always thought I disliked it because I love nature and wasn't stimulated enough by such barren wastelands, but I guess ut could actually be my monkey brain complaining about a lack of food/foraging opportunities there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Can we get a title change from "Improves" to "Associated With?" The causal affect is mentioned nowhere but the (incorrect) title. All of the content and quotes from the authors use "associated with."

<comment><USER13> Interesting.. it doesn't seem likely that wellbeing causes trees. So what are the other possible arrows of causation? Maybe healthy people choose to live near trees?

<comment><USER14> Or something else causes both healthy people and living near trees.

<comment><USER15> The obvious one being

      wealthy people   ->   wealthy community
           |                      |
           v                      v
      good health               trees

<comment><USER16> The article says they controlled for income.

<comment><USER17> That's not the same as controlling for socio-economic status. A millennial living in a city-center apartment and a boomer living in a paid-up house in the suburbs might have the same income, but they have very different life circumstances and experience very different levels of stress.

<comment><USER16> They also controlled for "age, sex, annual household income, economic status (eg, employed, retired, or unemployed), highest educational qualification, and couple status".

Taken together those are likely to capture socio-economic status in all but a few edge cases. With a very large study size, and a huge result (30% difference) it's unlikely that it can be explained by socioeconomic status.

The study discusses this by the way.

<comment><USER17> _> Taken together those are likely to capture socio-economic status in all but a few edge cases._

Socio-economic status is notoriously difficult to control for.

[https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/81-82/1/21/282643](https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/81-82/1/21/282643)

<comment><USER16> If this were a small study or found a small result, then edge cases like lower income millennials with no degree who live in inherited houses in wealthy areas with trees might skew the results.

If you disagree with the studies methodology fine, but I'm satisfied that authors have done their due diligence with respect to socio-economic status.

<comment><USER12> The authors, at least in OP, use "associated with" language.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Not surprising. As someone who grew up in rural and suburban environments, big cities feel intensely depressing. I go there and nothing I look at makes me feel happy. I'm sure people who grew up there feel differently and see things I don't see, but for me Manhattan feels as dead as the surface of Mars.

<comment><USER19> Manhattan has Central Park, which is a forest. Compare vs the suburban sprawl of modern design where it's an ocean of tract housing with stunted little fresh-planted trees and I'd say the reverse is generally true. I can see the argument for rural living, but not for modern suburbia.

<comment><USER20> Manhattan feels like really one of the best cases for trees outside of rural areas. A large percentage of the residential neighborhoods are in walking distance of a big forest... even other boroughs of NYC are mostly worse for that. Some other cities have better weekend access to forests, e.g. in L.A. you can drive to the mountains, but there aren't many with better large forests actually in the city. Maybe DC with Rock Creek Park.

<comment><USER21> Griffith Park (4,217 acres) isn't a forest exactly, but pretty close to it, and right in the heart of Los Angeles city.

<comment><USER20> Ah that's a good point! I even used to live in the LA area years ago, but I lived far enough east of there that the Angeles National Forest was much closer, so I forgot that Griffith Park exists.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is another study that makes me wonder what the real cause may be. Areas with trees, in an urban setting, tend to be more expensive locations. So, is it the the trees, or the higher socio-economic status?

In suburban and rural areas where trees are more common, even if the cost of living is low, everything is less dense, people tend to have larger dwellings at lower prices, etc. So, again, is it the trees or the other covarying factors?

Are there any studies like this that transform an area into a green space (with trees, I suppose) and show pre/post outcomes? Ones that weren't driven by the community? (Where that could indicate it was simply a nicer more cohesive community, with that as the cause instead of the green stuff)

That said, this is the sort of result that _feels_ like it should be true, but then those are the results we should most be thorough about our methods to avoid confirmation bias. Research is hard!

<comment><USER5> It certainly would be strange if wealth-independent happiness caused people to live near trees but trees didn't make them happy.

<comment><USER22> Except whether or not happiness is independent of wealth is an open question that, it seems, may lean more heavily towards "no, not completely independent". Here's one example [0] where they concluded non wealth factors were dominant, but wealth still ayed a part.

[0][https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5535462/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5535462/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> "Exposure to grass was, surprisingly, associated with higher odds of psychological distress."

I'm guessing it's the constant maintenance of a lawn that stresses people, and in this case, other people's lawns. That or you're a youtuber or streamer, and the constant sound of lawn equipment is driving you nuts.

<comment> core-questions Surprisingly, I find my lawn maintenance to be supremely de-stressing. I get to slap on headphones and listen to podcasts or music while doing mild physical labour that results in something becoming more aesthetically pleasing than it had been previously.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> There is a tree directly outside of the window right next to my bed. In the morning, I watch the variety of birds (changing with the seasons) flit around the branches, socializing with each other. It's simple, but a highlight of my day. I'm moving in a few weeks and this tree will be one of the things I miss most about my apartment.

