R: Lessons Learned, Directions for the Future [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~ihaka/downloads/JSM-2010.pdf <comment><USER2> I feel like Julia is probably the thing that solves the technical / performance issues with R.

That said, R's strength these days is about expressive power through the Tidyverse collection of libraries and DSLs.

If I were to pick an "R Next" project, it'd be to focus on a better, more expressive Tidyverse for Racket that plays even more nicely with relational databases and frameworks like Spark.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is fine and all, but I think they're completely ignoring the elephant in the room. R is a crazy, random, whimsical language that puts PHP to shame.

I use Python instead of R unless I'm told to use R. I hate using R, even if there are better libraries written for it than the Python equivalents. I can't stand the terrible naming conventions (seriously, can't you at least be consistent with CORE FUNCTION names?) and ridiculous amount of data structures. There are vectors, lists, matrices, tables, data frames, S4 classes, environments, oh my... I've been programming in R for a couple of years now and it still takes me around 2-3 tries to figure out what's stored in a variable and how to access it. Do I need two ['s, a trailing comma inside the [], etc.

Debugging R basically seems to mean "use a hack to generate stack traces."

Maybe I'm just stupid, but I see _absolutely_ no reason to encourage use of R over Python. I love lisp and the ideas it espouses, but R seems to take the worst from that world.

<comment><USER4> You haven't gone deep enough: the interactivity is vastly better, and the package ecosystem for statistics and data science is generally much more complete and actively developed. scikit learn is very good, but if you're not using that or doing dweeb learning, you're up the creek without a paddle.

Python doesn't even give you matrices as first class citizens; while I used a lot of Python before I used R, it still feels like they bolted lapack onto an unrelated scripting language and built things with it. More or less because that's what it is.

Personally I don't think the R language is anything special, good or bad: it's a typical sloppy interpreted language (though many of the difficulties described in the above 2010 document no longer exist). It's the package management system that makes it useful. It's not even a great package management system, especially when dumb kids use it like it's nodejs. But it's good enough to allow potentially crummy programmers (aka statisticians) to contribute meaningful and useful code to the ecosystem.

<comment><USER5> Why care if data frames are built into python or not? In R, I use tibbles anyway.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Well, it is a document from 2010.

Machines are faster now, we have seen the hassle with Python 2 to 3 adoption (or non-adoption) and how hard it is to change a language, generally the model to use a slow but comfortable language for model specification and execute it via C lib is more accepted now, and last but not least: The Tidyverse really has momentum now.

Sure, Julia and Python are coming after R, but the ecosystem itself is far from done..

<comment><USER7> Plus, R's performance limitations are not that big of a deal. In my experience, the bottle neck is just a couple of lines of code that can easily be replaced by some lines of Rcpp. Much easier than switching to a whole new language and ecosystem. I was really excited when Julia was new but the cost of switching is just never going to be worth it for me personally.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'll be frank here. I'm an avid R user, I always hear about Julia but until anyone can show me something even remotely close to tidyverse in Julia, I'll stick to my subset of R that gets me to 80/20 (and really it's more like 98/2).

<comment><USER9> [https://www.queryverse.org/](https://www.queryverse.org/)

fin.

<comment><USER10> That seems to cover the core of the tidyverse, but not the long tail.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> R is plenty fast. Commonly it's calling C++. When I run a multilevel model, it's C++ I'm waiting on, not R. The tidyverse + ggplot2 + statistical tools + interactive nature makes working in R really productive.

<comment><USER9> Speed is not the only computational constraint - the tremendous memory required for very large data sets is often a severe limitation especially within R (and I actually enjoy R).

This is Julia's native, in-language approach (no delegating to C/C++): [https://juliadb.org/](https://juliadb.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Note: this paper is from 2010 and he has been making similar statements since 2008 ([https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~ihaka/?Papers_and_Talks](https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~ihaka/?Papers_and_Talks))

Giving the timing, I'm interested in what he might think of Julia, which seems to have reaches a similar conclusion - statisticians need a new tool.

</comment><comment><USER13> I use R because of my stat major also I am not fond of SAS. Also most bleeding edge statistic stuff are on R and no where else. There are tons of statisticians and other researchers just publishing paper, packages and code of their research and how to do it. R may be a one trick pony but it is very very good at that one trick.

You can see via The R Journal ([https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2018-2/](https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2018-2/)) and read through what researchers have done and published via packages.

<comment><USER9> This is the best justification for R: Its statistical lineage and adoption by researchers. There's plenty of great thinking manifested in these libraries and its community. This can't be understated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> R feels a lot like Perl to me, idiosyncratic but useful. I switched from Perl to Python years ago, but like R, I remember it being a scrappy language. It was sorta like how I use 'vi' for admin work, while I use a full IDE for large code bases in C/C++. I can crank up R to do quick things I could do in Julia or Python, but I am in the situation where all my colleagues use R (and Matlab), since they are not programmers. If their prototypes work out, I code them in C++ to run on large clusters. C(++) is the only language I've worked in consistently for over 30 years. I have hope for julia.

</comment><comment><USER15> I use R because mainly due to the RStudio guys. I totally understand many of the author's points but you can easily write your code to avoid storing massive amounts of data in memory.

edit: grammatical error fix

<comment><USER2> I think this reason is very valid. R has warts and issues, but RStudio and Tidyverse authors have shown that R is an expressive language for building coherent DSLs that _users_ love.

<comment><USER9> R is quite good at developing DSLs (quite Lispy), but Julia is even Lispy-er with a more flexible syntax and unicode identifiers. R, definitely, has a great statistical lineage, but that is also unfortunately what limits it from being as expressive - especially regarding new data types. No one in R creates their own domain-specific data types (that are performant as well) whereas this is the norm for the Julia ecosystem.

[https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/metaprogramming/inde...](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1/manual/metaprogramming/index.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> 2010 document.

</comment><comment><USER17> Can we add 2010 to title?</comment>


Top Real-Time Web Products of 2010 - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top_10_real-time_web_products_of_2010.php <comment><AUTHOR> What I really want to know is, what did I leave out? And how long is it until "real-time" is a given? Sorta like calling something "social"?</comment>


Could an astronaut's corpse bring new life to another world? - <AUTHOR> http://www.astronomy.com/news/2016/10/could-an-astronauts-corpse-bring-new-life-to-another-world <comment><USER2> I can't find it now, but I recall an article which simulated interstellar transit times for asteroids. The conclusion was that something like the dinosaur killer asteroid could throw rocks into orbit. After 100M years, some of those rocks could have reached other solar systems (i.e alpha centauri)

Given that life on Earth is ~4 billion years old, there's good reason to be believe we've seeded rocks across a sphere ~100 or more light years across.

Whether those rocks reach another solar system is another question. Space is _big_ , and even giant killer rocks are tiny.

<comment><USER3> One of my favorite admittedly speculative evolutionary informatics papers agrees with you:

[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/513781/moores-law-and- the...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/513781/moores-law-and-the-origin- of-life/)

<comment><USER4> It's probably true. The earliest rocks on earth show signs of life.

<comment><USER3> "Life originated on Earth" is probably the last remaining geocentrism. Literally every other geocentrism has fallen. My prediction is that this one will fall this century, probably with the discovery of simple microbial life elsewhere in the solar system followed by the genetic confirmation of common ancestry.

My favorite definition of life (courtesy of Dr. Christoph Adami and others in evolutionary informatics) is that life is a "phase of matter in which Turing- complete information processing dominates ordinary matter/energy dynamics." A phase of matter means exactly what it sounds like-- solid, liquid gas, life-- though life would be more of a rare exotic phase like a superfluid or a Bose- Einstein condensate or neutron star stuff (whatever that's called). I seem to recall him or one of his colleagues playing with terms like "computonium" or "Turium" (Turing-complete matter) for life.

