The False Allure Of Group Selection by Steven Pinker - <AUTHOR> http://edge.org/conversation/the-false-allure-of-group-selection

<comment><USER2> It's amazing to me how often people get tripped up on the behavior of colonial insects like bees and ants. Because all reproduction is done by a queen, it makes little sense in most circumstances to think about the sterile workers as individuals.

A better way is to think of the the workers as body parts. Some of the parallels are pretty direct. The movement of ants is strongly influenced by chemical scent gradients, much like our muscles respond to ion gradients. This puts insects' seemingly-extreme altruism into perspective. Do you consider your skin cells altruistic when they are burned by excessive sun?

<comment><USER3> If workers in a bee colony are body parts, then why not the queen and drones also? The queen is like a brain in the body. Following on, then why not males/females in an animal tribe? People communicate with each other using subliminal smells indicating sex, anger, fear, etc. Just because animals use 50-50 gene splicing instead of 67-33 doesn't mean the group is any less an organism in itself.

My personal observation suggests some humans (and presumably other animals) are the natural born leaders, most others are like the cytoplasm in a cell, and some others like the outer membrane, showing the most altruistic behavior. Pinker has a valid point that all this shows is some individuals are better at exploiting others tendency to altruism, but my observation is some humans in a group are less motivated to survive and mate than others are. Then there's those who do survive but are hard-wired to mate with their own gender, not producing offspring. How do these two groups ("Gays" and "Losers") consistently show up in animal societies?

<comment><USER4> > The queen is like a brain in the body.

The queen is much more like the genitals.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's tempting to think that since a group is bigger than an individual, they should have some sort of power to select beyond the individual's procreation - but while groups are more powerful than individuals, groups are not more powerful than procreation.

It's easy to expect, and believe, and accept group selection, because the method of transmission is _so obvious_ , that behaviours are taught to the next generation! This obscure 'years later, gene expression' stuff just seems so unlikely - humans aren't wired to expect causality over years or decades.

</comment><comment><USER6> If you find this interesting you might also want to look up Richard Dawkins' demolition[1] of Wilson's book _The Social Conquest of Earth_ , in which Wilson (according to Dawkins) promotes a discredited and confused theory of group selection.

[1][http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/edward-wilson- soc...](http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/edward-wilson-social- conquest-earth-evolutionary-errors-origin-species/)

</comment><comment><USER7> (My interest in evolutionary biology is quite lax, so bear with me if I say something particularly wrong.)

I was under the impression that, in recent years, there had been a small but significant surge of interest in the possibility of epigenetic inheritance, evidence for which had been found in a few studies on chickens, rats and plants. This article seems to explicitly states that no such thing is currently recognized.

Have I been deviated by fringe neo-Lamarckist press releases, are they simply too recent and in need of consolidation, or did Pinker avoid mentioning them for the sake of clarity and fidelity to the most safe, "gcd" theory?

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure how it's relevant to the issue of group selection and altruism; but anyway such inheritance still seems to be relatively rare, as far as I know.

It's interesting that you call it Lamarckian - the epigenetic inheritance system itself would have to evolve in a normal Darwinian way... e.g. if genes get methylated (turned off semi-permanently) and passed down to offspring in this state, one could call that Lamarckian, but the methylation system itself is in need of a Darwinian explanation.

<comment><USER7> I assume it is not relevant, indeed: I was merely asking for comments over an unrelated point that was made in the essay, which is that there are no working Lamarckian mechanisms in biology.

I certainly agree over your second point, which I had considered myself, but that did not seem to be particularly relevant to my doubt.

<comment><USER8> "point that was made in the essay, which is that there are no working Lamarckian mechanisms in biology"

Fair enough - Pinker seems a bit too firm about that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Interesting that Dawkins and Pinkers rebuttals of group selection have gotten so much more press than Wilson's affirmative proposals. Has anyone actually seen a serious proposal of the narrow notion of group-level selection that Pinker is refuting?

<comment><USER10> The original 2010 Nature paper coauthored by Wilson ([http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7310/full/nature0...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7310/full/nature09205.html)) received a lot of press when it was initially published, and Wilson's back- and-forth with Dawkins and Pinker got just as much press back then. What Pinker is arguing against is not the initial paper (which he does address in this article briefly by repeating the kin fitness argument) but the claims that Wilson is reaching toward in his new book, The Social Conquest of Earth. Wilson's "press" is essentially this book. The "serious proposal" Pinker is refuting is this book, so this article is essentially a preemptive criticism.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How can I get your attention? - <AUTHOR>

Hello HN. I've been in presales for almost 20 years, the last 15 in management selling software solutions to enterprise for a fortune 50 company. I'm incredibly well compensated but feel I've plateaued in terms of career growth due to limited movement in our senior management ranks. More importantly, I am really not interested anymore in the software we sell. During demos of our 'latest' product I sometimes have to pinch myself to keep awake. Long story, but short(ish) set up to question: I'm really interested in small disruptive software companies. Especially those that are in B2C rather than the B2B, the companies with those ideas that make you say 'wow', why didn't I think of that? The problem (I think) I am having is garnering attention from such companies due to my long tenner in somewhat unrelated software fields. I've sent resumes and typically I hear nothing, or I am outright turned down. So, after all that, here is the question: Has being in enterprise software for a large company for so long tainted me, and what can I do differently to draw the attention of the companies I am interested in? <comment><USER2> It seems to me that you want to be involved in startups that have just got traction in the B2C market, AkA created that 'wow' factor that you mentioned.

Your long track record in a fortune 50 company might be the thing that steers you away from getting accepted to such companies. If I was hiring you, the first red flag I'd get is 'this guys experienced' \- how much is this going to cost me?

Likely, the jobs at small disruptive companies probably work on recommendations. I see your options like this if you want to make the change:

Option 1: Get a recommendation to a company your interested in and expect a pay cut.

Option 2: Find a startup that you're interested in, offer to help them out, make connections; or, join one.

Option 3: Start your own B2C startup, do it as a side project, build a team and quit your day job when you're ready.

There is nothing worse than doing a job that you're no longer interested in. I know your pain, everybody has been in your shoes at one stage in their life.

This is my email, your welcome to email if you want any advice, email@example.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your concise response. I think you've hit the nail on the head. I've gotten myself up a proverbial grain silo in terms of salary. I'm going to give serious thought to all 3 of your suggestions.

Worst part is, I actually co-launched a (failed) startup years ago before moving into the enterprise. I did 3 years of hard time with it. I remember it fondly (my wife, not so much) as a time where I could do 18 hours days x7 and still wake up pumped for the next day, because we were building something that was going to change the world! I also haven't forgotten the stress and struggle with burn rate and how we going to shut down as funds dried up. Still, some wonderful memories. I looking to create something again, that's really what this is about. Thanks again.

Edit: missing a word.

<comment><USER2> If I were you, start reading about startups, check out Sam Altman's awesome site on startup theory, it'll be a good place to refresh yourself and start thinking about things: [http://startupclass.samaltman.com/](http://startupclass.samaltman.com/)

Glad my answer helped you out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> What do you want to do at the small disruptive B2C software company? Are you wanting a technical development position? Product Management? Operations management? Partnership development?

It occurs to me that being "incredibly well compensated" at your current position could be both at the heart of the problem as well as holding the solution.

Problem: If you are already making 2X or 3X of what the small disruptive company is paying anyone in the company today it is really hard for a founder to figure out where to slot you in, and to believe that you will stick around and stay motivated for 1/3 your current salary.

Solution: If your compensation has been well managed then you should be in a position to invest several hundred thousand dollars. And that, combined with your sales and management experience might be really attractive to a technically sophisticated founder who needs a co-founder with business experience.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm realizing given my experience, operations management is probably the area where I would contribute most, at least early on. As an organization matures, sales strategy and execution are areas where I'd ultimately offer value. As I mentioned in another reply, I help co-launch a (failed) startup prior to moving into enterprise. The experience for me was really the school of Fort Knox in the sense that it wasn't just one role but was many (sometimes all at the same time).

I agree with your description of the problem. It's your solution I'd have trouble with - money is invested in secure but low yeild areas - the wife is extremely risk adverse. She's supportive of my aspirations as long as they don't touch the nest. Although it's something I'll need to consider. Thanks so much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Have you tried pitching the b2c companies on angellist with customized proposals for how you can help them sell their product(s)?

<comment><AUTHOR> You know, not really. You've touched on something. I wonder if part of my failing so far has been around the way I'm marketing myself. As in, 'this is who I am and my accomplishments' vs 'given my experience, this is what I can do for your startup'. Thanks for your reply

<comment><USER5> Definitely promote the value you can offer. In some ways coming from a large business is a plus- it gives you different insights that a bunch of 20 something founders may not have. You know what works really well and what doesn't in terms of operations, have experience with different types of sales channels, can help the company grow, etc. Too bad you aren't interested in B2B startups. ;)</comment></comment></comment>


Cavaliers reluctant to pay $1,300 for Finals tickets, unhappy with seat location - <AUTHOR> http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2016/story/_/id/15932452/cleveland-cavaliers-feel-golden-state-warriors-charging-too-much-nba-finals-tickets <comment><USER2> Warriors season ticket holders have to pay $1600 each for those seats? Wow. 3 seasons ago, regular season tickets were $33 per game there.</comment>


Deprecating the Sync and Datastore APIs - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.dropbox.com/developers/2015/04/deprecating-the-sync-and-datastore-apis <comment><USER2> If you want an open source full featured alternative (with native libraries for most mobile platforms), we've put decades of engineer time into Couchbase Mobile.