</comment><comment><USER25> I live in Sheffield, which is about as green as cities get in the UK. I try and walk every day - you can walk from my front door through woods all the way into the Peak District and stand a good chance of not seeing more than a couple of souls. Lately my son has started joining me and honestly, it's just the most nourishing part of my life at the moment. I am not sure I could survive on the huddled trees and pruned green rectangles disbursed throughout somewhere like London, and even the more extensive parks just don't feel real to me.

<comment><USER26> Try somewhere like Hampstead Heath in London. It's basically a large (Google maps reckons 50 mins to walk from one end to the other) wild heathland with woods and lakes but with very little 'manicuring' but only 10 mins from the centre by tube.

Pics: [https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=Hampstead%20heath&t...](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=Hampstead%20heath&tbs=imgo:1)

<comment><USER25> Yeah I have been there. First, kudos if you live within walking distance. Second, it's busy and still doesn't feel very wild to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The article is: [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2739050)

As a correlational study, and as with any study like this I'm worried that something they're not controlling for, or not sufficiently controlling for, is the actual cause. They say:

 _> Self-rated health, depression, anxiety, and risk of psychological distress have been previously shown to be associated with green space in some cross- sectional and longitudinal studies. A range of socioeconomic and demographic factors are likely to confound these associations by contributing to mental health outcomes and to neighborhood selection. Previous research suggests that these factors are likely to include personal socioeconomic circumstances, such as how much money people have, whether they are employed, and their level of education, and other factors, such as age, sex, and relationship status. Accordingly, in this study, we adjusted for baseline measures of age, sex, annual household income, economic status (eg, employed, retired, or unemployed), highest educational qualification, and couple status._

There are a lot of measures that affect human wellbeing that this doesn't take into account, however. For example, wealth and class aren't present. I understand why it would be hard for them to adjust for everything, but that also makes the study much less predictive.

I wonder if there are any natural experiments we could look at where blights or storms that caused sudden reductions in tree cover in a mostly independent fashion?

</comment><comment><USER28> A well-known refrain, I know, but correlation does not imply causation[0].

Spurious Correlations[1] has been posted here many times[2], but a few representative examples may be worth sharing just the same:

 _Per capita cheese consumption_ correlates with _Number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets_

 _Total revenue generated by arcades_ correlates with _Computer science doctorates awarded in the US_

 _Japanese passenger cars sold in the US_ correlates with _Suicides by crashing of motor vehicle_

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_cau...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation)

[1] [https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious- correlations](https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations)

[2] [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=spurious%20correlations&sort=b...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=spurious%20correlations&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

<comment><USER29> Sure, but this article cites a large study that seems to correct for a lot of variables. Might be more productive to discuss specific aspects of the study you think are flawed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> One of the reasons I love Berlin. City. With LOTS and LOTS of trees.

<comment><USER31> Same with the area around Golden Gate Park in SF, being close to so much well- maintained and curated nature is delightful. The place is a real treasure.

<comment><USER11> The words "well-maintained" and "curated" don't usually rhyme very well with "nature", IMO. Real nature is by definition unmaintained. When it's maintained it becomes a park/garden, and loses more or less all its diversity. Fine, if you just want to look at some green leaves (which is great in a city) but we shouldn't call it nature just because something is alive there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Actual study: [https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2739050?resultClick=3)

</comment><comment><USER33> We specifically moved to a part of Boston with lots of trees. All the benefits of public transit, nightlife, and resources, but as I look out my home-office window right now, I see a big tree, a dog park, and very small forest of trees right behind that. I can't see another building, and its wonderful.

</comment><comment><USER34> I moved to place with trees. Paid extra for that. After a year in, the forest died due to drought (and bugs). Now I'm looking at forest being cut down and removed. It's quite miserable feeling.

<comment><USER35> Make sure you look for native trees. They are much more likely to survive drought. Hard to say what to do about bugs which are likely non-native invasive species though. Other than plant a variety of different trees so bugs don't get them all at once.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> I think its something to do with the complex, fractal imagery provided by trees etc. The simple planar surfaces of built spaces are profoundly unstimulating.

<comment><USER37> I feel the opposite. I'm way more prone to feeling overstimulated in urban environments. Though it's nearly impossible to say if that's from the environment, the people, or both.

Forests and beaches are both very calming to me though. I think it's the consistent, but non-threatening landscape and background noises and smells. I'm not over-stimulated by those natural environments, so I have peace to introspect. In cities I'm always watching my surroundings and trying to figure out where I am based on the buildings and roads around me, so I definitely feel like I notice and am stimulated by the city. I'm just kind of exhausted afterward and not able to relax because it demands so much attention.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> "Exposure to grass was, surprisingly, associated with higher odds of psychological distress."

Anyone who has had to maintain a lawn will likely find this unsurprising.

<comment><USER39> I wonder how much of that association is precisely because of this pressure/requirement in a lot of communities to maintain grassy lawns, rather than anything innate about grassy landscapes themselves.