Most phases of matter are found all over the place in the universe, but some places in the universe are more hospitable for some than others. Stars are great for plasma. Gas giants are full of gas. Cold icy outer planets are the ideal abodes of solids. Life, like other phases, is probably ubiquitous but Earth just happens to be a place that is peculiarly hospitable to it and a lot of it is found there. That's likely because it's at the edge of many phase boundaries (the water cycle, etc.) and it's been shown that Turing- completeness occurs in systems close to phase boundaries:

[http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/bio_sim/articles/langton_edge...](http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~turk/bio_sim/articles/langton_edge_of_chaos.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Reminds me of a book I recently finished (Death's End by Cixin Liu). A major plot element is sending a human brain to intercept an alien civilization that is en-route to Earth with the hope that the aliens will resurrect the person and use his knowledge establish a better dialog with humanity.

<comment><USER6> I recall reading another novel where one of the protagonists was resurrected far, far in the future by a seemingly incomprehensible race. (Little spiders, of sorts.) Unfortunately, due to unfamiliarity with humanity, they did a bad job, and his body only lasted a few minutes before dying again.

I wish I could remember what the book was.

<comment><USER7> At the very least, "poorly reassembled by incomprehensible aliens" is a plot element in the Star Trek TOS pilot. Granted, that character lasted more than a few minutes. And costumes for incomprehensible aliens are expensive, so big veiny heads will do.

<comment><USER8> FYI, these is Star Trek's episode "The Managerie" [0], and was original the pilot episode "The Cage" [1]

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_(Star_Trek:_The_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_\(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series\))

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cage_(Star_Trek:_The_Origi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cage_\(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series\))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia)

After many sessions, my past-life-regression therapist and I agreed that I was once a very powerful and influential tardigrade on a glorious faraway planet and that given the prognosis of humanity, I may be once again, but there's more competition this time.

<comment><USER10> Reading through some of your other comments, I'm convinced you were P.G. Wodehouse last time around. Seriously though, do you write anywhere else online? Great stuff.

<comment><USER9> If you've any connections with academic (cognitive) psychological research opportunities, e.g [1], I might know someone with uncanny 'relations' to the aforementioned (and others).

1\. [http://dbem.ws/](http://dbem.ws/)

<comment><USER10> You thrill me, sir! Sadly, my connections (such as they are) are far more banal. Even the mere thought of moving among such scintillating company sends me into gentle ecstasies!

What's this?! "One more coruscation, my dear Watson--yet another brain-wave!" I am transported back to a fleeting email exchange with Charles Tart in 2010. The very man you're after:

[http://www.paradigm-sys.com](http://www.paradigm-sys.com)

[http://www.dojopsi.com/contactform- cttart.cfm](http://www.dojopsi.com/contactform-cttart.cfm)

If the contact form does not avail, his email address (from back then, at any rate) appears to be a matter of public record: [https://email@example.com%22](https://firstname.lastname@example.com%22)

<comment><USER9> I appreciate the links and have archived them. Here's one for you: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_LeShan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_LeShan)

Of Dr LeShan's works, _The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist_ I highly recommend, specifically the unabridged version. He worked a bit with Eileen J Garrett[1], the tales of which are quite intriguing. This guy was (and still is @96) 100% sincere. No quackery, no nonsense. I had the privilege of acquaintance with his close friend, Dr Hauser, who I'll always fondly remember. LeShan and Hauser met in the Army as young men and remained friends for life. They were both psychologists, but their focuses diverged.

1 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_J._Garrett](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_J._Garrett)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I read a 'Last Man on Earth' short story in an SF anthology with, essentially, this premise. At the end of the story, the exhausted person dies while sitting on the edge of the sea... only to seed the next round of life from all of the lifeforms and organic materials contained therein. Creepy, heady stuff for a preteen. This was the 70's, so the idea has been around awhile.

<comment><USER12> Do you remember the book? I'd be interested in reading that.

<comment><USER11> VerDeTerre came through, above. I read it in an anthology in the children's section of the public library (another good reason for public libraries), but the anthology title is long lost to /dev/null.

<comment><USER13> My guess: Adventures in Time and Space

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

My absolute favorite book growing up. Re-read it countless times. Highly recommended.

<comment><USER11> Killer, killer anthology. The anthology I read was shorter, but that's ignorable... everybody should go find a copy of 'Adventures in Time and Space', it's a classic full of classics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is an interesting concept and has been explored in fiction before, most recently (to my knowledge) in Prometheus. Not the best film, stunning cinematography but lacking good writing, but had a similar premise.

</comment><comment><USER15> So where do I sign up to have my corpse sent to Mars after I die?

</comment><comment><USER16> ...Prometheus

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(2012_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_\(2012_film\))

</comment><comment><USER17> Stephen Baxter's Titan (a fairly bleak novel but not totally outlandish given current world events) ends with astronauts that long ago perished on Titan being resurrected by the sentient race that eventually evolves there. In preparation for the death of our star, they are preparing a rocket to send genetic matter from our solar system to other parts of the galaxy, in some way continuing our lineage.

</comment><comment><USER18> Plants are faster to duplicate. Assuming the astronaut falls on a world with air and water, if s/he ate some vegetable food containing seeds before dying, they could grow on soil fed by his decaying body. The question then would be: what happens when all nutrients from the body are depleted?

</comment><comment><USER19> Even more interesting, given heat, radiation and chemical energy could this corpse become a alive microcosm, with sped up evolution?

<comment><USER20> Simpson's did it!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treehouse_of_Horror_VII#.22The...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treehouse_of_Horror_VII#.22The_Genesis_Tub.22)

Well, except for the space part. I honestly think it could happen. There's also a lot of gut bacteria and other micro-organisms that are alive on their own.

I'm wondering more if this spacesuit hit something like a comet, asteroid, or other small body before hitting a planet. If a part of the living ecosystem makes it to a secure nook or gets folded inside of the asteroid, it might survive landing on a planet.

<comment><USER21> > Well, except for the space part.

Well, Futurama did it again, this time in space. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfellas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfellas)

<comment><USER20> Oh god you're so right. And that was a brilliant episode. Well played.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> happy-go-lucky Because of their resilience, tardigrades come to mind :)

</comment><comment><USER22> Has anything like this been tried before? Maybe not a corpse, but some other organic matter?

<comment><USER23> Maybe, but not on purpose. Nasa goes to great lengths to sterilize probes going to Mars. [http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/technology/is_planetary_protection....](http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/technology/is_planetary_protection.html)

<comment><USER24> If Musk's Mars colonization plans come to fruition, all that trouble NASA went to sterilize their Mars probes will be for nothing.

<comment><USER25> Private parties still have to comply with planetary protection treaties. In fact any colonization plan, or even commercial flight, to Mars (or anywhere else in the solar system) from SpaceX needs to be approved by the US. It's not a free for all out there, space is governed by treaties.

That's a big hurdle to colonization and commercial exploitation. Because it means you have to show you're not contaminating alien life.

I would be really excited if we find traces of life on Mars but, at the same time, it would probably delay commercial exploitation and colonization for decades...

<comment><USER26> They'll have to comply, but they will probably cut corners.

<comment><USER25> It depends what the US allows them to do, the same way you cannot legally "cut corners" with FDA regulations.

Obviously you cannot sterilize astronauts. But they could be restrained to landings outside of the special regions, which are the most promising for astrobiology.

<comment><USER26> Assuming the commercial operator is in the US. China might cut some red tape.

