A Russian Family Was Isolated for 40 Years, Unaware of WWII (2013) - <AUTHOR> http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian-family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/ <comment><USER2> VICE has made a documentary about Agafia who is still alive and is still living in the wilderness. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68)

It's quite amazing that some one at 72 who grew up malnourished and without access to modern medicine can still be in a good enough shape to survive in one of the harshest environments man has ever lived.

<comment><USER3> If you die before you grow old, you're probably going to do so as a child. If you survive birth, childhood and are otherwise healthy, you're chances of growing old are pretty good no matter where and how you happen to live.

That's why life expectancy is so high now in the western world, it's not that people are growing far older than they did in the past or elsewhere, children just die very rarely and don't pull down the average.

<comment><USER2> It's not about life expectancy it's about your body not breaking apart. She's freaking logging at 70+, look at how quickly she cuts the fire wood with a bow saw try it it's not easy especially in the cold when the wood is frozen solid and the saw gets stuck every time you lose the stroke rhythm. I've done several "treks" under less extreme conditions with modern equipment and it's bloody hard even basic camp management (Find dry fallen wood, cut it into fire wood drag it to the camp site, go get water from the stream drag it to the camp site (uphill always ;), fish/hunt, prepair your food that's easily 6-8 hours a day even with help, she's doing that and more everyday...) takes most of your day and it's exhausting and this was as a healthy male in his mid 20's, she's full on homesteading pretty much alone in extreme conditions in her 70's while taking care of a 1 legged man her age if that isn't impressive please let me know what is...

<comment><USER3> I'm definitely impressed and certainly wouldn't be able to keep up.

However I'm not sure whether this is because what she's doing is an incredible accomplishment or I just treat my body horribly. She has probably more than 60 years of experience doing these things and kept in perfect shape her whole life. Just imagine what we might be capable, if we kept our bodies equally well in shape, now and in the future.

Maybe I should feel less impressed and more ashamed at myself or equal parts of both.

<comment><USER4> What is so impressive about the way she lives? It was considered a normal living 100 years ago. The conditions are not that extreme (Southern Russia, same latitude as Berlin).

She gets regular help from others, and she hasn't been shy to ask for help. Also, she made several trips to nearby towns when she needed medical help.

<comment><USER5> The climate varies greatly between different places on the same latitude. She seems to live near Abakan, Russia at about 53 deg. N; according to Wikipedia, this has average daily means ranging from -18.3 C to +20.0 C. Compare with Manchester, UK (53 deg 28'N): about +4.5 C to +16 C.

<comment><USER4> -18C in the winter and 20C in the summer sounds like a decent climate. Typical four seasons environment. Nothing "extreme" about it.

<comment><USER6> A low of -18 C isn't uncommon, but a daily mean of -18 C across a whole month (day and night) is pretty cold! It's colder than any major North American city except Fairbanks, at least. The other cities I think of as being cold all have significantly higher daily means in their coldest month: -11 C in Anchorage, -10 C in Minneapolis, Montreal, and Ottawa, and -4 C in Chicago.

<comment><USER7> -18 C night and day is not that cold. It does not stop any daily activities - like kids playing outside. Going near -30 C and below - with regular "urban" winter clothing - that starts to modify ones routines. Don't look at the statistics, observe the real effects.

<comment><USER8> It depends on a few other factors, among which are wind and humidity. -18 C in Munich is lovely for a stroll. 8 C on the west coast of Ireland is omfg.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Many previous discussions: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=russian%20family&sort=byDate&p...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=russian%20family&sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story).

The largest is from when the article was published: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5134023](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5134023).

<comment><USER10> I was going to mention seeing this a few times before here, but also that it's one that is interesting to re-read :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Wow! A movie I really loved that showed similar (fictional) story is Emir Kusturica's Underground - [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114787/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114787/)

This summary written by an anonymous in the imdb site: "The story follows an underground weapons manufacturer in Belgrade during WWII and evolves into fairly surreal situations. A black marketeer who smuggles the weapons to partisans doesn't mention to the workers that the war is over, and they keep producing. Years later, they break out of their underground "shelter" \--- only to convince themselves that the war is still going on."

I was actually listening to the sound-track for the last week (Thanks to Goran Bregovic)

</comment><comment><USER12> Agafia is the last one left alive, and she still refuses to leave.

> She claims that the air and water outside of the Taiga makes her sick. She > also said that she finds the busy roads frightening.

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

</comment><comment><USER13> VICE made a nice documentary about Agafia - [http://www.vice.com/video/agafias-taiga-life-full- length](http://www.vice.com/video/agafias-taiga-life-full-length)

<comment><USER14> I believe there is also one on netflix entitled "Happy People" that explores the taiga lifestyle.

<comment><USER15> I no longer have to look for the obscure Herzog stuff. He finds me, which is just how I like it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Old Believers are actually not the members of any sect. It's religion, and it's just old, no any fundamentalism there. And it's called that way because of Russian Orthodox Church splits and reforms in 17th century.

</comment><comment><USER17> Reminds me quite a bit of the last true hermit story posted here a while ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8205993](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8205993)

</comment><comment><USER18> Peskov, the guy who found the family, used to put together expeditions once a year during summers to visit the family with a helicopter full of food and supplies. He'd write about it in Komsomolskaya Pravda every once in a while. I remember reading KP when I was 10 (20 years ago) and being totally fascinated by these stories.

</comment><comment><USER19> Some more recent updates here: [http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0230-friend- to-r...](http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0230-friend-to-reclusive- hermit-dies-leaving-old-believer-all-alone-again-in-taiga/)

</comment><comment><USER20> Agafia was probably the inspiration for a set of (ostensibly true) novels by a Siberian that started a strange kind of romantic "back to nature" movement in Russia. Her alter ego in the books is called Anastasia.

The author: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Megre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Megre)

Official PR: [http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/Main/English/index.php](http://www.ringingcedarsofrussia.org/Main/English/index.php)

</comment><comment><USER21> You know, I'll never forget a quote of the father after their discovery. He said "Living without salt was a special kind of hell" and that has affected me pretty profoundly for such a tiny thing. I've tried to spend my days not taking things for granted, especially here in the developed world, and this man's experience (and subsequent comment) is something I remember every time I see or use table salt. It's become a kind of central theme in my impossible goal of not taking things (and people) for granted.

</comment><comment><USER22> Looks like the site got the HN hug of death. Mirror: [https://archive.is/Ilo1W](https://archive.is/Ilo1W)

<comment><USER23> Actually if you see ?no-ist at the end of the URL, this is their anti-adblock measure. Short for 'no-interstitial' means they didn't get to show you an ad, so don't show the article either. If you simply delete this part of the URL, it will load properl.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> After spending a few years in the Yukon, I wonder how they a) lit fires and b) cooked on those fires.

We once forgot to bring anything steel for cooking on a fire during a week- long sheep hunting hike. After much thought, I managed to boil water for coffee and food :)

</comment><comment><USER25> That's rough - mother staved her self to death to ensure food for her kids, 3 out of 4 of those died of pneumonia after geologists visited. Makes you appreciate the comforts of urban life.

<comment><USER26> Actually 2 died of kidney failure and 1 died of pneumonia.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'd call them lucky.

<comment><USER28> If you read more about them you'll find that they weren't very lucky.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Not hacker news, but amazing story

<comment><USER30> All interesting news is "hacker news" (not to be confused with "Hacker News" the site).

<comment><USER9> > not to be confused with "Hacker News" the site

"Hacker News the site" is for anything and everything of intellectual interest. We're always hoping for more diverse stories.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)

<comment><USER31> You guys should really expand on what 'gratifies intellectual curiosity' means, in the guidelines. Stuff like this article is interesting, but all too often people claim how they are _really intellectually gratified_ by an article calling Trump a doody-head troglodyte or some such thing.

I would suggest that one such metric is if you learned something interesting from an article, rather than having the article simply confirm your own beliefs.

<comment><USER9> > all too often people claim how they are really intellectually gratified by > an article calling Trump a doody-head troglodyte

I almost never see that. There's isn't much controversy around what counts as "intellectually interesting" here. People spend more effort trying wrongly to narrow the scope of HN, e.g. claiming that it's only about startups and tech, flagging all non-technical posts, etc., all of which is against the spirit of the site (and bad, in my opinion, for technical creativity too).