<comment><USER40> I think you are on to something. I grew up in west Texas and while there was no canopy there were/are vast untouched lands of native grasses. I still get the benefits described when I go out there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> In 2008, I was living in Central Pennsylvania, taking many a weekend hike along a short section of the Appalachian trail that ran within a short drive from my home. Then I got assigned to a project in Bloomington, Illinois. I spent a month out there, this strange land completely devoid of trees. I never thought of myself as an "outdoors" person before that, I just liked hanging out with some friends and getting a little exercise. After Bloomington, I realized just how important trees were to my mental health.

<comment><USER37> I feel you. I've done road trips accross the country, and every time I go through those midwest states I get this low-key dread that I barely notice at first. But then, once I get to a place with rolling hills and trees on the horizon, I immediately notice how relieved I feel. I always attributed it to just wanting familiarity in the landscape, but maybe trees are a bigger part of that than I realized. The smell of forests is also much more pleasant than fields, so perhaps it's a combination of visuals and odors being "off" that makes me feel uncomfortable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> What are some great cities with surrounding nature for software engineers?

I was looking at Atlanta, GA which I heard has the most trees for a city.

According to Wikipedia, it has 47.9% tree coverage

<comment><USER37> Raleigh NC is called "City of Oaks" for a reason. I feel like it probably has more tree coverage than Atlanta, but it's much smaller too. Still, great place to live and a pretty solid tech scene between downtown offices (RedHat, Salesforce, Citrix) and RTP + Durham jobs a short drive away (SAS, NetApp, Cisco, Epic Games).

We also are working on a new 300 acre park project that's only about a mile from downtown, so I'm really excited to spend time there when Fall comes around.

<comment><USER42> Thanks, Raleigh is definitely in my top 10. I'm currently living in Texas so my nature options are pretty limited. I do appreciate not having an income tax though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I think of high contrast areas as having the strongest mood boosting. By that I mean river fronts, visible mountain ranges, the beach, the edges of forests. No doubt trees in cities are visually pleasing, living in the middle of dark dense forest not so much.

'round these parts, trees seem to perform two useful functions. They fall on houses during storms (quite common) or they burn down whole towns. Be careful what you wish for.

<comment><USER44> Right, Paradise CA is a great example of how dangerous that can be. Sure was a beautiful place though!

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> It's a bizarre, comical state when obvious things such as this (and similar posts like "Climate change will cause a financial crisis!") have to be explicitly spelled out and backed with "data."

That said, modern civilization, technology and "nature" don't have to be mutually exclusive.

See Japan, Switzerland, Singapore and similar places where there is plenty of unspoiled/augmented nature right next to some of the most modern/luxurious human habitats in the world.

The ideal balance would be something like the sci-fi'ish concept of arcologies [0]; monolithic, self-sufficient, clean megastructures surrounded by natural wildernesses for people to escape to at their leisure.

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

<comment><USER46> >It's a bizarre, comical state when obvious things [...] have to be explicitly spelled out and backed with "data."

Throughout history there have been many "obvious" things that were widely believed and wildly inaccurate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> I wonder if green space and trees still improve well being if someone is allergic to them (not deathly so, just enough to be a nuisance). I myself am especially allergic to the flora around me, and I always dream of moving somewhere cold where everything is nice and dead and can't hurt me.

<comment><USER48> there are lots of species and often you are not allergic to all of them + there are some antihistamine pills ;)

<comment><USER47> The way that it seems to work judging by blood tests I've gotten over my life is that the more I'm around something, the more allergic I become, all of the things around me, the trees, the animals, the food I eat, etc. I've become extremely allergic to. If I go somewhere with completely new plant life I should be ok in theory, I have done this once and my allergens were pretty much gone, but I dont have reason to assume that they wouldn't come back. I've got some fucky gene stuff going on in general, and there are other reasons why the cold would be nice in general.. and i can guarantee that i have an extensive morning/night drug regimen, and have tried about every allergy med i could get my hands on, they can take the edge off, but it will never go away.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> ga-vu I moved to another city because the mayor of the previous city I lived in had some crusade against trees in that town.

Living near trees is the best. I have a cherry tree growing outside my window right now. Still miss the three poplars I used to have at my old apartment.

</comment><comment><USER49> We recently moved to an apartment that is front facing the street with trees that you can see through the windows, and might be obvious but we're usually in much better mood than before, I think it's important to consider these things. The vibe of having a bit of nature and natural light changes things completely, might even inspire you to create more things. We used to live in apartments that were mostly surrounded by concrete and it was honestly a bit depressing. I suggest that if you have the opportunity, even if you have to pay a bit more, try to go for it, the quality of life improves tremendously.

</comment><comment><USER50> Could this be caused by a deeply ingrained instinct from our hominid ancestors that associates trees with safety? Like Miles stated, correlation doesn't imply causation. It makes you think though!