<comment><USER25> China is bound by international treaties the same way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Isaac Asimov, "Founding Father". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Father_(short_story)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Father_\(short_story\))

</comment><comment><USER28> [https://what-if.xkcd.com/134/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/134/)

</comment><comment><USER29> Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)</comment>


Show HN: Turbo Transpose compressor filter for binary/integer/floating point data - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/powturbo/TurboTranspose <comment><AUTHOR> \- Byte/Nibble transpose/shuffle for improving compression of binary data (ex. floating point data)

\- Scalar/SIMD Transpose/Shuffle 8,16,32,64,... bits Dynamic CPU detection and JIT scalar/sse/avx2 switching

\- 100% C (C++ headers), usage as simple as memcpy

\- Ready and simple to use library, no hassless dependencies

\+ Byte Transpose

\- Fastest byte transpose

\+ Nibble Transpose

\- nearly as fast as byte transpose

\- more efficient in most binary data files, up to 6 times faster than Bitshuffle

\- more robust worst case scenario than bitshuffle</comment>


Your publisher freedom doesn't exist - <AUTHOR> http://methodjs.com/your-publisher-freedom-doesnt-exist/

<comment><USER2> I really do not want to be negative, but the text background behind the scrolling text is a huge inconvenience. Big enough to convince me not to read it.

<comment><USER3> It fades out completely if you keep scrolling.

<comment><USER4> If you permit the scripts with NoScript. It is broken when JS is disabled.

On topic, basically agree with the post and npm that requesting a new name is reasonable. Not sure there is much worth discussing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The author is missed the point I think. The worry most readers might have is regarding to how things have been handled by Isaac. Does it represent a shift in behavior now that npm is privately owned ?

Isaac could have handled the situation more gracefully by giving the author appropriate time to rename the project and maybe discuss with him if npm- client or another descriptive name for the project was possible.</comment>


How should you deal with auth and sharing Users info across microservices? - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31317470/how-should-you-deal-with-auth-and-sharing-users-info-across-microservices/31321082

<comment><USER2> do you really think SOA can handle user authentication somehow useful? All the buzz for SOA is exaggerated enough. It seems only Netflix and Amazon can do services right, no?

<comment><USER3> Seems like that</comment></comment>


Simple Rules for Healthy Eating (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/upshot/simple-rules-for-healthy-eating.html <comment><USER2> After following his rules for a year now and losing 50 pounds with literally no exercise, I'm (further) convinced that healthy eating and corporate interests are completely opposed.

It seems everything that makes food more profitable also makes it less healthy. Perhaps the science is thin on things like caloric sources (quality vs quantity), preservatives, complexity of sugars, the effects of high processing of food, etc., but my anecdotal evidence and growing intuition aligns with the author's opinions.

For me personally, removing added sugars and processed foods and moving to a more "real foods" meal plan (meat, veggies, fruit) has been transformative.

<comment><USER3> > I'm (further) convinced that healthy eating and corporate interests are > completely opposed.

I dunno- the longer you live, the longer I can sell shit to you.

<comment><USER4> But long term returns almost always have a lower priority to short term returns in a company's balance sheets.

<comment><USER5> sigh... lemme tell ya what they taught us in finance theory class: rich investors are not stupider than average investors; in fact, if investing "for the long term" is the right thing to do, rich investors actually have the resources, wherewithal and the time to do it.

The problem is, as hard as it is to predict the future, it is harder to predict farther into the future; and, once you set up a pot of "long term" honey, people have a chance to reorganize their affairs to siphon off said honey and if your idea is to not pay attention to their short term results, you set yourself up for a big long term surprise. Publicly traded companies are mostly companies that have products, markets, customers, service, etc. Generally, when they are losing money compared to other companies, it does not scream "we're pouring money into R&D, great things are around the corner!"

This boils down to, statistically speaking, short term results are actually the best indicator of long term results. You'd be foolish (statistically) to overemphasize long term hypotheticals in the face of short term losses.

TL;DR that financial markets are too tilted in favor of "short term" results is largely a myth. if it were not a myth, wealth would shift from the majority people who supposedly pay attention to short term results and toward people who ignore short term results leading to the end of the myth.

edit (couple above and): I'm not saying that long term projects and ideas and thinking don't ever pay off; I'm saying that saying that they are _undervalued_ and therefore represent an opportunity is a stretch and requires proof that you most likely will not find if you look because others have looked.

<comment><USER6> Did they teach you that a group of completely rational short-term thinkers can get stuck at a local maximum that's way below the optimum for people who are thinking ahead? Or that irrational behavior can emerge from groups of smart, rational individuals in competition?

Theory aside, here's a thing that doesn't fit into any short-term models I know: Bell Labs. Take a monopoly business with a ton of spare cash, and throw that cash into a well. Build a city full of comfortable middle-class researchers and their families with no need to produce anything of immediate value, and keep it going for decades. Watch them invent a million amazing things that change the world, and then, once they get splintered into a bunch of smaller, short-term focused groups, watch them fade into insignificance.

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure if you are disagreeing with me or agreeing and adding on.

If you are suggesting that rational behavior is emerging every time, or even much of the time, somebody says "Wall Street is too focused on the short term", I shake my head in sadness at the money you are planning to lose.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I grew up in the U.S. but in the past year, I've been able to spend a significant amount of time abroad, primarily in Europe and Japan.

The single biggest thing I've noticed: there are virtually no overweight people. And yet, no one is on some kind of obscure no-meat/no-carbs/no-fruit diet. People just live, eat the local food (which often has a ton of butter, salt, fat, etc.) and somehow still look 100% better than Americans.

My conclusion: obesity is caused by some combination of excessive portion sizes + over-processed food. It's not that complicated.

<comment><USER8> > My conclusion: obesity is caused by some combination of excessive portion > sizes + over-processed food.

Don't forget lack of exercise from a car-centric transportation culture.

<comment><USER9> Unfortunately very true. So much of America is designed with the assumption that everyone has a car and there's no attempt to make anything pedestrian- accessible.

I live in San Jose and I honestly miss walking. I mean sure, I _can_ walk, but I can't use it to go anywhere other than the 7/11 near my apartment without taking an hour or more out of my day. That's not to say I don't like living here (I do) but I guess that's just something you deal with when you trade a comparatively small college town (Santa Cruz) for a huge, spread-out city.

<comment><USER10> I used to live in London (England) and walk and tube everywhere. My first trip to the US was LA. I parked at a cafe and bought a coffee. We saw a store across the street so crossed it. Even though traffic was light and it was easy to do so without causing it to slow down the cars honked us for doing so. Jaywalking. I'd never really thought of Jaywalking outside of movies.

So we go in the store and afterwards make an effort to walk a couple of blocks down to the crossing so we don't get arrested or run down. When we get back to the car there's a tow truck trying to take it away because we were shopping across the street and no longer customers of this strip.

It was pretty amazing to us. We spent the rest of the trip driving everywhere, no matter how small the journey.

<comment><USER9> > When we get back to the car there's a tow truck trying to take it away > because we were shopping across the street and no longer customers of this > strip.

Does this not happen in other countries? It's not exactly common in the US, but you will see it dense areas sometimes where a) parking is limited and costs money and b) businesses provide parking free of charge to their own customers.

<comment><USER11> I'm European and have never heard of such a thing. It sounds bizarre to me.

<comment><USER9> When you think about it from a business's perspective it makes sense. If a bunch of people who aren't your customers fill up your lot, and there isn't nearby parking or it costs money, potential customers will arrive and might leave without patronizing your business because they can't find a place to park.

Obviously it's annoying when it's enforced as overzealously as the above example.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not _overheating_ food is another healthy eating rule. (Though try making french fries, bacon, pot roast, etc, w/o doing this. Not possible!)

Seriously, though, to address why people find it hard to follow such rules one has to look _beyond_ nutrition and medicine. People don't just eat to fuel their bodies, they eat to fuel their _minds_ i.e. for comfort and pleasure.

This is why (I think) that small amounts of caffeine and alcohol are good: for a given level of mental stimulation they reduce the amount of food needed. Reducing side effects from any one source reduces overall damage to the body.

How does one reduce one's overall level of self-stimulation? For want of a better word this is a _spiritual_ problem. Having an objectively valuable purpose or problem to occupy the mind with is crucial, but perhaps there will remain 'ups' and 'downs'. Look to traditional religious teachings or the AA for advice. Which advice, again, is going to be mingled with falsehoods and irrationalities. _Intermittent fasting_ is becoming fashionable and may be part of the solution; it certainly bring personal issues into vivid focus.