[http://developer.couchbase.com/mobile/](http://developer.couchbase.com/mobile/)

Basic feature set: local storage and query, binary attachments, background sync, fine grained access control. Also goodies like webhooks and p2p capabilities.

<comment><USER3> Does it still work against directly CouchDB? Had some fun times with the mobile/CouchDB sync.

When Sync Gateway came along things got complicated (to me). Mostly because of another component to deploy, monitor etc. Did you consider bundling Sync Gateway into a Couchbase server, even if only for dev/staging environments?

<comment><USER2> Works great with Apache CouchDB, PouchDB, Cloudant, etc. The mobile libraries and Sync Gateway all use the CouchDB sync protocol.

We built Sync Gateway because the Apache CouchDB access control model wasn't fine grained enough for most apps, so it adds a data routing function to control sync access. (See link downthread).

Thanks for the feedback about simplicity. Our next release makes the Sync Gateway default config a lot more beginner friendly and even today we ship with a dev mode that uses a tiny embedded database instead of a Couchbase Server cluster for storage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The nice thing about dropbox's mobile sdks is they have very cleanly solved the problem of how to get data synced to a server despite some users having a very spotty connection. The bad thing about dropbox's mobile sdks is they force all data to be stored in the end users dropbox folder and not in our enterprise folder.

I would gladly use their datastore apis if I could avoid having my users go through the hassle of authenticating to dropbox on their own and instead put it into my enterprise storage.

</comment><comment><USER5> In terms of alternatives: I've worked with Firebase before, which is pretty reasonable after you wrap your head around the learning curve.

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

<comment><USER6> Does firebase work offline?

<comment><USER7> [Firebase Developer Advocate]

Firebase does work offline if your app loses network connectivity temporarily (details here: [https://www.firebase.com/docs/web/guide/offline- capabilities...](https://www.firebase.com/docs/web/guide/offline- capabilities.html)). All data written while offline is stored in memory and is synced to the Firebase servers when your client reconnects. We're working on improving offline support when your app goes into the background, and we currently have a beta version of this available for our iOS ([https://groups.google.com/d/msg/firebase- talk/dOocEtjQz4w/ss...](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/firebase- talk/dOocEtjQz4w/ssCTAno33AEJ)) and Android ([https://groups.google.com/d/msg/firebase-talk/gYlnLgQ- Yhk/It...](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/firebase-talk/gYlnLgQ- Yhk/ItowUksVMzsJ)) SDKs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Damn, thank god I knew better than to use another startup's API.

Dropbox reached out to me a while ago when my product got on HN to use their Sync APIs.

<comment><USER9> Ironically, if developers like yourself had adopted the API, they wouldn't be deprecating it now.

<comment> shawn-furyan Developers that build products on top of APIs controlled by other companies, particularly recent startups, are routinely abused. The upside of these products is unnaturally clipped due to moral hazard on the part of the API provider. That is, closed APIs incentivize their providers to farm out testing new products based on their data set to others, then reimplement the most successful products themselves, and finally cut off access to the developer because it's now a 'competitor'. This pattern has (allegedly) played out with several of the big closed API providers.

This behavior has a double benefit to the API provider, because it potentially turns would be direct competitors who would otherwise work on an alternative to its core technology if not provided with an API into unpaid new product idea validators that leave the API provider the option of crippling their product at will. That's a lot of competitive advantage, especially in markets dominated by network and first mover effects.

As a developer, it's prudent to be skeptical of closed API providers, because developer time is valuable, and the incentives of API providers and consumers are not aligned.

An API has to be extremely valuable in order to overcome these structural issues, and it appears that developers didn't regard these APIs as sufficiently valuable. So in my mind, the blame for this failure doesn't lie with the developers that failed to use the APIs, but with the company that didn't provide a sufficiently attractive API.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "The Datastore API is somewhat unique in that it, unlike the Core API, deals with non-file data, so we're working directly with individual developers to help them migrate to an alternative."

I would be interested in what this help means concretely for developers. I imagine Dropbox has limited interest helping small developers who might have used this API.

<comment><USER11> (I'm the blog post's author.)

Concretely, it means we emailed everyone by hand with a Datastore API app that had a non-trivial number of users and offered to help. (If anyone didn't get an email, you might only have a couple test users, but feel free to reach out to us yourself.)

With most developers who respond, we're digging into their data model and trying to suggest alternatives (possibly files in Dropbox or possibly alternative services like Parse and Firebase).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Anyone have a recommendation for a Datastore replacement that allows you to share records/datasets between users in the same way datastore does?

<comment><USER2> The access control API offered by Couchbase Mobile should be able to express the relationships you are looking for. Overview: [http://developer.couchbase.com/mobile/get-started/what-is- sy...](http://developer.couchbase.com/mobile/get-started/what-is-sync- gateway/index.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> "Sync is hard, use our API"

A few years later

"Nevermind, you'll need to build sync yourself. We believe in you!"

Is this a fair assessment?

<comment><AUTHOR> Also: "We want to replace you Hard drive" Two years later "Adoption less than expected, you have time to move to something else"

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Deprecating an API is a bad way to go, especially if the API is fairly new. This post is telling me two things:

1) Dropbox's API was not designed correctly the first time. It should not just be a representation of their internal stuff exposed publicly. It needs to be _designed first_. 2) Dropbox is struggling to understand the difference between providing a consumer product (like their normal Dropbox product) and a developer product, like this API.

</comment><comment><USER15> It's great that they open sourced the implementation of datastore.

I can't believe they got Guido van Rossum (creator of python) to write javascript though! [https://github.com/dropbox/datastore- js/commit/e75e67eccecfd...](https://github.com/dropbox/datastore- js/commit/e75e67eccecfdc76650157c0acb5a984289e284c)

Why not open sourced the mobile sdks for sync/datastore also?

</comment><comment><USER16> I actually wanted to use the Datastore API for my app. A lot of stuff was happening on the client side so it would have been a perfect match. Now I will probably manage the user's data on the server using RethinkDB.

</comment><comment><USER17> The life of a cloud service seems to be less than five years.

</comment><comment><USER3> Looks like they still need each mobile user to authenticate against DropBox via OAuth popup?

</comment><comment><USER18> Does anyone know what this means for 1Password?

Don't they use the sync api?

<comment><USER11> 1Password doesn't use the Sync API.</comment></comment>


API to get realtime data of Gold and Silver - <AUTHOR>

I know there is google finance where we can get a JSON from a REST call.  But is there anywhere (For Free) where we can get a real price of gold and silver per ounce (or gram).  And it would great if I can get a history record of the prices. <comment><USER2> Here are all LME vendors who distribute delayed data over the Internet:

[http://www.lme.com/market- data/data_vendors_30minute_delayed...](http://www.lme.com/market- data/data_vendors_30minute_delayed_data_vendors.asp)

They also offered free next-day data and historical data, but it seems maybe that is changing:

<http://www.lme.com/historical_data.asp>

</comment><comment><USER3> Found this - <https://secure.futureprice.com/>

Also, more options by searching [http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory/1?apicat=Finan...](http://www.programmableweb.com/apis/directory/1?apicat=Financial).

Other option is to do "real-time" scraping. MarketWatch and Yahoo have pretty good data feed to consume.

<comment><USER4> futureprice.com seems to be in beta stage currently. after which, I'm guessing they will charge a fee as the T&C state that they are able to change the fees freely (and there's mention of payment via credit card).

<comment><USER3> While yes, that seems to be the case and would be smart for them to charge in the future to maintain the service. Unless the product is already mature, I'd say take advantage of a free offering while you can and until your are profitable enough to pay for a service. Can't imagine there are any 'real- time' offerings for market data. Companies like Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, etc, etc wouldn't exist in the financial sectors if there was.

With regards to market quotes, latency is where companies like that compete. Good luck with your product or app.</comment></comment></comment>


Does the physics of Marty's time travel add up? - <AUTHOR> https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28374-back-to-the-future-does-physics-of-martys-time-travel-add-up/ <comment><USER2> It's an interesting game to play, trying to make sense of something someone made up for the purposes of fictional entertainment. However, it does remind me of this exchange:

        Leonard Hofstadter: 210, and you throw in the Iron Man helmet.

        Stuart:             Are you crazy? That helmet's signed by
                            Robert Downey Jr.

        Leonard Hofstadter: So?

        Stuart:             Okay, if you're gonna question the importance
                            of an actor's signature on a plastic helmet
                            from a movie based on a comic book, then all
                            of our lives have no meaning!

Maybe out lives _have_ no meaning ...</comment>


The A/B Test: Inside the Technology That's Changing the Rules of Business - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/ff_abtesting/all/1

<comment><USER2> It's nice to know you can depend on Wired to be 5-8 years behind the curve.

</comment><comment><USER3> A/B testing is merely a variation of data-based business planning that has been taught in business schools for at least 70 years.