The standards are better established _de facto_ than _de jure_ —the last thing we want is legalistic arguing about rules. So I think the traditional description suffices:

 _A crap link is one that 's only superficially interesting. Stories on HN don't have to be about hacking, because good hackers aren't only interested in hacking, but they do have to be deeply interesting. What does "deeply interesting" mean? It means stuff that teaches you about the world. A story about a robbery, for example, would probably not be deeply interesting. But if this robbery was a sign of some bigger, underlying trend, perhaps it could be._

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)

Edit: but if there's something we could do to get more high-quality links posted about historical topics, arts and letters, geography, anthropology, etc.—the myriads of interesting stories outside HN's couple of core grooves—I would love to hear about it. They are particularly welcome and we rarely have enough of them.

<comment><USER32> You take such a mature and balanced approach toward content on the site. The content is interesting and thought provoking. It's why HN is my primary source of daily news. Please keep it up!

I'm now watching the 35 minute documentary about Agafia and surviving in the Siberian wilderness. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2AYafET68)

A metaphor just occurred to me: Hacker News is like a better Internet version of what the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel used to be in their golden days (back when MTV played music videos, before reality TV). HN is much better than that, since those were still TV, and did not cover business and leadership, but that's the best analogy I can come up with at the moment. I get far more out of reading HN-provided links and comments for hours than I ever did TV.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> The Wikipedia article about them is quite sparse -- is that because Wikipedia is blocked in Russia?

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

<comment><USER34> The Russian article has a little more than the English one, if that's what you mean.

Anyway, [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this- russ...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/for-40-years-this-russian- family-was-cut-off-from-all-human-contact-unaware-of-world-war-ii-7354256/?no- ist) has a lot more than either.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Blanko – Minimal New Tab - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blanko/pjggpgkeoobpfffpknhakgeenhhlomgj <comment><AUTHOR> Hey there! I'm author of `blanko`. Blanko is a Chrome extension for minimal New Tab pages.

\- Set as many words as you want.

\- Switch between dark and white theme.

\- With every `New Tab` you will get a random word from your list.

Pros:

* Boost motivation.

* Inspires you.

* Doesn't spend much resources.

* Free & Open-Source.

Cons:

\- Not a lot of options :( Will try to add new features.

Still in early phase, just released the 1st version today, and would love to hear your input.

Credits to /u/goffstown for current logo, and /u/am_rawr for older logo version.

Notable similar extensions/alternatives:

\- Currently -([https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/currently/ojhmphdk...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/currently/ojhmphdkpgbibohbnpbfiefkgieacjmh/related))

\- Blank New Tab - ([https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blank-new-tab- page...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/blank-new-tab- page/jonikckfpolfcdcgdficelkfffkloemh))

</comment><comment><USER2> Why does it needs permission to read and change data on google.com and why does it need to read my browser's history?</comment>


Elon Musk, Blasting Off in Domestic Bliss - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/25/style/elon-musk-maureen-dowd.html <comment><USER2> Doesn't get as much attention as the other endeavors. But the online school, Astra Nova has an interesting focus: simply to create an environment around student's natural love of learning and exploration

[https://astranova.org/conundrums](https://astranova.org/conundrums)</comment>


Ask HN: Think we can compete with Yelp? Tell us what you think of our site. - <AUTHOR>

Our team is bootstrapping a start-up called MamaAlwaysSays.com and we're trying to compete with industry leaders Yelp.com, AngiesList.com and CitySearch.com.
We're hoping you can check out our site and tell us what you think about our business concept, UI, features, etc. Any feedback you can provide would be much appreciated! Our site is still in Beta but we plan to launch on Mother's Day.
Visit the site http://www.mamaalwayssays.com. <comment><USER2> How will your company compete? Do you have any competitive advantage over Yelp, CitySearch, etc?

I'm not a fan of the branding. Your name: Mama Always Says - it's too long and too easy to misspell (double A and double S in the URL).

I think your tagline needs to go. Why are you telling people not to write a review unless they have something nice to say? People want unbiased reviews, what's the point for them looking for reviews if its only going to be a good review? People WANT to see bad reviews so they know what places to avoid.

UI needs major improvement. Just doesn't look like whoever designed it has any design skills at all. Too busy and cluttered.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! We're looking to present a different way of looking for local businesses. We want our site to feature "the best of the best" so in order to do that we need to invite more positive reviews. Constructive feedback is definitely positive as well and we invite users to submit their feedback, which in turn goes directly to the business owners to encourage change. We're not trying to be another site of 3-star restaurants and C-average businesses.

Thanks for the feedback on UI and branding also!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The design needs major work. Your value proposition should be very clear and a call to action should also be clear. Simplify as much as you can (content) and apply a web 3.0 feel to it.

I honestly don't see a clear competitive advantage over yelp but you know your market better.

How do you plan on making this viral? incentive consumers to use your website/App?

Check out Pinchit.com, They now have more than 100,000 user after few months of launching.

Best of Luck,</comment>


Tails 2.4 is out - <AUTHOR> https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tails-24-out <comment><USER2> I think a better approach to a strong security and privacy would be to use Whonix[0] in Qubes[1].

It's not too hard[2].

      0: https://www.whonix.org
      1: https://www.qubes-os.org
      2: https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/whonix/install

<comment><USER3> Why do you think so?

<comment><USER4> The whonix setup has tor and your browser on different VMs, whereas tails relies on linux' firewall to funnel traffic through tor. Tails is "just" one kernel exploit away from deanonymization.

More importantly, qubes is far superior to anything else for day to day security. You can do your banking in one isolated domain, your "let's download a thousand unverified dependencies from strangers" development on another, your internet browsing in a third, you can create domains with no internet connectivity to store your private files, and it's a lot easier than trying to juggle VMs yourself. A side benefit for the people who never close tabs is that qubes never becomes unresponsive due to running low on memory.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If Tails is something you actually _need_ , I'd look at Subgraph first:

[https://subgraph.com/sgos/](https://subgraph.com/sgos/)

<comment><USER6> Subgraph is still alpha version and it even says on the site: 'Not for real use'. Until SG is more fleshed out I'm sticking with TAILS.

<comment><USER5> Subgraph was started in part based on concerns with Tails that the authors might be too nice to pursue publicly. I'd personally be wary of both projects.

<comment><USER7> Why is that? What would you recommend to those of us who use TAILS frequently?

<comment><USER8> Subgraph is meant to be used as an installed OS with hardened containers/grsecurity while TAILS is a live Debian system maintained by anonymous developers without any of the grsec patches or containerization.

If you really need to not have your ID leaked, like the UAE recently going after dissidents with state malware, you'd want to use something like Subgraph with a seperate firewall/NAT internal address as insurance (pref running OpenWRT or a BSD not the default proprietary lighthttp server 'admin portal' firmware running with full privs).

<comment><USER5> Huh? Which NCC consultant would that be? Neither Bruce Leidl nor David Mirza have ever worked with NCC, or, for that matter, iSEC or Matasano or Intrepidus.

<comment><USER8> On their twitter they linked a container whitepaper by "fellow NCC consultant Jesse" guess I am mistaken.

<comment><USER9> I think that was a retweet of [https://twitter.com/dyn___/status/738079794689019904](https://twitter.com/dyn___/status/738079794689019904) , which was tweeted by someone at NCC.

<comment><USER8> This is what happens when you write your own twitter.el and botch the UI

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What's with the bullshit install wizard? Where did the direct download live USB link go?

<comment><AUTHOR> [https://tails.hactar.bz/tails/stable/tails-i386-2.4/tails-i3...](https://tails.hactar.bz/tails/stable/tails-i386-2.4/tails-i386-2.4.iso) (from [https://tails.boum.org/install/download/openpgp/index.en.htm...](https://tails.boum.org/install/download/openpgp/index.en.html))

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The subtext here is unsettling; I really hope I'm misreading it:

Security issues fixed and announced a month ago are only just now available for TAILS users. [https://tails.boum.org/security/Numerous_security_holes_in_2...](https://tails.boum.org/security/Numerous_security_holes_in_2.3/)

TAILS still doesn't ship with a grsecurity-hardened kernel.

These might not be big deals if TAILS wasn't designed specifically for high risk users. Maybe they need more funding and open source love?

<comment><USER12> Wasn't there some recent drama where the grsecurity folks were going to stop distributing it for free?

<comment><USER13> Yeah. Was following on from this, [https://mobile.twitter.com/marcan42/status/72474588679483392...](https://mobile.twitter.com/marcan42/status/724745886794833920).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So, from implications in comments here, wording on the update announcement, and some vague recollection from past news, I'm assuming Tails is a TOR enabled distro, possibly a livecd?

Does anyone mind chiming in with a succinct description of what Tails is and it's likely use cases, or a link to an official page that does so?

<comment><USER15> I mean, I really try to avoid being snarky, but a basic google search.... [https://tails.boum.org/](https://tails.boum.org/)

It gained some additional fame because Snowden used it: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tails_(operating_system)#Histo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tails_\(operating_system\)#History)

<comment><USER14> So, I'm supposed to go to a completely different domain than the one the update notes were posted at?