<comment><USER13> Anything involved heating up vegetable oils to high temperature is extremely dangerous, because oil releases carcinogens [0]. Preparing healthy food using heated oils sounds like nonsense to me.

[0] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11981884/Cooking...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11981884/Cooking- with-vegetable-oils-releases-toxic-cancer-causing-chemicals-say-experts.html)

<comment><USER14> The worst oils for cooking are the "healthiest" ones for adding to salads. For example, olive oil and avocado oil "burn" really easily and at a low temperature. On the other hand, butter and lard can survive the high heat better.

This is because poly- and mono-unsaturated fats had double bonds that oxidize rapidly. A free radical colliding with one of those double bonds will set off a chain reaction, resulting in rancidity.

In comparison, saturated fats have single bonds that do not oxidize as rapidly after a free radical challenge.

<comment><USER15> It's more complicated. Olive oil is high in antioxidants. A recent study found that no realistic cooking process would significantly oxidize the pufas in evoo because the antioxidants are pretty good at what they do.

<comment><USER14> This isn't wrong, assuming that you can get the real stuff. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has a higher smoke point and will survive cooking. Unfortunately, if you purchase olive oil in the US, there's a good chance that it's been processed, _even_ if the label claims it's EVOO! A study by UC Davis found that 2/3 of oils labeled EVOO did NOT meet the standards.

The processing step that the fake oils use will degrade the antioxidant capacity that you'd get from real, cold-pressed oil.

So, in summary:

PUFA's go rancid easily in absence of antioxidants.

Pure EVOO, though PUFA, has antioxidants that protect it.

If you buy "EVOO" in the US, it has possibly undergone processing (despite the label!), which means that it will have lower antioxidative capacity

Wiki article:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil#Adulteration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil#Adulteration)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> What a poor article, it doesn't go into any specifics or give reasons for _why_ you should eat this or avoid that. The whole article really boils down to 'don't eat bad food, eat good food.'

On another note, I've recently given up sugar as an experiment after reading all the bad things about it (surprised it didn't even come up in the article!), and have had quite dramatic results. The first 3 weeks were a shock to the system and I had major withdrawal symptoms; cravings, sweating, migraines, insomnia even shaking. Then in the 4th week I was back to normal again and seeing lots of benefits. The biggest surprise for me was sleep; I used to need ~10 hours a night, but now wake up refreshed after 7! My skin on my face is also less red, acne on my back has cleared up 50%, excma on my arms nearly fully gone, and of course my waistline has reduced.

This was just from eliminating all the obvious processed sugars, ie. chocolate, cakes, desserts, honey, biscuits etc. Also only drinking water and eating oatmeal for breakfast. These days I don't have any cravings for them; the knowledge of all the long term problems they caused completely kills it for me.

<comment><USER17> Dark chocolate is still good, if you like it. Also the occasional fruit is supposedly good for your metabolism, because the fructose will restore any depleted glycogen in your liver from losing weight.

<comment><USER16> This is true, I didn't go into any more detail as the post was getting a bit long, but I do find fruit and nuts to be a good substitute for snack food. I've never been a fan of dark chocolate, although I do find that after eating a lot of sugary foods your taste buds get dulled to other things, so I maybe I will try it again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I recently changed my diet because I felt my energy levels were all over the place. I cut out processed carbs, and generally things with a high glycemic index. It took about three weeks to really get past sugary foods, but then my tastes started to change. I'm pescetarian (mostly vegetarian, occasional I'll eat fish), so protein is a challenge – I rely pretty heavily on eggs and yogurt. I also cut down on the amount of dairy I was consuming in general, switching to a macchiato for my afternoon coffee rather than a latte. Other than that, lots of vegetables in lots of variety.

Data point of one, but after a month I really started to feel a difference. I felt a lot better almost immediately, but some of that was likely placebo. I crash a lot less in the afternoons, and have higher energy in general. Physically the difference was more dramatic – lost a spare tire I was starting to cary around my mid section. Partially this was due to exercise – more energy led to commuting by bike a _lot_ more than I was.

One thing I'd add to the article was the importance of changing your environment. When I first started it was difficult because most of the snacks at home were carbohydrate based – by changing the environment and stocking a lot more protein-based foods at home that were easy to prepare, it was a lot easier to make the transition.

<comment><USER19> I used to also be on a pescetarian diet and I thought it was the healthiest diet I have ever been on. Now, my family avoids beef because of the environmental problems of beef production, but we eat too much chicken and fish.

If I were rich, I would have a cook and eat macrobiotic or vegan, but to make tasty macrobiotic and vegan food yourself is a lot of effort.

<comment><USER20> > tasty macrobiotic and vegan food yourself is a lot of effort.

IMNSHO, it might seem that way from the outside, but it's really very little effort to prepare and eat vegan meals.

The only actual problems are all social :(

EDIT: for example, people downvoting me for being vegan.

<comment><USER21> They're down voting you because you're being obnoxious.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Those are really good rules. I appreciate that the title is "Healthy eating" and not "Losing weight" or "Dieting too. Personally, once I started avoiding things like Doritos, I was able to taste subtler flavors and appreciate them. It's hard to appreciate even a really nice piece of fresh bread if you just had a load of salt, sugar, fat, and flavor enhancers. They take the amplitude beyond what normal food can achieve, but the overall taste is "meh".

<comment><USER23> Mostly due to this guy: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMDA_receptor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMDA_receptor)

I personally have said fuck it. I takes drugs for pain with a liberal moderation and drink protein shakes to balance out my vice of eating pure sugar snacks. Glycemically I know its terrible but on the calorie scale and macro nutrients I am well nourished. Eh..I have some sense of guilt about potential glycemic shock from the spikes but I think my body can handle it. Trick is to know before its too late...

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This guy is really great. He has a YouTube channel called Healthcare Triage, which I enjoy.

On it, he talks about commonly asked health questions (is coffee good for you?), and backs up everything he says with data and research (he tries to use meta-analyses when he can).

</comment><comment><USER25> I prefer the even simpler Michael Pollan guide - "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

<comment><USER26> Pollan's quote could even be a good bumper sticker.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I like the tone of this article. I do, however, believe that there is rather more science backing up low carb eating than the piece would have you believe.

<comment><USER8> So true!

[https://www.reddit.com/r/keto](https://www.reddit.com/r/keto)

~180K members of that subreddit. I guarantee you, if you cut your carbs to below 20g/day, you will lose at least 3lbs a week (no exercise required).

<comment><USER28> 3 pounds a week is pretty unsustainable.

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15615615](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15615615)

Edit: Since I got curious and followed a bunch of other studies, here's a cool calculator based on some of that research and the (admittedly flawed) NHANES data

[https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/](https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/bwp/)

<comment><USER8> It _is_ sustainable when you're carrying excess fat. Your body will eventually reach an equilibrium. Each body is different, YMMV, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> These rules can be boiled down to an even easier set, don't eat sugars and don't eat grains. Make your body adapt to burning fat for energy and you'll feel better (no mid-day crash after a carb-heavy lunch) and lose weight. There is a lot of growing evidence that cancer feeds on sugar and low/no-sugar diets can even help prevent it from occuring.

<comment><USER30> Completely avoiding sugars and grains? That's not easier; you trade a less complicated rule for severe diet restrictions. Applying that rule about less processed foods will help with sugars and carbs too.

i.e. an apple and hard candy both have sugar, but the apple is a good idea. A cupcake and a loaf of whole-wheat bread both have carbs, but the bread (especially if it contains only yeast, flour, water, salt) will be way better for you.

<comment><USER29> It's not a severe diet restriction--you can't completely get rid of carbs but you can easily get down to 20-50g per day. Stick with eating proteins (meat, sausage, chicken, etc.) and most green vegetables. Some nuts and berries are ok too but be very careful about fruits (especially juices which are a massive glycemic spike without any fiber to balance it). After a few weeks you won't miss bread and grains at all. In fact on the rare occasions I have it I think pasta and grains are incredibly bland (try zucchini noodles with a spiralizer, it makes an awesome meal with some sausage and a bit of diced tomatoes and spices).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> This is a great article. We seem to love the act of complicating healthy eating habits.