The typical business scenario is grocery stores, which have been conducting such tests for decades (in particular, what products to place at the fronts of the aisles to maximize ancilliary revenue), and especially beer companies (where to ask liquor stores to place their products to maximize purchases).</comment>


"Unit" Types for GraphQL - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jsphweid/introducing-unit-types-in-graphql-344974213e6 <comment><USER2> For various domains this might be helpful. There's no way to enumerate units in a general way, so I'm interested to see what "rock-solid" manifests as. The principle could be applied in an open-ended way, with luck this becomes a robust framework.</comment>


Samsung may remotely kill all unreturned Galaxy Note 7's - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2016/09/12/remotely-kill-galaxy-note-7/ <comment><USER2> "And btw, we have a remote kill switch that we can use against any of your devices made by us, at our whim. Be grateful that we're using it for Good...for now."

There's nothing in that scenario that could _possibly_ go wrong, is there? #gwx #greatpr

(Also, "kill switch" for devices that may or may not spontaneously self- combust is just about the worst possible choice of word)

<comment><USER3> I would be _super happy_ if I lost all of my data without my consent. If they backed it up on their servers beforehand, I would be angry they violated my privacy without my acknowledgement. If they disable my phone during an emergency, I'd be outright pissed off.

This is a lose-lose situation all around.

<comment><USER4> Shouldn't whatever plans you have to mitigate data loss in case your phone gets destroyed in an accident be adaptable to deal with this situation?

<comment><USER5> Because every consumer of commodity smartphones does that, don't they?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Worth noting that the only source for this article is a reddit post.

</comment><comment><USER7> [speculated based on a reddit post]

</comment><comment><USER8> Its probably a liability issue. If their phone for example starts a fire on a plane that is probably a billion dollars+ right there not to mention the PR nightmare.

<comment><USER9> If they already issued a recall, why would they be liable for users who refused to return their device?

<comment><USER10> I would think it'd mostly be a PR nightmare and they wouldn't be liable financially for any damages since the device has been recalled. Headlines like "Samsung device causes airplane to go up in flames" would really take a hit on Samsung's bottom line because of one of their customer's stupidity.

<comment><USER2> OTOH, "well, they said they'd use a kill-switch, and then the gadget went boom, near damn killed _me_ " would probably be the worst-case scenario: hence the killswitch would need to be a full and complete bricking (is that even _possible_ with current-gen devices?)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This story has no source. It is at best a rumour.

</comment><comment><USER12> I would thing that to be illegal. Destruction of property, breaking into a computer system, etc. Anybody deciding to do that should be brought to court.

Yes, you'll get a better one in return, but what if I want to keep mine, for whatever reason (for its low serial number, because I spent lots of time and money to decorate the casing), or I it's impractible or impossible to return it now (say I'm on a long trip in the wilderness, and want to use it as a GPS to prevent getting lost)?

Even if they promise to bring a replacement anywhere in the universe for free, they have no business destroying it if a customer refuses that offer.</comment>


Leaked Amazon memo details plan to smear fired warehouse organizer - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dm8bx/leaked-amazon-memo-details-plan-to-smear-fired-warehouse-organizer-hes-not-smart-or-articulate <comment><USER2> This Vice story is just part of the smear campaign.

Strategy: "We should spend the first part of our response strongly laying out the case for why the organizer's conduct was immoral, unacceptable, and arguably illegal, in detail, and only then follow with our usual talking points about worker safety," Zapolsky wrote. "Make him the most interesting part of the story, and if possible make him the face of the entire union/organizing movement."

As applied: "I was frustrated and upset that an Amazon employee would endanger the health and safety of other Amazonians by repeatedly returning to the premises after having been warned to quarantine himself after exposure to virus Covid-19," he said. "I let my emotions draft my words and get the better of me."

<comment><USER3> _"I let my emotions draft my words and get the better of me."_

What a pathetic excuse from the General Counsel of one of the world's most powerful firms when caught engaging in employee retaliation. This isn't acceptable from _any_ lawyer.

<comment><USER4> Lifting it from one of my comments downthread:

Better to make the world's worst excuse than lie in a way that'll instantly be revealed in discovery for any case that comes of this.

The surprise is that he let himself be reached for comment at all. Between that and the "yeah, I sure goofed it, huh?" style of what he said when he was, I wouldn't be too astonished to see a golden handshake eventuate in the fullness of time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> All I wanted to do was read the memo and I couldn't find the link. I'm not sure if I missed it or what but this is a common problem I run into on "news" sites. They quote (often out of context) parts of something but give no links to the actual source.

<comment><USER6> That's very much by design, in order to paint a certain picture, generate outrage, and ultimately clicks. Recall when the James Damore story was breaking? Many outlets like Motherboard (owned by Vice, authors of this story) circulated quotes and even modified documents that didn't show the full list of research references quoted by Damore, in an attempt to paint a certain picture.

Unfortunately this is the low bar set by a lot of modern journalism. We need a way out of it back to neutral, factual reporting.

<comment><USER7> > Unfortunately this is the low bar set by a lot of modern journalism. We need > a way out of it back to neutral, factual reporting.

Creating fact focused journalism is a laudible goal but I'd be curious of what specific time in history you think that this was generally the case?

<comment><USER8> Not OP, but it was my impression that quality journalism was generally the case in the 1980s (in the US at least). What I was reading then certainly seemed to be. Separation of church and state was taken very seriously.

These days, you can't start with the assumption that a story is written to J standards. Rather, you need to start with the assumption that it's pushing narrative, and hope to be surprised.

<comment><USER7> I think you should consider the possibility that the news wasn't necessarily any better just more people had faith in a few sources such as broadcast news and national papers, leading to less contention of the facts.

<comment><USER8> There definitely was bias then, but it was far more limited (with a few scandalous exceptions). As an example, TV news couldn't strongly push an agenda lest they risk losing their broadcast license. Mixing church and state at the NYT was a great way to get fired.

More personally, I took a J class during this period and wrote for a school newspaper. The instructor talked about J standards the way NRA instructors talk about gun safety--it was practically a religion.

These days, if you want facts, you have to plumb the cesspools of the right and the left and work it out for yourself.

<comment><USER7> You really don't think they teach the same high-minded stuff in journalism classes these days? I would bet you that if you sat in on meetings at the NYT or broadcast news outlets you would hear the exact same kind of intent as you attribute to them in yesteryear.

I could be wrong but I think the far bigger difference from then to today is not the quality of the journalism out of mainstream outlets but that the plethora of outlets available has removed the necessity of consensus myth making. Instead of a collected national myth that Americans share they can now choose their own myth.

They used to have to bend their views somewhat towards the major news because people seek to resolve their cognitive dissonance. Now they can change the channel. As an example, my parents are conservative and when Walter Cronkite criticized the Vietnam War and journalists put direct images of the conflict on TV they praised that. Yet when mainstream news which had generally backed the war in Iraq began to report on things going wrong there my parents were livid. When news outlets began reporting on soldiers dying and reading the names of the dead they were even angrier. Nevermind that the news was unable to air the kinds of direct footage of war they had in the 60s because the military had become much savier about the kinds of situations they let reporters into.

I think major news had almost the exact same, pro establishment, upper middle class ivy league bias it has today. I just think it's easier to confirm a contrary opinion. If Fox News existed in the sixties I think it would've run with slander stories about MLK for example and might've hampered Civil Rights. But they didn't exist and general regard for MLK as a hero became the default myth.

Again, I could be wrong but I think it's a perspective worth putting up against the common narrative.

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure. Simple mechanics like writing a good lede or headline seem to have almost disappeared.

And it seems to have become acceptable (on both left and right) for a news room to try to "get" a sitting President that they don't like, even if the result is sloppy journalism.

My impressions is that serious retractions (or worse, serious errors without retractions) are far more common now than thirty years ago.

As for MLK, even knowing what we do now, I still consider him a hero. But yeah, journalistic coverage of him back then was pretty uncritical.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The quote from Zapolsky is especially funny, because it exactly follows the PR strategy outlined in the leak notes the paragraph prior. What an incredibly fake, dishonest person. Not really the best candidate to be calling a union organizer "not smart, not articulate".

<comment><USER10> Funny thing, people using the word "articulate" are generally misusing it!

They mean _eloquent_ , not "articulate".

<comment><USER11> articulate: "Expressing oneself easily in clear and effective language"

That meaning is fine. What makes you think Zapolsky is wrong?

As far as I can tell this guy is a freaking PR genius. He managed to turn a leak into another chance to ram home his message.

The entire Vice article is ridiculous. People trying to organise a union smear their employers all the time, it's rather inherent in the task. Employers smearing back is now shocking behaviour? Double standards are rife.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What are the legal implications for Amazon from these revelations? I already know it's illegal to discourage union activity, but I'm curious about how this evidence affects the situation.

<comment><USER13> If admissible, this may be evidence in a wider case for a labor law violation. The NY Atty General was notably unhappy about what had transpired: [https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/824423595/new-york- attorney-g...](https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/824423595/new-york-attorney- general-seeks-investigation-over-fired-amazon-warehouse-worker)

...Until events unfold more, we cannot speculate as to the charges (if any) will be brought against Amazon.

<comment><USER14> NYAG also called for NLRB to weigh in, which isn't going to happen. They've been offlined at the worst time.

[https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/nlrb-suspends-unionizing- am...](https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/nlrb-suspends-unionizing-amid- covid-19-crisis/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Amazon really could be just as big as they are without going down the Walmart route of being actively shitty / evil. It sucks that they're choosing not to do that.

<comment><USER16> It's why I cancelled my prime a few months back

<comment><USER17> It's why I never shopped at Amazon and don't plan to ever do it.