</comment><comment><USER51> It's not necessarily related to why living near trees improves well being, but I like the idea of Shinrin Yoku, or "forest bathing": [https://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20190611/forest- bathing-n...](https://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20190611/forest-bathing- nature-time-hot-health-advice)

Nice youtube mini-documentary:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPNll1Ccn0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jPNll1Ccn0)

</comment><comment><USER52> I've noticed that there is always a lack of trees in impoverished areas. It almost seems like the trees are deliberately cut down in favor of concrete in areas designated.

<comment><USER53> I've always assumed thats because trees can be time consuming, take a lot of space and can be expensive to maintain. Essentially, in a city, they are a luxury.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Years ago, I went to a photography exhibition. Theme was the city. The artist's motivation was the idea that we - humans - live in a mineral world (cement, concrete, glass and bricks) now. But we evolved to live and prosper in high grass and trees, in an organic world.

Also, long ago I read that humans liked to sit on benches in park because it feels like we are hiding in the edge of the forests, looking for things from a safe distant place.

</comment><comment><USER55> Reminds me of a public library in Hillsboro. Surrounded by trees, the place was a heaven of peace to work. It also had a coffee shop.

[https://www.hillsboro-oregon.gov/departments/library](https://www.hillsboro- oregon.gov/departments/library)

</comment><comment><USER56> Interested if places with evergreen trees (e.g. PNW) fair better than areas with mostly deciduous trees?

</comment><comment><USER57> Do Bonsai trees count?

<comment><USER58> No, at least not for the purposes of this particular study.

> The researchers report that living in areas where 30 percent or more of the > outdoor space is dominated by tree canopy was associated with 31 percent > lower odds of psychological distress, compared to people living in areas > with 0 to 9 percent tree canopy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> My favorite part is the anti-NIMBY culture that usually dominates here is experiencing cognitive dissonance right now and they don't even know it.

Bring up housing in SF and the people complaining about no trees right now are suddenly shuffling everyone into tiny uniform boxes.

<comment><USER60> Could you expand on this? I'm anti-NIMBY but I don't understand your comment.

I don't think anti-NIMBY's are necessarily anti-trees or anti-parks?

</comment></comment><comment><USER61> The article mentions Overstory by Richard Powers

It's an amazing book.

[https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-Novel-Richard- Powers/dp/039...](https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-Novel-Richard- Powers/dp/039363552X#customerReviews)

</comment><comment><USER62> I moved earlier this summer. My home office is situated in front of huge bay windows looking out into the canopy of a forest of 120 foot maple trees that my house is in. It has made a huge difference, especially when I'm doing tedious programming work.

</comment><comment><USER63> Possibly related to the Biophilia Hypothesis [0].

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

</comment><comment><USER64> This finding fits in with other research that trees absorb fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). PM 2.5 is a hazardous air pollution from burning coal and many other sources.

</comment><comment><USER65> So living in a desert should be correlated with psychological distress, right? Is that the case?

</comment><comment><USER66> I bet living outside the city would improve wellbeing even more. At least it did for me.

</comment><comment><USER67> > _New research finds that, when a neighborhood's green space leads to better > health outcomes, tree canopy provides most of the benefits._

Is it the trees? Or is it the higher income status of the people who can afford to live in the nicer neighborhood?

Complete lack of control for irrelevant variables here.

</comment><comment><USER68> "Tolkien was an unabashed partisan of trees". Hear hear

</comment><comment><USER69> I wish I could go live in Bhutan.

</comment><comment><USER70> yeah, no shit... who would'e thought. like homo sapiens ain't an animal.

</comment><comment><USER71> Until a massive ice storm causes one of those trees to fall on your house.

</comment><comment><USER72> yeah, it feels good

</comment><comment><USER73> I hate when journalists confuse correlation with causation. It's one of the most basic things you have to know to be be capable of writing about science and the fact that they failed the first step tells me they shouldn't be journalists.</comment>


Smart graves: Can modern technology replace traditional headstones? [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-24664289 <comment><USER2> I've never really got why people want gravestones. They're obviously very important to some, to have place to go where people can contemplate that sort of thing, but to be remembered in the long-term as nothing more than a name taking up space seems very sad.

There's a place where my family scatter our ashes, I don't know when it started but both the grandparents I knew are there. We go there after the funeral and plant a tree or a shrub or some flowers, whatever the person liked in life, and scatter the ashes. Some of them get carried off, others fall into the earth. For all I know there's probably nothing beyond this life, it feels right, like they're being freed to be part of the wind and the trees; the song of some greater existence. I've always found it more emotional than the actual funerals.

The last time we went there was for my grandfather, we planted a small tree alongside my grandmother's.

</comment><comment><USER3> Bah! One of the problems with headstone engravings is they erode and become unreadable. This really doesn't help amateur genealogists like myself unless the code is woven deep in to the stone with a sufficiently redundant encoding.