Vegetables are good. Processed foods (including sugar) are bad. Mix in some fish and chicken from time to time. Don't pour salt all over it. There you have it. A healthy diet.

The bottom line is that eating healthy is not hard, nor is it prohibitively expensive. It's all about priority. If you would rather have the flat screen TV than a budget for Whole Foods, then that's your prerogative.

</comment><comment><USER32> The science supporting this is super thin, isn't it?

Pretty sure it's still as simple as "eat enough calories. Eat enough vitamins and minerals to not get sick from a deficiency. Have enough fiber to keep the digestive system humming. Drink enough water."

<comment><USER15> Not even that is simple. Recent evidence suggests that "enough calories" may be _far_ less than previously believed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> At this point, can anyone take The New York Times seriously about health advice? Someone should compile their history of publishing thinly-sourced, pop science conclusions that are openly contradictory.

</comment><comment><USER34> In other words eat like a diabetic who is recovering from a heart attack.</comment>


Roam Research reaches $1m ARR in 6 weeks - <AUTHOR> https://www.indiehackers.com/post/roam-research-reaches-1m-arr-in-6-weeks-20faee74e6 <comment><USER2> If anyone is looking for a free alternative to Roam for personal use, checkout Obsidian.md. It supports importing from Roam, has backlinks, graph view, custom themes and most importantly is super fast since it's a desktop application. It's built by the makers of Dynalist.

[https://obsidian.md/](https://obsidian.md/)

<comment><USER3> Was on Dynalist, moved to Roam, and jumped to Obsidian without knowing it was the Dynalist team. Still on the transition; Obisdian's focus on document vs outline means I have to shape my notes more towards paragraphs instead of pointers and bullet points. Liking it so far, but still wishing I can have it on web instead of an app; I don't really care about offline capability, I need the backlink capability, and I like having multiple note views. That's most of it.

<comment><USER4> I was curious about your call-out about personal use, so I checked out the license. It reads as though 'personal use at work' might not be permitted without purchasing a license.

> If you use OBSIDIAN for work-related activities in a company with two (2) or > more employees, you must obtain a commercial license.

[https://obsidian.md/eula](https://obsidian.md/eula)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Zettlr is an open-source alternative [0]. It's surprisingly feature-rich for a one-person project.

I've tried Obsidian, Roam Research, and others, but Zettlr is simply a much more complete piece of software.

In addition, the developer's perspective on their work and complete belief in open-source, privacy, open standards, etc., is really heart-warming [1].

[0]: [https://www.zettlr.com/](https://www.zettlr.com/)

[1]: [https://www.zettlr.com/post/why-zettlr-open- source](https://www.zettlr.com/post/why-zettlr-open-source)

<comment><USER6> I have settled on Zettlr too and the tipping point was Zotero support. Since I'm still settling into it, I'm curious about Obsidian too.

Ultimately, it's not the tool itself, but the consistency with which I use it that had impact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I keep trying to use Roam and Obsidian (rather than a more simple note taking app like Notable,) but I find that my more complex thoughts on topics, i.e the ones I would want to use this kind of software to record, is more often than not about external content such as PDFs or webpages. I know you can simply link files or urls inside markdown, but the integration seems a bit simplistic. I suppose some people will just copy and paste highlights, or extract notations, but something like Zotero seems hard to beat for my usage.

<comment><USER8> I've used Devonthink over things like Zotero because it seems to be focused on Professional research. Like I don't care about the writer of a pdf or site enough for it to be the 2nd default column.

<comment><USER7> Devonthink looks cool, but can you explain why it's functionally better? Or is it just a better layout?

<comment><USER8> I don't know. I'm not an academic. I'm gathering notes, web pages, mostly. I also gather videos and such. I assumed Zotero sort of things wouldn't accommodate all that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Keep hating on it or bringing up open source alternatives, but Roam is going places.

I don't know how long the momentum keeps up, but it's clear to me that Roam has captured a market segment that's been mostly ignored by the bigger players who've focused on creating project management software.

It may not be for you or your company, but it is clearly resonating.

<comment><USER10> I would argue that the people signing up to Roam have a short-term outlook on their data when they shovel their words into a blackbox. Notes are the maybe _the_ most important thing to have a fungible, exportable standard behind.

<comment><USER11> You can export all your notes as Markdown or JSON. Obsidian, for instance, even has a plugin to faciliate importing your Roam notes if you choose to migrate.

<comment><USER10> Unless something has changed, you're left with a bunch of unlinked Markdown notes. Those connections have to be relinked from scratch in whatever program the exportee then chooses. It sounds like Obsidian is offering a bespoke method of recreating these links, is that right?

<comment><USER11> Yes, Obsidian has a few options specifically geared towards importing Roam markdown: [https://i.imgur.com/eDtRXSX.png](https://i.imgur.com/eDtRXSX.png)

Any existing use of [[link]] style ones will work natively.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> How can it be annual recurring revenue when they've only been going for six weeks and they have a 30 day free trial? Surely you need to know what their churn rate is going to be before you can consider it to be recurring?

<comment><USER13> It's a 2 week trial I believd

<comment><USER12> It's a bit confusing. Their T&Cs say 14 days, but their sign up page says "you'll be charged after 31 days"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I stopped using it once I discovered org-roam. It's not a perfect replica, but manipulating text in a text editor is basic. Web based solutions can not compete, neither with speed nor the flexibility of an open source project, at least in Emacs' ecosystem with org and everything else.

Most importantly offline first approach. My notes are stored on a NextCloud share so many backups and notes are searchable with ripgrep when looking for stuff not interlinked or tagged.

Also roam research used to mess up quite often until they built client side caching. Still very annoying and frustrating to have to look at the dot turning green or staying brown. Could have improved but they should offer a complete offline solution IMHO, at least for editing markdown in 3rd party tools and re syncing.

<comment><USER15> What's the main attraction of org-roam over org? I had a look at it, but didn't quite understand how to use it. Seemed as if it wanted one file per note.

<comment><USER14> It's up to you. Make it work according to how you prefer to organize your notes. I dont follow the Zettelkasten system. I create notes per category or tag under which i can look for backlinks into related material. But otherwise I just use is to store everything, including lecture notes, vocabulary and full text of articles or lectures I consider important.

There's a graph server that might be helpful but I never used it.

Another advantage being able to ripgrep through content for dirty searches.

The more content is there (not just links and pointers) the more likely it is you'll surprise yourself finding links between different domains you're interested in.

For me, word definitions in Arabic for example, tie into terminology used in articles I read in other languages, because I can use "aliases" to refer back to them.

<comment><USER14> The only thing missing for me is the ability to embed content. Ie have a paragraph embedded into the flow of other documents, which I can view or edit in either places.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Another case of a blog post without explanation, context or link to the product in question. I really wish this practice wasn't as common as it is.

</comment><comment><USER17> I've been using Roam for about 6 months. The compelling thing about it is its simplicity... it hits a sweet spot of giving you some of that "Zettelkasten magic" without you having to learn much of anything. Just go ahead and note down some stuff on the "Daily Notes", and it becomes immediately useful.

The downside is that it's a bit too simple... After a while you'll probably want more features and I haven't seen them adding much in those six months. We'll have to see where it goes... they have a _lot_ of competition! Seems there's more Zettelkasten software out there than there are Zettel in the average Kasten!

</comment><comment><USER13> I am one of their paid customers.

Genuinely Roam is the note taking app I've been looking for all my life, it lets me dump the contents of my mind in a way that I know I'll be able to re- establish context easily when I come back to the notes.

I'm happy to support them purely out of a wish to see how they can keep improving it.