The exception was in the very beginning a few books. After they apruptly changed their privacy policy that did it for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I know that that's the title of the article but I read the article and came away mostly thinking nothing was all that bad. Is it because the notes said the organizer isn't eloquent or smart that there is reason to be upset?

<comment><USER19> Not because they said the organizer isn't eloquent or smart, but because Amazon wants to make this person the face of the movement.

They're trying to make the whole movement look dumb by proxy, or that anyone who joined the movement is dumb because they're following a dumb guy. The public PR angle is that only a dumb stupid babbling person would deny the goodness that Amazon does for its employees and try to organize a walkout.

I think it's interesting the contrast with the SVP who said he let his emotions got the better of him. If the union guy says something not-smart, he's dumb and the whole movement is dumb. If the SVP says something not-smart, he was just trying to protect the workers.

<comment><USER20> How is this any different than the liberal media making Trump the voice of conservatives in the 2016? (which backfired spectacularly and led to his rise and eventual win in the election).

Before liberals downvote me. Conservative media does this too. In fact, journalism these days regardless of political views is riddled with making someone look bad to score cheap points. One of the most toxic more recent developments is taking particularly unflattering still images from high definition video to present someone as dumb, stupid, angry or any of the myriad emotions one might present in the course of existing while filmed.

Making your opponent look bad is sadly par for the course pretty much everywhere these days from politics to corporate PR to social media debates on facebook and twitter. Heck, you see it here on HN too these days. Certainly far more than in the past.

<comment><USER19> It is no different. All communication is biased, and everybody has an angle. It is the joy of being a thinking social animal :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I worked warehouse and factory jobs once. The good ones are unbelievably better and safer than the bad ones. I feel bad for everyone who was not able to find one of the good ones

</comment><comment><USER21> Ah, Amazon. Classy, as always.

I'm wasn't counting, but I must be close to a 3 year no-Amazon streak. Who's with me?

<comment><USER22> What do you expect when the CEO is a _literal vampire_ for the purpose of staying young.

It was fucking horrifying reading up on that practice. It freaks me out to even type out this stuff but it's all true.

<comment><USER23> If I could afford it, and if it really work, I'd be a vampire, too. Pay some young people to donate a bit of their blood to a facility, get a transfusion, and you might retain your youth for longer, with a longer quantity of life and longer + higher quality of life? I'm below 30 now, but I'd sign up for such a thing without hesitation even if it bankrupted me - if it truly works and is safe.

Of course it'll be many years or decades before we have any real clarity on that, but if it works, and if it's a negligible, non-risky amount of blood donated by each person which also isn't risky for the recipient, and if it can be afforded, it really feels very ignorant not to sign up, to me. They just need to lower the costs so ordinary people can easily partake as well, not just super wealthy people.

<comment><USER24> Wait, is this real? It seems deeply weird to me. I think they have a carve out for plasma, but surely selling your literal blood is illegal? If not, why can't people sell organs? I think this just introduces a sort of inequality that even American society can't stomach.

<comment><USER23> Yes, it's real. And yes, it's plasma, not blood. (It's just more sensationalistic to call it blood because then you get the vampire analogies and "blood boys" from the Silicon Valley show. I find it amusing, personally.)

Obviously giving away an organ is far more health-adverse than giving away a small amount of plasma. Unfortunately, lots of people already do donate plasma in exchange for money because they desperately need the money, and that's just for plasma that goes to sick people. In my opinion, if rich people are offering those same plasma donors 10x or more than the amount they'd get from donating to a typical blood bank, then it's at least a big improvement over the current situation. And hopefully they put limits and ID checks in place to ensure people never donate above a certain amount of plasma per day/week/month and risk their health.

Hopefully we'll one day be able to grow or synthesize the youth-preserving compounds in the plasma without requiring the donors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'd have a lot more faith in this story if I could see the memo for myself. Vice is not above twisting people's words and taking them out of context.

</comment><comment><USER26> We the customers can exert influence on its ethics and character by engaging in a consumption strike. Put your money where your ethics are.

[https://cancelprime.com](https://cancelprime.com)

</comment><comment><USER23> >You ideally want to take measures to reduce the likelihood of a given recipient seeing anyone else's copy and thus having a chance to spot the variance, but there are ways to do that

How, exactly? If you know someone else received what you believe to be the same document, what's the disincentive?

Is it mostly a matter of attempting to not give away any indication of who else may have received it, so that no one knows who could be a candidate to compare with? Or including some amount of explicitly-marked data specific to the recipient which they somehow would have difficulty censoring before sharing?

</comment><comment><USER27> Called it: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22740540](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22740540)

</comment><comment><USER28> I wonder if Amazon is throwing Zapolsky under the bus.

<comment><USER29> Ever the victim.

He threw himself under the bus.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I don't really see a problem here. It's not smearing, just PR strategizing. They think Smalls is going to hurt himself and his cause and they want to let him do that. (If he really did break 14-day isolation early it's going to work too.)

</comment><comment><USER31> Damage control really ate these comments.

</comment><comment><USER32> As I have said elsewhere, Amazon needs to have the full force of anti-trust law thrown at them and be broken up.

</comment><comment><USER33> Bezos and Amazon are examples of the worst parts of our modern take on capitalism. Shame on them.

<comment><USER34> You might like to read this opinion article: [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/01/amazon...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/01/amazon- coronavirus-new-york-chris-smalls-dismissed)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This article's title is sensationalist. Based on the article's content itself, there doesn't seem to be anything in here about "smearing" at all.

Definition from [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/smear...](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/smearing): "to publicly accuse someone of something unpleasant, unreasonable, or unlikely to be true in order to harm their reputation"

Second definition from [https://www.merriam- webster.com/thesaurus/smearing](https://www.merriam- webster.com/thesaurus/smearing): "the making of false statements that damage another's reputation "

From the article itself, which quotes meeting notes written ostensibly by "Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky":

> "He's not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus > on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply > explaining for the umpteenth time how we're trying to protect workers,"

This statement from the notes is not accusing the former employee in question of anything, and it is not making false statements about him either. It is expressing an opinion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Furthermore, this article and others from Vice, Vox, Huffington Post, and others are proving why Amazon does not want to explain for the "umpteenth time" what they are doing in response to the virus. There is only so much that can be done within the confines of a physical operation like an Amazon warehouse, and it is crucial that online stores keep operating at this time, so that shoppers stay home.

And yet, all these articles make it seem like Amazon has done nothing. In actuality, apart from providing industry leading wages for warehouse workers, Amazon has increased baseline pay, overtime pay, and enacted numerous reasonable changes to alter the operations of their warehouse. Vice buries one of the most interesting bits, which is how Amazon has been trying to get PPE but has had difficulties:

> Zapolsky's notes imply the company's attempts to purchase N95 masks from > China fell through. "China has deemed N95 masks as 'strategic,'" Zapolsky > wrote. "They're keeping them for optionality. They also want to use them for > 'diplomacy.' The masks in China that we thought we had probably got > redirected by profiteers."

Even the "protests" outside Amazon's warehouses in response to this news story are overblown. For instance [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-fires-chris- smalls-walko...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amazon-fires-chris-smalls- walkout-staten-island-new-york-warehouse/) notes that although activists claimed there were 50 employees protesting, the actual count was 15, and only 9 of those were Amazon employees. Yet mainstream left-leaning media keeps amplifying this story.

In actuality, it appears Amazon has been continuously attempting to improve working conditions, and were finally able to get masks based on orders they placed weeks ago - well before the recent social media / left-leaning journalists' attacks on Amazon began. See [https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/02/amazon-begins-running- temp...](https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/02/amazon-begins-running-temperature- checks-and-will-provide-surgical-masks-at-warehouses/) for more on that:

> Amazon has already described some precautions it's been taking, including > mandatory paid 14-day quarantines for employees who test positive, as well > as increased cleaning and sanitation efforts of facilities and > infrastructure. The new measures to be introduced next week include taking > temperatures of employees at the entrances to warehouses, with any > individuals with a fever of more than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit to be sent > home, where they'll have to have three consecutive days without fever to > return to work. Employees will also be provided with surgical masks starting > next week, the company says, once it receives shipments of orders of > "millions" placed a few weeks ago.

Lastly, everyone seems to ignore that this employee violated a direct work order to not come on site, because he had been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Regardless of what people speculate about Amazon's reasons for firing this person, no one seems to be disputing that this employee violated a requirement to not come to the work site. That is clearly grounds for termination, irrespective of other considerations.

So can we please stop sharing these low quality articles over and over on Hacker News?

<comment><USER35> > Lastly, everyone seems to ignore that this employee violated a direct work > order to not come on site...

Keep asking why. Why was this worker ordered to stay home. Was it because he had a brief, 5 minute contact with a covid-19 patient? Other news outlets say that Smalls was unique in his being sent home.

Or maybe was it because he was pushing for a union and the company wanted to find a way to keep him out. Given the article, the latter seems FAR more likely.

<comment><USER36> The arguments that Smalls was singled out and that it was already 18 days past his contact seem like notable things to look into further.

The "5 minute" contact argument doesn't make any sense to me, and only works to weaken his case. To my knowledge there is no minimum time requirement for virus transmission, so this argument comes across as naive.

<comment><USER37> The "5 minute" contact argument essentially boils down to "on that basis the entire facility should be shut down". For some reason it wasn't, and only the union organizer was sent home. How strange.