I'm more worried about the potential lack of _reliable_ , public records in the future, given that the likes of the UK government want to do away with the national census altogether and rely on a hodge-podge of semi-private records. Most people alive in the UK today will be cremated anyway.

Not to mention, if this catches on, we'll likely end up with fields of stones that look like ass with no sense of majesty.

</comment><comment><USER4> Another interesting problem is QR codes are not human readable and are almost exclusively used by advertisers. So there is a reluctance to scanning a QR code. I am fairly certain that this will eventually mostly be used for advertising, $1000 for a headstone without a QR code or $900 for a headstone 90% of the surface covered by a QR code linking to a targeted offer. You could argue that historically gravestones have been used for advertising, just rather low key like a small amount of religious or occasionally political commentary / quote.

This will of course be followed up by interesting defacement reports, see you chip away here and sharpie marker there and next thing you know this gravestone points to some shock site; goatse perhaps or more appropriately given the deceased maybe a gore-site.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm not sure if this will work correctly, but give this URL a try:

[http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=400x400&chl=Mi...](http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=400x400&chl=Microsoft%20Tag%20HCCB%0D%0ABorn%202007%0D%0ADied%20August%2019%2C%202015&chld=H|0)

If it works, its a demonstration of how arbitrary headstone text can be encoded into a QR code without a URL subscription middleman.

The content in this example is making fun of MS Tag codes, an embrace/extend/extinguish version of QR codes that extinguished itself after about 8 years rather than extinguishing QR codes, although QR codes are extinguishing themselves pretty well without MS's help.

</comment><comment><USER5> I can imagine a lot of 404 errors in the future.

<comment><USER6> I guess you could call it a "Dead link."

<comment><USER7> Never before have I been so indecisive about whether to upvote or downvote a comment. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The trick is convincing grieving family members to commit to a QR code encoding a URL to a subscription pay site rather than a simple text mode QR code. The snow job by middlemen has been good enough that some people are amazed that QR codes can encode anything other than a URL.

</comment><comment><USER8> This kind of small vandalism will rapidly pass. There is no need, given a smartphone with a compass, camera, and GPS, to use a "bar code" for this kind of stupidly simple AR application.

Merely point your phone at the headstone and if there's metadata, you'll get it.

</comment><comment><USER4> On the bright side, they're using QR codes and not microsoft tag codes, which are being discontinued serverside in about 18 months.

</comment><comment><USER9> I thought it was normal to put a URL on a gravestone these days. Basically it's the same as an email signature.

</comment><comment><USER10> Now all I need is an app that will keep posting cat pictures to social media for me after I'm dead.

<comment><USER11> what would be the churn rate?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I highly doubt that anyone will allow such ugly looking tombstones in their graveyard any time soon.

</comment><comment><USER13> Oh look ma, vanity even in the grave. If strangers have a reason to know who you were, they will.

</comment><comment><USER14> I can't say I'm excited about this...

</comment><comment><USER15> Vandalizing these idiotic tombstones will be great sport, and guilt-free.

I thought we had an understanding with the great beyond, that the living only take heed when communication is conveyed in the form of plagues or nightmares?

Montezuma's revenge isn't a pop-up window that reads "click here". The curse of The Mummy isn't a flash animation. Ebenezer Scrooge didn't turn over a new leaf after taking an online survey.

I mean sure, we may read their pithy stone carvings, but we certainly aren't compelled to obey them. Why would the dead place their trust in the availability of a civilian internet, to convey their message?</comment>


Ketamine's effect on depression: an update - <AUTHOR> http://slatestarcodex.com/2018/11/08/ketamine-an-update/ <comment><USER2> Tianeptine is an anti depressant prescribed in some countries outside of the US that has an extreme opiate effect when taken in extreme doses. I think the idea of finding opiate like drugs at effective doses to treat depression but skirt physical addiction is interesting, but a dangerous game indeed.

</comment><comment><USER3> Anecdotally, ketamine has changed my life. I found a low cost clinic run by psychiatrists and get injections once a month. I don't even care if it's placebo effect, I'm better than I've been in 8 years of pharmacy-psycho therapy.</comment>


Show HN: Technavneet.com – An online e-commerce retail store - <AUTHOR> It's been some time and I have been willing to share something with you guys!
I was very hesitant of doing so as I was being naive, I thought of doing everything with perfection.
Anyways I digress.
I want to introduce you to our e-commerce/offline retail store Technavneet IT Solutions(https://www.technavneet.com). We sell IT hardware(PC Parts - CPU, Mobo, GPU, Cases, RAM etc) , Laptops, Servers and provide IT services ranging from Web Development, Design, Under the name of ndesignworks.
I am trying to be as resourceful as possible and would love to hear some advice/tips anything.
We have forum to have discussions about tech/services/news.(forum.technavneet.com)
I started this business because it was really hard for me to find a retailer/e-commerce in India who offered good selection of parts, had good website(atleast usable), had technical support and great pricing.
Btw last but not the least. Let me introduce myself. I am Navneethakrishnan and I am 21yo. Working on this for past 8 months. (Had some issues with hosting company previously). And I have experience in this field since I was in 4 standard, Building, breaking stuff is what I do as a hobby.
I live in India as you might have guessed.
Thanks for taking time to read the post.
Edit: You can reach me at hello(@)technavneet.com <comment><USER2> I appreciate your choice of posting it here, ready to face the harshest criticism, the soul crushing feeling when you see a cold response and the joy on realizing someone whom you've never met likes what you do. I commend you for taking the step to build this and further sharing it here.