</comment><comment><USER7> Considering the constant hype I encounter for this online, not so surprising. Perhaps the clear lead from the plethora[0] of similar software? Though Obsidian seems to be getting more popular.

I recall reading about some privacy policies issues a while back [1], I wonder if anything has changed.

[0] [https://www.notion.so/db13644f08144495ad9877f217a161a1?v=ff6...](https://www.notion.so/db13644f08144495ad9877f217a161a1?v=ff6777802811416ba08dc114e0b11837)

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21849239](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21849239)

<comment><USER18> Obsidian has just been better, more thought out it seems, more intuitive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> At the very least it's inspiring that people are willing to pay up front for this. To me, it seems like a powerful system, but one that could be built into my favourite note taking app Bear for example. I'm probably not so in need of this that I'd pay for it ln an ongoing basis, and so it probably wouldn't occur to me to charge like that for it.

<comment><USER20> I love Bear, and would pay them more than twice as much as I do if they had an Android app as well.

<comment><USER19> I'd love an Android app, and would probably pay recurring for it. Don't take many notes on my phone, but just having read access would be something.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is great news and inspiring. Must be one of the most popular web applications that is written in clojurescript(at least that's what I assumed it is written in, purely based on how to html looks like)

</comment><comment><USER22> Isn't this just a skin over org-mode?</comment>


How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock. - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/id/2287808/pagenum/all/

<comment><USER2> It is _so_ easy to be a snarky Internet bully until something like this happens to restore your sense of shame.

It reminds me a bit of a situation that happened back when I was blogging instead of doing, when I wrote some rather unkind things about the design and aesthetics of Wesabe. I didn't really have anything to contribute - I was just being critical for the sake of being critical. The next day, the CEO of the company wrote a long comment on my blog defending his employee's tastes and (rather politely) pointing out what a dick I was being. Reading that comment made me feel like I was three inches tall.

Since then, while I don't always succeed, I try to think before I type.

<comment><USER3> We shouldn't discount criticism entirely, lest we give the world to the Uwe Bolls out there. Your post would have gone from being "critical" to being a critique if you had provided both: an explanation of why it's bad, and insight into how it could be better.

Consider the art crit. I've seen a full range of reaction: some students would completely qualify why they did everything, and be able to either discard useless criticism and incorporate the good; others would completely reject it: combativeness was either anger or sadness. Once, a girl cried because the professor (very politely) said that she needed to increase the contrast in her photos. The explanation, much like Knight's, was "well, I _tried_ hard, isn't that good enough?"

And the answer is no, unfortunately. You can't just hide the work in a shoebox under the bed to shield it from criticism. From what you said, though, earnestness is not opposite from politeness. It's possible to be critical without being a dick.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Most of us are Internet bullies now, some of us more active than others.

Yeah right. Most people I know aren't, and most people I discuss with online aren't either.

I'd say the reality is that the blog author belongs to a minority of people acting like bullies and now he tries to defend his behaviour by saying 'everyone else does it'.

<comment><USER5> It would appear that you hang around on a different internet than I do. I'm envious.

The internet I frequent is populated by people who love to forward stories around, post links to Facebook (with comments like "I can't believe how stupid this guys is", and do the same on Twitter. Web sites which showcase said stories, and maybe if they're very lucky, mainstream news will cover them as well.

I pay about $80/month for internet. I'd gladly pay twice that to access the internet you use.

<comment><USER6> Make different friends. That's all there is to it, I'd say.

<comment><USER7> Sorry, clicked down when I meant to click up...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We've been talking a lot about this article on Facebook since Luke published it.

Full disclosure: I grew up with the guy in question, and am friends with the author of the piece (both were in my Boy Scout troop). I was most struck by the fact that I hadn't heard anything about this story until he wrote this article, and feel pretty shitty about the situation.

It's easy to see things on the news and lose sight of the fact that people are people. Empathy is harder to feel when it involves reading some text and a funny caption on a web site.

I think Luke's point is that we're almost all guilty of this (himself included).

<comment><USER8> He got arrested in a ridiculous way. Worst case scenario is he'll have to change his name. People are far, far worse off all over the planet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think we're overestimating the "anonymous internet snark" aspect of this phenomenon. Back before most people lived in large cities and could be anonymous, this sort of thing still happened. People got reputations, and they rarely lived down embarrassing things that became public knowledge.

Is it really worse for some random person thousands of miles away to laugh at a mugshot and a story (someone who could meet you a week later and not even recognize you), or to hear "Got anything interesting up your ass today?" from people you run into on the street for the rest of your life?

<comment><USER10> The internet simply increases the reach that stories like this have. It reminds me of an old joke, appropriate before the net:

"You know son, I was a volunteer fireman in this town, put out many blazes, but they don't call me Billy the Fireman. I also build quite a few bridges in my time, and they're still standing to this day, but they don't call me Billy the Bridge Builder.

But you fuck one goat..."

<comment><USER9> _"The internet simply increases the reach that stories like this have"_

And drowns each needle in a steadily-growing haystack of other stories.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> His last paragraph completely ruined the entire article for me. I was actually getting emotional as he wrote about stories with his childhood friend. I was hoping this article would have a point. In the end, he had no point and nothing changed, except he still remains another asshole on the internet (which was common knowledge in the first place). I want my 3 minutes back.

</comment><comment><USER12> Of course writing an article in Slate (including photos of the childhood "friend") pushes the whole story from obscure Internet news (which I hadn't heard/cared about) into the mainstream...

<comment><USER13> Agreed. If he hadn't published his name/incident, I might be able to read the story without cringing. I'm glad I didn't grow up with Luke.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Honestly, if something embarrassing about me ever shows up online -- just don't use my name. I probably wouldn't mind providing chuckles for strangers, the trouble is that Google never forgets.

If I was the Slate author, I wouldn't have used his name for this very reason. He's not doing him any favors by writing this.

</comment><comment><USER15> To be fair, if one of my friends fell into a water fountain while texting, I would probably never let them live it down.

<comment><USER16> Which is fine in private, but I would hope that you—as a true friend—would also defend them against unwarranted personal attacks from strangers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> ... and how I came to write an article about it on slate.com, said mugshot inclusive, to further my own career as writer.

Eh?!

</comment><comment><USER18> > Yes, Neil is a real person with real feelings.

AND 30 THINGS HE ATTEMPTED TO SMUGGLE INTO JAIL INSIDE HIS ASS.

There's the proper sense of shame you should feel when considering whether to mock someone or not, and then there's communal shame that should make us think twice before doing something morally, ethnically and criminally questionable.

Perhaps the next guy who considers doing something like this will remember laughing at Neil, and will decide not to become an internet joke.

<comment><USER19> Why do you feel that smuggling some relatively harmless stuff into prison is so bad that the entire internet has to shame him? It's not like he was smuggling in two knifes and an automatic rifle...

<comment><USER18> Well, leaving aside any personal issues on whether it's a good idea to use drugs while in jail, it's still a tremendously dumb idea - as illustrated by the fact that not only did he have to fill his rectum with a variety of uncomfortable objects (a whole syringe? kudos, but ouch) but also got caught and presumably caught extra time for it as well.

I'd imagine that the public shaming will discourage him and others from doing something self-harmful again more so than an added jail term will.

<comment><USER20> No, I believe from his bio that he does Not in fact learn to avoid self- harmful acts. That's why he's a tragic figure, instead of for instance an evil one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Congratulations. Two days after the news story everyone had forgotten about it. Now the fellow has at least an extra two days of attention.

</comment><comment><USER22> I don't think anyone knew the name Cathy Cruz Marrero before she filed a lawsuit and put it on the public record. We've all done stupid things, and I'm glad mine weren't captured on video, but I'm pretty sure she handled it as poorly as possible.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> <http://www.slate.com/id/2287808/pagenum/all/>

That is the link to the entire article instead of half way down, sorry about that.