If five minutes of exposure is really that big of a threat - perhaps it is? - then why does Amazon care about their employees so much that they waited weeks to act and then only sent a tiny number of people home?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I know many good people work on tech at Amazon and that treating low-wage workers, organizing to defend their health and safety this way, is not something you all would embrace.

Now is your chance to organize and prove this is true. Google employees did it and so can you.

</comment><comment><USER39> The definition of smear: "to damage the reputation of (someone) by false accusations; slander." Where is the 'smear ' here? Amazon has not made, or planned to make, false accusations against this worker.

<comment><USER38> I listened to an interview with Smalls. He seemed perfectly intelligent and articulate to me. Demonstrably more than these people or his bosses, who put his coworkers in danger, while he's trying to protect them.

It's thus hard not to see attempts to frame him as "not smart" or " not articulate" as classist and racist dog whistles intended to discredit a courageous man.

<comment><USER40> Racist dog whistle give me a break. All of this paranoia about hidden racists is just mind blowing. To me it seems as you have a problem with other "races" _, if you hear "not smart" or "not articulate" and immediately starts thinking of the color of someones skin.

_ not a term that is scientifically accepted when discussing humans

<comment><USER38> Referring to the way working class people talk (and especially working class black people) in this way is something the rich and powerful have always done to discredit them. Go read all the blood spilt by right-wing hacks about the "legitimacy" of AAVE, for example.

If you want to be a credulous dupe and think that the richest man in the world and his highly-paid PR team don't understand this history and context, be my guest.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Will you buy the new iMac Pro? Why/Why not? - <AUTHOR> I am thinking about a new daily driver and am interested in real life considerations and pros/cons.
If you buy or plan on buying it: What will you use it for? Why choose it over a PC Build or HP/Dell/Lenovo/... Workstation?
If you are choosing something different over an iMac Pro i would love to hear from you as well.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> It looks pretty nice.

If I could get a work PC with an unlimited budget I would want something water cooled. An advantage of a PC build would it being easy to change the graphics card a few years down the road.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm happy with my Macbook Pro and just here to say the base prices in USD and EUR: $4,999.00 (US) and €5.499,00 (NL)

I rest my case.</comment>


How English non-native speakers produce good copies for websites - <AUTHOR> Hey there!
I was curious about one difficulty that I am facing when I design a new website either for a client or for my startup.
I find it hard to write good copy that will sound professional and catchy. As an English non-native speaker, I struggle to find the proper words and phrases to write a useful text for even my bullet points and the value proposition my startup is providing.
Have you ever faced something similar? If yes, how are you solving this? I would love to solve it myself. <comment><USER2> Keep it simple. Beckett was Irish and wrote in French to force himself to keep it simple and that won him Nobel Prize. You should do the same. Often you have Ideas about how you should write from your native language that will only serve to make you texts sound bad. Usually because you make things way to complicated. Use simple words, don't use long enumerations (like this), keep sentences short, if you can leave out the adverbs and use an active voice. That should help you a lot. Then just read and reread the text and change anything in the text that stops you from reading. Bad word choices, unclear meanings and so on. Even if you don't have native speakers around to proofread, everybody should have problems to understand badly written text. Repeat once or twice and your text should not suck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the input I will practice!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Being honest is an aspect of professionalism. There's nothing wrong with telling people that English is not your native tongue. Clients know anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> Clients may know but the thing is that the language we are using at our startups affect our conversions for example. A good copy may convert way more users!

<comment><USER3> In the case of a startup, hire someone to write the copy if the copy is a major impediment to growth. A startup cannot afford to wait around while a person learns two hard skills: writing good copy and English. Good luck.</comment></comment></comment>


How you deal with it is called character - <AUTHOR> http://tjic.com/?p=10069

<comment><USER2> Nice way of looking at a real story and re-framing it with a better approach based on past experience. And the old adage, "honesty is the best policy" probably does work in this case.

</comment><comment><USER3> Well put.</comment>


Smartreply : Unofficial port of Google's Smart reply framework to Python. - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Narasimha1997/smartreply <comment><AUTHOR> Unofficial port of Google's smart reply runtime (powers gmail and assistant) model to python, allowing developers to leverage intelligent smart reply as an API in Web and embedded systems that supports Linux, a loader (ld.so), a fully POSIX C++ Runtime and Python interpreter.</comment>


Divers Find Remains of Ancient Temple in Sunken Egyptian City - <AUTHOR> https://www.livescience.com/66045-underwater-ancient-egypt-city-temple.html <comment><USER2> Visiting Egypt, particularly as an American, is an amazing experience. I tend to think of the American Revolution as "a long time ago". After all, that's when the country began.

Egypt, on the other hand, is a whole different ball game. It's easy to recognize this on an intellectual level by reading on Wikipedia. But to see the history laid out like geological stratum is something else: layers on layers of civilization after civilization. Sometimes quite literally, like cases of hieroglyphics covered in multiple layers of graffiti, each layer in a different language.

It's also enjoyable to see how enthusiastic Egyptians are about this history, and about new discoveries like this one. If you ever get the chance to go, go.

<comment><USER3> My go to reminder of how old civilization is is the fact that the time between Great Pyramid and Jesus is longer than the time between Jesus and today. And this ignores even that we know of rather large settlements (hundreds) even twice the age of the Great Pyramid.

<comment><USER4> A similar comparison: Cleopatra lived closer in time to the moon landings than to the building of the Great Pyramid. (And not just by a small amount of time but about 500 years or so)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> this is old news, even the article is from 29th July there is actually more photos in this article about it by the sun of all newspapers! actual real factual news in the sun! (for those of you that are unfamiliar the sun is a tabloid paper in the uk that basically does boobs on page 3 and sports that's about it)

[https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/9571371/heracleion-ancient- egy...](https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/9571371/heracleion-ancient-egypt-temple- ship/)

<comment><USER6> American news sites haven't figured out these articles told via big pictures with captions the UK sites always use. It's a great format for low-density information and low cognitive effort reading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Fascianting chan that catalogs old structures. No commentary: [https://www.youtube.com/user/vlad9vt](https://www.youtube.com/user/vlad9vt)

<comment><USER8> Vlad's videos are amazing. I think he's explored quite a bit that is difficult to find much on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> 45m is well within range of recreational diving, I wonder if this will become a diving destination.

Personally I would love to dive ruins like this, bit the cynic in me knows that tourists would strip the location and ruin it.

<comment><USER10> 45m is well below the range of _recreational_ diving, which has a limit of about 40m. Below that you're looking at needing multiple air cylinders, special breathing gas mixtures, and decompression stops on the way up.

On the other hand, 45m is totally fair game for _technical_ divers, who are trained in deeper, longer, decompression style diving. Divers who pursue this training need to be tip-top recreational divers first.

<comment><USER9> Depends on where you train. French Federation goes to 60 on air, which is nuts in my opinion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Ancient Egypt reminds me of Ozymandias and the humility and perspective we could learn from time or within our lifetimes we'll be able to dive to see remains of soon-to-be lost cities like Miami.

<comment><USER12> They would find the remains of ancient basketball arenas

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Highly recommend visiting the touring exhibit of artifacts from Thonis- Heracleion if you get a chance.

</comment><comment><USER14> I am curious about what flooded it. Surely the sea level didn't increase by 45m in that short amount of time.

<comment><USER15> It looks like the sea level for the northern side of the Mediterranean increased by about 1.5 meters since Roman times, due to isostatic rebound: [http://people.rses.anu.edu.au/lambeck_k/pdf/242.pdf](http://people.rses.anu.edu.au/lambeck_k/pdf/242.pdf)

The wikipedia page for Heracleion attributes it to "soil liquefaction", i.e. the whole city's underlying soft soil/sand became fluid enough to wash away. It must have been eroded to other parts of the sea, leaving the inerodible stoneworks lying there.

<comment><USER16> It even increased by 2500m in the last 6 million years. The Nile cut at Cairo into a huge canyon. This area is constantly sinking. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wonder who is doing these expeditions, is it the Egyptian government?

<comment><USER18> Define "doing". Funding? Performing the exploration/excavation of these sites?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable!

<comment><USER19> [https://news.artnet.com/art-world/damien-hirst-created- fake-...](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/damien-hirst-created-fake- documentary-venice-show-can-see-netflix-1192922)</comment></comment>


Michigan Gambled on Charter Schools. Its Children Lost - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/magazine/michigan-gambled-on-charter-schools-its-children-lost.html <comment><USER2> Contrast that to Colorado, where charter schools are among the best performing and diverse schools in the state.

The cause of Michigan's charter school problem may be more of a Michigan issue than a charter school issue.

[http://watchdog.org/215385/charter-schools-top-denvers- list-...](http://watchdog.org/215385/charter-schools-top-denvers-list-highest- performing-public-schools/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm from Michigan and there have been charter schools that have been huge successes and a number that have been huge failures. It may be too easy to create them and some start underfunded from the beginning.

People are fleeing the Detroit Public school system and a larger number of failing charter schools are in the Detroit area. The article fails to mention the huge amount of graft and embezzlement in DPS and the very poor condition of the schools despite a fairly high amount spent per pupil.

[https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/former-detroit- public-s...](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/former-detroit-public- schools-director-grant-development-sentenced-fraud-charges)

[https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/former-detroit- public-s...](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/former-detroit-public- schools-principal-sentenced-bribery-charges)

[http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/...](http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/05/23/detroit- public-schools-corruption-tutoring-scam/84787254/)

</comment><comment><USER4> FWIW, I live in Michigan and know people that send their kids to charter schools and they are quite happy with it.