Obviously I could have searched for it, but part of the reason for my comment was that the update was posted to, and this submissions was linked to, is blog.torproject.org and there is startlingly little information about what Tails actually _is_ on that site. Is it too much to ask that when I click the "about" link above the blog entry with the Tails changelog that they actually mention Tails at some point?

<comment><USER15> I think the constructive thing to do would be to email the admin; I guess they don't expect people to land on the page without knowing just a little bit about Tails.

<comment><USER14> > I think the constructive thing to do would be to email the admin

I agree that's the constructive _end point_ (and at your suggestion, I will do so), I was soliciting information first (hopefully with more details from users about where they found it was actually useful), rather than resorting to Google and eventually site marketing copy. If there was some reason for this (such as this not being the primary site for release notes about Tails, but a secondary channel), then I wouldn't necessarily want to bother the admins about it, or I may word it differently, depending.

> I guess they don't expect people to land on the page without knowing just a > little bit about Tails.

That may be a valid assumption, but I think if your purpose is to disseminate free software for a cause, and people are reaching the release notes without much prior information (such as when they are linked here) and there's little or no information on the site about that software without multiple steps, then you've failed in some small way at a fundamental level.

Clicking "About Tor" at the top takes you to an about page at a different (sub)domain, and the root of _that_ has information about tails. Or going to Google. Many of the links in the release notes are to tails.boum.org, but some subsection for downloads or upgrade instructions. You again have to decide to go to the root of the domain for more info. For an example of where I think this is done well, see the Rakudo Star release announcements[1]. Even if you have no idea what it is (which is probably likely), the first paragraph should give you enough information to know relatively well what this is about, and there's a few more paragraphs expanding on details specific to the project or release. Then it goes on to explain the specific changes (with less detail than given for Tails, admittedly).

1: [http://rakudo.org/2016/02/03/announce-rakudo-star- release-20...](http://rakudo.org/2016/02/03/announce-rakudo-star- release-2016-01/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


ACLU Has Concerns Over Military Weapons Used By Local Police - <AUTHOR> http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/a-c-l-u-has-concerns-over-military-weapons-used-by-local-police/

<comment><USER2> I was getting ready to go on a rant about how unfortunate it is that so much more money and effort is spent on what you might call aggressive tactics (guns, grenades, gas) versus peaceful resolution tactics (negotiation skills, psychology training, de-escalation techniques). Then I realized that I actually don't _know_ what the relative proportions are. Does anyone know where to find that out?

</comment><comment><USER3> Note, the case of the Michigan girl killed by SWAT :

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Aiyana_Jones>

This particular incident made national news, but when it happens to adults (usually less privileged adults), sadly, it often goes unnoticed except by local news. And then usually it's just a sentence or two on the local blotter.

<comment><USER4> "Less privileged adults"? The hell is that supposed to mean?

<comment><USER5> BME aka Black and other Minority Ethnic groups

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Maybe police should have to obey the Geneva convention:-) cops are allowed to use ammo that would be considered a war crime if used by armed forces.

<comment><USER6> Really? What kind of ammunition is that?

<comment><USER7> Frangible rounds.

<comment><USER3> Aren't they designed so they couldn't go through a target preventing anyone behind from getting shot by the same round? My knowledge of ammunition is inadequate by any measure, but I thought the frangible rounds were supposed to be more "humane", though I could have just been fooled by marketing.

<comment><USER7> Yes, that's one of the reasons why police use them. As for what kind of ammo is supposed to be more "humane", it depends on how you define the word. Keep in mind that law enforcement and militaries tend to use different kinds of weapons, and that changes the ammo they use.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It seems inevitable that as more and more highly lethal weapons are found among citizens, the police will justify militarization as the appropriate response.

Like Joshua said "The only winning move is not to play".

<comment><AUTHOR> You are gonna get all Rambo wannabes with tanks, IED proof vehicles and drones trying to act soldiers while arresting grandmas over not cutting the grass.

I use grandmas to highlight the fact that most arrests, by far, aren't of the Al Qaida or Mexican drug cartel member caliber

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> That flash grenade example seems contrived. The incident sounds like the result of poor decisions made by the police, not because of the usage of that grenade.

<comment><USER10> Don't give them military weapons and allow them to make such stupid mistakes. Would you feel any better if they "made a mistake" with a tank?

<comment><USER11> A grenade that stuns your senses isn't even closely comparable to a tank.

<comment><USER12> His point still stands in principle. The more powerful a weapon given to an individual or group, the more irreparable damage they are capable of. It therefore makes sense to limit their ability to cause harm with their social charge and responsibility.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hong Kong protests: Authorities to announce face mask ban - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-49918889 <comment><USER4> During the American revolutionary war, France was a tremendous ally and instrumental to the colonies' secession from Britain. The Marquis de Lafayette came over to fight for us, without pay, in his early 20s, forgoing his family's desires and aristocratic opportunities. His family was so opposed to him going to the colonies, that local governments were involved in finding and preventing him from boarding ships. He eventually made his way over here, and fought for glory and because of his own sense of morality.

Recently, I've been thinking about the HK scenario and wondering what I can do, but I can't shake a nagging feeling that I could simply go over there and fight alongside the protestors. I often deflect with observations like "I don't speak the language," or "I don't know what I would do to help," and yet the thought keeps coming back.

I wonder whether Lafayette would have done the same if he were alive in our time. I think the answer is he would, and that I am more of a coward than I want to believe.

<comment><USER5> While I have full respect for you to preach what you believe in, I'd like to urge the consideration for a detachment of promotion for democracy with regards to morality.

Whichever mode of governance is simple a practice of value proposition that a particular regime sees as fit for their particular regional control/political reign.

While democracy has its ostensible upsides, is such a protest at length really what's on the high moral ground?

Many protestors are students who have a large amount of time, but have only seen less of this world, albeit believing in an idealistic view. The ones who suffer are the ones who reside in HK and are running out of methods to meet ends for their family that they have to feed. Consider the bus drivers for the tourism industry that are basically out of job and are powerless as figuring out what's the best course of action at this moment?

Sure, maybe you can say a change is in dire need, via a certain perspective, it's absolutely respectable, though in the wake of being respectful for the whole population and the region, is such a protest which has lasted over 100 days truly the right course of action?

Think for the HKers, is it truly better to pursue an unstable democracy in the merit of preaching a perceived sense of idealism, or is it perhaps better to focus on economic growth and enabling an entire population to a higher living standard? Nobody has the correct answer and it's definitely up to every single one of us individually to consider.

Disclaimer: I am a Chinese so I may indeed have perceived bias, or just bias. Feel free to have a rational discussion with me and educate me on other perspectives, or even downvote me, all opinions are welcomed and respected.

<comment><USER6> I think people of HK have tried other more peaceful approaches in the past and have received nothing in return from Beijing.

Do you have any propositions of what citizens of HK, or China, can do to get more freedoms like freedom of speech or from random arrests on trumped up charges which is how the current situation started? I don't think anyone in HK want to be in this situation but for many they see it as a last choice they are willing to risk their life for.

<comment><USER5> I think the concept of "freedom of speech" is highly subjective. If you go to China you would find very little consideration for a lack of freedom of speech aside from a few radicals whose mission is to cause turbulence to the existing regime.

In Beijing, you can walk in many taxis and hear the driver blabber on to no end regarding the state of existence in China and state defamatory words regarding the Communist, the past, or the current presidency.

In contrast, in America I often find myself in fear of coming forth and stating any merit that I thought of the potential Trump presidency, and the now presidency. In professional careers I'd fear a sense of being seen as a "demoral" person and I would fear for silent retaliation.

Propaganda and ideology come hand in hand, I certainly do not disregard Chinese propaganda, but likewise I am no different to the narrative on China's own political structure that's becoming ever stronger in the West since the uprising of China.

On the other hand, what is true "freedom of speech"? The narrative has been sounding more and more to me like a "freedom to uprise and overthrow the government". Due to my limited existence in the world, I can't claim merit or demerit to such ideal. But I am simply no fan of chaos caused due to the act of "trying to overthrow a government to seek ideal in the face of perceived oppression", especially when an entire region is almost shut down and hurt for many months.

<comment><USER7> This is a total misunderstanding of freedom of speech and the first amendment.

Freedom of speech does not mean you are free to say anything to anyone and never face consequences for your choices. The concept of freedom is to be free from the government officially and legally restricting your right to publicly address your grievances.