Now, what would make one choose to buy from you instead of amazon, flipkart or their local store ?

It would be great to see product spec sheets, comarison charts and other tools that the bigger stores do not provide.

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Haha Thanks. I had already made my mind when I posted it. Sure I will definitely add your feedback to our priority list. Anyways coming back to the question you asked.

 __Q. What would make people buy from us instead of online retailers? __

A. We are focused on optimising pricing, delivery and experience.

A person would have to worry less when they buy from us, we are not a seller platform but rather a retail outlet. We have very strict operating procedures on customer service, delivery/order handling and RMA, Refunds processing.

I am positive that in few months we will have our own niche customer base and then we will follow our roadmap to grow the revenue and add stability to business operations.

<comment><USER2> > we are not a seller platform but rather a retail outlet

This i think is a differentiator and should be the highlight on your website.

I dont think you can beat the big players on price but for sure on other aspects you mention. Especially customer service.

Also it wouldn't hurt to have an amazon/flipkart outlet for your products. Even if its just for brand awareness.

<comment><AUTHOR> We will definetly think about it. Thanks for suggestion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I have posted a video talking about this briefly on our YouTube channel.

[https://youtu.be/VdFx-OU31Hs](https://youtu.be/VdFx-OU31Hs)</comment>


Introducing Gemfury - It's like Dropbox for Hackers - <AUTHOR> http://www.gemfury.com/l

<comment><USER2> I closed when the first thing was to me chose a "weapon" (seriously?) of choice instead of giving me whatever the site's offering. What if I like Ruby AND Perl AND Node.js?

Edit: I know that Perl is not an option there, it was just for showing how a more "open" approach would be better. Also, the name implies that is a tool for people who likes/uses Ruby (gem). So people would dismiss it based only on the name, not visiting and seeing that there's more options.

<comment><AUTHOR> Every language has a separate way of doing packages, explaining the individual benefit based on your preference is a more clear message to get across. The other benefit is it helps us choose where to focus.

And, funny story: the word "weapon" is A/B tested with the word "repository" because I had the same doubts. Guess which one converts better? Hint: It's not "repository"

<comment><USER3> > Guess which one converts better?

How do you define "convert"? Clicking one of the buttons? Signing up for the service? Paying money?

If converting is just clicking one of the buttons, I wonder if you get a lot of low quality converts -- i.e. ones that don't end up paying you money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is the most irritating design I've seen in a while. Please link to something descriptive, not a deliberately text-blurred/obfuscated page that requires you to select between various languages that I don't actually want to use.

As an aside, I'm not sure why I would use this instead of dropbox or a cloud- accessible version control system. However, given that I can't actually read the explanatory text, I will never find out.

</comment><comment><USER5> So, my current projects involve none of your weapons of choice. This renders me confused about what to do next and unsure of the value of this service.

I suggest that you include a "More information" link on your initial pop-up div so that people like me won't click away from your site in only a few seconds.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the "more info" suggestion. Which language and package repository are you interested in?

<comment><USER6> i want information about what this is before having to give my details.

<comment><USER7> Bingo. No "close this stupid obfuscating box" button means no sign up for you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry for the confusion - we figured it'd be easier to explain the service for each individual platform separately, rather than all at once. Hence the up- front selection.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The root URL is probable the better place to start: <http://www.gemfury.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> The service currently services RubyGems customers from the root domain. We figured Hacker News is a wider audience than just Ruby and would be of great help to decide which direction we should go next.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> What the fuck is it? Following the link /l it is immediately asking for my details without telling WTF it is - is a grade A example of retarded marketing.

<comment><USER10> Choosing one "tool" gives you a description:

        Gemfury is a cloud server for your private [tool] packages. Once uploaded,
        your packages can be securely installed to any host. It's simple, reliable,
        and hassle-free.

<comment><USER11> This would be more helpful to see before you have to click anything.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I immediately cringe at every single instance I see "it's like X for Y!" At this point has this snow clone passed into the irony space? Is everyone using it ironically at this point?

<comment><USER13> In my opinion / experience, it's still a very useful tool if used accurately.

Used well it provides cut-through of your brand / product / message in a way that is harder to build organically. Once you have traction, you can build a more separate identity.

Used inaccurately, and you will likely annoy people who might be your target market. Used ironically, you can definitely have fun.

But what would I know - my business advice is like Pets.com for Trappist Monks.