<comment><USER5> There are people who go to Applebees and enjoy it, too.

Doesn't make it a good restaurant.

(There are, of course, likely to be some genuinely phenomenal charter schools. The article does cite stats for Michigan that say, on _average_ , they're worse than average.)

There are empirical measures of school performance. Anecdotal happiness isn't really one of them.

<comment><USER6> Statistics only matter when you are questioning the sample size of a study without examining the power of the sample the study did use.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I live in an area with several great charter schools, several badly under- performing charter schools, and similarly several under-performing and high performing public schools, all in the same school district.

The biggest difference between those that under-perform vs over-perform boils down to the average SES of the families whose students attend the school, which translates fairly well into the resources (time, $, and skills) that a community is able to put into their school.

At the schools that perform well, regardless of whether they are public vs. charter, there is a critical mass of parents who dedicate not only their money (via PTA donations), but their time, organizational and technical skills (i.e. managing budget, strategic planning, fundraising) to the school. The existence of the critical mass of people with such resources is often a function of geography and other selection biases among the students/families that attend.

All this organizing, fundraising, and student selection bias has a disproportionate effect on school performance. In particular, government funding (California in this case) often falls hundreds to thousands of dollars short per student. So PTAs fund programs like science, art, and music, and teachers aides to support classrooms. As a result, higher SES schools tend to have those programs while lower SES schools tend not to have them.

</comment><comment><USER8> Anecdata, but I'm the product of a K-8 charter school in Flint, MI, and I do pretty well for myself. I haven't kept fastidious track of my fellow grads, but the handful I talk to every few years or so also seem to be similarly successful. If having kids were in the cards for me, I would have no problem sending them to a charter school as well.

</comment><comment><USER9> Can I just say I love the attitude re: charter schools ITT, a refreshing change of pace from the public school obsession elsewhere.

It's like I've just nipped into the waterboard room for a quick drizzle, will be riding this high the rest of the day.

</comment><comment><USER10> This reads like someone set out to write an article on "why charter schools are bad" and then went off to cherrypick some evidence, rather than someone set out to write an article which investigates how Michigan's experiment with charter schools is going.

<comment><USER11> Yeah, I suspect if you looked at the worst Michigan public schools, you could make a much stronger case that "Michigan gambled on government-run schools. Its children lost."</comment></comment>


Show HN: Conjure, the easiest way to manage feedback on designs  - <AUTHOR> http://www.conjure.io

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi guys, Just launched the Alpha of a product we've been working on for the last 6 months.

Problem we're trying to solve is the cumbersome process of managing design feedback, whether its through email, phone or in person. We want to put the feedback where it should be, directly on the design. Think Issue tracking for designers.

You can see a quick video I put together here: <http://www.conjure.io/alphademo/> to get a better understanding of what it does.

If anyone wants in the Alpha, we're looking for testers and early adopters!! email@example.com for an invite.

Let us what you think!</comment>


Tesla settles class action suit over Autopilot claims for $5M - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/25/tesla-settles-class-action-suit-over-autopilot-claims-for-5m/ <comment><AUTHOR> Owners who paid $5,000 for Autopilot will be reimbursed for as little as $20 or as much as $280 according to how long they had to wait.

Autopilot is still Beta and parts are still vaporware [0] and they got off easy with just $5M which is not even a slap on the wrist for selling vaporware years in advance...

0) [https://www.tesla.com/autopilot](https://www.tesla.com/autopilot) The $5K EAP adds these new capabilities to the Tesla Autopilot driving experience.

... automatically change lanes without requiring driver input, transition from one freeway to another, exit the freeway when your destination is near, self- park when near a parking spot and be summoned to and from your garage.</comment>


Law enforcement took more stuff from people than burglars did last year (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/23/cops-took-more-stuff-from-people-than-burglars-did-last-year <comment><USER2> Illinois just put the burden of proof on the prosecution (as opposed to the item(s) to prove their innocence)

[http://ij.org/press-release/illinois-overwhelmingly- approves...](http://ij.org/press-release/illinois-overwhelmingly-approves- bill-protect-innocent-civil-forfeiture/)

<comment><USER3> A step in the right direction, but it doesn't seem to have closed the federal loophole. Local police still seize your property and give it to the feds. Feds, on paper, have seized/stolen your property now. Feds give a nice kickback to local dept.

<comment><USER4> Yet another reminder that the US is sinking into a corrupt 3rd world country without a middle class or the rule of law.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Firefighters

The Firefighters' Guild has been formed and dissolved repeatedly throughout the history of Ankh-Morpork. Usually formed in response to fires which cause significant damage to large parts of the city, the guild is usually dissolved in response to... er, fires which cause significant damage to large parts of the city. The Guild suffers from the undying capitalist spirit of Ankh- Morpork, as those men who are paid per-fire extinguished eventually begin to guarantee a regular supply of fires to be put out. This has led to the frequent destruction of large portions of the city and ultimately to the Guild's being banned.

<comment><USER6>
      Eventually, the colonists realized that, even with this
      small army of paid rat killers, they were failing to make
      a dent in the rat population.

      They proceeded to Plan B, offering any enterprising
      civilian the opportunity to get in on the hunt. A bounty
      was set—one cent per rat—and all you had to do to claim it
      was submit a rat's tail to the municipal offices. That
      way, the government wouldn't be overrun with bulky rat
      corpses. "I always think about that," Dr. Vann says. "Who
      is the poor guy counting all these rat tails?"

      The Vietnamese, too, were pleased with the arrangement,
      but not for the same reason. In the beginning, rat-tails
      poured in as locals slaughtered them by the dozen. Their
      entrepreneurial spirit took over though, and soon enough,
      French health officials began to notice a strange
      phenomenon: tailless rats proliferating in the outskirts
      of the capital.

      Upon further investigation, it became apparent that the
      Vietnamese were breeding rats specifically to receive cash
      for their tails. Reports also suggest some people smuggled
      out-of-town rats into Hanoi.

      By 1906, there was an outbreak of plague as a result of
      the infected rat population. At least 263 people died,
      most of whom were Vietnamese.

[http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hanoi-rat- massacre-1902](http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hanoi-rat-massacre-1902)

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

<comment><USER5> The easy solution is to scream "the goverment is to blame" \- while the truth is "complex reality is to blame". These very same perverse incentives are raging in every company. The scale of goverment alone, with whom we all interact, and a lack of good PR-Work, makes them more visible.

So how reduce this? Slowing down processes was the answer, basically, replace the lack of human thought and planning, with a meta-machine which was able to plan, think, react and control.

Is there software to model this? To treat every part of a organisations process also as agents, and thus prevent free-loading and incentive perversion?

Better even, a software that remodels a process, once free-loading appears?

Also, in a world, where freeloading is soon to be the majoritys occupation, due to robots and NN taking over work, is it still meaning-full to apply this software? Are companys in such a world not just daycare-centers for otherwise unemployed grown-ups, and paid for that by society?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> CT has banned civil forfeiture without a criminal conviction. A step in the right direction.

<comment><USER8> Good for them. But my understanding is that local cops can still seize an asset, declare that it was really a Federal seizure, have the money assigned to federal government, then the federal government gives most of it back as a bounty. The whole program seems to be a way for the Feds to encourage local police to follow federal priorities rather than local priorities and sadly I'm sure the current attorney general will be looking for ways to do more of that.

<comment><USER9> Yep, and in CT is seems 93% of revenue cam from the Federal Sharing program

[http://ij.org/pfp-state-pages/pfp-Connecticut/](http://ij.org/pfp-state- pages/pfp-Connecticut/)

<comment><USER10> That article only shows data through 2013, a number of states have changed their laws in the last four years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> We have an AG who wants to take even more stuff from people. Highway men. That's what this country needs.

"We hope to issue this week a new directive on asset forfeiture — especially for drug traffickers," Sessions

<comment><USER12> I don't know why someone downvoted you for this because it was news just the other day that Sessions said this. While I think Sessions is perhaps competent as AG, I don't know why he has such zeal for asset forfeiture. Why can't we have people in these positions who are consistent? We ostensibly have an Administration that wants to support the Constitution and rule of law, and then they go supporting policies and laws that are completely out of line with our Bill of Rights. I don't get it except statism is a brain disorder.

I still say the Obama Administration was even worse--Lynch used her office as a political weapon. Holder should have been prosecuted for Fast & Furious.

It's a mess. I am no criminal, but I avoid cops at all costs just so I don't 'accidentally' get shot.

Also, we need to stop allowing police to have qualified immunity. Their role in US society has been elevated above regular citizens even though they are regular citizens. Their training is "shoot until slide lock" and to always meet force with equivalent and higher force. I live near Minneapolis and I can tell you that after Castile, I thought things would get better, but no, cops are shooting dogs, people, everything! The Burnsville police killed a guy who was whacked out on drugs--the guy had a knife, but he wasn't hurting anyone and when he tried to run away after a botched attempt at getting him out of his car, they shot him in the back for 'reasons.' Their egregious and troubling behavior was later deemed as 'following procedure.'

I think we can see that not reigning in this bad behavior is going to lead to us having to deal with death squads who act under the color of law, such as they have in the Philippines and Nicaragua, and basically every third world country.

<comment><USER13> Sessions probably supports it because he is going out of his way to be "pro police" and police departments love civil asset forfeiture because the assets that get seized go directly toward their department budgets.