<comment><USER23> So funny, I read the second half and then wondered why there wasn't an intro into who this guy was and what he did. I then realized, scrolled up and read the first half. Still a great article, I forwarded it to my Mom.

This isn't about Internet cyber bullying so much as it is about childhood, friends and sticking up for one-another. It's also about criminals and how society looks upon those who have broken our society's laws.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Never saw this before today, but it hardly seems funny. That's how people smuggle contraband in prison.

The sad truth is that either you have wealth with which to get what you want from other people, or you swallow your pride and smuggle stuff in via your rectum. It's not funny; it's a sad commentary on the demeaning prison life.

</comment><comment><USER25> This line in the last paragraph sums it up:

"Stop reveling in the misfortune of others."

<comment><USER26> Yeah, except he said that is one thing he can't do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Link goes to #p2: hit Page Up when you get there.

</comment><comment><USER28> I can't relate. I generally do not take glee in the misfortune of others and don't enjoy such "jokes". And this whole thing just makes me shake my head. He did absolutely nothing good for his childhood friend. He just made it worse by providing all kinds of additional personal info and extra publicity for something I'm sure the guy wishes would just go away. Ugh.</comment>


The Healing Power of Birdsong - <AUTHOR> https://standpointmag.co.uk/issues/may-june-2020/the-healing-power-of-birdsong/ <comment><USER2> I've been watching my neighborhood birds for a while now and they indeed have individual personalities. It's pretty cool to know for example when a neighborhood cat is approaching, how it's approaching (stalking or walking?), and even which cat it is all because the birds communicate it to each other.

If you're interested in diving deeper into this bird world, I'd recommend starting with "What the Robin Knows" by Jon Young [https://www.amazon.com/What-Robin-Knows-Secrets- Natural/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/What-Robin-Knows-Secrets- Natural/dp/054400230X)

Jon still does a lot of programs and workshops and research and it can be a fascinating rabbit hole to dive into.

<comment><USER3> Wow, so cool to see someone reference Jon Young on HN.

I was about 12 or so when was gifted a copy (is that an appropriate term for a cassette pack?) of Seeing Through Native Eyes[0], which I devoured. That led me to his book Advanced Bird Language[1], which blew my adolescent mind. I still have both, and a lot of the material has really stuck with me.

[0] [http://8shields.org/store/audio-products/seeing-through- nati...](http://8shields.org/store/audio-products/seeing-through-native-eyes- with-jon-young/)

[1] [http://8shields.org/advanced-bird-language-with-jon- young/](http://8shields.org/advanced-bird-language-with-jon-young/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Just a small advert... We've just launched a Kaggle competition on birdsong identification this week!

[https://www.kaggle.com/c/birdsong- recognition/discussion](https://www.kaggle.com/c/birdsong- recognition/discussion)

One of the organizers wrote the BirdNET app... Improvements can help both the app and a lot of passive ecosystem monitoring projects. It's also a great excuse to listen to birdsong!

</comment><comment><USER5> I am interested in bird watching as a hobby. An "unfortunate" but intrinsic aspect of it is that since bird species varies between continents, some knowledge is less applicable. When I bought my first book about bird songs in English I did not realize that, it mostly mentioned American species that are not present in Europe. I did not learn much applicable knowledge from it.

Another example, in the /r/birding subreddit people are mainly discussing about American birds.

Obviously, this is natural and nothing to really complain about. But it often requires to "read between the lines" to understand the location context in a discussion, especially when you are new.

<comment><USER4> The Sound Approach to Birding is a bit more European. (it was my first book on bird song, though I live in the US... So I feel your pain.) It has a lot of good general knowledge, and then Merlin and Xeno Canto can help from there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Highly recommend the Sound Escapes podcast by birdnote. It takes you to multiple locations where you can (among other sounds) listen to the bird calls.

[https://www.birdnote.org/blog/2019/07/sound- escapes](https://www.birdnote.org/blog/2019/07/sound-escapes)

<comment><USER7> Gordon Hempton is legendary. I will always remember him for attaching his mics to a mannequin head.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've found the combination of birdNET and Merlin out of the Cornell Ornithology lab to be pretty awesome for learning about the local birds on the fly. Pretty awesome work coming out of that group.

<comment><USER9> birdNET and Merlin are some of the most used apps on my phone, amazing how well the birdNET would identify a bird even with background traffic noise.

If it wasn't for that app I would have never realized I was on an actual snipe hunt.

[https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/overview](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/overview)

The 'winnowing' sound they make was driving us nuts trying to identify the bird.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The mockingbirds[0] are starting to show up in numbers. Quite the repertoire...

[0][https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/ove...](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/overview)

<comment><USER11> In the morning and early evening, there's a window where it seems like all the mockingbirds are singing from the various canopies, and it creates such delicate walls of sound. With the transitioning light, it's about as good as it gets. Once the blue jays start squawking, you know the chorus is nearing its end.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> tldr; it's an article about William Henry Hudson

<comment><USER13> Who is that?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What habits distinguish effective execution from "spinning your wheels"? - <AUTHOR> I'm watching Ed Catmull's 2007 Stanford talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc), and one comment he made which stood out to me is:
"If you give a good idea to a mediocre group, they'll screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a good group, they'll fix it. Or they'll throw it away and come up with something else."
Jeff Atwood talks about something similar in his blog post, "Cultivate Teams, Not Ideas":
"I wouldn't call ideas worthless, per se, but it's clear that ideas alone are a hollow sort of currency. Success is rarely determined by the quality of your ideas. But it is frequently determined by the quality of your execution. So instead of worrying about whether the Next Big Idea you're all working on is sufficiently brilliant, worry about how well you're executing."
My question is- what are the key habits that someone can develop which would place them in the first group that Catmull mentions, rather than the 2nd group? <comment><USER2> Setting goals and moving towards them with your daily actions.

Also, it's a lot easier to do actions you know and can finish right away. If you're doing those all day you're likely to be spinning your wheels.

Example, you can spend your whole day answering emails and feel like you were productive because your inbox is empty but if you do that every day you will not and have not done anything that will advance you in life. You're just keeping busy.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Link to Ed Catmull's talk here- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2h2lvhzMDc)

Link to Jeff Atwood's post here- [https://blog.codinghorror.com/cultivate- teams-not-ideas/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/cultivate-teams-not-ideas/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Accountability</comment>


Ad Tech Founder Says It's Time to Stop Blaming Ad Blockers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/buysellads-restoring-the-balance/stop-blaming-adblockers-adab2642c571#.4e8q0qguh <comment><USER2> While it is heartening that an ad tech guy is coming out critical of the damage ads and ad tech are doing to the web, what he won't say but nonetheless implies is far more important: The free market isn't working in this context. Its invisible hand has been handcuffed.

He says users are the real customers and their interests are not being served. Of course not! The invisible hand works because buyers directly pay for the things they choose to use. They vote with their wallets. But when things appear to be free and the true cost are hidden and indirect[1], the voting becomes rigged. When there is a intermediary (advertising) that distributes consumer dollars to publishers, that intermediary's vote has far more weight, and its interests will be served at the expense of the client (consumers). What makes it more perverse is this intermediary also has the goal of manipulating our consumption decisions, using information asymmetries and our own psychological weaknesses against us, and we fund them!

When he says "ads make the world go round", that should scare the shit out of invisible hand believers.

-

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7485773)

<comment><USER3> I don't disagree with the finer points in your argument, and I'm a big advocate for paying for services directly as a personal choice. It's perhaps a semantic issue, but the invisible hand seems to be working as expected in this case. From the article:

> Consumers, today more than at any time in the past, are starting to question > the value of content online and whether or not it's worth the trade offs. In > their eyes, it's increasingly difficult to justify their interaction with > ads.