<comment><USER2> But these days it's so misused that most people see it and dismiss as a "catchphrase" to lure people. Even if it's accurately used. So, it's better don't take the risk.

<comment><USER13> This may be more true in tech circles, especially because everyone wants to compare themselves to big hits (Dropbox, Facebook, Google). It's less common in other sectors.

And if you are going to try it, test it first. Use your little catchphrase and then ask your friend what they think that means you do - 'Dropbox for Hackers' doesn't necessarily mean "code sharing that just works" - it could be interpreted as "making your private code accessible by our internal team" or "yay - unexplained conflict errors all over the place".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Sorry, but how is that "like Dropbox for Hackers"?

<comment><AUTHOR> Dropbox stores files in the cloud which are then easily accessible by authorized computers - Gemfury does that for code packages.

<comment><USER14> Who doesn't store files in "the cloud" nowadays? You could as well call this "Gmail for Hackers"... it would make as much sense as your "Dropbox" analogy.

Why don't you call it by name (i.e. "hosted RubyGems server") instead of confusing people and trying to piggyback on the "Dropbox" brand? Or do you think that your product isn't good enough?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> All I have to say after looking at your site is:

1) thanks for msbetatesting hackernews, 2) did you even test your site for BS errors, you noobs, 3) not a bad idea, but srsly, what's wrong with github (that everyone and their mother uses)?

This website is like the movie, 'Hackers'. I would appreciate an explanation.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'd be interesting in integrating this with Seed (<http://seed.readthedocs.org/>) when Python support comes along.

My Gemfury username is 'adamcharnock'.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great idea. Thanks for the suggestion

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> "Your RubyGems are protected during deployment by a secret token that's part of your Gemfury Source URL" Are URLs secrets now?

<comment><AUTHOR> [http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/758002.html#...](http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/758002.html#answer)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> If one needs to use Maven, what advantages does Gemfury offer over a self- hosted repository manager, such as Artifactory?

<comment><AUTHOR> It offers all the advantages of a cloud service - on demand, pay as you go, no maintenance. Very similar to Artifactory Online (cloud version)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> UI is very nice. Another great Built With Bootstrap site!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you and Twitter - Bootstrap makes things so much easier.

<comment><USER20> Wow, nice to see a Bootstrap site which doesn't look like every single other Bootstrap site! Good work!

Though, what's the difference between this and rubygems.org? Is it just like a private version, so you can create proprietary gems and be able to pull them down from anywhere (production, other team members, etc.)?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's because we started the site before Bootstrap was released, but as we iterated, we ported much of the site over.

And you're spot-on about Gemfury's purpose

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> No CPAN?

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe one day :)</comment></comment>


5 Lessons Learned from Declined Job Applications on BeaconReader - <AUTHOR> http://www.beaconreader.com/tim-wu/sorry-were-choosing-another-applicant

<comment><AUTHOR> Reposted onto BeaconReader as a supplement to my "Life in the Startup Trenches" project.

</comment><comment><USER2> Paywall? Pass.</comment>


I Want to Fix it NOW - <AUTHOR> http://blog.amir.rachum.com/post/64142834810/i-want-to-fix-it-now

<comment><USER2> This post resonates with me. I got into software development when I was working as a tester and the developers didn't have time to fix the things I wanted fixing. I learned how to fix some things myself, mostly UI related issues.

I think it's important that teams have a mechanism for allowing developers time to work on what they most want to work on. When an issue you care personally about gets put on a backlog with a low priority, all that motivation you had for fixing it goes to waste. Who better to fix that issue that the person that feels passionate about fixing it, at the time when they feel most motivated to do so.

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe you can talk to the rest of the team and boss and work something out.

A possible solution would be to allocate a certain amount of time for those immediate fixes, and then you can spend $X hours a week on such things without first going through the whole process.

Processes are meant to help; if they make you unhappy, they don't help, so in some form the processes need to be ajusted.</comment>


Why Theresa May's secret speech really does matter - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/26/why-theresa-mays-secret-speech-really-does-matter <comment><USER2> People can change their mind in even less than 5 months, especially when the context changes dramatically.

Theresa may simply believe that the UK public will not be happy to compromise on immigration even if it means losing the single market. No matters how personally she believes in it. She needs to deliver what the UK public wants.

Of course, she could start by trying to explain how bad it would be without the single market, but that line of thinking has been used and abused for month leading up to the referendum and then after, and still now. There is no point adding a layer.

At the end of the day, regardless the circumstances even staying in the EU, she cannot be sure to be able to deliver prosperity. There is no vindication by the number for her at the end of the tunnel. The economy will not boom like China in the 90's, those days are over. Even staying in the EU, the UK is not protected from another 2007 crisis.

So she can't deliver on prosperity but she can deliver on immigration control, and that also happen to be the number 1 concern of her population and so that's simply what she must do rather what she would want to do.