China's citizens do not have this freedom. Just because taxi drivers are not afraid to express themselves in the privacy of their cab to other citizens does not mean they wouldn't fear for their livelihood to say the same thing on a stage where it would actually make a difference.

True freedom of speech is this:

In America, anyone can stand in the middle of a public square and shout whatever they want about the government and the police will do nothing. Other people are then allowed to also shout and demonstrate that that person is an idiot, or maybe right, but the government never gets involved.

In China, any demonstration like this is swiftly punished by authorities. On an exchange trip I went on about ~10 years ago an American college student decided it was good idea to shout "Free Tibet!" over and over in the middle of Tiananmen square. An unmarked white van appeared in < 5 minutes and he was gone. He was unharmed but that evening he was on the first flight back to America.

People may hate you and retaliate against you in America for what you say, but they cannot and will never arrest you.

That is freedom of speech.

<comment><USER8> >People may hate you and retaliate against you in America for what you say, but they cannot and will never arrest you.

Edward Snowden is in exile because of the things he had to say about America. The publishers of his book are being sued to ensure he is financially crippled and unable to support himself.

Sure, the charge is something other than speaking but the effect is the same. I'm sure in China people who are arrested for speaking out are not charged with the crime of "free speech" either but are instead charged with some other crime. The effect is similar.

I'm still happy to live in the USA over China but I still think that we can do better on this front.

<comment><USER9> > Edward Snowden is in exile because of the things he had to say about America

This is a false comparison. Edward Snowden is in exile for revealing state secrets. That's different from freedom of speech. He is not targeted because of what he said, but _revealing_ state secrets. It's distinct from freedom of speech.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It has long been illegal to wear face masks at protests in Germany, as well as wearing things like bike helmets or other protection against police force. They call it "protection weapon" or "passive weapon". German police usually films every attendee of a protest.

See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti- mask_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-mask_law)

<comment><USER11> Same in France. They make it illegal to bring respiratory masks or saline solution to protests, then they flood them with tear gas; they launch military-grade grenades (GLI-F4) into crowds, harming and maiming indiscriminately, and prosecute those who kick them back. And when people stop going to protests they can claim that they won the battle of ideas.

<comment><USER12> Liberté, égalité, fraternité, indeed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Will this have any practical effect on the protests? Haven't the authorities already declared that protesters are engaged in illegal activity, so what's one more act of civil disobedience?

Also, aren't the "masks" worn by many of the protesters the kind of thing that's often worn in Asia for hygiene and pollution reasons, so this would ban even innocent behavior?

<comment><USER14> Make everything illegal and selectively enforce against people the state doesn't like is a viable strategy for an authoritarian government.

This might be a problem for the HK government, but I'm not sure rule of law is as big of a selling point to global capital as it used to be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think it odd that we have to look at another country losing its rights to understand the feeling of loss. Much of what they have been doing in Hong Kong would never have been allowed here in America.

<comment><USER6> Can you come with some concrete examples of what would have not been allowed? The US is still a very free country with robust freedom of speech and mostly fair and open court cases.

<comment><USER16> If protesters in the US were throwing petrol bombs, the police in the US would begin shooting people en masse.

If there were months of mass protests in the US, the national guard would be called in to stop them, with full military equipment. This is what happened in Ferguson, for instance, and the police there did shoot and kill at least one protester.

What happens domestically, we refer to as riots. What happens internationally, we refer to as protests. During the LA Riots, over 10,000 national guard troops were called in, and the police and Guardsmen killed at least ten people - either rioters, or protesters, depending on your perspective.

<comment><USER17> IMO, once you are no longer peaceful, you are rioting. You can't claim to be protesting if you're running around lighting cars on fire because you're harming innocent bystanders. Once you harm someone who is not involved, you're rioting.

<comment><USER16> And that's a perfectly defensible position, as long you apply it equally.

Many of the protests in Hong Kong have been anything but peaceful. They are throwing Molotov cocktails, destroying buildings, smashing and flipping cars, setting fires, breaking into the Legislative Council building, taking over the airport, physically attacking the police.

In Hong Kong, the protests began over an extradition bill which would have subjected Hong Kongers to Mainland China's opaque justice system. That's a pretty good cause for protest, but it doesn't strike me as significantly more noble than wanting the police in the US to stop shooting young black men, for instance.

Here's my weird position: I support the Hong Kong protesters and their goals, and even their methods. At the same time, I think it's weird that Western media consistently portrays the police in Hong Kong as aggressive. To my mind, they've been significantly _more restrained_ than the police in most Western countries would be.

If people are rioting, it's perfectly natural the police would take aggressive actions to stop that. No one gets to decide that it's okay to riot without repercussion.

At the same time, some of the fastest positive change that has happened in society came as a result of rioting. Only history gets to decide if it was justified.

<comment><USER18> You're right, but I imagine that is more of a racial thing. White protestors get away with much more it seems than the black.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I have so much respect for those protesters.

<comment><USER20> Agreed. They've been educated about history and understand what's at stake. I wish the rest of democratic societies would already be taking a strong stand with them. The tyrannical powers in control of China at the moment, much like Trump's rise, will be countered at the HK situations wakens us to the behaviour of China's tyrants until now relative limited light being shone on their bad behaviours.

Edit: Especially curious if downvotes in heavily political, democracy vs. tyrant topics are legitimate or suppression; another reason downvote mechanism is terrible: if you have something legitimate to counter, then spend any effort writing something qualitative.

<comment><USER21> Please don't compare the Chinese government's actions to the Trump administration. They're not even remotely close.

<comment><USER22> They aren't close because they don't need to at the moment. All "western" nations populations have been divided and conquered long time ago so that for every group of righties/lefties protesting down the street there's an opposed lefties/righties countering group somewhere making the news, so that for any 50% of the population the enemy becomes the other 50%, not the rulers, and thanks to well crafted propaganda the reasons for protesting usually reflect that. This is done on purpose of course. The day any western government fails at dividing people and does something that can unite all protesters is the day you will see police and the military shooting at people. In every country or culture the 1st rule for any government officer is protect the status quo at all cost (then picture as traitors whose who refuse to). People start to die when they no longer are lured into fighting against their peers, and both them and police (which now is seen rather as enemy than external player) refuse to back off.

Give people enough important motives to protest united against their government (that is, no food, no house, no jobs) and you will see bullets and corpses pretty soon, no matter their nationality/religion/color/sex/whatever. Maintaining the status quo at all costs against well motivated protesters always escalates into violence and deaths; it happened in 3rd world countries and in one of the most developed places in the world, why should we believe it can't happen to us?

<comment><USER20> The scenario you paint here would only be true if a society's population truly were "enemies" and holding very different human beliefs, wants - <USER2> fortunately isn't the case - because the people of a nation evolve together generally; the problem arises when you mix two different people from different nations with different cultures, where this "50/50" destructive behaviour can exist - say when the native Americans were mostly wiped out, another scenario would be if somehow you dropped 10%+ of China's population into America all of a sudden or vice-versa. Historically this was a common war tactic - and still to this day we can see it in Canada, for example, with student protestors who are pro-China, indoctrinated into pro-China doctrine - the hypocrisy of having the freedom to protest in support of a nation state who disallows free speech and reigns supreme with censorship; we can't judge these people harshly, with compassion we understand they've been indoctrinated - their own safety and that of their friends and family may also rest in the balance - and it makes me feel like an important part of immigration should be education to de- brainwash them to make sure they understand these mechanisms of tyrants, suppression-repression of freedom, of control.

Otherwise you paint an unrealistic, bleak picture which isn't grounded in reality if there's optimism and humanity included.

<comment><USER22> "Otherwise you paint an unrealistic, bleak picture which isn't grounded in reality if there's optimism and humanity included."

True, still many western countries had examples of episodic police brutality causing tortures [1] and fatalities among protestors, and probably it was other people humanity and optimism, along with public outrage, to keep these events episodic. But the point is: what happens if after the first protestor dies the crowd doesn't disperse and the public is too distracted? I don't see either police or the military saying "oh sorry, we pushed it too much... feel free to continue but please don't smash windows". I also see as a revealing sign of corruption the almost ubiquitous police immunity: keeping them untouchable is what ensures their total alignment to the higher powers.

[1] plenty of examples in the 60s, also search for "genoa 2001 diaz": the Wikipedia article sums up pretty well what happened, and there are some rather graphic videos around showing it. That carnage, whose most explicit videos needed some time before surfacing, didn't make the news globally as it should have probably for happening less than 2 months before 9/11, an event which obviously hit the reset button on just about everything.