It is a major conflict of interest for the police.

<comment><USER9> It goes right to their budgets and they do not have to worry about little things like due process or constitutional rights.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> also catching up with the murder rate...

<comment><USER15> are you implying that there is a correlation between civil forfeiture and Murder rate?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I detest civil forfeiture, but this is clickbait. The burglary figure is only _reported_ theft. Also, the actual metric is _value_ of goods, not number of takings. Obviously, assets in forfeiture are going to be bigger on average several times over than what a thief typically gets when rummaging a house in a 2 minute panic to get out before the authorities are signaled.

EDIT: Also, if you read the article, it buries even one of the few redeeming aspects of civil forfeiture, payments to victims. If you buy a car and the police seize it because the VIN is tracked to a vehicle previously owned by a drug dealer who used it to ply his contraband but then sold it to pay his way as a fugitive, and once apprehended the car is then auctioned off and money is paid to the family of a victim he earlier had killed, that's part of a much bigger legal process. The remedy for the unfortunate person who bought the vehicle unawares in good faith is to go to his dealer and demand a refund or take him to court for misrepresenting the car, or if the paperwork looks good on the part of the dealer, he'll have to rely on his loss insurance.

<comment><USER9> Your Hypothetical situation of victim payment NEVER happens

Most Cars seized by the government are because they found some small amount of drugs are paraphernalia in the car and seized it

I can not think of a single instances of what you claim playing out IRL, so I would love to see where your source is that shows cars seized by the government are legally bought off of former drug dealers then seized by the government from the new owners. Even under Asset Forfeiture I do not believe that would be legal.

they are also seizing houses from parents because their child has small amount of pot...

This defense of Civil Asset Forfeiture you have concocted in your mind is weak and not at all inline with reality

<comment><USER17> In general I agree with your statement. However, the article clearly states:

> A big chunk of that 2014 deposit, for instance, was the $1.7 billion Bernie > Madoff judgment, most of which flowed back to the victims.

<comment><USER9> I was referring to the hypothetical of a innocent person buying a car from a drug dealer unknowingly, then at some point in the future the police trace the VIN and seize the car because it had been owned by the drug dealer in the past, then selling that car and giving the money to the victims of said drug dealer that also apparently killed someone.

That is the situation the comment I was replying to that was concocted to support Civil Asset Forfeiture

Further the article is talking about all Federal Seizures not just Civil Asset Forfeiture, the comments I was replying to isolated that to Civil Asset Forfeiture

JPMorgan Chase money on behalf of the Madoff criminal prosecution was not a Civil Asset forfeiture

Edit:

To add, I have no problem with, and most organizations have no problem with CRIMINAL asset forfeiture, which is where the government charges a person with a crime, convicts them then seizes assets that person owns to pay restitution to victims of crimes.

Civil Asset Forfeiture is not that, and where most people object calling it basically theft. The government do not charge anyone with a crime, you are not afforded any due process or rights, and you must prove your property innocent in order to get it back

Civil Asset Forfeiture is an end run around the constitution, and basic human rights. it needs to be abolished

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> State and local governments are, at least, partially to blame for the increase as a consequence of decreased budgets given to law enforcement, including district attorneys' offices. That money is often used to make up budget shortfalls, and often nearly doesn't provide enough to competently and fully staff such offices.

<comment><USER19> >decreased budgets given to law enforcement

They could make do with what they have if they made an honest effort to make do with it.

The cost of a body on the job depends a lot on how you field that body. Equip the officer with the latest and greatest tech the cost of each officer-hour goes up significantly. Don't hire enough people and make people work overtime and the cost of an average officer-hour skyrockets

Look at how small town 4-person departments in low crime areas operate. They can't simply ask for money because the town knows they don't need it.</comment></comment>


The Pando Tor conspiracy troll - <AUTHOR> http://blog.erratasec.com/2014/11/the-pando-tor-conspiracy-troll.html <comment><USER2> I can't prove that the pando article is wrong, but I can't prove that this guy is wrong either.

Either way, I'm using I2P instead for my projects.</comment>


Dickmann's Autonomous Cars, 1980s [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HbVWm7wdmE <comment><USER2> This is the first time I saw anything about this. It's different than Caltrans + UC Berkeley we're doing as they used RTOS and road sensors, but this seemingly is mostly using cameras to assess navigation. It's pretty neat for the time albeit in quite predictable traffic.

</comment><comment><USER3> He says he started in 1977 on the vision system.

[https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Ernst_Dickmanns](https://ethw.org/Oral- History:Ernst_Dickmanns)

" And of course, what you could observe was at every PhD generation, I say 4-5 years, the computing power increased by a factor of 10. So within 15 years, we started 1977, from '80-95, this is a factor of 1000 in computing power. "

We're at 1 million times in computing power by now?

<comment><USER4> > We're at 1 million times in computing power by now?

And according to a friend of mine with expertise in GPU programming, Tesla's HW3 chips still simply aren't powerful enough to run a sufficient NN for real- time world scene reconstruction from streaming video (indeed, the demos that Tesla has done were using water-cooled supercomputers sitting in the trunk/cargo-area). But here's to hoping!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wonder how much of the research and technology from that time has trickled into today's tech?

When I was in college in the early 2000s, the DARPA challenge was all the rage. I feel a lot of the r&d from that time had direct influence on today's tech.

Semi autonomous vehicles have been around for a very long time... But the tech still has a ways to go to get to full autonomy.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's surprising how similar it is to modern Teslas, forty or so years later.</comment>


Making an Indian agency work for your startup - <AUTHOR> http://codemancers.com/blog/posts/2014-01-21-making-india-work-for-startup/

<comment><USER2> Nice article, well written! "It takes anything between $2000 to $7000 per month per developer.." similar are the amounts also for countries in eastern Europe, like Greece.

<comment><AUTHOR> glad that you liked the blog post. talking about price, india no more falls in 'cheap outsourcing' destinations. what we have learnt from our clients is: if they need quality work, they have to pay decent rates inevitably.</comment></comment>


SoftBank's Vision Fund Won't Alter Its Investment Strategy - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/softbank-vision-fund-wont-alter-its-investment-strategy-cfo-says-11573089574?mod=rsswn <comment><USER2> Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me twice... the point is, you can't get fooled again.</comment>


Ask HN: What's your income worth to you? - <AUTHOR>

(Note - Posting here with a new account that doesn't lead to my well-known online identity.)
I have a chance to join a small, well-established (10+ years) company as an employee. This is a company that doesn't hire very often - only every couple of years. It's run very conservatively but successfully. They aren't big money makers, but they get by and do it while doing what they love. After going through my share of startups, where self-hate (working to death with crazy deadlines) was mistaken for passion, this crew seems a very welcome relief.
The company isn't a software company by nature, but they create art assets for many software companies. They are looking to expand more directly into that market and have a lot of fun projects in mind - they just want a coder of their own. I've worked with them before, and the talent at the company is quite incredible. Many programmers I know (certainly myself included) would die to be working with a team of asset creators such as this on staff. (In my experience a lot of startups are run by tech people who hire other tech people and then contract out the creative bits - this situation is the reverse and it seems like it'd be awesome.)
The trouble is that the job offer is low - 60% of my previous job (which was itself a reduction from the job I had before that). I believe it's as much as 50% of the going rate for software engineers in that area, even.
I'm presently now between jobs (which is why the offer came in the first place - they knew I was now available). If I put out feelers, I would expect I can find other offers for considerably more than theirs - but I highly doubt the experience of this place could be matched so easily. What is that worth?
It's an added concern because they want me to relocate and work with them in the office. I actually would like to do that. I'd kind of like to work with people in person again. After 3+ years of remote work, it can get lonely. But it feels very hard to personally justify relocation away from family to a job that pays so much less!
And yet it seems clear that deep down inside, I would love to try it. If I didn't want it, I wouldn't be agonizing over it in the first place. I suppose I'm just looking for advice or encouragement or perhaps shared stories of others who have given up a much larger income in search of... stability/happiness/adventure/change. <comment><USER2> If it's a unique opportunity, you should take it.

Something else I'll throw in... I've been known to successfully renegotiate my salary several times. Sometimes as frequently as two weeks after joining a new company. It can be very difficult for a company to properly value and compensate for technical talent, especially if they have not hired a lot of people "like you" in the past. It can be easier to come on board and prove your skillset and THEN work out a proper salary. If you choose to go this route, also keep in mind that you need to make sure your comp is "fair" in regards to other people in the company. If everyone else is at 60% of market rate, then it's not likely you're going to get 100+% of market rate for yourself. But if they understand the other jobs and pay scales better and just don't know how to properly comp you, that is a solvable problem...

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the input! I believe that everyone is paid below their respective market rates. I've discussed this a bit with a few of the people I've gotten to know that work there, and while avoiding talking about actual numbers, they all feel they could make quite a bit more money elsewhere - but choose not to. And that, to me, speaks very highly to the quality of the opportunity here from a non-financial point of view.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> "And yet it seems clear that deep down inside, I would love to try it."

You've already decided what you want. So the only real question is whether you can afford it. That should be fairly straightforward to figure out.

It's not necessarily a bad sign that it pays less. Jobs that suck have to pay more, and vice versa.

</comment><comment><USER4> Well, if the cost of living at the new location is less than where you are now, that offsets the pay loss some.