In the last couple of years adblocking has gone from a fringe thing to do, to mainstream adoption [1]. This is absolutely the sort of consumer action that the 'invisible hand' serves as a metaphor for, and it is disciplining the market. Apple touting adblocking as a feature of iOS 9 is another example of market forces working to chasten advertisers and publishers for asking too much from consumers. So is AMP and Blendle, so is the rise of HBO, Hulu Plus and Netflix, so was the commercial skip button on TiVo. All of these have emerged because a sizable enough number of consumers demanded an alternative and the 'invisible hand' guided businesses to answer these demands.

The author is not capitulating for any reason other than that current adtech approaches on the web are losing their market viability, and the number of consumers that are reaching their limit is steadily increasing.

[1] 41% increase in 2015 alone. [https://pagefair.com/blog/2015/ad-blocking- report/](https://pagefair.com/blog/2015/ad-blocking-report/)

<comment><USER2> Saying the rise of ad blocking is a manifestation of the invisible hand doing its thing is like saying the rise of socialism or even looting is a manifestation of the invisible hand in response to rising inequality.

See what I mean?

So yes, if you define "invisible hand" in the broad way that you do, then as long as we have democracy, all social and political developments are invisible hand actions. I'm fine with that definition but libertarians and free-market worshipers would categorically reject that definition. They specifically mean the invisible hand _of the market_ , i.e. of buying and selling decisions[1]. Not end-runs around the market such as voting for wealth redistribution, looting, ad blocking, or charging consumers for product A by "taxing" product B (which is what funding product A via advertising for product B is).

¡Viva la Revolución! (I'm serious.)

-

[1] [http://www.factmonster.com/cig/economics/equilibrium-mr- dema...](http://www.factmonster.com/cig/economics/equilibrium-mr-demand-meet- mr-supply.html)

<comment><USER3> I'm only am amateur in economics, but I've read my share of Friedman, Rand, and Hayek, and I am pretty sure that pro-market thinkers, and economists in general, have a broader conception of the phrase 'invisible hand' than you think. They would understand the rise of ad-blocking as a rejection of a business model by large numbers of individuals. Thus, an 'invisible hand' is guiding businessmen like the author to look for opportunities that will lead to the survival or success of his own business (the same goes for the other examples I referenced) and in the end provide marginally less of what consumers don't want, and more of what they do.

Consumers are signalling a preference to publications by choosing to not download some javascript, images, or video to their computers. It's really not that different from putting a 'no junk mail' sticker on your postbox or binning flyers without looking at them, but still enjoying cheaper postage so long as the postal service is subsidized by ad-mail. Hardly an end run around the market or an illegal act.

The concept merely states that people like the author have a motivation to pay attention to what consumers want and try to deliver products that satisfy consumer desires (which are always changing). When Apple sees an opportunity to make their products more attractive to consumers by introducing an ad- blocking API they are absolutely led by the _invisible hand_ of the market in this direction. Smith's point was that providing this option to consumers doesn't require Apple to be moral, or to be coerced, merely to respond to what consumers want and exploit the opportunity to their own profit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > We need to recognize that integrated and contextual ad placement can provide > tremendous value to consumers.

Integrated - non-blockable, because our ads will be so embedded in content, it will be (buy Kleenex) indistinguishable.

Contextual - even more tracking.

> It's time we call it like it is, and if we do that "standard" advertisements > may become a thing of the past in the near future.

Which means adblockers won't have any patterns to recognize ads.

<comment><USER5> Someone versed in natural language processing could make an ad-blocker that filters these things out of the articles. I think that could be a pretty cool little project.</comment></comment>


Dutch MoD appoints 72 citizens to cyber-military reserve force - <AUTHOR> https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/brieven_regering/detail?id=2019Z20386&did=2019D42637 <comment><USER2> This is a strange title. Why did they use the word 'citizens' rather than just 'people'? Does it imply something important? As opposed to what else? Foreign mercenaries of some kind? Or was it mistranslated and it's actually 'civilians' and the news is they're using non-military personnel for this?

And isn't this a really small appointment? Is the story actually that the MoD has _created_ a cyber reserve force? It's a very small one if it's just a company's worth of people.

<comment><USER3> You cannot just be resident in the Netherlands; you need to be a citizen. The whole point here is that you get to work 'in the army' while you do not have to be physically fit to do so, so basically any citizen (but not residents) with relevant knowledge & experience can apply for some of these positions (the ones that are non combat and do not require physical training or fitness).

<comment><USER4> What if I'm Romanian and move permanently to the Netherlands with my job, family, house, etc, as I can under UE law?

I would be a resident, but not a citizen, correct?

<comment><USER5> Correct. for a quick run-down of Dutch immigration law see: [https://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-info/dutch-expat-news/how- beco...](https://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-info/dutch-expat-news/how-become- permanent-resident-or-citizen-netherlands)

I suspect op refers to a requirement to be a citizen to join the military, but can't be sure.

<comment><USER3> The terminology was specific mentioning 'citizen' which is because you cannot join any of the state security positions, including military, if you are not a citizen but 'only resident'. The letter written by the secretary of defence notes specifically that they are looking for people in the corporate world to join but that these people must be citizens.

<comment><USER5> Dank je wel voor de verklaaring! (gosh my dutch is rusty!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You may want to think twice before showing off your skills here. Keep in mind that there are a ton of unsolved cybercrime cases and if your skills happen to match an unsolved case you should not be surprised to find yourself added to a list of suspects. If you're unlucky there are no other suspects...

<comment><USER7> Luckily in free areas of the world you don't get imprisoned based on process of elimination.

<comment><USER6> Hah. You'd be surprised how often 'anonymous tips' end up implicating people that otherwise were not on the roll at all.

Welcome to the very slippery slope.

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

I would not at all be surprised to see equivalents in other jurisdictions.

The idea here is not that the tip is evidence, but that the tip leads to an investigation focused on an individual that was otherwise not a suspect. Given how hacking computers often leaves no suspects having _any_ suspect is already a step up from having none. Motive, means and opportunity right? Means -> you are able to hack, we found your application to this ultra elite hacking thingy the good government put out, you aced it, therefore you have the means. You're a competent hacker, you were near a computer the night this stuff went down that gives opportunity. Which leaves motive, and it won't take much to tag some hacker type with any motive you care about maladjusted miscreants that they are.

<comment><USER8> This is a totally pedantic meta comment but I think you mean motive here, not Motif. In English, motif typically means more like a design pattern or theme, which is confusing since it's so similar to motief in Nederlands.

<comment><USER9> This is great. When German, English, French and Dutch go through a tumbler and no easy logic can be seen explaining the different uses and spellings. Motief, motive, motiv, motif.

So motif [Eng] is based on motive [Fr] for repetitive (something). And motive [Eng] is similar in meaning to motief [NL], motive [Fr] and motiv [De]. All based on the same root in Latin.

<comment><USER8> Agreed - so interesting to see which words now have meanings tied to certain contexts in different languages (well, mostly English probably since it makes little sense at times!) over time. It was an interesting exploration.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What's the novelty here? There is a cyber-defence reserve in French army since a few years, and quoting Wikipedia, its composed of 4000 citizens reservists, 400 operational reservists and 40 soldiers.

[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9serve_op%C3%A9rationnel...](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9serve_op%C3%A9rationnelle_de_cyberd%C3%A9fense)

<comment><USER5> The novelty here is that they are waving the physical requirements of military personnel while still enlisting them as military allowing them to engage into certain offensive actions that would, under dutch law, be prohibited to civilian personnel. I have no idea whether that is at all unique in europe or globally.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you are Dutch civilian train at hackthebox and apply :)

</comment><comment><USER12> As far as government programs go, now THIS is a good idea!

</comment><comment><USER13> A Word document? Are you kidding me? Would a truly cyber-security conscious (i.e.: slightly paranoid) citizen download and open that, from the open internet, with a nation-state actor behind it?

<comment><USER14> Which format would you have preferred?

<comment><USER15> Plaintext would have sufficed

<comment><USER4> how can you inject an exploit from a plaintext file?

<comment><USER16> Didn't someone do that with notepad.exe recently? The demo spawned calc.exe from notepad.exe.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>