<comment><USER20> The biggest difference between now and "then" is the internet and our connectivity, audio and video + live streaming for real-time evidence gathering; yes, I'm aware bad actors are capable of signal jamming in an area or at scale, or taking down the internet - is why the democratic nations and people that are free must strengthen in case of a future confrontation with these bad actors, and likewise technology like mesh networks are expanding - although a nation could block mesh networks too with enough effort - <USER3> really then blocking communications is more a signal to the rest of the world that we're dealing with a tyrannical government.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> It really feels like democracy is slowly dying all over the world.

<comment><USER13> > It really feels like democracy is slowly dying all over the world.

If it seems that way, it's because we've stopped fighting for it. Any _regime_ without some basic level of true democratic representation and civil liberties should be the subject of official embargoes and individual boycotts. Unfortunately, many have sold out democracy to please the all-important shareholders or just to take advantage of cheap stuff.

<comment><USER24> The supremely naive "end of history"-era thinking has a lot of inertia. Now it's unclear who's left to fight for Democracy as the old champions are all dead and current generations have no concept of what that would even mean since they've just been reaping the rewards their whole lives.

<comment><USER25> Ah yes, all us youngings reaping the rewards of those that have come before us. Insane housing and real estate prices that few can afford, insane university tuition that few can afford, the pharmaceutical industry pushing dangerous drugs with impunity, the war on drugs costing trillions of dollars and leading to the militarization of police and a massive amount of incarcerated non-violent offenders, the destruction of the environment being covered up and lobbied for by massive oil and gas corporations, social security being depleted before I'll ever get to utilize it, huge downturns in the economy caused by irresponsible spending and lending, and countless other "rewards" from the older generations that we now have to fix while simultaneously getting whined at about how we're all lazy slackers that are really causing the downfall of society. I don't buy into the "end of history" thinking, but it is incredible how many people take no responsibility for things that happened during their life time and completely ignore all of the extreme negative impacts those had on younger generations and society as a whole

<comment><USER26> And what have we done about that? I'm technically Gen Y, and I'll be the first to admit that with regards to protesting my generation seems:

\- Uninformed

\- Undisciplined

\- Lazy

\- Uncoordinated

People were self-organizing large civil society organizations and marching through clouds of tear gas and worse in the 1960-90s... and yet this current generation seems to think that posting a rant on Facebook is valuable?

Incoherent, naive anger is useless.

<comment><USER12> Most of us just don't think we CAN do anything. It seems the world is run by the rich for the rich. We vote but we don't feel that anything we can do actually will effect any change.

<comment><USER26> One could make the argument that wealth inequality is higher than it was in previous eras.

But there's always been a major disparity between capital owners and everyone else. Even in the 60s. And certainly at the turn of the century (1850-1920), when US antitrust law was actually first created.

So maybe media centralization? But the 1960s featured a limited number of media channels controlled by a few owners (albeit with some paragons of objective, journalistic integrity). And the turn of the century was the heyday of centralized newspaper control.

I'm honestly casting about for an external _why_ and am hard-pressed to enunciate a coherent narrative.

And in lieu of one, the only thing that's left are that people simply _aren 't_ actively protesting.

Whether they're making that choice because of hopelessness or laziness, I don't really care. Because ultimately, it's a _choice_.

Make the other one.

(And it seems we might finally be, with regards to climate)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Help - Getting started with coding web apps - <AUTHOR>

I am sure you get this often so I apologize. I want to get into coding my own web applications. I know html, css, and have taken some stabs at learning php. My problem is that all of the tutorials are so abstract and I don't see how I can apply some of the basic stuff. So my question is: What programming language should I be learning to write solid web apps and where could I find some resources for beginners that help me apply the basics.<p>This newbie appreciates the help. <comment><USER2> As a hobby programmer I had the same problem some years ago. IMHO, any programming language currently used to write web apps enables you to write "solid" web apps.

But I am wondering why you find all tutorials to be "abstract" although you already looked into some PHP tutorials. PHP has a very flat learning curve and there are tons of easy newbie tutorials out there. It's PHP's biggest advantage! One can hardly call PHP consistent or concise. But its documentation and general support is best. So why should you have problems?

After all, programming is very much all about abstraction, isn't it?

Let's say, there's a web site with 10 or 20 static pages. It's "abstraction" to replace their common header and footer by a simple PHP print statement, so you wouldn't have to edit each page for one change in the header/footer. It's abstraction to save the content of each page into a database and to add some sort of dynamic navigation. It's abstraction to design the database for "news entries" that will be displayed in a list or a detail view.

So I may be wrong -- and I apologize in advance if I am --, but maybe you simply lack some basics?

In this case, I'd advise you to start with Python. It's a consistent, concise, and well-supported language. A series of steps may include:

(1) Learning Python: <http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/>

(2) Learning DB normalization: [http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/1428511/Da...](http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/1428511/Database- Normalization.htm)

(3) Learning basic SQL: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL#Language_elements>

(4) Learning Regular Expressions: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression>

(5) Learning Django 1.0: <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//>

After (1), you should be able to write simple command line apps to help you simplify computer usage. (2) is necessary for understanding Relational Databases and (3) for understanding SQL, later. (4) is a prerequisite for the final step, (5). Django is a web development framework comparable to Ruby On Rails.

From a newbie point of view, it has the following advantages: It comes with its own small web server, so you don't need to deal with Apache yet. It also comes with a template engine, so you learn to organize HTML into templates. It also comes with database abstraction so you need no real SQL in the beginning, just the basics of step (2) and (3). It also comes with an admin interface and several other build-in features so you don't need to deal with these. It has lots of add-ons called 'apps' you can study to gain a basic overview on typical problems when developing web pages.

Django uses an MTV (Model, Template, View) architecture, so you can write CRUD (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Create,_read,_update_and_delete>) functions easily -- the core stuff of nearly all dynamic web applications.

But there are also some disadvantages: Its URL system needs an understanding of regular expressions, thus you'd need (4). But it still may be frustrating. Its documentation is rather good, but unfortunately not written with web development newbies in mind. That especially holds true for "Tutorial: Writing your first Django application".

To get around the second problem, read the following chapters in the following order:

(1) [http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//intro/install/#intro-i...](http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//intro/install/#intro- install) \-- Installation

(2) <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/http/urls/> \-- This will enable you to link URLs to certain "views" and thereby to design your URL structure. You will need some understanding of Regular Expressions here.

(3) <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/http/views/> \-- This will enable you to write "Views", a response for a URL call, in the beginning probably just a "Hello, World" response.

(4) [http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/templates/#topi...](http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/templates/#topics- templates--) Templates will allow you to split your HTML into separate pieces and make them more independent. If you have done this, you can alter the responses from (3) to use the templates and return the content of variables.

(5) <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/db/models/> \-- This allows you to model your data, for example some news/blog entries.

(6) [http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//ref/contrib/admin/#ref...](http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//ref/contrib/admin/#ref- contrib-admin) \-- This enables the Admin interface so you can enter some example data for your models without SQL.

(7) <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/db/queries/> \-- This teaches you make simple queries on the example data. At this point, you can alter your Views again, to fetch some data and display this in your template.

(8) [http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/forms/#topics-f...](http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.0//topics/forms/#topics- forms-index) \-- This lets you enter and edit data without the admin interface. You may add some Views and Templates for this.

And there you are! That's the basics of web development: Fetch some data from somewhere, maybe modify it somehow, then provide views on the results by using a URL structure. Maybe, provide forms to enter and edit data if necessary.

The rest is basically just repetition thereof and some technical details (Protocols, etc.) Most of the time, Django will provide an easy means to solve these boring problems. If you got this far, you can dive into all the details: Apache, SQL with PostgreSQL, Email, Feeds, User management, Internationalization, Testing, different Content types, etc.

Of course, you may also switch the framework or language, then.

Again, I apologize if I misunderstood your question.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you so much, I will dive right into this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> "What programming language should I be learning ..." Well working over a problem is best way to learn and understand. Instead of aiming to learning a programming language or something more, try applying the knowledge you already have and come up with a small web-app that does something (anything! small or big). As you walk this path of learning by doing, you will learn a lot more than you might think you've learned after reading a book. Keep a tap on good tutorials and inspirational articles - try shmashingmagazine, nettuts, psdtuts, thinkvitamin... etc

After done with say, PHP also try getting a taste of MVC, try CodeIgnitor...

I notice no mention of MySQL or other databases mentioned by you.... do learn them too, after all you would be playing around with data :) presenting it in different ways.

</comment><comment><USER4> PHP is a good start to take a stab at web dev. The fact that many web hosts support it also means that hosting is cheaper for you go out and try something.

Since you are starting out I would suggest you to write a couple of small webapps before you go for the one you are into. I do this for every new language I learn and it's helped me a lot. Just reading thru a tutorial totally different from doing it and getting first-hand experience, especially if you are going to work with Python and Ruby for webapps.