I guess my advice would also depend on if you're married, have kids, and what your lifestyle is like. If you're used to living at your previous means, then taking a 40% pay cut would require a bit of a lifestyle change. Most people wouldn't _choose_ to make such a change.

I guess it also depends on your preference between working for someone and having your own startup. I think you can do a startup without killing yourself.

Another thought: A 10 year old company probably isn't going to give you equity. But, with their first in-house coder, they might get the web- app/product bug. Maybe you can negotiate equity rights to any product/spin-off that results from your work.

<comment><AUTHOR> Making the choice to decrease our lifestyle is certainly a significant factor in why it feels hard to "follow the dream." I do have a wife and kid and that complicates it a lot. Although my wife does not work in a very lucrative field and she's open to a little adventure, so she's not pushing against this much - although it's still hard to have her leave her family and current status at her current job. :/

Your last point is very interesting. I hadn't thought of an approach like that. Hmm...

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Where's the extra money? You say they're good, so they must get good rates from their clients. But if they're paying less than market, why is that? Where's the extra money going? Are they not charging enough? Do they have a founder that's raking it in? Are they just dedicating a lot of time to stuff that doesn't necessarily generate income?

</comment><comment><USER6> Give it a shot. You say you're inbetween jobs rights now so you've got nothing to lose. If it doesn't work out you can always leave and find something else. By the sounds of it, the company would be great to work for and you'd be happy there. You can't put a price on happyness and if love doing what u do, it wont seem like work.

</comment><comment><USER7> try and renegotiate them higher. especially if they want you to move and you have a family, they should understand. i'm not saying to renegotiate necessarily to market, but try and drag them up to what you think is fair, to that balance point where you're not worried about the implications of taking the job.

</comment><comment><USER8> Accept with an if. If you willing to up the offer to ..., we got a deal. Propose something reasonable. Also examine the reasons why your salary has been decreasing between jobs. Is it the market?</comment>


A Feminist Critique of Silicon Valley - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/qa/533096/a-feminist-critique-of-silicon-valley/

<comment><USER2> I was hoping for actual critique - instead it appears to be just angry spouting by a disaffected 'someone who worked for 5 years in marketing and operations' at 'white men in charge'.

What exactly is she bringing to the table that makes her opinion valuable. I'm not saying she's wrong - as I've never worked in SV - just curious why she's right and majority are wrong.

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure if we read the same article, there seem to be several critiques:

1\. Silicon valley imagines itself to be a meritocracy which is a harmful belief as this is not actually the case.

2\. The pipeline problem is not the entirety of the problem and overstating it risks ignoring problems which people in tech can solve more easily.

3\. Power and money are disproportionately in the hands of white men

Engaging with her points rather than ad hominem attacks and responding to tone might result in an interesting discussion.

<comment><USER2> My point is that she doesn't go beyond stating her views (and it's not like she has done anything of value that would make me respect her views on their own, sans proof).

Let's say I believe something that most people do not. If I want them to give me a chance, perhaps I should start with demonstrating _why_ my theories are valid. If you read 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions', Kuhn describes the process by which a scientific paradigm changes. And that starts with observations that do not fit with currently established models (as opposed to upstart scientists showing up and labeling everybody else a racist idiot).

Ie for every point you raised, where is the data that demonstrates that commonly held beliefs (that she disagrees with) are wrong?

<comment><USER3> Linked to directly from the article:

1\. [http://www.google.com/diversity/at- google.html#overall](http://www.google.com/diversity/at-google.html#overall)

2\. [http://www.ncwit.org/blog/did-you-know-demographics- technica...](http://www.ncwit.org/blog/did-you-know-demographics-technical- women)

<comment><USER2> Unless one assumes that industry staffing should closely correlate with overall country demographics, I don't see its relevance.

Ie that's like starting a scientific paper that aims to demonstrate that g=5 (and not 9.81) with the opening 'Let's assume that g is equal to 5'.

I'll give you an idea of what I am talking about. Let's say we had a few cases of women / minority staffed/founded companies that just blew it out of the park. So one could point at them and say - 'Look at how these guys did when not encumbered with white patriarchy'. That would be example of data that would challenge the notion that SV is meritocratic .

Or another example - showing how top CS programs have 50% graduates who are women / minorities but Google only having 10% as developers. That would also mean that something is amiss - why isn't Google hiring them?

<comment><USER4> > Unless one assumes that industry staffing should closely correlate with > overall country demographics, I don't see its relevance.

Well, all that takes is 2 assumptions:

(1) natural talent is evenly spread throughout the population.

(2) SV is a meritocracy where advancement is based on talent.

That would naturally lead to a SV population that mirrors the population as a whole. Since it very much does not, one of those assumptions must be false. There's no real evidence that (1) is false, and so thus (2) must be false. It's pretty simple.

<comment><USER2> "There's no real evidence that (1) is false"

Since there is ample difference in results, you actually have to demonstrate that natural talent is evenly spread throughout the population, as opposed to waving the magic wand 'I want to believe it, so it must be true'.

Let's step away from SV and look at academia - who gets CS PhD's?

[http://cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/taulbee/CS_Degree...](http://cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/taulbee/CS_Degree_and_Enrollment_Trends_2009-10.pdf) \- page 5. 86% male, 80% White or Asian (and 8% foreigners - who are probably mostly Asian). So roughly 87% for both.

There is also research (sadly paywalled) that considers whether PhD attainment can be explained by factors other than natural ability (it can't)

[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775797...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775797000149)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


YouTube says it will recommend fewer videos about conspiracy theories - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/25/18197301/youtube-algorithm-conspiracy-theories-misinformation <comment><USER2> Such as the conspiracy that the YouTube algorithm is rigged in favor of large organizations and brainwash media? Oh, wait... that's not a conspiracy. Oh, the irony!

</comment><comment><USER3> Well... [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19005560](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19005560)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I think it's a nice step forward. People with less education can be severely harmed by conspiracy theories.

<comment><USER4> Everyone can be harmed by conspiracy theories. Some of the smartest people in the world have believed the stupidest nonsense about conspiracies.</comment></comment>


Perspective texture with 6 lines of SVG = MarioKart-like graphics in the browser - <AUTHOR> http://www.tapper-ware.net/blog/?p=39 <comment><USER2> If you're on a Mac, the demo doesn't work in latest Chrome or Safari, but does work on Firefox 3.6. Just to save you the frustration.

<comment><USER3> Same in Windows. Neither the Canvas or SVG render methods work in webkit browsers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A bit anticlimactic after Quake 2 in the browser: <http://code.google.com/p/quake2-gwt-port/>

(Already been on HN, BTW.)

<comment><USER5> Well, that Quake 2 port uses WebGL - as far as I can tell this should work out of the box in any browser with the right implementations.

<comment><USER4> Interestingly, no. This is a Mozilla-only non-standard extension, whereas WebGL is in HTML 5. Right now neither work everywhere, but WebGL is the one with a way forward.

<comment><USER5> Well, I stand corrected then. I thought the article seemed to imply that it wasn't a non-standard extension, just a standard extension that had only been implemented correctly in Mozilla. Looking back, it seems like you are correct though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is wonderful. The web will be very cool soon.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, _this_ is the feature that'll make the web finally break mainstream.</comment></comment>


Protecting Buildings: A Late 19th Century Alarm System - <AUTHOR> https://blog.library.si.edu/blog/2019/07/23/protecting-buildings-a-late-19th-century-alarm-system/ <comment><USER2> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currents#Safety_con...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currents#Safety_concerns)

> _The City of New York did not require burying and had little in the way of > regulation so by the end of 1887 the mishmash of overhead wires for > telephone, telegraph, fire and burglar alarm systems in Manhattan were now > mixed with haphazardly strung AC lighting system wires carrying up to 6000 > volts._

So yes, even electrical fire and burglar alarms existed since 1880s.

As a side-node, although "AC is dangerous" has been used as the corporate propaganda talking point during the Current War, the safety issue of AC (or mains electricity in general) was very real. Sometimes the AC wires would short to telephone, telegraph, fire and burglar alarms, and guess what could go wrong... The solution is proper safety practices and regulations in the next decade, rather than attacking and boycotting the use of AC.

<comment><USER3> Dc had most of the same issues when shorted. Not sure how ac vs dc plays a big part here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I always liked the old travel burglar alarms that were effectively a door stop with a trip point on it that would trigger a small charge that went off like a gun if someone opened the door while you slept.

<comment><USER5> My grandparents had one that was a windup bell with two spikes on the bottom and one to stick in the hotel door. If the door started to open the bell would ring. Possibly from the family hotel from the early 1900s.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> That's a neat little system.

It requires considerable installation, though. That's a big problem. The brochure says that you have to pay travel expenses if the site is more than 10 miles from their offices in Newark, NJ.

Nest struggles with this. Their thermostat gadgets would be much more useful if they had a power source and control over some dampers and windows. But that would require a force of skilled HVAC installers.

</comment><comment><USER7> How did it sense fires? I guess heat transference along the steel cables connected to some kind of... bimetallic strip?

<comment><USER8> I was assuming the wires would simply burn/melt and go slack.

<comment><USER7> I suppose... the fire would have to be pretty intense at that point to soften steel enough to slacken though. I'd have thought a fully engulfed house fire would be barely hot enough to do the trick, and by that point, nobody is putting anything out with a couple of buckets.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> forget the alarm. I want their fonts!</comment>