<comment><USER3> When asked to choose between immigration control and single market access, more people wanted to retain single market at the cost of immigration controls than the converse.

Source: [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dont- control-e...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/dont-control-eu- immigration-at-the-expense-of-losing-single-market-access-poll-brexit- europe-7127626.html)

<comment><USER4> Especially since leaving the EU only affects _EU immigration_ , which people are generally much less worried about. Non-EU immigration, which is what people really worry about, is largely independent of EU membership.

<comment><USER5> I am not sure about this, in certain areas people are really worried about Eastern Europeans, particularly Poles (google "polish vermin brexit"), and Farage did speak often of sending Italians and Spaniards back home.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I am starting to believe that May's hard-core "Brexit means Brexit"* stance may actually be her way of remaining in the EU. After all, the Brexit positions are massively internally inconsistent, apart from at odds wit the external realities.

The best way to show those inconsistencies is _not_ to argue against them, but to forcefully try to go forward with them, failing utterly and completely and thus revealing the inconsistencies.

*whatever that exactly means. "welcome to Tautology Club. If you like tautology club, I am sure you will like Tautology Club".

<comment><USER6> Conservative PM Theresa May said she will formally begin the Brexit negotiation process by the end of March 2017. This will trigger the two year process of negotiations as per Article 50 of the EU agreement, according to the BBC.

May promised a bill to remove the European Communities Act 1972 from the statute book, but repeal of that act won't take place until the Article 50 negotiations are complete, if ever. Now, here's the catch:

Her "Great Repeal Bill" that she is intending to submit to Parliament will "enshrine all existing EU law into British law." So, why leave the Union if you're going to make all EU law part of the UK statutes? She says, they will work on removing the bureaucratic elements of the law later. The only significant difference is that the bill will end the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the UK. So what, if UK courts will now have to enforce the new law?

from Joel Skousen's WorldAffairsBrief

<comment><USER7> UK courts are already enforcing EU laws, an appeal to the ECJ isn't the first thing you do.

This is the only way to do such transition this is pretty much how every former colonial territory has transitioned and why it's not common to find laws from 2-3 different colonial powers in the law books of various countries.

In the middle east it's not uncommon to have laws from the Ottoman Empire, British/French Mandate and Modern Laws in countries like Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Jordan.

You can't just transition from 100 to 0 and then to 100 again, EU legislation has supplemented, replaced, and added tons of laws and regulations that govern many day to day activities in the UK.

Passing new laws to replace each of those with a UK law will take years or decades, now there is already a framework that mostly works and it would be codified with a single grandparent law.

If and when the Brexit fully happens (the UK invokes article 50 and actually pulls out of the UK completely) various EU laws and regulations would be slowly replaced by new UK laws but this will take a long long time to complete if it ever going to be completed because each of these laws will be a parliamentary vote and a political battle because there would be money and benefits up for grabs.</comment></comment></comment>


Automatically save offers for AmEx cards (self-hosted only) - andrey-yantsen https://github.com/andrey-yantsen/amex-auto-save <comment> andrey-yantsen I've created a python script, based on WebDriver (therefore requires its instance available), which will help you to automatically save all new offers available for your AmEx card. Currently tested only with British Airways American Express Credit Card. Contributions and testing are welcome.</comment>


Wikipedia entry for Aaron Swartz-founded PAC was deleted the day he died - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_Progress

<comment><USER2> It's actions like these (the deletion) which have gradually but surely eroded my goodwill towards Wikipedia. Heavens knows what the impact of the delete debate was on Aaron, or whether deletion occurred before or after he passed. But it's another straw on the back of the camel of progress.

It seems Aaron's own research showed that Wikipedia content is created by a large number of generally quiet contributors, while a few very active editors edit. It's over-zealous editors who are blackening the soul of Wikipedia. They need to be tamed, and the quiet contributors granted more power, somehow.

<comment><AUTHOR> One of the users involved in those small-scale, under-the-radar WP deletion proceedings, RightCowLeftCoast, seems to be an active member of WikiProject Conservatism. Can't help wondering whether the stated reason ("subject appears to fail notability") was a smokescreen.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Update: Four hours later, the article's back. And if someone wanted to try again, they'd have to do a lot better than claim non-notability or lack of sources as below:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Demand_Progress)

</comment><comment><USER3> Both of the people calling for the deletion of the article about Demand Progress are conservative/libertarian. One is even a member of American Legion.

This appears to be a partisan issue, but of course their calls for deletion quote Wikipedia policy.</comment>


Elon Musk wins bet, finishing massive battery installation in 100 days - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2017/11/elon-musk-wins-bet-finishing-massive-battery-installation-in-100-days/ <comment><USER2> Maybe this was why Tesla was being slow to ramp up their Model 3 production.

<comment><USER3> supposedly used Samsung cells so doubtful: [https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Tesla-taps- Samsun...](https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Tesla-taps-Samsung- cells-for-huge-Aussie-energy-storage-facility)</comment></comment>