I had a odd but great experience when I first learnt PHP, that was around 4yrs ago. Every time I did something, I found there was a better way to do it and the PHP documentation on the website is great (and the comments for every page on the docs)

And also learn Object Oriented stuff in PHP. Learn to use classes and objects. This opens up a whoile new shelf of resources for you. Coz then you can start using classes that others have created for specific tasks. phpclasses.org has a pretty huge database of classes. Also as you go, just get started with using an MVC. Use CakePHP (I use it and its good) or CodeIgniter or Kohana (as many here suggest often).

I suggested PHP coz it also saves you the pain of learning how to deploy your app. For PHP it's pretty straight forward, just upload the files and it works. Good for starters.

P.S: Don't listen to me. Just do it your own way. Coz that's what you'll do anyway. It's never possible to follow suggestions/rules, like a sworn monk. And that's how you'll enjoy learning :P

<comment><USER3> "Don't listen to me. Just do it your own way. Coz that's what you'll do anyway. It's never possible to follow suggestions/rules, like a sworn monk. And that's how you'll enjoy learning :P"

That's true :) <http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/27>

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think its more important to find a starter application or site that you care about. If you are interested you will find a way to make it work and learn the language along the way. I ended up learning a lot from my first site, scrapping the whole thing and rewriting twice. I think that's just how it works. Find an idea that you care about and make it work.</comment>


A Cynics Guide to Stanford (Or: Majoring in Unicorn) - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/how-to-network-through-stanford-university.html <comment><USER2> Particularly cringe-worthy quote from the article, from a Stanford student:

"There were probably one in ten or maybe one in five people at Stanford who are really interested in technology, who were doing it for reasons that I would consider pure... the remainder were strictly in it to get rich and 20 years ago would have worked on Wall Street."

Le sigh.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't know if it is just me but pieces like this just make me angry at the culture that surrounds SV. It makes me feel sick to my stomach to read this kind of thing even if they are trying to be tongue and cheek about it.

<comment><USER4> because like the old wall street, it all seems to be about the $$$.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> boba tea? ohhh, bubble tea.

Wacky but well done piece. heh</comment>


Efene: an Erlang VM language that embraces the Zen of Python - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/this-is-not-a-monad-tutorial/efene-an-erlang-vm-language-that-embraces-the-python-zen-db9b4d840614#.h6w6o14v8 <comment><USER2> Zen of Python? This is funny.

Python is a terribly structured language, full of atrocities like unicode handling, decorators/metaclasses, object system, crippled lambda, braindead "functional" style, idiotic module system (hot code updates yay! oh no it doesn't really work!)

It started out as a Christmas hack and it hasn't really evolved much from then on. The same crap in the core, just more sugar on top. A language aimed at the lowest common denominator, designed to make you think "programming is easy!" but ill-suited to solving any sort of hard problem in a graceful fashion.

Why would anyone want _any_ of that on the Erlang VM?

<comment><USER3> You're so right. Luckily, we have php.

the Christmas joke starts from: [http://python- history.blogspot.com/2009/01/brief-timeline-of...](http://python- history.blogspot.com/2009/01/brief-timeline-of-python.html) and [https://www.python.org/doc/essays/foreword/](https://www.python.org/doc/essays/foreword/)

<comment><USER4> Thank you Brian! and the roman empire then for Bristmas, the terribly braindead idiotic system yada, yada... argument it's that I can't really see fair throw any useful kind of lens.

So it really surprises me and stuff.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not a erlang expert but the use of the case statement is not considered a bad practice? or was the if clause instead? and it seems to me that all is kind of glued inside some sort of a try/catch defensive programming style that the really zen of erlang is completely against.

Personally I don't see the need of use every tool in the same way, there is nothing wrong with the erlang syntax.

<comment><USER5> > I'm not a erlang expert but the use of the case statement is not considered > a bad practice?

Only by people who see the world as black and white. There is absolutely nothing wrong with case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't want to be that guy, but annotations at the end of the line, seriously?

All the @public at the end of the function headers really hurt the eye.

I think there's a reason 90%+ of the languages has either it above the declaration of at the beginning of the line.

</comment><comment><USER7> Why does everyone keep trying to replace Erlang's syntax? The syntax pretty closely reflects the feature set, unless you're significantly expanding that why bother, you're only going make it worse.

<comment><USER8> If "everyone" includes Elixir, I'd argue otherwise. While syntax is a part of Elixir, them much bigger deal is the addition of Macros and Protocols. I'd also weakly suggest that while the pipe operator is just syntax, it changes idiomatic usage drastically.

<comment><USER7> I think elixir significantly extends Erlang, so I would not include it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Get rid of the ends and I'm sold. Otherwise it's elixir all over again...</comment>


Forget VCs, this accelerator lets you invest directly in startups fighting Covid - <AUTHOR> https://wefunder.com/updates/135922 <comment><USER2> As a founder I've raised through crowdfunding multiple times. The experience is great on both the startup and the investor side, and I love that crowdfunding lets more startups get off the ground, especially ones that don't have access to SV money.

But this should really be thought of as "gambling" instead of "investing." There's very little ability to do due diligence and the companies are usually so early that it's impossible to know if it's going to work or not. However, if you have money you're willing to lose it's a lot more rewarding than spending it at the blackjack table.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with this premise regarding equity crowdfunding as it currently stands in absence of any professional guidance. We at XX have tried to improve this and mitigate risk by:

1) having a screening committee with deep founder operational experience and industry insight to identify the companies most likely to be successful.

2) attracted exceptional startups to broaden our applicant pipeline by making it open to the global community and guaranteed a $50k pre-seed investment.

3) had three month mentoring period where startups were stress tested and cleared for launch on Wefunder.

It's similar to LPs investing in a VC fund and trusting that the VCs performed the proper diligence.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's very high-risk. I guess it's a philosophical question of whether you think the public deserves the right to take super high risks and invest in startups (1000x more risky than the public market given there is no secondary market).

On one hand you'd think the people with the least amount of money are the ones that need the options to take risks the MOST. To get out of their situation.

On the other hand, will this help them? Will the companies be good enough? Will they provide returns. Is helping 1% of people escape their situation worth it for the other 99% that will invest in startups that fail.

Interesting

<comment><AUTHOR> There are four concepts that we are testing to mitigate risk to the general public:

1) We have a screening committee with deep operational experience (we have 50 founders that ran companies collectively valued close to $4B) to identify the founders most likely to be successful. We have more operational experience and industry insight than your general partner at a venture fund.

2) We attracted exceptional startups to broaden our applicant pipeline by making it open to the global community and guaranteed a $50k pre-seed investment.

3) A three month period where startups were mentored, stress tested, and cleared for launch.

4) Finally, as with all investments on Wefunder, company risk and financials risks are made transparent for the public.

Successful companies often have the greatest value creation at their early stages. It is unfair to only limit this value creation to "accredited" millionaires and billionaires. In a world where payday loans and lottery system prey on the poor, we are trying to create a system of equitable wealth creation, for everyone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The idea sounds cool, but I want to have more transparency on how you chose those startups. Do they show a huge potential for future growth? How do their finances look like? Investing in startups is risky in general, but COVID-19 made it even more harsh. + some of those startups have many competitors in the industry and I would like to see more what competitive edge your startup selection has.

<comment><USER5> Took the words right out of my head. Personally, I'd like to see some initial signs of traction/growth before I make any investments in a startup so unless XX is able to provide me with that kind of assurance (which can be done through a very thorough and transparent DD process), I'm not sure if I'll have the confidence to make an investment, at least not for now.

<comment><USER6> A $100 investment doesn't seem much and it's more like a kudos, but it is an investment. I agree that more information can help anyone determine better how to choose between startup A or B.

<comment><USER5> That's a good point, and it reminds me of the saying - don't invest more than you're willing to lose. I'm definitely open to making $100 investments, but I guess my question was more directed towards higher risk/volume investments that might beg for a more structured DD process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think the concept of turning to entrepreneurs to solve unseen negative consequences of COVID is awesome. I wonder how to ensure founders actually focus on COVID-related issues rather than taking advantage of the visibility and funding to focus on other issues.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, that was one of my concerns as well - some of these startups seem to be targeting issues that are tangential at best to COVID, and that was a little confusing to me given the article's title.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Very cool - I think democratizing VC will help spurn a lot more innovation. But do you think letting retail investors enter VC will produce the same irrationality as what we see in Robinhood and the Stock Market?

<comment><USER4> Stock market offers liquid financial products, while angel investing is definitely illiquid. Irrationality in VCs will always be involved because we are human-beings but for sure less than in the stock market.

<comment><USER5> Totally agree with this! There's also the notion of sunk cost when it comes to angel investing, which often arise when a startup goes through a slow steady decline in profitability and eventually, to their ultimate demise. You don't (usually) see this happening in the stock market.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm happy to see founders raising large amounts of money. But for some founders, the mean investment seems to be around $1000. I was wondering if there was a way to see the different portions that make up the total money raised. Also, is there a set amount people typically invest? I find this might be important to understand if the platform is truly building "a network of everyday folks" or just have some experienced investors experimenting with a new platform.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think this is a great idea and improvement, because now I have the opportunity to invest in very interesting startups that where previously hardly analyzed by people that really know about these type of companies, without needing a great amount of money and from any part of the world.

Also, it is a great opportunity for those startups that are working really hard to create new ideas and products to ease the problems that the world is going through due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

</comment><comment><USER11> Saying these companies "fight COVID" seems kinda untrue? Don't get me wrong, the majority look impactful and useful, but the headline I'm seeing for this everywhere is disingenuous if someone is looking for impact. However, it does look like these companies are COVID-resilient, and will grow with trends the pandemic is forcing. Potentially solid investments, and democratizing access to that is cool. :)

</comment><comment><USER12> If we're trying to get people to move away from VCs, why are there such few startups accepted. It's almost as if we're bragging about leaving startup founders with the craziness that is venture capital. Other than that, I work at a YC and Wefunder company who doesn't like giving idea of liquidating investors to spend on marketing/investory. I'd love if XX takes off.

<comment><USER13> Good point :) We didn't expect that many applications; we would've wanted to accept more if we had more in funds. That's why we created a Fellowship program a week after Fight the Virus batch started - there were so many qualified founders we still wanted to support. And half of the startups raising on Demo Day are from the fellowship! If you have ideas for how we can scale this to include more founders in the future, message me!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The idea of democratizing funding is always interesting. On one hand giving power to individuals and communities who may otherwise never have the opportunity to invest in companies in their Aha! moment is what we should strive for.

On the other hand this could lead to outrageous valuations made by founders who have the backing of devoted communities and taking advantage of their social capital. Thoughts?

<comment><USER13> To raise on Wefunder, founders have to find a Lead Investor to represent their Wefunder round. The Lead is motivated to set a fair valuation this way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting take on equity crowdfunding! But I wonder if the heightened risk of equity crowdfunding compare to other asset classes, say stocks/real estate, would dissuade people from investing in these startups, especially during trouble times like this? Have you been seeing a lot of investment activity since the start of Demo Day?

<comment><USER13> Startups are risky so people should not be investing with their savings account, especially during times like these!

Actually we've had our strongest months ever - not sure why given the times. I think people want to support businesses and missions they care about.

<comment><USER5> That's a very interesting phenomenon - I can definitely see parallels between that and the stock market, with there being record number of new traders getting into the stock market in the recent months due to COVID ([https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-turmoil-free- trades...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-turmoil-free-trades-draw- newbies-into-stock-market-11588158001)). Not sure if the mindset between those new stock traders and the new investors on XX are the same though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> As for the pandemic we are currently undergoing, I believe we should use all means possible to put an end to it. This is why i consider XX should lower minimum investment sum to 50 USD, so college students who are on a tight budget can also invest in these startups.

<comment><USER9> I can see the logic behind this. But at this point, my main concern is that people who can afford to invest $100 are not investing. Do they know about Wefunder? Can they tell the difference between Wefunder and Kickstarter? Do they understand the jargon even as explained with the website's current definitions?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> That's a cool idea, but I wonder how you're controlling how much a person is allowed to invest. Given that the SEC limits the amount for regulation crowdfunding on annual basis, how are you gonna keep track of that?

</comment><comment><USER17> Super cool idea! Especially considering investing in startups is traditionally reserved for accredited investors. Love the concept & how it opens up investing in startups to non-accredited investors like me :)

</comment><comment><USER18> This is an awesome idea. If I invest, does Wefunder represent me? How's this different from other platforms?

<comment><USER13> The Lead Investor represents the custodian that holds all the investors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> how do you protect against startups that go bankrupt? are you FDIC insured?

<comment><USER5> Yeah that's what I was thinking as well! Giving the mass public the ability to invest in early-stage starts is like opening up Pandora's Box, imo - it just feels too risky to me.

<comment><USER20> It's a regulated crowdfunding - so there is a fair amount of reporting startups need to do before they can raise and they're limited with how much they can raise from unaccredited.

<comment><USER5> Thanks for clarifying! However, when I was looking at the startups participating in Demo Day, say this one for example ([https://xx.team/stark.therapeutics](https://xx.team/stark.therapeutics)), there wasn't much of a financial history - which does make sense, given that they're an early-stage startup. So I guess my question is - what are the metrics that are reported during the DD phase in order for these startups to be approved for crowdfunding?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Funion - a unioning filesystem written in Haskell - <AUTHOR> http://nathanwiegand.com/wp/2010/04/introducing-funion/

<comment><USER2> Relevant if you're on linux and want something more mature:

<http://www.fsl.cs.sunysb.edu/project-unionfs.html></comment>


Show HN: Worderfall, my HTML5 typing game - <AUTHOR> http://worderfall.caseybanner.ca/

<comment><USER2> Fun. The sudden death feature is interesting. It forces you to both type as fast as you can while making absolutely no mistakes. That's actually probably a very good habit to enforce.

Small bug: if you switch to the "daily" tab, the bottom of the dialog is cut off. This also prevents you from clicking "Play again!" without switching back to another tab.

<comment><USER2> Also, I think you should consider both allowing the space bar and return to complete words. Pressing space between words is much more natural. Not typing spaces is fairly unnatural typing.

Alternately, later levels could be short phrases or sentences including spaces.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> No idea why you need a signup... You don't even ask for an email address. You should try and remove this requirement.

Anyway, after running through the game, I really like it. It's good fun. I'd probably say that the round was about 10 seconds longer than I wanted it to be though. UI is nice. It's pretty fast, so didn't notice any problems.

</comment><comment><USER4> Not going to sign up without finding out what it is first, sorry.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a typing game where you type as many words as fast and as accurately as you can.

<comment><USER4> Gave it a shot. It's well-done, but there should really be an enticing reason for the visitor to sign up. If I get a link from someone and the first action I have to take is to sign up for something, 99% of the time I close it right away, unless they've personally given me some compelling reason to try it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Nice, very smooth and fun. If you're going to require signup, perhaps at least integrate some way to share/tweet scores and view the leader board without having to go through a round of gameplay first.

</comment><comment><USER6> It's a shame it ended so early. Good-looking, fun and would have been great if it continued to get more challenging!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Working on increasing difficulty. I'm thinking about a level system to increase difficulty for players who do well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I love words and NL programming. I hate adding another to "my" 10,000 registrations. Sorry pal.

</comment><comment><USER8> very nice game! smooth ui.</comment>


Writing Grant Applications - <AUTHOR> https://billwadge.wordpress.com/2020/02/10/im-good-enough-im-smart-enough-and-dog-gone-it-people-like-me-writing-grant-applications <comment><USER2> I'm a successful full-time professional grantwriter. There are about 100 tricks in the book for standing out from the pack, though not all apply to all categories or instances of grants.

But no matter what type of grant it is, the biggest point I tell people is this:

You need a _story_.

All other aspects flow from that. (E.g. how effectively you can communicate the flow of logic in the writing, and other technical aspects which include much more than just the text boxes and what this blog summarily describes.)

Find that story, then it will rise above the pack. Most people want grant money but have no idea what it takes to get it.

<comment><USER3> Reminds me of academic papers. When I first started in academia I thought it was all about merit, results, and following a proper scientific process.

Turns out if you want to be successful, as measured by paper acceptances or citations, which is the standard metric used by universities and companies, it's all about being able to tell a good story to convince reviewers.

A well-told and convincing story can hide all kind of faults in your experiments or results. It's pretty much all you need.

<comment><USER4> Having a good story isn't about hiding the faults in your work, it's about making your work accessible to others. It's no good having tons of experiments if you can't explain what they mean and why anyone else should care.

<comment><USER5> While that is true, the problem is that bad science is easily masked by telling a good story. When telling the story is more important than the science itself, you end up with more and more extravagant projects that always end in failure to achieve anything close to what was written in the grant application.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The grant process is terrible. I'm a second year professor in the US and wish I had known how terrible this process is years ago.

Even though my first federal grant (NSF) was funded, the process was one of the most draining things I have ever done.

I loved the puzzle of breaking down a new, fun idea into its fundamental parts and I enjoy writing. But I do not enjoy the salesmanship, the 7% funding rate, the 8 months I waited to find out my second proposal was rejected, or the laborious amounts of supplemental documents.

</comment><comment><USER7> Grant applications are generally a waste of time, akin to writing a mini- thesis just so you have the opportunity to buy a lottery ticket. Grant awarding is also incredibly opaque, and generally very biased to the reviewers (ie, corrupt), with random variables playing a part in decision making that have no bearing on the actual capabilities of the grant-writers.

Worse, reviewers and grant-makers themselves are generally unqualified to make such grants, and as such, have no ability nor incentive to track the success of grants issued.

All in all, if you need money in academia, your best bet is to either be independently wealthy to fund your ideas, or find a few direct personal benefactors who believe in you and your general goals.

*Edit -- if you are here in HN, then your ability to do the latter suggestion (find a few personal benefactors) is actually much more within reach than getting funded through a grant -- it is certainly worth your time to explore that option, and in the long-run will provide you more security and freedom to really explore your field and interests.

<comment><USER8> As someone who has successfully obtained various grants, I wouldn't say they are a waste of time, but I agree that it's essentially a reviewer lottery among the good to excellent applications. At least that's the case in the humanities where evaluation is more subjective anyway. I've had more or less the same application fail miserably in one call and succeed immediately in another, for instance.

The problem with grants is that each one of them has their own evaluation criteria, panels, and overall decision structure, so what works for one type of grant is useless with another. That makes writing them so time consuming.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is missing a key ingredient. Call the Program Officer and figure out what they want. If what you want to do doesn't align with what they're trying to achieve with the program, you will never get meaningful funding.

Your project need not align exactly, but it must support the cause of the program, otherwise it is dead in the water, no matter how well-written.

Good Program Officers are happy to communicate with PIs, and will help them make great applications. You need them, and they need you. Build that team. Do it early and often.

<comment><USER10> Note that this will vary greatly by funding agency and the specific call.

For example, the NSF can do a degree of steering, etc. The CDC, depending on program, has either full control, or absolutely none at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It is very hard for most people to write effectively, unless they've dedicated conscious effort to learning to do so. We've worked with brilliant scientific and technical people who do not communicate their ideas well: [https://seliger.com/2017/03/28/write-scientific-technical- gr...](https://seliger.com/2017/03/28/write-scientific-technical-grant- proposals/).

This: [https://seliger.com/2017/08/21/grant-writing-help-series- put...](https://seliger.com/2017/08/21/grant-writing-help-series-put- important-thing-first-sentence/) is about one example of effective non-fiction persuasive writing like scientific and technical grants: "Put the most important thing in the first sentence." By the way, the whole Dave Barry interview is worth reading: [https://medium.com/conversations-with- tyler/tyler-cowen-dave...](https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/tyler- cowen-dave-barry-books-blog-quotes-5ba317949bd8), although most of it doesn't seem to be immediately on topic.

<comment><USER12> > We've worked with brilliant scientific and technical people who do not > communicate their ideas well

Alan Alda did as well and that was what gave birth to the idea for his book, If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look On My Face? ([https://www.amazon.com/Understood-Would-Have-This-Look- ebook...](https://www.amazon.com/Understood-Would-Have-This-Look- ebook/dp/B01M61KNLW))

It has a big focus on improv that can be distracting from the main message of the book, but I found it really insightful and had my assistant read it for discussion about how to improve communication skills and awareness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is practical advice, but it also points to the reality of scientific funding today -- you can only get money to do things that you already know how to do. You must have an idea that is pretty much ready to go on day one. All that should remain are working out the details.

I can see why bureaucrats and government officials prefer it this way (accountability!) but I don't understand why we scientists put up with it.

<comment><USER14> It stuck with me what a famous Hungarian ethologist (Csányi) said in a radio interview recently: you propose the things that you already discovered in the grant application and then use the money to discover new stuff.

He generally had a grim view of academia and is senior enough to afford to speak his mind.

<comment><USER13> I actually think it's not as bad as some make it out to be, _provided_ grants are funded at a reasonable rate. What's changed over the last couple of decades or so is that funding rates are single digit percentages. This is the real problem. My advisor said that when he was a younger researcher, it wasn't quite so hard to get funding so he had more time to pursue independent ideas.

Even as a much younger researcher, I feel that at any point in time, I usually have a couple of worthwhile new ideas that are quite likely to pan out and will get funded someplace or another. But if I have to spend a multiple months of effort into getting them funded, I have a lot less time available to generate the next couple of good ideas. This doesn't mean that people just stop doing research, most researchers are competitive workaholics. Instead, we'll just rehash the same old stuff in a new bottle: we target newer applications and/or chase the latest fads (e.g. adversarial ML) with the goal of getting some of our old ideas reused in a new domain.

This creates a negative feedback loop because the quality of research gets worse and the people think this stuff is not worth funding and that in turn reduces funding rates even lower which causes research to get worse.

Unfortunately, scientists working on "useless" ideas wasting public money is a much too convenient bogeyman for politicians to give up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Something I like about This advice is that it puts the research idea at the center of the writing. Too often these sort of recommendations don't seem to even acknowledge that "having a worthwhile idea" is important, and make it sound like getting a grant/paper is mostly a matter of writing tricks.

</comment><comment><USER16> A friend of mine was in the M87 imaging team.

He's a brilliant scientist, but more importantly he learned how to write effective grant applications early on.

He might have not gotten this far without this skill.

</comment><comment><USER17> I've had countless ideas, most bad, some good, some fantastic. Quite often there is someone to be found who already had it and worked at horribly, reasonably or in an awe inspiring way. A few years ago an idea of mine evolved into something spectacular (while still remaining just an idea) it was original and I now consider it the best idea in the history of humanity. The best part is that humanity [in its snail like progress] is also ready for it.

<comment><USER18> What is it?

<comment><USER19> I think that's the punch line of a joke after reading this article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Protip: unless you are already deeply embedded in your field of reviewers having cultivated years of reputation and circular nepotism, you're better off getting a real job to fund your research. Grants are a circle jerk.

</comment><comment><USER21> I have reviewed for a handful of organisations. My learning is that different orgs and funding programs need different emphasis. H2020 is all process and consortium, Epsrc is project and ambition.

</comment><comment><USER22> Applying for grants is a giant waste of time for most startups (opinion, obviously, some exceptions).</comment>


App Engine data migration? - <AUTHOR>

My biggest reservation concerning App Engine is data migration. What if I want to move my app <i>and</i> its data off-of App Engine. And let's say I have a half-gig of data spread out over tens of millions of records. I can't simply write a python app to dump it in a single request because it would terminate before completing. So would I have to resort to writing an app that dumps it in small batches? Has anyone see this issue discussed anywhere? <comment><USER2> Well, I did not see this issue before...

But about the data, if you want to pull it out... You can make a kind of automated script that would pull the data, and store it in another database or wherever you want...

Maybe you can use wget and cron jobs to insure the automation!</comment>


I think I'm using GitHub wrong - <AUTHOR> https://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2016/04/microblog-DB65707C-3811-4D50-B93A-CCC6BD685905.html <comment><USER2> I believe git-town solves at least part of your problem, although not all of. The command `git sync` may be useful to you. In its basic usage (without a fork), it synchronizes a feature branch, by pulling the main branch (from `origin`) and then merging in those changes into the feature branch. If you have a remote named `upstream` it first syncs your main branch with its courterpart in that repo. This was specifically designed around github forks, although under the assumption that you would only need to synchronize the main branch.

[http://www.git-town.com/](http://www.git-town.com/)</comment>


2048 for Chromecast (co-op multiplayer) - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.game2048cast.app

<comment><AUTHOR> Co-op multiplayer, as in you take turns. Admittedly that can make for a slow game especially at the beginning.

Players can join/leave anytime during the game. When the last player leaves, the game quits.

Hope to have time to make a side-by-side versus mode, as I can imagine that being a lot of fun.</comment>


Top 7 New Firefox Extensions - <AUTHOR> http://codeismightier.com/2009/01/top-7-new-firefox-extensions/ <comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for mentioning Ghostery, <http://www.ghostery.com/>.

Good list and keep up the good work at Mozilla.

DC</comment>


How Zapier made us support a hundred new services in half an hour - <AUTHOR> http://ducksboard.com/blog/zapier-support-hundred-new-services/

<comment><USER2> Zapier co-founder here: its funny, but we get this sentiment a lot (for example, from Lu @ Ronin). Its pretty incredible to see developers get these working and we're truly humbled to see the sorts of guys developing on it (Hubspot, Podio, etc...)

If you are curious, there is a little more here: <https://zapier.com/developer/></comment>